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This paper analyses carbon emissions and value-added embodied in trade between two large developed countries, South Korea and the United States, during 2000-2014. Using multi-regional input-output (MRIO) tables, our analysis reveals that carbon emissions and value-added embodied in exports grew by 19% and 101% for South Korea but shrank by 43% and 7% for the United States. As a result, South Korea experienced a 40% increase in net carbon exports and 243% increase in net valueadded exports. At the industry level, the primary drivers of changes in carbon exports were electricity and basic materials. The majority of industries in witnessed improvements in carbon intensities suggesting improved environmental efficiency. While both countries achieved a decoupling of carbon emissions from value-added exports, substantial year-to-year and sectoral variations were observed. Finally, structural decomposition analysis indicates that domestic supply-side factors played a role in decreasing emissions whereas foreign demand-side factors contributed to emissions increases. In line with the main findings, various implications for policy and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the future research direction by utilizing keyword network analysis to analyze topics related to resilience in young children. For this purpose, among the journal papers listed in the Korean Journal Citation Index from 2002 to 2023. The keywords from these papers were extracted, and in-degree and out-degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and networks sociogram were analyzed through keyword network analysis. The findings of this study are as follows: Firstly, in Korean research on resilience of young children, resilience was expressed using eight different terms, and diverse sub-elements were observed accordingly. Secondly, keywords such as selfresilience, which encompasses sub-elements like autonomy, self-control, attachment, concerned behavior, recovery resilience, and resilience, which encompasses sub-elements like resilient competence, relational resilience, and emotional resilience, emerged as important in the analysis. Additionally, crucial keywords associated with young children's resilience included externalizing problem behavior, teacher-child conflict, teacher-child intimacy, pro-sociality, flow, emotion regulation, happiness, playfulness, mothers' parenting efficacy, adjustment to ECEC centers, gender of children, psychological health, and peer interaction. Through this study, we have identified and discussed the key topics related to the resilience of young children, explored the variables influencing their resilience, and examined strategies for enhancing their resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Korea, the rapid proliferation of smartphones has led to an uptick in messenger phishing attacks associated with electronic communication financial scams. In response to this, various phishing detection algorithms have been proposed. However, collecting messenger phishing data poses challenges due to concerns about its potential use in criminal activities. Consequently, a Korean phishing dataset can be composed of imbalanced data, where the number of general messages might outnumber the phishing ones. This class imbalance problem and data scarcity can lead to overfitting issues, making it difficult to achieve high performance. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a phishing messages classification method using Biased Discriminant Analysis without resorting to data augmentation techniques. In this paper, by optimizing the parameters for BDA, we achieved exceptionally high performances in the phishing messages classification experiment, with 95.45% for Recall and 96.85% for the BA metric. Moreover, when compared with other algorithms, the proposed method demonstrated robustness against overfitting due to the class imbalance problem and exhibited minimal performance disparity between training and testing datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leveraging data on organizational social distancing initiatives (SDIs) this paper examines the link between SDI implementation and perceived organizational support (POS). The paper discusses and tests the intended beneficiary heuristic to help explain why and when employment practices may induce POS. We suggest that SDIs, involving various ways to separate employees to keep them safe, have the important secondary benefit of increasing employees' perception that the organization cares about their well-being and values their contributions. Using the intended beneficiary heuristic we argue that such favorable treatment as SDIs relates positively to POS most when employees attribute their implementation to the organization's concern for the welfare of employees. Results of two studies, a cross-sectional study with 121 employees in the United States and a longitudinal study with 103 employees in South Korea, indicate that SDIs were positively associated with employees' POS, which in turn improved their job satisfaction (Studies 1 and 2), affective organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior (Study 2). The results also show that these relationships were stronger when employees perceived SDIs to be implemented to protect their welfare rather than as a means of protecting the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new regulation was introduced to the franchise market of South Korea in that an applicant who wants to be a franchiser must set up direct retail stores and run them for at least one year before recruiting franchisees. Considering the purpose of the regulation, it is inferred that once franchisers run their own stores, their franchisees would be better off than otherwise. This paper addresses one reason that the Korea Fair Trade Commission has no choice but to introduce the regulation. Along the line, this paper investigates whether franchisees would have a more likelihood to make profit in case of franchisers operating their own stores. The result demonstrates that this case could be true since the operation of franchiser-owned stores could be helpful in reducing the cost of franchisees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to clarify the concept of pediatric hospice and palliative care through conceptual analysis. It also sought to identify the differences between related concepts such as pediatric death care and pediatric spiritual care, in order to provide foundational data for the development of nursing theory and knowledge. Methods: A conceptual analysis of pediatric hospice and palliative care was conducted using Rodgers’ evolutionary method. Out of 5,013 papers identified, 28 were selected for detailed reading and analysis. Results: Pediatric hospice and palliative care encompasses physical, psychological, social, mental, spiritual, and family care for children with acute and chronic diseases with uncertain prognoses ahead of death, as well as their families. Effective pediatric hospice and palliative care will require multidisciplinary team nursing, effective communication, and supportive policies. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that providing pediatric hospice and palliative care will lead to improvements in pain relief for children and families, the efficiency of responses to death in children, and the quality of life for children and families. The significance of this study is that it clearly clarifies the concept by analyzing pediatric hospice and palliative care using an evolutionary method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between natural cycles and human actions in causing climate change and its impacts on society have been a subject of debate. This paper explores the responses of pre-modern Koreans to climate change and natural disasters. The focus of this paper is on the societal reactions to these natural calamities and disasters during the Koryŏ dynasty (936–1392 A.D.) and their influence on Korea afterwards. This paper investigates the reasons behind the retention of primal religious worldviews in the face of ecological crises while other major imported religions were abandoned. The research method involved in this paper is archival research, and the literature sources include ancient records and other ecotheological resources. Through an analysis of the archival research and ecotheological resources, this study sheds light on the interpretation of climatic events in pre-modern Korea. Furthermore, based on the research findings, it presents missional implications for the Korean church in the post-pandemic era. This study underscores the importance of the church's responses to environmental awareness, collective responsibility, and spiritual support in addressing the challenges of climate change and provides missional implications for the Korean Church in response to the post-COVID-19 era based on the results of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Christianity does not have as long of a history as other monotheistic religions and traditional ideologies in Korea, but—especially from the end of the 19th century—its new concepts have had a huge impact on the basic thoughts of Korean society. This paper focuses on the effects of Christianity and the activity of Christian communities on women's lives. According to my preliminary findings, in the late 1800s, the Christian missionaries and their newly formed communities offered opportunities for girls and women to get education, a profession, access to better health care, and learn self-care. After the complicated decades between 1910 and 1950, South Korea was experiencing remarkable changes, and Christians were an active part of this rebuilding, helping the lives of those who were struggling with poverty, lack of daily necessities, education, and health care. This paper aims to examine the thoughts and actions of Korean Christian communities towards decisions on childbirth, children out of wedlock, adoption, and single motherhood. This study investigates the approaches of South Korean Christian communities towards women related to the above-mentioned circumstances, focusing on the early examples and the last five to six decades. It is assumed that even though South Korea is now considered a modernized country, the government sometimes fails to cope with current problems, and traditional notions are still strong in familial matters. Therefore, not obeying conventional forms may cause social conflicts, or the decisions are hidden because of taboos and stigmas. This research is based on the publications of Christian communities and involves documentaries and case studies, including the baby box operation and adoption. This paper contributes to the expanding studies on Korean Christian communities, highlighting the social norms and their changes generated by new religious thoughts, while giving an insight into the daily struggles of Korean women's lives when it comes to decision-making about their motherhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between modernization and religion is contested, with the literature differing in how and in what ways religion helps or hinders countries' social, economic, and political development. This paper draws upon the history of Christianity in South Korea to critically explore the links between religion and modernization. It makes two arguments. First, discussions of the link between religion and modernization frequently employ static definitions of religion, but Christianity is characterized by oscillations between worldly (institutionalizing) and unworldly (countercultural) impulses that theoretically make very different contributions to social, economic, and political development. Second, in the case of South Korea, it is shown that both impulses have made vital contributions to the country's modernization at different times. This suggests that the dynamic tug-of-war between the institutional and countercultural facets of Korean Christianity, although problematic for individual believers and religious leaders, helped it become an important contributor to the country's success story. However, this paper concludes on a cautionary note by warning that extreme instances of these impulses have caused cleavages between Christianity and the Korean state and society and could undermine its future contributions. This suggests that diversity and toleration—a hallmark of Korean Christianity—will continue to be the best pathway forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collaboration relationships between innovation actors at a geographic level may be considered as grouping two separate layers, the domestic and the foreign. At the level of each layer, the relationships and the actors involved constitute a Triple Helix game. The paper distinguished three levels of analysis: the global grouping together all actors, the domestic grouping together domestic actors, and the foreign related to only actors from partner countries. Bibliographic records data from the Web of Science for South Korea and West Africa breakdown per innovation actors and distinguishing domestic and international collaboration are analyzed with game theory. The core, the Shapley value, and the nucleolus are computed at the three levels to measure the synergy between actors. The synergy operates more in South Korea than in West Africa; the government is more present in West Africa than in South Korea; domestic actors create more synergy in South Korea, but foreign more in West Africa; South Korea can consume all the foreign synergy, which is not the case of West Africa. Research data are limited to publication records; techniques and methods used may be extended to other research outputs. West African governments should increase their investment in science, technology, and innovation to benefit more from the synergy their innovation actors contributed at the foreign level. However, the results of the current study may not be sufficient to prove that greater investment will yield benefits from foreign synergies. This paper uses game theory to assess innovation systems by computing the contribution of foreign actors to knowledge production at an area level. It proposes an indicator to this end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of accidents at sea are primarily caused by low visibility due to sea fog. Therefore, it is important to estimate sea fog intensity and visibility in real-time in the ocean environment. Visibility meters utilize optical sensors rather than visional information, so that the measured visibility data occasionally includes errors. Moreover, visibility meters have significant costs so that it is not viable to install them at various locations. Therefore, this paper proposes an algorithm called RDCP (Reduced Dark Channel Prior), which provides reliable estimation at a low cost by processing images captured from cameras, since they receive identical information as human eyes. For the estimation, the RDCP algorithm firstly acquires dark channels from an ocean image, then applies an optimized threshold value to the dark channels and crops out the sky region in the ocean image. For the estimation performance evaluation, 320 raw images captured from cameras at four different ports in Republic of Korea are used. Considering facilities in oceans, which are usually operated in power-limited environment, the processing time performance of PDCP is also examined. The experiments demonstrate that the RDCP algorithm provides reliable estimation performance in real-time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The health promoting benefits of greenness exposure were addressed before, during, and after pregnancy. Addressing the low-birth-rate issue of Korea, this review focuses on forest-based interventions to assess the mental and physical health of pregnant women in green environments, both nationally and internationally. It also proposes the utilization of green environmental resources as a strategy to improve maternal health and address the low-birth-rate issue. Current Concepts: Keyword search was done using PubMed, Web of Science, and Research Information Sharing Service (RISS) databases manually for references of retrieved papers until September 2023. Keywords included forest, greenness, and antenatal education. Of 107 potentially relevant papers related to prenatal education in forest or green environments, 12 papers were finally analyzed (comprising six domestic and 6 international academic journals). Overall, these papers showed at least moderate levels of bias. This review explored the influence of green spaces, forest activities, and psychological wellbeing on pregnant women. When analyzing pregnancy outcomes about green environments, differences between domestic and international studies became evident due to age, location, sample size, study design, and female participation rates. Discussion and Conclusion: The primary assessment tools focused on mental health, stress levels, quality of life, and overall psychological wellbeing. Domestic studies emphasized stress, anxiety, life satisfaction, inner peace, and maternal identity during pregnancy, while international research underscored the positive impact of green environments on pregnancy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the significance of demand forecasting accuracy for the registered nurse (RN) workforce, few studies have evaluated past forecasts. Purpose: This paper examined the ex post accuracy of past forecasting studies focusing on RN demand and explored its determinants on the accuracy of demand forecasts. Methods: Data were collected by systematically reviewing national reports or articles on RN demand forecasts. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was measured for forecasting error by comparing the forecast with the actual demand (employed RNs). Nonparametric tests, the Mann‒Whitney test, and the Kruskal‒Wallis test were used to analyze the differences in the MAPE according to the variables, which are methodological and researcher factors. Results: A total of 105 forecast horizons and 196 forecasts were analyzed. The average MAPE of the total forecast horizon was 34.8%. Among the methodological factors, the most common determinant affecting forecast accuracy was the RN productivity assumption. The longer the length of the forecast horizon was, the greater the MAPE was. The longer the length of the data period was, the greater the MAPE was. Moreover, there was no significant difference among the researchers' factors. Conclusions: To improve demand forecast accuracy, future studies need to accurately measure RN workload and productivity in a manner consistent with the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores under what political conditions a “responsible prime minister” can emerge in a presidential system, focusing on South Korea after the 1987 democratization. Under presidentialism, premiers lack the constitutional resources to make themselves into a “responsible prime minister” independent from the president. Even such political resources as high popularity, deep trust from the president, and influence over the legislature are not enough to make them a “responsible prime minister”. Thus, most premiers remain a highly compliant subordinate of their president in Korea. By contrast, in a multi-party system Kim Dae-jung (DJ) sought to invite a third party, the United Liberal Democrats, into the “DJP Alliance” in order to win a highly competitive presidential election and therefore had to yield the prime-ministerial post to the head of the coalition partner party, Kim Jong-pil (JP). Under these political conditions, JP could be a “responsible prime minister” as an exception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is commonly defined as a transitional subclinical state between normal aging and dementia. A growing body of research indicates that health behaviors may play a protective role against cognitive decline and could potentially slow down the progression from MCI to dementia. The aim of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of literature focusing on health behaviors and MCI to summarize the factors and evidence regarding the influence of health behaviors on MCI. Methods: The study performed a bibliometric analysis by retrieving publications from the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index subdatabases within the Web of Science Core Collection. Utilizing VOSviewer and CiteSpace software, a total of 2,843 eligible articles underwent co-citation, cokeywords, and clustering analyses. This methodology aimed to investigate the current status, trends, major research questions, and potential future directions within the research domain. Results: The bibliometric analysis indicates that research on healthy behaviors in individuals with MCI originated in 2002 and experienced rapid growth in 2014, reflecting the increasing global interest in this area. The United States emerged as the primary contributor, accounting for more than one-third of the total scientific output with 982 articles. Journals that published the most articles on MCI-related health behaviors included "Journal of Alzheimer's Disease," "Neurobiology of Aging," "Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience," and other geriatricsrelated journals. High-impact papers identified by VOSviewer predominantly cover concepts related to MCI, such as diagnostic criteria, assessment, and multifactorial interventions. Co-occurrence keyword analysis highlights five research hotspots in health behavior associated with MCI: exercise, diet, risk factors and preventive measures for dementia, cognitive decline-related biomarkers, and clinical trials. Conclusion: This study provides a comprehensive review of literature on health behavior in individuals with MCI, emphasizing influential documents and journals. It outlines research trends and key focal points, offering valuable insights for researchers to comprehend significant contributions and steer future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neural networks (NNs) have shown outstanding performance in solar photovoltaic (PV) power forecasting due to their ability to effectively learn unstable environmental variables and their complex interactions. However, NNs are limited in their practical industrial application in the energy sector because the optimization of the model structure or hyperparameters is a complex and time-consuming task. This paper proposes a two-stage NN optimization method for robust solar PV power forecasting. First, the solar PV power dataset is divided into training and test sets. In the training set, several NN models with different numbers of hidden layers are constructed, and Optuna is applied to select the optimal hyperparameter values for each model. Next, the optimized NN models for each layer are used to generate estimation and prediction values with fivefold cross-validation on the training and test sets, respectively. Finally, a random forest is used to learn the estimation values, and the prediction values from the test set are used as input to predict the final solar PV power. As a result of experiments in the Incheon area, the proposed method is not only easy to model but also outperforms several forecasting models. As a case in point, with the New-Incheon Sonae dataset—one of three from various Incheon locations—the proposed method achieved an average mean absolute error (MAE) of 149.53 kW and root mean squared error (RMSE) of 202.00 kW. These figures significantly outperform the benchmarks of attention mechanism-based deep learning models, with average scores of 169.87 kW for MAE and 232.55 kW for RMSE, signaling an advance that is expected to make a significant contribution to South Korea's energy industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Korea's remarkable success in controlling the spread of COVID-19 during the pre-Omicron period was based on extensive contact tracing and large-scale testing. Here we suggest a general criterion for tracing and testing based on South Korea's experience, and propose a new framework to assess tracing and testing. We reviewed papers on South Korea's response to COVID-19 to capture its concept of tracing and testing. South Korea expanded its testing capabilities to enable group tracing combined with preemptive testing, and to conduct open testing. According to our proposed model, COVID-19 cases are classified into 4 types: confirmed in quarantine, source known, source unknown, and unidentified. The proportion of the first two case types among confirmed cases is defined as "traced proportion", and used as the indicator of tracing and testing effectiveness. In conclusion, South Korea successfully suppressed COVID-19 transmission by maintaining a high traced proportion (> 60%) using group tracing in conjunction with preemptive testing as a complementary strategy to traditional contact tracing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of renewable energy sources to achieve carbon neutrality is increasing. However, the uncertainty and volatility of renewable resources are causing problems in power systems. Flexible and low-carbon resources such as Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) are essential for solving the problems of power systems and achieving greenhouse gas reduction goals. However, ESSs are not being installed because of Korea's fuel-based electricity market. To address this issue, this paper presents a method for determining the optimal investment timing of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs) using the Least Squares Monte Carlo (LSMC) method. A case study is conducted considering the System Marginal Price (SMP) and Capacity Payment (CP), which are electricity rates in Korea. Revenue is calculated through the arbitrage of a 10 MW/40 MWh lithium-ion BESS, and linear programming optimization is performed for ESS scheduling to maximize revenue. The ESS revenue with uncertainty is modeled as a stochastic process using Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM), and the optimal time to invest in an ESS is determined using an LSMC simulation considering investment costs. The proposed method can be used as a decision-making tool for ESS investors to provide information on facility investments in arbitrage situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent experience with the strongest earthquakes greater than magnitude 5.4 in Korea leads to public interest in the safety and resilience of critical infrastructures. There are many nuclear power plants near the epicenters of the earthquakes. Nuclear power plants are essential infrastructures that provide stable and enough energy for human life, and simultaneously, control systems for the safety and security of nuclear power plants are critical due to the risk of nuclear accidents on public health and the environment. The nuclear area uses probabilistic risk assessment to estimate the risk of structures, systems, and components in nuclear power plants, and the evaluation of the fragility curve is a key process for probabilistic risk assessment. The challenges of a seismic fragility analysis lie in estimating the influence of various uncertainties in material, geometry, and earthquake and improving the existing fragility analysis methods, which require time-consuming nonlinear time history analysis. Thus, this paper conducts a multivariate seismic fragility analysis using surrogate models for reinforced concrete squat shear walls and proposes a simplified closed form equation for a chosen surrogate seismic demand model. The surrogate models are trained and validated by several approaches: response surface method, support vector machine, Gaussian process regression, and neural network. In addition, a correlation analysis is used to evaluate the relative importance of the variables to the seismic demand to simplify the surrogate model further. Finally, simplified surrogate models based on the importance of the variables are proposed as closed form of polynomials, and the performance of these models on the fragility analysis is evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media not only changes the traditional communication environment but also brings new changes to agenda-setting. The main body of agenda-setting has shifted from the traditional media to the politicians, political parties and grassroots people. With the increasing use of social bots in public opinion manipulation and political election interference, whether they can participate in or influence agenda-setting has become an urgent concern. So far, there has been less literature focusing on engagement in agenda-setting for social bots. This paper studies the social media discussion content of the South Korean presidential election, determines the participation of social bots, and explores the connection between media agenda, bot agenda, and public agenda from the perspective of agenda setting. This study finds that while the main agendas of media, social bots, and the public are not the same, their agendas are relevant. In addition, the media agenda is not timely ahead of the bot agenda and the public agenda, and the time order only appears between the social bots and the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have examined adolescent sexual behaviors by family immigration status, but most of these failed to account for heterogeneity within youths’ multicultural backgrounds. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper draws data from the 2011 to 2022 rounds of the Korean Youth’s Risk Behavior Survey (N  =  769,160) and compares the likelihood of sexual intercourse across four groups of adolescents. Results from logistic regression indicate that the odds of having sexual contact increased 2.8 times for youths with a non-Korean father and Korean mother, compared with those from families with two Korean parents. When both father and mother are foreign-born, the odds of being sexually active increased 4.7 times. In both cases, the discrepancies might be primarily associated with the foreign fathers’ lack of socioeconomic resources. Therefore, the father’s role deserves more examination, and sex education in schools should be tailored to reflect multicultural adolescents’ needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in both rainfall and intensity due to climate change, the risk of debris flows is also increasing. In Korea, the increasing damage caused by debris flows has become a social issue, and research on debris-flow response is becoming increasingly important. Understanding the rainfall that induces debris flows is crucial for debris-flow response, and methods such as the I-D method have been used to evaluate and predict the risk of debris flows. However, previous studies on debris flow-induced rainfall analysis have been limited by the subjective decision of the researcher to select the impact meteorological stations, which greatly affects reliability. In this paper, in order to establish an objective standard, various maximum allowable distances between debris-flow disaster areas and meteorological stations were adjusted to 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 km using the CTRL-T automatic calculation algorithm, and the optimal maximum allowable distance suitable for Korean terrain was derived through parameter sensitivity analysis. Based on this, we developed a nomogram for sediment disaster risk prediction and warning in Gangwon-do, and applied it to past disaster cases, and found that, although the prediction time for each stage varies depending on the maximum allowable distance, on average, it is possible to predict the risk of sediment flows 4 to 5 h in advance. It is believed that the results of this study can be used to reduce sediment flow damage in advance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine-disrupting compound and a mutagenic agent that poses health hazards to living organisms, making it a global contaminant. Several remediation techniques have been reported in the literature, however, a mixed-method science mapping analysis of research trends on BPA is still lacking. The present study aimed to investigate global research trends in BPA remediation. Published research papers on BPA remediation indexed in Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus between 1992 and 2021 were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively using science mapping algorithms including Rstudio, bibliometrix package and R Version 4.2.1. The thematic areas were determined using k-means clustering of the author-keywords while Porter's stemming algorithm was used to stemmed inflectional terms to their roots. Overall, 640 documents were published by 1903 authors with 2.07 authors/article and 0.336 article/author, 4.31 co-authors/article, an annual growth rate of 17.35% and a collaboration index of 2.99. Research productivity increased from 1 article in 1992 to 93 articles in 2021. The citations of the topmost 23 articles ranged from 365 to 109 and the total citation per year ranged from 45.6 to 27.3. China (n = 267, 41.7%), Japan (n = 53, 8.3%), USA (n = 33, 5.2%) and Korea (n = 28, 4.4%) were respectively the top four countries based on the total of published articles and overall citation. There were 48 relevant keywords dominated by Bisphenol A, adsorption, biodegradation, and peroximonosulphate. The present analysis identifies research accomplishment, focus and gaps on Bisphenol A remediation and offer the researchers the information needed to forecast future research priorities that can help policymakers and governments to internationalize collaborations and create research curricula that can remediate BPA on a global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the concept of a circular economy for carbon neutrality is emerging. In particular, waste plastics are one of the key wastes, and efforts are being made to recycle them as energy rather than dispose of them. Accordingly, the technology of producing and utilizing pyrolysis oil from waste plastics attracts attention. As it is an early stage of technology development, however, there are not many demonstrations and papers that analyze the technology broadly. The goal of this study is to propose building a circular economy on a university campus through waste plastic pyrolysis oil technology. To show its feasibility, waste plastic pyrolysis oil technology is analyzed comprehensively from economic, environmental, and policy perspectives using the scenario analysis technique on the university campus level. A methodology of the scenario analysis technique enables predicting the uncertainties. Since plastic pyrolysis oil technologies and carbon neutrality are accompanied by many uncertainties, this technique is expected to be an appropriate methodology for this study. First, the amount of pyrolysis oil production from waste plastics from the campus is estimated. Then, the cost and carbon emissions from waste plastics are estimated if the pyrolysis oil technology is used instead of the traditional waste disposal process. As a result, the total economic profits of up to 425,484,022 won/year (354,570.01 $/year) are expected when a circular economy is built using waste plastic pyrolysis oil. In addition, it is also confirmed that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be reduced by up to 840,891 kgCO2eq/year. The waste plastic pyrolysis oil satisfies Korea's gas pollutant standards and is consistent with the GHG reduction policy. It can be concluded that building a circular economy at the university campus level using waste plastic pyrolysis oil technology is suitable from economic, environmental, and policy perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how historical inter-firm syndication networks influence venture capitalists' (VCs) propensity to invest in startups pursuing novel, uncertain technologies, with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI). We theorize that VCs' positional attributes within cumulative syndication networks determine their access to external expertise and intelligence that aid AI investment decisions amidst informational opacity. Specifically, reachability to prior AI investors provides referrals and insights transmitted across short network paths to reduce ambiguity. Additionally, VC brokerage between disconnected industry clusters furnishes expansive, non-redundant information that is pivotal for discovering and assessing AI opportunities. Through hypotheses grounded in social network theory, we posit network-based mechanisms that equip VCs to navigate uncertainty when engaging with ambiguous innovations like AI. We test our framework, utilizing comprehensive historical records of global venture capital investments. Analyzing the location information of VC firms in this database, we uncovered a history of 14,751 investments made by Korean and Japanese firms. Using these data, we assembled an imbalanced panel dataset from 1984 to 2022 spanning 230 Korean and 413 Japanese VCs, with 4508 firm-year observations. Negative binomial regression analysis of this dataset reveals how historical relational patterns among venture capital firms foster readiness to evaluate unfamiliar innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, autonomous mobile platforms have seen an increase in usage in several applications. One of which is street-sweeping. Although street-sweeping is a necessary process due to health and cleanliness, fleet operations are difficult to plan optimally. Since each vehicle has several constraints (battery, debris, and water), path planning becomes increasingly difficult to perform manually. Additionally, in real-world applications vehicles may become inactive due to a breakdown, which requires real-time scheduling technology to update the paths for the remaining vehicles. In this paper, the fleet street-sweeping problem can be solved using the proposed lower-level and higher-level path generation methods. For the lower level, a Smart Selective Navigator algorithm is proposed, and a modified genetic algorithm is used for the higher-level path planning. A case study was presented for Uchi Park, South Korea, where the proposed methodology was validated. Specifically, results generated from the ideal scenario (all vehicles operating) were compared to the breakdown scenario, where little to no difference in the overall statistics was observed. Additionally, the lower-level path generation could yield solutions with over 94% area coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Among Korean research papers there have been studies on the correlation between tuberculosis-hypertension and diabetes and the correlation between dementia-hypertension and diabetes, but there were no analysis data specifically on tuberculosis and dementia. (2) Methods: A total of 2992 tuberculosis patients in the Gyeongbuk region were analyzed through a final analysis of integrated disease and health management system data collected from 2021 to 2022. In this selection, patients with tuberculosis under 50 years of age and 368 people diagnosed with tuberculosis were excluded. (3) Results: From 2021 to 2022, among the 2992 tuberculosis patients in Gyeongsangbuk-do aged 50 or older, 2722 (91.0%) belonged to the general tuberculosis patient group, while 270 (9.0%) belonged to the dementia–tuberculosis patient group. The average age in the dementia–tuberculosis group was 81.4 years, significantly higher than the general group's average of 75.7 years. Within the dementia–tuberculosis patient group, 235 patients (87.0%) had underlying medical conditions in addition to dementia and tuberculosis. The tuberculosis treatment cure rate was 56.3% (1477 patients) in the general group and 38.9% (105 patients) in the dementia–tuberculosis patient group. (4) Conclusions: The cure rate was notably higher in the general group. Similarly, the mortality rate (deaths due to tuberculosis) was significantly higher in the dementia–tuberculosis patient group (7.0%, 19 patients) compared to the normal group (3.0%, 81 patients). The mortality rate in the dementia group was more than twice that of the general group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, cryptographic hash functions are widely used in various applications, including message authentication codes, cryptographic random generators, digital signatures, key derivation functions, and post-quantum algorithms. Notably, they play a vital role in establishing secure communication between servers and clients. Specifically, servers often need to compute a large number of hash functions simultaneously to provide smooth services to connected clients. In this paper, we present highly optimized parallel implementations of Lightweight Secure Hash (LSH), a hash algorithm developed in Korea, on server sides. To optimize LSH performance, we leverage two parallel architectures: AVX-512 on high-end CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs. In essence, we introduce a word-level parallel processing design suitable for AVX-512 instruction sets and a data parallel processing design appropriate for the NVIDIA CUDA platform. In the former approach, we parallelize the core functions of LSH using AVX-512 registers and instructions. As a result, our first implementation achieves a performance improvement of up to 50.37% compared to the latest LSH AVX-2 implementation. In the latter approach, we optimize the core operation of LSH with CUDA PTX assembly and apply a coalesced memory access pattern. Furthermore, we determine the optimal number of blocks/threads configuration and CUDA streams for RTX 2080Ti and RTX 3090. Consequently, in the RTX 3090 architecture, our optimized CUDA implementation achieves about a 180.62% performance improvement compared with the initially ported LSH implementation to the CUDA platform. As far as we know, this is the first work on optimizing LSH with AVX-512 and NVIDIA GPU. The proposed implementation methodologies can be used alone or together in a server environment to achieve the maximum throughput of LSH computation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of digital textbooks, which play an important role in post-COVID-19 digitalized education, on the development of elementary school students' affective and social competencies. The study quantitatively analyzed three years of student panel data collected from 1,418 students in the third and fourth grades of a digital textbook pilot elementary school in South Korea. This study examined differences in the development of affective and social competencies between the treatment group (n = 708), who used digital textbooks for three years, and the control group (n = 710), who used digital textbooks for two years and returned to paper textbooks. Results showed that the affective competencies of self-efficacy, learning motivation, and learning attitudes were higher in the treatment group than in the control group, and the social competencies of communication, collaboration, and sociability were also higher. Implications for digital education research and related policies are provided, and limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains South Korea's foreign policy preferences and degree of influence in negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang. It analyzes six administrations in South Korea in the post-Cold War era and shows that domestic politics determines the country's policy preferences toward North Korea. South Korea can either obstruct or facilitate U.S. negotiation with North Korea based on these policy preferences. It also shows that South Korea's diplomatic influence on the North Korean issue is maximized when it functions as a mediator between Washington and Pyongyang and maintains access to both parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the field of urological surgery, robotic surgery continues to develop and increase. This paper is an overview of the present and future of robotic urological surgery. Current Concepts: Robot-assisted surgery has revolutionized minimally invasive surgery and advanced the technical limitations of laparoscopy. Urologists have always been eager to adopt new technological advances to benefit their patients, and they have also been pioneers in the field of robotic surgery. Discussion and Conclusion: Following the first approval by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000, the da Vinci System (Intuitive Surgical, USA) remained the leading robotic surgical system for over 20 years. In 2000, the first robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy was performed in urology. Subsequently, applications of the da Vinci System in urology have grown exponentially, including the kidney, urinary bladder, and reconstructive and functional urological surgeries. To date, urology is driving robotic innovation. The first specialist-engineered system for single-site surgery, the da Vinci SP, was initially approved for use in urological surgery. Due to the advantages of robotic surgery, such as excellent visibility and operability, the demand for robotic surgery in the urology department is continuously increasing. Recently, in addition to the da Vinci System, other robot platforms are being developed and commercialized in many countries. In South Korea, robots such as Revo-I (Meere Company Inc., Korea) and Zamenix (Roen Surgical, Korea) are being released and commercialized. Urologists continue to lead the development of domestic robots and robotic surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable energy legislation in the modern world is the primary strategy that has raised the benchmark for energy and environmental security globally. The rapid growth in the human population has led to rising energy needs, which are predicted to increase by at least 50% by 2030. Waste management and environmental pollution present the biggest challenge to developing countries. The improvement of energy efficiency while ensuring higher nutritional evacuation wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is a significant problem for many wastewater treatment plants. Some treatment techniques require high energy input, which makes them expensive to remediate water use. Pollutants like chemical pesticides, hydrocarbons, colorants (dyes), surfactants, and aromatic compounds are present in wastewater and are contributing to other problems. Israel consumes 10% of the global energy supply, significantly more than other countries. The lagoon and trickling filters are the most widely used technologies in South African WWTPs, where the electricity intensity ranges from 0.079 to 0.41 kWh.m-3 (Wang et al. 2016). Korea and India use almost the same energy (0.24 kWh.m-3). An estimated one-fifth of the energy used in a municipality's WWTPs is used for overall public utilities, and this percentage is anticipated to rise by 20% over the next 15 years owing to expanding consumption of water and higher standards. In this review paper, we examined the potential for creating energy-self-sufficient WWTPs and discussed how much energy is currently consumed by WWTPs. The desirable qualities of microalgae, their production on a global level, technologies for treating wastewater with biogas and solar power, its developments, and issues for sustainable development are highlighted. The scientific elaboration of the mechanisms used for pollutant degradation using solar energy, as well as their viability, are the key issues that have been addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a method for forecasting surface solar irradiance (SSI), the most critical factor in solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation. The proposed method uses 16-channel data obtained by the GEO-KOMPSAT-2A (GK2A) satellite of South Korea as the main data for SSI forecasting. To determine feature variables related to SSI from the 16-channel data, the differences and ratios between the channels were utilized. Additionally, to consider the fundamental characteristics of SSI originating from the sun, solar geometry parameters, such as solar declination (SD), solar elevation angle (SEA), and extraterrestrial solar radiation (ESR), were used. Deep learning-based feature selection (Deep-FS) was employed to select appropriate feature variables that affect SSI from various feature variables extracted from the 16-channel data. Lastly, spatio-temporal deep learning models, such as convolutional neural network–long short-term memory (CNN-LSTM) and CNN–gated recurrent unit (CNN-GRU), which can simultaneously reflect temporal and spatial characteristics, were used to forecast SSI. Experiments conducted to verify the proposed method against conventional methods confirmed that the proposed method delivers superior SSI forecasting performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The residual life of a patient with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is of major interest to patients and their physicians. While existing analyses of HIV patient survival focus mostly on data collected at baseline, residual life analysis allows for dynamic analysis based on additional data collected over a period of time. As survival times typically exhibit a right-skewed distribution, the median provides a more useful summary of the underlying distribution than the mean. In this paper, we propose an efficient inference procedure that fits a semiparametric quantile regression model assessing the effect of longitudinal biomarkers on the residual life of HIV patients until the development of dyslipidemia, a disease becoming more prevalent among those with HIV. Methods: For estimation of model parameters, we propose an induced smoothing method that smooths nonsmooth estimating functions based on check functions. For variance estimation, we propose an efficient resampling-based estimator. The proposed estimators are theoretically justified. Simulation studies are used to evaluate their finite sample performances, including their prediction accuracy. We analyze the Korea HIV/AIDS cohort study data to examine the effects of CD4 (cluster of differentiation 4) cell count on the residual life of HIV patients to the onset of dyslipidemia. Results: The proposed estimator is shown to be consistent and normally distributed asymptotically. Under various simulation settings, our estimates are approximately unbiased. Their variances estimates are close to the empirical variances and their computational efficiency is superior to that of the nonsmooth counterparts. Two measures of prediction performance indicate that our method adequately reflects the dynamic character of longitudinal biomarkers and residual life. The analysis of the Korea HIV/AIDS cohort study data shows that CD4 cell count is positively associated with residual life to the onset of dyslipidemia but the effect is not statistically significant. Conclusions: Our method enables direct prediction of residual lifetimes with a dynamic feature that accommodates data accumulated at different times. Our estimator significantly improves computational efficiency in variance estimation compared to the existing nonsmooth estimator. Analysis of the HIV/AIDS cohort study data reveals dynamic effects of CD4 cell count on the residual life to the onset of dyslipidemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing how human activities affect hydrological systems is vital for the sustainable preservation and effective management of water resources in the watershed. Hence, this paper focuses on the hydrological response to land use and land cover (LULC) change scenarios in the Anyang watershed, South Korea. We obtained LULC data maps for the years 2000, 2013, and 2022 from the local government, revealing significant changes over the years. Agricultural lands experienced a 6.2% increase from 2000 to 2022, and pastureland expanded by 8.67% over two decades. The SWAT model was utilized to assess the impact of LULC on the hydrological components of the study watershed. Model calibration and validation for each LULC change were carried out using the SWAT-CUP program, considering the recorded streamflow information of the region. An excellent agreement was reached between the simulated and measured streamflow in both the calibration and validation stages under various LULC conditions. The Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency (NSE), the objective function, demonstrated values of 0.9, 0.89, and 0.89 during the calibration for 2000, 2013, and 2022, respectively, in the LULC scenario, while for the validation, we obtained values of 0.82, 0.78, and 0.80 for 2000, 2013, and 2022, respectively. Our findings indicate that the surface runoff rise contributed much to the water yield increase over the two decades compared to the other components in terms of the water yield, while the contribution of evapotranspiration (ET) to the watershed hydrological cycle declined by 1.66% from 2000 to 2022. The southeastern sub-basin part showed a high groundwater recharge distribution due to agricultural land, rice area, and forest area changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a practical framework for developing a net-zero electricity mix scenario (NEMS), which considers detailed conditions for supply of each energy. NEMS means a path scenario for power generation amount by year of each generation resource required to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050. NEMS framework refers to a methodological framework that contains procedures and requirements to continuously update the NEMS by comprehensively reflecting policy changes. For evaluation of NEMS, indicators such as a system inertia resource ratio (SIRR) and a fuel conversion rate (FCR) are proposed. The proposed framework and indicators are applied for the 2050 NEMS in Korea's electricity sector. The SIRR, indicating the ratio of inertial resources to total resources, projects values of 49% and 15% for the years 2030 and 2050, respectively. Furthermore, the FCR, reflecting the ratio of fuel conversion for resources undergoing this process, predicts that all targeted resources will have completed conversion by the year 2043. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species of Cumacea belonging to the genus Dimorphostylis Zimmer was collected from the Dokdo and Ulleung Islands in the East Sea of Korea. The new species, Dimorphostylis pilocorpus sp. nov., can be distinguished from all other Dimorphostylis species by the combination of the body surface covered with numerous slender simple setae; carapace with one transverse, a pair of frontal, and three pairs of oblique ridges; three pairs of oblique ridges connected on a submedian carina; telson of the female with 1 pair of short simple and 1 short, stout simple seta centrally; 1 pair of stout simple and 3 pairs of short simple setae on the post-anal section; pleonite 5 of male with 1 spiniform seta on the ventral margin; post-anal section with 2 pairs of stout simple setae bearing a single subterminal setule on both sides; terminal margin with 3 stout simple setae; and a central seta slightly longer than the outer pair of setae. Full illustrations of the new species, including the mouthparts, are given in this paper. A key to the Korean species of Dimorphostylis is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As online shopping is becoming mainstream, driven by the social impact of Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) as well as the development of Internet services, the demand for autonomous delivery mobile robots is rapidly increasing. This trend has brought the autonomous mobile robot market to a new turning point, with expectations that numerous mobile robots will be driving on roads with traffic. To achieve these expectations, autonomous mobile robots should precisely perceive the situation on roads with traffic. In this paper, we revisit and implement a real-time traffic light recognition system with a proposed lightweight state recognition network and ratio-preserving zero padding, which is a two-stage system consisting of a traffic light detection (TLD) module and a traffic light status recognition (TLSR) module. For the TLSR module, this work proposes a lightweight state recognition network with a small number of weight parameters, because the TLD module needs more weight parameters to find the exact location of traffic lights. Then, the proposed effective and lightweight network architecture is constructed by using skip connection, multifeature maps with different sizes, and kernels of appropriately tuned sizes. Therefore, the network has a negligible impact on the overall processing time and minimal weight parameters while maintaining high performance. We also propose to utilize a ratio-preserving zero padding method for data preprocessing for the TLSR module to enhance recognition accuracy. For the TLD module, extensive evaluations with varying input sizes and backbone network types are conducted, and then appropriate values for those factors are determined, which strikes a balance between detection performance and processing time. Finally, we demonstrate that our traffic light recognition system, utilizing the TLD module's determined parameters, the proposed network architecture for the TLSR module, and the ratio-preserving zero padding method can reliably detect the location and state of traffic lights in real-world videos recorded in Gumi and Deagu, Korea, while maintaining at least 30 frames per second for real-time operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurses' turnover intention has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Emotional labor is reportedly high among nurses in Korea, and a positive psychological capital can help reduce turnover intention. This cross-sectional study investigated the factors influencing turnover intention in nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey data were collected from 155 nurses caring for patients with COVID-19 at a university hospital in South Korea in March 2022. Self-reported and paper-based questionnaires on emotional labor, positive psychological capital, and turnover intention were employed. The mean values for emotional labor, positive psychological capital, and turnover intention were 54.52/80, 58.03/90, and 38.92/50, respectively, and 77.8% of nurses reported planning to quit working. Turnover intention correlated with emotional labor (r = 0.17; p = 0.041) and had no significant relationship with positive psychological capital. Sex (β = 0.24; p = 0.003) and emotional labor (β = 0.18; p = 0.019) affected turnover intention, with 9% explanatory power. Female nurses caring for patients with COVID-19 had a higher turnover intention than male nurses. Finally, the higher the emotional labor of nurses caring for patients with COVID-19, the higher the turnover intention. To reduce the turnover intention of nurses, hospitals need to help them enhance their emotional labor and positive psychological capital by establishing measures such as emotional coaching programs or psychological capital interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into the dynamics of Korean Marxism and its political implications across three pivotal historical periods: the university student movement from the 1980s to the early 1990s, the era from the 1990s to the 2000s, and finally, the contemporary landscape characterized by the emergence of mass protests, the ascent of the far-right, and the spread of populism. It aims to provide insights into revitalizing Marxism in South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the academic publishing environment evolves rapidly and the open science paradigm emerges, the demand for efficient and transparent peer review is growing. This study outlines efforts to actively introduce advanced concepts in scholarly communication into the submission and review system. AccessON Peer Review Management System Plus (ACOMS+), developed and operated by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, is an online submission and peer review system that aims for open science. This study provides an overview of ACOMS+ and presents its four main features: open peer review, open access publishing and self-archiving, online quantitative/qualitative evaluation, and peer reviewer invitation. The directions for further developing ACOMS+ to fully support open science are also discussed. ACOMS+ is the first system in Korea to introduce the open peer review process and is distinguished as a system that supports open access publishing and digital transformation of academic journals. Furthermore, ACOMS+ is expected to contribute to the advancement of the academic publishing environment through the increasing shift toward open access publishing, transparent peer review, and open science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the significance of knowledge convergence continues to grow, universities are making efforts to develop methods that promote multidisciplinary learning. To address this educational challenge, our paper applies network theory and text mining techniques to analyze university curricula and introduces a graphical syllabus rendering method. Visualizing the course curriculum provides a macro and structured perspective for individuals seeking alternative educational pathways within the existing system. By visualizing the relationships among courses, students can explore different combinations of courses with comprehensive search support. To illustrate our approach, we conduct a detailed demonstration using the syllabus database of Yonsei University. Through the application of our methods, we create visual course networks that reveal the underlying structure of the university curriculum. Our results yield insights into the interconnectedness of courses across various academic majors at Yonsei University. We present both macro visualizations, covering 18 academic majors, and visualizations for a few selected majors. Our analysis using Yonsei University's database not only showcases the value of our methodology but also serves as a practical example of how our approach can facilitate multidisciplinary learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of product quality is a crucial process in factory manufacturing. However, this approach still has some limitations, e.g., depending on the expertise of the engineer in evaluating products and being time consuming. Various approaches using deep learning in automatic defect detection and classification during production have been introduced to overcome these limitations. In this paper, we study applying different deep learning approaches and computer vision methods to detect scratches on the surface of microfasteners used in rechargeable batteries. Furthermore, we introduce an architecture with statistical quality control (SQC) to continuously improve the efficiency and accuracy of the product quality. The proposed architecture takes advantage of the capability of deep learning approaches, computer vision techniques, and SQC to automate the defect detection process and quality improvement. The proposed approach was evaluated using a real dataset comprising 1150 microfastener surface images obtained from a factory in Korea. In the study, we compared the direct and indirect prediction methods for predicting the scratches on the surface of the microfasteners and achieved the best accuracy of 0.91 with the indirect prediction approach. Notably, the indirect prediction method was more efficient than the traditional one. Furthermore, using control charts in SQC to analyze predicted defects in the production process helped operators understand the efficiency of the production line and make appropriate decisions in the manufacturing process, hence improving product quality management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic (PV) power can be a reasonable alternative as a carbon-free power source in a global warming environment. However, when many PV generators are interconnected in power systems, inaccurate forecasting of PV generation leads to unstable power system operation. In order to help system operators maintain a reliable power balance, even when renewable capacity increases excessively, an incentive program has been introduced in Korea. The program is expected to improve the self-forecasting accuracy of distributed generators and enhance the reliability of power system operation by using the predicted output for day-ahead power system planning. In order to maximize the economic benefit of the incentive program, the PV site should offer a strategic schedule. This paper proposes a PV generation scheduling method that considers incentives for accurate renewable energy forecasting. The proposed method adjusts the predicted PV generation to the optimal generation schedule by considering the characteristics of PV energy deviation, energy storage system (ESS) operation, and PV curtailment. It then maximizes incentives by mitigating energy deviations using ESS and PV curtailment in real-time conditions. The PV scheduling problem is formulated as a stochastic mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem, considering energy deviation and daily revenue under expected PV operation scenarios. The numerical simulation results are presented to demonstrate the economic impact of the proposed method. The proposed method contributes to mitigating daily energy deviations and enhancing daily revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rain attenuation based on the drop size distribution (DSD) with different rainfall rates (R) at low THz frequencies is investigated in this paper. The rain attenuation is calculated using the DSD measured for one year and the extinction cross-section (ECS) by the Mie scattering theory. Moreover, the obtained specific rain attenuation is verified by the empirical model using the measurement system consisting of a transmitter, a receiver, and weather measurement units. We measured the received power against the uniform transmitted power at 240, 270, and 300 GHz on the rooftop of the National Radio Research Agency (RRA) in Korea during the same period as the DSD measurement period. After curve fitting by regression analysis, we compared both rain attenuations obtained in two methods with the recommendation International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) P.838-3. The root mean square errors (RMSEs) of the DSD model are 2.8977, 2.8646, and 2.8331 at 240, 270, and 300 GHz, respectively. The calculated result using the Mie scattering and the measured DSD methods shows the best fit to the data of the ITU-R recommendation for a rainfall rate of up to 5 mm/h. On the other hand, the empirical results using the T/Rx antenna system are slightly higher compared to the data of the ITU-R recommendation. As the rainfall rate increases, the difference between our results and ITU-R recommendation increases. This study will be useful for predicting rain attenuation for terrestrial wireless links operating at low THz frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine age-related risk factors for chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) with asthma. Methods: Data were obtained from a national survey of non-hospitalized civilians conducted by the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention. CRS diagnosis was based on the guidelines of the European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps 2020. Asthma was judged based on whether the patient had been diagnosed with asthma in the past. Of the 45,811 survey participants, 26,335 were included in the cross-sectional study. Participants included in the study were divided into the control, CRS, and CRS with asthma groups. Age-related risk factors were analyzed in patients aged < 60 or > 60 years. Univariate logistic analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship between groups. Risk factors included age, sex, household income, residence, education level, occupation, and body mass index (BMI). Results: Education level (Odds Ratio [OR]: 0.342, P =.0003), BMI (OR: 1.09, P =.0082), and total IgE (TIgE) levels (OR: 5.582, P =.003) were significantly different between the control and the CRS with asthma group. Education level (OR: 0.478, P =.0016) and TIgE levels (OR: 4, P =.0218) were significantly different between the CRS and CRS with asthma groups under 60 years of age. BMI (OR: 1.087, P =.0443; OR: 1.104, P =.0224) showed a significant difference between all three groups with age > 60 years. Conclusion: Progression to CRS with asthma is influenced by education level, occupation, and TIgE levels in patients under 60 years of age. BMI was the only influencing factor associated with the progression to CRS with asthma in those aged > 60 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal erosion is caused by various factors, such as harbor development along coastal areas and climate change. Erosion has been accelerated recently due to sea level rises, increased occurrence of swells, and higher-power storm waves. Proper understanding of the complex coastal erosion process is vital to prepare measures when they are needed. Monitoring systems have been widely established around a high portion of the Korean coastline, supported by several levels of governments, but valid analysis of the collected data and the following preparation of measures have not been highly effective yet. In this paper, we use a drone to obtain bed material images, and an analysis system to predict the representative grain size of beach sands from the images based on artificial intelligence (AI) analysis. The predicted grain sizes are verified via field samplings. Field bed material samples for the particle size analysis are collected during two seasons, while a drone takes photo images and the exact positions are simultaneously measured at Jangsa beach, Republic of Korea. The learning and testing results of the AI technology are considered satisfactory. Finally, they are used to diagnose the overall stability of Jangsa beach. A beach diagnostic grade is proposed here, which reflects the topography of a beach and the distribution of sediments on the beach. The developed beach diagnostic grade could be used as an indicator of any beach stability on the east coast of the Republic of Korea. When the diagnostic grade changes rapidly at a beach, it is required to undergo thorough investigation to understand the reason and foresee the future of the beach conditions, if we want the beach to function as well as before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Verimlilik Dergisi is the property of Verimlilik Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)