In this review, we examine the latest technological developments in the utilization of truffles, a gourmet ingredient reputed to be one of the "world's three greatest delicacies," considering changing global consumption trends. Global demand for truffles is expected to increase steadily, with an average annual growth rate of 8.9% from 2023 to 2030. As truffles are expensive, the demand for truffles is expected to be concentrated in developed countries such as the United States, European countries, and Japan. In Korea, truffles are utilized in various industries, including food, functional foods, and cosmetics. Korean consumer demand for truffles has consistently remained high since 2019, and truffle products have been performing well in the market. Consequently, there exists substantial potential demand for newly developed truffle-related products and technologies. This review aims to provide objective research information through the systematic analysis of patent applications in Korea and internationally, focusing on technologies involving truffles, and can aid in setting directions for research and development.

Molten salts have gained significant attention as a potential medium for heat transfer or energy storage and as liquid nuclear fuel, owing to their superior thermal properties. Various fluoride- and chloride-based salts are being explored as potential liquid fuels for several types of molten salt reactors (MSRs). Among these, chloride-based salts have recently received attention in MSR development due to their high solubility in actinides, which has the potential to increase fuel burnup and reduce nuclear water production. Accurate knowledge of the thermal physical properties of molten salts, such as density, viscosity, thermal conductivity, and heat capacity, is critical for the design, licensing, and operation of MSRs. Various experimental techniques have been used to determine the thermal properties of molten salts, and more recently, computational methods such as molecular dynamics simulations have also been utilized to predict these properties. However, information on the thermal physical properties of salts containing actinides is still limited and unreliable. In this study, we analyzed the available thermal physical property database of chloride salts to develop accurate models and simulations that can predict the behavior of molten salts under various operating conditions. Furthermore, we conducted experiments to improve our understanding of the behavior of molten salts. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the development of safer and more efficient MSRs.

After the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, concerns have increased about radioactive releases from nuclear power plants (NPPs) into the environment. Analysis of annual radioactive effluent release reports (ARERRs) shows that from 2000 to 2020, abnormal releases of radioactive effluent occurred in 703 out of 1,323 Reactor·years in the United States, accounting for 53% of the total number of reactors in 63 PWRs. Furthermore, when examining incidents and malfunctions recorded in Korea’s Operational Performance Information System of Nuclear Power Plant (OPIS) during the same period, it can be estimated that abnormal releases occurred in 9 out of the 324 Reactor·years in PWRs and PHWRs. Meanwhile, database on radioactive releases from NPPs worldwide was collected, and events of abnormal/unplanned releases were investigated. Based on the data collected from 195 NPPs in 8 countries (South Korea, the United States, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and Canada) over a period of 21 years, totaling 4,607 Reactor·years, a program called K-IRED (KHUIntegrated Radioactive Effluent Database) was developed using MS Access. Using K-IRED, three methodologies have been developed to predict abnormal events based on the annual radioactive releases for each NPPs and radionuclide (or radionuclide group). Three newly developed methodologies were applied to the 63 NPPs (1,323 Reactor·years) in the United States, categorized by radionuclides (or radionuclide groups). Assuming an increase in radioactive effluent due to abnormal events, the annual increase rate of radioactive effluent was calculated for each methodology and the results were analyzed. The optimal methodology among the three was derived, and the applicability of predicting abnormal events in other NPPs beforehand was examined. Therefore, by predicting abnormal or unplanned releases from NPPs to the environment in advance, it is possible to prevent accidents and reduce public concerns, as suggested by results of this study.

The decommissioning of Korea Research Reactor Units 1 and 2 (KRR-1&2), the first research reactors in South Korea, began in 1997. Approximately 5,000 tons of waste will be generated when the contaminated buildings are demolished. Various types of radioactive waste are generated in large quantities during the operation and decommissioning of nuclear facilities, and in order to dispose of them in a disposal facility, it is necessary to physico-chemically characterize the radioactive waste. The need to transparently and clearly conduct and manage radioactive waste characterization methods and results in accordance with relevant laws, regulations, acceptance standards is emerging. For radioactive waste characterization information, all information must be provided to the disposal facility by measuring and testing the physical, chemical, and radiological characteristics and inputting related documents. At this time, field workers have the inconvenience of performing computerized work after manually inputting radioactive waste characterization information, and there is always a possibility that human errors may occur during manual input. Furthermore, when disposing of radioactive waste, the production of the documents necessary for disposal is also done manually, resulting in the aforementioned human error and very low production efficiency of numerous documents. In addition, as quality control is applied to the entire process from generation to treatment and disposal of radioactive waste, it is necessary to physically protect data and investigate data quality in order to manage the history information of radioactive waste produced in computerized work. In this study, we develop a system that can directly compute the radioactive waste characterization information at the field site where the test and measurement are performed, protect the stored radioactive waste characterization data, and provide a system that can secure reliability.

Since high-level radioactive wastes contain long-lived nuclides and emit high energy, they should be disposed of permanently through a deep geological disposal system. In Korea, the first (2016.07) and the second (2021.12) basic plans for the management of high-level disposal systems were proposed to select sites for deep geological disposal facilities and to implement business strategies. Leading countries such as Finland, Sweden and France have developed and applied safety cases to verify the safety of deep geological disposal systems. By examining the regulatory status of foreign leading countries, we analyze the safety cases ranging from the site selection stage of the deep geological disposal system to the securing of the permanent disposal system to the investigation, analysis, evaluation, design, construction, operation, and closure. Based on this analysis, we will develop safety case elements for long-term safety of deep geological disposal systems suitable for domestic situation. To systemically analyze data based on safety cases, we have established a database of deep geological disposal system regulations in leading foreign countries. Artificial intelligence text mining and data visualization techniques are used to provide database in dashboard form rather than simple lists of data items, which is a limitation of existing methods. This allows regulatory developers to understand information more quickly and intuitively and provide a convenient interface so that anyone can easily access the analyzed data and create meaningful information. Furthermore, based on the accumulated bigdata, the artificial intelligence learns and analyzes the information in the database through deep learning, and aims to derive a more accurate safety case. Based on these technologies, this study analyzed the legal systems, regulatory standards, and cases of major international leading countries and international organizations such as the United States, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Switzerland, and the IAEA to establish a database management system. To establish a safety regulation base suitable for the domestic deep geological disposal environment, the database is provided as data to refer to and apply systematic information management on regulatory standards and regulatory cases of overseas leading countries, and it is expected that it will play a key role as a forum for understanding and discussing the level of safety of deep geological disposal system among stakeholders.

This study is aimed to provide fundamental data for expanding the scope and dimensions of Sino words research, and to secure a comprehensive perspective that encompasses the ancient, modern and dialect forms of Sino words in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to construct the wide-ranging, multi-dimensional database with maximum coverage, and this study was planned to explore specific ways to realize this. East Asian languages have exchanged cultural and linguistic influences through Chinese characters for thousands of years. Therefore, the study of Sino words requires a radial and reticular approach that can closely connect their complex historical and regional layers. However, the previous researches have revealed limitations such as inadequate examination of major languages, inappropriate use of materials, or inability to analyze rich linguistic features that exist in various dialects within Chinese or differences in words between North and South Korean. To overcome these limitations, this study confirms the need for a database that can comprehensively examine Sino words in the four languages of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese, without distinguishing between base and surface forms, and encompassing all morphological forms with Chinese character elements. This database should include both archaic and contemporary, or even modern new words, as well as various dialectical forms in North and South Korea and different regions of China. To be utilized effectively in research, it should also include information on usage frequency and educational vocabulary levels, enabling the confirmation of the status of a word in contemporary language. Rather than providing definitive information like a dictionary, it is more useful to provide supplementary information such as the reference and literature, increasing the accessibility of materials for researchers and increasing the possibility of implementing the database. In response to the aforementioned need, this paper proposes the construction of a relational database consisting of 12 entity tables and presents specific procedures and methods for implementing it. Despite the difficulties of constructing a relational database for vast amounts of data and the burden on servers, we expect that a wide-ranging, multi-dimensional database of East Asian Sino words will contribute to existing research on Chinese characters, as well as vocabulary and concept research and education.

Recently, with the development of genetic technology, interest in environmental DNA (eDNA) to study biodiversity according to molecular biological approaches is increasing. Environmental DNA has many advantages over traditional research methods for biological communities distributed in the environment but highly depends on the established base sequence database. This study conducted a comprehensive analysis of the habitat status and classification at the genus level, which is mainly used in eDNA (12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, COI, and CYTB), focusing on Korean registration taxon groups (phytoplankton, zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, and fish). As a result, phytoplankton and zooplankton showed the highest taxa proportion in 18S rRNA, and macroinvertebrates observed the highest ratio in the nucleotide sequence database in COI. In fish, all genes except 18S rRNA showed a high taxon ratio. Based on the Korean registration taxon group, the gene construction of the top 20 genera according to bio density observed that most of the phytoplankton were registered in 18S rRNA, and the most significant number of COI nucleotide sequences were established in macroinvertebrates. In addition, it was confirmed that there is a nucleotide sequence for the top 20 genera in 12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, and CYTB in fish. These results provided comprehensive information on the genes suitable for eDNA research for each taxon group.

Kori-1, the nuclear power plants in South Korea, first started operation in April 1978 and was suspended permanently in 2017. The saturation rate time of spent nuclear fuel generated by major nuclear power plants operating in Korea are getting closer. If we fail to dispose spent nuclear fuel, which is equivalent to high-level radioactive waste, the nuclear power plants will have to be shutdown. High-level radioactive waste is permanently disposed through a deep geological disposal system because it contains long-term half-life nuclides and emits high energy. To select the deep geological disposal site and construct the disposal facilities, it is necessary to establish appropriate regulatory policies accordingly. The status of database construction in OECD-NEA, NRC, SITEX, and IAEA, which provides safety regulations for deep geological disposal system, stipulates each requirement for dismantling nuclear power plants. However, details such as specific figures are not specified, and guidelines for the disposal of high-level radioactive wastes are not clearly distinguished. In Korea, the CYPRUS program, an integrated database system, has been developed to support comprehensive performance evaluation for high-level waste disposal. However, due to several difficult situations, maintenance and upgrades have not been performed, so the research results exist only in the form of raw data and the new research results have not been reflected. Other than that, there is no preemptive basis for regulating the deep geological disposal system. With real-time database, we can develop a regulatory system for the domestic deep disposal system by systematically analyzing the regulatory condition and regulatory case data of international organizations and foreign leading countries. The database system processed and stored primary data collected from nuclear safety reports and other related data. In addition, we used relational database and designed table to maximize time and space efficiency. It is provided in the form of a web service so that multiple users can easily find the data they want at the same time. Based on these technologies, this study established a database system by analyzing the legal systems, regulatory standards, and cases of major foreign leading countries such as Sweden, Finland, the United States, and Japan. This database aims to organize data for each safety case component and further prepare a safety regulatory framework for each stage of development of disposal facilities suitable for the domestic environment.

Korea Institute of Nuclear Non-proliferation and Control (KINAC) Safeguards division and Export control division operate regulation management system each other according to their work scope and characteristics. Korea Safeguards Information System (KSIS) of Safeguards division handles information for nuclear material accounting and control. Especially, accounting and declaration reports submitted to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are important information in this system. And Nuclear Import and Export Control System (NEPS) of Export control division deals with import and export information of nuclear materials and nuclear weapon trigger list items. Establishing and operating the integrated database as sharing information between KSIS and NEPS derive merits as follows. First, the full cycle of nuclear material transfer records can be managed by collecting information on the nuclear materials from import to export or disposal. In addition, regulatory body can verify inconsistency between transfer records and account records in date, location, element, mass etc. Especially, small quantity nuclear materials are major loop hole in nuclear material accountancy system. The accumulated material transfer data will give an evidence to catch loss nuclear material. Second, sharing the information on nuclear fuel cycle related research and development activities in both divisions can utilize the information to outreach on facility subject to nuclear technology transfer for Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and additional protocol declaration for Safeguards Agreement with IAEA. Third, regulatory body is easily able to manage entire import and IAEA report procedure for items subject to the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (NCA). In present, KINAC regulation on NCA is divided to Export control and Safeguards. Export control division conducts classification imported items subject to NCA and acquires prior consent or notifies to other country. And Safeguards division report inventory list for each NCA country to the ROK government once a year. Imported NCA inventory list will be generated automatically by merging database. Then, it can be easily verified without any additional process by both divisions.

목적 : 본 연구는 노인장기요양등급 대상자들의 작업치료 이용 여부와 인지 기능과의 연관성을 분석하기 위해 수행되었다. 연구방법 : 국민건강보험공단에서 제공하는 2015년 노인코호트 데이터베이스에서 60세 이상 노인 데이터 를 추출하여 분석하였다. 본 연구의 종속변수는 노인장기요양보험 신청 시 평가되는 인지 기능 9개의 항 목이며, 독립변수는 작업치료 수가 정보를 기반으로 작업치료 서비스 수행 그룹과 미수행 그룹으로 나눈 작업치료 서비스 이용 여부이다. 작업치료 서비스 이용 여부와 인지 기능 간의 연관성을 분석하기 위해 다중선형 회귀분석을 적용하였으며, 공변량은 인구통계학적 및 임상학적 특성을 사용하였다. 결과 : 분석에 사용된 29,436명 중에서 작업치료 서비스를 이용한 그룹은 3,796명(12.90%)이었으며 대 부분의 분석 샘플은 여자(n = 2,465, 4.94%)로 구성되었다. 이들의 평균 연령은 80.38 ± 5.19세였 다. 지역사회에 거주하며 작업치료 서비스를 이용한 대상자는 1,925명(50.71%)이었으며 장애인등급을 가진 대상자는 281명(7.40%)이었다. 작업치료 서비스 이용과 인지 기능은 긍정적인 연관성이 도출되었 다(β = 0.17, 95% Confidence Internal[CI] = 0.10 to 0.24). 결론 : 본 연구는 작업치료 서비스 이용이 인지 기능의 긍정적인 결과와 연관성을 제시하였으며 작업치료 서비스가 인지기능의 유지 및 증진과 연관성이 있다는 것을 의미한다. 추후 노인장기요양보험제도 개정 시 노인장기요양등급 대상자들의 인지 재활을 목적으로 작업치료 서비스의 필요성을 제시하기 위해 본 연구 결과가 활용되길 기대한다.

The digitization of ancient characters allows ancient writing materials to break the limitations of time and space. The application of digital technology can also help the interpretation of ancient writings and contribute to the protection of original materials. After more than 20 years of efforts, the research on digital processing of Chinese ancient characters has made a series of attempts in ancient character database and query system, big data platform, ancient character input software and recognition software, and achieved a series of achievements. In the future, we need to make continuous efforts in the interdisciplinary talent training of Chinese Palaeography and computer science, the cooperation between different research institutions, and the openness of digital achievements.

본 연구에서는 유한요소해석 D/B를 기반으로 보간식을 산출하여 개활지 폭발현상에 의해 기둥에 작용하는 폭압이력을 예측하는 모델을 개발했다. D/B 구성을 위해 7종류 기둥 너비에 대해 총 70회의 유한요소해석을 수행했다. 제안하는 방법의 성능확인을 위해, 기존에 제시된 경험식 기반의 예측식과의 비교연구를 수행했다. 또한, D/B를 구성하는 point 외의 영역에서의 예측 정확도 확인을 위 해 유한요소해석 결과와의 비교/검증 연구를 추가로 수행했다. 제안하는 방법은 기존의 경험식 기반 예측식에 비해 유한요소해석 결 과와 유사한 결과를 산출함을 확인했다.

PURPOSES : A methodology for estimating micro-emission factors using vehicle trajectory data collected from navigation and DTG devices and basic emission factors for each vehicle type of the MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) is presented. The methodology can calculate micro-emissions based on only the traffic volume and average speed for each vehicle type. METHODS : Cluster analysis was performed by accumulating the trajectories of individual vehicles on a specific road section into speed groups in which vehicles drove with the same range of average speed. Then, the micro-emission factors were estimated for each speed group. RESULTS : Using the vehicle trajectory data revealed that the emissions calculated from micro-emission factors estimated by the proposed methodology were similar to the sum of the emissions calculated from the vehicle trajectories for each vehicle. CONCLUSIONS : The micro-emission factor database for each road type and vehicle type proposed in this study should be useful for estimating vehicle emissions on the road. The proposed method can calculate emissions in the same way as the macroscopic analysis method, using the traffic volume, average speed, and link length.