The present study explores two relationships: first, between number of payment and payment option preference, and second, total sum and payment option preference, with pain of payment as a mediator variable. The analyses revealed that consumers who feel higher pain of payment preferred the pennies-a-day pricing to the aggregate pricing when the per-payment price is low. Consumers who experience higher pain of payment prefer to pay in small frequent installments because they feel the small per-payment price can be comparable to daily expense. Consumers who experienced higher pain of payment preferred aggregate pricing to pennies-a-day pricing when the per-payment price was high. When the per-payment price is high, it is no longer comparable to daily expense, thus leading to greater pain of payment among consumers. The study discusses the implications for mechanism of pain of payment on payment option preference.

Ovarian folliculogenesis and the production of fertilizable oocytes depend on gap junctional intercellular communication within both the developing and the mature follicle. Gap junctions connect oocytes with granulosa cells and granulosa cells with each other. Various nutritional bio-molecules are known to be transferred to the growing oocyte from the granulosa cells via gap junction. Signals that regulate meiotic maturation of fully-grown oocytes pass through the oocyte-granulosa cell gap junctions. Gap junctions also play a critical role in regulating uterine blood flow, contributing to the maternal recognition and also implantation during pregnancy. Due to the challenge of various stressors the in vitro embryo developmental potentials are still suboptimal compared to in vivo. To identify the molecular mechanism of these stressors and to improve the existing embryo developmental potentials, the singlet oxygens quencher lycopene was added to the culture media to counterbalance the oxidative damage caused by ROS. In this study, we have patterned connexin like Cx43, Cx37, Cx32 and Cx26 at protein and transcription level during follicular growth, atresia and blastocyst stage by using immunohistochemistry, conventional PCR and RT-qPCR. Lycopene (0.2 μM) significantly (P < 0.05) increased the gap junctional communication protein (connexin) expression of Cx43, Cx37, Cx32, Cx26 as compared to the control group at both transcription and translation level during follicular growth, atresia and blastocyst stage. Lycopene potentiates ovarian folliculogenesis, provides the production of fertilizable oocytes and improved embryo developmental capabilities by increasing gap junctional intercellular communication.

In the current study, a total of 102 common Todarodes pacificus squid caught in the East Sea were investigated for parasitological research. The results revealed that 33 (32.35%) out of 102 squid were infected by Nybelinia surmenicola, the mean intensity was 5.58 parasites per squid, and the maximum abundance was 11. Morphological analysis using a field emission scanning electron microscope showed the characteristic features of N. surmenicola. Molecular identification based on the 28S rRNA gene confirmed the isolated parasite as N. surmenicola, while phylogenetic analysis revealed that N. surmenicola isolated in this study was clustered with N. surmenicola isolated from Japan. This is the first report of phylogenetic characterization of N. surmenicola isolated from Korea.

We present the results of BV time-series photometry of the globular cluster NGC 288. Ob- servations were carried out to search for variable stars using the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) 1.6-m telescopes and a 4k pre-science CCD camera during a test observation from August to December, 2014. We found a new SX Phe star and confirmed twelve previously known variable stars in NGC 288. For the semi-regular variable star V1, we newly determined a period of 37.3 days from light curves spanning 137 days. The light-curve solution of the eclipsing binary V10 indicates that the system is probably a detached system. The pulsation properties of nine SX Phe stars were examined by applying multiple frequency analysis to their light curves. We derived a new Period-Luminosity (P-L) relation, hMV i = −2.476(±0.300) logP − 0.354(±0.385), from six SX Phe stars showing the fundamental mode. Additionally, the period ratios of three SX Phe stars that probably have a double-radial mode were investigated; PFO/PF = 0.779 for V5, PTO/PFO = 0.685 for V9, PSO/PFO = 0.811 for V11. This paper is the first contribution in a series assessing the detections and properties of variable stars in six southern globular clusters with the KMTNet system.

We present photometric results of the  Sct star V1162 Ori, which is extensively monitored for a total of 49 nights from mid-December 2014 to early-March 2015. The observations are made with three KMTNet (Korea Microlensing Telescope Network) 1.6 m telescopes installed in Chile, South Africa, and Australia. Multiple frequency analysis is applied to the data and resulted in clear detection of seven frequencies without an alias problem: five known frequencies and two new ones with small amplitudes of 1.2-1.7 mmag. The amplitudes of all but one frequency are significantly different from previous results, confirming the existence of long-term amplitude changes. We examine the variations in pulsation timings of V1162 Ori for about 30 years by using the times of maximum light obtained from our data and collected from the literatures. The O − C (Observed minus Calculated) timing diagram shows a combination of a downward parabolic variation with a period decreasing rate of (1/P)dP/dt = −4.22 × 10−6 year−1 and a cyclic change with a period of about 2780 days. The most probable explanation for this cyclic variation is the light-travel-time effect caused by an unknown binary companion, which has a minimum mass of 0.69 M⊙. V1162 Ori is the first  Sct-type pulsating star of which the observed fast period decrease can be interpreted as an evolutionary effect of a pre-main sequence star, considering its membership of the Orion OB 1c association.

This study was designed to develop and to qualify a coffee alternative beverage using a mixture of coffee beans and roasted black beans (Rhynchosia nulubilis). Therefore, the total isoflavone content (TIC), total phenol content (TPC), antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory activity, NFATc1 (Nuclear factor of activated T-cells c1) expression in RANKL (receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand)-stimulated RAW264.7 cells and sensory evaluation were measured for 5 different Cb (coffee bean)-RoS (roasted seomoktae) mixture extracts (Cb100RoS0, Cb75RoS25, Cb50RoS50, Cb25RoS75, and Cb0RoS100). Cb0RoS100 had the highest TIC (516.83±36.61 mg/100 g) and TPC (18.11±1.77 mg TAE/100 g) along with the highest antioxidant activity as measured by DPPH radical scavenging activity (73.55±8.11%) and ABTS radical scavenging activity (63.27±7.27%). Also, Cb0RoS100 showed the highest anti-inflammatory activity as measured by NO production (13.57±2.21 μM) and PGE2 production (3.25±0.21 ng/mL). The more the RoS ratio was increased in the mixtures of Cb-RoS, the more the NFATc1 protein expression was decreased in RANKL-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. In case of sensory evaluation, Cb50RoS50 had the highest scores for flavor, delicate flavor and overall quality, which were similar to those in Cb alone (Cb100RoS0). We suggest that the use of RoS replacement instead of Cb in/as a coffee alternative beverage may help to reduce the risk of caffeine-related bone loss and/or bone disease by effectively blocking NFATc1 expression in RANKLstimulated RAW264.7 cells compared with Cb alone.

Entomopathogenic fungi were isolated directly from a cadaver of adult M. saltuarius (infected with white fungi) supporting fungal sporulation, to develop biological control of pine wilt disease vector, M. saltuarius which was the most abundant in the middle to northern part of Korea and caused enormous damage to native pine tree in Korea, Japan and other regions of Asia. Pathogenicity of each fungus was tested using oak longicorn beetle, Moechotypa diphysis, as substitutive insect. As the result, only one of them showed pathogenic to adults of M. diphysis, with up to 100% mortality within 13 days of inoculation. Selected fungus was named as MsW1 and identified by Beauveria bassiana using microscopic examination, B. bassiana-specific PCR primers and genetic sequencing of the ITS region analysis. Pathogenicity test were conducted with various concentration of conidial suspensions of this isolate on M. saltuarius (3rd instar larvae and adults). Mortality rates varied from 57.1% to 100.0% and from 16.7% to 100.0% of M. saltuarius (3rd instar larvae and adults), respectively at 30 days. This is the first report of natural infection of M. saltuarius by B. bassiana.

In agricultural fields, the entomopathogenic fungal species have been investigated for their potential as the biological control agents due to their role of natural enemies for insects. Until recent times, most of the studies for these fungi have been based on isolation from insect cadaver or soil. However, these methods, especially isolation from soil, might cause a problem involving differential isolation of the each entomopathogenic fungi. The purpose of this study is to determine the optimal isolation medium for entomopathogenic fungi using dodine, chitin, and skim milk. The growth rates of entomopathogenic fungi and non-entomopathogenic fungi were compared on dodine agar medium. The medium for this experiment was modified Veen semiselective medium which consisted of based on SDA (Sabouraund Dextrose Agar), 100 mg/ml for chloramphenicol, 50 mg/ml for streptomycin and adjusted dodine to 40, 50, 70 and 100 mg/ml. As a result, optimal concentration of dodine for isolation of entomopathogenic fungi was 50 mg/ml and 168 positive entomopathogenic fungi were isolated in 470 soil samples and 11 cadavers of insect. In addition, the isolates had significantly greater chitinase and protease activity than non-entomopathogenic fungi. The isolation method described represents a valuable tool for rapid and simple isolation of entomopathogenic fungi. These positive entomopathogenic fungi may have potential against variety pests in agriculture.

In order to develop a core set and new corn variety in Korea, we evaluated the morphological characteristics of 194 maize accessions by examining eight quantitative characteristics. On the evaluation of quantitative traits for 194 maize accessions, they showed the morphological variations in tassel length (35.1±5.0 cm), plant height (226.1±33.7 cm), ear height (86.3±22.6 cm), stem diameter (2.3±0.6 cm), leaf width (9.3±1.1 cm), ear length (14.5±2.4 cm), ear row number (14.1±1.9 row), and 100 kernel weight (24.9±4.4 g). The results of principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that the tassel length, plant height, and ear height greatly contributed to positive direction on the first principal component axis. One-hundred kernel weight contributed to negative direction on the second principal component axis. Thus these morphological characteristics, which contributed greatly in the first and second principal components, might be useful for discrimination among 194 maize accessions. In our study, seven accessions, such as IT026357, IT026441, IT027321, IT033271, IT033591, IT033597 and IT124273, particularly were measured high on yield-related traits. Consequently, the 194 maize accessions used in this study could be used as promising materials for maize breeding programs such as development of new hybrid in Korea.

In this study we evaluate the informative and efficiency of Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) and Sequence Specific Amplified Polymorphism (SSAP) markers for genetic diversity, genetic relationship and population structure among 87 super sweet corn inbred lines generated by different origins. The SSR showed relatively higher level of the average gene diversity and shannon’s information index value than that of the SSAP. To assess genetic relationship and to characterize among 87 super sweet corn inbred lines using the SSR and SSAP markers. The dendrogram using SSR marker divided into nine groups of clusters were observed at the genetic similarity value 53.0%. For SSAP marker, Total three main clusters were confirmed in genetic similarity value at 50.8%. Result of combine data for SSR and SSAP markers showed six subgroup were detected in genetic similarity at 53.5%. To confirm population structure, the total 87 super sweet corn inbred lines were divided into groups I, II and admixed group based on membership probability 0.8 for SSR and SSAP markers. However population structure using combine data was K=3 and divided into group I, II, III and admixed group. This study has demonstrated the comparative analysis of SSR and SSAP for the study of genetic diversity and the genetic relationship for super sweet corn inbred lines. Thus, the results of this study will be useful to maize breeding programs in Korea.