The need for high-performance environmental remediation has increased due to the environment’s ongoing degradation in the form of significant growth in industrialization and urbanization. Therefore, the toxic heavy metals can easily enter into environmental as well as foods and thus the search of clean water for drinking, household and irrigation purposes is of crucial importance. To meet this challenge, microelectrodes are flexible, low-cost and easier for fabrication has become the strong role in the detection of heavy metals with high sensitivity towards higher adsorption of heavy metals from contaminated water. To improve the sensitivity of the microelectrodes, carbon-based microelectrodes decorated with nanomaterials have been explored for the detection of metal ions thereby their presence in trace levels can be estimated. The aim of the present review is to summarize the recent developments in carbon-based microelectrodes for the electrochemical determination of heavy metals. It is followed by the various nanomaterials decorated on the carbon microelectrodes for detection of heavy metals was systematically discussed. Finally, the application and the future perspectives in the development of smart electrochemical sensing is provided. This short review will provide the useful information for the recent development in microelectrodes and also guide the pathway for the detection of heavy metals.

Emotion AI, a subset of AI that measures, understands, responds to, and elicits human emotions, is an emerging area that has great potential for advertising research and practice. Studies on the applicability of emotion AI in advertising and marketing have been growing in academic journals. This rapidly burgeoning scholarship creates a need for advertising scholars to comprehend the current status of the research on emotion AI in advertising as well as opportunities and challenges that this new technological development will bring to. Thus, this study aims to offer an overview of research on emotion AI in advertising to identify the scope of existing research, gaps in knowledge, and opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

There is no doubt that the BRICS countries established in 2000-01, have already made their mark on the international stage. Increasing relations among BRICS countries with less developed nations through south-south cooperation, especially, China, India, and Russia and with least developed countries are of significant importance. BRICS has been the forerunner of cooperation, collaboration and reformation of the present international governance structure and to move towards multilateralism. Over the years, BRICS has become a platform of, and for the developing countries. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has created divisions in the world, impacting diplomatic relations that BRICS needs to address. The fact that Russia is the member of BRICS makes things complicated and new challenges has emerged for the bloc to take necessary actions and policy considerations. The article examines the challenges and opportunities for BRICS (as a bloc) amid Russia-Ukraine conflict in a post pandemic world.

The advance of information technology with governmental support allows researchers to utilize big data to conduct rigorous rehabilitation-related studies in both the United States and Korea. While big data research has been actively conducted in the United States, few Korean rehabilitation scientists currently conduct big data research. In this paper, we discuss the existing rehabilitation-related big data in Korea and introduce the current big data research trends in the United States. In addition, we provide potential research areas by discussing the previous big data studies in the United States, including 1) functional outcomes, 2) geographical variation, 3) linkage of a population-based cohort to hospital data, 4) cross-national comparison, and 5) scale development. We also discuss various statistical methods required in big data research and compare how these methods differ compared to the traditional research methods in rehabilitation research. Lastly, we discuss the importance of workforce development in rehabilitation-related big data research. We hope this paper will provide occupational therapy scientists and clinicians with practical and useful information about big data research and accelerate big data rehabilitation research communities in Korea.

The concept of deep borehole disposal (DBD) for high-level nuclear wastes has been around for about 40 years. Now, the Department of Energy (DOE) in the United States (U.S.) is re-examining this concept through recent studies at Sandia National Laboratory and a field test. With DBD, nuclear waste will be emplaced in boreholes at depths of 3 to 5 km in crystalline basement rocks. Thinking is that these settings will provide nearly intact rock and fluid density stratification, which together should act as a robust geologic barrier, requiring only minimal performance from the engineered components. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) has raised concerns that the deep subsurface is more complicated, leading to science, engineering, and safety issues. However, given time and resources, DBD will evolve substantially in the ability to drill deep holes and make measurements there. A leap forward in technology for drilling could lead to other exciting geological applications. Possible innovations might include deep robotic mining, deep energy production, or crustal sequestration of CO2, and new ideas for nuclear waste disposal. Novel technologies could be explored by Korean geologists through simple proof-of-concept experiments and technology demonstrations.

Halal literally means “permissible” in Arabic. The global Halal industry output value amounted to USD 3.2 trillion of which industry accounted for 35%. Chinese Halal food market is approximately USD 21.2 billion, and shares about 3% of the world’s Halal food market. About 24.4 million live in China of which 13.4 million reside in Xinjiang Weiwuer Autonomous Region while 2.5 million live in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Out of all countries that belong to the “One Belt One Road” (i.e. New Silk Road Economic Belt) project, 27 are Muslim countries. In addition, 65% of the 1.8. billion global Muslim population spread out along the Belt. If we can develop proper technologies accustomed to locals in China, select profitable export items, and conduct effective marketing strategies such as story-telling method, entering the Chinese Halal market may become realistic. Fundamentally, China is close to Korea in multiple ways which can be seen in our policy, economy, culture, etc. China highly favors the “Hallyu” Image that Korea is spreading all over Asia. “High-value-added organic products promoted by Hallyu” might be plausible to target the Chinese Halal market. This is a niche market for Korean organic food products from clean and fresh forests in Korea, which can be exported to China, and labelled with Hallyu brand as well as Halal certification.

The relevance of gender equality to the development process underscores the need for creating opportunities for girls and women to have access to all levels of education – primary, secondary and tertiary. Women require formal education for self and national development. Since Nigeria has a significant population of girls and women, it is imperative that their education is given a pride of place. This paper examines the policies that have been made to promote the education of girls and women at the three levels of education (basic, post-basic and tertiary) in Nigeria, and the situation of girl-child and women’s education in the country. The paper also discusses the challenges confronting education of girls and women, such as high number of out-of-school children caused by child labor practices, early marriage and teenage pregnancy; inadequate female participation rates in higher education; etc. Some actions that could be taken to address the challenges are recommended. These include equalizing access to quality education, provision of welfare support for pupils/students, the establishment of an open school system, enforcing laws on compulsory school attendance at the basic education level, economic empowerment of women, and the promotion of science and technological education among women.

Chinese university internationalization is confronted with opportunities and challenges in the aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crisis. This study discusses the opportunities faced by China’s university internationalization after the 2008 Financial Crisis, such as the opportunities to attract more international students, increase student and faculty exchanges, redesign curriculums, and encourage cooperation between Chinese universities and top foreign universities. This study analyzes some of the challenges of Chinese universities such as how to enroll more international students and recruit more top-level global talent.

In this knowledge based society, the debate on ICT has permanently shifted from ʻwhyʼ ICT for development, to ʻhowʼ comprehensive and holistic ICT policies can unleash human potential and enhance peopleʼs capabilities to improve their lives. Recognizing this untapped potential and development strategies incorporating ICT are being increasingly promoted and launched across the developing countries. While the potential advantages of ICT for development are enormous in developed countries, national policies of developing countries are yet to adequately reflect truly comprehensive and integrated strategies for harnessing and exploiting this potential. This paper presents an analysis of National ICT policy of Bangladesh. Through the examination of ICT policy, in particular in the field of agriculture and rural development and analysis of applied policies and strategies implemented in these area, this paper identifies challenges and opportunities which provides lessons for policy-makers and practitioners involved in the field. This analysis reveals that the policy is inadequate to impact positively on the agriculture and rural development of Bangladesh. The policy places little emphasis on the integration and infusion of ICT in the countryʼs agriculture and rural development. Policy implications and suggestions are offered to ensure maximum use of ICT potentials in the countryʼs agriculture and rural development.

“Learner engagement” in higher educ ation is a challenging goal, even more so as we consider designing for, and supp orting, lifelong learners online. Learning organizations, from traditional to cybersystems, are tempted to look for universal plans and strategies that promise specific and guaranteed outcomes for students. While there are some universal strategies worth considering that support online learner engagement, we must also familiarize our selves with diverse sociocultural contexts of lifelong learning and about the effect of “engagement” as an explicit conceptual framework for developing online learning environments. As we work to further devel op online learner engagement, we must also consider the impact of interactions between and among instructional designers, subject matter experts, instructors, learners, the broader community, and the learning institution. These interactions in culturally -based, dynamic communities of learning and practice shift instructional design away from the purely predictable towards engaged learning. In this discussion paper, originally pre sented as a conference paper for the e-Lea rning Asia Conference 2009, we contrast institutional and sociocultural (global) responses to lifelong learning in the online environment, share Canadian approaches to engaged learning and instructional design, and reflect upon key questions about the development of engaged learning opport unities for online learners.

In the process of China’s modernization of social and economic development, China has gradually expanded the scope of foreign trade, especially the deepening of economic and trade cooperation with South Korea, and the steady growth of bilateral trade and investment. However, during this period, it will be affected by internal and external factors, leading to the increasing trade deficit between China and South Korea. The frequent occurrence of trade friction has caused a serious impact on the economic and trade development of China and South Korea. Therefore, in the actual work, it is necessary to respond flexibly to the challenges, meet the opportunities and adopt scientific countermeasures according to the development status of Sino-South Korea economic and trade cooperation, so as to promote the continuous progress of the two countries’ economic and trade.

RCEP, through its unique rules of origin accumulation, promotes mutual tariff concessions between Korea and China, reduces trade production costs, and will further promote the negotiation of the Korea-China FTA. Focusing on the post-epidemic era, South Korea and China should strengthen the consensus on economic and trade cooperation and use the higher standard and more comprehensive RCEP agreement to achieve a mutually beneficial and win-win situation. The industrial supply chain between South Korea and South Korea is the result of the spontaneous formation of the market, mutual benefit and win-win results. Third-party markets such as the Far East can better cooperate to provide impetus for the economic development of the two countries and the recovery of the world economy.