the case of US secondary sanctions against North Korea (2001–2020)

Thesis(Master) -- KDI School: Master of Development Policy, 2022Are secondary economic sanctions effective? The United States (US) introduced secondary sanctions to complement sanctions from the United Nations (UN). This paper examines whether the US secondary sanctions are effective by examining the case of sanctions against North Korea by exploiting the variation in implementation of sanctions against North Korea based on the analysis of sanction implementation reports to the UN, and trade volume data at dyadic level for 203 countries between 2001 and 2020. The findings suggest that secondary sanctions are relatively ineffective, while UN sanctions are still a helpful tool. Such findings are robust to the inclusion or exclusion of China into the sample. The implications from the findings suggest that more efforts to convince others to participate in the implementation of the UN sanctions rather than pursuing unilateral secondary sanctions can be more effective in the part of the US.1. Introduction 2. Literature Review 3. Sanctions on North Korea 4. Data and Variables 5. Methodology 6. Findings 7. Discussion and ConclusionmasterpublishedYechan MOO

Preparing for the Pandemic: Strengthening Epidemiological Investigations in The Republic of Korea, 2015-20

When the epidemic of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) hit the Republic of Korea in 2015, the government found that its infectious disease management system was woefully inadequate. At the time, the government faced legal limitations in collecting information to track how viruses spread from person to person and medical information (such as hospital admissions) about those infected. In addition, the country’s epidemiological investigators—the officials tasked with tracking the spread of the virus—did not have the capacity to manage a large outbreak. As a result of these constraints, MERS continued to spread through the population, infecting nearly 200 people nationwide. Following the MERS epidemic—which resulted in 38 deaths—the government realized it needed to establish a legal foundation for epidemiological investigation and boost capacity. In 2015, South Korea revised laws and laid the foundations for improved epidemiological investigations. When COVID-19 arrived in Korea in January 2020, epidemiological investigators were better prepared to track infections and prevent a widespread outbreak of the new infectious disease. Korea's case conveys the importance of a strong institutional basis for virus management

GPX8 regulates clear cell renal cell carcinoma tumorigenesis through promoting lipogenesis by NNMT

Background Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), with its hallmark phenotype of high cytosolic lipid content, is considered a metabolic cancer. Despite the implication of this lipid-rich phenotype in ccRCC tumorigenesis, the roles and regulators of de novo lipid synthesis (DNL) in ccRCC remain largely unexplained. Methods Our bioinformatic screening focused on ccRCC-lipid phenotypes identified glutathione peroxidase 8 (GPX8), as a clinically relevant upstream regulator of DNL. GPX8 genetic silencing was performed with CRISPR-Cas9 or shRNA in ccRCC cell lines to dissect its roles. Untargeted metabolomics, RNA-seq analyses, and other biochemical assays (e.g., lipid droplets staining, fatty acid uptake, cell proliferation, xenograft, etc.) were carried out to investigate the GPX8s involvement in lipid metabolism and tumorigenesis in ccRCC. The lipid metabolic function of GPX8 and its downstream were also measured by isotope-tracing-based DNL flux measurement. Results GPX8 knockout or downregulation substantially reduced lipid droplet levels (independent of lipid uptake), fatty acid de novo synthesis, triglyceride esterification in vitro, and tumor growth in vivo. The downstream regulator was identified as nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT): its knockdown phenocopied, and its expression rescued, GPX8 silencing both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanically, GPX8 regulated NNMT via IL6-STAT3 signaling, and blocking this axis suppressed ccRCC survival by activating AMPK. Notably, neither the GPX8-NNMT axis nor the DNL flux was affected by the von Hippel Lindau (VHL) status, the conventional regulator of ccRCC high lipid content. Conclusions Taken together, our findings unravel the roles of the VHL-independent GPX8-NNMT axis in ccRCC lipid metabolism as related to the phenotypes and growth of ccRCC, which may be targeted for therapeutic purposes. Graphical abstractThe research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program (grant NRF-2018R1A3B1052328 to S.P.) funded by the Ministry of Science, Information and Communication Technology, by Future Planning through the National Research Foundation, and by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation (NRF-2020R1I1A1A01073124 to J-M.K.) funded by the Ministry of Education of Korea

Observation of tW production in the single-lepton channel in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV

A measurement of the cross section of the associated production of a single top quark and a W boson in final states with a muon or electron and jets in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV is presented. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36 fb(-1) collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in 2016. A boosted decision tree is used to separate the tW signal from the dominant t (t) over bar background, whilst the subleading W+jets and multijet backgrounds are constrained using data-based estimates. This result is the first observation of the tW process in final states containing a muon or electron and jets, with a significance exceeding 5 standard deviations. The cross section is determined to be 89 +/- 4 (stat) +/- 12 (syst) pb, consistent with the standard model.Peer reviewe

Prediction of EOS and Elastic modulus of Ni/Al nanopowder and nanofoil by Molecular Dynamics

There are numerous studies regarding Ni/Al alloy for its extreme reactivity, which can be used for various applications, but not in the forms of nanopowder and nanofoil. Thus, we have obtained the equation of state and elastic modulus of Ni/Al alloy in those structures. We have made various model systems to check the equation of state of each material (i.e. Ni and Al) and elastic modulus at different conditions (e.g. stoichiometric ratio and nanocluster size for ???nanopowder???, layer thickness and layer frequency for ???nanofoil??? at different temperature and pressure). We employed classical Molecular Dynamics (MD) with Modified Embedded-Atom Method (MEAM) Potential, of which parameters are based on thermal and mechanical properties. Furthermore, through Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics (CGMD), the behavior of phase changes of those structures was investigated in terms of size

Synthesis of heterocyclic-fused benzofurans via C–H functionalization of flavones and coumarins

An efficient method to effect C–O cyclization was developed via the C–H functionalization of chromones and coumarins, affording heterocyclic-fused benzofurans.124281sciescopu

Synthesis of heterocyclic-fused benzopyrans via the Pd(II)-catalyzed C–H alkenylation/C–O cyclization of flavones and coumarins

An efficient and practical method for effecting a tandem C-H alkenylation/C-O cyclization has been achieved via the C-H functionalization of flavone derivatives. The synthetic utility of the one-pot sequence was demonstrated by obtaining convenient access to coumarin-annelated benzopyrans. The reaction scope for the transformation was found to be fairly broad, affording good yields of a wide range of flavone-or coumarin-fused benzopyran motifs, which are privileged structures in many biologically active compounds.113131sciescopu

Mie-Resonant Rutile TiO2 Nanospheres for Unclonable Structural Colors

Monodisperse carbon-embedded rutile TiO2 nanospheres were synthesized through the sol-gel reaction of titanium alkoxide in concert with dodecylamine and the subsequent thermal annealing process in inert gas. Since dodecylamine was uniformly carbonized in nanospheres, the growth of rutile crystals was limited to & SIM;50 nm in the thermal annealing process, which enabled us to keep the spherical shape of nanospheres. Due to the size and shape uniformity, colloidal films of these rutile TiO2 nanospheres showed unique Mie-resonant structural colors, in which multiple scattering was suppressed due to carbon embedded in nanospheres. Due to the high refractive index of rutile TiO2, there were multiple backscattering peaks in the visible region, which make it extremely difficult to replicate the colorimetric information when they were utilized as encryption inks. Finally, we demonstrated that IRreflective carbon-embedded rutile TiO2 nanospheres can be used as automotive paints, which can be distinguishable at night for light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems.11Nsciescopu

Measurement of the double-differential inclusive jet cross section in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 5.02 TeV

International audienceThe inclusive jet cross section is measured as a function of jet transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}$ and rapidity $y$. The measurement is performed using proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV, recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 27.4 pb$^{-1}$. The jets are reconstructed with the anti-$k_\mathrm{T}$ algorithm using a distance parameter of $R$ = 0.4, within the rapidity interval $\lvert y\rvert$$\lt$ 2, and across the kinematic range 0.06 $\lt$$p_\mathrm{T}$$\lt$ 1 TeV. The jet cross section is unfolded from detector to particle level using the determined jet response and resolution. The results are compared to predictions of perturbative quantum chromodynamics, calculated at both next-to-leading order and next-to-next-to-leading order. The predictions are corrected for nonperturbative effects, and presented for a variety of parton distribution functions and choices of the renormalization/factorization scales and the strong coupling $\alpha_\mathrm{S}$