Regional source apportionment of PM2.5 in Seoul using Bayesian multivariate receptor model

Seoul, the capital city of Korea with over 10 million residents, has been experiencing serious air pollution problems. Previous studies on source apportionment of PM2.5 in Seoul are based on measurements of chemical compositions of PM2.5 from a single monitoring site. In this paper, we analyse PM2.5 concentration data collected from multiple sites in 24 districts of Seoul and estimate regional source profiles using Bayesian multivariate receptor model. The regional source profiles provide information for the identification of major PM2.5 sources as well as the regions relatively more seriously affected by each source than other regions. These regional characteristics relevant to PM2.5 can help establish effective, customised, region-specific PM2.5 control strategies for each region rather than general strategies that apply to every region of Seoul.     

反思韩国儒家文化的当代表现

受中国文化的影响和自身选择及发展之需,韩国形成了一个比中国还要典型的儒家文化社会。从20世纪60年代开始,韩国加快了现代化进程,在政治、经济、文化等方面取得了较大进步,这其中必然有儒家思想的积极因素在起作用。但韩国对儒家思想从来没有彻底予以反思。从古至今,韩国社会不仅注重形式和拘泥于名分,而且受儒家观念影响强化了韩国人的家国意识和集体意识,过分强调血缘、地缘、学缘,极度强化男尊女卑的理念等等。这些因素都不利于当代多元化社会的健康发展,并成为韩国进入名副其实的先进国家的障碍。最近,中国社会出现了儒家文化复兴热潮,对于这种儒学热,我们应该理性看待,要吸取历史的教训,有选择地继承。     

Disability discrimination in South Korea: routine and everyday aggressions toward disabled people

In the past, the type of discrimination against persons with disabilities in South Korea was seen mainly as being related to the physical environment and social systems that ignored disability. However, the emergence of social model and anti-discrimination laws established in numerous countries has rapidly expanded the scope of social participation for persons with disabilities as well as their awareness of their rights. This article posits that a type of disability discrimination that could emerge in the future is microaggression, which can appear in diverse forms in newly formed human relationships as the scope of social participation increases.     

The transplant odyssey.

A research nurse in the University of Pittsburgh liver transplant service shares experiences that have fueled her own doubts about transplantation.     

Constructing Transnational Identities without Leaving Home: Korean Immigrant Women's Cognitive Border-crossing

Literature on contemporary immigrants suggests that increasing volume of transnational practices foster identity construction across borders, thereby disjoining geographical space and social space in which identities are constructed and negotiated. While studies pay increasing attention to the linkage between transnational organizing of economic and political activities and that of identities, relatively less attention has been given to transnational identity construction of immigrant groups without high level of transnationalism. This essay documents the identity dynamics among less mobile immigrants, who, albeit their immobility, negotiate their identities transnationally by way of various identity practices to imagine themselves as members of multiple communities across national and cultural boundaries. Based on thirty in-depth interviews with first generation Korean immigrant women, the author examines mechanisms of identity organizing which simultaneously indicate a gradual adaptation to the U.S. society and resistance to assimilation.     

A Methodology for More Efficient Tail Area Sampling with Discrete Probability Distributions

Monte Carlo Method is commonly used to observe the overall distribution and to determine the lower or upper bound value in statistical approach when direct analytical calculation is unavailable. However, this method would not be efficient if the tail area of a distribution is concerned. A new method, entitled Two-Step Tail Area Sampling, is developed, which uses the assumption of discrete probability distribution and samples only the tail area without distorting the overall distribution. This method uses a two-step sampling procedure. First, sampling at points separated by large intervals is done and second, sampling at points separated by small intervals is done with some check points determined at first-step sampling. Comparison with Monte Carlo Method shows that the results obtained from the new method converge to analytic value faster than Monte Carlo Method if the numbers of calculation of both methods are the same. This new method is applied to DNBR (Departure from Nucleate Boiling Ratio) prediction problem in design of the pressurized light water nuclear reactor.