• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.10 no.7
• /
• pp.33-41
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyse the state of the energy industry and to determine the efficiency of its functioning on the basis of energy conservation principle and application of innovative technologies aimed at improving the ecological modernisation of agricultural sectors of Kazakhstan. The research methodology is based on an integrated approach of financial and economic evaluation of the effectiveness of the investment project, based on calculation of elasticity, total costs and profitability, as well as on comparative, graphical and system analysis. The current stage is characterised by widely spread restructuring processes of electric power industry in many countries through introduction of new technical installations of energy facilities and increased government regulation in order to enhance the competitive advantage of electricity market. Electric power industry features a considerable value of creating areas. For example, by providing scientific and technical progress, it crucially affects not only the development but also the territorial organisation of productive forces, first of all the industry. In modern life, more than 90% of electricity and heat is obtained by Kazakhstan's economy by consuming non-renewable energy resources: different types of coal, oil shale, oil, natural gas and peat. Therefore, it is significant to ensure energy security, as the country faces a rapid fall back to mono-gas structure of fuel and energy balance. However, energy resources in Kazakhstan are spread very unevenly. Its main supplies are concentrated in northern and central parts of the republic, and the majority of consumers of electrical power live in the southern and western areas of the country. However, energy plays an important role in the economy of industrial production and to a large extent determines the level of competitive advantage, which is a promising condition for implementation of energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies. In these circumstances, issues of modernisation and reforms of this sector in Kazakhstan gain more and more importance, which can be seen in the example of economically sustainable solutions of a large local monopoly company, significant savings in capital investment and efficiency of implementation of an investment project. A major disadvantage of development of electricity distribution companies is the prevalence of very high moral and physical amortisation of equipment, reaching almost 70-80%, which significantly increases the operating costs. For example, while an investment of 12 billion tenge was planned in 2009 in this branch, in 2012 it is planned to invest more than 17 billion. Obviously, despite the absolute increase, the rate of investment is still quite low, as the total demand in this area is at least more than 250 billion tenge. In addition, industrial infrastructure, including the objects of Kazakhstan electric power industry, have a tangible adverse impact on the environment. Thus, since there is a large number of various power projects that are sources of electromagnetic radiation, the environment is deteriorated. Hence, there is a need to optimise the efficiency of the organisation and management of production activities of energy companies, to create and implement new technologies, to ensure safe production and provide solutions to various environmental aspects. These are key strategic factors to ensure success of the modern energy sector of Kazakhstan. The contribution of authors in developing the scope of this subject is explained by the fact that there was not enough research in the energy sector, especially in the view of ecological modernisation. This work differs from similar works in Kazakhstan in the way that the proposed method of investment project calculation takes into account the time factor, which compares the current and future value of profit from the implementation of innovative equipment that helps to bring it to actual practise. The feasibility of writing this article lies in the need of forming a public policy in the industrial sector, including optimising the structure of energy disbursing rate, which complies with the terms of future modernised development of the domestic energy sector.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.65-92
• /
• 1985

A total of 12 mineral commodities significant in domestic output, economy and/or strategy of the Republic of Korea are chosen to examine the structural changes in production and demand-supply of these minerals during the last two decades of her industrialization. These include iron and manganese ores as the raw materials for iron and steel making, copper, zinc and tungsten ores among other non-ferrous metallic minerals, limestone (cement), kaolin, talc, pyrophyllite and graphite among other non-metallic minerals, and anthracite coal as the only domestic source of fossil energy. These are reviewed historically in time-series based on the statistical data which are tabulated and graphed in terms of domestic output, export, import, apparent demand-supply, its increasing rate, and self-sufficiency rate of each commodity. The increasing rates of demand-supply (IRDS) of some more important commodities are compared with those of Gross Domestic Production (GDP) and Economic Growth Rate (EGR) to evaluate how the IRDS contributed to the GDP and EGR. The major results revealed are as follows: Among the 12 commodities, the domestic output of 8 commodities appeared to have grown with steady upward trends: they are ores of lead, zinc and tungsten, limestone (cement), kaolin, talc, pyrophyllite and anthracite coal. Two commodities, ores of iron and copper, continued with unchanging or slightly declining trends and varied fluctuations, in spite of their cardinal importance to the heavy industry and strategy of Korea. The remaining two, graphite and manganese ore, have gradualy declined in domestic output in which the former has still enough resource potential but the latter has not and virtually ceased its domestic output. Trade patterns for mineral commodities in the Republic of Korea during the last two decades have changed greatly, being marked by a shift from mineral-exporting to mineral importing, mainly because of increasing consumption of mineral raw materials for industrialization rather than beceuse of decreasing output of domestic mineral commodities in quantity. In terms of trade patterns, the 12 commodities concerned in this study can be classified into the following four groups. The 1st group - ores of lead and tungsten have only been exported without imports. The 2nd group - amorphous graphite, and pyrophyllite have mainly been exported but partly been imported. The 3rd group - kaolin, talc and crystalline graphite have equally been exported and imported, but quantity of imports have rapidly been increased with time. The 4th group - ores of iron, manganese and zinc have shifted from exports to imports during the industrialization, particularly owing to the initiation of iron and steel making by the Pohang Iron and Steel Company in the middle 1970' s and the new establishment of the Onsan Zinc Refinery in the late 1970' s. All of the 12 commodities under considerations were far above 100% in self-sufficiency rate before or in the early 1960' s. Recently, however, most of them have been declined to below 100% except for those of limestone (cement) and pyrophyllite. It is particularly serious to identify that the self-sufficiency rates of the three important metallic minerals, iron, copper and manganese ores in 1982 appeared to be 5.1%, 0.5%, and 0.01%, respectively. The average self-sufficiency rate of the total domestic minerals produced in 1982 was 14.4% (in value) for that year. Mining industry appeared to be extremely high in its intermediate demand rate whereas its intermediate input rate to be quite low indicating that mineral raw materials have been exerted strong forward linkage effects upon the other industries rather than backward linkage effects. In comparing the curves of increasing rates of demand-supply of several major minerals - iron ore, manganese ore, copper ore, limestone (cement), kaolin, and anthracite coal - with those of Gross Domestic Production and Economic Growth Rate drawn on every graph, it is clearly shown that the curves of increasing rates of demand-supply comprise around 6 to 7 periods of cycles which roughly harmonious with those of the curves of GDP and EGR, except for the curve of anthracite coal of which the configuration seems to have resulted from the (artificial) government's mineral policy rather than from economic free market mechanism. The harmonic feature of these curves well suggests that the increasing rates of demand-supply of major minerals have been significantly contributed to the GDP and EGR. In addition, the wider amplitudes of the iron, manganese and copper curves than those of the limestone (cement) and kaolin curves indicate that the contribution of the former, metallic commodities, has been greater than that of the latter, non-metallic commodities.

• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.33
• /
• pp.115-167
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate coverage patterns of the Korean internet news media on 'US-Iraq War' and its meaning and discourse structure. The internet news media was recently established and become a popular news media to compete with old news media in Korea. The author selected the 'Oh My News' as a representative internet news media for his analysis, and collected its news items from Mar. 20, 2003 to Dec. 17, 2003. on the basis of 4 different phases of the war. He analysed the whole of news items with various semiotic and discourse analytic methods, especially applying for Bell's concepts of time and discourse structure. As a result of this study, first of all, it was found that the 'Oh My News' tended to cover this war so different ways as the old news media did. It did not pay attention to the procedure of war, especially, battlefields, fighting between US and Iraq, damages and casualties. But, instead, it paid attention to many doubts about intention of US government and the President, Bush, dichotomous shift between pro-America and anti-America, rightness of dispatching Korean army into Iraq, etc. Secondly, it functioned as a kind of alternative media to speak up different voices comparing with those of old media. It tended to suggest different perspectives and opinions, while the old media tended to follow American perspectives and opinions. Thirdly, it became as a kind of new media setting agendas for this war in Korean society. It played a very important role for setting agendas for various issues related with this war. In conclusion, the internet news media has recently become a kind of new news media for suggesting alternative or different opinions, setting agendas, initiating discourses, etc., even though it still has may problems of becoming so called orthodox news media.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.489-497
• /
• 2012

Recently released a top secret document explicitly shows that the early development plan for an earth observation satellite in the USA has a hidden and more important purpose for a concept of 'free space' than the scientific purpose. At that time, the hidden and secret concept imbedded within the early space development plan prevail other national policies of the USA government for purpose of the national security. Under these circumstances, it is quite reasonable to accept a possibility that the meteorological satellites which play a key role in the every area of meteorology and climatology was also born for the hidden purposes. Even it is so, it is quite amazing that the first meteorological satellite is launched in the USA despite of the facts that the major users of the meteorological satellites were not very enthusiastic with the meteorological satellite and the program was not started as a formal meteorological satellite project. This was only possible because of the external socio-political impact caused by the successful launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite and a few key policy developers who favored the meteorological satellite program. It is also interesting to note that the beginning of the first Korean meteorological satellite program was initiated by a similar socio-political influence occurred by the launch of a North Korean satellite.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.3-43
• /
• 2018

The emergence of a multi-door courthouse is related with a couple of reasons as follows: First, a multi-door courthouse was originally initiated by the United States government that increasingly became impatient with the pace and cost of protracted litigation clogging the courts. Second, dockets of courts are overcrowded with legal suits, making it difficult for judges to handle those legal suits in time and causing delays in responding to citizens' complaints. Third, litigation is not suitable for the disputant that has an ongoing relationship with the other party. In this case, even if winning is achieved in the short run, it may not be all that was hoped for in the long run. Fourth, international organizations such as the World Bank, UNDP, and Asia Development Bank urge to provide an increased access to women, residents, and the poor in local communities. The generic model of a multi-door courthouse consists of three stages: The first stage includes a center offering intake services, along with an array of dispute resolution services under one roof. At the second stage, the screening unit at the center would diagnose citizen disputes, then refer the disputants to the appropriate door for handling the case. At the third stage, the multi-door courthouse provides diverse kinds of dispute resolution programs such as mediation, arbitration, mediation-arbitration (med-arb), litigation, and early neutral evaluation. This study suggests the extended model of multi-door courthouse comprised of five layers: intake process, diagnosis and door-selection process, neutral-selection process, implementation process of dispute resolution, and process of training and education. One of the major characteristics of extended multi-door courthouse model is the detailed specification of individual department corresponding to each process within a multi-door courthouse. The intake department takes care of the intake process. The screening department plays the role of screening disputes, diagnosing the nature of disputes, and determining a suitable door to handle disputes. The human resources department manages experts through the construction and management of the data base of mediators, arbitrators, and judges. The administration bureau manages the implementation of each process of dispute resolution. The education and training department builds long-term planning to procure neutrals and experts dealing with various kinds of disputes within a multi-door courthouse. For this purpose, it is necessary to establish networks among courts, law schools, and associations of scholars in order to facilitate the supply of manpower in ADR neutrals, as well as judges in the long run. This study also provides six case studies of multi-door courthouses across continents in order to grasp the worldwide picture and wide spread phenomena of multi-door courthouse. For this purpose, the United States and Latin American countries including Argentina and Brazil, Middle Eastern countries, and Southeast Asian countries (such as Malaysia and Myanmar), Australia, and Nigeria were chosen. It was found that three kinds of patterns are discernible during the evolution of a multi-door courthouse model. First, the federal courts of the United States, land and environment court in Australia, and Lagos multi-door courthouse in Nigeria may maintain the prototype of a multi-door courthouse model. Second, the judicial systems in Latin American countries tend to show heterogenous patterns in terms of the adaptation of a multi-door courthouse model to their own environments. Some court systems of Latin American countries including those of Argentina and Brazil resemble the generic model of a multi-door courthouse, while other countries show their distinctive pattern of judicial system and ADR systems. Third, it was found that legal pluralism is prevalent in Middle Eastern countries and Southeast Asian countries. For example, Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia have developed various kinds of dispute resolution methods, such as sulh (mediation), tahkim (arbitration), and med-arb for many centuries, since they have been situated at the state of tribe or clan instead of nation. Accordingly, they have no unified code within the territory. In case of Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar and Malaysia, they have preserved a strong tradition of customary laws such as Dhammthat in Burma, and Shriah and the Islamic law in Malaysia for a long time. On the other hand, they incorporated a common law system into a secular judicial system in Myanmar and Malaysia during the colonial period. Finally, this article proposes a couple of factors to strengthen or weaken a multi-door courthouse model. The first factor to strengthen a multi-door courthouse model is the maintenance of flexibility and core value of alternative dispute resolution. We also find that fund raising is important to build and maintain the multi-door courthouse model, reflecting the fact that there has been a competition surrounding the allocation of funds within the judicial system.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.315-322
• /
• 2013

The aim of this work is to verify the self-quality assurances in medical institutions in Korea through the external audits by the group of experts and have a mutual discussion of the systematic problems. In order to validate the external audits 30 of 80 medical institutions across the nation were picked out considering the regional distribution and the final 25 institutions applied voluntarily to take part in this work. The basic rules were setup that any information of the participants be kept secrete and the measurements be performed with the dosimetry system already verified through intercomparision. The outputs for 2 or more photon beams, the accuracy of gantry rotation and collimator rotation and the poistional accuracy of MLC movement were measured. The findings for the output measurement showed the differences of -0.8%~4.5%, -0.79%~3.01%, and -0.7%~0.07% with respect to that of the verified dosimetry system for the 6MV, 10MV, and 15MV, respectively. For the reference absorbed dose 8 (16%) of 50 photon beams in 25 medical institutions differed 2.0% or greater from the reference value. The coincidences of Field size with x-ray beam and radiation isocenters of Gantry roration and collimator rotation gave the results of within ${\pm}2$ mm for every institute except 2 institutions. The positional accuracy of MLC movement agreed to within ${\pm}1$ mm for every institute. For the beam qualities of 6 MV photon beams kQ values showed the distribution within 0.4% between maximum and minimum. For the protocols 21 institutions (84%) used absorbed dose to water based protocol while 4 insitutions (16%) used air kerma based one. 22 institutions employed the SSD technique while 3 institutions did the SAD one. External audit plays an important role in discovering the systematic problems of self-performing Quality Assurances and having in depth discussion for mutual complementation. Training experts of international level as well as national support system are required so that both the group of experts of medical physicists and government laboratory could perform together periodical and constant external audits.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.787-798
• /
• 2011

An arboretum is defined as a collection of facilities that conserve plant species by surveying, collecting, and proliferating and preserving the plants in nature, perform diverse researches on plants and display the plants in exhibition spaces or outdoors as well as provide the public with educational programs and refreshment spaces according to the laws concerned. The public, however, recognizes the exhibition and education functions on plants of arboretum more importantly compared with the roles to survey, collect, and proliferate plants as regulated by the laws. In particular, arboretum plays a role to offer a pivotal educational place in urban area where the public can obtain an hands-on experience and understanding on a wide range of plant species and natural environment. The study aims to estimate the non market environmental values of Daegu Arboretum operated by Daegu Metropolitan City government by using the Contingent Valuation Methods (CVM), which yields the current monetary estimates for the arboretum. The value estimation was undertaken by using the Double-Bound Dichotomous Choice (DBDC) method, and each estimated value was derived from respective functions based on a logit distribution known to include relatively stable estimates according to the shape of the distribution. Considering the statistical fitness test results, the author estimated the amounts of the Willingness To Pay (WTP) such as mean WTP of 12,718 KRW, median WTP of 11,033 KRW, and truncated mean WTP of 11,468 KRW, which represented the annual recreational values per a person visiting Daegu Arboretum respectively. The analysis showed that Daegu Arboretum created the annual environmental values which were estimated to be approximately 16 to 19 billion KRW. The study also has an implication that the valuation method for the environment of Daegu Arboretum may be effectively applied for estimating the values of other types of environmental goods by altering the locations or goods to be analyzed.

• Particle and aerosol research
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.63-75
• /
• 2015

Atmospheric environment in Korea is influenced by outside, especially China. The concentrations of air pollutants in China have showed decreasing trends since 2000. However, these concentration levels in China are still higher than other developed countries. The Chinese Government has tried several measures to control the air pollution. In this study, the details of the amendments and smog reduction strategies in China, especially for Beijing are reviewed and the strategies for Korean side to promote cooperation in Northeast Asia are suggested and discussed. The Chinese State Council amended the Environmental Protection Provisions and Clean Air Act and announced The Action Plan for Air Pollution Control (2013-2017), focusing on three key regions, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area (Jing-Jin-Ji), Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and Pearl River Delta (PRD). These policy actions and plan are mainly for the reducing coal usage and emissions from vehicles. It is suggested that, Korea should actively promote multi-national cooperation in the region to take an initiative role in environmental areas.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.181-208
• /
• 2010

In July 2007, Korean government has passed "The Capital Market and Financial Investment Services Act" to further develop the capital markets and the Act was to become effective in February 2009. Using a large sample of Korean firms, we have examined (i) the effect of underwriting activities on the firm value (bond spread) comparing commercial bank and investment bank, and (ii) the determinants of the firm value changes following underwriting activities of bank. To test our goal, we collected a wide range of samples of data for bond issuing activities executed by Korean firms listed on the Korea Stock Exchange (KSE) between 2000 and 2003. Our paper is distinguished from previous studies on this subject in a way that we analyzed the effect of corporate bond underwriting activities with regard to commercial banking and investment banking. Initially, we set up a hypothesis that "Certification View" and "Conflict-of-interest View" are major driving forces behind cross-firm differences in performance following bond issuance. We find that, in general, underwriting by investment bank (securities company) brings a positive effect on the firm value (spread between bench mark rate and bond issuing rate). This result indicates that firm value has been negatively affected by the bank underwriting and provides the evidence for "Conflict-of-interest View" in Korea. Our studies have also revealed that any change in firm value following bond issuance is positively related with the firm size (total asset), operating performance, liquidity (cashflow), and equity ownership by foreign investors. Overall, our results support the view that bank underwriting activities can play an important role in determining firm value and financial strategies under "The Capital Market and Financial Investment Services Act" of 2007.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.157-179
• /
• 2006

According to the Annex 17 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, an appropriate authority of each contracting state has to define and allocate tasks and coordinate activities between the departments, agencies and other organizations of the State, airport and aircraft operators and other entities concerned with or responsible for the implementation of various aspects of the national civil aviation security programme. The airport has to take leading role in implementing security tasks at airport area because the airport operator is the provider of airport facilities and services to its customer and the security activities belong to its services. So Republic of Korea Government enact the Law, Aviation Safety and Security. The Purpose of this Act is to prevent any unlawful act in airport facilities with international conventions, including the ICAO to provide for standards, procedures and mandatory matters needed to ensure the safety and security of civil aviation. But the Act has some error. So is this paper to review the revision of aviation security regulation and the changes of aviation security responsibilities and task assignment. There is the term "aviation security personnel", who are charged with the task of preventing any act of disrupting the order and safety in airport. But there is no term "security screening personnel" who performs to detect or search for dangerous object, such as weapons or explosives, which may be used for the unlawful obstruction.