In Korea, nuclear regulation is supervised by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC). The area that required expertise in regulatory activities has been entrusted to the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) and the Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC) affiliated to the NSSC. Such nuclear regulatory activities should be implemented fairly and objectively because they directly affect nuclear operators and the entire nuclear industry. In addition, as the recent policy trend has flowed in the direction of improving the business efficiency and quality of public institutions, a study was intended to improve the overall regulatory quality of the institution. First, a case study was performed on the quality management system of domestic and foreign related organizations, including the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the US. Through study and analysis of the system, it was attempted to derive institutional quality requirements for KINAC and to establish a plan to use the requirements as major items of Internal Quality Control (IQC) system. By analyzing the quality management systems of research institutes such as Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) as well as regulatory authority, the characteristics of KINAC that conduct R&D necessary for regulation were reflected. Based on this study, the quality management system leading to IQC-EQA (External Quality Assurance) -TQM (Total Quality Management) will be established continuously to improve the business quality of regulatory authority.

Nuclear power plants, like other national critical infrastructures, could be under the threat of terrorism or other malicious action. Thus, a nuclear power plant has a robust security system that includes security guards, sensors, barriers, access control systems, lights, and alarm stations with security procedures. However, an effective security system is hard to design because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and there could be a vulnerable hole even in the robust security system. Thus, an effective security system requires the evaluation of all possible scenarios. Evaluation software for security system effectiveness assists in systematically assessing all the possible attack scenarios. Many countries developed security effectiveness evaluation software. The first software was developed by the U.S. Sandia National Laboratories in the 1980s. Now there are several commercially available software packages with a function to simulate limited-scope combat between security guards and attacking enemies. However, academic communication is comparatively weak because it may contain sensitive information on the vulnerability of nuclear power plants. We developed original software called Tools for Evaluating Security Systems (TESS) to identify the most vulnerable path to the designated target and model the security systems of all South Korean nuclear power plants. We also used commercial security effectiveness evaluation software, AVERT, to model the same nuclear power plants. TESS was developed to verify the results of commercial security effectiveness evaluation software for the purpose of regulatory use. For the feasibility test, we compared the results of two software with those of force-on-force (FoF) exercises in nuclear power plants. According to the relevant Act, every nuclear power plant site should perform the FoF exercises every year. KINAC was in charge of evaluating the FoF exercise and used several of its results for the study. In the results, even in some differences in detail, the two software and FoF exercises showed qualitative similarity. Conclusively, evaluation software is a useful tool to design and/or assess the security systems of nuclear power plants. We modeled the security systems of all South Korean nuclear power plants, and compared the developed software, a commercial software and FoF exercises. The results showed qualitative similarity. We provided the results of evaluation to nuclear operators for the better security of nuclear power plants.

It is still questionable if the Nuclear Damage Compensation Act can be applied to security accidents on nuclear facilities caused by hacking or drone attacks. If the Act is applied, the nuclear operator shall be liable for compensation for the damage even if there is no negligence, and no other person shall be liable. If it is not, victims must prove the negligence of nuclear operators and not only nuclear operators but also suppliers must be responsible. According to Article 5 of this Act, a nuclear operator cannot operate a reactor before signing liability insurance contract or a compensation contract or depositing in order to compensate for nuclear damage. The liability insurance contract includes the hacking accident, but it is not applied to drone attacks since only hacking accident is included in design basis accidents. However, Article 2 of this Act defines a nuclear accident as an event that may cause nuclear damage so it can be said that the ‘event’ includes intentional attacks. Article 3 stipulates that nuclear operators are not liable for compensation for damages caused by armed conflicts, hostile acts between countries, or civil war or rebellion. Therefore, if nuclear power plant is attacked by missiles from North Korea, the nuclear operator is not liable for compensation. And, it can be interpreted that the nuclear operator is liable for compensation for damages caused by actions of a third party that do not fall under this category. According to the Act on Indemnity Agreement For Nuclear Damage Compensation, nuclear damage caused during normal operation is included in the scope of compensation, but damage caused by actions of third parties is excluded. In the end, damage caused by actions of third parties is included in the scope of nuclear damage, but not included in the loss compensated by the government. According to the Act on Physical Protection, the Nuclear Safety & Security Commission is required to establish a design basis threat that is the standard for designing and evaluating physical protection systems. Therefore, it is reasonable to include the contents of design basis threats in liability insurance, or to apply the principle of no negligence liability and focus of responsibility to protect victims, if not.

Protected agriculture has great potential for the vegetable industry in the Philippines as it allows the application of modern cultivation techniques to mitigate adverse weather conditions and enable farmers to manage pests and diseases efficiently. Thus, to address the increasing demand for food in the Philippines, one strategy to increase vegetable production which is tested and/or proven is through the intensified use of protective structures. This review describes the magnitude and potential of agriculture in the Philippines, focusing on the protected cultivation of horticultural crops. The Philippines is far behind in greenhouse technologies compared to other Asian countries where thousands to millions of hectares are used for protected vegetable cultivation. Several studies have investigated the economic viability and applicability of low- and high-cost protective structures in typhoon-prone countries such as the Philippines, demonstrating that protective structures are feasible and profitable. Also, the impact of protected cultivation as compared to the open field has resulted in significantly higher yield and better quality of produce. Hence, the Philippine government with the assistance of the Republic of Korea agreed to improve the country’s flagging vegetable industry and endeavor to attain the status of a food-secure country through the establishment of smart greenhouse technologies. Overall, despite the limitations due to the high cost of electricity and construction protected cultivation facilities including required technologies provide greater advantages for seasonal and off-seasonal vegetable crop production compared to that in the open field. Moreover, such technology can be applied to various geographical locations such as plains, hills, deserts, rural, and urban areas.

Chlorine dioxide (ClO2) has recently emerged as an ideal disinfectant and has shown a wide range of antimicrobial activities in various pathogenic microorganisms. In this study, the virucidal effect of ClO2 at low concentration (0.02 ppm) and higher concentration (0.06 – 0.09 ppm) against Adenovirus and Herpesvirus was evaluated based on the NF T 72-281 and ASTM 1053-11 standard methods at different exposure times. The virus suspension was dried onto the carrier and then exposed to gaseous ClO2 (gClO2) at 22 ± 2∘C. For Adenovirus, exposure at a low concentration of ClO2 at the middle height resulted in the average log10 reduction of 0.95, 2.65, and 5.30 after 1, 3, and 6 h post-exposure (pe), respectively. Moreover, more than 4-log10 reduction was achieved at 4 and 6 h pe with higher concentrations of ClO2. On the other hand, the antiviral activity of gClO2 at the middle height was also effective against Herpesvirus. In particular, at 1 h pe, a less than 4-log10 reduction was observed at all examined concentrations of ClO2, whereas exposure for 3 and 6 h (with low concentration) or 2 h (with higher concentration) inactivated completely viruses attached to the carrier. These results suggested that ClO2 fumigation is a potential alternative method for disinfecting healthcare facilities, high-containment laboratories, and households with a safe concentration for human health.

The purpose of this paper was to introduce positive psychology, to the fields of SLA and English education in Korea. Positive psychology investigates how people flourish and seeks the virtues and strengths of humans. It focuses on the factors enabling people and their communities to thrive, instead of focusing on psychological disorders and abnormalities, longstanding issues of general psychology. Its three main research topics include positive emotions, traits, and institutions, all of which have relevance to SLA and L2 education. This paper examined how these topics have been approached in SLA. Much attention has focused on positive emotions, particularly, enjoyment, which has gained momentum in recent years with publications. Empirical studies of the impacts of positive emotions on L2 learning were reviewed with discussion of enjoyment. The paper concludes by discussing directions for future research, applying positive psychology to Korean EFL contexts.

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a bioactive lipid messenger involved in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammation and various diseases. Recent studies have shown an association between periodontitis and neuroinflammatory diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and multiple sclerosis. However, the mechanistic relationship between periodontitis and neuroinflammatory diseases remains unclear. The current study found that lysophosphatidic acid receptors 1 (LPAR1) and 6 (LPAR6) exhibited increased expression in primary microglia and astrocytes. The primary astrocytes were then treated using medium conditioned to mimic periodontitis through addition of Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharides, and an increased nitric oxide (NO) production was observed. Application of conditioned medium from human periodontal ligament stem cells with or without LPAR1 knockdown showed a decrease in the production of NO and expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase and interleukin 1 beta. These findings may contribute to our understanding of the mechanistic link between periodontitis and neuroinflammatory diseases.