• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.333-341
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• 2008

Three embankments are located in the Chunggye Bay, each named as Changpo, Bokkil and Kuil and environmental changes are expected due to freshwater input. To investigate this phenomenon, three sample sites in front of each embankment gate were selected in Nov. 2006(autumn), Feb. 2007(winter), May. 2007(spring) and Aug. 2007(summer). At every point of embankment spot, large cells(micro-size, >$20\;{\mu}m$) of phytoplankton were turned out to be a major cause of algal bloom in Feb. 2007 and nano-size($2-20\;{\mu}m$) phytoplankton became dominant during rainy season. In rainy season, each point of embankment showed low salinity and transparency with higher ammonium and phosphorus concentrations than dry season. However, the number of phytoplankton has decreased and it is expected that freshwater influx has more influence on high turbidity and radical decrease of salinity than nutrient. According to the results of this study, therefore, nutrient could have more influence on growth of phytoplankton in dry season, but high turbidity and radical changes of salinity have more influence in rainy season.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.227-235
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• 2024

Hepatocyte damage caused by medications or herbal products is one of the important problem when these compounds are chronically administrated. Thus, improving hepatocyte survival during treatment offers a wide range of opportunities. Valproic acid (VPA), a branched short-chain fatty acid derived from naturally occurring valeric acid, is commonly used to treat epilepsy and seizures. Although VPA exerts numerous effects in cancer, HIV therapy, and neurodegenerative disease, its effects on the liver and its mechanism of action have not been fully elucidated. Here, we demonstrated that VPA caused moderate liver cell toxicity and apoptosis. Interestingly, VPA treatment increased transcription levels of PPAR alpha (PPAR-α) and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) in murine (Hepa1c1c7) hepatoma cells in a time and concentration dependent manner. VPA-induced FGF21 expression was significantly weaker under PPAR-α silencing condition than in cells transfected with non-targeting control siRNA. Subsequent experiments showed that cell viability was significantly lowered when the FGF21 signaling pathway was blocked by FGF receptor antagonist. Finally, we further determined that AMPK phosphorylation was not responsible for VPA-induced FGF21 expression and PPAR-a increments. These results indicate that increases of FGF21 expression alleviate VPA-induced hepatic toxicity, thereby making FGF21 a potential biomarker for predicting liver damage during VPA treatments.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.200-205
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• 2024

This paper examines the impact of ESG activities of domestic shipping companies on the cost of debt. It is known that companies with large information asymmetry tend to have high costs of debt. Corporate ESG activities have been identified as an effective means of reducing information asymmetry. By actively engaging in ESG activities, companies can lower the cost of debt by reducing information asymmetry. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether these mechanisms, which have been observed in previous studies, also apply to domestic shipping companies. Multiple regression analysis is conducted on KOSP I-listed shipping companies from2010 to 2022. The cost of debt is set as the dependent variable, while the ESG rating is used as the explanatory variable. The analysis reveals that companies with a high level of ESG activities generally have a lower cost of debt. However, it is important to note that ESG activities of shipping companies do not seem to have a significant impact on their cost of debt. In fact, the level of ESG activities among domestic shipping companies is not particularly high (Hong, 2024). Despite these findings, domestic shipping companies should still strive for sustainable management to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment and meet the demands of the modern era. ESG management is a representative method for achieving sustainability. Therefore, shipping companies should not only focus on reducing the cost of debt but also on opening up the closed industry culture and communicating with capital market participants for sustainable growth. It is crucial for these companies to listen to the voices of stakeholders and embrace a holistic approach to sustainability.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.33-40
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• 2024

The live weight of livestock is important information for managing their health and housing conditions, and it can be used to determine the optimal amount of feed and the timing of shipment. In general, it takes a lot of human resources and time to weigh livestock using a scale, and it is not easy to measure each stage of growth, which prevents effective breeding methods such as feeding amount control from being applied. In this paper, we aims to improve the accuracy of weight measurement of piglets, weaned pigs, nursery pigs, and fattening pigs by collecting, analyzing, learning, and predicting video and image data in animal husbandry and pig farming. For this purpose, we trained using Pytorch, YOLO(you only look once) 5 model, and Scikit Learn library and found that the actual and prediction graphs showed a similar flow with a of RMSE(root mean square error) 0.4%. and MAPE(mean absolute percentage error) 0.2%. It can be utilized in the mammalian pig, weaning pig, nursery pig, and fattening pig sections. The accuracy is expected to be continuously improved based on variously trained image and video data and actual measured weight data. It is expected that efficient breeding management will be possible by predicting the production of pigs by part through video reading in the future.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.139-155
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• 2019

Recently, the domestic e-commerce market has achieved remarkable growth through the spread of e-commerce throughout the industry. Nevertheless, the ratio of e-commerce use by our small and medium-sized enterprises has turned out to be very low. The reason for this low participation rate of SMEs in B2B e-commerce market is due to various reasons, but also the lack of empirical performance measurement and evaluation considering the characteristics of B2B e-commerce market in which SMEs participate. Therefore, this study was intended to analyze the effectiveness of B2B e-commerce use of B2B e-commerce to companies that are provided in conjunction with e-Marketplace by public credit guarantee agencies with experience in use. To this end, 14 items related to finance derived through prior research were used to conduct management performance analysis and hypothesis verification from a financial perspective. The implications of this study are expected to be that an empirical performance analysis from the financial perspective of a B2B e-commerce guarantee Utilized company can be used as a basis for policymaking for the activation of the B2B e-commerce guarantee in the future, thus contributing to the establishment of a stable business environment by supporting the expansion of e-commerce by small and medium-sized businesses.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.411-438
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• 2024

This study aims to identify and comprehensively view health information-related research trends using a bibliometric analysis. To this end, 1,193 papers from 2002 to 2023 related to "health information" were collected through the Korea Citation Index (KCI) database and analyzed in diverse aspects: research trends by period, academic fields, intellectual structure, and keyword changes. Results indicated that the number of papers related to health information continued to increase and has been decreasing since 2021. The main academic fields of health information-related research included "biomedical engineering," "preventive medicine/occupational environmental medicine," "law," "nursing," "library and information science," and "interdisciplinary research." Moreover, a co-word analysis was performed to understand the intellectual structure of research related to health information. As a result of applying the parallel nearest neighbor clustering (PNNC) algorithm to identify the structure and cluster of the derived network, four clusters and 17 subgroups belonging to them could be identified, centering on two conglomerates: "medical engineering perspective on health information" and "social science perspective on health information." An inflection point analysis was attempted to track the timing of change in the academic field and keywords, and common changes were observed between 2010 and 2011. Finally, a strategy diagram was derived through the average publication year and word frequency, and high-frequency keywords were presented by dividing them into "promising," "growth," and "mature." Unlike previous studies that mainly focused on content analysis, this study is meaningful in that it viewed the research area related to health information from an integrated perspective using various bibliometric methods.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.85-100
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• 2024

ESG management refers to corporate management that takes into account environmental, social, and governance factors, while digital transformation goes beyond the mere automation or digitization of existing tasks to drive an innovative change in the essence of work and the way value is created. Therefore, digital transformation can help companies achieve ESG goals and implement sustainable business practices, establishing a complementary relationship between digital transformation and ESG management for corporate sustainability and growth. This relationship maximizes the synergy of integrating digital transformation with ESG management, enabling companies to utilize resources efficiently and prevent redundant investments, ultimately enhancing sustainable management performance. In this study, we propose the simultaneous promotion of business process reengineering (BPR), in which both digital transformation and ESG management are integrated. This is because the collection, analysis, and decision-making processes related to various data for promoting ESG management must be organically integrated with digital transformation technologies. Therefore, we analyzed each ESG management objective presented in the K-ESG guidelines and identified the corresponding digital transformation technologies through expert interviews and a review of prior research. The K-ESG guidelines serve as a useful ESG diagnostic system that enables companies to identify improvement tasks and manage performance based on goals through self-assessment of ESG levels. By developing a model based on the K-ESG guidelines for the integrated promotion of digital transformation and ESG management, companies can simultaneously improve ESG performance and drive digital innovation, reducing redundant investments and trial-and-error while utilizing diverse resources efficiently. This study provides practical and academic implications by developing a concrete and actionable new research model for researchers and businesses.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.189-197
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• 2024

From March to November 2021, a study conducted in Jeju used the dry ice trap method to collect 17,855 ticks across six regions, examining their distribution and potential as disease vectors. The ticks were identified and categorized by species and growth stage. In addition, the study focused on Babesia, a disease transmitted by hard ticks. Of 17,641 ticks from which DNA had been extracted, 581 pools underwent polymerase chain reaction testing. Of these, 43 pools tested positive for Babesia, with the highest positivity found in Western Seogwipo (23 pools, 53.5%), followed by eastern Seogwipo and central Jeju. The peak times for positive results were April and July. This study highlights an increased risk of tick bites linked to the rising number of abandoned pets in Jeju, necessitating ongoing environmental management and monitoring. These findings provide fundamental data for formulating strategies to prevent and manage tick-borne diseases in Jeju. This involves reducing the disease incidence through targeted preventive measures and detailed epidemiological research. These results underscore the necessity for continued vigilance and proactive intervention to address the health challenges ticks pose in the region.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.119-135
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• 2021

Korea has stepped up efforts to investigate and catalog its flora and fauna to conserve the biodiversity of the Korean Peninsula and secure biological resources since the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits (ABS) in 2010. Thus, after its establishment in 2007, the National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR) of the Ministry of Environment of Korea initiated a project called the Korean Indigenous Species Investigation Project to investigate indigenous species on the Korean Peninsula. For 15 years since its beginning in 2006, this project has been carried out in five phases, Phase 1 from 2006-2008, Phase 2 from 2009-2011, Phase 3 from 2012-2014, Phase 4 from 2015-2017, and Phase 5 from 2018-2020. Before this project, in 2006, the number of indigenous species surveyed was 29,916. The figure was cumulatively aggregated at the end of each phase as 33,253 species for Phase 1 (2008), 38,011 species for Phase 2 (2011), 42,756 species for Phase 3 (2014), 49,027 species for Phase 4 (2017), and 54,428 species for Phase 5(2020). The number of indigenous species surveyed grew rapidly, showing an approximately 1.8-fold increase as the project progressed. These statistics showed an annual average of 2,320 newly recorded species during the project period. Among the recorded species, a total of 5,242 new species were reported in scientific publications, a great scientific achievement. During this project period, newly recorded species on the Korean Peninsula were identified using the recent taxonomic classifications as follows: 4,440 insect species (including 988 new species), 4,333 invertebrate species except for insects (including 1,492 new species), 98 vertebrate species (fish) (including nine new species), 309 plant species (including 176 vascular plant species, 133 bryophyte species, and 39 new species), 1,916 algae species (including 178 new species), 1,716 fungi and lichen species(including 309 new species), and 4,812 prokaryotic species (including 2,226 new species). The number of collected biological specimens in each phase was aggregated as follows: 247,226 for Phase 1 (2008), 207,827 for Phase 2 (2011), 287,133 for Phase 3 (2014), 244,920 for Phase 4(2017), and 144,333 for Phase 5(2020). A total of 1,131,439 specimens were obtained with an annual average of 75,429. More specifically, 281,054 insect specimens, 194,667 invertebrate specimens (except for insects), 40,100 fish specimens, 378,251 plant specimens, 140,490 algae specimens, 61,695 fungi specimens, and 35,182 prokaryotic specimens were collected. The cumulative number of researchers, which were nearly all professional taxonomists and graduate students majoring in taxonomy across the country, involved in this project was around 5,000, with an annual average of 395. The number of researchers/assistant researchers or mainly graduate students participating in Phase 1 was 597/268; 522/191 in Phase 2; 939/292 in Phase 3; 575/852 in Phase 4; and 601/1,097 in Phase 5. During this project period, 3,488 papers were published in major scientific journals. Of these, 2,320 papers were published in domestic journals and 1,168 papers were published in Science Citation Index(SCI) journals. During the project period, a total of 83.3 billion won (annual average of 5.5 billion won) or approximately US $75 million (annual average of US $5 million) was invested in investigating indigenous species and collecting specimens. This project was a large-scale research study led by the Korean government. It is considered to be a successful example of Korea's compressed development as it attracted almost all of the taxonomists in Korea and made remarkable achievements with a massive budget in a short time. The results from this project led to the National List of Species of Korea, where all species were organized by taxonomic classification. Information regarding the National List of Species of Korea is available to experts, students, and the general public (https://species.nibr.go.kr/index.do). The information, including descriptions, DNA sequences, habitats, distributions, ecological aspects, images, and multimedia, has been digitized, making contributions to scientific advancement in research fields such as phylogenetics and evolution. The species information also serves as a basis for projects aimed at species distribution and biological monitoring such as climate-sensitive biological indicator species. Moreover, the species information helps bio-industries search for useful biological resources. The most meaningful achievement of this project can be in providing support for nurturing young taxonomists like graduate students. This project has continued for the past 15 years and is still ongoing. Efforts to address issues, including species misidentification and invalid synonyms, still have to be made to enhance taxonomic research. Research needs to be conducted to investigate another 50,000 species out of the estimated 100,000 indigenous species on the Korean Peninsula.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.542-549
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• 2014

This study was conducted to investigate the body size, sexual size dimorphism (SSD), and related environmental factors between Red-tongued viper snakes (Gloydius ussuriensis) inhabiting two different places, i.e., Jeju Island and its islet Gapado, and to provide data required to maintain species diversity from May, 2006 until June, 2009. The snout-vent length of the Red-tongued viper snake population inhabiting Jeju Island was found to be 242-532 mm ($422.0{\pm}46.7mm$, n = 100) in females and 296-580 mm ($434.5{\pm}51.7mm$, n = 63) in males. In contrast, the snout-vent length was observed to be 205-395 mm ($335{\pm}43.6mm$, n = 55) in female and 215-430 mm ($328{\pm}39.4mm$, n = 73) in male Red-tongued viper snakes inhabiting Gapado. These data demonstrated the snout-vent length of both female and male Red-tongued viper snakes on Jeju Island to be larger than those on Gapado (Female t = 17.343, df = 115, P<0.001; Male = 19.128, df = 101, P<0.001). SSD was measured to be -0.03 in the Red-tongued viper snake population on Jeju Island, with more or less larger sizes in the males, while it was 0.02 in the Red-tongued viper snake population in the Gapado, with a little larger sizes in the females. The reason for this difference in the snake populations between Jeju Island and Gapado may be due to adaption to the different ecological environments. In addition, as SSD, the snout-vent length of the Red-tongued viper snake populations and in young vipers was somewhat higher in the males than in the females on Jeju Island (t = -2.011, df = 117, P<0.05). However, no significant differences were observed in the snout-vent length of the young and the general Red-tongued viper snake populations on Gapa Island. For the population on Jeju island, the head length (F = 6.318, $df_{1,2}$=1,117, P<0.05), head width (F=8.090, $df_{1,2}$=1,117, P<0.01), inter eye length (F=15.898, $df_{1,2}$=1,117, P<0.001), and tail length (F=238.488, $df_{1,2}$=1,111, P<0.001) were all larger in the males, while females showed higher body mass (F=64.111, $df_{1,2}$=1,114, P<0.001). In the case of the Gapa Island population, no significant differences in the head length, head width, and inter eye length between females and males were observed, while the males had a longer tail length (F=168.555, $df_{1,2}$=1,74, P<0.001) and the females were heavier (F=17.812, $df_{1,2}$=1,76, P<0.001). Though no significant differences were found in the head length, head width, and inter eye length, the tail length (F=67.793, $df_{1,2}$=1,72, P<0.001) and body mass (F=4.558, $df_{1,2}$=1,72, P<0.05) were higher in the young male Red-tongued viper snakes than in the females. The snout-vent length, head length, head width, and inter eye length, which did not display SSD in the young Red-tongued viper snake populations, were higher in the male Red-tongued viper snake populations than in the female population from Jeju Island, implying that SSD in the Red-tongued viper snake population on Jeju Island is expressed due to environmental effects during their growth.