The present study describes Philodromus paiki sp. nov., which was previously misidentified as P. fuscomarginatus (De Geer, 1778), P. poecilus (Thorell, 1872), and P. spinitarsis Simon, 1895 in Korea, as a new species with diagnosis, detailed descriptions, and taxonomic photographs. Additionally, P. spinitarsis is also described to correct previous misidentifications of Korean records of the species.

In 2022, research for native prokaryotic species in Korea reported 10 unrecorded bacterial strains affiliated to phyla Actinomycetota, Bacillota, and Pseudomonadota. The strains formed monophyletic clades with the most closely related species (with ≥98.7% sequence similarity) in the 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Among them, four species of the phylum Actinomycetota, two species of the phylum Bacillota, and four species of the phylum Pseudomonadota have not been reported in Korea, suggesting unrecorded species in Korea. Information on strains such as Gram staining reaction, colony and cell morphology, biochemical characteristics, and isolation sources were provided in the species description.

A male Spheropistha melanosoma Yaginuma, 1957 from Korea in the family Theridiidae Sundevall, 1833 is described with measurements and morphological photos of the diagnostic characteristics. This species was collected with a sweep net around arable lands in a mountainous mixed forest during the investigation of spider fauna on Ulleungdo Island in 2019.

In preparation for the decommissioning of Kori unit 1 of the nuclear power plant (NPP), new containers of package, transportation, and disposal are being developed that reflect the type, generation amount, and radiological characteristics of decommissioning waste. The containers under development have internal volumes of 1 m3 ~ 14 m3 and loading weights of 1 ton ~ 35 tons, which are larger in size and have a higher loadable weight compared to the 200 L drum and IP-2 type transport container currently being used for packaging and transporting waste. So, there is a limit to handling new containers using existing transport systems (cranes, spreaders, forklifts, transport vehicles, etc.). Therefore, in this study, the status of handling equipment in NPP and disposal facilities was reviewed, the flow from the generation to disposal of decommissioning waste was analyzed, and the possibility of handling new container or the necessity of introducing new systems were derived. Except for some high-dose/high-radioactive wastes among decommissioning wastes, all wastes are finally disposed of through decommissioning area, temporary storage facility, waste treatment facility, waste storage facility, and receipt and storage building. The decommissioning area, temporary storage facility, and waste treatment facility are newly established areas for the decommissioning and should be equipped with a spreader/crane with a lifting weight of 15 tons, 35 tons, and 40 tons in consideration of the weight of the package to be handled in the zone. The waste storage facility has a 7.5 tons crane, so it can handle only some of the lower weight of the 5 to 35 tons package that is expected to be handled. Therefore, additional installation of spreaders/cranes, each with a lifting capacity of 15 tons and 40 tons, is required. The maximum loading weight of forklifts and transport vehicles operating at NPP, and disposal facilities is 10 tons and 12.6 tons, respectively. To transport the package, the facility must additionally install 15 tons and 40 tons forklifts, and 40 tons transport vehicles. Since the lifting weight of the crane installed on the transport vessel is also low at 12.5 tons, it is necessary to change the design of the existing or replace it with 40 tons to handle high-weight package. The results of this study will be used as basic data for the establishment of transport systems in the relevant area and facility, and design requirements for each equipment will be derived through additional research.

Two species of the genus Oxytate L. Koch, 1878 have been recorded in Korea to date. The spider fauna was surveyed in the mountainous terrain of Mt. Hallasan National Park in 2019. A female of Oxytate lobia sp. nov. was collected with a sweep net between shrubs in mixed forests during a seasonal spider survey and is described with measurements, morphological illustrations, and a diagnosis. The new species can be easily distinguished from similar species within the genus by the long copulatory duct conjugated with a spermatheca, a pair of triangular pits at the bottom, and no ditches.

Two linyphiid spiders, Saitonia kawaguchikonis Saito & Ono, 2001 and Asthenargus niphonius Saito & Ono, 2001 were confirmed from Korea for the first time. Males of S. kawaguchikonis and a female of A. niphonius were collected with pitfall traps in a leaf litter of mixed forests in three National Parks (Hallyeohaesang National Park, Mt. Naejangsan, and Mt. Sobaeksan) during the seasonal surveys for the spider fauna in mountainous terrain from 2018 to 2020. These two species were formerly known from China and Japan, or only from Japan, respectively. The present study describes these two species with measurements, morphological illustrations, and a distribution map. This report adds the genus Asthenargus Simon & Fage, 1922 from Korea to the Korean spider fauna for the first time.

A species of Beauveria bassiana is widely used for biological pest management in many countries. Many efforts have been given to figure out the clear fungal mode of action to enhance the insecticidal activity. Homologous recombination (knock-out) or hairpin RNA (knock-down) is popularly used in fungal gene function study, but gene cloning and generation of knock-out or -down mutants takes long time or temporarily knock-downed. Here in this work, we used previously generated egfp-expressing B. bassiana strain (Bb-egfp #3) and integrated dsegfp to the Bb-egfp #3 using a protoplast integration method. This work suggests that protoplast integration with dsRNA possibly generate significantly reduced gene expression in B. bassiana and the reduction is quite stable over generations which provide easy of functional study for fungal mode of action.

The infrastructure that man absolutely needs creates a lot of environmental load. The environmental load is quantified global environment pollution. So we can use LCA method for assess and control environmental load. In this study, we developed the environmental load estimating model to evaluate quickly in design stage when maintaining infrastructures facilities. Especially, we chose NATM tunnel because it is economical and there are many example of construction on public roads and expressway. First, we made a list of the breakdown cost by using collected unit cost of Korea Expressway Corporation and Seoul-Si about tunnel maintenance. So we chose major work classification. We selected the major classification such as pavement repairing inside tunnel, leaked surface treatment of tunnel, attached tile repairing inside tunnel and tunnel cleaning etc. We excluded concrete repairing because it is not easy to define maintenance factor about concrete repairing. Next, we made data bases of standard supply and resources need by specialist work classification. Using data bases, we was able to estimate environmental load by designating an input variable such as lane, pavement, length, tile repairing, leaked surface treatment and cleaning method. Lastly, we made environmental load estimating model after it is verified by comparing the results with the actual environmental load and estimated environmental load. Finally, our goal of this study is to develop the methodology that easily estimates the environmental load. Accordingly, the environmental load will be decreased by using this model in stage of planning, design and maintenance. Also, it is expected that the maintenance management estimating model developed from this study will be possible to do eco-friendly management of the road and tunnel construction.

Entomopathogenic fungi play an important natural role in regulating their insect host populations, and their ecology was also associated with plant and soil. These microorganisms have been living by reacting to insect, plant and environmental factor. The advanced bioinformatics technology such as next-generation sequencing and RNA sequencing has revolutionized in understanding of entomopathogenic fungi. Recently studies provided a lot of information on evolutionary relationships and virulence-related characteristics. We are starting to know where these microorganisms from is, and how they live in nature. The bioinformatics technology will give us further our understanding of the natural roles of these fungi in nature.

The entomopathogneic fungal colonization has become an interesting issue in ecological pest management. Plant-orientedfungi induce plant growth promotion and act as natural control agents against insect pest. Herein this work, we evaluatedthe ability of fungal colonization on bark, branches and leaves of pine tree (Pinus densiflora) to select optimal candidatesfor controlling Japanese pine sawyer (Monochamus alternatus), which is the pine wilt disease vector in Korea. As a result,some Beauveria and Metarhizium isolates could colonize on the substrates of P. densiflora and showed pathogenicity againstM. alternatus. This result suggests that the selected entomopathogenic fungi are possibly candidates for long-term managementof M. alternatus in pine tree forest.

This study was aimed to evaluate the dose-response the effects of nano-encapsulated conjugated linoleic acids(CLAs) on in vitro ruminal fermentation profiles. A fistulated Holstein cow was used as a donor of rumen fluid. Nano-encapsulated CLAs(LF, 5% of nano-encapsulated CLA-FFA; HF, 10% of nano-encapsulated CLA-FFA; LT, 5% of nano-encapsulated CLA-TG; HT, 10% of nano-encapsulated CLA-TG) were added to the in vitro ruminal fermentation experiment. In the in vitro ruminal incubation test, the total gas production on incubation with nano-encapsulated CLAs was increased significantly according to the incubation time, compared with the control(p<0.05). The tVFA concentrations on addition of LF and HT were significantly higher than that of the control(p<0.05). Thus, nano-encapsulated CLAs might improve the ruminal fermentation characteristics without adverse effects on the incubation process. In addition, the population of Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens which is closely related to ruminal biohydrogenation was increased by adding HT, while decreased by adding LF at 12 h incubation. These results showed that nano-encapsulated CLA-FFA could be applied to enhance CLA levels in ruminants by maintaining the stability of CLA without causing adverse effects on ruminal fermentation profiles considering the optimal dosage.