• Title/Summary/Keyword: concentration of power

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The Concentration of Economic Power in Korea (경제력집중(經濟力集中) : 기본시각(基本視角)과 정책방향(政策方向))

  • Lee, Kyu-uck
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.31-68
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    • 1990
  • The concentration of economic power takes the form of one or a few firms controlling a substantial portion of the economic resources and means in a certain economic area. At the same time, to the extent that these firms are owned by a few individuals, resource allocation can be manipulated by them rather than by the impersonal market mechanism. This will impair allocative efficiency, run counter to a decentralized market system and hamper the equitable distribution of wealth. Viewed from the historical evolution of Western capitalism in general, the concentration of economic power is a paradox in that it is a product of the free market system itself. The economic principle of natural discrimination works so that a few big firms preempt scarce resources and market opportunities. Prominent historical examples include trusts in America, Konzern in Germany and Zaibatsu in Japan in the early twentieth century. In other words, the concentration of economic power is the outcome as well as the antithesis of free competition. As long as judgment of the economic system at large depends upon the value systems of individuals, therefore, the issue of how to evaluate the concentration of economic power will inevitably be tinged with ideology. We have witnessed several different approaches to this problem such as communism, fascism and revised capitalism, and the last one seems to be the only surviving alternative. The concentration of economic power in Korea can be summarily represented by the "jaebol," namely, the conglomerate business group, the majority of whose member firms are monopolistic or oligopolistic in their respective markets and are owned by particular individuals. The jaebol has many dimensions in its size, but to sketch its magnitude, the share of the jaebol in the manufacturing sector reached 37.3% in shipment and 17.6% in employment as of 1989. The concentration of economic power can be ascribed to a number of causes. In the early stages of economic development, when the market system is immature, entrepreneurship must fill the gap inherent in the market in addition to performing its customary managerial function. Entrepreneurship of this sort is a scarce resource and becomes even more valuable as the target rate of economic growth gets higher. Entrepreneurship can neither be readily obtained in the market nor exhausted despite repeated use. Because of these peculiarities, economic power is bound to be concentrated in the hands of a few entrepreneurs and their business groups. It goes without saying, however, that the issue of whether the full exercise of money-making entrepreneurship is compatible with social mores is a different matter entirely. The rapidity of the concentration of economic power can also be traced to the diversification of business groups. The transplantation of advanced technology oriented toward mass production tends to saturate the small domestic market quite early and allows a firm to expand into new markets by making use of excess capacity and of monopoly profits. One of the reasons why the jaebol issue has become so acute in Korea lies in the nature of the government-business relationship. The Korean government has set economic development as its foremost national goal and, since then, has intervened profoundly in the private sector. Since most strategic industries promoted by the government required a huge capacity in technology, capital and manpower, big firms were favored over smaller firms, and the benefits of industrial policy naturally accrued to large business groups. The concentration of economic power which occured along the way was, therefore, not necessarily a product of the market system. At the same time, the concentration of ownership in business groups has been left largely intact as they have customarily met capital requirements by means of debt. The real advantage enjoyed by large business groups lies in synergy due to multiplant and multiproduct production. Even these effects, however, cannot always be considered socially optimal, as they offer disadvantages to other independent firms-for example, by foreclosing their markets. Moreover their fictitious or artificial advantages only aggravate the popular perception that most business groups have accumulated their wealth at the expense of the general public and under the behest of the government. Since Korea stands now at the threshold of establishing a full-fledged market economy along with political democracy, the phenomenon called the concentration of economic power must be correctly understood and the roles of business groups must be accordingly redefined. In doing so, we would do better to take a closer look at Japan which has experienced a demise of family-controlled Zaibatsu and a success with business groups(Kigyoshudan) whose ownership is dispersed among many firms and ultimately among the general public. The Japanese case cannot be an ideal model, but at least it gives us a good point of departure in that the issue of ownership is at the heart of the matter. In setting the basic direction of public policy aimed at controlling the concentration of economic power, one must harmonize efficiency and equity. Firm size in itself is not a problem, if it is dictated by efficiency considerations and if the firm behaves competitively in the market. As long as entrepreneurship is required for continuous economic growth and there is a discrepancy in entrepreneurial capacity among individuals, a concentration of economic power is bound to take place to some degree. Hence, the most effective way of reducing the inefficiency of business groups may be to impose competitive pressure on their activities. Concurrently, unless the concentration of ownership in business groups is scaled down, the seed of social discontent will still remain. Nevertheless, the dispersion of ownership requires a number of preconditions and, consequently, we must make consistent, long-term efforts on many fronts. We can suggest a long list of policy measures specifically designed to control the concentration of economic power. Whatever the policy may be, however, its intended effects will not be fully realized unless business groups abide by the moral code expected of socially responsible entrepreneurs. This is especially true, since the root of the problem of the excessive concentration of economic power lies outside the issue of efficiency, in problems concerning distribution, equity, and social justice.

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Development of Target-Controlled Infusion system in Plasma Concentration. PART2: Design and Evaluation (혈중 목표 농도 자동 조절기(TCI) 개발 PART2: 시스템 구현 및 평가)

  • 안재목
    • Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.45-53
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    • 2003
  • Based on the 4-compartmental pharmacokinetic model developed in PART1, target-controlled infusion(TCI) pump system was designed and evaluated. The TCI system consists of digital board including microcontroller and digital signal process(DSP), analog board, motor-driven actuator, user friendly interface, power management and controller. It provides two modes according to the drugs: plasma target concentration and effect target concentration. Anaesthetist controls the depth of anaesthesia for patients by adjusting the required concentration to maintain both plasma and effect site in drug concentration. The data estimated in DSP include infusion rate, initial load dose, and rotation number of motor encoder. During TCI operation, plasma concentration. effect site concentration, awaken concentration, context-sensitive decrement time and system error information are displayed in real time. Li-ion battery guarantees above 2 hours without power line failure. For high reliability of the system, two microprocessors were used to perform independent functions for both pharmacokinetic algorithm and motor control strategy.

Assessment of N-16 activity concentration in Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission TRIGA Research Reactor

  • Ajijul Hoq, M.;Malek Soner, M.A.;Salam, M.A.;Khanom, Salma;Fahad, S.M.
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.50 no.1
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    • pp.165-169
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    • 2018
  • An assessment for determining N-16 activity concentrations during the operation condition of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission TRIGA Research Reactor was performed employing several governing equations. The radionuclide N-16 is a high energy (6.13 MeV) gamma emitter which is predominately created by the fast neutron interaction with O-16 present in the reactor core water. During reactor operation at different power level, the concentration of N-16 at the reactor bay region may increase causing radiation risk to the reactor operating personnel or the general public. Concerning the safety of the research reactor, the present study deals with the estimation of N-16 activity concentrations in the regions of reactor core, reactor tank, and reactor bay at different reactor power levels under natural convection cooling mode. The estimated N-16 activity concentration values with 500 kW reactor power at the reactor core region was $7.40{\times}10^5Bq/cm^3$ and at the bay region was $3.39{\times}10^5Bq/cm^3$. At 3 MW reactor power with active forced convection cooling mode, the N-16 activity concentration in the decay tank exit water was also determined, and the value was $4.14{\times}10^{-1}Bq/cm^3$.

100 MWe Oxyfuel Power Plant Boiler System Process Design and Operation Parameters Sensitivity Analysis (100 MWe급 순산소연소 발전소 보일러계통 공정설계 및 운전변수 민감도 예측)

  • Baek, Sehyun;Ko, SungHo
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.1-11
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    • 2013
  • The oxy-fuel combustion is $CO_2$ capture technology that uses mixture of pure $O_2$ and recirculated exhaust as oxidizer. Currently some Oxy-fuel power plants demonstration project is underway in worldwide. Meanwhile research project for converting 125 MWe Young-Dong power plant to 100 MWe oxy-fuel power plants is progress. In this paper, 1 D process analytical approach was applied for conducting process design and operating parameters sensitivity analysis for oxy-fuel combustion of Young-Dong power plant. As a result, appropriate gas recirculation rates was 74.3% that in order to maintain normal rating superheater, reheater steam temperature and boiler heat transfer patterns. And boiler efficiency 85.0%, CPU inlet $CO_2$ mole concentration 71.34% was predicted for retrofitted boiler. The oxygen concentration in the secondary recycle gas is predicted as 27.1%. Meanwhile the oxygen concentration 22.4% and moisture concentration 5.3% predicted for primary recycle gas. As the primary and secondary gas recirculation increases, then heat absorption of the reheater is tends to increases whereas superheater side is decreased, and also the efficiency is tends to decrease, according to results of sensitivity analysis for operating parameters. In addition, the ambient air ingression have a tendency to lead to decline of efficiency for boiler as well as decline of $CO_2$ purity of CPU inlet.

Effect of Anode Gas Channel Height on Gas Diffusion and Cell Performance in a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (용융탄산염 연료전지 연료극 기체 유로 높이에 따른 가스 확산 및 단전지 성능 변화 연구)

  • Lee, Jung-Hyun;Kim, Do-Hyung;Kim, Beum-Ju;Kang, Seung-Won;Lim, Hee-Chun
    • Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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    • v.20 no.6
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    • pp.479-484
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    • 2009
  • The effect of anode gas channel height on gas diffusion and cell performance in a 100 $cm^2$ class molten carbonate single cell is investigated. Single cell separators with three different channel height are used. The effect of the gas channel height on the distribution of the reactive gas concentration is evaluated by the two-dimensional concentration diffusion equation. The overpotential caused by concentration drop with different channel height is estimated by the voltage decay related to diffusion of reactants, well known as concentration polarization, using limiting current density. The estimation could have the possibility to identify the reactant mass transfer polarization in the complicate factors of the overall electrodes.

Preparation of AlN thin films on silicon by reactive RF magnetron sputtering (RF 마그네트론 스퍼터링을 이용한 Si 기판상의 AlN 박막의 제조)

  • 조찬섭;김형표
    • Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.17-21
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    • 2004
  • Aluminum nitride(AlN) thin films were deposited on silicon substrate by reactive RF magnetron sputtering without substrate heating. We investigated the dependence of some properties for AlN thin film on sputtering conditions such as working pressure, $N_2$ concentration and RF power. XRD, Ellipsometer and AES has been measured to find out structural properties and preferred orientation of AlN thin films. Deposition rate of AlN thin film was increased with an increase of RF power and decreased with an increase of $N_2$ concentration. AES in-depth measurements showed that stoichiometry of Aluminium and Nitrogen elements were not affected by $N_2$ concentration. It has shown that low working pressure, low $N_2$ concentration and high RF power should be maintained to deposit AlN thin film with a high degree of (0002) preferred orientation.

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The Effect of a Target Controlled Infusion of Low-Concentration Ketamine on the Heart Rate Variability of Normal Volunteers (정상인 자원자에서 목표농도조절주입법으로 투여한 저농도의 케타민이 심장박동수변이도에 미치는 영향)

  • Jung, Jai Yun;Lee, Jun Ho;Lee, Jeong Seok;Kim, Yong Ik
    • The Korean Journal of Pain
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.39-46
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    • 2009
  • Background: Ketamine has an indirect sympathetic stimulation effect. We investigated heart rate variability (HRV) as a marker of cardiac autonomic function after a target controlled infusion (TCI) of ketamine with a plasma concentration of 30 or 60 ng/ml. Methods: In 20 adult volunteers, the mean of the R wave to the adjacent R wave interval (RRI), the range of RRI, the root mean square successive difference of intervals (RMSSD), the total power, the low frequency (LF, 0.04-0.15 Hz) power, the high frequency (HF, 0.15-0.4 Hz) power, the normal unit HF (nuHF), the normal unit LF (nuLF), the LF/HF ratio and the SD1 and the SD2 in the Poincare plot were measured before and after a TCI of ketamine. We observed for any psychedelic symptoms or sedation. Results: There were no differences in the mean and range of the RRI, RMSSD, total power, LF power, HF power, nuHF, nuLF, LF/HF ratio, SD1 and SD2 between before and after ketamine administration. The OAA/S score was higher and there were more psychedelic symptoms with a 60 ng/ml plasma concentration than with a 30 ng/ml plasma concentration. Conclusions: This study did not show any effect of a low plasma concentration of ketamine on the autonomic nervous system.

Estimation of Tritium Concentration in Groundwater around the Nuclear Power Plants Using a Dynamic Compartment Model

  • Choi, Heui-Joo;Lee, Han-Soo;Kang, Hee-Suk;Choi, Yong-Ho
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.28 no.3
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    • pp.239-245
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    • 2003
  • Every nuclear power plant measured concentrations of tritium in groundwater and surface water around the plants periodically. It was not easy to predict the tritium concentration only with these measurement data in case of various release scenarios. KAERI developed a new approach to find the relationship between the tritium release rate and tritium concentration in the environment. The approach was based upon a dynamic compartment model. In this paper the dynamic compartment model was modified to predict the tritium behavior more accurately. The mechanisms considered for the transfer of tritium between the compartments were evaporation, groundwater flow, infiltration, runoff, and hydrodynamic dispersion. Time dependent source terms of the compartment model were introduced to refine the release scenarios. Also, transfer coefficients between the compartments were obtained using realistic geographical data. In order to illustrate the model various release scenarios were developed, and the change of tritium concentration in groundwater and surface water around the nuclear power plants was estimated.

Investigation of Stress Concentration and Fatigue Life of Axle Drive Shaft with Relief Groove (완화 홈이 가공된 액슬구동축의 응력집중 및 피로수명 평가)

  • Shin, Jae-Myung;Han, Seung-Ho;Han, Dong-Sub
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.88-94
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    • 2012
  • An axle drive shaft with double joint shaft, cross kit and yoke has an important role by transferring power and changing steering angle between axle and wheel in power train system. It has been used widely in the heavy machinery requiring a high reliability in the power train system. At fatigue failures of the axle drive shaft with the long span, a relatively high stress concentration at a snap ring groove on the drive shaft brings to significant fatigue damages under repeated loading condition. As Peterson's suggestions on this study, a relief groove in the vicinity of the snap ring groove is applied by decreasing the stress concentration and improving the fatigue life of axle drive shaft. By using FEM analysis, the decreasing effect of the stress concentration and extended fatigue life are due to the change of design parameters related with size and location of the relief groove. The relief groove with the design parameters such as d/b=2.0 and r/h=1.2 enables to decrease the stress concentration of 22.3% and increase the fatigue life more than 3 times by comparing with no relief groove application.

Thermal Test of High-Temperature Solar Concentrating System for Hybrid Power Generation (복합발전용 고온 집광시스템의 집열 특성 분석)

  • Kim, Jin-Soo;Lee, Sang-Nam;Kang, Yong-Heack;Yun, Hwan-Ki;Yun, Chang-Kyun;Kim, Jong-Kyu
    • 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2006.06a
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    • pp.580-583
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    • 2006
  • A small-scale solar concentrating system was developed and demonstrated for supplying process heat required in solar thermo chemical reaction. The concentration system consists of a heliostat equipped with a solar tracking device and a dish concentrator. From the initial thermal test of the concentrating system it was found that the system works very well with around 500-600 concentration ratio capable of supplying about 3kW therml energy to the reactor. Once the concentration system was turned on, the reactor temperature rapidly increased over $1,000^{\circ}C$ and could be maintained high enough for solar chemical reaction.

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