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East Asian welfare states have experienced major reforms in the last two decades, raising the question as to whether these welfare reforms signify a fundamental departure from the East Asian welfare model, or merely an adaptation of the model to socioeconomic changes. Overshadowed by the state-driven policy-making model with a strong functionalist bias focusing on socio-economic drivers, the existing East Asian welfare state literature has overlooked the fundamental political change brought by the dual transition (i.e., democratisation and economic liberalisation), which have led to the emergence of pluralistic societies. In order to fill this gap in the literature, this thesis investigates the political underpinnings of welfare reforms in Korea with special attention to societal actors, (notably trade unions, employers’ associations, and political parties) whose role feature prominently in the comparative welfare state literature, are still largely neglected in East Asian welfare state research. Bringing these actors into the analysis, the thesis examines how the rise of societal actors has changed Korean welfare politics by constraining policy autonomy of the state in the domains of employment protection, unemployment protection, and work/family reconciliation policies. To this end, the thesis engages in analysing policy documents and in-depth elite interviews with senior government officials as well as high-profile representatives of employers associations, trade unions and parties. The thesis argues that the politics of the Korean welfare state has undergone a three step transformation process in the post-transition period. The developmental alliance could no longer function as the sole driving force of welfare state development during the first civilian government (1993-1998), when organised labour exercised its newly acquired status of a veto player. Furthermore, the old driving force of social policy-making, the developmental alliance, was replaced by the new alliance between the centre-left party and organised labour during the first left government (1998-2003) Lastly, parties moved to centre stage of social policy-making during the second left government (2003-2008) and the current conservative government (2008-presnet). Drawing on competing theories of the welfare state –in particular, the Power Resource approach, the employer-centred varieties of capitalism perspective, and the state-centred theorem, and the parties-matter thesis – the thesis contributes to developing a comprehensive political account on welfare state transformation in East Asia and to the better embedding of the East Asian welfare state literature into the comparative welfare state literature.

In this dissertation, a new polymer Reverse Transcription (RT)-Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) lab-on-a-chip (LOC) with embedded micro pinch-valves has been designed, fabricated and characterized for point-of-care testing (POCT) clinical diagnostics. In addition, a portable analyzer, which consists of an optical detection system and a non-contact infrared (IR) based temperature control system for RT-PCR process, has been developed and characterized as the analyzer monitoring for the developed RT-PCR LOC. The developed LOC and analyzer have been interfaced and optimized for performing the RT-PCR procedure and chemiluminescence assay in sequence, and then as a demonstration of clinical diagnostics Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) for the early diagnostics of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has been successfully analyzed using the developed LOC and analyzer. In the RT-PCR LOC, a new concept of the embedded micro pinch-valve has been proposed, fabricated and characterized as one of the key microfluidic components desired for the RT-PCR procedure. In the development of the embedded micro pinch-valve, a new sealing method using UV adhesive has been developed, which provides enough sealing required for the prevention of leakage at the high pressure developed during the PCR procedure. The developed embedded micro pinch-valve can possibly have numerous applications for the functional lab-on-a-chips which need to be integrated with on-chip microvalves. Also, in the portable analyzer, a temperature control system and an optical detection system have been developed, assembled and fully characterized for the procedure control and optical detection of the RT-PCR LOC. In order to minimize the process time of RT-PCR, a non-contact IR heating method has been adopted for controlling the temperature on the RT-PCR chip. For the optical detection system, an extremely high sensitive photodiode with a high gain amplifier circuit with low noise has been used for detecting the chemiluminescence assay. AIDS comes from infecting HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), a syndrome where the immune system begins to fail, leading to many life-threatening infections. Since early diagnostics of the disease by indentifying HIV is essential for the treatment of the disease, the development of POCT clinical diagnostics near to the patients is very desirable. So, in this work, the developed RT-PCR LOC and analyzer has been applied for the detection of HIV in a POCT platform.The developed RT-PCR LOC has been characterized first for both fluorescence and chemiluminescence assays in terms of sensitivity and adoptability with the portable analyzer. The analysis results obtained from the developed portable analyzer have shown an excellent performance comparable to those obtained from the conventional scanner, which ensures the developed RT-PCR LOC and portable analyzer as a promising POCT for clinical diagnostics.In conclusion, in this research work, a new RT-PCR polymer lab-on-a-chip and its portable analyzer has been successfully developed and fully characterized for the POCT of clinical diagnostics, and then the developed RT-PCR LOC and analyzer has successfully performed the whole assay of HIV, envisaging the POCT of early diagnostics of AIDS.

A prominent feature of thalamocortical circuitry in sensory systems is the extensive and highly organized feedback projection from the cortex to thalamic neurons that provide input to it. Intriguingly, many corticothalamic (CT) neurons are weakly responsive to peripheral stimuli, or silent altogether. Here using the whisker-to-barrel system, we examine whether the responses of CT neurons and their related thalamic neurons are affected by motor cortex, a prominent source of input to deep layers of the somatosensory cortex. Pharmacological facilitation of motor cortex activity produced using focal, microiontophoresis leads to enhanced whisker-evoked firing of topographically aligned layer 6 neurons, including identified CT cells, and of cells in corresponding regions of the thalamic ventral posterior medial nucleus (VPm barreloids). Together, the findings raise the possibility that cortico-thalamo-cortical circuitry in primary sensory areas is engaged by other functionally related cortical centers, providing a means for context-dependent regulation of information processing within thalamocortical circuits.We investigated how vMCx influence activity in thalamic VPm nucleus in a freely behaving rat. We examine afferent-evoked thalamic activity in animals that are either alert but voluntarily relatively motionless or actively whisking in the air without object contact. Afferent activity is evoked in VPm by means of electrical microstimulation of a single whisker follicle. In some experiments, neural processing in brainstem trigeminal nuclei was either by-passed by means of medial lemniscus stimulation, or altered by pharmacological intervention. We found that sensory responses during voluntary whisker movements, when motor cortex is likely to be active, are reduced relative to responses that occur during periods of wakeful quiescence. Enhancement of thalamic activity during whisking can be observed, however, when signal processing in sub-thalamic centers is either by-passed or experimentally altered. Findings suggest that during voluntary movement activity within the lemniscal system is globally diminished, perhaps at early, brainstem levels at the same time that activity within specific thalamocortical neuronal populations is facilitated. Though activity levels are reduced system-wide, activity within some local circuits may be subject to less net suppression. This decrease in suppression may occur on a moment-to-moment basis in a context-dependent manner. Thus, during voluntary whisker movement, sensory transmission in thalamocortical circuits may be modulated according to specific activation patterns distributed across the motor map.

In this work, a new polymer Lab-on-a-chip for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been developed and characterized using infrared (IR) based thermocycles. These new polymer PCR chips are made by Polycarbonate (PC) and Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC). Both of them are designed to have a microchannel for externally inserting a thermocouple to detect temperature during thermocycling. So, these polymer PCR chips can be controlled without using an on-chip integrated temperature sensor and heater, which allows the polymer PCR chips to be a fully disposable platform for low cost PCR chips. The infrared (IR) based heating method also has advantages from not only the non-contact heating but also the fast heating and cooling times. Although PC and COC polymers have a low thermal conductivity compared with Si and glass, the heat energy attained from infrared lamp is enough to successfully perform the thermocycles for PCR. The entire system consists of an IR heating source, an externally insertable thermocouple, a signal conditioning circuit, and Labview control system. The IR heating source is a commercial tungsten halogen lamp which operates at regulated brightness levels for controlling a constant temperature during dwell times and turned off for cooling step. Cooling is accelerated by an air microfan. The overall control of the system including signal conditioning is performed by a Labview program through GPIB cable. In order to obtain the result of PCR amplification from the developed polymer chips, the effective annealing temperature of primer sets and BSA concentration in PCR cocktails on PCR has been explored and optimized.. As a result, these polymer PCR chips achieve the successful amplifications of 195 and 544 base pair of ë phase DNA. These polymer PCR chips can be immediately used for PCR amplification and also can be applied for constructing a whole system for performing consecutive biochemical processes such as DNA sampling, purification, amplification, and then analysis. With these approaches, a fully disposable polymer PCR chip with the sampling and analysis capabilities of DNA will be feasible.

This dissertation is a study of the spatialities in the role of dissident Catholic figures and organisations in South Korea’s democracy movement of the 1970s and 1980s. Its thesis is that the religious spatial dynamics of Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul enabled the South Korean Catholic Church, through providing a sacred, immune, and thus strategic site of opposition, to play a salient role in the democracy movement that is distinctive compare with other dissident Christian denominations and religious organisations. The spatial politics of Myeongdong Cathedral further shaped critical junctures of South Korea’s democratisation movement in the 1970s and 1980s. By the agency of dissenting South Korean Catholic figures and organisations, and their coordination with other movement actors, the effect of the spatial politics of Myeongdong Catholic Church constituted significant phases of South Korea’s democracy movement through mobilising, sustaining, and networking the movement. The scholarship of the history and sociology of the South Korean democracy movement, while mainly focusing on temporal progress of contentious politics, has noted on particular actors that have made important contribution to South Korea’s democratic transition such as students and workers. This study asks to move beyond this actor-oriented perspective that is limited to account for the multi-layered dynamics of how protesting actors are mobilised, connected, and diffused which is the core aspect of achievability of a social movement, and suggest a religious spatial analysis that can securely explicate the relational dynamics between movement actors for the developments of pro-democracy movement in the South Korean context. This dissertation speaks further to the linkage between spatialities of religious contentious politics and developments of social movements in respects to durability and effectiveness of collective actions through exploring a constituting role of the religious spatial dynamics of Myeongdong Cathedral in South Korea’s democracy movement.