• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.253-260
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• 2023

The germanium-68/gallium-68 (⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga) generator has high spatial utilization and requires little maintenance, making it economical and easy to produce. Thus, the frequency of use of ⁶⁸Ga radiopharmaceuticals is rapidly increasing worldwide. Therefore, this study attempted to develop an automated synthesizer for the routine clinical application of ⁶⁸Ga radiopharmaceuticals. The automated synthesizer was based on a fixed tubing system and the structure was designed after adjusting the position of the parts to reflect the synthesis method. Using various components that can be supplied in Korea, the automated synthesizer was manufactured at a much lower price cost than that of a commercialized automated synthesizer sold by companies. ⁶⁸Ga-DOTA-[Tyr3]-octreotide (⁶⁸Ga-DOTATOC) was synthesized to evaluate the performance of the automated synthesizer. ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATOC could be synthesized with about 65% of non-decay corrected yield, and the synthesized ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATOC met all quality control standards. We have synthesized ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATOC more than 100 times, and only faced a few problems caused by mechanical errors. In this study, we successfully developed a simple automated synthesizer for ⁶⁸Ga radiopharmaceuticals with high reproducibility. As various ⁶⁸Ga radiopharmaceuticals have recently been developed, it is expected that the automated synthesizer developed in this study will be useful for routine clinical use.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.62-77
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• 2024

In the maritime shipping industry, imbalance between supply and demand has persistently increased, leading to the utilization of blank sailings by major shipping companies worldwide as a key means of flexibly adjusting vessel capacity in response to shipping market conditions. Traditionally, blank sailings have been frequently implemented around the Chinese New Year period. However, due to unique circumstances such as the global pandemic starting in 2020 and trade tensions between the United States and China, shipping companies have recently conducted larger-scale blank sailings compared to the past. As blank sailings directly impact freight transport delays, they can have negative repercussions from perspectives of both businesses and consumers. Therefore, this study employed Poisson regression models and negative binomial regression models to analyze the influence of maritime freight rate determinants on shipping companies' decisions regarding blank sailings, aiming to proactively address potential consequences. Results of the analysis indicated that, in Poisson regression analysis for 2M, significant variables included global container shipping volume, container vessel capacity, container ship scrapping volume, container ship newbuilding index, and OECD inflation. In negative binomial regression analysis, ocean alliance showed significance with global container shipping volume and container ship order volume, the alliance with container ship capacity and interest rates, non-alliance with international oil prices, global supply chain pressure index, container ship capacity, OECD inflation, and total alliance with container ship capacity and interest rates.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.128-137
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• 2024

This review discusses the pivotal role of vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF) in angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, vital processes influencing vascular permeability, endothelial cell recruitment, and the maintenance of tumor-associated blood and lymphatic vessels. VEGF exerts its effects through tyrosine-kinase receptors, VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2, and VEGFR-3. This VEGF-VEGFR system is central not only to cancer but also to diseases arising from abnormal blood vessel and lymphatic vessel formation. In the context of cancer, VEGF and its receptors are essential for the development of tumor-associated vessels, making them attractive targets for therapeutic intervention. Various approaches, such as anti-VEGF antibodies, receptor antagonists, and VEGF receptor function inhibitors, are being explored to interfere with tumor growth. However, the clinical efficacy of anti-angiogenic agents remains uncertain and necessitates further refinement. The article also highlights the physiological role of VEGFs, emphasizing their involvement in endothelial cell functions, survival, and vascular permeability. The identification of five distinct VEGFs in humans (VEGF-A, VEGF-B, VEGF-C, VEGF-D, and PLGF) is discussed, along with the classification of VEGFRs as typical receptor tyrosine kinases with distinct signaling systems. The family includes VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2, crucial in tumor biology and angiogenesis, and VEGFR-3, specifically involved in lymphangiogenesis. Overall, this review has provided a comprehensive overview of VEGF and VEGFR, detailing their roles in various diseases, including cancer. This is expected to further facilitate the utilization of VEGF and VEGFR as therapeutic targets.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2024

Biodegradable coating urea plays an important role in reducing the non-pollutants in agroecosystems, maximizing the plant nutrient utilization efficiency and slow-releasing nitrogen. Herein, the objective of this study was to investigate the nitrogen-releasing patterns and greenhouse gas emissions on different biodegradable coating urea. The treatments consisted of the control as an application of chemical fertilizers, NBCF as the non-biodegradable coating urea, NB60, and MDS as biodegradable coating urea. As a result of this study, the maximum accumulated total nitrogen (TN) concentration in the NBCF was higher at 33% than one in the NB60 during the precipitation periods. Its leaching period in the NCBF was prolonged for day 10 compared to the NB60. TN and NO₃-N releasing patterns in the NBCF and NB60 were fitted well on linear types(R²≥0.991), but their control and MDS were fitted well on Sigmoid curves(R²≥0.994) with high releasing concentration in the MDS compared to the control during leaching periods. For the greenhouse gas emissions, CH₄ emissions in the NBCF, NB60, and MDS were increased at 0.38%, 11.36%, and 5.91%, and N₂O emissions were also increased at 50.5%, 32.4%, 58.8% as compared to the control, respectively. Therefore, application of biodegradable polymer coating urea might mitigate the non-point pollutants in agro-ecosystem.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.261-282
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• 2024

This study proposed and evaluated electroencephalography (EEG)-based and eye-tracking-based methods to determine relevance by utilizing users' implicit relevance feedback while navigating content in a digital library. For this, EEG/eye-tracking experiments were conducted on 32 participants using video, image, and text data. To assess the usefulness of the proposed methods, deep learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) techniques were used as a competitive benchmark. The evaluation results showed that EEG component-based methods (av_P600 and f_P3b components) demonstrated high classification accuracy in selecting relevant videos and images (faces/emotions). In contrast, AI-based methods, specifically object recognition and natural language processing, showed high classification accuracy for selecting images (objects) and texts (newspaper articles). Finally, guidelines for implementing a digital library interface based on EEG, eye-tracking, and artificial intelligence technologies have been proposed. Specifically, a system model based on implicit relevance feedback has been presented. Moreover, to enhance classification accuracy, methods suitable for each media type have been suggested, including EEG-based, eye-tracking-based, and AI-based approaches.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.48-66
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• 2024

According to the three amended Laws of the Data Economy and the Data Industry Act of Korea, systems for pseudonymous data integration and Data Safe Zones have been operated separately by selected agencies, eventually causing a burden of use in SMEs, startups, and general users because of complicated and ineffective procedures. An over-stringent pseudonymization policy to prevent data breaches has also compromised data quality. Such trials should be improved to ensure the convenience of use and data quality. This paper proposes a prototype system of the Integrated Data Safe Zone based on redesigned and optimized pseudonymization workflows. Conventional workflows of pseudonymization were redesigned by applying the amended guidelines and selectively revising existing guidelines for business process redesign. The proposed prototype has been shown quantitatively to outperform the conventional one: 6-fold increase in time efficiency, 1.28-fold in cost reduction, and 1.3-fold improvement in data quality.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.443-449
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• 2024

This study aims to analyze the complex impact of technological changes in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era and demographic shifts in Korea on military personnel management, and to explore innovative strategies for the Korean military's workforce operations. The research findings indicate that changes in future battlefield environments and the introduction of advanced technologies necessitate a fundamental restructuring of military personnel, emphasizing a shift towards a highly specialized and elite workforce. Key research findings are as follows: First, the military application of cutting-edge technologies, such as unmanned systems, autonomous weapon systems, and AI-based decision support systems, is expanding. Second, this technological advancement requires a restructuring of personnel to foster a technology-intensive elite force, including optimizing troop size, reorganizing unit structures, and increasing the utilization of civilian expertise. Third, strategies for securing high-tech talent include strengthening internal technology talent development programs, establishing systems to attract civilian experts, and building a talent development system through industry-academia-research cooperation. The significance of this study lies in providing a theoretical and practical foundation for building a future-oriented and efficient Korean military organization by presenting innovative measures for military human resource management systems suitable for the Fourth Industrial Revolution era. For these changes to be successfully implemented, cooperation among relevant stakeholders, including the military, government, academia, and industry, is essential, supported by comprehensive national-level planning and support.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.397-403
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• 2024

North Korea's rapidly advancing drone development and operational capabilities have become a significant threat to South Korea's security. The drone incursions by North Korea in 2014, 2017, and 2022 demonstrate the technological advancement and provocative potential of North Korean drones. This study aims to closely analyze the military threats posed by North Korean drones and seek effective countermeasures. The research examines the development level of North Korean drone technology, its military applications, the characteristics and patterns of recent drone incursions, the adequacy and limitations of South Korea's current response systems, and future countermeasures. For this purpose, domestic and international research literature and media reports were reviewed, and specific North Korean drone incursion cases were analyzed. The results indicate that North Korea's small drones possess technological features such as small size, low altitude, low-speed flight, long-duration flight, and reconnaissance equipment. These drones pose threats that can be utilized for reconnaissance, surveillance, surprise attacks, and terrorism. Additionally, South Korea's current response systems reveal limitations such as inadequate detection and identification capabilities, low interception success rates, lack of an integrated response system, and insufficient specialized personnel and equipment. Therefore, this study suggests various technical, policy, and international cooperative countermeasures, including the development of drone detection and identification technologies, the utilization of diverse drone neutralization technologies, the establishment of legal and institutional foundations, the construction of a cooperative framework among relevant agencies, and the strengthening of international cooperation. The study particularly emphasizes the importance of raising awareness of the North Korean drone threat across South Korean society and unifying national efforts to respond to these threats.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.113-118
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• 2024

Recently, advancements in artificial intelligence and computer graphics technology have led to the emergence of various virtual humans across multiple media such as movies, advertisements, broadcasts, games, and social networking services (SNS). In particular, in the advertising marketing sector centered around virtual influencers, virtual humans have already proven to be an important promotional tool for businesses in terms of time and cost efficiency. In Korea, the virtual influencer market is in its nascent stage, and both large corporations and startups are preparing to launch new services related to virtual influencers without clear boundaries. However, due to the lack of public disclosure of the development process, they face the situation of having to incur significant expenses. To address these requirements and challenges faced by businesses, this paper implements a photogrammetry-based facial capture system for creating realistic virtual humans and explores the use of these models and their application cases. The paper also examines an optimal workflow in terms of cost and quality through MetaHuman modeling based on Unreal Engine, which simplifies the complex CG work steps from facial capture to the actual animation process. Additionally, the paper introduces cases where virtual humans have been utilized in SNS marketing, such as on Instagram, and demonstrates the performance of the proposed workflow by comparing it with traditional CG work through an Unreal Engine-based workflow.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.67-76
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• 2013

Landfill require special care due to the dangers of nearby surface water and underground water pollution caused by leakage of leachate. The leachate does not leak due to the installation of the geomembrane but sharp wastes or landfill equipment can damage the geomembrane and therefore a means of protecting the geomembrane is required. In Korea, in accordance with the waste control act being modified in 1999, protecting the geosynthetics liner on top of the slope of landfill and installing a drainage layer to fluently drain leachate became mandatory, and technologies are being researched to both protect the geomembrane and quickly drain leachate simultaneously. Therefore, this research has its purpose in studying the drainage functions of leachate and protection functions of the geomembrane in order to examine the application possibilities of Geo-Multicell-Composite (GMC) as a Leachate Collection Removal and Protection System (LCRPs) at the slope on top of the geomembrane of landfill by observing methods of inserting filler with high-quality water permeability at the drainage net. GMC's horizontal permeability coefficient is $8.0{\times}10^{-4}m^2/s$ to legal standards satisfeid. Also crash gravel used as filler respected by vertical permeability is 5.0 cm/s, embroidering puncture strength 140.2 kgf. A result of storm drain using artificial rain in GMC model facility, maxinum flow rate of 1,120 L/hr even spray without surface runoff was about 92~97% penetration. Further study, instead of crash gravel used as a filler, such as using recycled aggregate utilization increases and the resulting construction cost is expected to savings.