• Development and Reproduction
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.79-87
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• 2009

Due to its well-known function in parturition and milk ejection, oxytocin (OT) has been considered as a 'female neurohypophyseal hormone'. Recent studies, however, clearly indicate that OT has some local roles in male reproduction via both central and peripheral routes. In experimental rodents, OT is released within distinct brain regions in response to social stimuli, and the brain OT receptor (OTR) mediated actions were strongly involved in the regulation of a variety of male behaviors such as mating-associated behaviors. In particular, OT and/or OTR knockout mice provide important clues about the molecular regulatory mechanism of the socio-sexual behaviors. Several lines of evidence also show that OT is synthesized within rodents testis, epididymis and prostate, and the presence of OTRs in these organs. In rodent testes, OT might have a role in the modulation of steroidogenesis via stimulation of the conversion of testosterone (T) to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by 5alpha-reductase. Similar effects of OT on this androgen conversion were observed in epididymis and prostate suggesting the OT's modulatory role, such as contractility induction, in these androgen-dependent organs. In this context, further investigations on the OT's role in male CNS and reproductive organs are likely to provide better understanding on the complex socio-sexual behaviors and a platform for development of therapeutics to treat some psychological and/or andrological problems.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.342-364
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• 2014

The purpose of this paper is to provide an answer for the following question: What are the major shifts and implications of the unprecedently competitive and rapidly changing media ecosystem in the era of N-screen and OTT services? I've attempted to understand the complex and competitive nexus among media from an historical context by focusing on the displacement vs. complement thesis. The TPC model by Han has been employed for the analysis of the current dynamics of US media industries by triangulating three areas: Technology/industry, public policy and consumer/culture. More specifically, the US media landscape is initially divided into two competitive turfs - the competitors equipped with OTT services and the legacy media industry, and then the traditional media industry was grouped again into PayTV group(telecom service providers with IPTV and mobile TV, cable/Satellite TV networks) and Free (over-the-air) TV networks. Six major shifts were identified by the analysis: power shift in telecom carriers, power shifts in TV industry, Telecom/OTT partnership, time shifts, place shifts, and finally business model shifts.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.315-334
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• 2014

Wolsong Low- and Intermediate-level radioactive waste (LILW) disposal center has two different types of disposal facilities and interacts with the neighboring Wolsong nuclear power plant. These situations impose a high level of complexity which requires in-depth understanding of phenomena in the safety assessment of the disposal facility. In this context, multidimensional radionuclide transport model and hydraulic performance assessment model should be developed to identify more realistic performance of the complex system and reduce unnecessary conservatism in the conventional performance assessment models developed for the $1^{st}$ stage underground disposal. In addition, the advanced performance assessment model is required to calculate many cases to treat uncertainties or study parameter importance. To fulfill the requirements, this study introduces the development of two-dimensional integrated near-field performance assessment model combining near-field hydraulic performance assessment model and radionuclide transport model for the $2^{nd}$ stage near-surface disposal. The hydraulic and radionuclide transport behaviors were evaluated by PORFLOW and GoldSim. GoldSim radionuclide transport model was verified through benchmark calculations with PORFLOW radionuclide transport model. GoldSim model was shown to be computationally efficient and provided the better understanding of the radionuclide transport behavior than conventional model.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.6
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• pp.27-50
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• 2008

This thesis examines contemporary Chinese painting after the Cultural Revolution(1966~76), focusing upon so-called "Chinese Pop art", which I termed as "Socialist Pop art". I considered the art of this period within the broader context of social changes especially after the Tienanmen incident of 1989. After the Cultural Revolution during which idolization of Chairman Mao was at its peak, one of the major changes in communist China was that an anti-Mao wave was generated in almost every social class. For example, novels that revealed the hardships during the Cultural Revolution were published. Posters that openly criticized the Maoism were also produced and displayed on the walls, and demand for democracy spurred widespread activist movements among young generations. These broad social changes were also reflected in art. A variety of art movements were introduced from the West to China, and after a period of experimentation with the new imported styles, artists began to apply the new artistic idiom to their works in order to visualize their own social and political realities they lived in. It was a shift from earlier Socialist Realism to a new expression either directly or indirectly, "Socialist Pop", an amalgam of Socialist Realism and Pop art tradition. After the 1989 crackdown of Tienanmen Square protest, when communist government quelled with brutal measures the students, workers, and ordinary people who rose for democracy, greater urge to protest the Deng Xiaoping regime emerged. This time coincided with the gradual emergence of art using Pop art vocabulary to satirize the social reality, the Socialist Pop art, along with many other art forms all with avant-garde spirit. One of the most frequent subjects of Chinese Pop art was visual images of Chairman Mao and his Cultural Revolution, and new China that was saturated with capitalism, which tainted the Chinese way of life with a Western way of consumerism and commercialism. The reason for the popularity of Mao's image was spurred by the "Mao Craze" in the early 1990's. People suddenly began to fall in a kind of nostalgia for the past, and once again, Mao Zedong was idolized as an entity who can heal the problems of modern China who had been marching towards their ultimate destination, the economic development. But this time Chairman Mao was no more an idol but just a popular, commercial product. He is no more an object of worship of almost religious nature but he has become an iconography symbolizing the complex nature of present Chinese society. During this process of depicting the social reality, Chinese artists are making the authority and sanctity of Maoism ineffective. Dealing with this new trend of contemporary Chinese art in view of "Socialist Pop art" two manners of re-creating Pop art can be illustrated: one that incorporates the propaganda posters of the Cultural Revolution; the other borrows from Chinese traditional popular imagery or mass media, such as photos taken during Mao era. What is worth mentioning is that these posters and photos of the Cultural Revolution can be identified as 'popular' media, as they were directed to educate the popular mass, thus combination of this ingenuous pop media with Western Pop art can be fully justified as a genre unique to China. Through this genre, we can discover a new chapter of the Chinese contemporary painting and its society, as their Pop art can be considered as self-portraits true to their present appearances.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.1 no.2 s.2
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• pp.123-137
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• 2001

Based on basic characteristics of urban disasters and their data availabilities in Korea, this study provides risk assessment models which are derived from Cheongju examples. In specific, the application models are confined to fire, facility and escape risk survey results in the paper. For the assessment criteria, major independent variables for the categories of fire include both the frequency levels and the amount of damage. And the degree of facility risk assessment is heavily hinged on both the weighted values of key facilities and their weighted rank-sizes. In the same context, the degree of escape risk assessment is hinged on both the weighted values and the amount of the classification of land. From the empirical configuration, this paper presents that the potential figure of fire risk is relatively higher in the built-up areas within the existing Central Business District where accommodates a number of dilapidated housing units and community-supportive facilities. In contrast, the potential figure of facility and escape risk is higher in both old residential areas and the newly-built apartment complex. In short, the CBD and its neighboring residential areas record a high potential figure in terms of total risk, juxtaposing fire, facility and escape risk all together.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.39-47
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• 2014

Purpose - The ultimate goal of a franchise system comes from its win-win strategy. Agency theory uses goal incongruity to examine complex contracting problems between buyers and suppliers. Goal incongruity within a contractual relationship can be defined as the agent's desire not to cooperate. It is the degree to which the contractual terms do not satisfy the agent's goals. The greater the goal incongruity between the agent and the contract, the more likely it is that the agent will meet the terms of the contract. Thus, goal incongruity between buyers and suppliers has close relationships with both behavioral and financial performance. This study tries to examine these relationships in the franchise context using a model including related variables, such as regulatory foci, financial performance, and opportunism, to explain the reasons that not all franchisees perform their best. In particular, the study examines the effects of goal incongruity on regulatory focus, and the effects of regulatory focus on performance and opportunism. In short, the objective is to determine goal incongruity's effect on regulatory foci, and the effect of regulatory focus on performance and opportunism. Research design, data, and methodology - This study used data collected from the franchisee managers of 104 franchisors in South Korea. The franchisors include more than 10 franchisees, the majority of whom have been in business for more than five years. The study also surveyed 104 franchisees, matched with their franchisors for the sake of a dyadic approach. The study used regression analysis to test the hypotheses. Results - H1 and H2 predicted that goal incongruity would decrease promotion focus and increase prevention focus. Supporting H1, the result indicates goal incongruity had a positive effect on promotion focus. However, H2 was not supported. Goal incongruity had no significant effect on prevention focus (β = -.375, t = -4.331 and β = -.145, t = -1.950, respectively). H3 and H4 predicted that promotion focus would increase financial performance and decrease opportunism. Supporting these hypotheses, the results indicate that promotion focus had a positive effect on financial performance and a negative effect on opportunism (β = .771, t = 7.899 and β = -.765, t = -6.778, respectively). H5 and H6 predicted that prevention focus would decrease financial performance and increase opportunism. However, the results do not support these hypotheses. The results indicate that prevention focus had no effects on opportunism or financial performance (β = -.130, t = -1.070 and β = .090, t = .641, respectively). Overall, the evidence generally supported the hypotheses. Conclusion - Goal incongruity between a franchisor and a franchisee increases the franchisee's financial performance and opportunism, and the relationship is mediated by promotion focus. Interestingly, however, prevention focus has no mediating effect between goal incongruity and performance. Even though no significant relation exists between goal incongruity and prevention focus, the results have two implications. First, decreasing goal incongruity can improve financial performance and suppress franchisee opportunism. Second, the relationship between goal incongruity and performance affects promotion-focused franchisees.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.25-47
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• 2010

Over the past 20 years new and small firms have been identified as significant components of economic strategies for job and wealth creation. Implicit in these strategies has been the search for policies which will increase the supply of new firms, and will encourage established firms' growth. Yet the majority firms spend the whole of their economic life within the small firm sector. The aim of this paper is to suggest a multidimensional approach to the understanding of the comparative characteristics of the small firm by providing evidence as to the factors which describe firms of different sizes, regions and industries. And I discuss in the context of policy options for regional economic development in Korea. The results from the analyses are summarized as follows. The size of the small firms in the sample measured in terms of both number of employees and sales revenue are characterized by regions, export performance and R&D. There is also some indication that growing firms may develop more complex environment. These results are based upon a multi-dimensional analysis of the strategic profile of a sample of small firms using KIS. From this observation of the firms during the data collection period, this is a conclusion that I find intuitively appealing.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.145-153
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• 2011

Since the early 1990s, Korean construction companies have strived to evolve into global Engineering Construction (EC) companies. However, such efforts have been unsuccessful, partly due to a lack of clear objectives and a misunderstanding of the direction that needed to be taken for such a change. A better understanding is required with respect to the need to transform into an EC company in the context of the rapidly changing global construction environment. This research investigates major EC companies from around the world, and assesses the status of domestic companies' efforts for EC transition. The results of these investigations revealed that domestic firms need to better prioritize their strengths for different markets, i.e., decide whether to implement directly, outsource or limit to process management. In addition, the investigations showed that the global market is shifting from monolithic projects to more complex projects. Such projects require firms with the ability to develop and implement high front-end investment strategies, planning capabilities, and pre-design management skills. Accordingly, we recommend that firms differentiate themselves by developing such a skill set required for specific products.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.71-80
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• 2017

Landscape design pursues a balance among different values in our society, but aesthetic value and ecological value in landscapes must bring complex relationships into harmony. Ecological aesthetics can be defined as a domain of study that manages the relationship between landscape ecology and landscape aesthetics to create aesthetically attractive and ecologically beneficial landscapes. Despite the importance of the research area, there has been limited empirical research addressing ecological aesthetics. This article aspires to connect and expand the conceptual framework to the research methodologies of ecological aesthetics. First, this study suggests a conceptual framework that examines the relationship between landscape and perceptual process in the context of ecological aesthetics. This framework stresses the importance of information and design intervention as moderators in this relationship. From this framework, three key topics in ecological aesthetics arise: (1) correlation between ecological integrity and aesthetic preference, (2) "compromised" design and management intervention principles that enhance aesthetic pleasure and still have biodiversity, and (3) the impact of information intervention in aesthetic experience. The framework indicated three domains affect each other; thus, when one domain is studied, the other two need to be considered. Secondly, several theoretical and empirical studies on ecological aesthetics will be reviewed from a methodological point of view. This will help to consider ecological aesthetics research, which has primarily been limited to theoretical discourse in empirical research.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.77-87
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• 2020

Scientific inquiry has emphasized its importance in various aspects of science learning and has been performed according to various methods and purposes. Among the various aspects of science learning, it is emphasized to develop core competencies with science, such as scientific thinking. Therefore, it is necessary to support students to be able to formulate scientific reasoning properly. This study attempts to explore problem-finding and scientific reasoning in the process of performing scientific inquiry. This study also aims to reveal what factors influence this complex process. For this purpose, this study analyzed the inquiry process and results performed by two groups of college students who conducted the inquiry related to osmosis. To analyze, research plans, presentations, and group interviews were used. As a result, it was found that participants used various scientific reasoning, such as deductive, inductive, and abductive reasoning, in the process of problem finding for their inquiry about osmosis. In the process of inquiry and reasoning complexly, anomalous data, which appear regularly, and the characteristics of experimental instruments influenced their reasoning. Various reasons were produced for the purpose of constructing the best explanation about the phenomena observed by participants themselves. Finally, based on the results of this study, several implications for the development context of programs using scientific inquiry are discussed.