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Building on the concept of Freirean culture circles, this study reports on the development of supplementary materials to incorporate critical literacy into high school EFL textbooks. Collaborating with two experienced high school EFL teachers in South Korea, critical supplementary materials were developed to compensate for the speaking sections of Korean high school EFL textbooks. Teacher interviews, classroom interactions, and students’ surveys revealed five key elements of critical materials that were necessary for students’ critical engagement, namely: framing, safer topics, critical questions, critical vocabulary, and writing before speaking. This study shows that critical materials enable teachers’ critical literacy teaching practices, helping teachers deal with the dilemma between what is feasible and the principles of critical literacy. With classroom-based examples and discussions, this article offers insights to ELT teachers, materials developers, and teacher educators who strive to promote critical literacy in skill-based ELT classrooms.

The term “Namyang Archipelago” has been forgotten in Korea. Although the Namyang Islands were imbricated in the lives of Koreans during the colonial period, few Koreans know the term nowadays. During the colonial period, “Namyang Fever” was prevalent in Chosun. Namyang was thought of as an idealized land, but its natives were described as uncivilized barbarians. Such contradictory views are found in Kim Nae-sung’s adventure novel for boys The Golden Cave, published in 1937. This study examines the meaning of the obsession with Namyang in colonial Chosun, concentrating in particular on this novel.When the novel was published in 1937, Chosun was undergoing a mania for gold and a veritable gold rush. During this period, Kim Nae-seong was drawing readers’ attention to the Namyang Islands by describing them as the place where The Golden Cave is located. It was not that Kim Nae-seong wanted to encourage people to migrate to the Namyang Archipelago out of self-interest. All the children who go on adventures in the novel try to use the gold they have found in the public interest, through initiatives such as building an orphanage. They are aiming for a life that abandons the primacy of “one’s desire,” “one’s success,” and “one’s joy”, and think only of the public interest. This form of life meant 殉忠, “giving one’s life for the country,” which the Japanese Empire required of colonial Koreans during this period.

Background: We investigated whether Lactobacillus plantarum strain LMT1-48, isolated from Korean fermented foods and newborn feces, is a suitable probiotic supplement to treat overweight subjects.Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, 100 volunteers with a body mass index of 25 to 30 kg/m2 were assigned randomly (1:1) to receive 2×1010 colony forming units of LMT1-48 or to a placebo treatment group. Body composition was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and abdominal visceral fat area (VFA) and subcutaneous fat area were measured by computed tomography scanning. Changes in body fat, VFA, anthropometric parameters, and biomarkers were compared between the two treatment groups (ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT03759743).Results: After 12 weeks of treatment, the body weight decreased significantly from 76.6±9.4 to 75.7±9.2 kg in the LMT1-48 group but did not change in the placebo group (P=0.022 between groups). A similar pattern was found in abdominal VFA between the two groups (P=0.041). Serum insulin levels, the corresponding homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, and leptin levels decreased in the LMT1-48 group but increased in the placebo group (all PLactobacillus levels significantly. LMT1-48 also increased Oscillibacter levels significantly, which were negatively correlated with triglyceride and alanine transaminase levels.Conclusion: Administration of LMT1-48 decreased body weight, abdominal VFA, insulin resistance, and leptin levels in these subjects with overweight, suggesting its anti-obesogenic therapeutic potential.

Learner corpus studies using syntactic complexity as a construct for characterizing learner proficiency have found that higher proficiency permits learners to produce more complex syntactic structures. However, the majority of previous studies have focused on writing, almost exclusively with adult second language (L2) learners. Given the fundamentally different mechanisms underlying speaking and writing activities, this study investigated (a) how different processes involved in writing and speaking performance affect child L2 learners? sentence production, and (b) whether syntactic complexity is a better predictor of proficiency in a particular production type. To this end, we analyzed syntactic complexity for written and spoken corpora supplied by native Korean-speaking child learners of English using 7 syntactic complexity indices. Results showed that learners used longer sentences, more subordination, more verb phrases per T?unit, and less coordination in writing than in speaking. In addition, a prediction model fitted to the written corpus explained more of the variance in proficiency scores than a model based on the spoken corpus. These findings indicate that the different processes underlying writing and speaking influence the way that beginning-level child L2 learners produce sentences in writing and speaking tasks.

Coffee is one of the largest agricultural products, however, the majority of the produced coffee is discarded as waste sludge by beverage manufacturers. Herein, we report the use of graphitic porous carbon materials that have been derived from waste coffee sludge for developing an energy storage electrode based on a hydrothermal recycling procedure. Waste coffee sludge is used as a carbonaceous precursor for energy storage due to its greater abundance, lower cost, and easier availability as compared to other carbon resources. The intrinsic fibrous structure of coffee sludge is based on cellulose and demonstrates enhanced ionic and electronic conductivities. The material is primarily composed of cellulose-based materials along with several heteroatoms, therefore, the waste sludge can be easily converted to functionalized carbon. The production of unique graphitic porous carbon by hydrothermal carbonization of coffee sludge is particularly attractive since it addresses waste handling issues, offers a cheaper recycling method, and reduces the requirement for landfills. Our investigations revealed that the graphitic porous carbon electrodes derived from coffee sludge provide a specific capacitance of 140 F g&minus, 1, with 97% retention of the charge storage capacity after 1500 cycles at current density of 0.3 A g&minus, 1.

Background Urinary incontinence is a common problem among the elderly and patients with neurologic disability. The conventional urinary incontinence aids, such as urine-absorbing diapers, pads, and indwelling catheters, frequently cause hygienic problems. Objective To study the safety and efficacy of a new automatic urine disposal system that can suction and store the urine in a separate container for future disposal. Methods An electromechanical urine disposal system that can collect and transport the urine and cleanse and air-dry the external genitalia was developed. The hygienic effects of using this system were studied in 8 participants after 3 months of use. Results The caregivers of all 8 patients reported improved hygiene of their patients. None of the patients suffered from decubitus ulcers, and skin erythema was absent in 4 patients, while markedly decreased in the other 4 patients when compared with the use of urine-absorbing diapers. Four patients experienced minor urine leakage that was manageable with concurrent use of either diapers or bed pads. Conclusions The use of an electromechanical urine disposal system relieves the caregiver from night care, as the urine is automatically collected and stored for disposal the next day. The system improves the hygiene of the patient, as the urine is immediately suctioned and the external genitalia is cleansed and dried after urination.

This report describes recent progresses in development and production of GaN HEMT based power amplifiers in Wavice Inc., such as discrete transistors, s-band internally matched packaged transistors, 5W 3.5 GHz Doherty amplifiers, S-band Tx module and 4kW C-band high power amplifiers. Especially for s-band internally matched transistors and power amplifiers, more than 1500 products have been produced and qualified. The RF performance variations and reliability data from the qualification of power amplifiers are summarized.

ObjectiveTo assess the dietary pattern associated with hypertension and pre-hypertension among Korean male and female adults.DesignCross-sectional study from a representative sample of the Korean population.SettingThe Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey IV, which was conducted in 2007 and 2008.SubjectsMales and females (n 5308) over the age of 20 years.ResultsScores for three major dietary patterns (‘whole food’, ‘Western’ and ‘drinking’) were generated using a factor analysis of thirty predefined food groups based on the food items consumed. We used polytomous logistic regression analyses to obtain odds ratios and 95 % confidence intervals for pre-hypertension and hypertension. Participants with a high drinking pattern score (moderate to high alcohol intake, salted fermented seafood intake) had a significantly higher prevalence of pre-hypertension or hypertension than those with a lower drinking pattern score; odds for the top quintile v. the bottom quintile were OR = 1·56 (95 % CI 1·23, 1·99; P trend = 0·001) for pre-hypertension and OR = 3·05 (95 % CI 2·12, 4·40; P trend < 0·001) for hypertension. The whole food pattern was not associated with either pre-hypertension or hypertension, while the Western pattern was associated with the prevalence of hypertension only among men.ConclusionsOur finding warrants further prospective studies to examine whether alcohol drinking and salty food consumption increase the risk of developing hypertension in Koreans.

Thirty plants of the Compositae family were screened for inhibitory activity of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE). Among them, Chrysanthemum boreale Makino and Ixeris dentate Nakai were selected for further investigation since they had the highest inhibitory activity. Crude water extracts of the flowers of Chrysanthemum boreale Makino and the roots of Ixeris dentate Nakai were prepared by heating at 95℃ and 60℃ for 2 hr, respectively, followed by centrifugation at 8000×g for 30 min. Crude extracts were then filtered using YM-3 and YM-1 membranes. The ACE inhibitors were isolated using consecutive chromatographic methods including: Sephadex G-15, ion exchange, FPLC, and reverse phase HPLC. The inhibitors were identified to have molecular masses of 204 and 283 daltons, respectively, by mass spectrometry. These results demonstrate that crude extracts of Compositae plants may be useful as functional food ingredients with anti-hypertensive properties.

Reduction of CO2 emission has been an issue around the globe, and most countries are considering renewable energy such as solar and wind power to reduce overall CO2 emission. However, the method of maximizing the utilization of renewable energy needs consideration. Utilizing water electrolysis is one of considered solution. The concept is to create hydrogen through water electrolysis using excess power produced by renewable energy. Then, produced hydrogen can be used in various fields. In order to maximize utilization of renewable energy with water electrolysis, three attributes should be considered for water electrolysis; High pressure, large surface area, and high current density. The following presentation contains three topics; 1. An introduction of latest research and development made in Korea on water electrolysis including PEM water electrolysis, 2. PEM water electrolysis research in Korea, led by Elchemtech and 3. Research conducted by Elchemtech on how to reach the target goal; large active area (3,000cm2), high current density (3A/cm2) and high pressure (350bar).

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