• Advances in Energy Research
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.147-163
• /
• 2013

The world faces several issues of energy crisis and environmental deterioration due to over-dependence on single source of which is fossil fuel. Though, fuel is needed as ingredients for industrial development and growth of any country, however the fossil fuel which is a major source of energy for this purpose has always been terrifying thus the need for alternative and renewable energy sources. The search for alternative energy sources resulted into the acceptance of a biofuel as a reliable alternative energy source. This work presents the study of optimization of process of transesterification of vegetable oil to biodiesel using NaOH as catalyst. A $2^4$ factorial design method was employed to investigate the influence of ratio of oil to methanol, temperature, NaOH concentration, and transesterification time on the yield of biodiesel from vegetable oil. Low and high levels of the key factors considered were 4:1 and 6:1 mole ratio, 30 and $60^{\circ}C$ temperatures, 0.5 and 1.0 wt% catalyst concentration, and 30 and 60 min reaction time. Results obtained revealed that oil to methanol molar ratio of 6:1, tranesetrification temperature of $60^{\circ}C$, catalyst concentration of 1.0wt % and reaction time of 30 min are the best operating conditions for the optimum yield of biofuel from vegetable oil, with optimum yield of 95.8%. Results obtained on the characterizzation of the produced biodiesel indicate that the specific gravity, cloud point, flash point, sulphur content, viscosity, diesel index, centane number, acid value, free glycerine, total glycerine and total recovery are 0.8899, 4, 13, 0.0087%, 4.83, 25, 54.6. 0.228mgKOH/g, 0.018, 0.23% and 96% respectively. Results also indicate that the qualities of the biodiesel tested for are in conformity with the set standard. A model equation was developed based on the results obtained using a statistical tool. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of data shows that mole ratio of ground nut oil to methanol and transesterification time have the most pronounced effect on the biodiesel yield with contributions of 55.06% and 9.22% respectively. It can be inferred from the results various conducted that vegetable oil locally produced from groundnut oil can be utilized as a feedstock for biodiesel production.

• Korea Real Estate Review
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.39-52
• /
• 2014

This study examines the degree of global co-movement & spillover effect among the housing price of ten major countries of OECD including Korea, based on the 3 hypothesis. The data used in this study is quarterly house price index of OECD countries from 1975 to 2012. VAR model is used to analyze the co-movement, and Granger causality methodology is used for the analysis of Spillover Effect. It is found that entire period of study is that the global house prices showed the co-movement, but the coefficient was weak. Since 2008 global financial crisis, the co-movement increased significantly and the adjusted R-square of this model increased 78% compared to the entire period (1975-2012). In general, all hypotheses in this study were significant, and the common shock hypothesis were most significant. In case of Korea, the degree of co-movement was weak compared to the other countries and spillover effect was independent since 2008.

• International Area Studies Review
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.113-140
• /
• 2016

This paper first extracts the main basis for the Middle-Income Trap(MIT) to apply these grounds to reality of the Chinese economy. And then confirmed crisis factors of China economy. Also discussed then the economic reforms of China in order to not fall into the MIT. After reviewing previous research extracted six factors the results will correspond to comply with the Chinese economy. Those are 'Over-investment', 'excess capacity' 'reduction of TFP continued,' 'disappearance and the aging of the population bonus', 'excessive debt and structural adjustment and financial instability of the company', 'income unequal expansion', 'low financial and information infrastructure accessibility', and 'low transparency index'. China's policy direction to avoid the MIT generally set properly, but proof that implementation process not easy, was appearing everywhere. After all, China economy should be modified now to a reforms of 'government failure' and promotion of function for ongoing restructuring system in the market. Because of the SDR incorporation from 2015, it is inevitable to face major constraints in the external aspects.

• Anxiety and mood
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.45-52
• /
• 2019

Objective : The objective of this study is to determine the effects of fear of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) on socio-psychological health during an outbreak of MERS and the post-traumatic stress as a mediator on the relationship between stress and socio-psychological health. Methods : Visual Analog Scale, Impact of Event Scale -Revised, Psychosocial well-being index short form was implemented for 150 medical persons who worked at the hospital in which exposure to MERS cases had been confirmed and 96 ordinary people. A Pearson correlation coefficient and a hierarchical multiple regression was carried out to confirm the effect of fear of MERS and the mediating effect of post-traumatic stress between fear and socio-psychological health. Results : The higher the fear, the lower the socio-psychological health in both healthcare workers and the public (r=0.32, p<0.01) and the higher post-traumatic stress (r=0.32, p<0.01). But, the research results showed that only healthcare workers had a partially mediating effect of post-traumatic stress in the relationship between fear and socio-psychological health (${\beta}=0.45$, t=6.33 p<0.001), (${\beta}$ value : 0.39>0.26). Conclusion : This study demonstrated that the post-traumatic stress can indirectly lead to a negative effect on the socio-psychological health of healthcare workers when under the fear of MERS and shows adverse effects on psycho-social wellbeing. This suggests that clinical intervention and psycho-social approach aiming at reducing post-traumatic stress is important to maintain mental health during crisis development.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.352-362
• /
• 2019

The study investigates one of the long-standing, but still controversial issues in modern finance from the international and domestic perspectives. That is, financial components and differences on corporate profitability are identified and compared under the primary hypotheses. Empirical research settings include the sample data as KOSPI-listed chaebol firms, time reference covering the post-era of the global financial turmoil and two differently defined profitability indices measured by the market- and the book-value bases. A majority of total 7 explanatory variables except firm size and leverage ratio reveal their statistically significant power to explain profitability indices for the chaebol firms in the first hypothesis. The results are generally compatible with those obtained from their counterparts of non-chaebol firms. In the second hypothesis applying multinomial logistic model, the chaebol firms are classified into three groups according to the level of profitability. It is then confirmed that variables to represent the market-valued debt ratio, business risk and growth potential are financially discriminating factors among the three groups. The study may provide a new vision to identify financial factors of corporate profitability for Korean chaebol firms after the global financial crisis, which can enhance the benefits of interested parties at the government or corporate level in a virtuous cycle.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.206-217
• /
• 2021

Purpose: Recently, a series of large social disasters have led to a lot of research to prevent social disasters as well as natural disasters and reduce damage. However, this paper aims to select the types of social disasters that local governments should focus on and create basic data for effective countermeasures and mitigation efforts. Method: Among 43 types of disasters announced by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, 11 types of disasters were selected and collected to select the main types of disasters, and risk types were derived by region with risk maps. In order to derive the risk map, each detailed index was rescheduled to be 0-1 and weights were determined through entropy technique. Result: As a result, about 41% of the major disasters announced by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security were consistent, and the rest of the major types were disasters that could not be obtained or have not occurred in the past 20 years. Conclusion: Therefore, in order to establish an effective prevention and recovery plan for social disasters through this study, it was intended to present social disaster-focused disasters for each local government.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.31-54
• /
• 2011

This study investigates the nature of the welfare state under the Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun regime focusing on participatory democracy in the policy decision making procedure for the National Health Insurance. Participatory democracy was introduced not for the qualitative development of Korean democracy but for securing political legitimacy to change the Korean economic structure after the IMF financial crisis. Although participatory democracy played the positive role in winning higher benefit level in National Health Insurance. an index for the development of the welfare state, in 2007 A policy of higher benefit level ended in failure because of the pursuit of the neoliberal ideology, lack of government's responsibility for public finance, and thwarting policy holders' substantial participation in the decision-making process. Like those of past welfare systems, participatory democracy under the Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun regime was introduced for securing political legitimacy. But it was managed under restrictions imposed by pro-economic-growth ideology. Nevertheless, the Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun governments are different from the former welfare states because of the fact that participatory democracy system is not 'service' system but 'political structure' and the fact that the grant of powers by participatory democracy played positive roles in the development of welfare state through request of higher benefit level policy.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.71-102
• /
• 2007

There were many comprehensive analyses conducted within the existing research activities wherein factors affecting technology progress including investment in R&D vis-${\Box}$-vis their influences act as the determinants of TFP. Note, however, that there were few comprehensive analysis in the industrial research performed regarding the impact of the economy of scale as it affects TFP; most of these research studies dealt with the analysis of the non -parametric Malmquist productivity index or used the stochastic frontier production function models. No comprehensive analysis on the impacts of individual independent variables affecting TFP was performed. Therefore, this study obtained the TFP increase rate of each industry by analyzing the factors of the existing growth accounting equation and comprehensively analyzed the TFP determinants by constructing a comprehensive analysis model considering the investment in R&D and economy of scale (smallness by industry) as the influencers of TFP by industry. First, for the TFP increase rate of the 15 industries as a whole, the annual average increase rate for 1993${\sim}$ 1997 was approximately 3.8% only; during 1999${\sim}$ 2000 following the foreign exchange crisis, however, the annual increase rate rose to approximately 7.8%. By industry, the annual average increase rate of TFP between 1993 and 2000 stood at 11.6%, the highest in the electrical and electronic equipment manufacturing business and IT manufacturing sector. In contrast, a -0.4% increase rate was recorded in the furniture and other product manufacturing sectors. In the case of the service industry, the TFP increase rate was 7.3% in the transportation, warehousing, and communication sectors. This is much higher than the 2.9% posted in the electricity, water, and gas sectors and -3.7% recorded in the wholesale, food, and hotel businesses. The results of the comprehensive analysis conducted on the determinants of TFP showed that the correlations between R&D and TFP in general were positive (+) correlations whose significance has yet to be validated; in the model where the self-employed and unpaid family workers were used as proxy variables indicating the smallness of industry out of the total number of workers, however, significant negative (-) correlations were noted. On the other hand, the estimation factors of variables surrogating the smallness of scale in each industry showed that a consistently high "smallness of scale" in an industry means a decrease in the increase rate of TFP in the same industry.