Solenopsis invicta, known as the red imported fire ant, is an insect native to South America. This species was unintentionally introduced into Australia, New Zealand, several Asian countries, Caribbean countries, and the United States. It shows a high survival rate and settlement potential in human-habitable and non-living areas such as tropical rainforests, disturbed areas, deserts, grasslands, and roads. In Korea, invasions of red fire ants have been reported every year since 2017, and two invasions were discovered in 2023. Quarantine agency analyzing the haplotype and colony social type of S. invicta for surveillance and control. Population genetic analysis using Microsatellite Alleleic data of 66 loci to trace the origin of the invasion. Through research cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), we have received samples and expanded our genetic information database. This study analyzed genetic differences between 15 invasive populations and 44 reference groups. As a result of microsatellite analysis, the domestic invasive population showed a genetic structure similar to those in Guangzhou, China, and Florida, USA.
본 연구에서는 영종도에 위치한 인천과학고등학교 주변에 서식하는 개미와 개미집 근권토양을 두 차례에 걸쳐 채취한 것을 활용하여 토양미생물 순수분리 및 동정을 진행하였다. 채취된 개미의 더듬이의 모양, 털의 위치 및 분포 등의 형태학적 동정 및 DNA extraction을 통한 분자생물학적 동정을 통하여 채취한 개미를 Camponotus japonicus으로 결론하였다. 토양미생물을 연속희석법을 이용하여 확인한 결과 채취한 개미집 세 곳에서 각각 12, 18, 10개의 종이 동정되었다. 개미집 근권토양의 비옥도가 상대적으로 높다는 선행연구를 바탕 으로 ‘분리한 토양미생물이 다양한 유기물 분해 효소활성을 보일 것’이라는 가설을 세웠고, 이를 확인하기 위해 분별배지를 제작하여 디스크 확산법을 진행하였다. 실험 결과 개미집 근권 토양에서 분리된 균주가 일반 토양에 서 분리된 균주에 비해 높은 효소활성을 보임을 확인하였으며 개미집 근권 토양 미생물의 불용성인산 가용화능 이 우수함을 확인하였다. 이후 위 실험들을 바탕으로 개미집 근권 토양 미생물이 식물 생장을 촉진시켜 미생물을 접종한 토양에서의 식물의 건조 질량이 증가하였음을 확인하였다.
This study investigated the anti-obesity effects of Coriandrum sativum L. ethanol extracts in a high fat diet-induced obesity model (DIO). We confirmed the anti-obesity effects by analysing the expression of the related proteins, weight gain, dietary intake, dietary efficiency, blood biochemistry, histological analysis and western blot analysis. After oral administration of Coriandrum sativum L. ethanol extracts at concentrations of 250 and 500 mg/kg, a significant improvement in dietary efficiency, reduction in weight gain, triglycerides, total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol in blood lipid was observed for 8 weeks. In addition, improvement in blood glucose and metabolism confirmed through glucose tolerance test was observed. Further, the concentration of alanine transaminase (ALT) in blood was significantly decreased, which improved the fatty liver caused by high-fat diet intake as confirmed by liver tissue analysis. This phenomenon was confirmed to decrease the expression of fat accumulation-related PPARγ and FAS protein in the liver tissue. Especially, it is believed that FAS, a liposynthetic enzyme, has a stronger inhibitory effect than PPARγ. Therefore, Coriandrum sativum L. ethanol extract is thought to improve obesity by reducing blood lipids levels, improving glucose metabolism and inhibiting synthesis of the fat that accumulates in the liver in high-fat diet-induced obesity animal models.
With the continuous development of science and technology, unmanned ship has gradually become a hot spot in the field of marine research. In practical applications, unmanned ships need to have long-range navigation and high efficiency, so that they can accurately perform tasks in the marine environment. As one of the key technologies of unmanned ship, path planning is of great significance to improve the endurance of unmanned ship. In order to meet the requirements, this paper proposes a path planning method for long distance unmanned ships based on reinforcement learning angle precedence ant colony improvement algorithm. Firstly, canny operator is used to automatically extract navigation environment information, and then MAKLINK graph theory is applied for environment modelling. Finally, the basic ant colony algorithm is improved and applied to the path planning of unmanned ship to generate an optimal path. The experimental results show that, compared with the traditional ant colony algorithm, the path planning method based on the improved ant colony algorithm can achieve a voyage duration of nearly 7 km for unmanned ships under the same sailing environment, which has certain practicability and popularization value.
The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of a natural product of cherry tree (Prunus serrulata var. spontanea: PS) as a test substance for improving cytokine and ovalbumin-specific IgE using an ovalbumin-induced asthma disease model of 5-week-old male BALB/c mice. Lung tissue pathology was analyzed to confirm anti-inflammatory and asthmatic effects. As a result of examining the effect on changes in inflammatory cells in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in an ovalbumin-induced asthma disease model by administering the PS sample, total cells, eosinophil, neutrophil, lymphocyte, and monocytes were significantly decreased. Concentrations of cytokine-based TNF-alpha and IL-4 and immunoglobulin E in serum were significantly increased in the asthma-inducing negative control group than in the normal group. However, high concentrations of PS decreased them. In histopathological examination of the lung tissue, it was confirmed that inflammatory cells infiltrated around the alveoli and bronchioles were increased in ovalbumin-induced asthma disease model. After administration of cherry tree extract, bronchiolar morphological changes such as mucosal thickening were slightly improved. From the above results, it was confirmed that extract of cherry tree significantly reduced inflammation expression and tissue damage in alveolar tissues. It was also confirmed that the cherry tree extract had an excellent efficacy in improving asthma inflammation.
An Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm(ACO) is one of the frequently used algorithms to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem(TSP). Since the ACO searches for the optimal value by updating the pheromone, it is difficult to consider the distance between the nodes and other variables other than the amount of the pheromone. In this study, fuzzy logic is added to ACO, which can help in making decision with multiple variables. The improved algorithm improves computation complexity and increases computation time when other variables besides distance and pheromone are added. Therefore, using the algorithm improved by the fuzzy logic, it is possible to solve TSP with many variables accurately and quickly. Existing ACO have been applied only to pheromone as a criterion for decision making, and other variables are excluded. However, when applying the fuzzy logic, it is possible to apply the algorithm to various situations because it is easy to judge which way is safe and fast by not only searching for the road but also adding other variables such as accident risk and road congestion. Adding a variable to an existing algorithm, it takes a long time to calculate each corresponding variable. However, when the improved algorithm is used, the result of calculating the fuzzy logic reduces the computation time to obtain the optimum value.
With the development of the global marine transportation industry, marine accidents frequently occur due to the complex and changeable climate environment, and maritime search and rescue work has thus received much attention. To improve marine search and rescue operations, an algorithm for environmental modeling and search path optimization based on an ant colony system is proposed. First, MAKLINK is selected to build an ecological model. Secondly, the relevant parameters of the ant colony system algorithm are established, and the search and rescue route is designed. Finally, simulations of the environmental model and route design are constructed in search and rescue waters in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, using MATLAB. Experimental results prove the validity of this algorithm.