• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2020

Bacterial symbionts are common across insects, including ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Reproduction-manipulating endosymbionts, such as Wolbachia, Spiroplasma, Rickettsia, and Cardinium, are closely associated with many aspects of host-insect life. In addition, phage WO plays an essential role in the phenotypic effects of Wolbachia. Although endosymbionts are possible biological control agents, there is a lack of knowledge of their rate of infection of ants in Korea. We tested a range of Korean ant species for the presence of Wolbachia, Spiroplasma, Rickettsia, Cardinium, and phage WO by extracting DNA from the ants and using specific primer sets to test the status of infections. In addition, the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene of the host ants was amplified to confirm the molecular identification and phylogenetic relationship between the hosts. We found that infection with Wolbachia (29.6% of species) is relatively common when compared with that of other endosymbionts. Only one species was infected with Spiroplasma. Infection with Rickettsia and Cardinium was not detected in the examined ants. Most Wolbachia in ants were infected with phage WO. Although the phenotypic effects of endosymbionts in ants are still unknown, this first survey of endosymbionts in Korea is the first step toward the use of reproduction-manipulating endosymbionts.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2020

Recent studies revealed that many animals identify individual humans. In this account, we review previous literatures on individual human recognition by wild or domestic animals and discuss the three hypotheses: "high cognitive abilities" hypothesis, "close human contact" and "pre-exposure to stimuli" hypothesis. The three hypotheses are not mutually exclusive. Close human contact hypothesis is an ultimate explanation for adaptive benefits whereas high cognitive abilities and pre-exposure to stimuli hypothesis are proximate explanations for mechanisms to perform such discriminatory behaviour. We report a case study of two bird species in a human-free habitat. Long-tailed skuas, which are known for having high cognitive abilities, exhibited the human discriminatory abilities whereas ruddy turnstones did not display such abilities toward approaching humans. This suggests that highly intelligent species may have this type of discriminatory ability so that they could learn to identify individual humans quickly by pre-exposure to stimuli, even in a human-free habitat. Here, we discuss that human recognition is more common in species with rapid learning ability and it could develop for a short period of time between an intelligent species and human.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.74-82
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• 2020

Predictions of suitable habitat areas can provide important information pertaining to the risk assessment and management of alien plants at early stage of their establishment. Here, we predict the invasion potential of Muhlenbergia capillaris (pink muhly) in South Korea using five bioclimatic variables. We adopt four models (generalized linear model, generalized additive model, random forest (RF), and artificial neural network) for projection based on 630 presence and 600 pseudo-absence data points. The RF model yielded the highest performance. The presence probability of M. capillaris was highest within an annual temperature range of 12 to 24℃ and with precipitation from 800 to 1,300 mm. The occurrence of M. capillaris was positively associated with the precipitation of the driest quarter. The projection map showed that suitable areas for M. capillaris are mainly concentrated in the southern coastal regions of South Korea, where temperatures and precipitation are higher than in other regions, especially in the winter season. We can conclude that M. capillaris is not considered to be invasive based on a habitat suitability map. However, there is a possibility that rising temperatures and increasing precipitation levels in winter can accelerate the expansion of this plant on the Korean Peninsula.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.68-73
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• 2020

Korean fir (Abies koreana) is an evergreen coniferous tree species that is unique to South Korea. A. koreana is found in a limited sub-alpine habitat and is considered particularly vulnerable to climate change. Identification of populations vulnerable to climate change is an important component of conservation programs. In this study, a heat stress-induced transcriptome RNA-seq dataset was used to identify a subset of six genes for assessment as candidate marker genes for ecologically vulnerable populations. Samples of A. koreana were isolated from ecologically stable and vulnerable regions of the Halla and Jiri mountains, and the expression levels of the six candidate markers were assessed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. All six of the candidate genes exhibited higher expression levels in samples from vulnerable regions compared with stable regions. These results confirm that the six high temperature-induced genes can be used as diagnostic markers for the identification of populations of A. koreana that are experiencing stress due to the effects of climate change.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.83-89
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• 2020

Methods for detecting the presence of genetically modified (GM) crops are evolving to comply with legislation and to enhance monitoring by biotechnology companies and regulators. In order to cover a broad range of detection methods for a new GM crop, conventional multiplex PCR methods are required. Based on the genetic information on three GM alfalfa varieties (J101, J163, and KK179), which were recently approved in South Korea, we developed a fast, reliable, and highly specific multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method with basic PCR equipment and inexpensive reagents. To validate and verify the newly developed multiplex PCR method, we applied a limit of detection assay and random reference material analysis. We also monitored the unintentional environmental release of GM alfalfa in South Korea by performing the multiplex PCR analysis with 91 feral alfalfa specimens collected from 2000 to 2018. Our methodology is a sensitive, simple, quick, and inexpensive tool for detecting and identifying three GM alfalfa varieties.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2327-2337
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• 2016

The mode-switching control of transient process is important to grid-connected 400 Hz solid-state power supply systems. Therefore, this paper analyzes the principle of on-grid and islanding operation of the system with or without local loads in the grid-connected process and provides a theoretical study of the effect of different switching sequences on the mode-switching transient process. The conclusion is that the mode switch (MS) must be turned on before the solid-state switch (STS) in the on-grid process and that STS must be turned off before the MS in the off-grid process. A strategy of mode-switching smooth control for transient process of the system is proposed, including its concrete steps. The strategy utilizes the average distribution of peak currents and the smooth adjustment of peak currents and phases to achieve a no-shock grid connection. The simulation and experimental results show that the theoretical analysis is correct and that the method is effective.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.167.2-168
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• 2002

• International Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.43-46
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• 2015

Aeroelastic gust response analysis plays an important role in design of aircrafts. For gust response analysis, frequency domain aerodynamics method has been typically used with generalized aerodynamic influence coefficient matrices at various reduced frequencies. However, it cannot be applied to the aeroservoelastic analysis, such as gust alleviation control. Time-domain state space (SS) models must be built. It attacks little attention that gust response analysis relies on continuous gust time-domain input signal in terms of its PSD function. The aim the current study is to provide a reduced-order modeling (ROM) method based on CFD to model gust responses for continuous gust responses for continuou gust inputs in time domain. The paper analyzed the gust response of AGARD445.6 wing subjected to the Dryden gust with ROMs and compared the difference between the rigid structure and elastic one. The results demonstrate that structure elastic effect effect should be considered in the design of aircraft.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.268-271
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• 2007

In Korea, the Mycobacterium tuberculosis K-strain is the most prevalent clinical isolates and belongs to the Beijing family. In this study, we conducted comparative porteomics of expressed proteins of clinical isolates of the K-strain with H37Rv, H37Ra as well as the vaccine strain of Mycobacterium bovis BCG following phagocytosis by the human monocytic cell line U-937. Proteins were analyzed by 2-D PAGE and MALDI-TOF-MS. Two proteins, Mb1363 (probable glycogen phosphorylase GlgP) and MT2656 (Haloalkane dehalogenase LinB) were most abundant after phagocytosis of M. tuberculosis K-strain. This approach provides a method to determine specific proteins that may have critical roles in tuberculosis pathogenesis.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.102-111
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• 2020

Nitric oxide (NO)-induced protein S-nitrosylation triggers mitochondrial dysfunction and was related to cell senescence. However, the exact mechanism of these damages is not clear. In the present study, to investigate the relationship between in vitro aging and NO-induced protein S-nitrosylation, oocytes were treated with sodium nitroprusside dihydrate (SNP), and the resultant S-nitrosylated proteins were detected through biotin-switch assay. The results showed that levels of protein S-nitroso thiols (SNO)s and expression of S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNOR) increased, while activity and function of mitochondria were impaired during oocyte aging. Addition of SNP, a NO donor, to the oocyte culture led to accelerated oocyte aging, increased mitochondrial dysfunction and damage, apoptosis, ATP deficiency, and enhanced ROS production. These results suggested that the increased NO signal during oocyte aging in vitro, accelerated oocyte degradation due to increased protein S-nitrosylation, and ROS-related redox signaling.