• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.47-57
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• 2019

Staphylococcus epidermidis is well-known not only as an innocuous normal flora species commonly isolated from human skin, but also as an important bacterial species to keep skin healthy, because this species can protect the human skin from pathogenic microorganisms. However, S. epidermidis turns into a potential pathogen in damaged skin, because these bacteria can easily form a biofilm on the wound area and provide antimicrobial resistance to other microorganisms embedded in the biofilm. Thus, it is important to kill S. epidermidis in the early stage of wound treatment and block the formation of biofilms in advance. In the present study, hydrogel wound dressings were fabricated using polyvinyl alcohol/polyethylene glycol containing silver citrate nanorods, which have been proven to have strong antimicrobial activity, especially against S. epidermidis, and their wound-healing efficacy was investigated in vivo using a rat experiment.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.301-312
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• 2019

Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal worldwide, spreading from Africa throughout the world. It is particularly important in the semi-arid tropics due to its drought tolerance, and when cultivated in Southeast Asia commonly occurs as a second crop during the dry season. We recovered Fusarium from sorghum in Thailand and found F. proliferatum, F. thapsinum and F. verticillioides most frequently, and intermittent isolates of F. sacchari and F. beomiforme. The relatively high frequencies of F. proliferatum and F. verticillioides, suggest mycotoxin contamination, particularly fumonisins and moniliformin, should be evaluated. Genetic variation within the three commonly recovered species was characterized with vegetative compatibility, mating type, Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms (AFLPs), and female fertility. Effective population number ($N_e$) was highest for F. verticillioides and lowest for F. thapsinum with values based on mating type allele frequencies higher than those based on female fertility. Based on AFLP genetic variation, the F. thapsinum populations were the most closely related, the F. verticillioides populations were the most distantly related, and the F. proliferatum populations were in an intermediate position. The genetic variation observed could result if F. thapsinum is introduced primarily with seed, while F. proliferatum and F. verticillioides could arrive with seed or be carried over from previous crops, e.g., rice or maize, which sorghum is following. Confirmation of species transmission patterns is needed to understand the agricultural systems in which sorghum is grown in Southeast Asia, which are quite different from the systems found in Africa, Australia, India and the Americas.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.465-476
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• 2007

Whether and when naturalistic or supernaturalistic explanations of the origins of sun and earth, humans, life and species change with development was explored in a questionnaire and interviews with 32 first graders and 32 second graders, and in a questionnaire with 34 third graders, 32 sixth graders and 38 eighth graders. Participants were also asked about factors affecting their explanations in the questionnaires. Even the first and second graders could consistently provide supernaturalistic or naturalistic explanations on both the origins of sun and earth, and of humans. There was an age-related developmental shift from supernaturalistic to naturalistic explanation. As for origins of species, most of the first and second graders held the spontaneous generationist explanation, and after the third grade their views divided into evolutionist and creationist explanations. Students' explanations of species origins were established by the sixth grade through a transitional stage in the third grade. At the first and second grade levels, books and the children's own reasoning mainly influenced the views of origins, whereas parents and school were not perceived as being important. For the third graders and higher-grade levels, several factors, including parents and religion, were perceived as being important. These results show that explanations of origins start to develop earlier than or during the first grade, and are established by the sixth grade; moreover, the formation of these views is affected by several factors in addition to development.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.107-120
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• 2017

Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is one of the most important insect pests in the world. In the present study, the taxonomic status of B. tabaci and the number of species composing the B. tabaci complex were determined based on 550 COI gene sequences of B. tabaci. Genetic divergence within B. tabaci ranged from 0% to 27.8% (average 11.1%). This result indicates that the B. tabaci complex is composed of multiple species that may belong to different genera or subfamilies. A phylogenetic tree constructed based on 217 COI gene sequences without duplications revealed that the B. tabaci complex is composed of a total of 43 putative species, including a new species, Java. In addition, genetic divergence within nine species (Australia, Asia II 1, Asia II 6, Asia II 7, Asia II 10, Mediterranean, New world, New world 2, Sub Saharan Africa 1) indicates that 4.0% is reasonable to be used as a threshold of species boundaries within the B. tabaci complex, and species with high intraspecific genetic divergences can be related with cryptic species.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.202-211
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• 2019

Oceanic islands are biologically important for their unique assemblages of species and high levels of endemism and are sensitive to environmental change because of their isolation and small species source pools. Habitat destruction caused by human landscape development is generally accepted as the main cause of extinction on islands, with exotic species invasion a secondary cause of extinction, especially on tropical islands. However, secondary impacts of human development (e.g., general degradation through resource use and exotic species introduction) are understudied on temperate islands. To determine secondary impacts of human development on the understory vegetation community, 90 field sites on Ulleung Island, South Korea, were sampled during the summer of 2016. Understory vegetation was chosen as it is a proxy for ecosystem health. Diversity and percent cover of introduced, native, and endemic species were tested against proximity to developed areas and trail usage using a model selection approach. Diversity was also tested against percent cover of three naturalized species commonly found in survey plots. The main finding was that distance to development, distance to town, and trail usage have limited negative impacts on the understory vegetation community within best-supported models predicting native and introduced cover and diversity. However, endemic species cover was significantly lower on high usage trails. While there are no apparent locally invasive plant species on the island at the time of this study, percent cover of Robinia pseudoacacia, a naturalized tree species, negatively correlated with plot diversity. These findings indicate that forests on Ulleung Island are not experiencing a noticeable invasion of understory vegetation, and conservation efforts can be best spent preventing future invasions.

• ALGAE
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.151-162
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• 2008

Marine algal flora and community structure were seasonally examined at three sites in the vicinity of the Wolseong nuclear power plant in Korea from February to November 2006. A total of 126 seaweeds including 25 green, 31 brown, 70 red algae, and 1 marine plant were identified. The greatest number of species occurred at Jeonchonri (101 species) followed by intake (88 species) and discharge (29 species) during the study period. Of 126 seaweeds, 76 annuals and 13 warm tolerance species were recorded. Dominant species based on important value (IV > 10) were Ulva pertusa and Enteromorpha linza at intake, U. pertusa and Padina arborescens at discharge, and Sargassum horneri and Corallina pilulifera at Jeonchonri shore. Annual average biomass exhibited a wide range of variations, from 40.67g m-2 in dry weight at discharge to 133.69g m-2 at Jeonchonri. Among six functional groups, dominant group was coarsely-branched form at intake and Jeonchonri, but it was different at discharge site as filamentous form. Seaweed community structures of discharge site were distinguishable in decreasing species richness, biomass, species diversity index (H’), richness index (R), and evenness index (J’). Also, the ratios of green algae, warm tolerance species, annual algae, filamentous form and dominance index (DI) remarkably increased. Such phenomenons of discharge site are usually found under environmentally stressful conditions such as high disturbance. Thus, I can conclude that the heated effluents of nuclear power plant act as environmental stress influencing seaweed community structures and it can be detected with various community indices.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.183-195
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• 2018

Cryptococcosis, which is caused by the Cryptococcus species complex (including Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii), is well known as one of the most important medical problems. However, the of the Cryptococcus species complex is still limited to pneumonia and meningitis. In particular, the differences in virulence among the five major serotypes of the Cryptococcus species complex are not fully understood. To elucidate the virulence of the Cryptococcus species complex when it is disseminated hematogenously, rats were infected by different strains of the Cryptococcus species serotype, and their histopathological characteristics were compared after infection. The cumulative mortality ratio of rats infected with serotype B strain was slightly higher than in the other experimental groups. In addition, the average recovery of the Cryptococcus species complex from rats infected with serotype B strain was significantly higher than in the other groups in almost all organ samples except spleen. The recovery of the Cryptococcus species complex was associated with the severity of histopathological lesions, including bleeding, inflammation, and tissue damage in all organs. In rats infected with serotype B strain, the virulence was the most severe, especially in the lungs and liver. These results indicate that the pathophysiology of the Cryptococcus species complex infection differs according to serotype.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.145-161
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• 2015

This research was conducted in order to understand the hybridization between Quercus aliena Blume and Q. serrata Murray in Korea which show wide range of morphological variations within species and interspecific variations of diverse overlapping characteristics caused by hybridization. Morphological analysis (principal components analysis; PCA) of 116 individuals representing two species and their intermediates were performed. As a result, two species were clearly distinguished in terms of morphology, and intermediate morpho-types assumed to be hybrids between the two species were mostly located in the middle of each parent species in the plot of the principal components analysis. There was a clear distinction between two species in trichome distribution pattern which is an important diagnostic character in taxonomy of genus Quercus, whereas intermediate morpho-types showed intermediate state between two species' trichome distributions. Forty-two individuals representing two species and their intermediates were examined for leaf flavonoid constituents. Twenty-three flavonoid compounds were isolated and identified: They were glycosylated derivatives of flavonols, kaempferol, quercetin, isorhamnetin and myricetin. The flavonoid constituents of Q. aliena were five glycosylated derivatives: kaempferol 3-O-galactoside, kaempferol 3-O-glucoside, quercetin 3-O-galactoside, quercetin 3-O-glucoside, and Isorhamnetin 3-O-glucoside. The flavonoid constituents of Q. serrata had 20 diverse flavonol compounds including five flavonoid compounds found in Q. aliena. It was found that there is a clear difference in flavonoid constituents of Q. aliena and Q. serrata. Flavonoid chemistry is very useful in recognizing each species and putative hybrids. The flavonoid constituents of intermediates were a mixture of the two species' constituents and they generally showed similar characteristics to morpho-types. The hybrids between Q. aliena and Q. serrata showed morphologically and chemically diverse characteristics and it is assumed that there are frequent interspecific hybridization and introgression.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.136-159
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• 2019

This study was carried out to investigate the flora of six islands belonging to the Gogunsan Archipelago (i.e., Sinsi-do, Seonyu-do, Munyeo-do, Yami-do, Bian-do, and Duri-do) in the Korean Peninsula. As results of five field surveys from March to October of 2016, we have identified 575 total taxa, representing 527 species, five subspecies, 42 varieties, and one hybrid, placed in 358 genera and 118 families. Of these 575 taxa, four are endemic to Korea, six taxa are listed on the Korean Red List of threatened species, 67 are floristic regional indicator plants, and 74 are invasive alien species. In this study, we compared species richness among the islands, and find that the larger the islands, the higher the species richness. In the case of habitat affinity types, forest species were most common, followed by farmland, seacoast, bare ground and wetland species. From similarity analyses based on the composition of vascular plants, each island did not exhibit either local specificity or unique diversity. On the contrary, the proportion of invasive alien and ruderal species may increase by human activities. Investigations and analyses of island flora such as this are important to assess the current status of the flora, predict future vegetation patterns and the spread of the alien species, and establish managment plans of plant diversity.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.130-142
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• 2021

Background: Climate change is occurring rapidly around the world, and is predicted to have a large impact on biodiversity. Various studies have shown that climate change can alter the geographical distribution of wild bees. As climate change affects the species distribution and causes range shift, the degree of range shift and the quality of the habitats are becoming more important for securing the species diversity. In addition, those pollinator insects are contributing not only to shaping the natural ecosystem but also to increased crop production. The distributional and habitat quality changes of wild bees are of utmost importance in the climate change era. This study aims to investigate the impact of climate change on distributional and habitat quality changes of five wild bees in northwestern regions of Iran under two representative concentration pathway scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5). We used species distribution models to predict the potential range shift of these species in the year 2070. Result: The effects of climate change on different species are different, and the increase in temperature mainly expands the distribution ranges of wild bees, except for one species that is estimated to have a reduced potential range. Therefore, the increase in temperature would force wild bees to shift to higher latitudes. There was also significant uncertainty in the use of different models and the number of environmental layers employed in the modeling of habitat suitability. Conclusion: The increase in temperature caused the expansion of species distribution and wider areas would be available to the studied species in the future. However, not all of this possible range may include high-quality habitats, and wild bees may limit their niche to suitable habitats. On the other hand, the movement of species to higher latitudes will cause a mismatch between farms and suitable areas for wild bees, and as a result, farmers will face a shortage of pollination from wild bees. We suggest that farmers in these areas be aware of the effects of climate change on agricultural production and consider the use of managed bees in the future.