• Title/Summary/Keyword: Launch Operation

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Evaluation on the Implementation of Girl Friendly Science Activity (여학생 친화적 과학활동 프로그램의 운영 평가)

  • Jhun, Young-Seok;Shin, Young-Joon
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.442-458
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    • 2004
  • This study was conducted to develop a plan for a large-scale implementation of the Girl Friendly Science Program based on the results of analysis and investigation of its current pilot implementation, Girl Friendly Science Program materials, which was first developed in 1999 with the support from Ministry of Gender Equality, consist of 1) five theme-based units that are specifically targeted individual students' unique ability, aptitude, and career choice, and 2) differentiated learning materials for 7th through 10th grade female students. All the materials are available at the homepage (http://tes.or.kr/gfsp.cgi) of 'Teachers for Exciting Science(the organization of science teachers in Seoul area)'. Since the materials are well organized by topic and grade level and presented in both Korean word process document and html format, anyone can easily access to the materials for their own instructional use. Ever since its launch the number of visitors to the homepage has been constantly increasing. The evaluation results of the current pilot implementation of the materials that targeted individual students' ability and aptitude showed that it scored high in terms of its alignment to the original purpose, content, level, and effectiveness to implement in classrooms. However, its evaluation scores were low in terms of the convenience for teachers to guide the materials, and its organization and operation. The results also showed a significant change in students' perception of science, and students' positive experiences of science through various interdisciplinary activities. On the other hand, the evaluation of students' experiences with the materials showed that students' assessment about an activity was largely depending on a success or failure of their experiences. Overall, students' evaluation of activities scores were low for simple activities such as cutting off or pasting papers. According to students' achievement test results, differences between pre and post test scores in the Affective Domain was statistically significant (p<0.05), but not in Inquiry Domain. Based on teachers observations, numerous schools where have run this program reported that students' abilities to cooperate, discuss, observe and reason with evidences were improved. In order to implement this program in a larger scale, it is critical to have a strong support of teachers and induce them to change their teaching strategy through building a community of teachers and developing ongoing teacher professional development programs. Finally, there still remain strong needs to develop more programs, and actively discover and train more domestic woman scientists and engineers and collaborate with them to develop more educational materials for girls in all ages.

International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Debris (우주잔해 손해에 대한 국제책임)

  • Kim, Dong-Uk
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.23 no.2
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    • pp.173-205
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    • 2008
  • Space debris have frequently caused damage to space objects like satellites in orbits and sometimes have fallen on the earth. Such increase in space debris will lead to the high possibility of threatening space activities of mankind. However, it is not so easy for the damage caused both by identified and by unidentified space debris to be recovered since in the regime of the current international law, there is no legislation of prescribing the damage done by space debris. For overcoming the limitation it seems desirable that either the Liability Convention should partly be amended or new international law regime should be established. For instance, 'space debris' should be included in the new definition of 'space object' and the range of launching should also be defined clearly by making the concept of 'launching' somewhat more specified. Moreover, the subject of international liability for damage caused by space debris should be divided into two classes: the subject before and after registration. While in case of before-registration launch states should be held liable for any damage jointly or individually, in case of after-registration 'the state of registry' or 'owner' of the space debris should be. In the event of damage being caused elsewhere than on the surface of the earth to a space object of other State, 'fault-based liability' is currently applied. But it needs to be changed into 'absolutely liability'. In this paper, 'Liability Pool', 'Insurance', 'Market-Share Liability' are presented as aid devices of the damages resulting from unidentified space debris. They should be defined through the amendment of the Liability Convention or another international treaty. Some day there comes a time when our country shall possess many of the astronomical price of satellites. It means that we can't be free from the damage by the increasing number of space debris. Provided that our satellites are damaged by such space debris, it will do the satellites damage and cause impaired functioning or troubles in operation. As a result, if we are not paid for the damage by space debris, we will be confronted with tremendous economic loss because it is necessarily connected with the excess burden of taxation. Thus, an international agreement regarding the measures of the compensation for space debris damage must be made very soon.

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Recent research activities on hybrid rocket in Japan

  • Harunori, Nagata
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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    • 2011.04a
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    • pp.1-2
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    • 2011
  • Hybrid rockets have lately attracted attention as a strong candidate of small, low cost, safe and reliable launch vehicles. A significant topic is that the first commercially sponsored space ship, SpaceShipOne vehicle chose a hybrid rocket. The main factors for the choice were safety of operation, system cost, quick turnaround, and thrust termination. In Japan, five universities including Hokkaido University and three private companies organized "Hybrid Rocket Research Group" from 1998 to 2002. Their main purpose was to downsize the cost and scale of rocket experiments. In 2002, UNISEC (University Space Engineering Consortium) and HASTIC (Hokkaido Aerospace Science and Technology Incubation Center) took over the educational and R&D rocket activities respectively and the research group dissolved. In 2008, JAXA/ISAS and eleven universities formed "Hybrid Rocket Research Working Group" as a subcommittee of the Steering Committee for Space Engineering in ISAS. Their goal is to demonstrate technical feasibility of lowcost and high frequency launches of nano/micro satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Hybrid rockets use a combination of solid and liquid propellants. Usually the fuel is in a solid phase. A serious problem of hybrid rockets is the low regression rate of the solid fuel. In single port hybrids the low regression rate below 1 mm/s causes large L/D exceeding a hundred and small fuel loading ratio falling below 0.3. Multi-port hybrids are a typical solution to solve this problem. However, this solution is not the mainstream in Japan. Another approach is to use high regression rate fuels. For example, a fuel regression rate of 4 mm/s decreases L/D to around 10 and increases the loading ratio to around 0.75. Liquefying fuels such as paraffins are strong candidates for high regression fuels and subject of active research in Japan too. Nakagawa et al. in Tokai University employed EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) to modify viscosity of paraffin based fuels and investigated the effect of viscosity on regression rates. Wada et al. in Akita University employed LTP (Low melting ThermoPlastic) as another candidate of liquefying fuels and demonstrated high regression rates comparable to paraffin fuels. Hori et al. in JAXA/ISAS employed glycidylazide-poly(ethylene glycol) (GAP-PEG) copolymers as high regression rate fuels and modified the combustion characteristics by changing the PEG mixing ratio. Regression rate improvement by changing internal ballistics is another stream of research. The author proposed a new fuel configuration named "CAMUI" in 1998. CAMUI comes from an abbreviation of "cascaded multistage impinging-jet" meaning the distinctive flow field. A CAMUI type fuel grain consists of several cylindrical fuel blocks with two ports in axial direction. The port alignment shifts 90 degrees with each other to make jets out of ports impinge on the upstream end face of the downstream fuel block, resulting in intense heat transfer to the fuel. Yuasa et al. in Tokyo Metropolitan University employed swirling injection method and improved regression rates more than three times higher. However, regression rate distribution along the axis is not uniform due to the decay of the swirl strength. Aso et al. in Kyushu University employed multi-swirl injection to solve this problem. Combinations of swirling injection and paraffin based fuel have been tried and some results show very high regression rates exceeding ten times of conventional one. High fuel regression rates by new fuel, new internal ballistics, or combination of them require faster fuel-oxidizer mixing to maintain combustion efficiency. Nakagawa et al. succeeded to improve combustion efficiency of a paraffin-based fuel from 77% to 96% by a baffle plate. Another effective approach some researchers are trying is to use an aft-chamber to increase residence time. Better understanding of the new flow fields is necessary to reveal basic mechanisms of regression enhancement. Yuasa et al. visualized the combustion field in a swirling injection type motor. Nakagawa et al. observed boundary layer combustion of wax-based fuels. To understand detailed flow structures in swirling flow type hybrids, Sawada et al. (Tohoku Univ.), Teramoto et al. (Univ. of Tokyo), Shimada et al. (ISAS), and Tsuboi et al. (Kyushu Inst. Tech.) are trying to simulate the flow field numerically. Main challenges are turbulent reaction, stiffness due to low Mach number flow, fuel regression model, and other non-steady phenomena. Oshima et al. in Hokkaido University simulated CAMUI type flow fields and discussed correspondence relation between regression distribution of a burning surface and the vortex structure over the surface.

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A Case Study of Shanghai Tang: How to Build a Chinese Luxury Brand

  • Heine, Klaus;Phan, Michel
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.1-22
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    • 2013
  • This case focuses on Shanghai Tang, the first truly Chinese luxury brand that appeals to both Westerners and, more recently, to Chinese consumers worldwide. A visionary and wealthy businessman Sir David Tang created this company from scratch in 1994 in Hong Kong. Its story, spanned over almost two decades, has been fascinating. It went from what best a Chinese brand could be in the eyes of Westerners who love the Chinese culture, to a nearly-bankrupted company in 1998, before being acquired by Richemont, the second largest luxury group in the world. Since then, its turnaround has been spectacular with a growing appeal among Chinese luxury consumers who represent the core segment of the luxury industry today. The main objective of this case study is to formally examine how Shanghai Tang overcame its downfall and re-emerged as one the very few well- known Chinese luxury brands. More specifically, this case highlights the ways with which Shanghai Tang made a transitional change from a brand for Westerners who love the Chinese culture, to a brand for both, Westerners who love the Chinese culture and Chinese who love luxury. A close examination reveals that Shanghai Tang has followed the brand identity concept that consists of two major components: functional and emotional. The functional component for developing a luxury brand concerns all product characteristics that will make a product 'luxurious' in the eyes of the consumer, such as premium quality of cachemire from Mongolia, Chinese silk, lacquer, finest leather, porcelain, and jade in the case of Shanghai Tang. The emotional component consists of non-functional symbolic meanings of a brand. The symbolic meaning marks the major difference between a premium and a luxury brand. In the case of Shanghai Tang, its symbolic meaning refers to the Chinese culture and the brand aims to represent the best of Chinese traditions and establish itself as "the ambassador of modern Chinese style". It touches the Chinese heritage and emotions. Shanghai Tang has reinvented the modern Chinese chic by drawing back to the stylish decadence of Shanghai in the 1930s, which was then called the "Paris of the East", and this is where the brand finds inspiration to create its own myth. Once the functional and emotional components assured, Shanghai Tang has gone through a four-stage development to become the first global Chinese luxury brand: introduction, deepening, expansion, and revitalization. Introduction: David Tang discovered a market gap and had a vision to launch the first Chinese luxury brand to the world. The key success drivers for the introduction and management of a Chinese luxury brand are a solid brand identity and, above all, a creative mind, an inspired person. This was David Tang then, and this is now Raphael Le Masne de Chermont, the current Executive Chairman. Shanghai Tang combines Chinese and Western elements, which it finds to be the most sustainable platform for drawing consumers. Deepening: A major objective of the next phase is to become recognized as a luxury brand and a fashion or design authority. For this purpose, Shanghai Tang has cooperated with other well-regarded luxury and lifestyle brands such as Puma and Swarovski. It also expanded its product lines from high-end custom-made garments to music CDs and restaurant. Expansion: After the opening of his first store in Hong Kong in 1994, David Tang went on to open his second store in New York City three years later. However this New York retail operation was a financial disaster. Barely nineteen months after the opening, the store was shut down and quietly relocated to a cheaper location of Madison Avenue. Despite this failure, Shanghai Tang products found numerous followers especially among Western tourists and became "souvenir-like" must-haves. However, despite its strong brand DNA, the brand did not generate enough repeated sales and over the years the company cumulated heavy debts and became unprofitable. Revitalizing: After its purchase by Richemont in 1998, Le Masne de Chermont was appointed to lead the company, reposition the brand and undertake some major strategic changes such as revising the "Shanghai Tang" designs to appeal not only to Westerners but also to Chinese consumers, and to open new stores around the world. Since then, Shanghai Tang has become synonymous to a modern Chinese luxury lifestyle brand.

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