• BMB Reports
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.133-139
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• 2010

We have performed analyses using ancient DNA extracted from 25 excavated human bones, estimating around the 1st century B.C. Ancient human bones were obtained from Nukdo Island, which is located off of the Korean peninsula of East Asia. We made concerted efforts to extract ancient DNA of high quality and to obtain reproducible PCR products, as this was a primary consideration for this extensive kind of undertaking. We performed PCR amplifications for several regions of the mitochondrial DNA, and could determine mitochondrial haplogroups for 21 ancient DNA samples. Genetic information from mitochondrial DNA belonged to super-haplogroup M, haplogroup D or its sub-haplogroups (D4 or D4b), which are distinctively found in East Asians, including Koreans or Japanese. The dendrogram and principal component analysis based on haplogroup frequencies revealed that the Nukdo population was close to those of the East Asians and clearly distinguished from populations shown in the other regions. Considering that Nukdo is geologically isolated in the southern part of the Korean peninsula and is a site of commercial importance with neighboring countries, these results may reflect genetic continuity for the habitation and migration of ethnic groups who had lived in a particular area in the past. Therefore, we suggest that phylogenetic analyses of ancient DNA have significant advantages for clarifying the origins and migrations of ethnic groups, or human races.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.41
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• pp.57-84
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• 2015

During the Japanese rule, there was an abundance of Japanese writers using colonial Taiwan as the backdrop for their work. However, after Japan's surrender and Taiwan's independence, such writers became nearly invisible. With recent relations between Taiwan and Japan drawing closer, novels and films tracing the modern relationship of the two nations are continually being introduced. Tsushima Yuko's 2008 novel Too Savage and Yoshida Shuichi's 2009 work Road also sprout from the shift in the two countries' and East Asia's historic and political atmosphere. The two books are similar in the sense that they both use countries as the backdrop and recall colonial times. However, the perspectives of the two greatly differ. This paper will compare the meaning behind the narrative strategies that the two authors take in remembering colonial Taiwan and the relationship of the two countries. It will be quite meaningful for Koreans to research the recent works of Japanese writers depicting Taiwan, as Korea also shares a similar modern history. It will also be a good opportunity to ruminate on the entangled modern history of the East Asian region and review relevant literature and culture.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 1995

Bone mass accretion during puberty appears to be critical in the development of peak bone mass. Although bone density of females in Korea has been studied, only a few studies have related bone mass with anthropometric patterns or puberty in the pubescent girls. This study was conducted as part of a study of major determinants of bone development during puberty. Subjects were aged 14∼16 yr(mean 14.97), and had no history of disorders or dedication use likely to influence bone or calcium metabolism. Bone mineral density and content were measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry using a Lunar DPX+Scanner (Lunar Madison, WI). Also, total body fat, and total lean body mass were assessed using a Lunar DPX dual-energy X-ray absorptiometer, Pubertal status was assessed according to the Marshall and Tanner guidelines. Serum levels of osteocalcin was measured by RIA using a commercial kit assay. Skinfold measurements were taken with a skinfold caliper(Lange Caliper, USA). Data were analyzed using the regression and GLM procedure of the statistical package SAS. The results indicated that the observed means for lumbar spine BMD and femoral BMD correspond to approximately 91% and 96% of the means for young adult females, respec tively. All subjects were menarchal, with the majority being in the middle to end stages of pubertal development. Total body BMD was positively related to fat mass(P<0.001), lean body mass and time since menarche, and negatively related to urine pyridinoline, serum alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin. The data indicate that girls who reported lower age for menarche had significantly higher bone densities than girls who reported higher age for menarche. Attaining peak skeletal bone mass during puberty may reduce the incidence of osteoporosis in later life. this finding suggests that early menarche may augment peak bone mass, influencing the extent of bone loss later in adulthood. The results suggest that good nutrition in childhood appears to be needed not for growth and development, but possibly also to assure an optimal peak of bone mass and thus greater latitude for the maintenance or skeletal integrity in the face of bone losses. Troeps skinfold thickness was a better predictor of total BMD and total BMC than was any other skinfold thickness. The study did not find a relationship between total BMD and body fat %, but total fat was significantly positively related to total BMD(r=0.49) and total BMC(r=0.60). It supports earlier report that there was a significant correlation between TBMD and body weight. Conclusively, total fat, lean body mass and pubertal development could influence BMD in pubescent girls. Clearly, longitudinal studies are required to assess the effect of puberty on peak bone mass, and to define further the potential determinants of peak bone mass.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.651-661
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• 2008

The mother's obesity-related stress and it's association with obesity, food intake, and physical activity in both mothers and their children were determined. Based on self-reports from 470 mothers, obesity stress of mothers were scored by using a five-point Likert scale; only low and high stress scores were used in this study. The perceptions of mothers' weights and their children's weights, mothers' Body Mass Indices (BMI), and preschoolers' Weight-Length Indices (WLI)(%) were also determined. The obesity stress of mothers was significantly associated with the mothers' BMI (high stress: $23.5{\pm}2.4$ vs. low stress: $19.6{\pm}1.7$, p<0.05), but not with their children's obesity. Mothers with a high obesity stress reported a higher percentage of family history of obesity (62.1% vs. 38.3%, p<0.001) than mothers with low obesity stress. Compared to mothers with low obesity stress, mothers with high stress had lower correct-perceptions about their weights (p<0.05) but higher correct-perceptions for their children's weights. Almost 54.5% of mothers with high stress reported watching television 2 or more extra hours per day, compared with 32.2% of mothers with low stress (p<0.05). More children of mothers with high stress had long hours of daily TV viewing than children of mothers with low stress (36.0% vs. 15.3%, $X^2=10.491$, p<0.05). Mothers with high stress reported lower intake of protein-rich foods (p=0.01) and vegetables (p=0.039), but a higher intake of snacks (p=0.009), compared to mothers with low stress. More children of mothers with high stress reported eating high fat snacks or high sugar snacks everyday, but this was not statistically significant. In conclusion, high obesity stress in mothers were greatly associated with their BMI and their inactive life style, including long TV viewing hours per day and unbalanced food intakes, which can lead their children becoming inactive and obese. Special attention is recommended for overstressed mothers and their children, especially those who enjoy long hours of TV viewing.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.154-169
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• 2021

The establishment of the Bronze Age is one of the most important achievements suggested by Korean archaeology shortly after liberation. There is no doubt that Moo-Byung Yoon is the representative figure, who refuted the ambiguous Eneolithic age (金石倂用期) created by Japanese scholars and settled the concept of the Bronze Age. In this article, the author takes a new look at Yoon's institutional role in studying the Bronze Age in Korea. Until now, Yoon's representative achievement has been his typology of the Slender dagger of the Korean Peninsula. However, it is not less important that Yoon also established the Bronze Age concept with the excavation of a dolmen and a Bronze Age subterranean dwelling in Oksok-ni, Paju during the 1960s. Of course, it was not a personal assignment for Yoon. He was aided by Prof. Kim Won-Yong's work, who had introduced newly excavated materials from North Korea and China; these materials gave some insight for establishing the Bronze Age concepts in the 1960 and 1970s. Kim's suggestion about the possibility of a Korean Bronze Age led to Yoon's refined typological study on Korea's bronze wares. However, Yoon's excessive schematic classification of artifacts and reliance on the Japanese chronology became an obstacle for making the Korean Bronze Age isolated from East Asia. As a result, it is regrettable that his research led to the "cultural lag" phenomenon of Bronze Age research. Meanwhile, Japanese archaeology, which had influenced Yoon, also faced a major change. In 2003, the Japanese archaeological community revised the Yayoi culture's beginning around the 1,000 BC. This means a shift in the perception that we should understand Japan's Bronze Age in the context of the East Asian continent. Of course, it is not appropriate to reevaluate or denigrate Yoon's research from the current view. Rather, it is necessary to recognize the limitations of Yoon's time and present a new path to research by combining the archaeological tradition of refining research on the relics he maintained with a new chronological view and a macro view of East Asian archaeology. This is why we should take a new glimpse into Yoon's research.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 2016

The Silk Route in ancient times served as a link between the World's greatest civilizations and as a source of knowledge, art, religion and philosophy. This network of ancient caravan paths formed the first bridge between East and West, where two different civilizations came in contact with their respective cultural traditions and religious beliefs, as well as their scientific and technological achievements. One of the main routes of the Great Silk Route passed through the Karakoram, linking Kashgar with Kashmir and the Gandhara regions. The Karakoram Highway connects the Chinese province with Pakistan and follows the ancient Silk Route, which connected the Heartlands of Asia with the Western fringes and further beyond the entire continent of Europe. Evidences of the history of humankind, ranging from Pre-historic times to the spread of Buddhism from South Asia to China and the Far East, is depicted in the rocky cliffs on the waysides and on rough boulders scattered in the upper valley of the Indus River and its tributaries. The ancient trade routes also carried scholars, teachers, missionaries and monks of different beliefs and practices, who met and exchanged ideas. The Buddhists as well as Zoroastrians and other missionaries all followed the Silk Route, leaving permanent footprints of their passage. The ancient greater Gandhara is situated in the North-West of the Indian Sub-continent, with the steep mountain ranges of the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Hindu-Kush bordering it and the dry areas of Central Asia to its rear. A number of races from Central Asia migrated to Gandhara because of its mild climate and plentiful farm products and fruits. This area was an entry point of Western Culture into India and at the same times the exit point of Indian Culture, including Buddhism, to the West. In Gandhara, the diffusion of different cultures developed an art form, during the 1-7th centuries CE commonly known after its geographic name as "Gandhara Art". The Buddhism's route of introduction into China originated in Gandhara, then reached in Korea and Japan and other countries. The fame of Gandhara however, rested on its capital, "Taxila" which was a great centre of learning. From the time of the Achaemenians, down through Muslim period, Gandhara continued to establish and maintain a link between East & West, as shown by material evidences recovered from Taxila and other Buddhist centres of Gandhara during the course of archaeological excavations.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.146
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• pp.245-270
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• 2018

In this paper I study the theoretical characteristic of 'Tao' based on Confucianism. Tao, the most widely used keyword in the history of East Asian philosophy, has amassed ever-greater variety of meaning as time has passed and schools divided into more subdivided schools. Among the many attributes of Tao, the most important thing I think is that Tao has a dual structure between 'Tao' and 'Way'. Somewhere to be reached is called 'Tao', and the pathway that leads to the destination is called 'Way'. In other words, 'Tao' is existence itself, and 'Way' is type of existence. 'Tao' can be goal, and 'Way' can be process. 'Tao' has originality, continuance, and honesty as its own traits, while 'Way' has humanity, practice, and dailiness as its traits. After all, in a broad sense, Tao has a dual structure between the existence and the type of existence; 'Tao' and 'Way'. Many philosophers in Western society have also paid attention to this Tao trait. Among them, Heidegger gave his opinion that is closest to the East Asians. I want to explain why the human beings are the existence on the pathway through this paper. The existence(Tao) and the type of existence(Way) cannot be separated. So, there cannot be existence without type, and type of non-existence is useless. From this point of view, 'Tao' can be both existence and type of existence.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.43
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• pp.171-206
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• 2016

Russian anarchist thinker P. A. Kropotkin had a significant impact on the school of thought, the literary field and the anarchist movement in East Asia in the early 20th century. This paper examines the history of the translation of Kropotkin in terms of the routes and paths of translation in colonial Korea in comparison with those in Japan and China. It is a known fact that the acceptance of Kropotkin in colonial Korea is owed to pioneering translation works in Japan, but it appears that there have been various transformations and magnetizations in the process of translating the texts into the Korean language. Despite a disturbing censorship, the works of Kropotkin, such as "I appeal to the youth ("Aux Jeunes Gens" in French)", were imported, translated and distributed by various routes throughout the 1920s and there were various versions of translated Korean texts. At this point, it is noteworthy that there are works which were translated from Chinese texts about Kropotkin, such as the works of Yu Seo (柳絮), and it can be said that there is a relationship between Korean translations and Chinese original texts. Since the 1930s, the phenomenon of the appropriation of Kropotkin as a litterateur and critic rather than an anarchist thinker is particularly apparent, and this allows us to understand that Kropotkin became a major pathway to interpret Russian literature in East Asia. In colonial Korea, translations of Kropotkin were generally via Japan and China, but the process of translation also showed the struggle to accept and adapt 'the foreign text' into the Korean language.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.505-528
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• 2004

We have reproduced the records of lunar occultation recorded in the History of Three Kingdoms(삼국사기), the History of the Koryo Dynasty (고려사), the Annals of the Choson Dynasty (朝鮮王朝實錄), the Daily Records of Royal Secretariat of the Choson Dynasty (승정원일기), and obtained the epochs of their realizations. We analysed these results to understand how the system of hours had been kept and when a day began. During most of the periods encompassed by these annals, the 12 double hours(12진각법) and the system of 100 divisions of the day (백각법) had been used when the lunar and the solar eclipses were calculated by royal astronomers. In these systems, the starting point of a day is midnight. On the other hand, the five watch system of hours (경점법), in which a night is divided into five watches, was also used. In this system, a day begins at the sunrise. We found that the traditional twilight, called dusk and dawn (혼명) and used in the east Asian countries, largely corresponds to the nautical twilight in modern concepts. This fact means that the Korean expressions and words for time system in every day life had originated form the five watch system of hours. We pointed out that the sunrise and sunset were convenient boundary lines to ancient astronomers, as well as to farmers in the agricultural society. Our results can be used to determine the exact epoch of each astronomical record in chronicles.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.129-139
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• 2010

The Cowherd Star and the Weaving Maid Star have been famous stars in East Asian countries. Nowadays Altair is defined to be the Cowherd Star in public materials including science books, mass media, public outreach programs, and movies played in public planetariums and science museums. However, in astronomical books and star-charts in history, the Cowherd Big Star (牽牛大星) has been known to be Dabih or $\beta$ Cap in the constellation Capricorn, and the asterism Cowherd consists of six stars including Dabih. Since the same title is given to the different objects simultaneously, considerable misunderstanding and confusion among the public have occurred. In this paper we consider this problem in two aspects. One aspect is which star has been defined to be the Cowherd Star in ancient literatures; the other is which stars were regarded as the Cowherd or the Cowherd Star in the historical records of occultation or conjunction in History of Koryo, Annals of the Choson Dynasty, and Daily Records of Royal Secretariat of the Choson Dynasty. As a result, we see that Altair has been regarded as the Cowherd Star in folklore and literature, but Dabih has been defined to be the Cowherd Big Star in astronomical works. An explanation proposed by previous researchers on the reason why such double meanings have been appeared is introduced. In the explanation, the fact that the Altair was defined as the Cowherd Star in ancient times had not been handed over properly, and the name of Cowherd was later put to the Dabih and its surrounding five stars to form one of 28 lunar lodges. Based upon these facts, we suggest the following ideas: (1) Altair should be introduced to be the Cowherd Star in public-friendly programs, and Dabih should be noticed to be the Cowherd Big Star in the field of history of astronomy. Dabih should be added as the astronomical Cowherd Big Star in academic books such as a dictionary of astronomical terminology. (2) The Korean pronunciation for Altair should be al-tear instead of al-tairu in accordance with the definition in the astronomical terminology dictionary compiled by the Korean Astronomical Society.