• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2024

Small streams, despite their rich ecosystems, face challenges in vegetation assessment due to the limitations of traditional, time-consuming methods. This study presents a groundbreaking approach, combining unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs), convolutional neural networks(CNNs), and the vegetation differential vegetation index (VDVI), to revolutionize both assessment and management of stream vegetation. Focusing on Idong Stream in South Korea (2.7 km long, 2.34 km² basin area)with eight diverse revetment methods, we leveraged high-resolution RGB images captured by UAVs across five dates (July-December). These images trained a ResNeXt101 CNN model, achieving an impressive 89% accuracy in classifying vegetation cover(soil,water, and vegetation). This enabled detailed spatial and temporal analysis of vegetation distribution. Further, VDVI calculations on classified vegetation areas allowed assessment of vegetation vitality. Our key findings showcase the power of this approach:(a) TheCNN model generated highly accurate cover maps, facilitating precise monitoring of vegetation changes overtime and space. (b) August displayed the highest average VDVI(0.24), indicating peak vegetation growth crucial for stabilizing streambanks and resisting flow. (c) Different revetment methods impacted vegetation vitality. Fieldstone sections exhibited initial high vitality followed by decline due to leaf browning. Block-type sections and the control group showed a gradual decline after peak growth. Interestingly, the "H environment block" exhibited minimal change, suggesting potential benefits for specific ecological functions.(d) Despite initial differences, all sections converged in vegetation distribution trends after 15 years due to the influence of surrounding vegetation. This study demonstrates the immense potential of UAV-based remote sensing and CNNs for revolutionizing small-stream vegetation assessment and management. By providing high-resolution, temporally detailed data, this approach offers distinct advantages over traditional methods, ultimately benefiting both the environment and surrounding communities through informed decision-making for improved stream health and ecological conservation.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.93-97
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• 2016

Purpose: Grain slurry diet are described as food obtained from ground grain paste. They serve as highly nutritious food for both adults and infants in Nigeria because of their immense nutritive and economical value. However, the production of these grain slurry diets is confronted with challenges that have hampered their commercialization. This study examines the trends and constraints of grain slurry food processing in Kaduna State. Methods: A survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire to elicit information from 192 selected processors, including both men and women. The survey was structured in line with the study objectives. The information was collated and synopsized into frequency distribution. Results: These findings revealed that 80% of the respondents processed between 1.0 tons and 13.0 tons of grain slurry per month. More than 90% of the processors processed grain slurry into koko, kunu, agidi, and pito. Accordingly, 80% of the interviewed processors indicated that sieving is one of the major constraints. Furthermore, inadequate modern machinery required to perform this operation makes it highly discouraging. One of the major challenges faced by the grain slurry producers in Nigeria is the lack of processing machinery for most operations (39.1%), followed by the tedious processing nature (27.1%), high labor cost (18.1%), and lack of market (9.4%). The traditional method of grain slurry processing was more popular than using modern equipment, except milling (96.5%), which is the only mechanized unit operation in grain slurry processing. Conclusion: Grain slurry processing and marketing were found to be profitable. However, these limitations could extremely reduce the level of grain slurry production, processing, and economic returns, thereby affecting the general wellbeing of the processors. The study also raised concerns about the safety and hygiene associated with traditionally processed grain slurry diets in the investigated areas.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1286-1294
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• 2011

This paper reviews the future directions and perspectives on the soil environmental researches in the 21 century. Previously, the principal emphasis of soil environmental researches had put on the enhancement of food and fiber productions. Beside the basic function of soil, however, the societal needs on soil resources in the 21st century have demands for several environmental and social challenges, occurring regionally or globally. Typical global issues with which soil science should deal include food security with increasing agronomic production to meet the exploding world population growth, adaptation and mitigation of climate change, increase of the carbon sequestration, supply of the biomass and bioenergy, securing the water resource and quality, protection of environmental pollution, enhancing the biodiversity and ecosystem health, and developing the sustainable farming/cropping system that improve the use efficiency of water and agricultural resources. These challenges can be solved through the sustainable crop production intensification (SCPI) or plant welfare concept in which soil plays a key role in solving the abovementioned global issues. Through implementation of either concept, soil science can fulfill the goal of the modern agriculture which is the sustainable production of crops while maintaining or enhancing the ecosystem function, quality and health. Therefore, directions of the future soil environmental researches should lie on valuing soil as an ecosystem services, translating research across both temporal and spatial scales, sharing and using data already available for other purposes, incorporating existing and new technologies from other disciplines, collaborating across discipline, and translating soil research into information for stakeholders and end users. Through the outcomes of these approaches, soil can enhance the productivity from the same confined land, increase profitability, conserve natural resource, reduce the negative impact on environment, enhance human nutrition and health, and enhance natural capital and the flow of ecosystem services. Soil is the central dogma, final frontier and new engine for the era of sustainability development in the $21^{st}$ century and thus soil environmental researches should be carried according to this main theme.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.693-724
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• 2021

The in-vitro meat is a novel concept in food biotechnology comprising field of tissue engineering and cellular agriculture. It involves production of edible biomass by in-vitro culture of stem cells harvested from the muscle of live animals by self-organizing or scaffolding methodology. It is considered as efficient, environmental friendly, better ensuring public safety and nutritional security, as well as ethical way of producing meat. Source of stem cells, media ingredients, supply of large size bioreactors, skilled manpower, sanitary requirements, production of products with similar sensory and textural attributes as of conventional meat, consumer acceptance, and proper set up of regulatory framework are challenges faced in commercialization and consumer acceptance of in-vitro meat. To realize any perceivable change in various socio-economic and environmental spheres, the technology should be commercialized and should be cost-effective as conventional meat and widely accepted among consumers. The new challenges of increasing demand of meat with the increasing population could be fulfill by the establishment of in-vitro meat production at large scale and its popularization. The adoption of in-vitro meat production at an industrial scale will lead to self-sufficiency in the developed world.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.211-219
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• 2022

Over the past decade, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-mediated gene silencing technology has progressed significantly for pest management in agriculture and for protecting beneficial insects from pathogens. Recently, breakthroughs in RNA interference (RNAi) applications for insect pest management by academia and commercial entities have provided RNAi products as commercial biopesticides. Although RNAi technology has vast potential and advantages for pest control, challenges, and limitations remain in practical applications. This review explores current challenges in the development of dsRNAs as a pest management tool and considers new approaches to overcome biological and environmental obstacles, such as poor stability and resistance.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.223-234
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• 2024

This review explores the potential of pillared bentonite materials as solid acid catalysts for synthesizing diethyl ether, a promising renewable energy source. Diethyl ether offers numerous environmental benefits over fossil fuels, such as lower emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and carbon oxides (CO_x) gases and enhanced fuel properties, like high volatility and low flash point. Generally, the synthesis of diethyl ether employs homogeneous acid catalysts, which pose environmental impacts and operational challenges. This review discusses bentonite, a naturally occurring alumina silicate, as a heterogeneous acid catalyst due to its significant cation exchange capacity, porosity, and ability to undergo modifications such as pillarization. Pillarization involves intercalating polyhydroxy cations into the bentonite structure, enhancing surface area, acidity, and thermal stability. Despite the potential advantages, challenges remain in optimizing the yield and selectivity of diethyl ether production using pillared bentonite. The review highlights the need for further research using various metal oxides in the pillarization process to enhance surface properties and acidity characteristics, thereby improving the catalytic performance of bentonite for the synthesis of diethyl ether. This development could lead to more efficient, environmentally friendly synthesis processes, aligning with sustainable energy goals.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.26-41
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• 2012

It is necessary to manage, forecast and prepare agricultural production based on accurate and up-to-date information in order to cope with the climate change and its impacts such as global warming, floods and droughts. This study examined the applicability as well as challenges of the object-based image analysis method for developing a land cover image classification algorithm, which can support the fast thematic mapping of wide agricultural areas on a regional scale. In order to test the applicability of RapidEye's multi-temporal spectral information for differentiating agricultural land cover types, the integration of other GIS data was minimized. Under this circumstance, the land cover classification accuracy at the study area of Kimje ($1300km^2$) was 80.3%. The geometric resolution of RapidEye, 6.5m showed the possibility to derive the spatial features of agricultural land use generally cultivated on a small scale in Korea. The object-based image analysis method can realize the expert knowledge in various ways during the classification process, so that the application of spectral image information can be optimized. An additional advantage is that the already developed classification algorithm can be stored, edited with variables in detail with regard to analytical purpose, and may be applied to other images as well as other regions. However, the segmentation process, which is fundamental for the object-based image classification, often cannot be explained quantitatively. Therefore, it is necessary to draw the best results based on expert's empirical and scientific knowledge.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.131-138
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• 2016

Recently, the cultivated area is reduced, the ratio of upland-field in the total cultivated area is increasing relative appeared in 36.2% in 1990 from 43.7% in 2013. If upland-field can be applied well designed-infrastructure, good income crop production is possible, however, maintenance of infrastructure and a significant portion of the upland-field is maintained under insufficient infrastructure. While imports of agricultural products expanded since the 2000s in progress, looking at the self-sufficiency of upland-field crops, it is reduced to from 90% to 42% for the pepper, it is from 90% to 74% for the garlic, cereals is reduced from 42% by 26%. As a result of these conditions, the competitiveness of farmers has weakened, the risk to meet the challenges of this area of production and supply reduction increased. This study was the first to conduct a basic evaluation index, data analysis and evaluation of indicators to diagnose the agricultural production capacity of the upland field. 12 kinds classified index of producing conditions from the natural environment and eight factors for the cultivation and production capabilities have developed for the assessment of productivity of upland-field (especially Kimchi cabbage). Through this regional imbalance was found, based on the production capabilities conditions are good in Haenam, Gangneung, Pyeongchang. 3 Regions have been low and the lowest Youngwol to 0.8992. Climate(Cultivation conditions) indicators of Mungyeong region is the highest, relatively low areas were in Taebaek. In particular, it is determined to be preferred that the area required for the enhancing the production environment based on providing the convenience for the producing and maintenance of the first production area. It is necessary Increasing part of mechanization, agro-industrial competitiveness through aggressive management plans for facilities as required in the process of post-harvest storage, processing, distribution line can be improved.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.886-894
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• 2013

The National Standard Food Composition Table published by the Rural Development Administration (RDA) provides the foundations in research, nutrition monitoring, policy and dietary practices in Korea. This databases consists of several sets of data including food descriptions, nutrients, portion weights, and source of data. The National Standard Food Composition Table have been published since 1970 and, recently, new version (8th edition) of Food Composition Table which has quantitative and qualitative nutrient data is released in 2011. In addition, the User-friendly Food Composition Table is divided into adult, children, and elderly categories depending on the subjects because we need different nutrients according to various ages. The Tables of Food Functional Composition is firstly edited in 2009. RDA published the minerals and fatty acids composition table, tables of amino acid, fat-soluble vitamin composition table, and the cholesterol table. The resulting database will be widely used. The users of the databases are from diverse fields, includeing federal agencies, the food industry, health professionals, restaurants, software application developers, academia and research organizations, international organizations, and foreign governments ect. Therefore, consistent improvements of the database is important, so that people can better address such health challenges by providing reliable and accurate data.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1467-1475
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• 2023

The public-interest direct payment program involves providing direct payments to agricultural producers and rural residents through public funds, premised on performing public functions such as environmental conservation, stable food supply, and maintaining rural communities via agricultural activities. Scientific estimation of crop cultivation areas and production levels is crucial for formulating agricultural policies linked to regulating food supply, which increasingly impacts the national economy. Conducting comprehensive on-site inspections for compliance monitoring of direct payment programs has shown very low efficiency in relation to budget and time. The expansion of areas subject to compliance monitoring and various challenges in on-site inspections necessitate streamlining current monitoring methods and devising effective strategies. As a solution, the application of Remote Sensing technology and spatial information utilization, allowing swift acquisition of necessary information for policies without overall on-site visits, is being discussed as an efficient compliance monitoring method. Therefore, this study evaluated the potential use of remote sensing for improving operational efficiency in monitoring compliance with public-interest direct payment programs. Using satellite images during farming seasons in Gimje and Hapcheon, vegetation indices and spatial variations were utilized to identify cultivated areas, presence of mixed crops, validated against on-site inspection data.