• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.111-124
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• 2016

Purpose: The current study was conducted for evaluation and comparison of dietary behavior and food intake in different regions of Lao PDR. Methods: The survey was conducted on 979 people aged 40~59 years old living in 25 urban provinces and 25 rural provinces in four districts (VTE Capital-Chanthabuly, Xaysetha, VTE Province-Phonhong, and Thoulakhom) of Laos. General demographic information, health status, and dietary behavior were surveyed using a questionnaire. Results: The literacy ratio (p = 0.000), education level (p = 0.000), asset ownership level (p = 0.000), and government and private employee ratio (p = 0.000) were higher in urban subjects compared with rural subjects. The mean value of weight (p = 0.000), waist circumference (p = 0.000), and diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.009) and alcohol consumption (p = 0.000), self-rated health status (p = 0.001), and the rate of obesity (p = 0.000) were significantly higher in urban subjects compared with rural subjects. However, the rate of current smoker was significantly higher in the rural group (p = 0.023). Meals are becoming more westernized by higher frequency of eating out, consumption of fatty meat and fried or stir-fried food in urban areas compared to rural areas. Urban subjects had relatively better balanced meals compared to rural subjects whereas they consumed insufficient meals per day and consumed meals irregularly compared to rural subjects. Intake of fruit and milk was significantly higher in urban subjects compared with rural subjects. However, the intake of vegetables was significantly higher in rural areas than urban areas. Conclusion: The result of this study showed that the traditional Lao diet is being replaced by an unhealthy western dietary pattern, which may be a risk factor for increasing development of non-communicable disease (NCD) in Lao PDR. Planning of proper personalized nutritional intervention and education in each area is needed to decrease the health risks of NCD.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2019

Urban green spaces have been contributing to the improvement of environmental, mental, and physical health for humans. In addition, recent studies showed the potential role of vegetation in reducing the amount of crime in inner-city neighborhoods at the micro-scale level. However, little is known about the positive role of urban green areas in improving urban safety at the regional level. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between urban green areas and actual outdoor crime rates, while also considering socio-demographic factors. The study area is the city of Austin, Texas, USA, which consists of 506 block groups. This study utilized socio-demographic factors based on U.S. Census data and vegetation-related factors utilizing GIS and ENVI software. For analyses, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and an ordinary least square (OLS) regression were utilized. The results from ANOVA showed that yearly crime rates per acre for areas having 0%~25% trees in their neighborhoods were 0.46% and 1.05% higher than those of having 25%~50% and >50% trees in the neighborhoods, respectively. The results from the OLS regression represented that income, NDVI and park rates in neighborhoods were negatively associated with the crime rate per acre, whereas the percentage of minorities and the percentage of teenage school dropouts were positively associated with the crime rate per acre. This study implies that urban green areas may help to improve the safety of urban areas.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.266-266
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• 2012

오늘날 도시는 인간 중심적으로 환경을 고려하지 않은 채 개발위주의 발전이 계속되고 있으며 도시화가 진행됨에 따라 도심지에 콘크리트와 아스팔트의 비율이 증가하고 농경지와 녹지가 감소하는 등 도시주변의 피복 변화가 빠르게 일어나고 있다. 이와 같이 열 환경을 고려하지 않은 도시의 급성장은 각종 인공 열과 대기오염 물질의 증가와 함께 도시상공의 기온을 상승시켜 도시의 기온이 주변 지역보다 높아지는 열섬현상의 원인이 되고 있다. 이에 따라 최근 미국, 유럽 등의 선진국을 비롯하여 아시아지역에서도 도시열섬현상 대책수립이 활발히 진행되어오고 있으며 국내에서도 열섬완화 대책 수립의 중요성이 인식되고 있다. 그러나 자연토지피복은 농경지, 나지, 수면과 같은 다양한 종류의 피복으로 구성되며 각 피복특성에 따라 도시내부에 영향을 미치는 정도가 다르게 나타나므로 도시계획에 반영될 수 있는 자연피복의 종류와 피복비율의 적정조합을 도출할 필요가 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 청주시를 대상으로 농경지를 포함하는 녹지의 감소, 공업단지의 증가에 따른 열 환경 영향을 분석하기 위하여 청주시의 연도별 토지피복 분포 현황과 과거 기상자료를 통해 토지피복 분포변화에 따른 온도 변화를 조사하였다. 토지피복은 농경지, 녹지, 주거지, 공업 단지 및 수역으로 분류하였으며, 대상지역의 기후 특성 파악을 위하여 청주시 총 면적에 대한 면적비율의 증감추이와 그에 따른 온도 변화를 정량적으로 파악하였다. 그 결과, 청주시는 녹지의 경우 정체 또는 감소추세를 나타낸 반면 공업단지는 지속적인 증가추세를 나타내었다.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.61-73
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• 2019

Urban development and densification have led to the Urban Heat Island Effect, in which the temperature of urban space is higher than the surrounding areas, and the intensity is increasing with climate change. In addition, when the city's air temperature rises in summer, low-income, elderly population, and socially vulnerable people who have health problems lack the ability to cope with the elevated heat environment. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the urban heat island area of Seoul through Hotspot analysis, which is a spatial statistics technique, and explored physical environments, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of urban heat island effect areas using logistic regression models. This study performed urban heat island hotspot analysis using the average air temperatures of the 423 administrative dongs in Seoul. Analysis results identified that the urban heat islands were concentrated in Jung-gu, Jongno-gu, Yongsan-gu, and Yeongdeungpo-gu. Logistic regression analysis results indicated that urban heat island areas of Seoul were affected by residential floor area ratio, commercial facility floor area ratio, overall floor area ratio, impervious surface ratio, and normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI). In addition, as a result of analyzing the vulnerable area of thermal environment considering the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the heat island area, urban heat island areas of Seoul were significantly associated with the proportion of low-income elderly living alone. The result of this study provided useful insights for urban thermal environmental design and policy development that could improve the thermal environment for the socially disadvantaged urban population.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.85-100
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• 2017

The study tries to shed empirical light on the relation between the concentration of population in the primary city and per capita economic growth of the country, using the data for 113 nations over the period, 2000-2010. The concentration of population is measured in two ways, the ratio of the primary city's population to the total and to the second city. Using the ratio of the primary city's population to that of the entire nation, the empirical results neither show the robust negative relations nor the reverse U relation between primary city's concentration and economic growth. The ratio of the primary city to the second city however turns out to have a negative relation to per capita GDP growth. This result implies economic growth of a nation can be enhanced by decreasing the gap between the primary and the second ranked cities and does not support the reverse U hypothesis by Handerson(1974, 2003).

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.233-246
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• 2013

This paper investigates both the spatial patterns of aging population and its formal regional structure in 2010. The results are as follows: first, aging index shows high values in remote mountainous and coastal regions while showing relatively low values in Capital Region and large provincial cities. Aging index has low negative correlation with such variables as population increasing rate, ratio of youth population, ratio of apartments, and ratio of newly built housing. However, aging index shows high positive correlation with variables including ratio of single unit house, ratio of aged peoples' house ownerships, ratio of welfare recipients, ratio of old housing, and number of public healthcare facilities. Secondly, four factors are identified from factor analysis including aging factor, welfare factor, economic vitality factor, and new town factor. The aging level of a region is negatively related to the strong level of those factors. Thirdly, cluster analysis results in four different types of formal regions including rural mountainous coastal type, rural non-capital region type, large metropolitan type, and provincial industrial city type.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.84-92
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• 2019

The deterioration of the urban heat environment due to climate change and the occurrence of heat-related diseases have emerged as one of the major social problems. This has led to more research on climate change, including heat waves, but it is mainly focused on climate factors. However, the urban heat island phenomenon accelerates the summer heat wave, and the increasing trend of heat-related patients in urban areas suggests the impact of the city's environment. Thus, this study analyzed the effects of physical and social characteristics of urban areas on heat-related patients in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. The analysis showed that the ratio of the total area of residential, commercial and industrial facilities, the main source of heat energy locality, among the land use statuses, was not statistically significant, but the road area and the green area were found to have a positive and negative The population density and the percentage of people aged 65 or older, the percentage of people living alone and the proportion of people receiving basic living were all shown to be significant, with only the ratio of elderly living alone and the ratio of population density having negative effects. The results of the study can be used to develop urban policy alternatives related to local warming patients.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.64-65
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• 1994

우리나라는 수도 서울에서 전국 인구의 25% 이상이 모여있다. 서울이라는 하나의 핵에 인구 뿐만 아니라 정치, 경제, 문화, 정보, 교육기능 등이 몰려있다. 다른 선진국의 경우 인구순위 1위인 도시의 비율이 일본은 6.6%, 프랑스는 4.0% 독일은 5.5%, 미국은 2.9%, 이태리는 5.0%에 불과하다. 이는 이들 나라에서는 도시가 균형있게 발달해 국토상의 도시배치가 다핵화 상태로 되어 있음을 입증하고 있다. 서울이라는 하나의 핵에 인구뿐만 아니라 모든 기능이 집중화돼 있는 우리나라 선진국의 균형있는 도시발전과 도시 다핵화 사례들은 우리에게 많은 것을 던져준다. 그들의 치밀한 도시계획과 노력, 중장기적 안목의 산물인 도시 다핵화는 국가경제를 이끌어 가는 또 하나의 원동력이다.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.317-323
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• 2012

Fragmented urban forests, as green islands within urban area, are the primary habitats for a vast number of different organisms inhabiting large cities. The areas of the urban forests are usually small, and hence, the proportion of the forest edge is relatively high. It is therefore expected that overall butterfly diversity may be lower than that of suburban or rural forests, and that those of grassland species, forest edge species, and generalist species with a wider niche breadth may be richer. Butterflies were surveyed weekly by the line transact method in order to characterize the butterfly community of the Hongneung Forest, a fragmented urban forest in Seoul. Butterfly richness of the study forest is much lower than those of main forests around or in Seoul. Grassland species, forest edge species, and generalist species were found to be richer, which was in agreement with the expected patterns of urban butterfly communities. Also, an endangered species, Spindasis takanonis, was observed in the Hongneung Forest, showing that urban forests play important roles for conservation of rare species.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.205-217
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• 2005

Purpose: To evaluate the factors affecting hospital utilization for respiratory diseases by ecological study design and GIS tool. To raise the social concern for respiratory disease by the result. Methods: Hospital admission data supported by national health insurance cooperation were transformed to spread sheet data format and combined with air monitoring dataset. Air pollution data were collected from the annual report of air monitoring published by Korea Ministry of Environment. Socioeconomic statistics including population density, age distribution, forest ratio etc.. were filed using Korea National Statistical Office database. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to evaluate the factors affecting hospital utilization for respiratory diseases. Analytical unit was 52 cities. Results: The factors affecting hospital utilization for respiratory diseases were the proportion of population 60 years and over, seaside city, $O_3$ level, smoking rate. Conclusions: However, outdoor pollutants monitoring data and smoking rate have weakness in reflecting individual exposure. Further research is required to propose more illustrative means to evaluate causal relationship between air pollution and respiratory health effect factors.