Dynamic comparative advantage and sources of international competitiveness in the Korean steel industry

The Korean steel industry has developed remarkably since it turned to modem steelmaking in the early 1970s with the establishment of the nation's only integrated largescale steel company, POSCO. This study explores major factors that contributed to the development of, and the evolution of intemational competitiveness in, the Korean steel industry. The conceptual approach employed here is based on the model of dynamic comparative advantage in a developing country. This model suggests that shifts in supply-side conditions are the main cause of changing comparative advantage. This model is subsequently extended to incorporate the effects of domestic demand, government intervention and industrial policy, and an industry's or firm's capability to absorb imported technology. A major interest in this study is to examine and assemble a large amount of data and evidence, including a detailed case study of POSCO, on the effects of these factors on the growth of the Korean steel industry. Examination of supply-side issues shows that the dynamics of comparative advantage in the Korean steel industry were closely associated with rapid economic growth and industrialisation relative to the rest of the world. Even though many argued that establishment of a large-scale integrated steel mill in Korea in the early 1970s was a poor option in light of static comparative advantage considerations, the growth of the steel industry seems to have accorded well with Korea's changing structure of comparative advantage and the intemational product cycle of steel-making in the longer run. The analysis shows also that steel industry competitiveness in Korea had its origins in a comparative production cost advantage, stemming mostly from its relatively cheap and abundant supply of skilled labour. On the demand side, it is shown that both the size and growth rates of steel consumption and the intensity of steel use in Korea were among the highest achieved in developing countries and that, with a few exceptions, achievement of a strong comparative advantage in steel was also associated with high levels of steel consumption in the domestic economy. While rapidly increasing domestic steel demand has had a direct negative effect in the short mn on Korea's trade performance in steel, it ultimately has contributed to the improvement of the trade performance of the Korean steel industry over the longer term. Analysis of the significance of industrial policy and the role played by the govemment in establishing and promoting modem steel-making in Korea shows that the financial policy of directing available capital to designated industries and firms was a principal agent in industry promotion. It is argued that the role of government in the establishment of POSCO can be understood as an attempt to transform the industry into a modem steel-making industry by overcoming problems in capital markets. It is also shown that the extensive government measures undertaken in the 1970s and 1980s provided the steel industry, especially POSCO, with various development incentives, even though it is not so readily apparent whether there were net costs or benefits for the entire economy and whether the industry's development would have been promoted more efficiently under a different policy regime. Gradual removal of protection and assistance for the steel industry from the early 1980s, as it was seen to have moved out the infant industry stage, is also identified as an important part of its development. In an attempt to explore the issue of how the Korean steel industry obtained international competitiveness from an inefficient and non-competitive base, the case of POSCO is examined. Even though POSCO had to rely almost entirely on foreign sources of technology and capital to install its integrated production system, its long-run competitiveness was founded on effective technology transfer practices. POSCO built plant when new construction work was at low levels worldwide, and so was able to purchase relatively new technologies and attract low cost finance. Even more important was its low construction costs, due to its achievement of short construction times and low labour costs, which were much lower than elsewhere in the world. POSCO's efforts and ability not only to install plant effectively but also to obtain an international level of technological capability through rapid and successful learning of know-how and accumulation of experience are identified as the most crucial firm-specific factors in creating and strengthening international competitiveness. A key conclusion is that the establishment of fully integrated steel-making capacity in Korea in the 1970s clearly accorded with underlying changes in Korea's comparative advantage. The advantage of relatively low wages was magnified by other factors such as rapidly growing domestic demand, which allowed large increments to steel-making capacity, the role of government in the establishment of modem steel-making by overcoming market failure problems at the early stage of development, and rapidly accumulating workforce skills and technological capability. The argument also has several implications for prospects and policy strategies for future development of the Korean steel industry. As cost competitiveness has been gradually eroded, the central economic issue for the future of the industry is its capacity to upgrade so that domestic firms acquire the capability to innovate and advance product and process technology, and achieve technology-based advantage and higher productivity

SubrenaI CapsuIe Tumor ImpIant Assay with Frozen Tumor Tissue: A Preliminary Study Using Mouse Sareoma and Human Uterine Cervix Cancer

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the possibility of application of SHeA to previously frozen tumor tissue. Mouse sarcoma-I80 and human squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix were used as implanting tumor specimens. The fresh tumor specimens were frozen by rapid freezing method and stored in a liquid nitrogen tank. On the 7th day of freezing, the specimens were thawed and diced into 1 cubic millimeter pieces, and implanted beneath the subrenal capsule of ICH mice. The average viabilities before freezing and after thawing were 86.7% and 10.5% in mouse sarcoma-I80 respectively. And those of human uterine cervix cancer were 73.3% and 9.5% respectively. The evaluability of implanted tumor was 83.3% on the 6th day and 73.7% on the 12th day in mouse sarcoma, and in human cervix cancer, 75.0% and 66.7% respectively. The growth of previously frozen implanted mouse sarcoma was significant, 2.1 times on the 6th day and 73.9 times on the 12th day in volume. In the case of cervix cancer, the previously frozen tumor implants also grew significantly, 1.7 times on the 6th day and 2.1 times on the 12th day in volume. In conclusion, this preliminary laboratory study showed that SHCA could be applied to frozen tumor tissue as well as to fresh tissue for chemosensitivity test

anti-9,10-Di(1-naphth­yl)anthracene pyridine disolvate

In the title compound, C34H22·2C5H5N, there is a crystallographic inversion center in the middle of the anthracene ring system. The dihedral angle between the mean planes of the anthracene and naphthalene ring systems is 83.96 (4)°. The crystal structure is stabilized by weak inter­molecular C—H⋯N and C—H⋯π inter­actions

A STUDY OF MOTION CHARACTERISTICS LED BY CONNECTION METHODS AND POSITIONS OF A WAVE-ENERGY CONVERTER IN A REGULAR WAVE

The potential of wave power as an alternative energy resource is being studied to address problems associated with fossil fuel exhaustion and environmental pollution. In this paper, to improve the power generation efficiency of a floating-type wave-energy converter that has an activating body, the effects of the positions of a connecting bridge and different connecting methods between a main body and the activating body of the wave-energy converter were studied. In order to research the activating body’s motion characteristics that are caused by the changes of connecting bridge’s position and connecting methods; hinged or fixed connector, the wave-energy converter was modeled and simulated by using a commercial software. The moment and angular velocity of the axis of power generation were measured from the results of simulations and then the power outputs were calculated based on the moment and angular velocity. The outputs, which were analyzed under several regular wave conditions, were compared to each other

Full-length genomic analysis of korean porcine sapelovirus strains.

Porcine sapelovirus (PSV), a species of the genus Sapelovirus within the family Picornaviridae, is associated with diarrhea, pneumonia, severe neurological disorders, and reproductive failure in pigs. However, the structural features of the complete PSV genome remain largely unknown. To analyze the structural features of PSV genomes, the full-length nucleotide sequences of three Korean PSV strains were determined and analyzed using bioinformatic techniques in comparison with other known PSV strains. The Korean PSV genomes ranged from 7,542 to 7,566 nucleotides excluding the 3' poly(A) tail, and showed the typical picornavirus genome organization; 5'untranslated region (UTR)-L-VP4-VP2-VP3-VP1-2A-2B-2C-3A-3B-3C-3D-3'UTR. Three distinct cis-active RNA elements, the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) in the 5'UTR, a cis-replication element (CRE) in the 2C coding region and 3'UTR were identified and their structures were predicted. Interestingly, the structural features of the CRE and 3'UTR were different between PSV strains. The availability of these first complete genome sequences for PSV strains will facilitate future investigations of the molecular pathogenesis and evolutionary characteristics of PSV

MDR-1 gene expression is a minor factor in determining the multidrug resistance phenotype of MCF7/ADR and KB-V1 cells

AbstractThe relevance of MDR-1 gene expression to the multidrug resistance phenotype was investigated. Drug-resistant cells, KB-V1 and MCF7/ADR, constantly expressed mRNA of the MDR-1 gene and were more resistant to vinblastine and adriamycin than drug-sensitive cells, KB-3–1 and MCF7. The drug efflux rate of KB-V1 was the same as KB-3–1 although the MDR-1 gene was expressed in only the resistant cell. The higher intracellular drug concentration of KB-3–1 than KB-V1 was due to the large drug influx. In the case of MCF7 and MCF7/ADR, the influx and efflux of the drug had nearly the same pattern and drug efflux was not affected by verapamil. The amount of ATP, cofactor of drug pumping activity of P-glycoprotein, was not changed by the resistance. These observations suggested that drug efflux mediated by MDR-1 gene expression was not a major determining factor of drug resistance in the present cell systems, and that the drug resistance could be derived from the change in drug uptake and other mechanisms

SynechoNET: integrated protein-protein interaction database of a model cyanobacterium /Synechocystis/ sp. PCC 6803.

Background: Cyanobacteria are model organisms for studying photosynthesis, carbon and nitrogen assimilation, evolution of plant plastids, and adaptability to environmental stresses. Despite many studies on cyanobacteria, there is no web-based database of their regulatory and signaling protein-protein interaction networks to date. Description: We report a database and website SynechoNET that provides predicted protein-protein interactions. SynechoNET shows cyanobacterial domain-domain interactions as well as their protein-level interactions using the model cyanobacterium, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. It predicts the protein-protein interactions using public interaction databases that contain mutually complementary and redundant data. Furthermore, SynechoNET provides information on transmembrane topology, signal peptide, and domain structure in order to support the analysis of regulatory membrane proteins. Such biological information can be queried and visualized in user-friendly web interfaces that include the interactive network viewer and search pages by keyword and functional category. Conclusion: SynechoNET is an integrated protein-protein interaction database designed to analyze regulatory membrane proteins in cyanobacteria. It provides a platform for biologists to extend the genomic data of cyanobacteria by predicting interaction partners, membrane association, and membrane topology of Synechocystis proteins. SynechoNET is freely available at http://synechocystis.org/or directly at http://bioportal.kobic.kr/SynechoNET/close128

Fabrication of FeSe1-x superconducting films with bulk properties

We have fabricated high-quality FeSe1-x superconducting films with a bulk Tc of 11-12 K on different substrates, Al2O3(0001), SrTiO3(100), MgO(100), and LaAlO3(100), by using a pulsed laser deposition technique. All the films were grown at a high substrate temperature of 610 oC, and were preferentially oriented along the (101) direction, the latter being to be a key to fabricating of FeSe1-x superconducting thin films with high Tc. According to the energy dispersive spectroscopy data, the Fe:Se composition ratio was 1:0.90+-0.02. The FeSe1-x film grown on a SrTiO3 substrate showed the best quality with a high upper critical magnetic field [Hc2(0)] of 56 T