• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.464-471
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• 2023

In this paper, we propose a method to reduce age distortion in facial expression image generation using StyleGAN Encoder. The facial expression image generation process first creates a face image using StyleGAN Encoder, and changes the expression by applying the learned boundary to the latent vector using SVM. However, when learning the boundary of a smiling expression, age distortion occurs due to changes in facial expression. The smile boundary created in SVM learning for smiling expressions includes wrinkles caused by changes in facial expressions as learning elements, and it is determined that age characteristics were also learned. To solve this problem, the proposed method calculates the correlation coefficient between the smile boundary and the age boundary and uses this to introduce a method of adjusting the age boundary at the smile boundary in proportion to the correlation coefficient. To confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method, the results of an experiment using the FFHQ dataset, a publicly available standard face dataset, and measuring the FID score are as follows. In the smile image, compared to the existing method, the FID score of the smile image generated by the ground truth and the proposed method was improved by about 0.46. In addition, compared to the existing method in the smile image, the FID score of the image generated by StyleGAN Encoder and the smile image generated by the proposed method improved by about 1.031. In non-smile images, compared to the existing method, the FID score of the non-smile image generated by the ground truth and the method proposed in this paper was improved by about 2.25. In addition, compared to the existing method in non-smile images, it was confirmed that the FID score of the image generated by StyleGAN Encoder and the non-smile image generated by the proposed method improved by about 1.908. Meanwhile, as a result of estimating the age of each generated facial expression image and measuring the estimated age and MSE of the image generated with StyleGAN Encoder, compared to the existing method, the proposed method has an average age of about 1.5 in smile images and about 1.63 in non-smile images. Performance was improved, proving the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1-11
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• 2023

By comparing and analyzing the effects of the 2013 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo and the 2023 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo, designated as Korea's first national garden, this study aims to present basic data for the future operation direction and sustainability strategy. First, in both fairs, satisfaction throughout the event was high, 4.0 or higher. In particular, the satisfaction level of the 2023 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo was higher than that of the 2013 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo. As the longest international event held since the COVID-19 pandemic, it reflected the citizens' demand for healing and recharging in natural spaces. Second, as a result of comparing the types of perceptions that affected satisfaction, it was found that economic, environmental, and ecological types commonly affected satisfaction at the 2013 and 2023 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo. The 2013 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo established the brand value as an "ecological city" by creating a garden in the city center along with an ecological resource called Suncheon Bay. In addition, the 2023 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo expanded the scope of the garden to the entire city center. It also attempted to create a city where humans and nature coexist by realizing values, such as responding to climate change and carbon neutrality. In other words, one of the ways to secure urban competitiveness is to attract corporate investment and tourists and build a differentiated brand in Suncheon by promoting the 2023 fair based on the potential ecological values of the region after the 2013 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo. Therefore, if the Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo continues to develop environmental and ecological content and programs in line with changes in society and tries to establish itself in citizens' perception through cooperation with local governments and residents, it will be able to establish its identity and brand power.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.697-714
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• 2023

The Tracksite of Cretaceous Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs in Jeongchon, Jinju was discovered in late 2017 during the construction of the Ppuri industry complex. This site is a natural heritage site with a high paleontological value, as it preserves fossils of various types of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and animal traces at a dense concentration. In this study, we surveyed that physical weathering such as joint, crack, scaling, exfoliation, and fragmentation occurred through field research in the fossil site, and conducted basic research on conservation science to reduce the damage. To this end, among the eight levels identified after excavation, the rocks of Level 3, which yielded a large number of theropod footprint fossils, and Level 4, which yielded pterosaur footprint fossils, were analyzed for material characteristics and evaluation of the effectiveness of consolidation and adhesion. This results showed that the rocks in the Level 3 stratum were dark gray siltstone and the rocks in the Level 4 stratum were dark gray shale, which contained a large amount of calcite and were composed of quartz, plagioclase, mica, alkali feldspar, and other clay minerals, which are likely to be damaged by rainfall under external conditions. As a result of conducting an artificial weathering experiment by dividing the probationary sample into four groups: untreated, consolidation treatment, anti-swelling treatment, and adhesive treatment, the consolidation and the swelling inhibitor showed an effect immediately after treatment, but did not show a blocking effect under a freezing-thawing environment. The adhesive showed that the adhesive effect was maintained even under freezing-thawing conditions. In order to preserve the fossil sites at Jeongchon in the future, in addition to temporary measures to block the inflow of moisture, practical measures such as the construction of protective facilities should be prepared.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.602-614
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• 2023

Purpose: The balance between synthesis and degradation of proteins plays a critical role in the maintenance of skeletal muscle mass. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been closely associated with skeletal muscle atrophy caused by aging, cancer, and chemotherapy. Polygalacin D is a saponin derivative isolated from Platycodon grandiflorum (Jacq.) A. DC. This study aimed to investigate the effects of polygalacin D on myoblast differentiation and muscle atrophy in association with mitochondrial function in in vitro and in zebrafish models in vivo. Methods: C2C12 myoblasts were cultured in differentiation media containing different concentrations of polygalacin D, followed by the immunostaining of the myotubes with myosin heavy chain (MHC). The mRNA expression of markers related to myogenesis, muscle atrophy, and mitochondrial function was determined by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Wild type AB^* zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos were treated with 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, and irinotecan (FOLFIRI) with or without polygalacin D, and immunostained to detect slow and fast types of muscle fibers. The Tg(Xla.Eef1a1:mitoEGFP) zebrafish expressing mitochondria-targeted green fluorescent protein was used to monitor mitochondrial morphology. Results: The exposure of C2C12 myotubes to 0.1 ng/mL of polygalacin D increased the formation of MHC-positive multinucleated myotubes (≥ 8 nuclei) compared with the control. Polygalacin D significantly increased the expression of MHC isoforms (Myh1, Myh2, Myh4, and Myh7) involved in myoblast differentiation while it decreased the expression of atrophic markers including muscle RING-finger protein-1 (MuRF1), mothers against decapentaplegic homolog (Smad)2, and Smad3. In addition, polygalacin D promoted peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator (Pgc1α) expression and reduced the level of mitochondrial fission regulators such as dynamin-1-like protein (Drp1) and mitochondrial fission 1 (Fis1). In a zebrafish model of FOLFIRI-induced muscle atrophy, polygalacin D improved not only mitochondrial dysfunction but also slow and fast muscle fiber atrophy. Conclusion: These results demonstrated that polygalacin D promotes myogenesis and alleviates chemotherapy-induced muscle atrophy by improving mitochondrial function. Thus, polygalacin D could be useful as nutrition support to prevent and ameliorate muscle wasting and weakness.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_3
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• pp.1031-1042
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• 2023

In this study, a deep learning model was developed to predict the yield of cabbage and radish, one of the five major supply and demand management vegetables, using satellite images of Landsat 8. To predict the yield of cabbage and radish in Gangwon-do from 2015 to 2020, satellite images from June to September, the growing period of cabbage and radish, were used. Normalized difference vegetation index, enhanced vegetation index, lead area index, and land surface temperature were employed in this study as input data for the yield model. Crop yields can be effectively predicted using satellite images because satellites collect continuous spatiotemporal data on the global environment. Based on the model developed previous study, a model designed for input data was proposed in this study. Using time series satellite images, convolutional neural network, a deep learning model, was used to predict crop yield. Landsat 8 provides images every 16 days, but it is difficult to acquire images especially in summer due to the influence of weather such as clouds. As a result, yield prediction was conducted by splitting June to July into one part and August to September into two. Yield prediction was performed using a machine learning approach and reference models , and modeling performance was compared. The model's performance and early predictability were assessed using year-by-year cross-validation and early prediction. The findings of this study could be applied as basic studies to predict the yield of field crops in Korea.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.783-790
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• 2023

Modern people have an increased incidence of metabolic diseases due to changed eating habits, and diabetes is considered the most significant metabolic disease. Given that existing diabetes treatments are accompanied by side effects, the aim of this study was to identify traditional natural products that have anti-diabetic activity. The potential anti-diabetic and antioxidant activities of natural products were examined using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay, α-glucosidase assay, and protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) inhibition assay. Methanol extracts of Ulmus davidiana var. japonica, Acer tegmentosum branches, Nelumbo nucifera seeds, and Carthamus tinctorius seeds were found to have high anti-diabetic activity and further fractionated with solvents using ethyl acetate and butanol. Consequently, the ethyl acetate fraction of C. tinctorius seeds (MG-11-E) with high α-glucosidase and PTP1B inhibitory activity was selected. MG-11-E was subjected to preparative thin layer chromatography, and fraction #6 showed high α-glucosidase and PTP1B inhibitory activity. Fraction #6 was analyzed and fractionated via high performance liquid chromatography with 50% methanol as the mobile phase, and anti-diabetic activity was observed in the sample that eluted after 4 min as a single peak. The α-glucosidase inhibitory activity exhibited by this sample seemed to be greater than the PTP1B inhibitory activity; thus, it was concluded that a greater anti-diabetic therapeutic effect may be achieved by combining this agent with natural products that inhibit PTP1B activity.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.68 no.3
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• pp.167-174
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• 2023

This study investigated the microstructure and water absorption characteristics of the Korean adzuki bean (Vigna angularis L.) cultivar under accelerated storage. The germination rate, acid value, redness (a^*), and yellowness (b^*) values showed no significant differences after three months of storage compared to pre-storage under low temperatures (4℃). However, a statistically significant difference was observed under accelerated high temperatures (45℃). In particular, after storage for three months, the germination rate and acid value were 0% and 33.63 mg KOH/100g, respectively, under accelerated high temperatures. After storage for three months, the holes, hilum damage, and spaces between the seed coat and cotyledon shortened the time and speed of water absorption under accelerated high temperatures compared to that under low temperatures. Conversely, further research is required to investigate the reason for the low rate of parallel water absorption.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.695-713
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• 2023

In coastal waters, phytoplankton,suspended particulate matter, and dissolved organic matter intricately and nonlinearly alter the reflectivity of seawater. Neural network technology, which has been rapidly advancing recently, offers the advantage of effectively representing complex nonlinear relationships. In previous studies, a three-stage neural network was constructed to extract the inherent optical properties of each component. However, this study proposes an algorithm that directly employs a deep neural network. The dataset used in this study consists of synthetic data provided by the International Ocean Color Coordination Group, with the input data comprising above-surface remote-sensing reflectance at nine different wavelengths. We derived inherent optical properties using this dataset based on a deep neural network. To evaluate performance, we compared it with a quasi-analytical algorithm and analyzed the impact of log transformation on the performance of the deep neural network algorithm in relation to data distribution. As a result, we found that the deep neural network algorithm accurately estimated the inherent optical properties except for the absorption coefficient of suspended particulate matter (R² greater than or equal to 0.9) and successfully separated the sum of the absorption coefficient of suspended particulate matter and dissolved organic matter into the absorption coefficient of suspended particulate matter and dissolved organic matter, respectively. We also observed that the algorithm, when directly applied without log transformation of the data, showed little difference in performance. To effectively apply the findings of this study to ocean color data processing, further research is needed to perform learning using field data and additional datasets from various marine regions, compare and analyze empirical and semi-analytical methods, and appropriately assess the strengths and weaknesses of each algorithm.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.435-445
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• 2023

The aim of this study was to explore the effects of vinegar extract from seed of common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) and seed of tartary buckwheat (F. tataricum Gaertner) on acute ethanol-induced hangover in Sprague-Dawley rats. Vinegar extract from buckwheat is rich choline, quercetin and its glycoside, rutin known as flavonoid antioxidants. The test extract containing buckwheat was proven to alleviate hangovers through a significant reduction in the concentration of alcohol and acetaldehyde in the context of an alcohol-induced hangover model. Hepatic alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activities were significantly higher in buckwheat vinegar-treated rats than in ethanol-treated rats. Moreover, tartary buckwheat vinegar upregulated antioxidant enzyme such as superoxide dismutase and Catalase activities in liver tissues. These results suggest that buckwheat vinegar extract could alleviate ethanol-induced hangover symptoms by elevating activities related to hepatic ethanol-metabolizing enzymes against ethanol induced metabolites, and in particular, tartary buckwheat should be further developed to be a novel anti-hangover material.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1211-1224
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• 2023

Clouds cause many difficult problems in observing land surface phenomena using optical satellites, such as national land observation, disaster response, and change detection. In addition, the presence of clouds affects not only the image processing stage but also the final data quality, so it is necessary to identify and remove them. Therefore, in this study, we developed a new cloud detection technique that automatically performs a series of processes to search and extract the pixels closest to the spectral pattern of clouds in satellite images, select the optimal threshold, and produce a cloud mask based on the threshold. The cloud detection technique largely consists of three steps. In the first step, the process of converting the Digital Number (DN) unit image into top-of-atmosphere reflectance units was performed. In the second step, preprocessing such as Hue-Value-Saturation (HSV) transformation, triangle thresholding, and maximum likelihood classification was applied using the top of the atmosphere reflectance image, and the threshold for generating the initial cloud mask was determined for each image. In the third post-processing step, the noise included in the initial cloud mask created was removed and the cloud boundaries and interior were improved. As experimental data for cloud detection, CAS500-1 L2G images acquired in the Korean Peninsula from April to November, which show the diversity of spatial and seasonal distribution of clouds, were used. To verify the performance of the proposed method, the results generated by a simple thresholding method were compared. As a result of the experiment, compared to the existing method, the proposed method was able to detect clouds more accurately by considering the radiometric characteristics of each image through the preprocessing process. In addition, the results showed that the influence of bright objects (panel roofs, concrete roads, sand, etc.) other than cloud objects was minimized. The proposed method showed more than 30% improved results(F1-score) compared to the existing method but showed limitations in certain images containing snow.