• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.135-156
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• 2009

The two waves of EU enlargement in 2004 and 2007, have been milestones of European integration. While research has been conducted into the impact of these events on both the European and the global economies,1 there have been few attempts to assess the effects of EU enlargement and the introduction of the euro on countries such as Russia, which neighbour the EU but currently have no perspective of accession. This paper aims to provide an assessment of the effects that EU enlargement and the introduction of the euro have had on Russia, the largest country neighbouring the EU. In particular, it focuses on trade and investment links between the EU and Russia, as well as the use of the energy by Russian residents and authorities. Economic links between Russia and the EU are found to have strengthened considerably in the areas of trade, investment and other financial flows in recent years. Strong growth, particularly in Russia, as well as the high price of oil and gas, Russia's major export items, has facilitated this expansion of trade and finance. Moreover, available data do not suggest that EU enlargement has had a negative impact on Russia in terms of trade or investment diversion. Thus, the strategic partnership between Russia and the EU has been increasingly underpinned by an expansion of cross-border economic activities. Thus, the paper contributes to two broad strands of literature on this subject, namely the impact of regional trade and economic arrangements on non-member countries and the international role of currencies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1460-1467
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• 2023

A robust approach was conducted to determining the absolute oral bioavailable (f_ab) fractions of ²³⁸U and ²³²Th in rats exposed to contaminated soil along with their hematotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. The soil sample is the International Atomic Energy Agency-312 (IAEA-312) certified reference material, whereas blood, bones, and kidneys of in vivo female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats estimate ²³⁸U- and ²³²Th-f_ab fractions post-exposure. We predict the bioavailable concentration (C_ab) and f_ab values of ²³⁸U and ²³²Th after acute soil ingestion. The blood ²³⁸U (0.750%) and ²³²Th (0.028%) reach their maximum f_ab values after 48 h. The ²³⁸U (f_ab: 0.169-0.652%) accumulates mostly in the kidney, whereas the ²³²Th (f_ab: 0.004-0.021%) accumulates primarily in the bone. Additionally, ²³⁸U is more bioavailable than ²³²Th. Post 48 h acute ingestion demonstrates noticeable histopathological and hematological alterations, implying that intake of ²³⁸U in co-contaminated soil can lead to erythrocytes and proximal tubules damage, whereas, ²³²Th intake can harm erythrocytes. Our study provides new directions for future research into the health implications of acute oral exposures to ²³⁸U and ²³²Th in co-contaminated soils. The findings offer significant insight into the utilization of in vivo SD rat testing to estimate ²³⁸U and ²³²Th bioavailability and toxicity in exposure assessment.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.69-76
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• 2023

Cavity causes settlement and its remediation after an accident results in significant time and economic losses. This study aims to experimentally evaluate the prospect of using infrared camera to detect and measure underground subsidence. Emissivity is necessary to detect the energy emitted from an object and accurately assess temperature using an infrared camera. The emissivity in laboratory tests is fixed to evaluate a reasonable distance between the infrared camera and the object, and temperature values are assessed at various distances. In field experiments, the cavity of the field experiment is simulated using a PVC pipe with a diameter of 5 cm, artificially buried at depths of 5 and 25 cm from the surface. The infrared camera measurements are taken from 4 PM to 3 PM of the next day (a total of 23 h). The analysis included the time-series temperature distribution and the cooling rate index assessment, which represents the temperature change rate per unit of time. The results showed that various temperature trends are observed depending on the location of the subsidence. This study demonstrates that the infrared camera can be used to assess the condition of the subsurface.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.394-407
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• 2023

Ecological restoration is an ecological technology that diagnoses problematic ecological spaces and restores the damaged ecosystem to a healthy appearance similar to its original appearance based on reference information obtained by analyzing intact nature. To achieve successful restoration, the project must be carried out in respect of a series of procedures. However, in Korea, restoration projects are usually actively promoted regardless of diagnostic evaluation, which wastes cost and energy, and the effect is not significant. As the reference information is not utilized, ecological restoration to return the damaged nature makes features different greatly from the appearance of nature, causing another damage. As the restoration effect is not evaluated, it is impossible to determine whether it is successful or not, and as a result, even if the project continues, there is no development and no effect. However, advanced societies have not only made academic progress by respecting these procedures but also have great economic effects along with the improvement of environmental conditions as ecological restoration has become an industry. Therefore, the international society recognizes ecological restoration as an important means of solving environmental problems at the global level, including climate change, and international organizations are actively promoting projects to treat the injured planet. However, most of the restoration projects promoted in Korea were evaluated below the level as a result of the evaluation of the effect. Nevertheless, those who have led low-quality projects are blocking plans to establish ecological restoration as a new industry that can contribute significantly to improving these levels, and thus the problem is expected to worsen. To solve this problem, it is necessary to filter out defective businesses by introducing a strict and correct project evaluation system by dividing it into before and after. Furthermore, it is necessary to establish ecological restoration as an industry and leave the process in the principles of the market.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.483-490
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• 2022

Floating LiDAR is a system that provides a new paradigm for wind condition observation, which is essential when creating an offshore wind farm. As it can save time and money, minimize environmental impact, and even reduce backlash from local communities, it is emerging as the industry standard. However, the design and verification of a stable platform is very important, as disturbance factors caused by fluctuations of the buoy affect the reliability of observation data. In Korea, due to the nation's late entry into the technology, a number of foreign equipment manufacturers are dominating the domestic market. The west coast of Korea is a shallow sea environment with a very large tidal difference, so strong currents repeatedly appear depending on the region, and waves of strong energy that differ by season are formed. This paper conducted a study examining buoys suitable for LiDAR operation in the waters of Korea, which have such complex environmental characteristics. In this paper, we will introduce examples of optimized design and verification of ship-type buoys, which were applied first, and derive important concepts that will serve as the basis for the development of various platforms in the future.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.409-419
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• 2024

Climate change is already impacting sustainable water resource management. The influence of climate change on water supply from reservoirs has been generally assessed using climate change scenarios generated based on global climate models. However, inherent uncertainties exist due to the limitations of estimating climate change by assuming IPCC carbon emission scenarios. The decision scaling approach was applied to mitigate these issues in this study focusing on four reservoir watersheds: Chungju, Yongdam, Hapcheon, and Seomjingang reservoirs. The reservoir water supply reliablity was analyzed by combining the rainfall-runoff model (IHACRES) and the reservoir operation model based on HEC-ResSim. Water supply reliability analysis was aimed at ensuring the stable operation of dams, and its results ccould be utilized to develop either structural or non-structural water supply plans. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to assess potential risks that might arise during the operation of reserviors under various climate conditions. Using observed precipitation and temperature from 1995 to 2014, 49 climate stress scenarios were developed (7 precipitation scenarios based on quantiles and 7 temperature scenarios ranging from 0℃ to 6℃ at 1℃ intervals). Our study demonstrated that despite an increase in flood season precipitation leading to an increase in reservoir discharge, it had a greater impact on sustainable water management compared to the increase in non-flood season precipitation. Furthermore, in scenarios combining rainfall and temperature, the reliability of reservoir water supply showed greater variations than the sum of individual reliability changes in rainfall and temperature scenarios. This difference was attributed to the opposing effects of decreased and increased precipitation, each causing limitations in water and energy-limited evapotranspiration. These results were expected to enhance the efficiency of reservoir operation.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.51-71
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• 2024

Seismic exploration is one of the widely used geophysical exploration methods with various applications such as resource development, geotechnical investigation, and subsurface monitoring. It is essential for interpreting the geological characteristics of subsurface by providing accurate images of stratum structures. Typically, geological features are interpreted by visually analyzing seismic sections. However, recently, quantitative analysis of seismic data has been extensively researched to accurately extract and interpret target geological features. Seismic attribute analysis can provide quantitative information for geological interpretation based on seismic data. Therefore, it is widely used in various fields, including the analysis of oil and gas reservoirs, investigation of fault and fracture, and assessment of shallow gas distributions. However, seismic attribute analysis is sensitive to noise within the seismic data, thus additional noise attenuation is required to enhance the accuracy of the seismic attribute analysis. In this study, four kinds of seismic noise attenuation methods are applied and compared to mitigate random noise of poststack seismic data and enhance the attribute analysis results. FX deconvolution, DSMF, Noise2Noise, and DnCNN are applied to the Youngil Bay high-resolution seismic data to remove seismic random noise. Energy, sweetness, and similarity attributes are calculated from noise-removed seismic data. Subsequently, the characteristics of each noise attenuation method, noise removal results, and seismic attribute analysis results are qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. Based on the advantages and disadvantages of each noise attenuation method and the characteristics of each seismic attribute analysis, we propose a suitable noise attenuation method to improve the result of seismic attribute analysis.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.62-72
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• 2024

Although the Paris Agreement in 2015 aimed to limit global temperature increases to below 2℃ and eventually to 1.5℃ to address the climate crisis, global temperature continues to rise. Developed countries have proposed a circular economy as a major strategy to tackle this issue. Detailed implementation methods include reusing, remanufacturing, recycling, and energy recovery. Remanufacturing has a greater potential to achieve high added value and carbon neutrality than other resource circulation methods. However, currently, no standardized method for quantitatively evaluating the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction effects of remanufacturing exists. This study compares and analyzes recent research trends since 2020 on the calculation of GHG emission reduction effects from remanufacturing. It also examines international standards for environmental impact assessment, including GHGs and environmental performance labeling systems. This study derives the key factors for standardizing the calculation of the GHG emission reduction effects of remanufactured products.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.333-341
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• 2023

This study aims to develop technology for testing and verifying the space radiation environment of miniature space components using the facilities of the domestic 100 MeV proton accelerator and the Space Component Test Facility at the Space Testing Center. As advancements in space development progress, high-performance satellites increasingly rely on densely integrated circuits, particularly in core components components like memory. The application of semiconductor components in essential devices such as solar panels, optical sensors, and opto-electronics is also on the rise. To apply these technologies in space, it is imperative to undergo space environment testing, with the most critical aspect being the evaluation and testing of space components in high-energy radiation environments. Therefore, the Space Testing Center at the Korea testing laboratory has developed a radiation testing device for memory components and conducted radiation impact assessment tests using it. The investigation was carried out using 100 MeV protons at a low flux level achievable at the Gyeongju Proton Accelerator. Through these tests, single event upsets observed in memory semiconductor components were confirmed.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.393-407
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• 2012

This study focuses on the correction of topographic effects caused by a combination of solar elevation and azimuth, and topographic relief in single optical remote sensing imagery, and by a combination of changes in position of the sun and topographic relief in comparative analysis of multi-temporal imageries. For the Jeju Island, Republic of Korea, where Mt. Halla and various cinder cones are located, a Landsat 7 ETM+ imagery and ASTER GDEM data were used to normalize the topographic effects on the imagery, using two topographic normalization methods: cosine correction assuming a Lambertian condition and assuming a non-Lambertian c-correction, with kernel sizes of $3{\times}3$, $5{\times}5$, $7{\times}7$, and $9{\times}9$ pixels. The effects of each correction method and kernel size were then evaluated. The c-correction with a kernel size of $7{\times}7$ produced the best result in the case of a land area with various land-cover types. For a land-cover type of forest extracted from an unsupervised classification result using the ISODATA method, the c-correction with a kernel size of $9{\times}9$ produced the best result, and this topographic normalization for a single land cover type yielded better compensation for topographic effects than in the case of an area with various land-cover types. In applying the relative radiometric normalization to topographically normalized three multi-temporal imageries, more invariant spectral reflectance was obtained for infrared bands and the spectral reflectance patterns were preserved in visible bands, compared with un-normalized imageries. The results show that c-correction considering the remaining reflectance energy from adjacent topography or imperfect atmospheric correction yielded superior normalization results than cosine correction. The normalization results were also improved by increasing the kernel size to compensate for vertical and horizontal errors, and for displacement between satellite imagery and ASTER GDEM.