To investigate seasonal variation of fisheries resources composition and their correlationships with environmental factors in the coastal ecosystem of the middle Yellow Sea of Korea, shrimp beam trawl were carried out for the fisheries survey. Fisheries resources of 81 species, 57 families, and 6 taxa totally were collected by shrimp beam trawl in the middle coastal ecosystem of Yellow Sea of Korea. Species were included 6 species in Bivalvia, 6 in Cephalopoda, 22 in Crustacea, 2 in Echinodermata, 5 in Gastropoda, and 40 in Pisces. Diversity indices (Shannon index, H') showed seasonal variation with low value of 2.14 in winter, and high value of 2.67 in spring. Main dominant species were Oratosquilla oratoria, Octopus ocellatus, Acanthogobius lactipes, Cynoglossus joyneri, Rapana venosa venosa, Loligo beka, Chaeturichthys stigmatias, Raja kenojei, Microstomus achne and Paralichthys olivaceus, that were occupied over 58% of total individuals, and 55% of wet weight. Fisheries organism made four coordinative seasonal groups by the principal component analysis (PCA), showing stronger seasonal variation than spatial variation. PC from PCA showed statistically significant cross-correlationships with seawater temperature, NH4-N, TP and chlorophyll a (P 〈 0.05).

Maturation and spawning of the jack mackerel, Trachurus japonicus was investigated based on the samples captured in the coastal waters around Jeju Island from January 2007 to December 2008. Gonadosomatic index began to increase in March, and reached a maximum between April to June. After spawning it began to decrease from August. Reproductive season was estimated to March-July, with peak in April. Fecundity was proportional to the size of the female, with the clutch size varying from 33,493 eggs in the smallest female(FL=27.0cm) to 627,061 eggs in the largest(FL=40.6cm). Size at 50% sexual maturity(FL50), determined from mature females, was 26.6cm FL. Annual reproductive cycles of this species could be divided into six successive stages; immature stage(September-December), nucleolus stage(January-February), yolk vesicle stage(February-March), vitellogenic stage(March-April), ripe stage(April-July) and spent stage(July-September).

DNA sequencer는 template로 이용하는 DNA의 quality와 sequencing 반응 산물의 정제 방법, 그리고 gel 농도에 민감하다고 알려져 있다. 이에 우리는 plasmid DNA의 준비, 정제, sequencing 반응, gel 농도와 injection medium 등에 대한 최적 조건을 구축하기 위한 연구를 수행하였다. Plasmid DNA 준비과정에서 phenol을 사용한 것 보다 chloroform을 사용한 것이 평균 reading length가 532 bp에서 684 bp로 향상 되었으며, 2.5% DMSO를 첨가한 것이 첨가하지 않은 것에 비해 200 bp 더 길게 염기서열 분석이 되었다. 또한, sequencing 반응산물 정제 시 50 mM EDTA와 0.6 M sodium acetate를 미리 섞어서 pH 8.0으로 맞춘 것을 사용한 것이 50 mM EDTA(pH 8.0)와 0.6 M sodium acetate(pH 5.2)를 각각 사용한 것 보다 20 bp 길게 염기서열 분석이 되었다. Injection medium으로는 실험실에서 resin으로 탈 이온화 시킨 formamide보다 정제된 ABI formamide를 사용한 것이 보다 재현성 있게 reading length가 90 bp 더 길게 분석 되었으며, 4% PAGE gel 보다 3.6% PAGE gel을 사용한 것이 150 bp 더 길게 분석 되었다. Template 준비 시 chloroform으로 정제하고 2.5% DMSO를 첨가, sequencing 반응산물 정제 시 carrier의 pH를 8.0으로 맞춘 것을 이용, 그리고 ABI formamide와 3.6% gel 농도를 사용하는 최적의 조건으로 평균 700 bp, 85% score를 얻을 수 있었다.

Ecological risk assessment(ERA), developed in Australia, can be used to estimate the risk of target, bycatch and protected species from the effects of fishing using limited data for stock assessment. In this study, we employed the ERA approach to estimate risks to tunas, billfishes, sharks, sea turtles and other species by the Korean tuna longline fishery in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean using productivity and susceptibility analyses of the ERA based on low(<1.30), medium(1.30-1.84) and high risk(>1.84). Albacore, bigeye, yellowfin, skipjack and bluefin tunas were generally evaluated in the medium risk. The susceptibility of tuna species, however, had higher risks than the productivity. Billfishes were also at medium risk, while sharks were at high risk by the tuna longline fishery. The risk of productivity was generally high, because most sharks caught by the tuna longline fishery have high longevities, i.e., over 10 years, including ovoviviparous species. Susceptibility, which is related with the selection of fishing gear, was also high, because the longline fishery has no gear modifications to prevent bycatch of protected species. Not only target tuna species were influenced by the tuna longline fishery in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, but also nontarget species, such as pomfret, mackerels rays, sea turtle were done. Ecosystem-based fishery assessment tools, such as productivity and susceptibility analysis(PSA), have the ability to provide broad scientific advice to the policy makers and stakeholders.

This study standardized catch per unit effort(CPUE) of the Korean longline fishery, which has been used to assess the status of stock as an index of abundance, for bigeye and yellowfin tunas in the Indian Ocean. The Generalized Linear Model(GLM) was used to analyze the fishery data, which were catch in number and effort data collected each month from 1971 to 2007 by 5 × 5 degree of latitude and longitude. Explanatory variables for the GLM analysis were year, month, fishing area, number of hooks between floats(HBF), and environment factors. The HBF was divided into three classes while the area was divided into eight subareas. Although sea surface temperature(SST) and southern oscillation index(SOI) were considered as environmental factors, only SST was used to build a model based on statistical significance. Standardized CPUE for yellowfin tuna showed a declining trend, while nominal CPUE for the species showed an increasing trend.

This paper proposes a low-cost robotic surgery system composed of a general purpose robotic arm, an interface for daVinci surgical robot tools and a modular haptic controller utilizing smart actuators. The 7 degree of freedom (DOF) haptic controller is suspended in the air using the gravity compensation, and the 3D position and orientation of the controller endpoint is calculated from the joint readings and the forward kinematics of the haptic controller. Then the joint angles for a general purpose robotic arm is calculated using the analytic inverse kinematics so that that the tooltip reaches the target position through a small incision. Finally, the surgical tool wrist joints angles are calculated to make the tooltip correctly face the desired orientation. The suggested system is implemented and validated using the physical UR5e robotic arm.

Coastal marine ecosystem plays important role of spawning and nursery grounds for fisheries resources. Yongil Bay is one of major coastal marine ecosystems, which is located in the southwestern East Sea of Korea. Species composition and abundance of marine organism in the Yongil Bay were investigated by season from March to November 2009. Gill net and pot fisheries were used for survey of pelagic and demersal species composition, and collected 106 species, 67 families, and 7 taxa of fisheries resources from the coastal ecosystem. Species were included 2 species in Ascidiacea, 2 species in Bivalvia, 6 in Cephalopoda, 22 in Crustacea, 5 in Echinodermata, 12 in Gastropoda, and 57 in Pisces. Diversity indices (Shannon index, H’) showed seasonal variation with low value of 2.11 in winter, and high value of 2.63 in autumn. Main dominant species were Asterias amurensis, Pleuronectes yokohamae, Siphonalia spadicea fuscolineata, Trachurus japonicas, Sillago japonica, Conger myriaster, Volutharpa ampullaceal, Engraulis japonicus, Asterina pectinifera, and Portunus (Portunus) sanguinolentus that were occupied over 71.5% of total individuals, and 52.9% of wet weight. Seasonal variations of fisheries resources composition were discussed on correlationships with those of environmental factors in the coastal ecosystem of the Yongil Bay in Korea. Those results from this study will provide scientific data and information to develop the ecosystem-based coastal fisheries assessment and management system in Korea.