• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.203-219
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• 2019

Recently, the Trump administration initiated a new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that strengthened NAFTA's rules of origin to enhance protectionism while maintaining the framework of trade agreements rather than completely abolishing them. This study focuses on the behavior of firms motivated to influence the government to practice protectionist trade by analyzing the rules of origin verification and adopting the political economics model. This paper explains the process of endogenous determination of the stringency of rules of origin verification as a non-tariff barrier using the lobbying model. Comparative static analysis shows that the more efficient technology a domestic firm has and the more government prefers to raise political contribution, the more is verification likely to be strict. This suggests that a rationale exists to maintain a free trade agreement in the form of the new agreement (USMCA) without abolishing the current NAFTA regime.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.79-86
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• 2020

In Korea, the Basic Act is guaranteed through the "Act on the Guarantee of Convenience Promotion for Disabled Persons, the Elderly, Pregnant Women, etc." and various ordinances. In order to improve this situation, it is necessary to introduce Universal Design (UD). By applying this where it is most needed, access to cultural properties is enhanced to promote multiple rights. Currently, the region with the largest population of the elderly in Korea is Gyeonggi-do, but the region with the highest proportion of the elderly is Jeolla-do. However, the Jeolla-do area is lagging behind in the revision of UD regulations or guidelines. Taking this into consideration and introducing it to each facility will also help to achieve balanced national development. In order to establish and apply effective universal design-related policies, it is necessary to diagnose the aspects of social change that affect our lives. In this study, the need for UD should be expanded as a basis for expanding social activities of socially disadvantaged people in Jeollabuk-do. Its goal is to diagnose the current status of UD and to suggest directions for application of improvements.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.267-277
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• 2021

This study investigates sound, scenery, and soundscape preferences, which are sensory factors that users feel in a healing forest, comparing the difference in recovery by the soundscape. In the barrier-free, wooden walking path of the National Daegwallyeong Healing Forest, a survey site with five different conditions was selected. Users prefer water sounds the most and places with open views for scenery. For the complex sensation of soundscapes, the most preferred is a space where water sounds can be heard, and either a waterfall or an open view can be seen. A profile of mood states test was use to compare users' psychological recovery by the soundscape. It was found that users felt the most positive mood with water sounds and open views. In addition, users' preference for artificial sounds, scenery, and soundscape was the lowest. In the mood state test, it was found that the artificial soundscape incited the most negative emotions.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.97-112
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to design and test a new way of public transportation route guidance system for persons with disabilities, including wheelchair users. The guidance system is smartphone app-based, using, routes that involve disabled-friendly facilities in the vicinity can be searched. A database that contains publicly available data on low-floor bus services, location and extent of disabled-friendly facilities, and suitable subways and stations, was developed for this purpose. The app uses the database to access and query the required information. A pilot study was conducted to test the effectiveness of the guidance system. It was found that the system was able to convey information about the disabled-friendly routes and related guidance information even inside subway stations, effectively. The performance of the system was compared with route guidance services that do not explicitly use data on disabled-friendly services. A notable difference was observed in the travel time estimated by this program and other guidance services. The difference was around 4 to 15 minutes. This is significant savings for persons with disabilities if they use the app and service. The study thus shows that exclusive use of disabled-friendly data in route guidance will bring more benefits for persons with disabilities.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.284-291
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• 2022

Historical data from comparable projects can serve as benchmarking data for an ongoing project's planning during the project scoping phase. As project owners typically store substantial amounts of data generated throughout project life cycles in digitized databases, they can capture appropriate data to support various project planning activities by accessing digital databases. One of the most important work tasks in this process is identifying one or more past projects comparable to a new project. The uniqueness and complexity of construction projects along with unorganized data, impede the reliable identification of comparable past projects. A project scope document provides the preliminary overview of a project in terms of the extent of the project and project requirements. However, narratives and free-formatted descriptions of project scopes are a significant and time-consuming barrier if a human needs to review them and determine similar projects. This study proposes an Artificial Intelligence-driven model for analyzing project scope descriptions and evaluating project similarity using natural language processing (NLP) techniques. The proposed algorithm can intelligently a) extract major work activities from unstructured descriptions held in a database and b) quantify similarities by considering the semantic features of texts representing work activities. The proposed model enhances historical comparable project identification by systematically analyzing project scopes.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.71-89
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• 2020

This study was carried out to identify the impact of EU GDPR on international trade amid the ongoing digital trade liberalization. To do this, we first looked at the current trend of digital trade liberalization, the role of data in it, and the trade-restrictive elements of EU GDPR. This allowed us to identify the negative impact of GDPR on free trade. It then conducted an interview survey on Korean companies operating in the EU to verify the conclusions reached. The result of this survey showed that the level of GDPR risk perceived by Korean firms was very low compared with those of American, Japanese and Chinese firms. In particular, the impact of GDPR is not clear for Korea's SMEs. It can be assumed that the reason for this is that Korean SMEs are not using data as a major business tool while the capability of SMEs is sufficient to cope with GDPR. In this regard, the government's appropriate policies and further research for SMEs are needed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.1385-1397
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• 2024

Bentonite is a recommended material for the multiple barriers in the final disposal of low-level radioactive waste (LLW) to prevent groundwater intrusion and nuclear species migration. However, after drying-wetting cycling during the repository construction stage and ion exchange with the concrete barrier in the long-term repository, the bentonite mechanical behaviors, including swelling capacity and hydraulic conductivity, would be further influenced by the groundwater intrusion, resulting in radioactive leakage. To comprehensively examine the factors on the mechanical characteristics of bentonite, this study presented scenarios involving MX-80 and KV-1 bentonites subjected to drying-wetting cycling and accelerated ion migration. The experiments subsequently measured free swelling, swelling pressure, and hydraulic conductivity of bentonites with intrusions of seawater, high pH, and low pH solutions. The results indicated that the solutions caused a reduction in swelling volume and pressure, and an increase in hydraulic conductivity. Specifically, the swelling capability of bentonite with drying-wetting cycling in the seawater decreased significantly by 60%, while hydraulic conductivity increased by more than three times. Therefore, the study suggested minimizing drying-wetting cycling and preventing seawater intrusion, ensuring a long service life of the multiple barriers in the LLW repository.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.809-850
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• 2012

A linkage of emissions trading schemes among Korea, China and Japan demonstrates overall increase in gross domestic product (GDP). However, it also demonstrates reductions in household consumption, and the impact of integration could be very unbalanced between the countries. In particular, the reductions in domestic marginal costs are high in both Korea and Japan. Therefore, household consumptions in the two countries decrease despite increases in GDP because Korea and Japan will be purchasers of emissions rights. China, on the other hand, will experience the opposite. The unbalanced impacts on real household consumptions are intensified when emission credits are allocated via paid auctions instead of free allocation. This was demonstrated to be the case because the circumstances of three countries are intensified when using a paid emissions credit allocation scheme, and their differences could potentially hinder the cooperation between the three countries. Under the free allocation scheme, the emission trading schemes' unbalanced impacts on consumption could be mitigated, but unavoidable negative impacts of free allocation schemes are also serious. Based on the analysis results, Korea, China, and Japan will individually face complicated impacts if their carbon markets are integrated. Although the GDP of three countries will increase as a result of carbon market integration, the benefits of integration will surely be unbalanced, and the three countries will experience negative impacts in terms of actual consumption or employment. In particular, increases in income and consumption, reductions in employment, and energy dependence by credit purchasers (Japan and Korea) and production reduction and possibility of offshoring faced by revenue producing countries (China) could serve as a barrier to carbon market integration. To maximize the positive influences of carbon market integration while reducing the risks of negative side effects, the development and application of complimentary policy tools, such as import duties or discounts for emissions credits, are required.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.57-64
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• 2012

Ball shear test was performed by test variables such as loading speed and annealing time in order to investigate the effect of surface finishes on the bonding strength of Sn-1.2Ag-0.7Cu-0.4In Pb-free solder. The shear strength increased and the ductility decreased with increasing shear speed. With increasing shear speed, the electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) finish showed dominant brittle fracture mode, while organic solderability preservative (OSP) finish showed pad open fracture mode. The shear strength and toughness for both surface finishes decreased with increasing annealing time under the high-speed shear test of 500 mm/s. Typically, the thickness of intermetallic compound increased with increasing annealing time, which means that exposure of brittle fracture became much easier. With increasing annealing time, the both ENIG and OSP finishes exhibited the pad open fracture mode. Overall, ENIG finish showed higher shear strength rather than OSP finish due to its superior barrier stability.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2000

Objective: Zona pellucida (ZP) has been thought to be the barrier of egg to sperm penetration before and after fertilization. The phenomenon of ZP hardening has been considered as a post-fertilization event until now, and it is generally accepted that it is caused by the secretory products of cortical granules released during the cortical reaction. Hardening of ZP could occur "spontaneously" in mammalian oocytes in standard culture conditions, and that it is probably not a consequence of cortical reaction. The purpose of our study was to investigate the effect of human amniotic fluid (HAF) on nuclear maturation (NM) and fertilization ability of mouse immature oocytes. Methods: HAF was obtained from patients undergoing amniocentesis at $16{\sim}20$ weeks of gestation. HAF from five to ten patients was centrifuged and the supernatants was pooled. Cumulusenclosed mouse immature oocytes were incubated in the medium containing HAF, and examined to confirm NM and fertilization. Female ICR mice (about 3 weeks old) were stimulated with 7.5 IU PMSG. Immature oocytes were isolated at $48{\sim}52$ hrs post PMSG injection and cultured in TCM-199 supplemented with 20% HAF for 18 hrs. FBS was used as a control for the examination. Matured oocytes (MII) were fertilized with sperms collected from the epididymis of male mice (over 10 weeks old). Fertilization was in conducted T6 medium containing 15 mg/ml BSA, and confirmed at 6 hrs post-insemination. Fertilization rate was assessed in zona-intact or zona-free oocytes (denuded by trypsin). Evaluation of NM and fertilization was carried out by rapid staining method. ZP hardening was evaluated by incubating cumulus cell-free mature oocytes in 0.001% chymotrypsin at $37^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. Results: There was no significant difference between the effects of HAF (86.6%) and FBS (87.7%) supplements on NM of immature oocytes. When maturation medium was supplemented with HAF, total fertilization rates (7%) were significantly lower (p<0.01) than that of FBS (85.1%). In HAF group, fertilization rate was increased (p<0.01) in zona-free oocytes (7% versus 100%). The resistance of mouse oocyte ZP to digestion by chymotrypsin after maturation in vitro was significantly higher (p<0.01) in HAF group (86.7%) than in FBS (6.7%). To culture oocytes in FBS were very effective in preventing ZP hardening. However cultured oocytes in HAF showed high rate of ZP hardening (p<0.01). Conclusions: These results suggest that HAF can be used as a supplement for the NM of mouse immature oocytes in vitro. However, HAF induces spontaneous hardening of ZP of mouse immaure oocytes during maturation in vitro.