• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.836-842
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• 2023

Under the Welfare of Disabled Persons Act, the national qualification test allows disabled and non-disabled people to appear for the same test, and the deaf do not fall under the reason for disqualification from obtaining a license for power-driven water leisure crafts; therefore, even the deaf can obtain a license. During a risk of collision at sea, ships and power-driven water leisure crafts notify the other party of dangerous signals such as maneuvering and warning signals through sound signals to prevent accidents that may occur because surrounding ships are not visible. However, a method is required to prevent marine accidents that may occur when the deaf cannot hear danger signals through sounds from nearby ships or power-driven water leisure crafts during leisure activities owing to hearing impairment. A sound reception system is a device installed on a ship where missionary work is completely deposed to display the amplification of external sounds and the direction of sound reception on the screen. Through visual display of sound signals such as dangerous signals that cannot be heard owing to hearing impairment, improvement measures were proposed to prevent marine accidents that can occur owing to the inability of the deaf to check sound signals during leisure activities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.964-970
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• 2023

As part of the International Maritime Organization ef orts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the maritime industry is exploring low-carbon fuels such as liquefied natural gas and methanol, as well as zero-carbon fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia, evaluating them as environmentally friendly alternatives. Particularly, ammonia has substantial operational experience as cargo on transport ships, and ammonia ship engines are expected to be available in the second half of 2024, making it relatively accessible for commercial use. However, overcoming the toxicity challenges associated with using ammonia as a fuel is imperative. Detection is possible at levels as low as 5 ppm through olfactory senses, and exposure to concentrations exceeding 300 ppm for more than 30 min can result in irreparable harm. Using the KORA program provided by the Chemical Safety Agency, an assessment of the potential risks arising from leaks during ammonia bunkering was conducted. A 1-min leak could lead to a 5 ppm impact within a radius of approximately 7.5 km, affecting key areas in Busan, a major city. Furthermore, the potentially lethal concentration of 300 ppm could have severe consequences in densely populated areas and schools near the bunkering site. Therefore, given the absence of regulations related to ammonia bunkering, the potential for widespread toxicity from even minor leaks highlights the requirement for the development of legislation. Establishing an integrated system involving local governments, fire departments, and environmental agencies is crucial for addressing the potential impacts and ensuring the safety of ammonia bunkering operations.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-32
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• 2024

The emissions trading system stands as a pivotal climate policy in Korea, incentivizing abatement equivalent to 87% of total emissions (as of 2021). As the system likely has a far-reaching impact, it is crucial to understand how the real economic activity, energy sector, as well as environment would be influenced by its implementation. Employing a macroeconometric model, this paper is the first study analyzing the effects of the Korean emissions trading policy. It interconnects the Korean Standard Industrial Classification (Economy), Energy Balance (Energy), and National Inventory Report (Environment), enhancing its real-world explanatory power. We find that a 50% increase in emission permit price over four years results in a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions (-0.043%) and downward shifts in key macroeconomic variables, including real GDP (-0.058%), private consumption (-0.003%), and investment (-0.301%). The price increase in emission permit is deemed crucial for achieving greenhouse gas reduction targets. To mitigate transition risk associated with price shocks, revenue recycling using auction could ensure the sustainability of the economy. This study confirms the comparative advantage of expanded current transfers expenditure over corporate tax reduction, particularly from an economic growth perspective.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.93-117
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• 2024

In February 2022, the EU announced a draft of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive requiring due diligence and disclosure of information on environmental and human rights risks in corporate supply chains. This study evaluated the ability of 13 Korean pharmaceutical/bio companies to respond to the EU's demand for due diligence in the supply chain and compared it to 13 globally leading pharmaceutical/bio companies which are considered good in environmental and human rights risk management. For comparative analysis, text mining analysis was performed using R. Basic word frequency and concurrent words were analyzed and topic modeling was performed by applying Latent Dirichlet Allocation. As a result of the analysis, it was found that compared to advanced companies, domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies lack negative issue reporting and identification systems and supply chain due diligence implementation processes, and require advancement of data management for environmental and human rights information disclosure. Accordingly, domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies need to prepare differentiated support measures to systematically identify and reduce risks in the supply chain of small and medium-sized businesses beyond simply providing financial support. It is also desirable for the government to provide policy support by mandating Korea's own supply chain environment and human rights due diligence system, along with support for strengthening the ability to respond to due diligence of domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies, such as expert consulting and financial support.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.27-36
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• 2024

This study, estimates the predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) for the protection of organisms in aquatic and soil environments, considering the mode of action of Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). PNECs were derived using the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) approach to estimate the hazardous concentration for 5% of species (HC5), with applying assessment factors. Chronic toxicity data on PFOS were collected through the USEPA's ECOTOX database and literature reviews, and classified by toxicity endpoints. PNECs were then derived for each of seven toxicity endpoints that met the criteria for SSD fitting. For aquatic organisms, the PNEC for PFOS, based on all available chronic toxicity data, was determined to be 0.53 ㎍/L. The PNECs for development, genetics, enzymes, growth, reproduction, population, and biochemical biomarkers were 0.28, 0.43, 0.83, 0.90, 2.17, 111.17, and 3.53 ㎍/L, respectively. The lowest PNEC was observed when the toxic endpoint was set as development, which is considered to be due to the mode of action of PFOS, known to cause developmental toxicity by disrupting the endocrine system of organisms. For soil organisms, toxicity data were insufficient to estimate PNECs for individual endpoints, so all available data were used to estimate a PNEC of 0.75 mg/kg. Estimating PNECs that consider the mode of action of contaminants is expected to reduce the likelihood of underestimating protection levels for environmental contaminants. Additionally, this study highlights the need for ecotoxicological assessments for individual toxicity endpoints of emerging contaminants, including Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, in soil environments.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2020

Domestic cats (Felis catus) introduced to insular environments can be invasive predators that often threaten endemic species and cause biodiversity loss or local extinction on the island. This study was conducted from March to July 2018 to understand the population size, home range, and spatial use of cats introduced to Mara Islet (N 33° 07', E 126° 16') in Jeju Special Governing Province, the Republic of Korea. Observation records based on their natural marks revealed that there were 20 adult cats on Mara Islet. A capture-recapture method also estimated 20 adult individuals (95% confidence interval: 20-24 individuals). According to our telemetry study on ten adults deployed with GPS-based telemetry units, the home range size was 12.05±6.99 ha (95% KDE: kernel density estimation), and the core habitat size was 1.60±0.77 ha (50% KDE). There were no significant differences in the home range and core habitat sizes by sex. The home range of domestic cats overlapped with the human residential area, where they might secure easy foods. Five of ten tracked cats were active at potential breeding colonies for the Crested Murrlet (Synthliboramphus wumizusume), and six approached potential breeding areas of the Styan's Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella pleskei), suggesting the predation risk of the two endangered species by cats. This study provides novel information on the population size and home range of introduced cats on Mara Islet which is an important stopover site of migratory birds as well as a breeding habitat of the two endangered avian species. Reducing the potential negative impacts of the introduced cats on migratory birds and the endangered species on Mara Islet requires monitoring of the predation rate of birds by cats, the population trends of cats and endangered breeding birds as well as the effective cat population control and management.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.947-956
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• 2009

Residual petroleum hydrocarbons after an oil spill may accumulate in the marine benthic ecosystem due to their high hydrophobicity. A lot of monitoring data are required for the estimation of ecosystem exposure to residual petrochemicals in an ecological risk assessment in the affected region. To save time and cost, the environmental exposure to them in the affected ecosystem can also be assessed using a simple food-web bioaccumulation model. In this study, we evaluated residual concentrations of four selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, and benzo[a]pyrene) in a hypothetic benthic ecosystem composed of six species under two exposure scenarios. Body-residue concentration ranged 5~250 mg/kg body depending on trophic positions in an extreme scenario in which the aqueous concentrations of PAHs were assumed to be one-tenth of their aqueous solubility. In addition, bioconcentration factors (BCFs) and bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were evaluated for model species. The logarithm of bioconcentration factor (log BCF) linearly increased with increasing the logarithm of 1-octanol-water partition coefficient (log $K_{OW}$) until log $K_{OW}$ of 7.0, followed by a gradual decrease with further increase in log $K_{OW}$ without metabolic degradation. Biomagnification became significant when log $K_{OW}$ of a pollutant exceeded 5.0 in the model ecosystem, indicating that investigation of food-web structure should be critical to predict biomagnifications in the affected ecosystem because log $K_{OW}$ values of many petrochemicals are higher than 5.0. Although further research is required for better site-specific evaluation of exposure, the model simulation can be used to estimate the level of the ecosystem exposure to residual oil contaminants at the screening level.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.5-16
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• 2009

Against the backdrop of the increasing trend towards economic globalisation, many international firms are indicating that decisions on how to enter foreign markets remains one of the key strategic challenges confronting them. Despite the rich body of literature on the topic, the fact that these challenges have continued to dominate global marketing strategy discourses point to someevident lacunae. Accordingly, this paper considers the variables, categorised in terms of firm contexts (standardisation, market research, competition, structure, competitive advantage) and host country-contexts (economic development, cultural differences, regulation and political risk), which influence the degree of involvement of UK companies in overseas markets. Following hypotheses were drawn from literature review: H1: The greater the level of competition, the higher the degree of involvement in the overseas market. H2: The more centralised the firm's organisation structure, the higher the degree of involvement in the overseas market. H3a: The adoption of a low cost-approach to competitive advantage will lead to a higher degree of involvement. H3b: The adoption of an innovation-approach to competitive advantage will lead to a higher degree of involvement. H3c: The adoption of a market research approach to competitive advantages will lead to a higher degree of involvement. H3d: The adoption of a breadth of strategic target-approach to competitive advantage will lead to a lower degree of involvement. H4: The higher the degree of standardisation of the international marketing mix the higher the degree of involvement. H5: The greater the degree of economic development in the host market, the higher the degree of involvement. H6: The greater the cultural differences between home and host countries, the lower the degree of involvement. H7: The greater the difference in regulations between the home country and the host country, the lower the degree of involvement. H8: The higher the political risk in the host country, the lower the degree of involvement. A questionnaire instrument was constructed using, wherever possible, validated measures of the concepts to serve the aims of this study. Following two sets of mailings, 112 usable completed questionnaires were returned. Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze data. Statistically, the paper suggests that factors relating to the level of competition, competitive advantages and economic development are strong in influencing foreign market involvements. On the other hand, unexpectedly, cultural factors (especially individualism/collectivism and low and high power distance dimensions) proved to have weak moderating effects. The reason for this, in part, is due to the pervading forces of globalisation and the attendant effect on global marketing. This paper has contributed to the general literature in a way that point to two mainimplications. First, with respect to research on national systems, the study may hold out some important lessons especially for developing nations. Most of these nations are known to be actively seeking to understand what it takes to attract foreign direct investment, expand domestic market and move their economies from the margin to the mainstream global economy. Second, it should be realised that competitive conditions remain in constant flux (even in mature industries and mature economies). This implies that a range of home country factors may be as important as host country factors in explaining firms' strategic moves and the degree of foreign market involvement. Further research can consider the impact of the home country environment on foreign market involvement decisions. Such an investigation will potentially provide further perspectives not only on the influence of national origin but also how home country effects are confounded with industry effects.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.147-165
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• 2009

Virtual community(VC) will increasingly be organized as commercial enterprises, with the objective of earning an attractive financial return by providing members with valuable resources and environment. For example, Cyworld.com in Korea uses several community services to enable customers of Cyworld to take control of their own value as potential purchasers of products and services. Although initial adoption is important for online network service success, it does not necessarily result in the desired managerial performance unless the initial usage is continuously related to the continuous usage and purchase. Particularly, the customer who receives relevant online services and is well equipped with online network services, will trust the online service provider and perceive less risk and experience more activities such as continuous usage and purchase. Thus, how to promote continued online service usage or, alternatively, how to prevent discontinuance is a critical issue for VC service providers to consider. By aggregating a wide range of information and online environments for customers and providing trust to its members, the service providers of virtual communities help to reduce the perceived risk of continuous usage and purchase. Drill down, online service managers realize that achieving strong and sustained customers who continuously use online service and purchase on it is crucial. Therefore, the research into this online service continuance will identify the relationship between the initial usage and the continuous usage and purchase. The research of continuous usage or post adoption has recently emerged as an important issue in the IS literature. Individuals' information systems(IS) continuous usage decisions are congruent with consumers' repeat purchase decisions. The TAM(Technology Acceptance Model) paradigm has been strongly confirmed across a wide range from product purchase on EC to online service usage contexts. The analysis of IS usage based on TAM has proven to be successful across almost online service contexts. However, most of previous studies have focused on only an area (i.e., VC or EC). Just little research has tried to analyze the relationship between VC and EC. The effect of some factors on user intention, captured through several theories such as TAM, has been demonstrated. Yet, few studies have explored the salient relationships of VC users' EC acceptance. To fill this gap between VC and EC research, this paper attempts to develop a research model that extends the TAM perspective in view of the additional contributions of trust in the service provider and trust in members on some factors that affect EC and VC adoption. In this extension, we applied the TAM-to-TAM(T2T) model, and analyzed the transfer effect of trust between these two TAMs. The research model was empirically tested on the context of a social network service. The model was to extend TAM with the trust concept for the virtual community environment from the perspective of tasks. By building an extended model of TAM and examining the relationships between trust and the existing variables of TAM, it is aimed to explain a user's continuous intention to use VC and purchase on EC. The unit of analysis in this paper is an individual user of a virtual community. The population of interest is the individual with the experiences in virtual community. The data for this paper was made available via a Web survey of VC users. In total, 281 cases were gathered for about one week, but there were some missing values in the sample and there were some inappropriate cases. Thus, only 248 cases were finally analyzed. We chose the structural equation analysis to test the hypotheses and it is better suited for explaining complex relationships than the other methods. In this test, AMOS was used to test the Structural Equation Model (SEM). Noticeable results have been found in the T2T model regarding the factors affecting the intention to use of virtual community and loyalty. Our result showed that trust transfer plays a key role in forming the two adoption beliefs. Overall, this study preliminarily confirms the salience of trust transfer in online service.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.9-24
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• 1997

Surfactant-aided in situ soil flushing has been proposed as an alternative for the expensive and time consuming 'pump and treat' technology in remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater Injected surfactants can effectively solubilize contaminants sorbed to the soil matrix or nonaqueous phase liquids(NAPLs) in residual saturation. The contaminants solubilized in groundwater are recovered and treated further. The theoretical background of the technology and the results of the field operations, mostly in the US. were summarized. In addition, the factors crucial to the successful application of the technology were discussed. Cost analyses and technical limitations in current applications were also discussed. In conclusion, it is likely that in situ surfactant flushing become a viable option for soil remediation in limited cases. Currently, further advances with respect to operation cost and to treatment efficiency are required for more extensive application of the technology. However, the current trends in soil remediation, specially the growing emphasis on risk based corrective action and natural attenuation, will increase the competitiveness of the technology. For example, removal of easily washable contaminants by short term soil flushing followed by long term monitoring and natural attenuation can greatly reduce the operation cost and time.