Suicide is a serious social and health problem in Korea [1]. According to a 2005 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [2], Korea had the highest suicide rate with nearly 30 deaths per 100,000 population. Many studies have found that suicidal ideation and attempts among lesbians, gay men, and bisexual persons are higher than among heterosexual individuals (or gener...

This is an experimental review essay responding to Michael Marder’s Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013). The essay departs from the ordinary structure of comparing three books on a similar theme. Instead three of Marder’s concepts, plant “nourishment,” “desire” and “language” are explored through readings of Gabrielle de Vietri’s installation...

Eight plant essential oils were extracted and tested for their efficiency as natural insecticides against the cotton mealybug, P. solenopsis (Tinsley). In-vitro bioassay, contact toxicity of to adult females 2nd instar nymphs was determined. Also, repellence activity tested. The most effective oil female’s after 72 hrs application L. nobilis followed by Apium graveolens, M. longifolia, C. artic...

Australian crab spiders Thomisus spectabilis manipulate visual flower signals to lure introduced Apis mellifera. We gave Australian native bees, Austroplebia australis, the choice between two white daisies, Chrysanthemum frutescens, one of them occupied by a crab spider. The colour contrast between flowers and spiders affected the behaviour of native bees. Native bees approached spider-occupied...

Historians of science have often neglected the eighteenth century because it lacks famous figureheads like Isaac Newton or Charles Darwin, yet this was a crucial period when science started to become established and gain prestige, writes Patricia Fara in a new book*. With their Enlightenment contemporaries, Carl Linnaeus in Sweden and Joseph Banks in Britain illustrate how scientific research w...

In plants whose flowers develop in a sequence, different flowers may exhibit temporal variation in pollen donation and receipt such that the fitness contributions through male and female functions can vary among flowers. Dichogamy, or directional pollinator movements within inflorescences, can create situations where flowers in different stages in the sequence may differ in the numbers of flowe...

Denitrification and consumption of oxygen and nitrate in sediments from Tama Estuary, Odawa Bay, and Tokyo Bay were measured in an experimental sediment-water system. Filtered seawater containing [N]nitrate flowed continuously over undisturbed sediments, and the concentrations of O(2), nitrate, and nitrite in the influent and effluent and of N(2) in the effluent were monitored. Under steady-sta...

BACKGROUND Quorum sensing is the key regulator of virulence factors of Pseudomonas aeruginosa such as biofilm formation, motility, productions of proteases, hemolysin, pyocyanin, and toxins. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of the extracts from some medicinal plants on quorum sensing and related virulence factors of P. aeruginosa. MATERIAL AND METHODS Quorum sensing inhibitory ...

Correct identification of the true bay leaf (Laurus nobilis) and its substitutes is important not only for the quality control of the products, but also for the safety of the consumers. L. nobilis is often substituted or confused with other species, such as Cinnamomum tamala, Pimenta racemosa, Syzygium polyanthum, and Umbellularia californica. In the present study, the potential of gas chromato...