• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.375-382
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• 2005

The American bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana was imported from Japan for farming for the human consumption in 1970's and introduced populations were a great threat to native habitats in the pond and lake ecosystem. However, it is thought that the population of bullfrog has rapidly declined for past years in Korea. In this study, we investigated the intra-genetic diversity of R. catesbeiana habitated in Korea. The nucleotide sequences of 1,215bp mitochondrial ND1/tRNA region in bullfrogs sampled from 5 sites in Jeollanamdo were analyzed and compared to the original sequence of R. catesbeiara reported in Genbank. The nucleotide similarity between Korean and North American bullfrog was ranged from 98.7% to 100% based on kimura-2-parameter distance. In addition, bullfrogs analyzed in this study were clustered into two groups with one including Jangheung and the other including Gwangju populations in the neighbor-joining tree. North American R. catesbeiana was grouped in Jangheung cluster, indicating that there is the very low genetic difference between Korean and North American populations. The maximum parsimony tree in which North American R. catesbeiana was set as an outgroup suggests that Jangheung group represents the introduced population to Korea. Taken together, the results indicate that the population of R. catesbeiana in Korea has not segregated geographically yet, after the introduction.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.335-358
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• 2004

To investigate molecular phylogenetic relationships and to test hypothesis of hybrid origin of Ranunculus cantoniensis (Ranunculaceae), the sequences of nrDNA and chloroplast DNA were analyzed for 8 taxa and 25 accessions including 5 accessions of outgroup. In the phylogenetic trees by analyses of maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood for ITS nrDNA sequences and combined data of psbA-trnH, rps16 and trnL sequences of cpDNA, R. cantoniensis was most closely related to R. chinensis, and then to R. taciroi and R. silerifolius. The molecular phylogenetic relationships were not congruent with the previous report that R. cantoniensis was most closely related to R. silerifolius. In the sequence analysis of ITS and psbA-trnH, rps16, trnL for R. cantoniensis and the related taxa, R. cantoniensis showed polymorphism. It supported that the polymorphism also was reported in chromosome number and karyotype of R. cantoniensis. Ranunculus cantoniensis shared the marker gene of R. chinensis and R. silerifolius in ITS, and one of R. silerifolius in cpDNA. These results supported the hypothesis that R. cantoniensis was caused by hybridization between R. chinensis and R. silerifolius based on chromosome number and karyotype, and also estimated that R. silerifolius might be of maternal origin and R. chinensis be paternal.

• Genes and Genomics
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.1169-1180
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• 2018

Cave shrimps from the genera Typhlatya, Stygiocaris and Typhlopatsa (TST complex) comprises twenty cave-adapted taxa, which mainly occur in the anchialine environment. Anchialine habitats may undergo drastic environmental fluctuations, including spatial and temporal changes in salinity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen content. Previous studies of crustaceans from anchialine caves suggest that they have possessed morphological, behavioral, and physiological adaptations to cope with the extreme conditions, similar to other cave-dwelling crustaceans. However, the genetic basis has not been thoroughly explored in crustaceans from anchialine habitats, which can experience hypoxic regimes. To test whether the TST shrimp-complex hypoxia adaptations matched adaptive evolution of mitochondrial OXPHOS genes. The 13 OXPHOS genes from mitochondrial genomes of 98 shrimps and 1 outgroup were examined. For each of these genes was investigated and compared to orthologous sequences using both gene (i.e. branch-site and Datamonkey) and protein (i.e. TreeSAAP) level approaches. Positive selection was detected in 11 of the 13 candidate genes, and the radical amino acid changes sites scattered throughout the entire TST complex phylogeny. Additionally, a series of parallel/convergent amino acid substitutions were identified in mitochondrial OXPHOS genes of TST complex shrimps, which reflect functional convergence or similar genetic mechanisms of cave adaptation. The extensive occurrence of positive selection is suggestive of their essential role in adaptation to hypoxic anchialine environment, and further implying that TST complex shrimps might have acquired a finely capacity for energy metabolism. These results provided some new insights into the genetic basis of anchialine hypoxia adaptation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.637-644
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• 2019

This study was conducted to analyze the genetic characteristics of the Jeju dog for preservation and protection. A total of 139 dogs from 7 dog breeds, including the Jeju dog, were genotyped using 16 microsatellite markers. The results revealed 2-18 alleles per locus, with a total of 131 alleles among the 16 markers. Most alleles were identified for FH3381, which had 18 alleles, whereas FH2834 had the fewest alleles, with just 2. When the total mean value was observed, the expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity were higher for than for outgroup dogs, and the PIC values ranged from 0.000 to 0.862, respectively. The phylogenetic tree analysis of the Jeju dog and other dog varieties revealed that the Jeju dog is closest to the Sapsal dog (0.393). The phylogeny between the Jeju and Korean domestic dogs showed that the Jeju dog is most distant from the Dongkyung dog (0.507). Looking at the distribution individually, the Jeju dog is in the same group as the Labrador Retriever and the Sapsal dog. Meanwhile, the Poongsan, Dongkyung, and Jindo dogs and the German Shepherd were in the same group. Genetic information confirmed through the results of this study can be used as basic data to study the genetic characteristics of the Jeju dog.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.55-65
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• 2022

Although humans exist as Homo Empathicus, human society is actually constantly divided and conflicted between groups. The human empathy response is very sensitive to the justice of others, and depending on the level of others' justice, they may feel empathy or schadenfreude to the suffering of them. However, our empathy to others' suffering are not always fair, and have inherent limitations of ingroup-biased empathy. Depending on whether the suffering other persons belongs to an ingroup or an outgroup, we may feel biased empathy or biased schadenfreude to them without even realizing it. Recent advances in information and communication technology facilitate biased access to ingroup-related SNS or ingroup media, thereby deepening the establishment of a more biased semantic information network related groups. These processes, through interacting with the inherent limitation of empathy, can form a vicious cycle of more biased ingroup empathy and ingroup-related activities, and accelerate divisions and conflicts. This research investigated the properties and limitations of empathy by reviewing studies on the neural mechanism of empathy. By examining the relationship between empathy and justice from a neuroscientific point of view, this research tried to illuminate the modern society of division and conflict in a different dimension from the classical perspective of social science.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.95-107
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• 2022

Facial processing of different racial origin has been investigated at various levels including perceptual, emotional, and socio-cultural processing. Particularly, a good deal of studies have been conducted to show "other race effect (ORE)" to indicate that subtle facial information such as identity or emotional expressions are often under-processed in racial out-group members. However, few studies have investigated whether attentional modulation toward racial out-group faces could explain ORE. We investigated whether novelty-driven attentional mechanism is involved in face perception using event-related potential (ERP). Twenty-two Korean (KR) and nine Caucasian-American (AM) participants were presented with emotional faces from the two racial origins while they performed a gender categorization task. KRs showed significantly greater P3 amplitudes to AM than to KR faces indicating that the early attentional processing underlies differential perception of racial out-group faces. Interestingly, P3 was not up-regulated in the AM subjects when they were presented with KR faces, perhaps due to massive habituation to KR faces during everyday social interaction. These results indicate that racial out-group faces are highly salient stimuli which automatically occupy attentional resources, but easily habituated with repeated exposure to the racial-out group.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.79-99
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• 2019

Apologies are used with increasing frequency for mending damaged relations between groups after intergroup conflict. Past research revealed that members of a perpetrator group may engage in (animalistic) dehumanization of victim group members to cope with guilt and responsibility associated with the ingroup's past wrongdoing. We hypothesized that ingroup's apology would relieve perpetrator group members of the moral threat, and therefore would make them perceive more humanness in the victim group members. The study was conducted in the context of South Korea's alleged atrocities against Vietnamese civilians during its military involvement in the Vietnam War. Korean participants read an article on the incidents with Korean government's issuance of an official apology manipulated, and reported their thoughts on the incidents and perceptions of Vietnamese people including their humanness. Contrary to our prediction, apology further enhanced dehumanization of Vietnamese people, even while it also decreased dehumanization through heightened feelings of relief. This study documents a seemingly ironic effect of intergroup apology, and calls for a more careful examination of the consequences of apology before recommending it as a viable strategy for alleviating intergroup tensions.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.11 no.spc
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• pp.133-161
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• 2005

The present paper examines trust, interpersonal relationship, and civil society in Scandinavia and East Asia. In the first section, the concepts of trust and democracy are defined. In the second section, the cultural transformations that paved the way for the development of democracy in the West and Scandinavia are reviewed. In the third section, the basis of trust and democracy in East Asia, focusing on Confucianism, is reviewed. In the fourth section, a review of an empirical study conducted with a national sample in Denmark, Sweden, Japan, and Korea is presented. The results indicate that both the Scandinavian and East Asian respondents support the basic ideas of liberal democracy and trust close ingroup members. East Asian respondents are less likely than Scandinavian respondents to trust their colleagues and outgroup members and much less likely to trust political and government institutions. Scandinavian respondents prefer tolerant leaders who lead by ideas, while Koreans prefer strong paternalistic and moral leaders. Japanese respondents are less supportive of paternalistic leaders. Overall, results indicate that in Scandinavia and East Asia, although the basic ideas about democracy and human rights are similar, the methods of implementing these ideas are different. When compared with Scandinavia, there is much lower transparency and accountability in East Asia. In the final section, the challenges that the modern democracies face are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.137-170
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• 2002

The present paper reviews the development of democracy in the West and Korea. The first part of the paper provide a cultural framework for understanding the development of democracy in West and Korea. In the second part of the paper, an empirical study conducted in Korea will be presented. A survey questionnaire was developed to assess respondents' conception of political participation, political efficacy, trust, leadership, and social relations and it has been administered to national stratified sample in Korea (n=1,000). The results indicate that Korean respondents support the basic ideas of liberal democracy, such as the right to vote, participate in political organization, freedom of speech, and criticize government. At the same time, Korean respondents supported collective values, such as harmonious family life, harmonious social relations, and governmental welfare programs. Although Koreans trusted close ingroup members, such as family members and friends, they were less likely to trust their colleagues and outgroup members and were not likely to trust political and governmental institutions. Moreover, Korean respondents showed a low degree of political participation and efficacy and a high degree of political alienation. As for leadership, Koreans preferred moral and strong leaders. The overall results indicate that in Korea, although the basic ideals of democracy are valued, the method of implementing these ideals is different from the West. Detailed analysis of the results and implications of the study will be presented.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.11 no.spc
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• pp.21-55
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• 2005

The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of trust in Korean culture using the indigenous psychological analysis. First, this paper raises central questions that arise in Korean families, schools, companies and society: 1) Why are some Korean families disintegrating? 2) What core values do Korean schools teach? 3) What are the goals that Korean companies pursue? 4) Does trust exist in Korean society? Second, this paper reviews a series of empirical studies conducted using the indigenous psychology approach. The results indicate the following three major themes: 1) trust is based on relational culture and ingroup identity; 2) emotional attachment and bond provide the basis of trust; 3) the emphasis on cultivation of virtue through constant self-cultivation rather than ability and the control of the environment. Third, this paper raises central issues that need to be addressed: 1) the extension and expansion of trust beyond the narrow confines of the family and ingroup to include outgroup members; 2) recognition and balance of public rationality and private emotions and relations in society; 3) the achievement of balance between self-regulation and the control of the environment.