Islamophobia in South Korea with a focus on Muslim migrants

Much academic research has analyzed the issue of Islamophobia and how Muslims are often represented in a negative or stereotypical way in Western countries. There is little research focusing on this phenomenon in East Asia, and specifically, in South Korea. This thesis attempts to fill this gap by shedding light on this particular topic in South Korea, in explaining why Islamophobic attitudes were particularly pervasive among certain sectors including right wing politicians and Protestants in the country between 2014 and 2016. Despite the visible presence of a Muslim minority since the 1990s in South Korea a decade before 9/11, the debate that Muslims could be a potential security or cultural threat and thus should be assimilated into the relatively homogenous Korean society has prevailed. This case study is important because Islamophobic sentiments, such as negative perceptions and prejudices against Islam and Muslims, have recently spread in the South Korean society affecting the Muslim minority in the aftermath of 9/11, and following an incident where Korean citizens were kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2007. This phenomenon has been further fueled by a series of interconnected terror attacks throughout the world mainly conducted or inspired by ISIS since 2014. The research for this thesis is based on an in-depth discourse analysis of the roots of Islamophobic discourse in South Korea with special reference to securitization theory, which posits that the analysis of issues through the frame of security contributes to the creation of hostile public discourse and places national interests above other issues like tolerance and acceptance. It also investigates how security and political discourses regarding Muslims have been formulated, followed by an analysis of the social discourse, media coverage, and online discourse. This thesis deals with online discourse by exploring the nature of Islamophobic attitudes via a case study on Twitter and the religious discourse by looking in detail at Christian-Muslim relations

Dynamical mean-field theory of Hubbard-Holstein model at half-filling: Zero temperature metal-insulator and insulator-insulator transitions

We study the Hubbard-Holstein model, which includes both the electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions characterized by $U$ and $g$, respectively, employing the dynamical mean-field theory combined with Wilson's numerical renormalization group technique. A zero temperature phase diagram of metal-insulator and insulator-insulator transitions at half-filling is mapped out which exhibits the interplay between $U$ and $g$. As $U$ ($g$) is increased, a metal to Mott-Hubbard insulator (bipolaron insulator) transition occurs, and the two insulating states are distinct and can not be adiabatically connected. The nature of and transitions between the three states are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Nitrogen doping of carbon nanoelectrodes for enhanced control of DNA translocation dynamics

Controlling the dynamics of DNA translocation is a central issue in the emerging nanopore-based DNA sequencing. To address the potential of heteroatom doping of carbon nanostructures to achieve this goal, herein we carry out atomistic molecular dynamics simulations for single-stranded DNAs translocating between two pristine or doped carbon nanotube (CNT) electrodes. Specifically, we consider the substitutional nitrogen doping of capped CNT (capCNT) electrodes and perform two types of molecular dynamics simulations for the entrapped and translocating single-stranded DNAs. We find that the substitutional nitrogen doping of capCNTs stabilizes the edge-on nucleobase configurations rather than the original face-on ones and slows down the DNA translocation speed by establishing hydrogen bonds between the N dopant atoms and nucleobases. Due to the enhanced interactions between DNAs and N-doped capCNTs, the duration time of nucleobases within the nanogap was extended by up to ~ 290 % and the fluctuation of the nucleobases was reduced by up to ~ 70 %. Given the possibility to be combined with extrinsic light or gate voltage modulation methods, the current work demonstrates that the substitutional nitrogen doping is a promising direction for the control of DNA translocation dynamics through a nanopore or nanogap based of carbon nanomaterials.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

The impact of IT vendor to firm’s IT outsourcing

This study seeks to better understand the impact of IT vendor to firm’s IT outsourcing in Korea. Using the event study methodology, we empirically analyze the impact of IT vendor in Korea. IT vendors’ characteristics (such as services with asset specificity, size, and nationality) that may affect the success of IT outsourcing are considered. We find that IT outsourcing announcements significantly increase firms’ market value in Korea. In terms of IT vendors’ characteristics, our study find that IT outsourcing announcements with large vendors are statistically significant while with small vendors are not. We also find that the market response to Korean IT vendor is significantly greater than to foreign vendor. However, unlike the US, the difference between IT outsourcing for high asset-specific service and for low asset-specific service is not found

Design and Implementation of Security OS: A Case Study

The importance of a security operating system (OS) with security-enhancing mechanisms at the kernel level, such as a reference monitor and a cryptographic file system, has been increasingly emphasized as the weaknesses and limitation of mechanisms at the user level have been revealed. However, when a system has only a reference monitor, the system is vulnerable to a low-level detour or a physical attack. In addition, when a system has only a cryptographic file system, the file system has a difficulty in protecting itself. To address these problems, we designed and developed a security OS with a reference monitor, a cryptographic file system, authentication limitation, and session limitation. Here we describe the model, its implementation, and its overheads