The Role of Farm Households and the Agro-Food Sector in Korean Rural Economy

This paper aims to review the role of farm households and the agro-food sector in the economy of rural areas in Korea. It discusses definition of rural area, share of agricultural and agro-food sectors in Korean economy, the income situation of farm households and non-farming activities, and multiplier effects of agriculture in Korea. Rural areas mean Eup and Myeon, whereas Dong means urban area. Rural population in Korea has continued to decrease over the years. In 2005, 18.3% of total land area, or 1,824thousand ha, was used for paddy and dry fields. The share of GRDP of agricultural, forestry, and fishing sectors was about 10% in 1985, but dropped to slightly over 3% in 2005. Thirty seven percent of farmers have a second employment in the non-farm sector and 67.2% of part-time farmers are more devoted to their non-farm activities than farming for farm household income. Rural tourism provides diverse opportunities for rural and urban residents to exchange products, services, information, and culture. New demands are arising toward rural areas: leisure and relaxation spaces, rural tourism, nature and ecology, rural amenity, and safe and fresh local foods.rural areas, agriculture, agro-food sector, farm household income, rural tourism, Korea, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics,

Removal of Synthetic Organic Compounds and NOM by Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes-Ultrafiltration and Forward Osmosis Membrane System

This overall theme of this dissertation is to investigate the potential engineered application of low pressure membranes incorporated with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and forward osmosis (FO) membrane systems for the removal of synthetic organic compounds (SOCs) and natural organic matter (NOM) from drinking water sources. The focus is on the use of SWNTs-ultrafiltration (UF) and FO membrane systems to facilitate the removal of these compounds and potential applications of these membrane system designs for reducing the energy demands and membrane fouling in environmental water filtration process and seawater desalination. The SWNTs-UF results indicate that SOCs transport is influenced by NOM, which fouls the membrane through pore blockage and cake/gel formation. A strong linear correlation between the retention and adsorption of SOCs was observed, indicating that retention by the SWNTs-UF membranes is mainly due to the adsorption of SOCs onto the membrane, the SWNTs, and/or NOM. The performance of SWNTs-UF was also evaluated on the basis of a resistance-in-series model, filtration laws, and NOM transportation mechanisms. The addition of SWNTs to the UF process did not significantly exacerbate the permeate flux decline and total membrane resistances. Further, it appeared that the effect of SWNTs on membrane fouling is a function of hydrodynamic and operational conditions. The results suggest that the NOM transportation in SWNTs-UF systems depends, to a significant extent, on the concentration polarization and cake/gel layer formation at the membrane boundary. In the application for artificial seawater in SWNTs-UF, the presence of SWNTs shows 20% increase in membrane flux and a strong linear correlation between retention and adsorption of SOCs was obtained. In FO membrane systems, the cellulose triacetate based FO membrane exhibited the better separation properties than that of polyamide based reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. And, in active layer (AL)-facing-feed solution (FS) configuration in FO mode, the RO membrane exhibited higher removal efficiency at the expense of severe internal concentration polarization (ICP) and flux reduction. Under higher cross-flow velocity operations in FO mode, both reduced external concentration polarization and retarded SOC diffusion from the reverse flux of sodium chloride contributed to the improved SOC removal performance. The FO membrane removal behavior was principally related to size exclusion, while the RO membrane removal behavior was related to interactions between hydrophobicity, size, and electrostatic repulsion. The results significantly confirmed the dominant role of ICP, and the trade-off between flux and removal efficiency depends on the porous supporting layer in AL-facing-FS configurations in the FO process

A comparative study of housing in Korea and Singapore

This thesis compares the historical development of housing in two Asian Tigers, Korea and Singapore. The thesis adopts comparative historical analysis for systematic and contextualised comparison across nation states. The thesis starts by reviewing the previous literature on the evolving views of housing policy and housing regimes in the Western welfare states and the newly industrialised countries in Asian-Pacific region. With these theoretical backgrounds, the thesis investigates and compares the.developments of the housing systems, its causal factors and consequences through comparative historical analysis. When it comes to accounting for variations in housing between Korea and Singapore, the case studies highlight how institutional characteristics established under colonial rule e.g. viewpoints on social policy including housing or the designs of schemes, were combined with different developmental strategies during the industrialisation period. In addition, the case studies pose and examine the new relationship between housing and other welfare pillars in Asia, which can be differentiated from those in Western contexts. The findings from the case studies reveal that the different ways in which development models and enduring institutional arrangements were combined acted as the critical factor determining the considerable variations apparent in housing policy and outcomes in Korea and Singapore. The thesis demonstrates that the emphasis on the variable of 'institutions' furthers the understanding of how path dependency dominated most housing policy developments in Korea and Singapore. When it comes to implications for comparative housing study, the findings support the interpretation that Asian housing regimes with several sub-groups can be differentiated from Western housing regimes. Finally, the findings indicate that it is time for both states to think over how to live with 'institutional legacies' generating considerable social costs

The role of agriculture and farm household diversification in the rural economy of Korea

노트 : This report reviews information on the role of agriculture and farm household diversification in the rural economy of Korea. It was prepared by consultants, Dr. Jang Heo and Dr. Yong-Lyoul Kim of the Korea Rural Economic Institute

Standardized contracts with swing for the market-supported procurement of energy and reserve

These are the key findings for the SC system: permits full, separate, market-based compensation for service availability and service performance (FERC Order 755); facilitates a level playing field for market participation; facilitates co-optimization of energy and reserve markets; supports forward-market trading of energy and reserve; permits service providers to offer flexible service availability; provides system operators with real-time flexibility in service usage; facilitates accurate load forecasting and following of dispatch signals; permits resources to internally manage UC and capacity constraint; permits the robust-control management of uncertain net load; eliminates the need for out-of-market payment adjustments; and reduces the complexity of market rules

Standardized contracts with swing for the market-supported procurement of energy and reserve: illustrative examples

Three key issues have arisen for centrally-managed wholesale electric power markets in Europe and the United States as they attempt to handle an increased penetration of variable energy resources. First, rigid definitions for energy and reserve products make it difficult to ensure appropriate compensation for important needed flexibility in start-up times, ramp-rates, power dispatch levels, and duration. Second, participation restrictions hinder the achievement of an even playing field for potential providers of flexible services. Third, reliance on out-of-market compensation for the provision of some valued services encourages strategic manipulation. This study examines the possibility of addressing these three issues through the introduction of standardized energy and reserve contracts with swing (flexibility) in their contractual terms. Concrete examples are used to demonstrate how the trading of these standardized contracts can be supported by linked forward markets in a manner that permits efficient real-time balancing of net load subject to system and reserve-requirement constraints. Comparisons with existing wholesale electric power markets are given, and key policy implications are highlighted

Accuracy Tests Of American Put Valuation Models For Pharmaceutical Equity Options

This study compares the performance of the Macmillan (1986), Barone-Adesi and Whaley (1987) MBAW model, Ju and Zhong (1999) MQuad model, Black-Scholes model and Put-Call Parity in pricing American put options of pharmaceutical companies. These are evaluated using actual option prices for three companies over 2000 to 2005, as opposed to the previous use of generated binomial option pricing data. We compare the forecasting accuracy by maturity, moneyness, and variance estimate. Contrary to Ju and Zhong (1999), we find that the MBAW outperforms the other models for at-the-money, and out-of-the-money options. The MQuad model performs best for in-the-money options. However, in this case both the MBAW and MQuad models estimates are very similar. Our results are consistent irrespective of option maturities and volatility estimates. These findings raise questions regarding the practice of using actual prices as the true value, compared to the previous results that use simulated prices

Empty categories and Korean phonology.

This thesis discusses the behaviour of empty nuclei in Korean. The theory of Charm and Government is the framework on which my analysis is based. GP claims that a nucleus which dominates a vowel that regularly undergoes elision in specific contexts is underlyingly empty. Whether or not an empty nucleus is realised phonetically is not a question of representation, but is a question of interpretation. In the first chapter, I present the relevant facts involving word (or domain)-internal empty nuclei. [i]-zero alternation in verbal suffixation is also shown in this chapter. In the second chapter, I discuss the syllable structure of Korean. I propose that the rhyme does not branch in this language. Following this, an apparent consonant cluster is in fact separated by an empty nucleus. This is followed by the third and fourth chapters with the consideration of domain-internal and final empty nuclei in Korean. I show that the domain-final empty nucleus in Korean is licensed. A domain-internal empty nucleus may or may not be phonetically interpreted depending on proper government and inter-onset government. The properties of domain-final empty nuclei in Korean are discussed in the fifth chapter. We will see that domain-final empty nuclei in Korean do not have government-licensing properties. As for the apparent exceptional cases where [i] is pronounced in domain-final position, I account for these with evidence that they are morphologically complex. In the final chapter, I discuss [i]-zero alternation in verbal and nominal suffixations. In the case of nominal suffixation, [i]-zero alternation between the stem and suffix is exactly the same as in morphologically simplex words, thus, is accounted for by proper government and interonset government. On the other hand, [i]-zero alternation in verbal suffixation is somewhat different from that in morphologically simplex words

Continuous Facial Motion Deblurring

We introduce a novel framework for continuous facial motion deblurring that restores the continuous sharp moment latent in a single motion-blurred face image via a moment control factor. Although a motion-blurred image is the accumulated signal of continuous sharp moments during the exposure time, most existing single image deblurring approaches aim to restore a fixed number of frames using multiple networks and training stages. To address this problem, we propose a continuous facial motion deblurring network based on GAN (CFMD-GAN), which is a novel framework for restoring the continuous moment latent in a single motion-blurred face image with a single network and a single training stage. To stabilize the network training, we train the generator to restore continuous moments in the order determined by our facial motion-based reordering process (FMR) utilizing domain-specific knowledge of the face. Moreover, we propose an auxiliary regressor that helps our generator produce more accurate images by estimating continuous sharp moments. Furthermore, we introduce a control-adaptive (ContAda) block that performs spatially deformable convolution and channel-wise attention as a function of the control factor. Extensive experiments on the 300VW datasets demonstrate that the proposed framework generates a various number of continuous output frames by varying the moment control factor. Compared with the recent single-to-single image deblurring networks trained with the same 300VW training set, the proposed method show the superior performance in restoring the central sharp frame in terms of perceptual metrics, including LPIPS, FID and Arcface identity distance. The proposed method outperforms the existing single-to-video deblurring method for both qualitative and quantitative comparisons