• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.2 no.2 s.4
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• pp.145-189
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• 2002

This paper explores into the potential contribution of welfare science and technology(WST) to meeting the challenges of ageing. Drawing on the literature about gerontechnology, this paper considers the application of scientific knowledge for welfare of an aging population. WST for the improvement of the daily functioning of the elderly people can not only prevent, delay or compensate for the declines or impairments of coginitive and physical functions (by assistive technology) but also enhance personal ability to overcome problems either by supporting the person's abilities (by supportive technology) or by changing the environment (by public welfare technology). This paper draws attention to a paradigm change in the conceptualization of disability and its ramifications for the role of technology and aging. A range of approaches such as Barrier-Free design, Universal Design points to new directions of WST in which products and services are devised to improve the quality of life for all people, and hence enhancing the socio-economic vitality. It is suggested that the future of welfare science and technology will be based in large measure on its goal to reduce or prevent individual and structural lag in the relationships between people and their environments. Addressing issues of the broader physical and social environment will emphasize the goal of prevention and the view that environmental needs for aging population are changing over time.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.85-125
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• 2014

This paper explores what we call 'the problem of undone social science' by examining the lack of interests in the social, ethical, and legal issues of synthetic biology among social scientists in Korea. This new field of science, which has emerged in the twenty-first century with the promise of solving future problems of energy, food, and disease in the world, has also created a considerable degree of anxiety over the issues of bioethics, biosafety, and biosecurity. From its beginning, therefore, researchers of synthetic biology in Europe and the U.S. have sought to engage social scientists in their projects. Yet scientists and social scientists in Korea have shown no sign of working together to deal with both potential benefits and risks of synthetic biology. Why this silence? What strategic moves would be needed to overcome the structural barrier for their collaboration? Surveying the diverse methodologies developed during and after ELSI (ethical, legal, social implications) experiments, this paper aims to provide three suggestions that might make possible mutually profitable and continuously stimulating dialogues between the two worlds of science and social science: first, institutionalize the ELSI studies on any newly emerging science and technology of concern; second, explore diverse post-ELSI methodologies experimented elsewhere and develop ones that might be applicable best to the Korean situation; and third and perhaps most important, create an intellectual space and a lawful protection for social scientists to exercise their research freedom at the reasonable level and receive a fair review by their peers, not solely by funding agencies and scientific organizations.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.115-120
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• 2010

The formidable barrier property of the stratum cornemum and the high hydrophilicity of active ingredient make it difficult to permeate through the skin and reach to its site of action. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of chemical penetration enhancers on the skin permeation of a hydrophilic cosmetic active ingredient, such as arbutin. The enhancing effects of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) on the permeation of a hydrophilic cosmetic active ingredient were evaluated by using Franz diffusion cell. The study indicated that NMP has considerable influence on the skin permeability. NMP was not only the most effective enhancer but also increased the skin permeability of arbutin approximately 1.3~1.5 fold compared with control without penetration enhancer. The lag time did not change with NMP, which suggested no effect of NMP on skin lipid fluidity. This suggest that arbutin co-permeated with NMP. The results indicate NMP is effective enhancer of a hydrophilic cosmetic active ingredient in penetration, with potential applications for drug delivery system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.51-73
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• 2015

The Web now provides instant access to an unprecedented amount of information that was unthinkable even 20-30 years ago. However, the full potential of the contents available through the Internet can only be realized when one can speak and understand foreign languages, especially English which accounts for more than half of web contents. In this study, we try to investigate the effect of search task languages and task complexity on searching performance. A total of thirty students enrolled at a top private university in Korea were recruited as study subjects. We set up a quasi-experimental design in which thirty subjects are randomly assigned to a set of eight different search tasks containing an equal number of simple and complex tasks and an equal number of tasks in Korean and in English. The results show that there is a significant difference between simple and complex tasks in terms of SERP time, number of queries used, correctness of results and total search time. However, task language does not seem to have affected search performance for this study group. In addition, students with high English proficiency test scores show comparable search performance in English tasks compared with lower test scores. But we note differences in behavioral patterns (different search engines used and search tactics) among the study participants.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.149-156
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• 2008

During maintenance or construction works in or at the tracks of railways, high risks for passengers and railway staff, especially for the workers on the construction site exist. The high risks result out of the movement of rail vehicles, like trains or construction vehicles, which must be faced by using any available technical and operational technologies for securing them against the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the level of protection continuously and to identify new and innovative methods and technologies for the protection of the gang (construction worker, machines and material). Especially on construction sites at line sections with two or more parallel tracks but also with single tracks, there are still a lot of incidents and accidents mostly with seriously injured persons or fatalities. These were mainly gang members that breach the railway-loading gage. By using proper warning or protection systems, the avoidance of such accidents must be achieved. The latest developments. in gang protection systems concern on the one hand fixed barriers in the middle between the construction site and the operated track and on the other hand construction vehicles equipped with automatic warning systems. The disadvantage of such protection methods is that the gang can be warned against an approaching train but a monitoring of the gang members cannot be performed. Only one part of a potential dangerous situation will be detected. If the gang members will overhear the acoustic warning signal of the security staff and the workers will not leave the danger zone in the track, the driver of the approaching train had no chance to react to the dangerous situation. An accident is often inevitable. While the detection of acoustic warning signals by the gang members working on a construction site is very difficult, the acoustical planning of an automatic warning system has to be designed for an acoustic short range level of one meter besides the construction vehicle. The decision about the use of today's technical warning system (fixed systems, automatic warning systems, etc.) must be geared to the technical feasibility and the level of safety which is needed. Criteria for decision guidance to block a track should be developed by danger estimation and economical variables. To realize the actual jurisdiction and to minimize the hazards of railway operations by the use of construction vehicles near the tracks further developments are needed. This means, that the warning systems have to be enhanced to systems for protection, which monitor the realization of the warning signal as a precondition for giving a movement authority to a train. This method can protect against accidents caused by predictable wrongdoing. The actual state of the art technique of using a collective warning combined with additional security staff is no longer acceptable. Therefore, the Institute of Transportation System of the German Aerospace Center in Braunschweig (Germany) will develop a gang warning and protection system based upon imaging methods, with optical sensors such as video in visible and invisible ranges, radar, laser, and other. The advantage of such a system based on the possibility to monitor both the gang itself and the railway-loading gauge either of the parallel track or of the same track still in use. By monitoring both situations, the system will be able to generate a warning message for the approaching train, that there are obstacles in the track, so that the train can be stopped to prevent an accident. And also the gang workers will be warned, while they breach their area.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.207-213
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• 2010

The effect of temperature on swelling pressure was observed with a Korean domestic Ca-bentonite which has been considered as a potential buffer material in the engineering barrier of a high level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal system. The Ca-bentonite was compacted to a dry density of 1.6 g/$cm^3$, and then de-ionized water was supplied into it with a constant pressure of 0.69 MPa. The equilibrium swelling pressures were measured with different temperatures of $25^{\circ}C$, $30^{\circ}C$, $40^{\circ}C$, $50^{\circ}C$, $60^{\circ}C$, $70^{\circ}C$, respectively. The Ca-bentonite showed a sufficiently high swelling pressure of 5.3 MPa at room temperatures. Then it was clearly showed that the equilibrium swelling pressure was decreased with an increase of temperature. Interestingly, there were some differences in temperature effect on the equilibrium swelling pressure when the environmental temperature is increasing or decreasing. For further clarifying the swelling behaviour of a Korea domestic Ca-bentonite, the change of a compaction level, and the composition variation of a supplied water would be needed to use in conceptual design of HLW disposal system.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2002

The study was performed to evaluate the effect of landfill leachate on the hydraulic conductivity of Geosynthetic Clay Liner (GCL) with two types of leachate. GCL used in waste landfills have a significant ability as a barrier material, however, they also have a potential danger when exposed to some organic and inorganic leachate as well as humic materials. In this study, swelling tests and hydraulic conductivity tests were performed to evaluate the effect of humic materials and landfill leachate on the hydraulic characteristics of the GCL. The result of swelling tests showed that the amount of humic materials and high electronic conductivity caused a decrease of the swelling of bentonite. This is expected to increase the hydraulic conductivity of GCL. The increasing of hydraulic conductivity observed for GCL permeated with 0-leachate was significantly higher than that of Y-leachate. This result shows that humic materials are obviously affecting with the increasing of hydraulic conductivity of GCL.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.133-142
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• 2017

Previous studies have shown that bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) transplantation significantly improves the recovery of neurological function in a rat model of intracerebral hemorrhage. Potential repair mechanisms involve anti-inflammation, anti-apoptosis and angiogenesis. However, few studies have focused on the effects of MSCs on inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression and subsequent peroxynitrite formation after hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage (HICH). In this study, MSCs were transplanted intracerebrally into rats 6 hours after HICH. The modified neurological severity score and the modified limb placing test were used to measure behavioral outcomes. Blood-brain barrier disruption and neuronal loss were measured by zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) and neuronal nucleus (NeuN) expression, respectively. Concomitant edema formation was evaluated by H&E staining and brain water content. The effect of MSCs treatment on neuroinflammation was analyzed by immunohistochemical analysis or polymerase chain reaction of CD68, Iba1, iNOS expression and subsequent peroxynitrite formation, and by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of pro-inflammatory factors (IL-$1{\beta}$ and TNF-${\alpha}$). The MSCs-treated HICH group showed better performance on behavioral scores and lower brain water content compared to controls. Moreover, the MSC injection increased NeuN and ZO-1 expression measured by immunochemistry/immunofluorescence. Furthermore, MSCs reduced not only levels of CD68, Iba1 and pro-inflammatory factors, but it also inhibited iNOS expression and peroxynitrite formation in perihematomal regions. The results suggest that intracerebral administration of MSCs accelerates neurological function recovery in HICH rats. This may result from the ability of MSCs to suppress inflammation, at least in part, by inhibiting iNOS expression and subsequent peroxynitrite formation.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.5005-5011
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• 2011

The purpose of this work is to know the validity of a new stimulation method in cognitive functional imaging using custom-designed images correspond to words or syllables improving the shortcomings of existing method using text. From March 2011 to May five Subjects in need of language related functional MRI scanning were selected and both of text stimulating method and image stimulating method sacanning were carried out three times each. Using 3.0T Philps MRI machine and Invivo Co's Eloquence system, data acquisition was performed with EPI-BOLD technique. Post processing was performed with SPM 99 while the activated signals were determined within 95 percent confidence level.The number of activation clusters and the activation ratio inside ROI were compared. As as result, all of the subject showed activation inside Broca area but it did not have statistical significance. In conclusion, the image sitimulation method has potential because image itself is a common means of recognition and it can be recognised easily even if there language barrier. This stimulation method can be applied to replacing the exising scanning method especially in the elderly, infants, foerigners who may not fully understand about the examination.

• Review of Culture and Economy
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.63-80
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• 2014

This study evaluates the importance of negotiation agendas and the possibility of reaching the Korea-China FTA agreement. It assesses the current situation of trade barriers in the audiovisual service sector of China and then examines a survey of practitioners and experts to screen important regulations. The results are as follows: First, considering the national economic situation in Korea and the environment of the Chinese trade barrier, an important agenda is to enable the direct service of online games and to reach a co-production agreement in the audiovisual service sector. Second, an agenda regarding the co-production agreement of an audio-visual service sector has high potential to be realized, followed by agendas regarding online game and music services. In the broadcasting and film service sectors, with their high cultural identity, a mutual cooperative approach is needed. Korea bringing up the agenda regarding online service may allow it to gain a net benefit for the next FATs. To realize a mutual cooperative approach, it is necessary to form a frame of mutual interests and cooperation through a co-production agreement of audio-visual service. If both countries agree to acknowledge co-produced content as each country's contents, both would benefit.