• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.331-339
• /
• 2022

Melanin is a pigment produced by melanocytes to protect the skin from external stimuli, mainly ultraviolet (UV) rays. However, abnormal and excessive production of melanin causes hyperpigmentation disorders, such as freckles, age spots, and discoloration. Natural cosmeceuticals are a new trend for treating or preventing hyperpigmentation due to fewer side effects and biocompatibility. In this context, the current study focused on Cnidium japonicum, a halophyte with several uses in folk medicine, to evaluate its potential as a skin-whitening agent. The effect of C. japonicum extract (CJE) on melanin production was analyzed in melanogenesis-stimulated B16F10 melanoma cells. The results showed that CJE successfully inhibited the oxidation of tyrosine and L-DOPA by tyrosinase and subsequently decreased the production of the key enzymes responsible for melanin production: tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related protein-1, and protein-2. This effect was confirmed by decreased intracellular and extracellular melanin levels in B16F10 melanoma cells after CJE treatment. Further experiments to elucidate the action mechanism revealed that CJE treatment suppressed melanin production by inhibiting the activation of glycogen synthase kinase 3 β (GSKβ)/β-catenin and protein kinase A (PKA)/cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB) pathways, which are the upstream activators of melanogenesis. In conclusion, the present study suggests that C. japonicum is a potential natural source of bioactive substances for the development of novel cosmeceuticals that can act against hyperpigmentation.

• Maritime Security
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.55-83
• /
• 2022

For humankind, the ocean is a treasure trove of natural resources and an important area that provides major transportation routes. However, marine ecosystems are under threat amidst the global climate change crisis. This is partly due to various sources of pollution emitted from ships, shore facilities, and other sources. In response, the navies of advanced countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe have assessed such a climate change crisis as a new maritime security threat. These countries have made early efforts to prevent marine pollution from warships. These efforts have been legally embodied. This was legislation for technical and organizational structures to be practically applied in the field. Among these navies of developed countries, France has established parliamentary and intergovernmental plans to become a leader in environmental protection at the defense level, not only in the European region but throughout the world. Within this framework, the French Navy, through its internal instruction, has inclined its legal efforts to prevent marine pollution from warships. Therefore, this study examines the legislation for the prevention of marine pollution from warships within the French Navy and compares it with the marine environmental legislation applicable to the ROK Navy. It then deduces the implications for the ROK navy, which is advancing toward a Blue-Water navy.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
• /
• 2023.05a
• /
• pp.31-31
• /
• 2023

During December 2022, the northeast monsoon, which dominates the south and the Gulf of Thailand, had significant rainfall that impacted the lower southern region, causing flash floods, landslides, blustery winds, and the river exceeding its bank. The Golok River, located in Narathiwat, divides the border between Thailand and Malaysia was also affected by rainfall. In flood management, instruments for measuring precipitation and water level have become important for assessing and forecasting the trend of situations and areas of risk. However, such regions are international borders, so the installed measuring telemetry system cannot measure the rainfall and water level of the entire area. This study aims to predict 72 hours of water level and evaluate the situation as information to support the government in making water management decisions, publicizing them to relevant agencies, and warning citizens during crisis events. This research is applied to machine learning (ML) for water level prediction of the Golok River, Lan Tu Bridge area, Sungai Golok Subdistrict, Su-ngai Golok District, Narathiwat Province, which is one of the major monitored rivers. The eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm, a tree-based ensemble machine learning algorithm, was exploited to predict hourly water levels through the R programming language. Model training and testing were carried out utilizing observed hourly rainfall from the STH010 station and hourly water level data from the X.119A station between 2020 and 2022 as main prediction inputs. Furthermore, this model applies hourly spatial rainfall forecasting data from Weather Research and Forecasting and Regional Ocean Model System models (WRF-ROMs) provided by Hydro-Informatics Institute (HII) as input, allowing the model to predict the hourly water level in the Golok River. The evaluation of the predicted performances using the statistical performance metrics, delivering an R-square of 0.96 can validate the results as robust forecasting outcomes. The result shows that the predicted water level at the X.119A telemetry station (Golok River) is in a steady decline, which relates to the input data of predicted 72-hour rainfall from WRF-ROMs having decreased. In short, the relationship between input and result can be used to evaluate flood situations. Here, the data is contributed to the Operational support to the Special Water Resources Management Operation Center in Southern Thailand for flood preparedness and response to make intelligent decisions on water management during crisis occurrences, as well as to be prepared and prevent loss and harm to citizens.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.29 no.7
• /
• pp.843-856
• /
• 2023

The global surge in maritime traffic has resulted in an increased number of ship collisions, leading to significant economic, environmental, physical, and human damage. The causes of these maritime accidents are multifaceted, often arising from a combination of crew judgment errors, negligence, complexity of navigation routes, weather conditions, and technical deficiencies in the vessels. Given the intricate nuances and contextual information inherent in each incident, a methodology capable of deeply understanding the semantics and context of sentences is imperative. Accordingly, this study utilized the SentenceBERT model to analyze maritime safety tribunal decisions over the last 20 years in the Busan Sea area, which encapsulated data on ship collision incidents. The analysis revealed important keywords potentially responsible for these incidents. Cluster analysis based on the frequency of specific keyword appearances was conducted and visualized. This information can serve as foundational data for the preemptive identification of accident causes and the development of strategies for collision prevention and response.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
• /
• v.48 no.3
• /
• pp.146-154
• /
• 2024

The ship management industry in South Korea has been growing steadily, leading the government to implement policies to support its development in response to changing environmental conditions. These policies aim to improve the competitiveness of South Korea's ship management industry by recognizing the importance of skilled professionals in determining its success. Plans and policies have been put in place to cultivate these professionals, but ship management companies are currently facing a serious shortage of manpower. To enhance the industry's competitiveness, it is essential to attract and retain competent ship management professionals. Therefore, this study investigates the reasons for turnover among these professionals. The research results identified four factors contributing to turnover: Work Environment, Economic Compensation and Welfare Benefits, Self-Development, and Promotion and Career Advancement. Subsequent multiple regression analysis based on these factors revealed the need to strengthen economic rewards and benefits in order to reduce turnover rates among ship management professionals. This study provides foundational data for the development of stable human resource management policies for the future of the ship management industry.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.89-120
• /
• 2008

With petroleum being a major source of energy in Korea, the quantity of petroleum transported via ocean routes is on its way up due to increased consumption. Due to the increase, more than 300 cases of pollution caused by petroleum occur annually. Moreover, the number of oil-spill accidents is also on the rise. Causes of such accidents, not including the disposal of waste oil on purpose, turn out to be human error during navigation or defects in the vessels, showing that most accidents are caused by humans. Therefore, to prevent future oil spills, it is imperative that navigation efficiency be enhanced by improving the quality of navigators and replacing old vessels with newer ones. Nevertheless, such improvements cannot occur overnight, so long- and mid-term efforts should be made to achieve it institutionally. As large-scale oil-spill accidents can happen at anytime along the coastal waters of Korea, it is necessary to set-up institutional devices which go beyond the compensation limit of 92FC. The current special law regarding this issue has its limits in that it prescribes compensation be supplemented solely by national taxes. Therefore, the setting-up of a new 'national fund' is recommended for consideration rather than to subscribe to the '2003 Convention for the Supplementary Fund'. It is strongly suggested that a National fund be created from fees collected from oil companies based on the risks involved in oil transportation and according to the profiteers pay principle. In addition, a public fund should be created to handle general environmental damage, such as the large-scale destruction of the ecosystem, which is distinct from the economic damage that harms the local people. The posterior responses to the large-scale oil spill have always been unsatisfactory because of the symbolic nature of the disasters included in such accidents. Oil-spills can be prevented in advance, because they are caused by human beings. But once they occur, they inflict long-term damage to both human life and the natural ecosystem. Therefore, the best response to future oil-spills is to work to prevent them.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.605-611
• /
• 2015

A synthetic strain of ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) was developed by introducing genes for long duration of fertility to be used as mother of mule ducklings and a seven-generation selection experiment was conducted to increase the number of fertile eggs after a single artificial insemination (AI) with pooled Muscovy semen. Reciprocal crossbreeding between Brown Tsaiya LRI-2 (with long duration of fertility) and Pekin L-201 (with white plumage mule ducklings) ducks produced the G0. Then G1 were intercrossed to produce G2 and so on for the following generations. Each female duck was inseminated 3 times, at 26, 29, and 32 weeks of age. The eggs were collected for 14 days from day 2 after AI. Individual data regarding the number of incubated eggs (Ie), the number of fertile eggs at candling at day 7 of incubation (F), the total number of dead embryos (M), the maximum duration of fertility (Dm) and the number of hatched mule ducklings (H) with plumage colour were recorded. The selection criterion was the breeding values of the best linear unbiased prediction animal model for F. The results show high percentage of exhibited heterosis in G2 for traits to improve (19.1% for F and 12.9% for H); F with a value of 5.92 (vs 3.74 in the Pekin L-201) was improved in the G2. Heritabilities were found to be low for Ie ($h^2=0.07{\pm}0.03$) and M ($h^2=0.07{\pm}0.01$), moderately low for Dm ($h^2=0.13{\pm}0.02$), of medium values for H ($h^2=0.20{\pm}0.03$) and F ($h^2=0.23{\pm}0.03$). High and favourable genetic correlations existed between F and Dm ($r_g=0.93$), between F and H ($r_g=0.97$) and between Dm and H ($r_g=0.90$). The selection experiment showed a positive trend for phenotypic values of F (6.38 fertile eggs in G10 of synthetic strain vs 5.59 eggs in G4, and 3.74 eggs in Pekin L-201), with correlated response for increasing H (5.73 ducklings in G10 vs 4.86 in G4, and 3.09 ducklings in Pekin L-201) and maximum duration of the fertile period without increasing the embryo mortality rate. The average predicted genetic response for F was 40% of genetic standard deviation per generation of selection. The mule ducklings' feather colour also was improved. It was concluded that this study provided results for a better understanding of the genetics of the duration of fertility traits in the common female duck bred for mule and that the selection of a synthetic strain was effective method of improvement.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.375-387
• /
• 2013

Accuracy assessment of tide models in polar ocean has to be performed to accurately analyze tidal response of glaciers by using Double-Differential Interferometric SAR (DDInSAR) technique. In this study, we used 120 DDInSAR images generated from 16 one-day tandem COSMO-SkyMed DInSAR pairs obtained for 2 years and in situ tide height for 11 days measured by a pressure type wave recorder to assess the accuracy of tide models such as TPXO7.1, FES2004, CATS2008a and Ross_Inv in Terra Nova Bay, East Antarctica. Firstly, we compared the double-differential tide height (${\Delta}\dot{T}$) for Campbell Glacier Tongue extracted from the DDInSAR images with that predicted by the tide models. Tide height (T) from in situ measurement was compared to that of the tide models. We also compared 24-hours difference of tide height ($\dot{T}$) from in situ tide height with that from the tide models. The root mean square error (RMSE) of ${\Delta}\dot{T}$, T and $\dot{T}$ decreased after the inverse barometer effect (IBE)-correction of the tide models, from which we confirmed that the IBE of tide models should be corrected requisitely. The RMSE of $\dot{T}$ and ${\Delta}\dot{T}$ were smaller than that of T. This was because $\dot{T}$ is the difference of tide height during temporal baseline of the DInSAR pairs (24 hours), in which the errors from mean sea level of the tide models and in situ tide, and the tide constituents of $S_2$, $K_2$, $K_1$ and $P_1$ used in the tide models were canceled. This confirmed that $\dot{T}$ and ${\Delta}\dot{T}$ predicted by the IBE-corrected tide models can be used in DDInSAR technique. It was difficult to select an optimum tide model for DDInSAR in Terra Nova Bay by using in situ tide height measured in a short period. However, we could confirm that Ross_Inv is the optimum tide model as it showed the smallest RMSE of 4.1 cm by accuracy assessment using the DDInSAR images.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
• /
• v.21 no.2 s.34
• /
• pp.121-132
• /
• 2005

We investigated the reproductive cycle with gonad developmental phases of Sinonovacula constricta by histological observations, and seasonal changes in biochemical component of the adductor muscle, visceral mass, foot muscle and mantle were studied by biochemical analysis, from January to December, 2004. The reproductive cycle of this species can be classifed into five successive stages: early active stage (March to May), late active stage (May to July), ripe stage (July to September), partially spawned stage (August to October) and spentfinactive stage (October to March). Total protein content was the highest in the following order: adductor muscle, visceral mass, foot muscle, and mantle. Except for mantle, it was generally higher during the ripe and spawning stages, while lower during the spent/inactive stage. There were positive correlations in total protein contents among adductor muscle, foot muscle, and visceral mass. However, the correlations were not statistically significant. Total lipid content was the highest in the visceral mass; it was more than 5 or 6-fold higher than those in the adductor muscle, foot muscle, or mantle. The monthly change was also most dynamic in the visceral mass. It first Increased during the early active stage (March to May), decreased during late active stage (May to July), and then increased again rapidly during the spawning stage (September). There were a strong negative correlation in total lipid contents between foot muscle and adductor muscle (r = -0.634, p = 0.027), and a strong positive correlation between adductor muscle and mantle (r = 0.665, p = 0.018). Glycogen contents showed more or less similar pattern to total lipid contents in the adductor muscle, foot muscle, and visceral mass. It was higher during the early active and spawning stages, while lower during the late active and spent/inactive stages. There was no statistically significant correlation in glycogen contents among different tissues. Especially, total lipid content showed a negative correlationship between the foot muscle, adductor muscle, visceral mass and mantle. Therefore, these results indicate that the nutrient content of the foot muscle, adductor muscle, viseral mass and mantle changed in response to gonadal energy needs.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.31-40
• /
• 2014

The Korean government made the 2nd Energy Basic Plan to achieve 11% of new and renewable energies distribution rate until 2035 as a response to cope with international discussion about greenhouse gas emission reduction. Renewable energies include solar thermal, photovoltaic, bioenergy, wind power, small hydropower, geothermal energy, ocean energy, and waste energy. New energies contain fuel cells, coal gasification and liquefaction, and hydrogen. As public and private investment to enhance the distribution of new and renewable energies, it is necessary to clarify the economic effects of the new and renewable energies sector. To the end, this study attempts to apply an input-output analysis and analyze the economic effects of new and renewable energies sector using 2012 input-output table. Three topics are dealt with. First, production-inducing effect, value-added creation effect, and employment-inducing effect are quantified based on demand-driven model. Second, supply shortage effects are analyzed employing supply-driven model. Lastly, price pervasive effects are investigated applying Leontief price model. The results of this analysis are as follows. First, one won of production or investment in new and renewable energies sector induces 2.1776 won of production and 0.7080 won of value-added. Moreover, the employment-inducing effect of one billion won of production or investment in new and renewable energies sector is estimated to be 9.0337 persons. Second, production shortage cost from one won of supply failure in new and renewable energies sector is calculated to be 1.6314 won, which is not small. Third, the impact of the 10% increase in new and renewable energies rate on the general price level is computed to be 0.0123%, which is small. This information can be utilized in forecasting the economic effects of new and renewable energies sector.