• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.168-176
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• 2017

HNS accidents involve large-scale fires and explosions, causing numerous human casualties and extreme environmental pollution in the surrounding area. The widespread diffusion of effects should be prevented through rapid decision making. In this study, a high-quality, standardized, and digitized HNS accident databases has been generated based on the HNS standard code proposed. Furthermore, the HNS Accident Tracking System (HATS) was applied and implemented to allow for systematic integration management and sharing. In addition, statistical analysis was performed on 76 cases of domestic HNS accident data collected over 23 years using HATS. In Korea, an average of 3.3 HNS accidents occurred each year and major HNS accident factors were Springs (41 %), Aprons (51 %), Chemical Carriers (49 %), Crew's Fault (45 %) and Xylenes (12 %). (The number in parentheses is the percentage of HNS accident factors for each HNS accident classification)

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1511-1516
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• 2007

Basophils and mast cells play an important role in $Fc{\varepsilon}RI-mediated$ allergic reaction as effector cells. We studied the effects of Acanthopanax chiisanensis on $Fc{\varepsilon}RI\;{\alpha}$ chain expression in human basophilic KU812F cells. Ethanol extracts from root and stem of A. chiisanensis were tested for inhibitory effects of $Fc{\varepsilon}RI\;{\alpha}$ chain expression. The cell surface $Fc{\varepsilon}RI\;{\alpha}$ chain expression was examined by flow cytometric analysis. All of the extracts of A. chiisanensis reduced the cell surface $Fc{\varepsilon}RI\;{\alpha}$ chain expression. Furthermore, A. chiisanensis extracts caused a decrease in the level of $Fc{\varepsilon}RI\;{\alpha}$ chain mRNA level and $Fc{\varepsilon}RI-mediated$ histamine release. These results suggest that root and stem extracts of A. chiisanensis play an important role in anti-allergic activity via down-regulation of $Fc{\varepsilon}RI\;{\alpha}$ chain expression and decrease in release of inflammatory mediator such as histamine.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.1746-1751
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• 2011

This study examined the effects of estrogen, progesterone and tamoxifen at different concentrations and treatment periods on proliferation of a human cervical carcinoma cell line, HeLa, in culture, based on MTT assay. Estrogen did not have an effect on the cellular proliferation in concentrations up to $1{\mu}g$/ml for treatment periods of between 2.5 and 6 days, but significantly inhibited proliferation at a higher concentration of $10{\mu}g$/ml in a progressive manner with increasing treatment periods. Also, treatment of HeLa with more than $10{\mu}g$/ml of progesterone for 2.5 days significantly inhibited proliferation and caused a concentration-dependent inhibition with 4 days of treatment. However, longer treatment with progesterone for 6 days abolished the concentration-dependent inhibitory effect on cellular proliferation observed with the 4-day treatment period. Furthermore, tamoxifen required a higher concentration ($100{\mu}g$/ml) than estrogen to bring about the inhibitory effect on the HeLa proliferation. These results suggest that high concentrations of estrogen, progesterone and tamoxifen may suppress proliferation of HeLa, and both the concentration and the treatment period may also influence their inhibitory effects on cellular proliferation.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.64-72
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to compare a habitat suitability grid unit included within a radius of 100m and $1km^2,\;2km^2,\;4km^2$ watershed units in order to predict suitable habitats for Chungcheong province's endangered leopard species(Prionailurus bengalensis). Other developed countries have carried out habitat assessment and established management policies for species conservation using such methods as HEP(Habitat Evaluation Procedures), HSI(Habitat Suitability Index) and GAP(Gap Analysis Program), etc. In accordance with these studies, many evaluation methods for habitat conservation have been proposed in Korea, but these studies are lacking in consideration of analytic units and general application of analysis results. This study predicted leopard habitat using a logistic regression analysis according to analytic units by data from 56 location and 8 sources of environmental data, including elevation, slope, forest area, land cover, roads, water, broadleaf trees, and human habitation. Moreover, the habitat suitability assessment unit was confirmed by a model comparison process encompassing model explanation. verification, and application on a regional scale. Results showed that assessment methods that took into consideration areas in and around the location points were beneficial in predicting habitat and that the assessment unit was appropriate for a 30m grid unit including areas within a radius of 100m and a $1km^2$ watershed unit in Chungcheong Province. This study suggests a method for regional habitat conservation to complement existing conservation area selection methods, and the results are expected to be used in conservation area selection and ecosystem management policies for endangered species.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2014

Both researchers and practitioners are showing an increased interested in interactive exhibition services. Interactive exhibition services are designed to directly respond to visitor responses in real time, so as to fully engage visitors' interest and enhance their satisfaction. In order to install an effective interactive exhibition service, it is essential to adopt intelligent technologies that enable accurate estimation of a visitor's emotional state from responses to exhibited stimulus. Studies undertaken so far have attempted to estimate the human emotional state, most of them doing so by gauging either facial expressions or audio responses. However, the most recent research suggests that, a multimodal approach that uses people's multiple responses simultaneously may lead to better estimation. Given this context, we propose a new multimodal emotional state estimation model that uses various responses including facial expressions, gestures, and movements measured by the Microsoft Kinect Sensor. In order to effectively handle a large amount of sensory data, we propose to use stratified sampling-based MRA (multiple regression analysis) as our estimation method. To validate the usefulness of the proposed model, we collected 602,599 responses and emotional state data with 274 variables from 15 people. When we applied our model to the data set, we found that our model estimated the levels of valence and arousal in the 10~15% error range. Since our proposed model is simple and stable, we expect that it will be applied not only in intelligent exhibition services, but also in other areas such as e-learning and personalized advertising.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.245-249
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• 2013

This paper attempts to estimate the kerosene demand function in Korea over the period 1981-2012. As the kerosene demand function provides us information on the pattern of consumer's kerosene consumption, it can be usefully utilized in predicting the impact of policy variables such as kerosene price and forecasting the demand for kerosene. We apply least absolute deviations and least median squares estimation methods as a robust approach to estimating the parameters of the kerosene demand function. The results show that short-run price and income elasticities of the kerosene demand are estimated to be -0.468 and 0.409, respectively. They are statisitically significant at the 1% level. The short-run price and income elasticities portray that demand for kerosene is price- and income-inelastic. This implies that the kerosene is indispensable goods to human-being's life, thus the kerosene demand would not be promptly adjusted to responding to price and/or income change. However, long-run price and income elasticities reveal that the demand for kerosene is price- and income-elastic in the long-run.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.191-197
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• 2015

Invasive alien species are considered to be one of the main factors that cause biodiversity loss. Establishment of management strategies through continuous monitoring and risk assessment is a key element for invasive alien species management policy. In the present study, we introduce examples of ecological risk assessment tools developed in Japan, Germany-Austria and Belgium. Invasive alien species have been designated in Japan based on the assessment of risks to ecosystems, human health and primary industry. German-Austrian Black List Information System categorized alien species into Black List, White List and Grey List according to their risks to biodiversity. In the Harmonia Information System developed in Belgium, invasiveness, adverse impacts on native species and ecosystem functions and invasion stages were assessed and alien species were categorized into Black List, Watch List and Alert List. These international risk assessment tools may be helpful to improve our national risk assessment protocol for the prioritization of invasive alien species management.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.49-56
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• 2014

This study aims at providing basic data for product planning to design smart clothing and to develop applications, focusing on consumers by satisfying their emotions through analyzing emotional factors on smart clothing, comparing emotional differences between conventional clothing and it, reviewing changes of consumers' emotion by integrating the product and clothing and researching differences of preference and purchase intention between smart clothing and traditional one. As the results of the study, emotional factors for smart clothing were analyzed with total 6 including 'technical', 'comfort', 'aesthetic', 'modern', 'fun' and 'multiple' factors. Among them, except for 'comport', five emotional factors showed emotional factors between conventional sport-casual clothing and smart clothing. That is, emotional factors of 'technical', 'aesthetic', 'modern', 'fun' and 'multiple' were emphasized more in smart clothing than conventional ones, indicating that they should be considered in planning products of smart clothing. Though there was no significant difference of preference between smart clothing and conventional clothing, in case of comparison of averages, that of smart clothing was a little higher. For purchase intention, smart clothing was lower than the conventional clothing. So preference seems to be not directly related to consumers' immediate purchase. To make consumers' interests and preference to result in purchase, it is necessary to develop smart clothing with more various applications and to prepare commercializing strategies. As the results of the analysis on free-descriptive questionnaire survey, consumers were interested in development of smart clothing to help diet with functions including energy harvesting from body motion, calorification and perspiration, measurement of motion and calory consumption as well as health-care type smart clothing to measure heartbeat and ECG. Reflecting these requirements from the consumers, they should be utilized as guidance to develop smart clothing in the future.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.322-329
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• 2015

The effects of water extracts of Gallus gallus var. domesticus (Yeonsan ogolgye, GD) on the activities of osteoblast differentiation and the restraint of osteoclast formation were investigated. The water extract of GD in the human osteoblast "MG-63" cell, was examined in relation to alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and alizarin red stains. In order to observe the effects of osteoclasts formation, we analyzed RAW 264.7 cell tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) activity and TRAP stains. The ALP activity of the water extract of hen and cock flesh (3 years) were 133.8% and 129.6%, respectively. The ALP activity of flesh extracts was also higher than that of the skin extracts. Concerning the effects of age, the 3 years old flesh extracts had a higher activity than that of the one year old extracts. However the activity of the 3 years old skin extracts was lower than that of the one year old extracts. For gender conditions, the ALP activity of the hen extract was higher than that of the cock. The degree bone mineralization in the three years old hen flesh exhibited the highest rate, at 124.3%, amongst all the groups. The TRAP activity of the flesh extracts of the three years old cock revealed the lowest rate, at 31.8%, compared to the control. Our results demonstrate that the water extract of GD increases bone mineralization and osteoblast differentiation activity in MG-63 cells and enhances the inhibitory activity of bone-resorption in RAW 264.7 cells. In conclusion, the water extracts of GD seem to be effective in the prevention and treatment of bone related disorders.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.1140-1147
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• 2016

The plasma and serum of Crocodylus siamensis have previously been reported to exhibit potent antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities. During wound healing, these biological properties play a crucial role for supporting the formation of new tissue around the injured skin in the recovery process. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the wound healing properties of C. siamensis plasma and serum. The collected data demonstrate that crocodile plasma and serum were able to activate in vitro proliferation and migration of HaCaT, a human keratinocyte cell line, which represents an essential phase in the wound healing process. With respect to investigating cell migration, a scratch wound experiment was performed which revealed the ability of plasma and serum to decrease the gap of wounds in a dose-dependent manner. Consistent with the in vitro results, remarkably enhanced wound repair was also observed in a mouse excisional skin wound model after treatment with plasma or serum. The effects of C. siamensis plasma and serum on wound healing were further elucidated by treating wound infections by Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 on mice skin coupled with a histological method. The results indicate that crocodile plasma and serum promote the prevention of wound infection and boost the re-epithelialization necessary for the formation of new skin. Therefore, this work represents the first study to demonstrate the efficiency of C. siamensis plasma and serum with respect to their wound healing properties and strongly supports the utilization of C. siamensis plasma and serum as therapeutic products for injured skin treatment.