• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.147-152
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• 2008

Objectives : Fluoridation of drinking water is known to decrease dental caries, particularly in children. However, the effects of fluoridated water on bone over several decades are still in controversy. To assess the risk of hip fracture related to water fluoridation, we evaluated the hip fracture-related hospitalizations of the elderly between a fluoridated city and non-fluoridated cities in Korea. Methods : Cheongju as a fluoridated area and Chungju, Chuncheon, Suwon, Wonju as non-fluoridated areas were chosen for the study. We established a database of hip fracture hospitalization episode based on the claims data submitted to the Health Insurance Review Agency from January 1995 to December 2002. The hip fracture hospitalization episodes that satisfied the conditions were those that occurred in patients over 65 years old, the injuries had a hip fracture code (ICD-9 820, ICD-10 S72) and the patients were hospitalized for at least 7days. A total of 80,558 cases of hip fracture hospitalization episodes were analyzed. Results : The admission rates for hip fracture increased with the age of the men and women in both a fluoridated city and the non-fluoridated cities (p<0.01). The relative risk of hip fracture increased significantly both for men and women as their age increased. However, any difference in the hip fracture admission rates was not consistently observed between the fluoridated city and the non-fluoridated cities. Conclusions : We cannot conclude that fluoridation of drinking water increases the risk of hip fracture in the elderly.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2007

This study was carried out to investigate the cadmium level in blood by age, gender, and smoking status among 162 elderly subjects in Gyeongnam Province from September 2006 to February 2007. The cadmium level in blood was analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Subjects were classified according to smoking status and divided into smokers and non-smokers, smoking duration, daily smoking habits, age, and gender. Mean blood cadmium levels in male and female were $0.70{\pm}0.41{\mu}g/dL$ and $0.57{\pm}0.32{\mu}g/dL$ respectively, with no significant differences between the two groups. Cadmium levels in the blood of smokers and non-smokers were $0.57{\pm}0.32{\mu}g/dL$, $0.90{\pm}0.44{\mu}g/dL$ respectively, with the cadmium level of smokers being significantly higher than that of non-smokers. In comparison by age, cadmium levels in the blood of subjects over the age 70 years and over the age 80 years were $0.91{\pm}0.44{\mu}g/dL$, $1.02{\pm}0.39{\mu}g/dL$ respectively, showing a significantly higher blood cadmium level than that of non-smokers. when compared by the amount of daily cigarette consumption, there were no significant differences in the blood cadmium level between groups. However when compared by smoking duration, the blood cadmium level for the group of smoking duration of over 10 years was $1.15{\pm}0.38{\mu}g/dL$, significantly higher than $0.67{\pm}0.31{\mu}g/dL$ for the group of smoking duration of less than 10 years. In conclusion, longer smoking duration and older aged group showed higher cadmium level in blood. For more reliable results, further study of the elements that elevate the cadmium level in blood with more subjects and study variables will be needed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2013.10a
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• pp.747-749
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• 2013

Aging our country is facing now is seeking qualitative and quantitative expansion of social welfare services. In particular, the rapid increase in the aging population is an urgent need to resolve the problems of inducing demand for medical care and various welfare related to the elderly, In addition, IT technology in Korea is improving daily, in particular, fields of ubiquitous have been studied actively. In this paper, U-Health Care System model technology for the elderly were studied. Existing residential and senior living environment dedicated to the Care system for the fusion of design, and content designed around the ubiquitous technology that combines the old Care system was studied. Existing community-based model that combines technology and IT systems and mobile elderly Care services in conjunction with other devices by providing an application, the existing Care and medical needs will be able to solve the problems.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.270-275
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• 2019

The incidence of degenerative valve disease also increasing with the increasing life expectancy of the elderly population. Rheumatic valve disease is decreasing gradually and the incidence of calcified degenerative aortic stenosis (AS) is growing. Echocardiography is a very important tool for evaluating the prognosis and treatment method as well as the time of operation and diagnosis of heart valve disease. When evaluating valvular heart disease, 2-dimensional echocardiography, which observes all heart valves in detail, should take precedence. Understanding the clinical findings of degenerative valve disease and performing precise echocardiography are extremely important. In addition, an assessment of the severity of aortic stenosis is necessary to determine the surgical indications. An assessment of the severity by echocardiography was explained with three cases of degenerative aortic stenosis. To perform echocardiography accurately, it is necessary to understand degenerative valve disease and its clinical findings accurately.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.39-46
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• 2024

In this paper, we propose a low-cost wearable device that can monitor the health status of the elderly living alone in real-time. As aging is accelerating, the elderly population is rapidly increasing, and the social isolation of the elderly living alone is causing physical and mental difficulties and the number of elderly people dying alone is increasing, becoming a social problem. In this study, we propose a belly band-type wearable device that can monitor the biometric information of elderly living alone. The proposed device transmits electromyogram, electrocardiogram, and body temperature information to a remote server through an Arduino-based sensor built into the abdominal band. Transmitted information can be monitored in a web environment in real-time, and it has the feature of enabling remote monitoring of a large number of subjects with a small amount of management manpower. The research results will contribute to improving the safety and welfare of seniors living alone by not only detecting lonely deaths in advance but also responding immediately to dangerous situations that may occur in daily life.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.166-175
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• 2015

Nowadays, in the European countries, landscape is spoken of its importance as often as environment, by those who are engaged in such fields as politics, administration, research and civil society. In Korea, while recognizing such an international trend, academics and administrators have made a series of efforts to reflect landscape concept on a variety of policies. However, it is recognized that the effects of these policies have not been satisfactory. Under these circumstances, this paper aims to examine the complex values and multiple meanings in the landscape, which have been discussed by landscape experts in the European countries. Then, it aims to the explore the future direction of policy and research on the landscape to be pursued in Korea, where there is relatively less interest in the issues of landscape. It is argued that landscape should be approached and understood from a holistic perspective, because it is a very complex concept with multiple meanings that have been coined differently depending on the situation. All the academic fields, involved in the landscape research, should try in co-operation to develop the comprehensive approach rather than the inter- and multi-disciplinary approach to the landscape study. In Korea, moreover, it is also necessary in the legislation to recognize the fact that degradation and retreat in the quality of landscape would make a negative effect on the quality of human daily life. Natural and cultural heritages contained in the rural landscape are also now in danger of disappearing. These heritages, therefore, should become an important subject for research and policy on landscape before the countryside is completely evacuated after the aging population die out. To make this happen, it is very urgent that evaluation and classification of landscape character should be undertaken from the holistic perspective, which is equipped with a methodology overcoming as well as encompassing the boundaries of academic fields. It is also equally very urgent that education on landscape should be provided to the politicians, citizens and students as well as the officials dealing with landscape matters. Finally, government should strive to make the landscape concept penetrate deeply as well as widely into the spatial planning and legislation process while designing and implementing a comprehensive landscape policy at the national level.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.31-65
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• 2012

We study the sustainability of the current fiscal policy of Korea, and the effects of the social welfare policy expansion, which has been recently discussed among the political circles, on the government budget and the generational equity, using generational accounting. We follow the generational accounting approach, considering the fact that most of the social welfare policies are the entitlement programs, which imposes the limitation of the policy maker's discretion to control the cost of their provision. The social welfare expenditure will change due to the change in the policy environments of the future, such as population aging. Therefore, we need to take into account the government cash flow of the future as well as of the present to investigate its effects on the fiscal sustainability, which implies that the national debt or the budget balance is not a proper index for the investigation. Our findings are as follows. The current fiscal policies are not sustainable, and the long-term budgetary imbalance is shown very serious. The required tax adjustment, which is defined as the percentage change of tax burden required to attain the long-term budgetary balance, is very large. Unless the level of the government expenditure is properly controlled, the tax burden and the social contribution level will rise to the untolerable level. Moreover, the expansion of the social welfare policies, which has been discussed among the political circles, will substantially increase the fiscal burden of the future generations. Even though the provision of the free lunch to the primary and the secondary school students, the free child care, and the discounted college tuition do not increase the fiscal burden much, because their magnitude at present is not large and will decrease due to the decrease in the number of the newborns and the students resulting from the fall in the fertility rate, that of the free health care service will increase tax burden of the future generations very much, because the magnitude of the government expenditure needed at present is very large and the population aging will further increase the magnitude of the health care expenditure. The findings indicate that the structural reforms, to prevent the explosive increase in the social welfare expenditure in the future, are necessary before the implementation of the welfare policy expansion. In particular, the cost control of the social transfers to the elderly needs to be made, because the speed of the population aging of Korea is among the highest in the world. The findings also indicate that the budget balance or the national debt can cause the fiscal illusion, which makes the Korean government budget look sound, even though the fiscal policy will rapidly increase the social welfare expenditure in the future, as the population ages. The generational accounting, which takes into account the cash flow of the future as well as of the present, unlike the budgetary balance and the national debt, which shows the results of the government financial activities of the past and the present, is a useful method to overcome the fiscal illusion.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.865-871
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• 2022

Tenebrio molitor larvae is well known as edible insect. Then, although it has been widely studied that Tenebrio molitor larvae has various bioactive functions such as antioxidant, anti-wrinkle, and anticancer. Nevertheless, antioxidant effects of Tenebrio molitor larvae water extract (TMH) has not been well described in Adult Retina Pigment Epithelial cell line (ARPE-19). In this study, we demonstrated that antioxidant effects of TMH against H₂O₂-induced oxidative stress in ARPE-19. Thus, we selected for our studies and performed a series of dose-response assay to determine the working concentration that lead to a consistent and high degree of cytotoxicity, which we defined as the level of H₂O₂ that killed 40% of the ARPE-19 cells. ARPE-19 cells were pre-treated with various concentrations of TMH (0.1 up to 2 mg/ml) before exposure to 300 µM H₂O₂. As we expected, TMH effectively prevented ARPE-19 cells from 300 µM H₂O₂-induced cell death in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, TMH inhibited the phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) such as extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and p38. Overall, the inhibitory effects of TMH on H₂O₂-induced apoptosis and oxidative stress were associated with the protection cleaved caspase-3, Bax, Bcl-2, and HO-1. The TMH suppressed H₂O₂-induced cell membrane leakage and oxidative stress in ARPE-19 cells. Thus, these results suggest that the TMH plays an important role in antioxidant effect in ARPE-19.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.1216-1221
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• 2022

Ships tend to be larger to increase the efficiency of cargo transportation. Larger ships lead to increased travel time for ship workers, increased work intensity, and reduced work efficiency. Problems such as increased work intensity are reducing the influx of young people into labor, along with the phenomenon of avoidance of high intensity labor by the younger generation. In addition, the rapid aging of the population and decrease in the young labor force aggravate the labor shortage problem in the maritime industry. To overcome this, the maritime industry has recently introduced technologies such as an intelligent production design platform and a smart production operation management system, and a smart autonomous logistics system in one of these technologies. The smart autonomous logistics system is a technology that delivers various goods using intelligent mobile robots, and enables the robot to drive itself by using sensors such as lidar and camera. Therefore, in this paper, it was checked whether the mobile robot could autonomously drive to the stop sign by detecting the passage way of the ship deck. The autonomous driving was performed by detecting the passage way of the ship deck through the camera mounted on the mobile robot based on the data learned through Nvidia's End-to-end learning. The mobile robot was stopped by checking the stop sign using SSD MobileNetV2. The experiment was repeated five times in which the mobile robot autonomously drives to the stop sign without deviation from the ship deck passage way at a distance of about 70m. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that the mobile robot was driven without deviation from passage way. If the smart autonomous logistics system to which this result is applied is used in the marine industry, it is thought that the stability, reduction of labor force, and work efficiency will be improved when workers work.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.13
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• pp.383-402
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• 2007

World security market has continuously been growing since the 2000s. The growth rate seems to reach up to 7-8% annually. What is more, Korea is expected to be one of the most rapidly developing markets, Based of this view, this research investigates the principal drivers to have affected on the expansion of Korean security market over the past 20 years. In addition to that, this study also examines the influence of recent changes in the world economy and globalization, socio-demographic change, development of information technology on the future security market. The data reviewed in this study are official crime rates, socio-economic indicators, statistics from the National Police Agency and the business reports of a leading private security company. This study shows that several factors such as rising crime rates, lack of police capacities, national economic growth and rising household income have played important roles in development of Korean market. It is also expected to keep those positive affects on the future market. On the other side, in recent years, the security market seems to be increasingly affected by new social economic changes. Those are impact of last aging society, rapid increase of individual household and women's participation in labor market. These factors seem to increase personal and household needs for security service. World economy, globalization process and development of information technology are also deemed to give rise to social demands for surveillance, monitoring service and security in cyber space.