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We analyzed the antifungal susceptibility profiles, genotypes, and virulence of clinical Aspergillus terreus isolates from six university hospitals in South Korea. Thirty one isolates of A. terreus, comprising 15 respiratory and 16 ear isolates were assessed. Microsatellite genotyping was performed, and genetic similarity was assessed by calculating the Jaccard index. Virulence was evaluated by Galleria mellonella survival assay. All 31 isolates were susceptible to itraconazole, posaconazole, and voriconazole, while 23 (74.2%) and 6 (19.4%) showed amphotericin B (AMB) minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of ≤ 1 mg/L and > 4 mg/L, respectively. Notably, respiratory isolates showed significantly higher geometric mean MICs than ear isolates to AMB (2.41 vs. 0.48 mg/L), itraconazole (0.40 vs. 0.19 mg/L), posaconazole (0.16 vs. 0.08 mg/L), and voriconazole (0.76 vs. 0.31 mg/L) (all, P <0.05). Microsatellite genotyping separated the 31 isolates into 27 types, but the dendrogram demonstrated a closer genotypic relatedness among isolates from the same body site (ear or respiratory tract); in particular, the majority of ear isolates clustered together. Individual isolates varied markedly in their ability to kill infected G. mellonella after 72 h, but virulence did not show significant differences according to source (ear or respiratory tract), genotype, or antifungal susceptibility. The current study shows the marked diversity of clinical isolates of A. terreus in terms of antifungal susceptibilities, genotypes and virulence in the G. mellonella model, and ear isolates from Korean hospitals may have lower AMB or triazole MICs than respiratory isolates.

Earthquake damage of viaduct bridge of railroad may give rise to social loss due to transport restrictions greater than cost of structural recovery. Therefore, viaduct bridge of railroad should have ensure adequate seismic performance. But, results of seismic performance evaluation, many of seismic retrofit was required. In this study, five scale models of columns were made and four of them were reinforced by HT-A(HyperTex & perforate Aluminum) which is improved than existing method. Testing the columns by constant axial load and cyclic lateral displacements, seismic performance of columns has been verified from the result of evaluating the stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation capacity.