• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.381-389
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• 2020

This study analyzed the optimal electricity cost of a 100% renewable energy source (RES) based system. Especially energy storage system (EES) and supplementary biopower system as well as photovoltaic (PV) and wind power component were included in the proposed RES-based system to overcome the intermittence of RESs and to efficiently balance energy supply and demand. To comparatively analyze the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of different RES-based systems, six scenarios were developed according to the involved RESs: PV, wind, PV/wind, PV/biopower, wind/biopower, and PV/wind/biopower systems. We then applied the proposed systems to build a 100% RES-based system in Jeju Island, Korea. As a result, the single component based system, PV and wind power system of 0.18 and 0.28 $/kWh, respectively, cannot compete with the economics of existing electricity grid. However, the optimal LCOE of the hybrid system where PV and wind power are used as main supply options and biopower as supplementary option was identified to be 0.08 $/kWh, which can compete with the economics of an existing electricity grid.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.347-355
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• 2017

Background: The objective of this article is to make some analysis on the process of work and accidents occurring in slaughterhouses, evidenced in the Brazilian documentary film called Flesh and Bone. As such, it was necessary to discuss an alternative theoretical concept in relation to theories about health and safety at work. This alternative discussion focuses on the concepts of biopower and biopolitics. Methods: The use of audiovisual elements in research is not new, and there is already a branch of studies with methodological and epistemological variations. The Brazilian documentary Flesh and Bone was the basis for the research. The analysis of this documentary will be carried out from two complementary perspectives: "textual analysis" and "discourse analysis." Results: Flesh and Bone presents problems related to health and safety at work in slaughterhouses because of the constant exposure of workers to knives, saws, and other sharp instruments in the workplace. The results show that in favor of higher production levels, increased overseas market sales, and stricter quality controls, some manufacturers resort to various practices that often result in serious injuries, disposal, and health damages to workers. Conclusion: Flesh and Bone, by itself, makes this explicit in the form of denunciation based on the situation of these workers. What it does not make clear is that, in the context of biopolitics, the actions aimed at solving these problems or even reducing the negative impacts for this group of workers, are not efficient enough to change such practices.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.95-124
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• 2021

As the symbolic images of girls besides its definition have varied according to the age and society, a posthuman girl character recently appears in the digital cinema. This study aims to analyze its cinematic representations and the social contexts in which they are created. For this purpose, the study focuses on what extent the society allows its imagined figurations as a future female body and the meanings revolving around the image of 'technologically body-enhanced female fighter'. Current digital visualization technology has developed to the extent any imaged future humans can be represented, but posthuman girls' representations have its limitation that only a human-like figuration can be allowed in accord with the traditionally idolized image of girls. It is because of the representation logic in which digital cinema is visualized based on perceptual realism that values audiences' experiences. Despite such less critical figuration which does not dare to cross the boundary between the image of human and inhuman, the posthuman girl characters create a new category of the 'dangerous girls' who are both void of sexual femininity and independent of motherhood and heterosexual romance narrative. Of course, they support the modern human-centered belief that humans can take entire control of technology with their moral behaviors and dispel the fear about the negative impact the nature of technology may have on society at large by showing their child-like figuration protecting ethical values. However, the new character of 'unruly girl' exerts her subversive act that seeks to fight against the human-centered liberal humanistic values and melancholic feeling and vulnerability that the neoliberalism and technocracy enforce. When posthuman girl characters are considered to be a marker through which we can see how different social forces are intervening and competing each other in the upcoming posthuman age, the limited figuration of the posthuman girl characters in South Korean movies illustrates the opinionated thoughts toward the instrumentalism in technology but their bloodshed struggles reveal how the corporate or state-governed techno-biopower has oppressively treated and appropriated the human body as the technology-object and also provide a meaningful opportunity to rethink its unethical violence.