Evaluation and Implications of Greenhouse Gas and Energy Targert Management System in Korea

The Korean government has been implementing the Greenhouse Gas and Energy Target Management System towards big emitters and energy glutton entities, based on the Framework Act on Low Carbon, Green Growth since 2010. The Target Management System is a tool for smoother transition to the Emissions Trading Scheme which is set to start in 2015, and offers the opportunity for covered entities to reduce greenhouse gases. The GHG emission and energy consumption levels of controlled entities was reported to the government for the first time in late March of 2013, for the first year that the policy was implemented in 2012. This study focuses on the controlled entities of the power and industry sector, which account for 97% of all covered entities, by analyzing their submitted GHG emissions and energy consumption records and evaluating implementation performance as well as suggesting institutional improvements and complementary measures. Based on analysis of performance results, GHG emissions were effectively reduced by an excess of 7.6%, and energy consumption by an excess of 4.3%, showing the effectiveness of the Target Management System in reducing GHG emissions and energy consumption. Among sub-sectors, the machinery industry is shown to have the highest target accomplishment rate, whereas the elecrticity sub-sector could not meet reduction goals as a result of frequent shutdown of nuclear power plants in 2012. Analysis of performance result according to the big company group and the small and medium company group shows that the big company group shows an average reduction ratio of GHG and energy usage, respectively, of 0.1168 and 0.0344. These numbers were satisfactory compared to the reduction ratios of small and medium companies of -0.0910 and -0.1627, showing that in order to successfully implement the Target Management System, the government must offer its financial and technical support to the small and medium companies. Keywords: Greenhoese Gas, Energy, Target Management System, Achievement Ratio, GEAR inde

Electrochemical detection of mismatched DNA using a MutS probe

A direct and label-free electrochemical biosensor for the detection of the protein–mismatched DNA interaction was designed using immobilized N-terminal histidine tagged Escherichia coli. MutS on a Ni-NTA coated Au electrode. General electrochemical methods, cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) and impedance spectroscopy, were used to ascertain the binding affinity of mismatched DNAs to the MutS probe. The direct results of CV and impedance clearly reveal that the interaction of MutS with the CC heteroduplex was much stronger than that with AT homoduplex, which was not differentiated in previous results (GT > CT > CC ≈ AT) of a gel mobility shift assay. The EQCM technique was also able to quantitatively analyze MutS affinity to heteroduplexes

After Montesquieu: the possibility of republican liberty in a world without virtue

This thesis reassesses the political thought of three 18th-century political thinkers—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (1709-1785), and John Adams (1735-1826). Despite their differences, I argue that each should be read as deeply engaged with and responding to the analysis of republican government offered in The Spirit of the Laws (1748), by Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu. This engagement prompted each author to develop new ways of thinking about the possibility of free government in the modern world. Montesquieu was notoriously pessimistic about the prospects for republican government in modern, commercial societies. He had argued that republican government would require a strict regime of civic education, as well as restrictions on luxury and foreign trade. These features made republican government impossibly difficult to achieve, as well as unattractive, in his day. However, for the authors on which this thesis focuses, Montesquieu had issued not a fatal blow but a challenge worth taking up. Recognizing that there was a genuine problem in realizing republicanism in the large, unequal states of 18th-century Europe, they did not simply demand a return to the past, nor did they assume an optimistic future in which progress and enlightenment would secure the conditions for free government. In the shadow of Montesquieu, a cautiously hopeful republican discourse emerged. Through this re-reading of Rousseau, Mably and Adams this thesis challenges a widespread characterisation of 18th-century republicans as nostalgic for a bygone era and thus as unable to theorize in response to the demands of the modern world. At least for the republicans explored here—which includes Rousseau and Mably, two of the figures most often condemned for such nostalgia—it was clear that the civic virtue and equality of the ancients was no longer possible. They accepted Montesquieu’s view that the absence of such virtue posed a threat to republican politics. This thesis argues that we should nonetheless read these authors as attempting to find what I call sites of republican possibility. For Rousseau, this included locating unexpected contexts—such as stereotypically ‘weaker’ and less wealthy nations—in which cultivating virtue and solidarity was more realistic than attempting to engage in commercial competition with other nations. In the large monarchies of Europe, Mably argued that the privileges of the nobles could be leveraged to start a ‘revolution’ that would bring liberty to the people. He acknowledged that such large European nations would not be able to withdraw from international commerce altogether, but he proposed ways to limit it in such a way as to protect the well-being of the average citizen. Even as other republicans came to believe that moral and material progress, as well as the end of hereditary distinctions would create a natural habitat for republican government in Europe, the thinkers I examine argued that commercial society could produce distinctions and inequalities that were just as detrimental to republican politics. Mably and Adams were derided by their contemporaries for being overly pessimistic, but they in fact presciently diagnosed the problem that material inequality posed in formally equal societies. For Adams, however, this correct diagnosis was combined with an overwhelming sense of doubt about the possibility of limiting such inequality. This meant that compared to Rousseau and Mably, he espoused diminished republican ambitions. By returning to these allegedly outdated republicans, we can see that they revealed a very real problem: to put it in the language of the thinkers I investigate, that there was a potential tension between the imperatives of commerce and those of republicanism. This tension remains alive today. It may be useful, then, to return to those who in some sense anticipated the challenges we face today in protecting our republican democracies

Are own-vehicle images necessary for E-mirrors? Effects of own-vehicle images on driving performance, safety, gazing behavior, and preference

Department of Biomedical Engineering (Human Factors Engineering)clos

The role of nutritional status in the relationship between diabetes and health-related quality of life

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The association between nutritional status and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is not fully understood. This study was conducted to understand the role of nutritional status on HRQoL among people with and without T2DM. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Structured survey and direct measurement of anthropometric data were conducted among people with and without T2DM. Nutritional status was measured with Mini Nutritional Assessment tool and HRQoL was measured with a 36-item Short Form Healthy Survey. Data collection was conducted in Chuncheon, South Korea with 756 participants who are older than 40 yrs of age. RESULTS: This study found that overall HRQoL were significantly lower in people with T2DM than people without T2DM after controlling for key covariates. When stratified by nutritional status, a greater degree of negative impact of T2DM on overall physical HRQoL was observed among well-nourished or at risk of malnutrition, whereas significant and more evident negative impact of diabetes on overall psychological HRQoL was observed only among malnourished. CONCLUSIONS: The study results suggest the role of nutritional status among people with T2DM on overall, especially psychological aspects of HRQoL. Future longitudinal or intervention studies are warranted to test the impact of nutritional status on HRQoL among people with T2DM

Enhanced Thermopower of Saturated Molecules by Noncovalent Anchor-Induced Electron Doping of Single-Layer Graphene Electrode

Enhancing thermopower is a key goal in organic and molecular thermoelectrics. Herein, it is shown that introducing noncovalent contact with a single-layer graphene (SLG) electrode improves the thermopower of saturated molecules as compared to the traditional gold-thiolate covalent contact. Thermoelectric junction measurements with a liquid-metal technique reveal that the value of Seebeck coefficient in large-area junctions based on n-alkylamine self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on SLG is increased up to fivefold compared to the analogous junction based on n-alkanethiolate SAMs on gold. Experiments with Raman spectroscopy and field-effect transistor analysis indicate that such enhancements benefit from the creation of new in-gap states and electron doping through noncovalent interaction between the amine anchor and the SLG electrode, which leads to a reduced energy offset between the Fermi level and the transport channel. This work demonstrates that control of interfacial bonding nature in molecular junctions improves the Seebeck effect in saturated molecules.

Thermoresponse of Odd-Even Effect in Self-Assembled Monolayers

This paper examines thermoresponse of odd-even effect in self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of n-alkanethiolates (SCn, n = 3 – 18) formed on template-stripped gold (AuTS) using macro- and microscopic analytical techniques, contact angle goniometry (CAG) and vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy, respectively. Both CAG and VSFG analyses showed that the odd-even effect in liquid-like SAMs (n = 3 – 9) disappeared upon heating at 50 – 70 °C, indicating that the heating led to increased structural disorder regardless of odd and even carbon numbers. In contrast, the opposite thermoresponse was observed for odd and even SCn molecules in wax- and solid-like SAMs (n = 10 – 18). Namely, temperature-dependent orientational change of terminal CH3 relative to the surface normal was opposite for the odd and even molecules, thereby leading to mitigated odd-even effect. Our work offers important insights into thermoresponse of supramolecular structure in condensed organic matter

Thermoresponse of Odd-Even Effect in n-Alkanethiolate Self-Assembled Monolayers on Gold Substrates

This study examines thermoresponse of odd-even effect in self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of n-alkanethiolates (SCn, n=3-18) formed on template-stripped gold (Au-TS) using macro- and microscopic analytical techniques, contact angle goniometry (CAG) and vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy, respectively. Both CAG and VSFG analyses showed that the odd-even effect in liquid-like SAMs (n=3-9) disappeared upon heating at 50-70 degrees C, indicating that the heating led to increased structural disorder regardless of odd and even carbon numbers. In contrast, the opposite thermoresponse was observed for odd and even SCn molecules in wax- and solid-like SAMs (n=10-18). Namely, temperature-dependent orientational change of terminal CH3 relative to the surface normal was opposite for the odd and even molecules, thereby leading to mitigated odd-even effect. Our work offers important insights into thermoresponse of supramolecular structure in condensed organic matter.11Nsciescopu