• Experimental and Molecular Medicine
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• v.50 no.11
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• pp.7.1-7.12
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• 2018

Recent findings from The Cancer Genome Atlas project have provided a comprehensive map of genomic alterations that occur in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), including unexpected mutations in apolipoprotein B (APOB). We aimed to determine the clinical significance of this non-oncogenetic mutation in HCC. An Apob gene signature was derived from genes that differed between control mice and mice treated with siRNA specific for Apob (1.5-fold difference; P < 0.005). Human gene expression data were collected from four independent HCC cohorts (n = 941). A prediction model was constructed using Bayesian compound covariate prediction, and the robustness of the APOB gene signature was validated in HCC cohorts. The correlation of the APOB signature with previously validated gene signatures was performed, and network analysis was conducted using ingenuity pathway analysis. APOB inactivation was associated with poor prognosis when the APOB gene signature was applied in all human HCC cohorts. Poor prognosis with APOB inactivation was consistently observed through cross-validation with previously reported gene signatures (NCIP A, HS, high-recurrence SNUR, and high RS subtypes). Knowledge-based gene network analysis using genes that differed between low-APOB and high-APOB groups in all four cohorts revealed that low-APOB activity was associated with upregulation of oncogenic and metastatic regulators, such as HGF, MTIF, ERBB2, FOXM1, and CD44, and inhibition of tumor suppressors, such as TP53 and PTEN. In conclusion, APOB inactivation is associated with poor outcome in patients with HCC, and APOB may play a role in regulating multiple genes involved in HCC development.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.103-114
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to provide basic data for habitat restoration by implementing a series of processes of capturing and translocating Kaloula borealis and managing them in artificial breeding facilities. The study site in Samcheon, Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do was a waste landfill site in the past, and Kaloula borealis was found during the Samcheon Ecological River Restoration Project around March 2018. To restore the habitat, a plan was established to capture, translocate, artificially breed, and release Kaloula borealis at the site. The capture methods of adult Kaloula borealis were pitfall trap and drift fence, direct capture, and deep barrels. During 2018-2019, 86 adults of Kaloula borealis were captured and translocated to artificial breeding facilities. VIE-tagging was inserted under the skin for monitoring. For artificial breeding, Gryllus bimaculatus with oyster powder and vegetables were regularly supplied to feed Kaloula borealis. At the end of October 2020, 150 young Kaloula borealis raised in artificial breeding facilities were found not entering hibernation, so they were managed in a separate artificial breeding facility. Some young and adult Kaloula borealis currently hibernating will be scheduled to be continuously managed in artificial breeding facilities and released to the restored habitat in the spring of 2021.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.257-270
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• 2019

Followingthe Four Rivers Project, cyanobacterial blooms have been frequently observed in the upstream of the installed weirs. The aim of this study was to characterize the major environmental factors that are associated with the cyanobacteria dominance in Baekje Weir (Geum River) and Juksan Weir (Youngsan River) based on intensive experiments and systematic data mining methods. The factors related to the cyanobacteria dominance include7-days cumulative rainfall (APRCP7), 7-days averaged flow (Q7day), water temperature (Temp), stratification strength (${\Delta}T$), electronic conductivity (EC), DO, pH, $NO_3-N$, $NH_3-N$, TN, TP, $PO_4-P$, Chl-a, Fe, BOD, COD, TOC, and $SiO_2$. The most highly correlatedfactors to the dominant cyanobacteria were found to be EC, Temp, Q7day, $PO_4-P$ in theBaekje Weir. On the other hand, those dominant in the Juksan Weir were ${\Delta}T$, TOC, Temp, EC and TN. The EC showed a strong correlation with cyanobacteria dominance in both weirs because a high EC represents a persisted low flow condition. The cyanobacteria dominance was as high as 56 % when the EC was equal or greater than $418{\mu}S/cm$ in Baekje Weir. It was as high as 63% when the ${\Delta}T{\geq}2.1^{\circ}C$ in the Juksan Weir. However, nutrients showed a minor correlation with cyanobacteria dominance in both weirs. The results suggest that the cyanobacteria dominate in astate where the water flow rate is low, water temperature is high and thermal stratification is strengthened. Therefore, the improvement of flow regimes is the most important to prevent persistent thermal stratification and formation of cyanobacteria bloom in theBaekje and JuksanWeirs.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.130-136
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• 2019

Recently, the importance of creativity and problem-solving skills are being emphasized in engineering education. In particular, research is actively being conducted on learning models considering practicality or applicability in practice and education among many creative problem-solving methods. The objective of the present study is to develop a teaching and learning model and verify its effects in order to promote creative thinking and problem-solving skills using the TRIZ Contradiction Analysis. This study led the participants to obtain basic knowledge of creative engineering design through the creative engineering design course for freshmen at an engineering college, and come up with ideas and solutions using the TRIZ Contradiction Analysis. A survey was conducted and analyzed to verify the effectiveness of education using the proposed teaching and learning model, and as a result, the effectiveness of education has been proven by an average of 89 positive responses. Follow-up research is needed on improved application models so that the proposed learning model can be applied to various subjects.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.313-327
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• 2021

Background: Citizen science is becoming a mainstream approach of baseline data collection to monitor biodiversity and climate change. Dragonflies (Odonata) have been ranked as the highest priority group in biodiversity monitoring for global warming. Ischnura senegalensis Rambur has been designated a biological indicator of climate change and is being monitored by the citizen science project "Korean Biodiversity Observation Network." This study has been performed to understand changes in the distribution range of I. senegalensis in response to climate change using citizen science data in South Korea. Results: We constructed a dataset of 397 distribution records for I. senegalensis, ranging from 1980 to 2020. The number of records sharply increased over time and space, and in particular, citizen science monitoring data accounted for the greatest proportion (58.7%) and covered the widest geographical range. This species was only distributed in the southern provinces until 2010 but was recorded in the higher latitudes such as Gangwon-do, Incheon, Seoul, and Gyeonggi-do (max. Paju-si, 37.70° latitude) by 2020. A species distribution model showed that the annual mean temperature (Bio1; 63.2%) and the maximum temperature of the warmest month (Bio5; 16.7%) were the most critical factors influencing its distribution. Future climate change scenarios have predicted an increase in suitable habitats for this species. Conclusions: This study is the first to show the northward expansion in the distribution range of I. senegalensis in response to climate warming in South Korea over the past 40 years. In particular, citizen science was crucial in supplying critical baseline data to detect the distribution change toward higher latitudes. Our results provide new insights on the value of citizen science as a tool for detecting the impact of climate change on ecosystems in South Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.265-270
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• 2022

With the implementation of the fox restoration project, the number of foxes released into nature are increasing; therefore, in the future, foxes will be dispersed to other areas and will appear in human habitats. In this study, the habitat suitability index (HSI) of foxes was developed to predict and prepare for the effects. After extracting major environmental variables through literature research and GIS analysis, 5 suitability indices (SIs) were constructed. The forest physiognomy, slope, aspect, distance from water source, and distance from road are the main variables, and the arithmetic average value by giving twice the weight to the forest physiognomy is the HSI result. As a result of comparing with the data from the Natural Environment Survey, it is found that the fox coordinates have an average HSI value of 0.64, and the probability of appearance is high when it is 0.53 or higher. Using the results of this study, it is expected to be able to predict the distribution of foxes in advance, to use them as basic data for future restoration plans, or to identify the distribution of the species and the reduction plan in future environmental impact assessments.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.87-95
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• 2020

Generally, occupational safety and particularly construction safety is an intricate phenomenon. Industry professionals have devoted vital attention to enforcing Occupational Safety and Health (OHS) from the last three decades to enhance safety management in construction. Despite the efforts of the safety professionals and government agencies, current safety management still relies on manual inspections which are infrequent, time-consuming and prone to error. Extensive research has been carried out to deal with high fatality rates confronting by the construction industry. Sensor systems, visualization-based technologies, and tracking techniques have been deployed by researchers in the last decade. Recently in the construction industry, computer vision has attracted significant attention worldwide. However, the literature revealed the narrow scope of the computer vision technology for safety management, hence, broad scope research for safety monitoring is desired to attain a complete automatic job site monitoring. With this regard, the development of a broader scope computer vision-based risk recognition system for correlation detection between the construction entities is inevitable. For this purpose, a detailed analysis has been conducted and related rules which depict the correlations (positive and negative) between the construction entities were extracted. Deep learning supported Mask R-CNN algorithm is applied to train the model. As proof of concept, a prototype is developed based on real scenarios. The proposed approach is expected to enhance the effectiveness of safety inspection and reduce the encountered burden on safety managers. It is anticipated that this approach may enable a reduction in injuries and fatalities by implementing the exact relevant safety rules and will contribute to enhance the overall safety management and monitoring performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.9-10
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• 2000

An important business-field of world-wide steel-industry is the coating of thin metal-sheets with zinc, zinc-aluminum and aluminum based materials. These products mostly go into automotive industry. in particular for the car-body. into building and construction industry as well as household appliances. Due to mass-production, the processing is done in large continuously operating plants where the mostly cold-rolled metal-strip as the substrate is handled in coils up to 40 tons unwind before and rolled up again after passing the processing plant which includes cleaning, annealing, hot-dip galvanizing / aluminizing and chemical treatment. In the liquid Zn, Zn-AI, AI-Zn and AI-Si bathes a combined action of corrosion and wear under high temperature and high stress onto the transfer components (rolls) accounts for major economic losses. Most critical here are the bearing systems of these rolls operating in the liquid system. Rolls in liquid system can not be avoided as they are needed to transfer the steel-strip into and out of the crucible. Since several years, ceramic roller bearings are tested here [1.2], however, in particular due to uncontrollable Slag-impurities within the hot bath [3], slide bearings are still expected to be of a higher potential [4]. The today's state of the art is the application of slide bearings based on Stellite\ulcorneragainst Stellite which is in general a 50-60 wt% Co-matrix with incorporated Cr- and W-carbides and other composites. Indeed Stellite is used as the bearing-material as of it's chemical properties (does not go into solution), the physical properties in particular with poor lubricating properties are not satisfying at all. To increase the Sliding behavior in the bearing system, about 0.15-0.2 wt% of lead has been added into the hot-bath in the past. Due to environmental regulations. this had to be reduced dramatically_ This together with the heavily increasing production rates expressed by increased velocity of the substrate-steel-band up to 200 m/min and increased tractate power up to 10 tons in modern plants. leads to life times of the bearings of a few up to several days only. To improve this situation. the Mechanical Alloying (MA) TeChnique [5.6.7.8] is used to prOduce advanced Stellite-based bearing materials. A lubricating phase is introduced into Stellite-powder-material by MA, the composite-powder-particles are coated by High Energy Milling (HEM) in order to produce bearing-bushes of approximately 12 kg by Sintering, Liquid Phase Sintering (LPS) and Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). The chemical and physical behavior of samples as well as the bearing systems in the hot galvanizing / aluminizing plant are discussed. DependenCies like lubricant material and composite, LPS-binder and composite, particle shape and PM-route with respect to achievable density. (temperature--) shock-reSistibility and corrosive-wear behavior will be described. The materials are characterized by particle size analysis (laser diffraction), scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. corrosive-wear behavior is determined using a special cylinder-in-bush apparatus (CIBA) as well as field-test in real production condition. Part I of this work describes the initial testing phase where different sample materials are produced, characterized, consolidated and tested in the CIBA under a common AI-Zn-system. The results are discussed and the material-system for the large components to be produced for the field test in real production condition is decided. Outlook: Part II of this work will describe the field test in a hot-dip-galvanizing/aluminizing plant of the mechanically alloyed bearing bushes under aluminum-rich liquid metal. Alter testing, the bushes will be characterized and obtained results with respect to wear. expected lifetime, surface roughness and infiltration will be discussed. Part III of this project will describe a second initial testing phase where the won results of part 1+11 will be transferred to the AI-Si system. Part IV of this project will describe the field test in a hot-dip-aluminizing plant of the mechanically alloyed bearing bushes under aluminum liquid metal. After testing. the bushes will be characterized and obtained results with respect to wear. expected lifetime, surface roughness and infiltration will be discussed.

• Korea Science and Art Forum
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.149-159
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• 2019

This research was started to identify the color status of signboards at the target site and suggest the direction of improvement for the signboard project in Dongsang-dong, Jongno-gil, a central area of the old city center of Gimhae. The area under study forms a depressed street atmosphere with old facilities, and is a typical type of old city center sign that needs to be rebuilt. The purpose of this study is to investigate prior research related to signage and similar signboard improvement cases, and then to identify the current status of colors by sorting out the casting, auxiliary and highlighted colors through the survey of the color of the signboard in the target area, and to propose a desirable direction for the future sign business based on the basis of these findings. This paper divided the target sections by industry and conducted a color analysis of signboards. The results and contents of the research are as follows. First, cast-colored signboards in general businesses showed a variety of primary color distributions with high L* values, on average, with high intensity and high chromaticity. Second, the auxiliary colors were mostly white or black in color-free, making a contrast between the casting colors. Third, the highlight was that a* value showed a high distribution in positive water plus and was mainly distributed in obsolescence, such as red or yellow, and color was used to reflect the characteristics of each store. However, the stores in the entire section lack unity because they were using colors that were higher in color than middle colors, which was causing the street's aesthetic look to be undermined. Based on the results of these studies, it is thought that the future color scheme for Gimhae's signature improvement project will limit the number of colors to a certain extent and give a sense of security and visual comfort to the use of colorlessness and obscurity around the representative colors of Gimhae.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.190-211
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to provide the preliminary data for maintenance of old trees of natural monuments and establishing protection projects. Accordingly, growth conditions, location circumstances, environment and protection management were analyzed for old trees at 34 sites in Gyeongsangbuk-do. Tree forms, crown, trunk and trees' health, leaves volume were analyzed in survey sites. As the results, the growth of Picrasma quassioides in Songsadong, Andong-si and Catalpa ovata in Hongwon-ri, Cheongsong-gun were not in good condition, along with other old trees of 6 cities (Quercus variabilis in Susan-ri, Uljin-gun, Juniperus chinensis in Hujeong-ri, Uljin-gun, Pyrus ussuriensis in Ssangjeon-ri, Uljin-gun, Salix glandulosa var. pilosa in Deokchon-ri, Cheongdo-gun, Pinus densiflora for. multicaulis in Hwasan-ri, Mungyeong-si, Pinus densiflora in Daeha-ri, Mungyeong-si). Accoding to these results, protection project and consistent monitoring are necessary. The analysis results of growth conditions per location circumstances showed that the old trees in the small spaces with large traffic of people were in bad condition. Therefore, it is necessary to secure sufficient space and soil improvement for such trees. The analysis results of growth conditions per species showed that Zelkova serrata, Quercus spp., Pinus densiflora are in good condition while Salix koreensis and others, i.e. a singular tree, are in poor condition. Thus, relatively smaller individuals and separately situated trees need careful management in their protection. The analysis results of trunk's growth ratio showed that Pinus densiflora, Ginkgo biloba, Zelkova serrata are in good condition whereas Juniperus chinensis, Quercus variabilis, Salix koreensis are not. It is a recent trend that tree surgeries are gradually decreasing; there are a number of damaged trees with no maintenance/management, and several sites requiring mend trunks management and cabling, bracing in protection and management projects. Hence, in the future, local government and management organizations should plan for systematic management and establish a protection plan for the natural monument trees. Also, 12 sites were found to be in need to purchase lands in order to secure the growth spaces, and since most of these areas are available for purchase, it is needed to promote a budget and purchase those areas through persuasion of the owner. These areas seems crucial in order to maximize the effect of conservation efforts and budgets for the preservation and restoration of the old trees.