• Title/Summary/Keyword: states of a crisis

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CHANGES IN WATER USE AND MANAGEMENT OVER TIME AND SIGNIFICANCE FOR AUSTRALIA AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA

  • Knight, Michael J.
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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    • 1997.11a
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    • pp.3-31
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    • 1997
  • Water has always played a significant role in the lives of people. In urbanised Rome, with its million people. sophisticated supply systems developed and then fled with the empire. only to be rediscovered later But it was the industrial Revolution commencing in the eighteenth century that ushered in major paradigm shifts In use and altitudes towards water. Rapid and concentrated urbanisation brought problems of expanded demands for drinking supplies, waste management and disease. The strategy of using water from local streams, springs and village wells collapsed under the onslaughts of rising urban demands and pollution due to poor waste disposal practices. Expanding travel (railways. and steamships) aided the spread of disease. In England. public health crises peaks, related to water-borne typhoid and the three major cholera outbreaks occurred in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century respectively. Technological, engineering and institutional responses were successful in solving the public health problem. it is generally accepted that the putting of water into pipe networks both for a clean drinking supply, as well as using it as a transport medium for removal of human and other wastes, played a significant role in towering death rates due to waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid towards the end of the nineteenth century. Today, similar principles apply. A recent World Bank report Indicates that there can be upto 76% reduction in illness when major water and sanitation improvements occur in developing countries. Water management, technology and thinking in Australia were relatively stable in the twentieth century up to the mid to late 1970s. Groundwater sources were investigated and developed for towns and agriculture. Dams were built, and pipe networks extended both for supply and waste water management. The management paradigms in Australia were essentially extensions of European strategies with the minor adaptions due to climate and hydrogeology. During the 1970s and 1980s in Australia, it was realised increasingly that a knowledge of groundwater and hydrogeological processes were critical to pollution prevention, the development of sound waste management and the problems of salinity. Many millions of dollars have been both saved and generated as a consequence. This is especially in relation to domestic waste management and the disposal of aluminium refinery waste in New South Wales. Major institutional changes in public sector water management are occurring in Australia. Upheveals and change have now reached ail states in Australia with various approaches being followed. Market thinking, corporatisation, privatisation, internationalisation, downsizing and environmental pressures are all playing their role in this paradigm shift. One casualty of this turmoil is the progressive erosion of the public sector skillbase and this may become a serious issue should a public health crisis occur such as a water borne disease. Such crises have arisen over recent times. A complete rethink of the urban water cycle is going on right now in Australia both at the State and Federal level. We are on the threshold of significant change in how we use and manage water, both as a supply and a waste transporter in Urban environments especially. Substantial replacement of the pipe system will be needed in 25 to 30 years time and this will cost billions of dollars. The competition for water between imgation needs and environmental requirements in Australia and overseas will continue to be an issue in rural areas. This will be especially heightened by the rising demand for irrigation produced food as the world's population grows. Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation in the emerging S.E Asian countries are currently producing considerable demands for water management skills and Infrastructure development. This trend e expected to grow. There are also severe water shortages in the Middle East to such an extent that wars may be fought over water issues. Environmental public health crises and shortages will help drive the trends.

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A Study Covering the Comparative Analysis of Educational Systems in Major Countries for Regular Cybersecurity Education (사이버보안 정규교육화를 위한 주요국 교육체계 비교분석 연구)

  • YOO, Jiyeon
    • The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.397-405
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    • 2021
  • With the recent phenomenon of the Intelligence Information Society, the cyber security paradigm has begun to change. In particular, the increase of the interconnectedness of the hyperlinked society has extended the scope of damage that can be caused by cyber threats to the real world. In addition to that, it can also be a risk to any given individual who could accompany a crisis that has to do with public safety or national security. Adolescents who are digital natives are more likely to be exposed to cyber threats, which is mainly due to the fact that they are significantly more involved in cyber activities and they also possess insufficient security comprehension and safety awareness. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen cyber security capabilities of every young individual, so that they can effectively protect themselves against cyber threats and better manage their cyber activities. It examines the changes of the security paradigm and the necessity for cyber security education, which is in direct accordance to the characteristics of a connected society that further suggests directions and a basic system of cyber security education, through a detailed analysis of the current state of Domestic and Overseas Cyber Security Education. The purpose of this study was to define cybersecurity competencies that are necessary within an intelligent information society, and to propose a regular curriculum for strengthening cybersecurity competencies, through the comparison and meticulous analysis of both domestic and overseas educational systems that are pertinent to cybersecurity competencies. Accordingly, a cybersecurity competency system was constructed, by reflecting C3-Matrix, which is a cyber competency system model of digital citizens. The cybersecurity competency system consists of cyber ethics awareness, cyber ethics behavior, cyber security and cyber safety. In addition to this, based on the basic framework of the cybersecurity competency system, the relevant education that is currently being implemented in the United States, Australia, Japan and Korea were all compared and analyzed. From the insight gained through the analysis, the domestic curriculum was finally presented. The main objective of this new unified understanding, was to create a comprehensive and effective cyber security competency curriculum.

Thailand in 2016: The Death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the Uncertainty in Political Economy (태국 2016: 푸미폰 국왕의 서거와 정치·경제적 불확실성)

  • KIM, Hong Koo;LEE, Mi Ji
    • The Southeast Asian review
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    • v.27 no.2
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    • pp.245-271
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    • 2017
  • The purpose of this study is to examine and assess the major characteristics and changes of politics, economy, and diplomacy in Thailand in 2016. Specifically, it reviewed the New Constitution that was passed in 2016, the confrontation between different political forces and the trend of military regime around the New Constitution, and the political instability caused by the accession of the new king to the throne. This study also set out to figure out changes to the economy and foreign relations of the country, including its relations with South Korea, under the military regime and make predictions for the impact and future prospects of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's death on the politics and economy of the country. In 2016, the politics of Thailand took a step further toward the transfer of power to civil government and established a foundation for an authoritarian system. The draft of the New Constitution, which does not seem to be democratic, was approved by a referendum and enabled the military authorities to continue their political interventions, even after the general election. The New Constitution, in particular, reduces the power of political parties itself in addition to simply keeping the Thaksin's party in check; thus, anticipating ongoing conflicts between the military authorities and political parties. In this situation, the absence of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who used to play a decisive role in promoting the political stability of the country, and the accession of the new king to the throne raise concerns about the acceleration of political instability, which has continued after the coup and influenced the diplomatic relations of the country. Today, Thailand is distancing itself from Western nations that do not recognize the current military regime including the U.S.A. and EU member states and instead maintains a rapidly friendly and close relation with China. In 2016, the economy of Thailand made a gradual recovery rather than high growth. The death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej has exerted limited direct economic impacts only on individual consumption and tourism and is not likely to cause a recession. An economic crisis will, however, be unavoidable if the political confrontations escalate before the general election to transfer power to the civil government.

Success Strategy of Yuhan-Kimberly's Huggies Magic Panty through Product Repositioning (제품 리포지셔닝을 통한 유한킴벌리 <하기스 매직팬티>의 성공전략)

  • Park, Heung Soo;Choi, Sun-Mi;Kang, Seong Ho;Kwon, Gae Eun
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.11 no.3
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    • pp.185-203
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    • 2009
  • Yuhan Kimberly, a joint-venture company of Korean Yuhan Company and American Kimberly-Clark, opened a premium diaper market in Korea by launching Pull-Ups which was pants-typed diapers in 1993. Pull-Ups was imported as finished goods from Kimberly-Clark. However, in spite of its huge market share in United States, it failed to land down in Korean market because of wrong positioning strategy which did not consider domestic customers' tastes. In 1996, Yuhan-Kimberly brought out a pants-typed diaper, Huggies-Toddler, to Korean market again. This paved the way for the combination of Kimberly-Clark's production power and Yuhan-Kimberly's marketing power and led to launch new product superior to Pull-Ups. However, this product was unsuccessful in the market because of wrong positioning which did not catch domestic customer's life styles such as cultural, environmental and habitual differences in toilet training, the cost increase coming from IMF crisis in Korea, weak trust within the company, weak trust within the company, and too much higher price than regular diapers. In 2005, Yuhan-Kimberly redeveloped new pants market business strategy. It was organically combined with winning product development plan, winning communication strategy and the market structure change through the pants market creation. Customer's habit, usage and attitude were studied with total 55 times market investigations. Also, all processes from planning to designing were executed in the customer's view by investigating product research, positioning research and advertisement research. Yuhan-Kimberly repositioned new product as a wearing diaper not as a toilet training diaper and launched Huggies Magic Panty as a premium product which had 25% higher price than previous Huggies. Huggies Magic Panty was recognized as a great hit product in domestic diaper market and the sales recorded 37.6 bill won in 2006, 57.2 bill won in 2007, and 90 bill won in 2008 since launching in 2005. The reason of Huggies Magic Panty's success was the repositioning strategy deduced from the precise check of customer's usage habit. It was the winning strategy of Huggies that were market investigation in order to survive in domestic baby goods market where a lot of companies struggled intensively, the exact positioning based on its market investigation and aggressive 360 degree communication strategy to give customers impressions efficiently.

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PRC Maritime Operational Capability and the Task for the ROK Military (중국군의 해양작전능력과 한국군의 과제)

  • Kim, Min-Seok
    • Strategy21
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    • s.33
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    • pp.65-112
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    • 2014
  • Recent trends show that the PRC has stepped aside its "army-centered approach" and placed greater emphasis on its Navy and Air Force for a wider range of operations, thereby reducing its ground force and harnessing its economic power and military technology into naval development. A quantitative growth of the PLA Navy itself is no surprise as this is not a recent phenomenon. Now is the time to pay closer attention to the level of PRC naval force's performance and the extent of its warfighting capacity in the maritime domain. It is also worth asking what China can do with its widening naval power foundation. In short, it is time to delve into several possible scenarios I which the PRC poses a real threat. With this in mind, in Section Two the paper seeks to observe the construction progress of PRC's naval power and its future prospects up to the year 2020, and categorize time frame according to its major force improvement trends. By analyzing qualitative improvements made over time, such as the scale of investment and the number of ships compared to increase in displacement (tonnage), this paper attempts to identify salient features in the construction of naval power. Chapter Three sets out performance evaluation on each type of PRC naval ships as well as capabilities of the Navy, Air Force, the Second Artillery (i.e., strategic missile forces) and satellites that could support maritime warfare. Finall, the concluding chapter estimates the PRC's maritime warfighting capability as anticipated in respective conflict scenarios, and considers its impact on the Korean Peninsula and proposes the directions ROK should steer in response. First of all, since the 1980s the PRC navy has undergone transitions as the focus of its military strategic outlook shifted from ground warfare to maritime warfare, and within 30 years of its effort to construct naval power while greatly reducing the size of its ground forces, the PRC has succeeded in building its naval power next to the U.S.'s in the world in terms of number, with acquisition of an aircraft carrier, Chinese-version of the Aegis, submarines and so on. The PRC also enjoys great potentials to qualitatively develop its forces such as indigenous aircraft carriers, next-generation strategic submarines, next-generation destroyers and so forth, which is possible because the PRC has accumulated its independent production capabilities in the process of its 30-year-long efforts. Secondly, one could argue that ROK still has its chances of coping with the PRC in naval power since, despite its continuous efforts, many estimate that the PRC naval force is roughly ten or more years behind that of superpowers such as the U.S., on areas including radar detection capability, EW capability, C4I and data-link systems, doctrines on force employment as well as tactics, and such gap cannot be easily overcome. The most probable scenarios involving the PRC in sea areas surrounding the Korean Peninsula are: first, upon the outbreak of war in the peninsula, the PRC may pursue military intervention through sea, thereby undermining efforts of the ROK-U.S. combined operations; second, ROK-PRC or PRC-Japan conflicts over maritime jurisdiction or ownership over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands could inflict damage to ROK territorial sovereignty or economic gains. The PRC would likely attempt to resolve the conflict employing blitzkrieg tactics before U.S. forces arrive on the scene, while at the same time delaying and denying access of the incoming U.S. forces. If this proves unattainable, the PRC could take a course of action adopting "long-term attrition warfare," thus weakening its enemy's sustainability. All in all, thiss paper makes three proposals on how the ROK should respond. First, modern warfare as well as the emergent future warfare demonstrates that the center stage of battle is no longer the domestic territory, but rather further away into the sea and space. In this respect, the ROKN should take advantage of the distinct feature of battle space on the peninsula, which is surrounded by the seas, and obtain capabilities to intercept more than 50 percent of the enemy's ballistic missiles, including those of North Korea. In tandem with this capacity, employment of a large scale of UAV/F Carrier for Kill Chain operations should enhance effectiveness. This is because conditions are more favorable to defend from sea, on matters concerning accuracy rates against enemy targets, minimized threat of friendly damage, and cost effectiveness. Second, to maintain readiness for a North Korean crisis where timely deployment of US forces is not possible, the ROKN ought to obtain capabilities to hold the enemy attack at bay while deterring PRC naval intervention. It is also argued that ROKN should strengthen its power so as to protect national interests in the seas surrounding the peninsula without support from the USN, should ROK-PRC or ROK-Japan conflict arise concerning maritime jurisprudence. Third, the ROK should fortify infrastructures for independent construction of naval power and expand its R&D efforts, and for this purpose, the ROK should make the most of the advantages stemming from the ROK-U.S. alliance inducing active support from the United States. The rationale behind this argument is that while it is strategically effective to rely on alliance or jump on the bandwagon, the ultimate goal is always to acquire an independent response capability as much as possible.

A Study on Social Security Platform and Non-face-to-face Care (사회보장플랫폼과 비대면 돌봄에 관한 고찰)

  • Jang, Bong-Seok;Kim, Young-mun;Kim, Yun-Duck
    • Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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    • v.11 no.12
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    • pp.329-341
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    • 2020
  • As COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across the world, more than 45 million confirmed cases and over 1,000,000 deaths have occurred till now, and this situation is expected to continue for some time. In particular, more than half of the infections in European countries such as Italy and Spain occurred in nursing homes, and it is reported that over 4,000 people died in nursing homes for older adults in the United States. Therefore, the issues that need to be addressed after the COVID-19 crisis include finding a fundamental solution to group care and shifting to family-centered care. More specifically, it is expected that there will be ever more lively discussion on establishing and expanding hyper-technology based community care, that is, family-centered care integrated with ICT and other Industry 4.0 technologies. This poses a challenge of how to combine social security and social welfare with Industry 4.0 in concrete ways that go beyond the abstract suggestions made in the past. A case in point is the proposal involving smart welfare cities. Given this background, the present paper examined the concept, scope, and content of non-face-to-face care in the context of previous literature on the function and scope of the social security platform, and the concept and expandability of the smart welfare city. Implementing a smart city to realize the kind of social security and welfare that our society seeks to provide has significant bearing on the implementation of community care or aging in place. One limitation of this paper, however, is that it does not address concrete measures for implementing non-face-to-face care from the policy and legal/institutional perspectives, and further studies are needed to explore such measures in the future. It is expected that the findings of this paper will provide the future course and vision not only for the smart welfare city but also for the social security and welfare system in administrative, practical, and legislative aspects, and ultimately contribute to improving the quality of human life.

The Impacts of Chinese Seaborne Trade Volume on The World Economy (중국 품목별 수출입이 세계 경제에 미치는 영향 실증분석)

  • Ahn, Young-Gyun;Lee, Min-Kyu
    • Korea Trade Review
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    • v.42 no.6
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    • pp.111-129
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    • 2017
  • According to the World Bank statistics, China's contribution to global economic growth during the year of 2013-2016 was estimated at 31.6 percent. This figure is even larger than 29.0 percent, the contribution by summing each contribution of the United States, EU and Japan. The Chinese commodity trade accounts for up to 11.5 percent of world trade volume. Thus, we can consider that the Chinese economy has a strong influence on the global economy. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the contribution level of Chinese seaborne trade volume on world economy. First, this study conducted a time-lag analysis using Moran test, so we can find that China's level of contribution to global economic growth varies from time to time. The contribution of the first phase (1999-2007) was nearly three times higher than the contributions from the second phase (2008-2016), suggesting that the overall contraction of the global trade volume starting from the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 has continued until recently and recovery has not even occurred. Second, using the econometrics model, this study conducted an regression analysis of the impact of Chinese imports and exports in chemicals, grain, steel, crude oil, and container on global economic growth. Fixed effects model with time series data has been applied to examine the effect of Chinese seaborne trade volume on global economic growth. According to the empirical analysis of this study, China's exports of steel products, exports of container, imports of containers, imports of crude oil and imports of grain have significant contributions to global economic growth. Estimates of China's exports of steel products, exports of container, imports of containers, imports of crude oil and imports of grain are 1.023, 1.020, 1.019, 1.007 and 1.006, respectively. For example, the estimated value 1.023 of China's exports of steel products means that the growth rate can be 1.023 times higher than the current world GDP growth rate if Chinese seaborne trade volume of exports of steel products increased by one unit (one million tons). This study concludes that the expansion of China's imports and exports should be realized first to increase the global GDP growth rate. The expansion of Chinese trade can lead to a simultaneous stimulus of production and consumption in China, which can even lead to global economic growth ultimately. Thus, depending on how much China's trade will be broaden in the future, the width of global economic growth can be determined.

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Varieties of Community Unionism: A Comparison between the Youth Community Union and the Arbeit Workers' Union in South Korea (커뮤니티유니온의 다양성: 청년유니온과 아르바이트노동조합의 비교연구)

  • Yang, Kyunguk;Chae, Yeon Joo
    • Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.95-136
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    • 2018
  • As the number of precariats grows, their poor labor rights and working conditions are becoming issues of major concern all over the world but how to represent their interests is still controversial. Basically, the union is the institutional mechanism for representing the labor rights. However, it is difficult for workplaceand enterprise-based unions to fully represent the labor rights of precarious workers. Recently, so-called community unions have emerged in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan as independent organizations representing the rights of non-standard workers. Community unions refer to labor unions which organize precarious workers across firms at the regional level. They are known to be suitable for covering the unemployed, job seekers, indirect employment workers, short-term contract workers, and small-firm workers. In South Korea, since the financial crisis in 1997, a dramatic increase in the number of precariats leads to emergence of new types of trade unions such as the Youth Community Union, the Arbeit Workers' Union, the Artist Social Union and the Korea Musician's Union. They have engaged in various activities to guarantee the labor rights of precariats. Recently, researchers have also tried to identify defining characteristics of these new forms of unionism. To expand research on trade unionism in South Korea, this study compares two different types of community unions: the Youth Community Union and the Arbeit Workers' Union. We believe that this attempt can contribute to the research on the alternative labor movement. For this purpose, this study starts with theoretical discussions on community unions, and compares the Youth Community Union with the Arbeit Workers' Union based on the five characteristics of community unionism: membership and organization structure, the recognition struggle, the type or scope of interest, solidarity with other civic organizations, and the repertoire of resistance strategies. Based on this comparative analysis, this study seeks to foresee the possibility of how community unionism will develop in South Korean in the future.

The Classification System and Information Service for Establishing a National Collaborative R&D Strategy in Infectious Diseases: Focusing on the Classification Model for Overseas Coronavirus R&D Projects (국가 감염병 공동R&D전략 수립을 위한 분류체계 및 정보서비스에 대한 연구: 해외 코로나바이러스 R&D과제의 분류모델을 중심으로)

  • Lee, Doyeon;Lee, Jae-Seong;Jun, Seung-pyo;Kim, Keun-Hwan
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.26 no.3
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    • pp.127-147
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    • 2020
  • The world is suffering from numerous human and economic losses due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). The Korean government established a strategy to overcome the national infectious disease crisis through research and development. It is difficult to find distinctive features and changes in a specific R&D field when using the existing technical classification or science and technology standard classification. Recently, a few studies have been conducted to establish a classification system to provide information about the investment research areas of infectious diseases in Korea through a comparative analysis of Korea government-funded research projects. However, these studies did not provide the necessary information for establishing cooperative research strategies among countries in the infectious diseases, which is required as an execution plan to achieve the goals of national health security and fostering new growth industries. Therefore, it is inevitable to study information services based on the classification system and classification model for establishing a national collaborative R&D strategy. Seven classification - Diagnosis_biomarker, Drug_discovery, Epidemiology, Evaluation_validation, Mechanism_signaling pathway, Prediction, and Vaccine_therapeutic antibody - systems were derived through reviewing infectious diseases-related national-funded research projects of South Korea. A classification system model was trained by combining Scopus data with a bidirectional RNN model. The classification performance of the final model secured robustness with an accuracy of over 90%. In order to conduct the empirical study, an infectious disease classification system was applied to the coronavirus-related research and development projects of major countries such as the STAR Metrics (National Institutes of Health) and NSF (National Science Foundation) of the United States(US), the CORDIS (Community Research & Development Information Service)of the European Union(EU), and the KAKEN (Database of Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research) of Japan. It can be seen that the research and development trends of infectious diseases (coronavirus) in major countries are mostly concentrated in the prediction that deals with predicting success for clinical trials at the new drug development stage or predicting toxicity that causes side effects. The intriguing result is that for all of these nations, the portion of national investment in the vaccine_therapeutic antibody, which is recognized as an area of research and development aimed at the development of vaccines and treatments, was also very small (5.1%). It indirectly explained the reason of the poor development of vaccines and treatments. Based on the result of examining the investment status of coronavirus-related research projects through comparative analysis by country, it was found that the US and Japan are relatively evenly investing in all infectious diseases-related research areas, while Europe has relatively large investments in specific research areas such as diagnosis_biomarker. Moreover, the information on major coronavirus-related research organizations in major countries was provided by the classification system, thereby allowing establishing an international collaborative R&D projects.

The State Hermitage Museum·Northwest University for Nationalities·Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House Kuche Art Relics Collected in Russia Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House, 2018 (아라사국립애이미탑십박물관(俄羅斯國立艾爾米塔什博物館)·서북민족대학(西北民族大學)·상해고적출판사(上海古籍出版社) 편(編) 『아장구자예술품(俄藏龜玆藝術品)』, 상해고적출판사(上海古籍出版社), 2018 (『러시아 소장 쿠차 예술품』))

  • Min, Byung-Hoon
    • MISULJARYO - National Museum of Korea Art Journal
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    • v.98
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    • pp.226-241
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    • 2020
  • Located on the right side of the third floor of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the "Art of Central Asia" exhibition boasts the world's finest collection of artworks and artifacts from the Silk Road. Every item in the collection has been classified by region, and many of them were collected in the early twentieth century through archaeological surveys led by Russia's Pyotr Kozlov, Mikhail Berezovsky, and Sergey Oldenburg. Some of these artifacts have been presented around the world through special exhibitions held in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Korea, Japan, and elsewhere. The fruits of Russia's Silk Road expeditions were also on full display in the 2008 exhibition The Caves of One Thousand Buddhas - Russian Expeditions on the Silk Route on the Occasion of 190 Years of the Asiatic Museum, held at the Hermitage Museum. Published in 2018 by the Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House in collaboration with the Hermitage Museum, Kuche Art Relics Collected in Russia introduces the Hermitage's collection of artifacts from the Kuche (or Kucha) region. While the book focuses exclusively on artifacts excavated from the Kuche area, it also includes valuable on-site photos and sketches from the Russian expeditions, thus helping to enhance readers' overall understanding of the characteristics of Kuche art within the Buddhist art of Central Asia. The book was compiled by Dr. Kira Samosyuk, senior curator of the Oriental Department of the Hermitage Museum, who also wrote the main article and the artifact descriptions. Dr. Samosyuk is an internationally renowned scholar of Central Asian Buddhist art, with a particular expertise in the art of Khara-Khoto and Xi-yu. In her article "The Art of the Kuche Buddhist Temples," Dr. Samosyuk provides an overview of Russia's Silk Road expeditions, before introducing the historical development of Kuche in the Buddhist era and the aspects of Buddhism transmitted to Kuche. She describes the murals and clay sculptures in the Buddhist grottoes, giving important details on their themes and issues with estimating their dates, and also explains how the temples operated as places of worship. In conclusion, Dr. Samosyuk argues that the Kuche region, while continuously engaging with various peoples in China and the nomadic world, developed its own independent Buddhist culture incorporating elements of Gandara, Hellenistic, Persian, and Chinese art and culture. Finally, she states that the culture of the Kuche region had a profound influence not only on the Tarim Basin, but also on the Buddhist grottoes of Dunhuang and the central region of China. A considerable portion of Dr. Samosyuk's article addresses efforts to estimate the date of the grottoes in the Kuche region. After citing various scholars' views on the dates of the murals, she argues that the Kizil grottoes likely began prior to the fifth century, which is at least 100 years earlier than most current estimates. This conclusion is reached by comparing the iconography of the armor depicted in the murals with related materials excavated from the surrounding area (such as items of Sogdian art). However, efforts to date the Buddhist grottoes of Kuche must take many factors into consideration, such as the geological characteristics of the caves, the themes and styles of the Buddhist paintings, the types of pigments used, and the clothing, hairstyles, and ornamentation of the depicted figures. Moreover, such interdisciplinary data must be studied within the context of Kuche's relations with nearby cultures. Scientific methods such as radiocarbon dating could also be applied for supplementary materials. The preface of Kuche Art Relics Collected in Russia reveals that the catalog is the first volume covering the Hermitage Museum's collection of Kuche art, and that the next volume in the series will cover a large collection of mural fragments that were taken from Berlin during World War II. For many years, the whereabouts of these mural fragments were unknown to both the public and academia, but after restoration, the fragments were recently re-introduced to the public as part of the museum's permanent exhibition. We look forward to the next publication that focuses on these mural fragments, and also to future catalogs introducing the artifacts of Turpan and Khotan. Currently, fragments of the murals from the Kuche grottoes are scattered among various countries, including Russia, Germany, and Korea. With the publication of this catalog, it seems like an opportune time to publish a comprehensive catalog on the murals of the Kuche region, which represent a compelling mixture of East-West culture that reflects the overall characteristics of the region. A catalog that includes both the remaining murals of the Kizil grottoes and the fragments from different parts of the world could greatly enhance our understanding of the murals' original state. Such a book would hopefully include a more detailed and interdisciplinary discussion of the artifacts and murals, including scientific analyses of the pigments and other materials from the perspective of conservation science. With the ongoing rapid development in western China, the grotto murals are facing a serious crisis related to climate change and overcrowding in the oasis city of Xinjiang. To overcome this challenge, the cultural communities of China and other countries that possess advanced technology for conservation and restoration must begin working together to protect and restore the murals of the Silk Road grottoes. Moreover, centers for conservation science should be established to foster human resources and collect information. Compiling the data of Russian expeditions related to the grottoes of Kuche (among the results of Western archaeological surveys of the Silk Road in the early twentieth century), Kuche Art Relics Collected in Russia represents an important contribution to research on Kuche's Buddhist art and the Silk Road, which will only be enhanced by a future volume introducing the mural fragments from Germany. As the new authoritative source for academic research on the artworks and artifacts of the Kuche region, the book also lays the groundwork for new directions for future studies on the Silk Road. Finally, the book is also quite significant for employing a new editing system that improves its academic clarity and convenience. In conclusion, Dr. Kira Samosyuk, who planned the publication, deserves tremendous praise for taking the research of Silk Road art to new heights.