• Title/Summary/Keyword: weak link

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A Study on the Enhancement of Maritime Education and Training to cope with IMO Member-state Audit Scheme (IMO 회원국 감사제도 대응을 위한 해기교육 강화방안에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Yun-Cheol;Park, Sung-Ho
    • Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.203-210
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    • 2013
  • In spite of adoption of various IMO Conventions over the past, the reason why large vessel accidents related to human life and marine environment occur is that the IMO Conventions are not effectively implemented due to contravention of the conventions by flag states. In particular, the implementation of the conventions are not well being performed because some flag states having weak genuine link between them and vessels haven't set up proper personal and structural organizations in charge of maritime safety and marine environment protection. From this background, IMO Resolution A.946(23) on the voluntary IMO Member-state Audit Scheme was adopted at the 23rd Assembly in Nov. 2003 and the Scheme is expected to be executed compulsorily in 2015 through the adoption of the IMO Resolution A.1018(26) in Nov. 2009. Accordingly, this study examined outline of the IMO Member-state Audit Scheme and the Code for the Implementation of Mandatory IMO Instruments used for the audit standards of this scheme. In addition, this study reviewed the member-states' obligations and responsibilities according to the compulsory implementation of the member-state audit scheme in 2015. Based on this, this study suggested the enhancement measures for maritime education and training of maritime education institutions of the Republic of Korea to cope positively with compulsory implementation of the IMO Member-state Audit Scheme.

Evaluating the Efficiency of Chinese Ports from the Perspective of Maritime Silk Road (중국 일대일로 항만의 효율성 평가)

  • Wang, Guan;Ahn, Seung-Bum
    • Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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    • v.37 no.1
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    • pp.19-30
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    • 2021
  • The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) is an important part of Belt and Road Initiative(BRI). As an economic and trade corridor for dozens of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, and the port as an important link node, the efficiency of port operation directly affects the implementation of BRI's strategy. On the basis of combining BRI and related evaluation methods of port efficiency, this paper uses DEA-BCC model to select port production berth number and production berth length as input index container throughput and cargo throughput as output index to analyze the port efficiency of 14 ports in China. The results show that: (1) The overall efficiency level of the ports along the MSR is relatively low. Most of the ports have not reached the DEA efficiency and there are different degrees of problems in scale investment and technological improvement. However, this situation is accompanied by the implementation of China's maritime cooperation strategy and becoming better year by year. (2) The low operating efficiency of ports along China's MSR is mainly due to the lack of coordination between scale efficiency and technical efficiency, which is caused by insufficient scale investment in the port itself, weak economic linkage between the hinterland and the port, (3) Whether a port has a strong comprehensive strength does not entirely depend on the cargo throughput or scale but also includes the port's operating efficiency.

Analysis of High School Students' Polar Literacy and Its Implications for Polar Education (고등학생들의 극지 소양 평가 결과 분석 및 극지 교육에의 시사점)

  • Chung, Sueim;Choi, Haneul;Kim, Minjee;Shin, Donghee
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.43 no.3
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    • pp.446-463
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    • 2022
  • This study suggests the need for polar literacy education as an effective conceptual system to explain climate change in terms of science education in line with the common effort of humankind to respond to global environmental changes. To this end, we investigated the status of polar literacy in high school students through quantitative tests and qualitative interviews and discussed the resulting implications. A total of 329 high school sophomore students from two high schools participated in a test consisting of 25 true and false questions developed by referring to the Polar Literacy Principles, while 13 students agreed to be interviewed. The results showed that a somewhat insufficient understanding and conceptual gaps appeared regarding several areas of the Polar Literacy Principles. Knowledge of the geographic features of the polar regions was weak, and little was known about the components and key characteristics of the cryosphere. The lack of understanding of these concepts results in the inability of students to link the operational mechanisms of polar and global climate change sufficiently. While accepting unsatisfactory concepts in the school curriculum without criticism from outside media, students perceived the mechanism of climate change as somewhat monotonous or distorted. Moreover, linguistic information, analogies, and visual observation were used as cognitive strategies to compensate for the ambiguous understanding of polar and climate change. Based on the abovementioned results, we argue that polar literacy education should be introduced as a new knowledge system that can be used to aid a systematic and comprehensive understanding of climate change within the school science curriculum. Additionally, we suggest the following implications: review the consistency of knowledge related to polar literacy in other subjects, provide critical standards for out-of-school media information related to climate change, examine students' misconceptions, and identify improved thinking strategies.

Analysis of promising countries for export using parametric and non-parametric methods based on ERGM: Focusing on the case of information communication and home appliance industries (ERGM 기반의 모수적 및 비모수적 방법을 활용한 수출 유망국가 분석: 정보통신 및 가전 산업 사례를 중심으로)

  • Jun, Seung-pyo;Seo, Jinny;Yoo, Jae-Young
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.175-196
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    • 2022
  • Information and communication and home appliance industries, which were one of South Korea's main industries, are gradually losing their export share as their export competitiveness is weakening. This study objectively analyzed export competitiveness and suggested export-promising countries in order to help South Korea's information communication and home appliance industries improve exports. In this study, network properties, centrality, and structural hole analysis were performed during network analysis to evaluate export competitiveness. In order to select promising export countries, we proposed a new variable that can take into account the characteristics of an already established International Trade Network (ITN), that is, the Global Value Chain (GVC), in addition to the existing economic factors. The conditional log-odds for individual links derived from the Exponential Random Graph Model (ERGM) in the analysis of the cross-border trade network were assumed as a proxy variable that can indicate the export potential. In consideration of the possibility of ERGM linkage, a parametric approach and a non-parametric approach were used to recommend export-promising countries, respectively. In the parametric method, a regression analysis model was developed to predict the export value of the information and communication and home appliance industries in South Korea by additionally considering the link-specific characteristics of the network derived from the ERGM to the existing economic factors. Also, in the non-parametric approach, an abnormality detection algorithm based on the clustering method was used, and a promising export country was proposed as a method of finding outliers that deviate from two peers. According to the research results, the structural characteristic of the export network of the industry was a network with high transferability. Also, according to the centrality analysis result, South Korea's influence on exports was weak compared to its size, and the structural hole analysis result showed that export efficiency was weak. According to the model for recommending promising exporting countries proposed by this study, in parametric analysis, Iran, Ireland, North Macedonia, Angola, and Pakistan were promising exporting countries, and in nonparametric analysis, Qatar, Luxembourg, Ireland, North Macedonia and Pakistan were analyzed as promising exporting countries. There were differences in some countries in the two models. The results of this study revealed that the export competitiveness of South Korea's information and communication and home appliance industries in GVC was not high compared to the size of exports, and thus showed that exports could be further reduced. In addition, this study is meaningful in that it proposed a method to find promising export countries by considering GVC networks with other countries as a way to increase export competitiveness. This study showed that, from a policy point of view, the international trade network of the information communication and home appliance industries has an important mutual relationship, and although transferability is high, it may not be easily expanded to a three-party relationship. In addition, it was confirmed that South Korea's export competitiveness or status was lower than the export size ranking. This paper suggested that in order to improve the low out-degree centrality, it is necessary to increase exports to Italy or Poland, which had significantly higher in-degrees. In addition, we argued that in order to improve the centrality of out-closeness, it is necessary to increase exports to countries with particularly high in-closeness. In particular, it was analyzed that Morocco, UAE, Argentina, Russia, and Canada should pay attention as export countries. This study also provided practical implications for companies expecting to expand exports. The results of this study argue that companies expecting export expansion need to pay attention to countries with a relatively high potential for export expansion compared to the existing export volume by country. In particular, for companies that export daily necessities, countries that should pay attention to the population are presented, and for companies that export high-end or durable products, countries with high GDP, or purchasing power, relatively low exports are presented. Since the process and results of this study can be easily extended and applied to other industries, it is also expected to develop services that utilize the results of this study in the public sector.

EFFECTS OF HYDROQUINONE ON NEOPLASTIC TRANSFORMATION OF HUMAN EPITHELIAL CELLS IN CULTURE (Hydroquinone이 인체 상피세포의 발암화에 미치는 영향)

  • Sohn, Jung-Hee;Kim, Chin-Soo
    • Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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    • v.32 no.3
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    • pp.218-228
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    • 2010
  • Components of dental resin-based restorative materials are reported to leach from the filling materials even after polymerization. Hydroquinone (HQ) is one of the major monomers used in the dental resin and is known as a carcinogen. Thus, carcinogenic risk of HQ leaching from the dental resin becomes a public health concern. The present study attempted to examine the carcinogenic potentials of HQ on the human epithelial cell, which is the target cell origin of the most of oral cancers. Cytotoxicity of HQ was observed above 50${\mu}M$ as measured by LDH assay, indicating a relatively low toxicity of this substance in human epithelial cells. The parameters of neoplastic cellular transformation such as cell saturation density, soft agar colony formation and cell aggregation were analyzed to examine the carcinogenic potential of HQ. The study showed that 2-week exposure of HQ showed the tendency of increase in the saturation density and the significant enhancement of soft agar colony formation at the highest dose, 50 ${\mu}M$ only. It is suggested that HQ has a weak potential of carcinogenicity. When cells were treated with HQ and TPA, a well-known tumor promoter, the parameters of neoplastic cellular transformation was significantly increased. This result indicates that the potential risk of carcinogenicity from HQ is largely dependent upon the presence of promoter. Exposure of 50 ${\mu}M$ HQ increased the time-dependent apoptosis as measured by the ELISA kit. This concentration coincides with a dose of neoplastic transformation, indicating a possible link between apoptosis and HQ-induced cellular transformation. Hydroquinone generated Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) which was evidenced by the treatment of antioxidants such as trolox and N-acetyl cysteine and the GSH depleting agent, BSO. Antioxidants blocked the generation of ROS and the GSH depleting agent, BSO dramatically increased the ROS production. Since HQ is known to increase ROS production thru activation of transcriptional factor such as c-Myb and Pim-1, it is speculated that ROS generation by HQ plays a role in the activation of oncogene, which may lead to neoplastic transformation. In addition, ROS is involved in the alteration of signal transduction, which regulates the apoptosis in many cellular systems. Thus, ROS-mediated apoptosis may be involved in the HQ-induced carcinogenic processes. Protein kinase C (PKC) is known to play pivotal roles in neoplastic transformation of cells and its high expression is often found in a variety of types of tumors including oral cancer. PKC translocation of PKC-${\alpha}$ was observed following HQ exposure. Altered signaling system may also play a role in the transformation process. Taken together, HQ leached from the dental resin does not pose a significant threat as a cancer causing agent, but its carcinogenic potential can be significantly elevated in the presence of promoter. The mechanism of HQ-induced carcinogenesis involved ROS generation, apoptosis and altered signaling pathway. The present study will provide a valuable data to estimate the potential risk of HQ as a carcinogen and understand mechanism of HQ-induced carcinogenesis in human epithelial cells.

Participation Level in Online Knowledge Sharing: Behavioral Approach on Wikipedia (온라인 지식공유의 참여정도: 위키피디아에 대한 행태적 접근)

  • Park, Hyun Jung;Lee, Hong Joo;Kim, Jong Woo
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.19 no.4
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    • pp.97-121
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    • 2013
  • With the growing importance of knowledge for sustainable competitive advantages and innovation in a volatile environment, many researches on knowledge sharing have been conducted. However, previous researches have mostly relied on the questionnaire survey which has inherent perceptive errors of respondents. The current research has drawn the relationship among primary participant behaviors towards the participation level in knowledge sharing, basically from online user behaviors on Wikipedia, a representative community for online knowledge collaboration. Without users' participation in knowledge sharing, knowledge collaboration for creating knowledge cannot be successful. By the way, the editing patterns of Wikipedia users are diverse, resulting in different revisiting periods for the same number of edits, and thus varying results of shared knowledge. Therefore, we illuminated the participation level of knowledge sharing from two different angles of number of edits and revisiting period. The behavioral dimensions affecting the level of participation in knowledge sharing includes the article talk for public discussion and user talk for private messaging, and community registration, which are observable on Wiki platform. Public discussion is being progressed on article talk pages arranged for exchanging ideas about each article topic. An article talk page is often divided into several sections which mainly address specific type of issues raised during the article development procedure. From the diverse opinions about the relatively trivial things such as what text, link, or images should be added or removed and how they should be restructured to the profound professional insights are shared, negotiated, and improved over the course of discussion. Wikipedia also provides personal user talk pages as a private messaging tool. On these pages, diverse personal messages such as casual greetings, stories about activities on Wikipedia, and ordinary affairs of life are exchanged. If anyone wants to communicate with another person, he or she visits the person's user talk page and leaves a message. Wikipedia articles are assessed according to seven quality grades, of which the featured article level is the highest. The dataset includes participants' behavioral data related with 2,978 articles, which have reached the featured article level, with editing histories of articles, their article talk histories, and user talk histories extracted from user talk pages for each article. The time period for analysis is from the initiation of articles until their promotion to the featured article level. The number of edits represents the total number of participation in the editing of an article, and the revisiting period is the time difference between the first and last edits. At first, the participation levels of each user category classified according to behavioral dimensions have been analyzed and compared. And then, robust regressions have been conducted on the relationships among independent variables reflecting the degree of behavioral characteristics and the dependent variable representing the participation level. Especially, through adopting a motivational theory adequate for online environment in setting up research hypotheses, this work suggests a theoretical framework for the participation level of online knowledge sharing. Consequently, this work reached the following practical behavioral results besides some theoretical implications. First, both public discussion and private messaging positively affect the participation level in knowledge sharing. Second, public discussion exerts greater influence than private messaging on the participation level. Third, a synergy effect of public discussion and private messaging on the number of edits was found, whereas a pretty weak negative interaction effect of them on the revisiting period was observed. Fourth, community registration has a significant impact on the revisiting period, whereas being insignificant on the number of edits. Fifth, when it comes to the relation generated from private messaging, the frequency or depth of relation is shown to be more critical than the scope of relation for the participation level.