Refusal speech act response: differences between South Koreans and North Korean refugees in inducing speech acts and directness

The majority of previous studies on North Korean Refugees (NKRs) focused on the linguistic heterogeneity of pronunciation and vocabulary use. Only a handful of studies examined differences between South Koreans’ (SKs) and NKRs’ language use and they concluded that NKRs prefer direct refusal speech acts rather than indirect ones. However, we hypothesized that NKRs’ preference on direct refusal speech acts would vary depending on the types of inducing speech acts; speech acts that induces refusal expressions. 47 SKs and 43 NKRs answered three questions after watching video clips of short conversation in refusal situations. The results were statistically analyzed with independent sample t-tests and multi response analyses, revealing that NKRs preference on direct refusal speech acts varied depending on the types of inducing speech act. In addition, multi response analyses indicated that the NKRs and SKs evaluated the same rejecter’s personality differently and that this difference may result in miscommunication. Lastly, NKRs’ evaluations on the refusal speech acts did not change over time, as NKRs who stayed less than a year in South Korea and those who stayed more than five years did not show significant difference in their evaluation. This result suggests that explicit education on this may be required. Additionally, it is worth to note that current research confirms that SKs and NKRs react differently toward expressions used only in North Korea, and, therefore, not only the refusal strategy, but also the refusal expression itself are both important for successful communication. Additionally, the results showed that refusing with nonavoidable and non-personal reasons were perceived more positively than personal reasons. These findings suggest that for successful communication to happen between two groups with different linguistic backgrounds, pragmatic awareness in language use is helpful

Fast Knowledge Graph Completion using Graphics Processing Units

Knowledge graphs can be used in many areas related to data semantics such as question-answering systems, knowledge based systems. However, the currently constructed knowledge graphs need to be complemented for better knowledge in terms of relations. It is called knowledge graph completion. To add new relations to the existing knowledge graph by using knowledge graph embedding models, we have to evaluate $N\times N \times R$ vector operations, where $N$ is the number of entities and $R$ is the number of relation types. It is very costly. In this paper, we provide an efficient knowledge graph completion framework on GPUs to get new relations using knowledge graph embedding vectors. In the proposed framework, we first define "transformable to a metric space" and then provide a method to transform the knowledge graph completion problem into the similarity join problem for a model which is "transformable to a metric space". After that, to efficiently process the similarity join problem, we derive formulas using the properties of a metric space. Based on the formulas, we develop a fast knowledge graph completion algorithm. Finally, we experimentally show that our framework can efficiently process the knowledge graph completion problem

Stability of wheat germ oil obtained by supercritical carbon dioxide associated with lipase ethanolysis

Wheat germ oil was extracted using an environmental friendly solvent, supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) at a semi-batch flow extraction process. The supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) extraction was carried out to extract oil at temperature of 40°C and pressure of 25 MPa. Ethanolysis was performed with 1,3-regiospecific lipase at different temperatures (40 to 70°C) to produce diglycerides and monoglycerides containing fatty acid ethyl esters. For determination of stability, wheat germ oil obtained by ethanolysis reactants was characterized by measuring the acid value, peroxide value, free fatty acid contents, thiocyanate method, DPPH radical scavenging effect and rancimat test. The optimized condition of 40°C shows the highest oil stability among the various conditions.Keywords: Supercritical carbon dioxide, wheat germ oil, ethanolysis, immobilized lipases, oil stabilityAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(22), pp. 3570-357

SIRT3 as a regulator of hepatic autophagy

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138374/1/hep29271.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138374/2/hep29271_am.pd

Assessment of Agricultural Drought Considering the Hydrological Cycle and Crop Phenology in the Korean Peninsula

Hydrological changes attributable to global warming increase the severity and frequency of droughts, which in turn affect agriculture. Hence, we proposed the Standardized Agricultural Drought Index (SADI), which is a new drought index specialized for agriculture and crops, and evaluated current and expected droughts in the Korean Peninsula. The SADI applies crop phenology to the hydrological cycle, which is a basic element that assesses drought. The SADI of rice and maize was calculated using representative hydrological variables (precipitation, evapotranspiration, and runoff) of the crop growing season. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of SADI, the three-month Standardized Precipitation Index, which is a representative drought index, and rainfed crop yield were estimated together. The performance evaluation of SADI showed that the correlation between rainfed crop yield and SADI was very high compared with that of existing drought index. The results of the assessment of drought over the past three decades provided a good indication of a major drought period and differentiated the results for crops and regions. The results of two future scenarios showed common drought risks in the western plains of North Korea. Successfully validated SADIs could be effectively applied to agricultural drought assessments in light of future climate change, and would be a good example of the water-food nexus approach

Assessment of Agricultural Drought Considering the Hydrological Cycle and Crop Phenology in the Korean Peninsula

Hydrological changes attributable to global warming increase the severity and frequency of droughts, which in turn affect agriculture. Hence, we proposed the Standardized Agricultural Drought Index (SADI), which is a new drought index specialized for agriculture and crops, and evaluated current and expected droughts in the Korean Peninsula. The SADI applies crop phenology to the hydrological cycle, which is a basic element that assesses drought. The SADI of rice and maize was calculated using representative hydrological variables (precipitation, evapotranspiration, and runoff) of the crop growing season. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of SADI, the three-month Standardized Precipitation Index, which is a representative drought index, and rainfed crop yield were estimated together. The performance evaluation of SADI showed that the correlation between rainfed crop yield and SADI was very high compared with that of existing drought index. The results of the assessment of drought over the past three decades provided a good indication of a major drought period and differentiated the results for crops and regions. The results of two future scenarios showed common drought risks in the western plains of North Korea. Successfully validated SADIs could be effectively applied to agricultural drought assessments in light of future climate change, and would be a good example of the water-food nexus approach

The Impacts of Role Overload and Role Conflict on Physicians\u27 Technology Adoption

Technology adoption is an important solution for physicians to increase work efficiency, and thus deal with role conflict among their multiple job roles. Prior studies have not investigated how multiple job roles and role conflict influence physicians’ technology adoption intentions. Based on role strain theory and role identity theory, we present a model of physicians’ technology adoption intentions to support their primary (clinical care) versus secondary (teaching or research) job roles. We test the model using surveys with 156 physicians at nine medical schools in Korea. The results of our data analysis largely support our hypotheses. Role overload in each of their job roles increases role conflict between any pair of associated roles. Furthermore, role conflict between a physician’s primary and secondary role is affected more by role overload in the secondary role than by overload in the primary role. Moreover, the impact of role conflict on technology adoption intentions is also influenced by the hierarchical relationship between two roles. This study contributes to technology adoption research by demonstrating how physicians’ job characteristics affect technology adoption

Production of Reducing Sugars from Laminaria japonica by Subcritical Water Hydrolysis

AbstractThis study was to investigate the production of reducing sugars in hydrolysates from raw and deoiled Laminaria japonica produced by subcritical water hydrolysis. Deoiled Laminaria japonica was collected by supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO2) extraction process. Experiments were performed in a batch-type reactor with stirring. It investigated that the effects of reaction temperature and acetic acid as catalyst on content of reducing sugar production. The addition of acetic acid led to an increase in content of reducing sugar. But Removal of oil in Laminaria japonica by SCO2 and increasing of temperature led to decrease in content of reducing sugar production. The highest content of reducing sugar was 814.10mg/100g raw dried sample at 200°C, adding of 1% acetic acid as catalyst