Yoko Tawada’s drama Kafka Kaikoku (2013) depicts Japan’s encounter with Western culture from the Meiji era on as the catalyst for a metamorphosis much like Gregor Samsa’s in the work of the same name by Franz Kafka. Ironically, the victim of this East-West clash turns out to be Izumi Kyōka (1873-1939), a man who was anything but an enthusiastic adopter of European literary style. Interweaving elements also from Kafka’s Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor, 1919), Tawada’s play suggests further that Izumi’s fate was set, since he—and, by extension, all Japanese—could not resist roles the West had prepared for him. Ultimately, this article explains, Kafka Kaikoku offers a critical view of modernization as a force that made Japanese into beings with a hybrid literary consciousness who lacked both much of their own native particularity and also their very humanity.

Desalination with low energy consumption has been recognized as a crucial technology for meeting the growing freshwater needs of the UAE. In 2016, KAIA and the Masdar company in the UAE signed Joint Development Agreement to develop energy-efficient desalination technologies. The research aims to build a pilot plant desalination plant in UAE for demonstrating reduction of energy footprint. For this R&D project, Daewoo E&C designs and constructs a customized low energy seawater desalination facility with 1000~2000 m³/d by 2018. The goal of specific energy consumption is 3.3 kWh/m³, finally resulting in O&M cost reduction by more than 10%. The system will be configurated with energy saving RO membrane(LG chemistry), pretreatment for algae control using tube type bio filter(MTBF) and DAF, and ion exchange and capacitive deionization for replacement of 2nd RO. Optimizing this pilot plant by 2020 in the UAE is the next milestone in realizing the energy-efficient desalination technology to a viable product.

The oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), has potential of serious damage to various vegetables or fruits, especially genus of Citrus, such as mandarin orange and tangerine in Korea, where its larvae do damages. Animal and Plant Quarantin Agency of Korea and Animsl Systematics Laboratory of Kunans National University have collected the samples of oriental fruit fly in East Asian countries, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar, China, Cambodia, India and Nepal. To confirm genetic differences and structure of B. dorsalis population samples collected from those countries, we analyzed 192 individuals from 28 locations over 7 countries using 15 microsatellite loci. In total samples, number of different alleles, number of effective alleles and Shannon's Information Index were 6.421±0.364 (standard error, SE), 3.664±0.137 (SE) and 0.902±0.030 (SE), respectively. Grand means (±SE) of observed and expected heterozygosity over all loci and populations were 0.534 (±0.018) and 0.597 (±0.017), respectively. Among all populations, Fst values ranged from 0.016 to 0.705 with averaging 0.194 (±0.026).

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock and Food in Korea has done an R&D project to develop new corn and soybean varieties and cultivation technologies with Seoul National University and on-site company for three years in Russia, where Korean government has done the overseas’ agriculture for more than a decade. The objective of this study is to analyze the investment value of three years’ funding. For this, a Cost-Benefit and Scenario analysis approaches were used. The results revealed that 1) For the case of soybean, cost seems to outweigh benefits under a pessimistic scenario, but otherwise in case of neutral and optimistic scenarios. 2) The result of corn shows high economic efficiency for all scenarios. 3) The most important implication of this study is that Korea’s oversea agriculture R&D projects need to expand to different countries, regions, and crops.

We attempted to investigate antibacterial and proteolytic activities of bacteria isolated from three ethnic fermented seafoods in the east coast of South Korea, gajami sikhae, squid jeotgal, and fermented jinuari (Grateloupia filicina). Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579, Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 15313, Staphylococcus aureus KCTC 1916, Escherichia coli O157:H7 ATCC 43895, and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium ATCC 4931 were selected to determine the antibacterial activity of the bacterial isolates. Among 233 isolates from the three foods, 36 isolates (15.5%) showed antibacterial activity against B. cereus ATCC 14579, the highest incidence of inhibition, followed by S. aureus KCTC 1916 (7.7%) and L. monocytogenes ATCC 15313 (6.0%). However, only five and three strains among the isolates exhibited inhibitory activity against Gram-negative indicators, E. coli ATCC 43895 and Sal. enterica ATCC 4931, respectively. The proteolytic activity of the isolates was determined via hydrolysis of skim milk after 24, 48, and 72 h incubation. After 72 h incubation, 72 out of 233 isolates (30.9%) showed proteolytic activity, and the isolates of fermented jinuari exhibited the highest incidence of proteolytic activity (60%, 36 isolates). These results suggest that ethnic fermented seafoods in the east coast of South Korea might be a promising source of bacterial strains producing antibacterial and proteolytic compounds.

Fishing pots are one of the important fishing gears in our coastal and offshore fisheries. In terms of a sustainable use of marine resources, there are concerns about the ghost fishing by lost pots. It is reported that 10 to 70% of the pots are abandoned or lost annually. This study is to compare the catching efficiency of drum type whelk pots that are made of biodegradable nets to those made of the ordinary nets, in the eastern coast of Korea. Five types of drum pots were used with combination of biodegradable nets and ordinary (PA, PE) nets applied to the main and funnel parts of the pots: pots with biodegradable nets (Bio+Bio); pots with PE net (PE+PE); pots with body and funnel made of biodegradable nets and PE nets respectively (Bio+PE); pots with body and funnel made of PE nets and PA nets respectively (PE+PA); pots with body and funnel made of PE nets and biodegradable net respectively (PE+Bio). Field experiments were conducted from June 18th, 2015 to August 7th, 2015 using a commercial fishing vessel in the Uljin waters on the eastern coast of Korea. Two fleets of pots with one hundred in each, 20 pots of each type, were casted for 8 to 15 days to analyze their catching efficiency. The catch of target species, whelks, was 202,563.0 g with catch rate of 38.7% of the total catch, while the bycatch was 320,709.7 g with the rate of 61.3% of the total catch. The catch of whelks was the highest in the Bio+PE pots (46,020.3 g), followed by the Bio+Bio pots (42,027.5 g), the PE+Bio pots (41,849.9 g) and the lowest being PE+PE pots (38,054.2 g). Compared to the conventional pots, the pots with biodegradable nets on the body or entrance part had slightly higher catch rate for both the target species and the bycatch. The PE+PE had the lowest catch rate. There is no significant difference in catch between the pots with biodegradable nets and the ordinary nets for the target species such as Buccinum opisthoplectum, Neptunea eulimata, Buccinum striatissimum. Consequently, using biodegradable nets for the conventional whelk pots can reduce ghost fishing by lost gears while keeping the performance of the pots.

동해 남서해역 퇴적물의 현장 음파전달속도를 파악하기 위하여 신호투과법을 이용하여 퇴적물의 실험실 음파전 달속도를 측정하였다. 측정된 실험실 음파전달속도는 해저면 온도, 해수 음파전달속도, Kim et al. (2004)과 Hamilton (1980) 모델을 적용하여 현장 음파전달속도로 보정하였다. Kim et al. (2004)과 Hamilton (1980)의 현장 음파전달속도는 연구지역 퇴적물 특성을 반영하며, 유사한 분포를 보인다. 현장 음파전달속도 보정에는 해저면 온도의 영향을 크게 받 는 것을 확인할 수 있다. 따라서 퇴적물의 실험실 음파전달속도를 통해 현장 음파전달속도를 파악하기 위해서는 해저 표층 온도 자료를 통한 온도 보정이 반드시 수행되어야 한다.

This present study investigated characteristics of distribution and community structure of macrobenthic invertebrates through the survey of commercial Danish seine fisheries from 2011 to 2013. In this study, a total of 28 species were sampled with a mean density of 32,568 ind./km2 and mean biomass of 1,649.5 kg/km2. The dominant species, comprising over 1.0% of the total number of individuals, were Chionoecetes opilio (11,203 ind./km2, 34.4%), Pandalus eous (9,247 ind./km2, 28.4%), Ophiuridae spp. (5,750 ind./km2, 17.7%), Argis lar (2,631 ind./km2, 8.1%), Neocrangon communis (994 ind./km2, 3.1%), Berryteuthis magister (612 ind./km2, 1.9%), Sepiola birostrata (499 ind./km2, 1.5%) and Strongylocentrotidae sp. (424 ind./km2, 1.3%). The dominant species, in terms of biomass, comprising over 1.0% of the total biomass, were C. opilio (1,167.2 kg/km2, 70.8%), B. magister (130.3 kg/km2, 7.9%), P. eous (102.4 kg/km2, 6.2%), Ophiuridae spp. (84.6 kg/km2, 5.1%), Enteroctopus dofleini (45.5 kg/km2, 2.8%), A. lar (35.7 kg/km2, 2.2%), Strongylocentrotidae sp. (25.0 kg/km2, 1.5%) and S. birostrata (22.1 kg/km2, 1.3%). Among them, S. birostrata, E. dofleini, Strongylocentrotidae sp. and Ophiuridae spp. were higher abundance and biomass in the shallow water (<200 meters in depth), whereas C. opilio, P. eous, A. lar, N. communis and B. magister were higher in the deep water (301 ~ 500 meters in depth).As the results of cluster analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) analysis based on the Bray-Curtis similarity of fourth root transformed data for number of species and individuals, the macrobenthic invertebrates community by Danish seine survey was divided into two groups of station in the shallow water (<200 meters in depth, Group A) and the deep water (201 ~ 500 meters in depth, Group B). The major individual-dominant species was S. birostrata, Ophiuridae spp. and immature C. opilio in group A. But Group B was P. eous, A. lar, B. magister and mature C. opilio.

경상북도 구룡포 해역에서 하계 냉수 발생 특성과 어류 폐사를 유발하는 냉수대 강도를 파악하고자 2007년 8~11월 멍게양식장에 수온로거를 설치하여 수층별 수온을 측정하였으며, 2015년과 2016년은 국립수산과학원 실시간어장정보시스템의 표층수온 자료를 이용하였다. 동해 남부해역의 냉수대 발생 원리와 부합하게 남~남서풍이 강하게 불 때 용승으로 표층수온이 급격히 하강하였으며(2007년 8월 하순, 9월 20~22일, 2015년 7월 13~15일), 반대로 북~북동풍이 우세할 때 저층수온이 급상승하는(2007년 9월 5~7일, 9월 16~18일) 것으로 나타났다. 그 외에도 7~8월 구룡포 해역에 나타나는 약한 강도의 표층수온의 하강과 상승은 바람 방향과 밀접한 관계가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 구룡포 해역에서 최대풍속이 5 m/s 이상인 남~남서풍이 최소 이틀 이상 유지되면 표층수온이 약 10 이하로 하강하는 강한 냉수대가 발생하고 이로 인해 어류 폐사가 발생하는 것으로 파악되었다. 이를 바탕으로 포항기상대의 최대풍속과 최대풍속 풍향을 이용하여 냉수발생지수(Cold Water Index)를 정의하고 계산한 결과, CWI2d(CWI 2일 평균)가 100 이상일 때 어류 폐사가 주로 발생하였으며, CWI4d(CWI 4일 평균)는 7~8월 구룡포 표층수온과 높은 음의 상관성을 나타내었다(R²=0.5). 2007년 10월 30 m 수층의 수온 일변화(7~23 )는 조석변화와 일치하는 주기와 스펙트럼을 보였으며, 이는 북한한류수 영향인 것으로 파악된다. 이와 같이 조석과 북한한류수로 인한 일변화가 어류 가두리가 설치된 수심에도 영향을 미친다면 어업 피해로 이어질 수 있으므로 정밀한 조사가 필요할 것으로 생각된다.