목적 : 본 연구는 고등학생들이 학교에서의 장애 학생과 접촉 경험이 장애인에 대한 인식 및 관심에 미치는 영향을 알아보고 또한 시각장애 체험 프로그램의 유익성 평가에 미치는 영향에 대해 조사하고자 한다. 방법 : 비장애 고등학생(176명)을 대상으로 장애인에 대한 인식과 관심, 학교생활에서 접촉 경험 등에 관 한 설문조사를 진행하였으며, 시각장애 체험 장비를 활용하여 체험 프로그램을 진행 후 장애체험 관련 설문을 추가로 실시하였다. 자료 분석을 위하여 IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0을 통한 기술통계분석, 빈도분석, 다중회귀 분석 방법을 활용하였다. 결과 : ‘장애인에 대한 인식 및 관심’과 ‘시각장애 체험 프로그램 유익성 평가’ 와 관련된 세부 항목들에서 전반적으로 긍정적인 인식을 가지고 있는 것으로 확인되었다. 응답자의 학년이 높을수록, 장애 학생과 반에서 함께 생활 경험이 있는 응답자일수록 장애인에 대한 긍정적 인식이 높은 것으로 나타났다. ‘장애인에 대한 인 식’이 긍정적일수록 장애인에 대한 관심이 높은 것을 확인하였다. 응답자의 연령과 학년이 높을수록 시각장애 체험프로그램에 대한 평가가 긍정적으로 확인되었고, 장애 학생과 반에서 함께 생활한 경험이 없는 응답자일 수록 시각장애체험 프로그램에 대한 평가가 긍정적으로 나타났다. 결론 : 비장애 학생들의 장애인에 대한 인식과 관심이 전반적으로 긍정적이였으며 시각장애인과의 접촉 경 험이 적은 학생들에게 시각장애 체험프로그램을 적용 시 장애인에 대한 인식 및 관심을 제고시키는데 도움이 된다.

Korea is facing a significant problem with historically low fertility rates, which is becoming a major social issue affecting the economy, labor force, and national security. This study analyzes the factors contributing to the regional gap in fertility rates and derives policy implications. The government and local authorities are implementing a range of policies to address the issue of low fertility. To establish an effective strategy, it is essential to identify the primary factors that contribute to regional disparities. This study identifies these factors and explores policy implications through machine learning and explainable artificial intelligence. The study also examines the influence of media and public opinion on childbirth in Korea by incorporating news and online community sentiment, as well as sentiment fear indices, as independent variables. To establish the relationship between regional fertility rates and factors, the study employs four machine learning models: multiple linear regression, XGBoost, Random Forest, and Support Vector Regression. Support Vector Regression, XGBoost, and Random Forest significantly outperform linear regression, highlighting the importance of machine learning models in explaining non-linear relationships with numerous variables. A factor analysis using SHAP is then conducted. The unemployment rate, Regional Gross Domestic Product per Capita, Women's Participation in Economic Activities, Number of Crimes Committed, Average Age of First Marriage, and Private Education Expenses significantly impact regional fertility rates. However, the degree of impact of the factors affecting fertility may vary by region, suggesting the need for policies tailored to the characteristics of each region, not just an overall ranking of factors.

A one-year-old, female, Maltese dog was presented with head tilting, horizontal nystagmus, and tetraparesis. Blindness was first identified, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning revealed diffuse lesion which was hyperintense on T2-weighted image over the cerebellum and brainstem. The immunosuppressive therapy had been administered, but the patient had no improvement. Re-performed MRI revealed the progression of the pre-existed inflammatory lesions. Treatment with prednisolone, leflunomide, cyclosporine, and cytosine arabinoside was initiated. However, neurological signs had been progressive, and the patient was euthanized. The histopathological examination revealed the disseminated granulomatous meningoencephalomyelitis (GME). This GME case suggests the importance of initiation of treatment at the appropriate time.

Liquid metal extraction (LME), a pyrometallurgical recycling method, is popular owing to its negligible environmental impact. LME mainly targets rare-earth permanent magnets having several rare-earth elements. Mg is used as a solvent metal for LME because of its selective and eminent reactivity with rare-earth elements in magnets. Several studies concerning the formation of Dy-Fe intermetallic compounds and their effects on LME using Mg exist. However, methods for reducing these compounds are unavailable. Fe reacts more strongly with B than with Dy; B addition can be a reducing method for Dy-Fe intermetallic compounds owing to the formation of Fe2B, which takes Fe from Dy-Fe intermetallic compounds. The FeB alloy is an adequate additive for the decomposition of Fe2B. To accomplish the former process, Mg must convey B to a permanent magnet during the decomposition of the FeB alloy. Here, the effect of Mg on the transfer of B from FeB to permanent magnet is observed through microstructural and phase analyses. Through microstructural and phase analysis, it is confirmed that FeB is converted to Fe2B upon B transfer, owing to Mg. Finally, the transfer effect of Mg is confirmed, and the possibility of reducing Dy-Fe intermetallic compounds during LME is suggested.

Pair trading is a statistical arbitrage investment strategy. Traditionally, cointegration has been utilized in the pair exploring step to discover a pair with a similar price movement. Recently, the clustering analysis has attracted many researchers' attention, replacing the cointegration method. This study tests a clustering-driven pair trading investment strategy in the Korean stock market. If a pair detected through clustering has a large spread during the spread exploring period, the pair is included in the portfolio for backtesting. The profitability of the clustering-driven pair trading strategies is investigated based on various profitability measures such as the distribution of returns, cumulative returns, profitability by period, and sensitivity analysis on different parameters. The backtesting results show that the pair trading investment strategy is valid in the Korean stock market. More interestingly, the clustering-driven portfolio investments show higher performance compared to benchmarks. Note that the hierarchical clustering shows the best portfolio performance.

In Korea, the daily waste production in 2015(excluding specified waste) was 404,812 tons, of which household waste accounted for 12.7%(51,247 tons/day). Total household food and vegetable waste amounted to 1,120 tons/day; of this, 70% of was ultimately used as feed or fertilizer and 30% was buried. In this study, a drying unit was developed to enable the production of solid refuse fuel using high-moisture food waste, and its performance was examined through an experiment. Thus, a laboratory pyrolysis system with a drying capacity of 500 kg/hr was manufactured. Food wastes were collected from a company cafeteria and from Changwon City and used for experiment. The drying characteristics of the food waste were examined depending on the input temperature of the drying air. The results of the food waste drying experiment showed that the total required drying time was approximately 20 hours, and the drying speed was approximately 2.90 %/hr. The drying time was five hours longer than the research target value(15 hours per batch). However, the time was approximately 16 hours when the preheating and cooling times required for the input and output were excluded, which was close to the research target value. The drying time did not show a large difference depending on the temperature of the input drying air. Drying time was 21 hours at 155℃, and thus drying operation would be possible without the use of high-temperature air(more than 200℃) when waste heat is utilized in the future. It is thought that rather than the temperature of the input air, it is the contact area between the input air and the food waste that has a significant effect on reducing the drying time.

지의류 추출물이 흰줄숲모기(Aedes albopictus)에 대하여 살충활성 및 생장 억제에 미치는 영향을 조사하였다. 2종의 지의류의 메탄올 추출물이 흰줄숲모기 3령 유충에 미치는 치사농도, 사충수, 생장억제를 알아보기 위한 실험을 진행한 결과Parmelia sp.엽상체 추출물경우 LC50농도는 0.13%로 나타났으며 Porpidia albocaerulescens의 LC50농 도는 0.45%로 나타나 Parmelia sp.의 추출물이 더 높은 살충활성을 보였다. 24h, 48h, 72h의 노출시간 따른 농도별 사충 수를 조사한 결과, 전반적으로 지의류의 메탄올 추출물이 고농도일수록, 노출시간이 길어질수록 유충의 사충 수는 증가하였다. Parmelia sp. 엽상체의 추출물에서 사육한 유충의 경우 용화시간은 대조군보다 지연되었고, 추출물의 농도가 높을수록 더 많은 시간이 지연된 것으로 보아 지의류 추출물이 흰줄숲모기 유충의 생장을 억제하는 효과가 있음을 확인하였다.

Oxide layers were formed by an environmentally friendly plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) process on AZ91 Mg alloy. PEO treatment also resulted in strong adhesion between the oxide layer and the substrate. The influence of the KF electrolytic solution and the structure, composition, microstructure, and micro-hardness properties of the oxide layer were investigated. It was found that the addition of KF instead of KOH to the Na2SiO3 electrolytic solution increased the electrical conductivity. The oxide layers were mainly composed of MgO and Mg2SiO4 phases. The oxide layers exhibited solidification particles and pancake-shaped oxide melting. The pore size and surface roughness of the oxide layer decreased considerably with an increase in the concentration of KF, while densification of the oxide layers increased. It is shown that the addition of KF to the basis electrolyte resulted in fabricating of an oxide layer with higher surface hardness and smoother surface roughness on Mg alloys by the PEO process. The uniform thickness of the oxide layer formed on the Mg alloy substrates was largely determined by the electrolytic solution with KF, which suggests that the composition of the electrolytic solution is one of the key factors controlling the uniform thickness of the oxide layer.

Samples were collected between August 2016 and May 2017 at Sangju-si, Gyeongsangbuk- do, Jeju-do, and Uljin-gun, Gangwon-do. As a result, one genus and six species were newly recorded in Korea. The unrecorded indigenous genus was Borzia, and the six species were Anagnostidinema acutissimum, Komvophoron bourrellyi, Hydrocoleum stankovicii, Borzia trilocularis, Phormidium tinctorium and Pseudanabaena lohchoides. Phormidium tinctorium and Pseudanabaena lohchoides had been reported to inhabit freshwater, but in this study, these were found in brackish water. It had also been reported that B. trilocularis trichomes are composed of up to 8 cells, but in this study, a maximum of 10 cells was observed.

Post-ejaculation of sperms into the female reproductive tract, acquisition of sperm capacitation is an essential step in the fertilization process. Accordingly, during in-vitro fertilization, the successful fertilization requires necessarily induction of capacitation in the retrieved sperms. To date, many candidate substances have been considered as capacitation inducers. However, there were no reports about the comparison of efficiency inducing sperm capacitation among diverse capacitation inducers. Therefore, we tried to determine an inducer showing the best capacitation performance in mouse sperms by comparing the preimplantation development of in-vitro-fertilized embryos using sperms experiencing capacitation by a variety of capacitation inducers. For these, calcium, progesterone, bovine serum albumin (BSA), heparin, lysophosphaticylcholine (Lyso-PC) were used as candidate capacitation inducers. Optimized concentration of each inducer were determined by accessing ratio of sperms experiencing acrosome reaction using coomassie G-250 blue staining. Subsequently, in vitro fertilization was performed using sperms incubated in each optimized concentration inducer. The ratio of fertilized oocytes was observed. As the results, Calcium at 2.7 mM and 0.3% (w/v) BSA showed the highest fertilization rates compared to 15 μM progesterone, 50 mM heparin, and 100 μM Lyso-PC. From these results, we found that 2.7 mM calcium and 0.3% (w/v) BSA were the most effective sperm capacitation inducers of mouse sperm for in vitro fertilization. From these results, we could identify that, among diverse sperm capacitation inducers, 2.7mM calcium and 0.3% (w/v) BSA were the most effective inducers for in vitro fertilization.