• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2021.06a
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• pp.6-7
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• 2021

Vegetation development in rivers is one of the important issues not only in academic fields such as geomorphology, ecology, hydraulics, etc., but also in river management practices. The problem of river vegetation is directly connected to the harmony of conflicting values of flood management and ecosystem conservation. In Korea, since the 2000s, the issue of river vegetation and land formation has been continuously raised under various conditions, such as the regulating rivers downstream of the dams, the small eutrophicated tributary rivers, and the floodplain sites for the four major river projects. In this background, this study proposes a method for classifying the distribution of vegetation in rivers based on remote sensing data, and presents the results of applying this to the Naeseong Stream. The Naeseong Stream is a representative example of the river landscape that has changed due to vegetation development from 2014 to the latest. The remote sensing data used in the study are images of Sentinel 1 and 2 satellites, which is operated by the European Aerospace Administration (ESA), and provided by Google Earth Engine. For the ground truth, manually classified dataset on the surface of the Naeseong Stream in 2016 were used, where the area is divided into eight types including water, sand and herbaceous and woody vegetation. The classification method used a random forest classification technique, one of the machine learning algorithms. 1,000 samples were extracted from 10 pre-selected polygon regions, each half of them were used as training and verification data. The accuracy based on the verification data was found to be 82~85%. The model established through training was also applied to images from 2016 to 2020, and the process of changes in vegetation zones according to the year was presented. The technical limitations and improvement measures of this paper were considered. By providing quantitative information of the vegetation distribution, this technique is expected to be useful in practical management of vegetation such as thinning and rejuvenation of river vegetation as well as technical fields such as flood level calculation and flow-vegetation coupled modeling in rivers.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.216-217
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• 2022

Gulpur 수력발전 프로젝트는 전력난을 겪고 있는 파키스탄에 102 MW 규모의 수력발전소를 건설하여 30년 동안 운영 관리한 후 파키스탄 정부로 양도하는 IPP(Independent Power Producing) 형식의 투자사업이다. 남동발전과 DL E&C, 롯데건설이 Sponsor로서 출자한 자본금과, ADB, IFC, K-EXIM 등의 대주단로부터의 차입금을 재원으로 하여 소요 사업비를 조달하고 사업을 개발하였다. DL E&C와 롯데건설이 EPC(Engineering, Procurement, Construction)를 수행하였고, 이산이 Design consultant의 역할을 수행하였다. Gulpur 수력발전 프로젝트의 발전형식은 수로식(run-of-river)으로 201 m³/s의 발전유량과 102 MW의 발전 시설용량을 이용하여 연평균예상발전량은 398 GWh이다. 주요 구조물로는 설계 재현빈도 1년의 유수전환시설(가물막이댐 & 가배수터널)과 콘크리트 중력식댐(H 67 m, L 205 m), 도수터널(D 6.7 m, L 215 m, 2기), 옥외형 발전소 (H 51 m, W 60 m, L 38 m, Kaplan 2기)가 있으며, 2015년 10월 착공하여 2020년 3월 상업발전을 시작하였다. 본 프로젝트는 DL E&C의 첫 번째 EPC 해외수력발전 프로젝트이다. 따라서 프로젝트의 성공적 수행을 위한 경제적 설계, 시공의 효율성 및 안정성 확보 등을 위하여 많은 연구를 수행하는 과정에서 다양한 기술 개선을 이룰 수 있었다. 본고에서는 Gulpur 프로젝트를 통하여 도출된 성공 사례들을 소개 및 공유하고자 한다. 첫 번째로 콘크리트 중력식댐 시공을 위한 유수전환시설의 최적 설계빈도를 산정하였다. 일반적으로 유수전환시설의 규모는 설계기준에 제시된 설계 재현빈도를 이용하는데, 해외 설계기준에서는 10년, 국내 설계기준에서는 1~2년으로 다르게 제시되어 있는 문제점이 있다. 유수전환시설의 규모는 프로젝트의 경제성에 큰 영향을 미치기 때문에 최적 설계빈도의 결정이 필요하며, 위험도분석기법(Risk Analysis)과 기대화폐가치법(Expected Monetary Value)을 이용하여 유수전환시설의 최적 설계 재현빈도와 이에 영향을 미치는 인자를 분석하였다. 위험도는 몬테카를로 시뮬레이션으로 산정된 가물막이댐 파괴확률과 재현빈도를 이용하여 산정된 가물막이댐 월류확률을 고려하였으며, 비용 및 피해액으로는 유수전환시설의 공사비, 가물막이댐 파괴시의 재건설비용과 지체보상금, 가물막이댐 월류시의 복구비용을 고려하였다. 이에 대한 연구결과로, 유수전환시설의 사용기간과 월류시의 복구비용이 유수전환시설의 설계 재현기간 결정에 가장 큰 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났고, 특히 월류시의 복구비용이 작을수록 낮은 설계 재현빈도를 선택하는 것이 타당한 것으로 나타났다. 예를 들어, 유수전환시설의 사용기간이 3 ~ 5년, 복구비용이 0.5 ~ 1.0 mil USD 이하인 조건에서 가물막이시설의 최적 설계빈도는 1년 ~ 2년인 것으로 나타났다. 또한, 유수전환시설의 사용기간은 본댐의 규모와 시공기간 등을 고려하여 결정되는 사항으로 설계자가 임의 조정할 수 없지만, 복구비용은 시공 관리자에 따라 결정되는 부분으로, 적극적 홍수 피해 저감 및 복구방안을 마련하는 것이 프로젝트의 경제성을 향상시킬 수 있다는 것을 알 수 있었다. 두 번째로 프로젝트의 경제성 향상, 홍수기 댐 시공시의 안전성 확보를 위하여 홍수 조기경보시스템(Early Warning System)을 개발 및 활용하였다. 수로식(Run-of-river) 수력발전댐은 대부분 산악지역에 위치하기 때문에 국지성 강우 및 급한 지형 경사로 인하여 돌발홍수(flash flood)의 발생 가능성이 높다. 따라서 시공 중 홍수(월류) 발생을 미리 감지하고 현장에 전파할 수 있는, 수로식(Run-of-river) 수력발전댐 현장을 위한 홍수 조기경보시스템이 필요하며, 이를 리스크 인식, 모니터링 및 경보, 전파 및 연락, 반응 능력 향상의 4가지 부분으로 나누어 구축하였다. 리스크 인식 부분에서는 가물막이댐 월류 발생 상황에 대한 위험도, 취약성, 리스크를 제시하였으며, 모니터링 및 경보 부분에서는 상류 측정수위에서 유도된 현장 예상수위와 실제 현장 측정 수위를 대상으로 경보홍수위와 위험홍수위로 나누어 관리하였다. 전파 및 연락 부분에서는 현장 시공 조직을 활용하여 홍수시를 대비한 비상연락체계도(Emergency communication flow chart)를 운영하였으며, 반응 능력 향상을 위해 비상연락체계도의 팀별 Action plan을 상세화 하였다. 세 번째로 현장의 지질특성과 50여 차례 발파시험으로 현장 고유의 발파진동감쇄곡선을 도출하였으며, 이를 통해 현장의 시공성과 콘크리트 품질 확보를 동시에 달성할 수 있는 방안을 제시하였다. 콘크리트댐 공사에서는 제한된 공기 내에 공사를 완료하기 위해 사면부 굴착과 콘크리트 타설이 동시에 수행될 수밖에 없는 문제점을 가지고 있다. 그러나 신규 콘크리트 타설면 근처에서 발파를 수행하는 경우 발파로 발생되는 탄성파가 일정 수준을 초과하게 되면, 콘크리트 양생에 영향을 주게 된다. 따라서 다수의 현장 발파시험을 통해 발파거리와 최대진동속도의 상관관계 즉, 발파진동감쇄곡선을 도출함으로써 현장의 발파진동특성을 도출할 수 있었다. 또한, 기존 연구 논문들을 통해 콘크리트 재령기간 별 안전진동속도를 선정하고, 해당 안전진동속도를 초과하지 않는 범위에서 콘크리트 타설면과 발파위치의 거리에 따라 1회 발파 가능한 장약량을 산정하여 적용하였다. 이와 같은 체계적인 접근을 통해 콘크리트 타설과 발파 작업 동시 수행에 대한 논란을 해소할 수 있었다.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.247-256
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• 2019

The importance of the convergence education is getting more and more emphasized. But the university convergence education has not yet met today's needs. So this study is focused on showing effective practice methods and finding development directions of the university convergence criticism education. One of a significant trend of the contemporary academic education of liberal arts is the tendency of the convergent and integrative studies. What is essential in the convergent and integrative studies creativity. The zeitgeist of knowledge-based society is change and innovation. In response to its request, college education is being asked to do convergence education, And general education as the basis of convergence education is strengthened.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.31-39
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to propose a scientific performance evaluation framework for measuring and managing the overall outcome of complex types of projects that are linked to public demand-based commercialization, such as information system projects and public procurement, in integrated national R&D projects. In the case of integrated national R&D projects that involve multiple research institutes to form a single final product, and in the case of demand-based demonstration and commercialization of the project results, the existing evaluation system that evaluates performance based on the short-term outputs of the detailed tasks comprising the R&D project has limitations in evaluating the mid- and long-term effects and practicality of the integrated research products. (Moreover, as the paradigm of national R&D projects is changing to a mission-oriented one that emphasizes efficiency, there is a need to change the performance evaluation of national R&D projects to focus on the effectiveness and practicality of the results.) In this study, we propose a performance evaluation framework from a structural perspective to evaluate the completeness of each national R&D project from a practical perspective, such as its effectiveness, beyond simple short-term output, by utilizing the Hourglass model. In particular, it presents an integrated performance evaluation framework that links the top-down and bottom-up approaches leading to Tool-System-Service-Effect according to the structure of R&D projects. By applying the proposed detailed evaluation indicators and performance evaluation frame to actual national R&D projects, the validity of the indicators and the effectiveness of the proposed performance evaluation frame were verified, and these results are expected to provide academic, policy, and industrial implications for the performance evaluation system of national R&D projects that emphasize efficiency in the future.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.46
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• pp.69-122
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• 2023

This study is an integral exploration of Feng Shui associated with the area around the birthplace of Kang Jeungsan, a sacred site of Daesoon Jinrihoe which holds that the Supreme God descended in human form at that location (through Kang Jeungsan). Through an on-site Feng Shui survey, the main focus of the research method was to explore the Feng Shui configurations around Kang Jeungsan's birthplace especially as it pertains to the connections among geomagnetic veins which lead to the Mount Shiru area. As a method of investigation, this study explored the Feng Shui of Gaekmang-ri Village and the geomantic veins leading up to Mount Shiru. This involved examining the landforms, topography, water flow, and geomantic veins of the area to reveal the overall Feng Shui configurations. Throughout the course of that on-site survey, this study first examined Mount Duseung and Mount Bangjang, also known as Mount Yeongju (sometimes collectively known as Mount Samshin), Mount Dongjuk, Mount Mangje-bong, Mount Maebong, and Mount Shiru. Then, this study stated some of the underlying issues through a scholarly approach based on various theories such as traditional geographical texts and theories on mountain-growth and water-flow from the perspective of Feng Shui. In particular, attention was paid to theoretical aspects of the uninterrupted and undulating flow of the terrain leading to Shiru Mountain. As a result, from a Feng Shui point of view, the connected network geomantic veins in the area of Kang Jeungsan's birthplace and the feng shui features and conditions were all examined through an on-site survey. The survey results revealed that the area forms a large Feng Shui site due to the vast interconnectivity among all the mountains that extend from the Honam vein and form organic relationships with one another. This even includes Mount Samshin in Honam. Considering the geographical conditions that formed a site that enabled harmony between divine beings and humankind, the surrounding place names also provide allusions to the understanding of the birth of Kang Jeungsan as the descent of Supreme God into the human world through the historical figure, Kang Jeungsan. This area is an ideal spot with a propitious spatial arrangement in terms of its Feng Shui. Feng Shui analysis reveals the site to be a place that holds an earth energy-hub transmitting a great energy of nature that cannot be measured by human power alone.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.55-73
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• 2024

Unicorn companies are attracting attention around the world as they are recognized for their high corporate value in a short period of time as an innovative business models. Their growth process presents good lessons for the startup ecosystem and have a positive impact on national economic development and job creation. However, previous studies related to unicorn companies are focused on 'event studies' and 'case studies' such as characteristics of founders, environmental factors, business models and success/failure cases of companies already recognized as unicorns rather than a multifaceted approach. The occurrence of unicorn companies and Macroscopic analysis of related factors is lacking. Against this background, this study are considering the characteristics of unicorns examined through previous research and the current status unicorns with a high proportion of technology companies, the purpose was to analyze the impact of the country's technological competitiveness, such as 'technology human resource index', 'R&D index', and 'technology infrastructure index', on the increase in unicorn companies. For statistical analysis, data published by various international organizations, the Bank of Korea, and Statistics Korea from 2017 to 2020 and unicorn company data compiled by CB Insights were used as panel data for 44 countries to be tested by multiple regression analysis. As a result of the study, it was confirmed that the number of science majors had a positive (+) effect on the increase of unicorn companies in the case of technology human resource index, and in the case of R&D index, the total amount of R&D investment had a positive (+) effect on the increase of unicorn companies, while the number of Triad Patents Families and the number of scientific and technological papers published had a negative (-) effect on the increase of unicorn companies. Finally, in the case of technology infrastructure index, it was confirmed that the number of the world's 500th-ranked universities had a positive (+) effect on the increase of unicorn companies. This study is the first to reveal the causal relationship between national technological competitiveness and unicorn company growth based on country-specific and time-series empirical data, which were insufficiently covered in previous studies. and compared to the UN's ranking of the global industrial competitiveness index and the OECD's total R&D investment by country, Korea is considered to have technological and growth potential, while the number of unicorn companies driving growth as leaders of the innovative economy is relatively small, so the research results can be used when establishing policies to discover and foster unicorn companies in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.5-30
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to extract topics from experimental data using the topic modeling methods(LDA, Top2Vec, and BERTopic) and compare the characteristics and differences between these models. The experimental data consist of 55,442 papers published in 85 academic journals in the field of library and information science, which are indexed in the Web of Science(WoS). The experimental process was as follows: The first topic modeling results were obtained using the default parameters for each model, and the second topic modeling results were obtained by setting the same optimal number of topics for each model. In the first stage of topic modeling, LDA, Top2Vec, and BERTopic models generated significantly different numbers of topics(100, 350, and 550, respectively). Top2Vec and BERTopic models seemed to divide the topics approximately three to five times more finely than the LDA model. There were substantial differences among the models in terms of the average and standard deviation of documents per topic. The LDA model assigned many documents to a relatively small number of topics, while the BERTopic model showed the opposite trend. In the second stage of topic modeling, generating the same 25 topics for all models, the Top2Vec model tended to assign more documents on average per topic and showed small deviations between topics, resulting in even distribution of the 25 topics. When comparing the creation of similar topics between models, LDA and Top2Vec models generated 18 similar topics(72%) out of 25. This high percentage suggests that the Top2Vec model is more similar to the LDA model. For a more comprehensive comparison analysis, expert evaluation is necessary to determine whether the documents assigned to each topic in the topic modeling results are thematically accurate.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.355-380
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• 2004

I test the hypothesis that the gradual diffusion of information across asset markets leads to cross-asset return predictability in Korea. Using thirty-six industry portfolios and the broad market index as our test assets, I establish several key results. First, a number of industries such as semiconductor, electronics, metal, and petroleum lead the stock market by up to one month. In contrast, the market, which is widely followed, only leads a few industries. Importantly, an industry's ability to lead the market is correlated with its propensity to forecast various indicators of economic activity such as industrial production growth. Consistent with our hypothesis, these findings indicate that the market reacts with a delay to information in industry returns about its fundamentals because information diffuses only gradually across asset markets. Traditional theories of asset pricing assume that investors have unlimited information-processing capacity. However, this assumption does not hold for many traders, even the most sophisticated ones. Many economists recognize that investors are better characterized as being only boundedly rational(see Shiller(2000), Sims(2201)). Even from casual observation, few traders can pay attention to all sources of information much less understand their impact on the prices of assets that they trade. Indeed, a large literature in psychology documents the extent to which even attention is a precious cognitive resource(see, eg., Kahneman(1973), Nisbett and Ross(1980), Fiske and Taylor(1991)). A number of papers have explored the implications of limited information- processing capacity for asset prices. I will review this literature in Section II. For instance, Merton(1987) develops a static model of multiple stocks in which investors only have information about a limited number of stocks and only trade those that they have information about. Related models of limited market participation include brennan(1975) and Allen and Gale(1994). As a result, stocks that are less recognized by investors have a smaller investor base(neglected stocks) and trade at a greater discount because of limited risk sharing. More recently, Hong and Stein(1999) develop a dynamic model of a single asset in which information gradually diffuses across the investment public and investors are unable to perform the rational expectations trick of extracting information from prices. Hong and Stein(1999). My hypothesis is that the gradual diffusion of information across asset markets leads to cross-asset return predictability. This hypothesis relies on two key assumptions. The first is that valuable information that originates in one asset reaches investors in other markets only with a lag, i.e. news travels slowly across markets. The second assumption is that because of limited information-processing capacity, many (though not necessarily all) investors may not pay attention or be able to extract the information from the asset prices of markets that they do not participate in. These two assumptions taken together leads to cross-asset return predictability. My hypothesis would appear to be a very plausible one for a few reasons. To begin with, as pointed out by Merton(1987) and the subsequent literature on segmented markets and limited market participation, few investors trade all assets. Put another way, limited participation is a pervasive feature of financial markets. Indeed, even among equity money managers, there is specialization along industries such as sector or market timing funds. Some reasons for this limited market participation include tax, regulatory or liquidity constraints. More plausibly, investors have to specialize because they have their hands full trying to understand the markets that they do participate in

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.69-95
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• 1979

The study was conducted to search developmental process of plant protection science from review of forty-three hundreds literatures presented since 1900 in Korea and to forecast future statues of the science to be done. About 80 percent of literatures related to plant protection science such as plant pathology, applied entomology, weed science and agricultural pharmacology were collected from publications of agricultural and forestry reseach organizations attached to Office of Rural Development and Office of Forestry. The rest of literatures were mainly collected from Korean Journal of Plant Protection Society and small number of literatures were also collected from publications of the other journals of crop science and thesis collection of agricultural colleges. In Korea, research organizations of plant protection science are divided into two main groups such as exclusive agricultural research organizations and agricultural colleges. It is pointed out that the former contributions to plant protection science are very great compared to those of the latter since 1900. From periodical consideration of developmental process of the science since 1900, the history or the science are divided into three eras such as introduction and sprout of modern plant protection science during the first forty years, distress of the science during the following twenty years including the Second World War and the Korean War and rapid growth of the science after 1961. In spite of long time distress of the science during the Second World War and the Korean War, the researches on plant protection science in post-war have been done twice as many as pre-war. From consideration of the subject plants in researches of plant protection, it is shown that a great many researches on protection of rice plant have been done and occupy 37 percent of plant protection researches since 1900. And also researches on protection of fruit-trees and cash-crops are not so many as those of rice plant but have been done in noticeable numbers. In fact, researches on protection of fruit-trees and cashcrops were the most important subjects of plant protection researches in pre-war while those of rice plant were the most important subjects after 1930, particulary in post-war. From consideration of contents of plant protection researches, it is said that more fundamental researches than applied ones such as practical control methods of diseases, insect pests and weeds were done in pre-war while more applied researches than fundamental ones were done in post-war, Among applied researches, those of chemical control were the most important subjects. Researches on disease and insect-pest resistance have been done in both pre-war and post-war while researches on forecasting of disease and insect-pest and race of plant pathogens have been done in post-war. And also researches on weed control mainly have been done after 1960. Researches on agricultural chemicals for control of diseases, insect pests and weeds still belong to a new field which must be expected in future, and there is nothing to notice with the exception of practical application of agricultural chemicals introduced from foreign countries. Some of important researches on diseases and insect pests were discussed in relation to developmental process of plant protection science in Korea since 1900. In future, researches on plant protection will be develop to the direction supporting importance of integrated control for plant protection. Therefore, it is pointed out that security of highly educated and trained scientists with enlargement of reseach fields of plant protection science are necessary and role of agricultural colleges for future development of the science must be emphasized.

• MISULJARYO - National Museum of Korea Art Journal
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• v.98
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• pp.226-241
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• 2020

Located on the right side of the third floor of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the "Art of Central Asia" exhibition boasts the world's finest collection of artworks and artifacts from the Silk Road. Every item in the collection has been classified by region, and many of them were collected in the early twentieth century through archaeological surveys led by Russia's Pyotr Kozlov, Mikhail Berezovsky, and Sergey Oldenburg. Some of these artifacts have been presented around the world through special exhibitions held in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Korea, Japan, and elsewhere. The fruits of Russia's Silk Road expeditions were also on full display in the 2008 exhibition The Caves of One Thousand Buddhas - Russian Expeditions on the Silk Route on the Occasion of 190 Years of the Asiatic Museum, held at the Hermitage Museum. Published in 2018 by the Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House in collaboration with the Hermitage Museum, Kuche Art Relics Collected in Russia introduces the Hermitage's collection of artifacts from the Kuche (or Kucha) region. While the book focuses exclusively on artifacts excavated from the Kuche area, it also includes valuable on-site photos and sketches from the Russian expeditions, thus helping to enhance readers' overall understanding of the characteristics of Kuche art within the Buddhist art of Central Asia. The book was compiled by Dr. Kira Samosyuk, senior curator of the Oriental Department of the Hermitage Museum, who also wrote the main article and the artifact descriptions. Dr. Samosyuk is an internationally renowned scholar of Central Asian Buddhist art, with a particular expertise in the art of Khara-Khoto and Xi-yu. In her article "The Art of the Kuche Buddhist Temples," Dr. Samosyuk provides an overview of Russia's Silk Road expeditions, before introducing the historical development of Kuche in the Buddhist era and the aspects of Buddhism transmitted to Kuche. She describes the murals and clay sculptures in the Buddhist grottoes, giving important details on their themes and issues with estimating their dates, and also explains how the temples operated as places of worship. In conclusion, Dr. Samosyuk argues that the Kuche region, while continuously engaging with various peoples in China and the nomadic world, developed its own independent Buddhist culture incorporating elements of Gandara, Hellenistic, Persian, and Chinese art and culture. Finally, she states that the culture of the Kuche region had a profound influence not only on the Tarim Basin, but also on the Buddhist grottoes of Dunhuang and the central region of China. A considerable portion of Dr. Samosyuk's article addresses efforts to estimate the date of the grottoes in the Kuche region. After citing various scholars' views on the dates of the murals, she argues that the Kizil grottoes likely began prior to the fifth century, which is at least 100 years earlier than most current estimates. This conclusion is reached by comparing the iconography of the armor depicted in the murals with related materials excavated from the surrounding area (such as items of Sogdian art). However, efforts to date the Buddhist grottoes of Kuche must take many factors into consideration, such as the geological characteristics of the caves, the themes and styles of the Buddhist paintings, the types of pigments used, and the clothing, hairstyles, and ornamentation of the depicted figures. Moreover, such interdisciplinary data must be studied within the context of Kuche's relations with nearby cultures. Scientific methods such as radiocarbon dating could also be applied for supplementary materials. The preface of Kuche Art Relics Collected in Russia reveals that the catalog is the first volume covering the Hermitage Museum's collection of Kuche art, and that the next volume in the series will cover a large collection of mural fragments that were taken from Berlin during World War II. For many years, the whereabouts of these mural fragments were unknown to both the public and academia, but after restoration, the fragments were recently re-introduced to the public as part of the museum's permanent exhibition. We look forward to the next publication that focuses on these mural fragments, and also to future catalogs introducing the artifacts of Turpan and Khotan. Currently, fragments of the murals from the Kuche grottoes are scattered among various countries, including Russia, Germany, and Korea. With the publication of this catalog, it seems like an opportune time to publish a comprehensive catalog on the murals of the Kuche region, which represent a compelling mixture of East-West culture that reflects the overall characteristics of the region. A catalog that includes both the remaining murals of the Kizil grottoes and the fragments from different parts of the world could greatly enhance our understanding of the murals' original state. Such a book would hopefully include a more detailed and interdisciplinary discussion of the artifacts and murals, including scientific analyses of the pigments and other materials from the perspective of conservation science. With the ongoing rapid development in western China, the grotto murals are facing a serious crisis related to climate change and overcrowding in the oasis city of Xinjiang. To overcome this challenge, the cultural communities of China and other countries that possess advanced technology for conservation and restoration must begin working together to protect and restore the murals of the Silk Road grottoes. Moreover, centers for conservation science should be established to foster human resources and collect information. Compiling the data of Russian expeditions related to the grottoes of Kuche (among the results of Western archaeological surveys of the Silk Road in the early twentieth century), Kuche Art Relics Collected in Russia represents an important contribution to research on Kuche's Buddhist art and the Silk Road, which will only be enhanced by a future volume introducing the mural fragments from Germany. As the new authoritative source for academic research on the artworks and artifacts of the Kuche region, the book also lays the groundwork for new directions for future studies on the Silk Road. Finally, the book is also quite significant for employing a new editing system that improves its academic clarity and convenience. In conclusion, Dr. Kira Samosyuk, who planned the publication, deserves tremendous praise for taking the research of Silk Road art to new heights.