• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.1437-1444
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• 2017

Sargassum macrocarpum is a widely distributed marine brown algae found in the North Pacific. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of an ethanol extract of S. macrocarpum (EESM). First, we investigated the anti-inflammatory activities of EESM in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. EESM treatment suppressed nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin $E_2$ ($PGE_2$) production and inhibited the expressions of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) at the mRNA and protein levels. In addition, the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis $factor-{\alpha}$ ($TNF-{\alpha}$) and interleukin-1 beta ($IL-1{\beta}$), was decreased in a dose dependent manner. Investigation of the signaling pathways of nuclear factor kappa B ($NF-{\kappa}B$), phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt, and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) revealed suppression of $NF-{\kappa}B$ translocation from the cytosol to nucleus by EESM treatment. The phosphorylation of the Akt and ERK proteins was also inhibited by EESM treatment. EESM treatment also stimulated the expression of the heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) enzyme and its upstream transcription factor, nuclear factor-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). These results suggest that EESM has anti-inflammatory activity and could have potential uses in the field of nutraceuticals.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.43-56
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to identify distributional characteristics of climatic elements and to analyze synoptic characteristics on the pressure fields for spring droughts in Korea. In the distributions of minimum temperature during the spring droughts, positive anomalies and negative anomalies are mixed up, but in March the negative anomaly areas are widely distributed in Korea. It implies that the droughts of March have more frequent occurrences of the west-high, east-low pressure patterns. In the maximum air temperatures, the positive anomalies appear in Korea. It indicates that the spring droughts have rain days, cloud amount and humidities less than normal. As a result, the amount of evaporation is increased in Korea. In the pressure anomaly of surface pressure fields, the positive anomalies appear in the west, negative anomalies in the east in March, but in May the positive anomalies appeared zonally around the Korean peninsula. It indicates that March droughts have more frequent occurrences of the west-high. east-low patterns, but in May the Korean Peninsula has more frequent recurrences of the migratory anticyclone patterns. The height anomaly patterns of 500hPa pressure surface in spring droughts are similarly shown to those of surface fields. In March droughts, the positive height anomalies appear in the west, the negative height anomalies in the east, but in April the negative height anomaly areas are extended to the west part. In May the positive anomalies appear zonally around the Korean Peninsula, and strong positive height anomalies appear around the Kamchatka Peninsula and the sea of Okhotsk. These are the result of circulations that inhibit the eastward movement of westerlies and that has persistent anticyclone circulation patterns around the Korean Peninsula. As a result, the zonal indices of westerlies during March and April droughts are lower than normal, but higher in May. These data indicate that early spring droughts are associated with weak zonal flow, but the late spring droughts are obviously related with strong zonal flow. In addition, during early spring droughts the abnormally deep trough over the west coast of the North Pacific Ocean that accompanied the anticyclone was associated with frequent advection of air from the dry regions in the Central Asia into the Korean Peninsula. The atmospheric circulation patterns at the height of the 500hPa pressure surface in May was quite different from March and April circulation patterns. Instead of the abnormal ridge in the west and trough in the east, the circulation pattern in May was characterized by a much stronger than normal anticyclone over the Korean Peninsula. Also, the zonal indices of westerlies in May are higher than normal. The occurrences of drought in early spring, therefore, have mechanism different from those of late spring.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.275-287
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• 2013

The Japanese anchovy Engraulis japonicus is a widespread species in the western North Pacific and major fishery resource. To understand the spatio-temporal variation of anchovy prey items in the coastal waters of southern Korea, the stomach contents of anchovy and the structure of the zooplankton community were analysed at three sites (Jindo, Yeosu and Tong-yeong) from July 2011 to February 2012. The main prey items in Yeosu and Jindo were cyprid stage of barnacle (>35%) and copepod Calanus sinicus (>22%) in July, respectively, while, predominant ones in Tongyeong were small copepods, Paracalanus parvus s.l. (41%) and Corycaeus affinis (22%). During this period, the dominant zooplankton were cladoceran Evadne tergestina (39%) in Yeosu, small copepod, P. parvus s.l. (28%) in Jindo and cladoceran E. tergestina (14%) in Tongyeong. The dominant prey items were barnacle larvae and copepods in summer, phytoplankton and Pseudodiaptomus marinus in autumn and P. parvus s.l. and cold water copepod, Centropages abdominalis in winter. Anchovy prefer the prey item C. sinicus (3%) over E. tergestina (39%), which was a dominant species in the catching site in summer. P. marinus (0.5%) and C. abdominalis (0.9%) were preferred over P. parvus s.l. (30%, 21%) in autumn and winter, respectively. Prey items varied with area and season in the coastal waters of southern Korea. These results suggest that the prey selectivity of anchovy showed high flexibility and adaptability in the study waters.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.227-232
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• 2006

Styela clava (also called as rough sea squirt or leathery tunicate) is regarded as native to the northwest Pacific region including Korea and widely distributed in parts of northwestern Europe, North America and Australia. To evaluate Styela clava as a potential bioactive agent, the antioxidant activity of aceton extracts from Styela clava (whole, substance and tunic) was tested by measuring inhibitory effect of $H_2O_2$ induced DNA damage using comet assay. Also, anticancer activity on human colon cancer cell (HT-29) was investigated by MTT reduction assay. The $200\;{\mu}M$ $H_2O_2$ induced DNA damage was inhibited with Styela clava aceton extract in dose dependent manner in human leukocytes. The maximum inhibition was by 62.8, 62.1 and 78.3% at the concentration of $50\;{\mu}g/ml$ of whole, substance and tunic extracts, respectively. The aceton extracts from S. clava were also found to inhibit the growth of human colon cancer cell. The cell proliferation rates decreased to 26.9, 30.6 and 12.0% at the concentration of $500\;{\mu}g/ml$ of whole, substance and tunic extracts, respectively. These results support that aceton extracts from S. clava may be a potential candidate as a possible antimutagenic and chemotherapeutic agent.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.187-200
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• 2019

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of motivation of the employment in Korea with gender, nationality, motivation of studying in Korea, major satisfaction and Korean proficiency level of foreign students who are studying in Korea. The second purpose is to analyze the current factors, to leverage educational management and to make and support some policy of Minister of Education for international students in order to promote utilization of employment of the students in Korea during 4 years of studying. This paper is used by IBM SPSS Statistics 24 Version for data analysis. As a result of the analysis, the average of students in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and South and North America Africa was higher than Japan and China in terms of motivation of employment in Korea. First, the external motivation to study in Korea has affected TOPIK with positive influence. Second, in the relationship between motivation to study in Korea and the majors satisfaction, the higher the internal motivation of study, the higher the majors' satisfaction level. Third, in the relationship between motivation to study in Korea and motivation of the employment in Korea, internal motivation to study has a positive effect on motivation of the employment. As internal motivation increases, grade of the motivation of the employment increases. Fourth, the relationship between major satisfaction and employment showed positive (+) effect. In other words, the higher the major satisfaction, the higher the motivation of the employment. Fifth, TOPIK has a negative effect on motivation of the employment. It means that external motivation was the main factor that positively influenced TOPIK and internal motivation was also main factors that positively influenced both major satisfaction and motivation of the employment in Korea. Sixth, when the internal motivation has an effect on motivation of Korea employment, the higher the major satisfaction as the parameter, the higher the motivation of Korea employment. Therefore, it will be helpful to understand the meaning of studying motivation and major satisfaction of international students, and to be used as basic data on education policies of universities and governments supporting the career and employment for international students.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.12spc
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• pp.664-674
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• 2021

The relevance of this scientific research is determined by the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the current trends and dynamics of world tourism development. This article aims to identify patterns of development of the modern tourist market, analysis of problems and prospects of development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods. General scientific methods and methods of research are used in the work: analysis, synthesis, comparison, analysis of statistical data. The analysis of the viewpoints of foreign and domestic authors on the research of the international tourist market allowed us to substantiate the actual directions of tourism development due to the influence of negative factors connected with the spread of a new coronavirus infection COVID-19. Economic-statistical, abstract-logical, and economic-mathematical methods of research were used during the process of study and data processing. Results. The analysis of the current state of the tourist market by world regions was carried out. It was found that tourism is one of the most affected sectors from COVID-19, as, by the end of 2020, the total number of tourist arrivals in the world decreased by 74% compared to the same period in 2019. The consequence of this decline was a loss of total global tourism revenues by the end of 2020, which equaled $1.3 trillion. 27% of all destinations are completely closed to international tourism. At the end of 2020, the economy of international tourism has shrunk by about 80%. In 2020 the world traveled 98 million fewer people (-83%) relative to the same period last year. Tourism was hit hardest by the pandemic in the Asia-Pacific region, where travel restrictions are as strict as possible. International arrivals in this region fell by 84% (300 million). The Middle East and Africa recorded declines of 75 and 70 percent. Despite a small and short-lived recovery in the summer of 2020, Europe lost 71% of the tourist flow, with the European continent recording the largest drop in absolute terms compared with 2019, 500 million. In North and South America, foreign arrivals declined. It is revealed that a significant decrease in tourist flows leads to a massive loss of jobs, a sharp decline in foreign exchange earnings and taxes, which limits the ability of states to support the tourism industry. Three possible scenarios of exit of the tourist industry from the crisis, reflecting the most probable changes of monthly tourist flows, are considered. The characteristics of respondents from Ukraine, Germany, and the USA and their attitude to travel depending on gender, age, education level, professional status, and monthly income are presented. About 57% of respondents from Ukraine, Poland, and the United States were planning a tourist trip in 2021. Note that people with higher or secondary education were more willing to plan such a trip. The results of the empirical study confirm that interest in domestic tourism has increased significantly in 2021. The regression model of dependence of the number of domestic tourist trips on the example of Ukraine with time tendency (t) and seasonal variations (Turˆt = 7288,498 - 20,58t - 410,88∑5) it forecast for 2020, which allows stabilizing the process of tourist trips after the pandemic to use this model to forecast for any country. Discussion. We should emphasize the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that many experts and scientists believe in the long-term recovery of the tourism industry. In our opinion, the governments of the countries need to refocus on domestic tourism and deal with infrastructure development, search for new niches, formats, formation of new package deals in new - domestic - segment (new products' development (tourist routes, exhibitions, sightseeing programs, special rehabilitation programs after COVID) -19 in sanatoriums, etc.); creation of individual offers for different target audiences). Conclusions. Thus, the identified trends are associated with a decrease in the number of tourist flows, the negative impact of the pandemic on employment and income from tourism activities. International tourism needs two to four years before it returns to the level of 2019.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2022

This study examined the perceptions of Myanmar university students and professors regarding the status and necessity of higher education programs in fashion. Data were collected from professors in textile engineering at Yangon Technological University and Myanmar university students. Closed- and open-ended questions were asked either through interviews or by email. The responses were analyzed using keyword extraction and categorization, and descriptive statistics(closed questions). Generally, the professors perceived higher education, as well as the cultural industries including art and fashion, as important for Myanmar's social and economic development. According to the students interests in pursuing a degree in textile were limited, despite the high interest in fashion. Low wages in the apparel industry and lack of fashion degrees that meet the demand of students were cited as reasons. The demand was high for educational programs in fashion product development, fashion design, pattern-making, fashion marketing, branding, management, costume history, and cultural studies. Students expected to find their future career in textiles and clothing factories. Many students wanted to be hired by global fashion brands for higher salaries and training for advanced knowledge and technical skills. They perceived advanced fashion education programs will have various positive effects on Myanmar's national economy.