• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.116-125
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• 2016

Background: Microfluidics is of considerable importance in food and agricultural industries. Microfluidics processes low volumes of fluids in channels with extremely small dimensions of tens of micrometers. It enables the miniaturization of analytical devices and reductions in cost and turnaround times. This allows automation, high-throughput analysis, and processing in food and agricultural applications. Purpose: This review aims to provide information on the applications of microfluidics in the agro-food sector to overcome limitations posed by conventional technologies. Results: Microfluidics contributes to medical diagnosis, biological analysis, drug discovery, chemical synthesis, biotechnology, gene sequencing, and ecology. Recently, the applications of microfluidics in food and agricultural industries have increased. A few examples of these applications include food safety analysis, food processing, and animal production. This study examines the fundamentals of microfluidics including fabrication, control, applications, and future trends of microfluidics in the agro-food sector. Conclusions: Future research efforts should focus on developing a small portable platform with modules for fluid handling, sample preparation, and signal detection electronics.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.396-407
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• 2016

Background: Although hyperspectral imaging was originally introduced for military, remote sensing, and astrophysics applications, the use of analytical hyperspectral imaging techniques has been expanded to include monitoring of agricultural crops and commodities due to the broad range and highly specific and sensitive spectral information that can be acquired. Combining hyperspectral imaging with remote sensing expands the range of targets that can be analyzed. Results: Hyperspectral imaging technology can rapidly provide data suitable for monitoring a wide range of plant conditions such as plant stress, nitrogen status, infections, maturity index, and weed discrimination very rapidly, and its use in remote sensing allows for fast spatial coverage. Conclusions: This paper reviews current research on and potential applications of hyperspectral imaging and remote sensing for outdoor field monitoring of agricultural crops. The instrumentation and the fundamental concepts and approaches of hyperspectral imaging and remote sensing for agriculture are presented, along with more recent developments in agricultural monitoring applications. Also discussed are the challenges and limitations of outdoor applications of hyperspectral imaging technology such as illumination conditions and variations due to leaf and plant orientation.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.59-71
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• 2018

Purpose: Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are natural polymers that have been promoted as a next generation of new, sustainable materials. CNCs are invaluable as reinforcing materials for composites because they can impart improved mechanical, chemical, and thermal properties and they are biodegradable. The purpose of this review is to provide researchers with information that can assist in the application of CNCs extracted from waste agricultural byproducts (e.g. rice husks, corncobs, pineapple leaves). Methods & Results: This paper presents the unique characteristics of CNCs based on agricultural byproducts, and lists processing methods for manufacturing CNCs from agricultural byproducts. Various mechanical treatments (microfluidization and homogenization) and chemical treatments (alkali treatment, bleaching and hydrolysis) can be performed in order to generate nanocellulose. CNC-based composite properties and various applications are also discussed. Conclusions: CNC-based composites from agricultural byproducts can be combined to meet end-use applications such as sensors, batteries, films, food packaging, and 3D printing by utilizing their properties. The review discusses applications in food engineering, biological engineering, and cellulose-based hydrogels.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

Alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG) is a key molecule in the Krebs cycle determining the overall rate of the citric acid cycle of the organism. It is a nitrogen scavenger and a source of glutamate and glutamine that stimulates protein synthesis and inhibits protein degradation in muscles. AKG as a precursor of glutamate and glutamine is a central metabolic fuel for cells of the gastrointestinal tract as well. AKG can decrease protein catabolism and increase protein synthesis to enhance bone tissue formation in the skeletal muscles and can be used in clinical applications. In addition to these health benefits, a recent study has shown that AKG can extend the lifespan of adult Caenorhabditis elegans by inhibiting ATP synthase and TOR. AKG not only extends lifespan, but also delays age-related disease. In this review, we will summarize the advances in AKG research field, in the content of its physiological functions and applications.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.277-284
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• 2014

Recently the use of smart phones and mobile devices is increasing rapidly, data search and retrieval in the mobile environments are generalized. There are only few mobile applications available in the area of agriculture while huge amount of new applications are developed and uploaded. The purpose of this study was to develop the android based mobile application for providing agricultural infrastructure and disaster information. The mobile application was designed through the database establishment and management system, server management system, and mobile application development. The database is composed of weather data, agricultural infrastructure data, and agricultural disaster data. By developing the mobile application which provides agricultural infrastructure information, it is expected to improve the accessibility to agricultural information and mitigate the agricultural disaster damages.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.93-101
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• 2019

This study aims to analyze the influences of applications of two different evapotranspiration (ET) estimation methods on the irrigation water requirements (IWR) for paddy rice and water supply reliability of agricultural reservoirs. The modified Penman (MP), traditional method, and the Penman-Monteith (PM), the new adopted method, were applied on 149 reservoirs located in Honam province for this study. The weather date was used from 1987 to 2016, and analysed the trends of temperature and rainfall during rice growing season between past and current 10 years respectively. The increased average temperature and rainfall were observed from the current 10 years compared to the past years. This phenomena impacts on the results of ET and IWR estimations with decreased IWR obtained from high rainfall regions and increased ET obtained high temperature regions. For the comparisons of application results of two ET approaches, the PM method showed lower ET and IWR, and hence more reliable storage capacity of the reservoirs respect to water supply to paddy fields. The results also showed that the influences of different ET methods applications on the water supply reliability of reservoirs are negligible for the cases of over 3.7 watershed ratio and 670 mm unit reservoir storage, while significant variations of the results obtain from the applications between two ET approaches for the opposite cases. Further studies are necessary to consider various field conditions for practical applications of the PM method estimating ET in the fields of paddy farming.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.12 no.3 s.32
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• pp.81-95
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• 2006

The objective of the this study is to find a way to increase fm household income through investigating their computer applications. We utilized the 2000 Korea Agricultural Survey data and applied a Heckman Selection Model to correct a selection bias. The present study found the following results. First, determinant of income among fm households by the level of computer applications has significant statistical differences based on their choices of computer applications. Accordingly, the application of general linear regression about fm income without adjusting these choices may cause statistical fallacy. Second, it has been reported that increasing the member of household is not directly related to increasing the fm income. In case of computer-own farm household, the effect of decrease in income according to increasing in age was predicted. However, in the fm household not possessing computer, it shows negative relationship. It shows that an agricultural career of farm owner and educational attainment of all farm household members have positive relationship regardless of computer possession. The income of the farm household those main field is not agriculture is also found to be lower than that of farm household whose major earnings come from agriculture.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.43-48
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• 2001

Many applications in the areas of agricultural, hydrological and environmental resource management require data over very large areas and with a high imaging frequency - monitoring crop growth, water stress, seasonal wetland flooding and natural vegetation development. This precludes the use of fine resolution data (Landsat, Spot) on the grounds of cost, accessibility and low imaging frequency. Meteorological satellites have the potential to fill this need, given their very wide spatial coverage, and high repeat imaging. The Remote Sensing Unit (RSU) at the Zambia Meteorological Department routinely receives, processes and archives imagery from both Meteosat and NOAA AVHRR satellites. Here I wish to present some examples of applications of these data sets that arise from the RSU work - relationships between rainfall and vegetation development as assessed by satellite, derived information and seasonal patterns of flooding in the Barotse floodplain and the Kafue flats. I also wish to outline ways in which a more widespread use of this data by the Zambian institutions canbe achieved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1996.06c
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• pp.293-304
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• 1996

Historical interest in dielectric properties of agricultural products and definitions of dielectric terms and basic principles governing their influence on elelctromagnetic energy are presented briefly . The nature of dielectric properties variation with frequency, temperature , and product density is discussed, Graphical data on the dielectric properties of products are presented that illustrate the dependence of these properties on moisture content, frequency, temperature, and density. Applications microwave dielectric properties of agricultural products are cited that include radio-frequency (RF) and microwave heating for seed treatment, improvement of nutritional and keeping qualities of some products, and controlling insects in grain. Uses of dielectric properties for product quality measurement and the rapid determination of moisture content are described. Principle of moisture determination in bulk grain by RF and microwave measurements are briefly presented.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.170-189
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• 2017

Purpose: This paper presents Raman chemical imaging technology for inspecting food and agricultural products. Methods The paper puts emphasis on introducing and demonstrating Raman imaging techniques for practical uses in food analysis. Results & Conclusions: The main topics include Raman scattering principles, Raman spectroscopy measurement techniques (e.g., backscattering Raman spectroscopy, transmission Raman spectroscopy, and spatially offset Raman spectroscopy), Raman image acquisition methods (i.e., point-scan, line-scan, and area-scan methods), Raman imaging instruments (e.g., excitation sources, wavelength separation devices, detectors, imaging systems, and calibration methods), and Raman image processing and analysis techniques (e.g., fluorescence correction, mixture analysis, target identification, spatial mapping, and quantitative analysis). Raman chemical imaging applications for food safety and quality evaluation are also reviewed.