• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.307-316
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• 2010

Complex terrain refers to irregular surface properties of the earth that influence gradients in climate, lateral transfer of materials, landscape distribution in soils properties, habitat selection of organisms, and via human preferences, the patterning in development of land use. Complex terrain of mountainous areas represents ca. 20% of the Earth's terrestrial surface; and such regions provide fresh water to at least half of humankind. Most major river systems originate in such terrain, and their resources are often associated with socio-economic competition and political disputes. The goals of the TERRECO-IRTG focus on building a bridge between ecosystem understanding in complex terrain and spatial assessments of ecosystem performance with respect to derived ecosystem services. More specifically, a coordinated assessment framework will be developed from landscape to regional scale applications to quantify trade-offs and will be applied to determine how shifts in climate and land use in complex terrain influence naturally derived ecosystem services. Within the scope of TERRECO, the abiotic and biotic studies of water yield and quality, production and biodiversity, soil processing of materials and trace gas emissions in complex terrain are merged. There is a need to quantitatively understand 1) the ecosystem services derived in regions of complex terrain, 2) the process regulation occurred to maintain those services, and 3) the sensitivities defining thresholds critical in stability of these systems. The TERRECO-IRTG is dedicated to joint study of ecosystems in complex terrain from landscape to regional scales. Our objectives are to reveal the spatial patterns in driving variables of essential ecosystem processes involved in ecosystem services of complex terrain region and hence, to evaluate the resulting ecosystem services, and further to provide new tools for understanding and managing such areas.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.260-273
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• 2010

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of married Korean women regarding marriage and childbirth, and their awareness of childbirth-related issues such as low birth rates, sex preferences and sex imbalances in Korea. Methods: A total of 453 married women aged 20 or older were randomly selected from four urban districts and five rural districts out of 25 districts in Gyeongju, a consolidated city located in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, South Korea. The survey was conducted from December 2005 to February 2006. A total of 392 out of 453 questionnaires(86.5% response rate) were collected, and 44 incomplete questionnaires were excluded, leaving 348 completed questionnaires to be used for data analysis. Age was divided into three groups as below 49, 50-69, 70 or older. Results: Women's perceptions of marriage were associated with age(p<0.01). Perceptions about childbirth were also significantly related to age(p<0.01), type of residential area (p<0.01) and education level(p<0.05). Sex preferences were significantly related to age(p<0.05) and occupation(p<0.01). Of the respondents aged 49 or younger, 34.8% indicated that the ideal number of children is two, while 25.5% of respondents aged 50 to 69 and 15.3% of respondents aged 70 and 33.7% of respondents aged 70 or older considered four children to be the ideal number. Perceptions of sex imbalance were significantly related to socioeconomic status(p<0.01) and occupation(p<0.01). The largest number of respondents cited "economic burden" as the main reason for low birth rates. Multiple logistic regressions were performed for all three age groups using male sex preference as the dependent variable under the assumption that respondents can have only a single child. Socioeconomic status (p<0.01) and residential area (p<0.05) were significant variables for those aged 49 or below. Education level(p<0.05) and residential area (p<0.01) were statistically significant variables on preferring son in case of having only one child for respondents aged 50 to 69. We did not detect any significant independent variables in respondents who were 70 or older. Conclusions: Our results highlight the necessity of developing policies and public education programs to explain the consequences of low birth rates and sex imbalances in Korea. As increasing numbers of women work outside the home, it is important for the government and employers to provide social and working environments where women do not consider marriage and childbirth to be obstacles to social and business activities.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.182-194
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• 2013

Objectives: To identify and compare the health behaviors and health status of the elderly between urban and rural areas using the data of the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Methods: The study population comprised 3,823 elderly people aged 65 years or older who participated in the $4^{th}$ KNHANES (2007-2009). The areas were classified into "large cities," "cities," and "rural areas" using the administrative and residential areas. The health behaviors and health status of the elderly between the rural and urban areas were compared using a complex sample design with the Rao-Scott chi-square test and weighted multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: Compared to large cities, the odds ratios (ORs) (95% confidence interval [CI]) of rural areas were as high as 1.58 (1.25-2.01) for the influenza vaccination and as low as 0.47 (0.37-0.59) for flexibility exercises, 0.56 (0.38-0.81) for muscular exercises, and 0.76 (0.62-0.92) for obesity. The ORs (CI) for osteoarthritis and diabetes mellitus were as low as 0.81 (0.66-0.99) and 0.70 (0.55-0.89), respectively. Conclusions: The health behaviors and health status of the elderly are better in rural areas than in urban areas despite the fact that the socioeconomic conditions in rural areas are poorer that those in urban areas. These findings suggest that programs suitable for residential areas should be developed and that studies to explain the differences in residential areas are needed.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.39-51
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• 2008

The objectives of this study were to analyze the socio-economical factors related to smoking and drinking behaviors using the Korea Welfare Panel data. The key variables were sex, age, frequency of health and medical facilities visit, subjective health level, smoking level, drinking level, depression symptoms, and low income level. Since the health variables in the Welfare Panel data were limited, the analysis was exploratory. In male population of those older than 30 years old, low income group people were more likely to smoke cigarettes than the general income population. In the result of the Chi square analysis, the smoking rate showed significantly different relationships with the different age groups, gender and income level. According to the descriptive analysis, persons with low income level were more likely to experience health risk behaviors and showed more medical service utilization. The utilization of the local public health centers was 4.6% for the Bow income level and 1% for the general level. The higher smoking rate was associated with the younger age, and the lower income. The smoking rate in the age category from 20 to 29 was 23.3% for the general level and 25% for the low income level. On the other hand, the drinking rate was even higher in the general families. The rates of non use of alcohol was 36.7% in the general families and 58.4% for the low income families. For both smoking and high risk drinking issues, demographic and sociological variables such as sex, age, education levels and income levels were analyzed, and there wer significant relationships. Health risk factors were serious for males, with age groups of 20's and 30's, lower education level, and in a low income family. In general, females were more unhealthy. The rates of smoking and drinking were higher in the low income level. Even in the health and nutrition survey results in 2005, persons in the low income class were experiencing poorer health in health level or the degree of action restriction. Since the effects of the health promotion could not be measured in a short period of time, it has not been easy to create the basis for the substantial effects. Factors related to health risks needs to be continuously studied using data from diverse field.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.451-462
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• 2007

This study was conducted to investigate breakfast consumption pattern in relation to diet quality and health outcomes of Korean adults. Data are from 2001 National Health and Nutrition Survey. Dietary information of 3406 adults aged $30{\sim}49$ years and their socio-demographic characteristics, blood lipid profile, fasting blood glucose, blood pressure, anthropometric measurements were analyzed. According to the breakfast consumption of the subjects, they were classified to breakfast skippers and eaters and the eaters' breakfast staple types were defined as RICE, BREAD, NOODLES, MIXED (mixed types including several grain-based dishes), and OTHERS. The proportions of breakfast consumption patterns were 18.4% for skippers, 71.1% for RICE, 2.6% for BREAD, 1.6% for NOODLES, 4.0% for MIXED, and 2.4% for OTHERS. Breakfast skippers had lower daily nutrients intake than breakfast eaters but their health outcomes did not differ from those of eaters. Instead, men with BREAD pattern had higher blood cholesterol and women in NOODLE pattern had higher blood glucose and lower HDL cholesterol. The BREAD pattern breakfast had higher energy contribution from fat and lower nutrient densities and the subjects in BREAD pattern had higher level of household income. Men's BREAD pattern breakfast consisted more animal products than that of women. There was high probability of undernutrition among women in NOODLE pattern and their mean household income was the lowest. From these results, in Korea, breakfast staple types have different food patterns and there was need for developing healthy food patterns appropriate to each staple type. The breakfast consumption pattern had influences on nutrient adequacy of the diet and health outcomes and seemed to represent socio-economic status. These could be used in doing nutrition education in community.

• Survey Research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-32
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• 2009

This study examines the changes of income, everyday life and living condition of consumer in the aftermath of financial crisis. In this period financial crisis was the crucial factor behind various social problems such as the dissolution of families and individuals. This research explores the range and degree of impact on individuals and social groups after the financial crisis. We explore the social mobility in terns of maintaining middle class and falling into the lower class measured by middle class identification. The 60% of the middle class before the financial crisis maintained the middle class position and the rest of people left out of middle class and fell into lower class. The 60% of those who has been maintained and has just became the members of middle class were college - educated people. The great part of people whose income and assets has increased after financial crisis belongs to college - educated group. Many of those whose income have decreased belong to the high school educated group and blow, the older than 50 years old, self - employed without employee and unpaid family employee. Those whose income and assets decreased and those who experienced downward mobility have undergone changes in everyday life and living conditions as a consumer. Many of them experienced the unemployment, nonpayment or credit - delinquency, dissolution of family, worsening health condition, depression, feeling the impulse to commit suicide simultaneously. The poor consumer disposition, reduction of living expenses, sound consumer culture have expanded to people since economic crisis. The middle class reported that the cost of private education often goes beyond the family ability to pay. The lower class has suffered from the cost of living. In a meanwhile luxury goods preference, consumer consciousness for status symbol have continuously increased among all the classes since 1997. Thus fluctuations of one's income and social mobility during past 10 years were some of the major determinants which brought about the various damaging life events, changes of living conditions and everyday lives as a consumer.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.50
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• pp.235-263
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• 2002

The present study is designed to explore restructuring direction of the old-age income maintenance system and development direction of the Seniority Pension Scheme(SPS) in Korea. While the SPS is trifling scheme with tiny benefit amount and small budget, the SPS has important role that function as only public income maintenance scheme for both the low income class and the excluded from public pension and public assistance at present stage because of immature National Pension. This study starts with the research question why serious mis-matching problem between needs and resources in old-age income maintenance system occur. Thus this study explores fundamental change direction of the old-age income maintenance system which is coincide with further situation change(demography, labour market, family structure). Also this study explores desirable SPS's development direction as taking into account relation with other public old-age income maintenance system. This paper suggests basic direction of old-age income maintenance system as follows: principle of universal and individual security; principle of sustainability; principle of equity. Under general principle, this paper also proposes largely two development scenario of the SPS. The one is to maintain present transitional and provisional scheme with trying scheme's substantiality. The other is to change into permanent old-age income maintenance scheme for the excluded public pension and public assistance. At this point it is the public pension's role that the SPS's development direction is determined. If the public pension keep one pension per one earner as present system, non-contribution pension as present SPS should maintain continuously. However, if the public pension reorganize into basic pension of one pension per one person and earning-related pension, the SPS should be managed temporarily until mature of public pension. Therefore whether the public pension play basic security role for all elderly or not will determine the SPS development direction.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.163-191
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• 2017

This article aims to review the recent, especially focusing on the year of 2016, situations and prospects of the Vietnamese politics, economy, and international relations. Politically, Vietnam completed the election of members for the National Assembly and organized new leadership at the 12th National Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party in 2016. One characteristic of the new leadership is that the politicians, especially the members of politburo, from the North continue to occupy the position of majority. The other one is that the new leadership promised to carry out the restructuring of economy toward industries producing higher value-added commodities even though Vietnam industries admittedly need to accelerate present industrialization and modernization as a developing country under the seemingly contradictory slogan of "the development of market economy for socialism." The declared goals of the new leadership in Vietnam are inevitable in a sense since the development of Vietnamese economy has been heavily dependent upon Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) taking advantage of Vietnamese cheap labor and simultaneously it is evident that its future is unsecure if it maintains status quo. In fact, the Vietnamese economy has impressively showed high growth rate by the help of foreign capitals since 1990s despite the repetitive recessions of global economy but its growth is not likely to be sustainable anymore if it will not reduce foreign dependency and social economic inequality in a long term. In a short run, global economic recession, the financial and monetary policies of global powers, and recent protectionism and uncertainty of trade agreements will be three crucial variables to affect Vietnamese economy. In terms of international relations, Vietnam is continuously expected to practise the policy of checks and balances among the powerful countries. Vietnam has seriously disputed with China on islands sovereignty in the South China Sea and attempted to maintain close relationship with other powerful countries including especially America. However, mainly due to the new protectionism by the regime of American president Donald Trump, the Vietnamese government also need to keep close relationship with China increasingly for both economic and diplomatic security. Under the circumstances, Vietnam is expected to maintain more practical and balanced international relations.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.101-118
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• 2023

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the utilization rate of neighborhood parks and green spaces increased significantly, and the outbreak served as an opportunity to highlight the values and functions of neighborhood parks and green spaces for urban residents. This study aims to empirically analyze how citizens' movement and the use of neighborhood parks and green spaces changed before and after COVID-19 and examine the social and spatial characteristics that affected these changes. As a research method, first, people's mobility around neighborhood parks and green spaces before and after the COVID-19 pandemic were compared using signal data from telecommunication carriers. Through the analysis of changes in residence time and movement volume, the movement characteristics of citizens after COVID-19 and changes in walking-based park visits were examined. Second, the factors affecting the mobility change in neighborhood parks and green spaces were analyzed. The social and spatial characteristics that affect citizens' visits to neighborhood parks and green spaces before and after COVID-19 were examined through correlation and multiple regression analysis. Subsequently, through cluster analysis, the types of living areas for the post-COVID era were classified from the perspective of the supply and management of neighborhood parks and green spaces services, and directions for improving neighborhood parks and green spaces by type were presented. Major research findings are as follows: First, since the outbreak of COVID-19, activities within 500m of the residence have increased. The amount of stay and walking movement increased in both 2020 and 2021, which means that the need to review the quantitative standards and attractions of neighborhood parks and green spaces has increased considering the changed scope of the walking and living area. Second, the overall number of visits to neighborhood parks and green spaces by walking has increased since the outbreak of COVID-19. The number of visits to neighborhood parks and green spaces centered on the house and the workplace increased significantly. The park green policy in the post-COVID era should be promoted by discovering underprivileged areas, focusing on areas where residential, commercial, and business facilities are concentrated, and improving neighborhood parks and green services in quantitative and qualitative terms. Third, it was found that the higher the level of park green service, the higher the amount of walking movement. It is necessary to use indicators that contribute to improving citizens' actual park green services, such as walking accessibility, rather than looking at the criteria for securing green areas. Fourth, as a result of cluster analysis, five types of neighborhood parks and green spaces were derived in response to the post-COVID era. This suggests that it is necessary to consider the socioeconomic status and characteristics of living areas and the level of park green services required in future park green policies. This study has academic and policy significance in that it has laid the basis for establishing neighborhood parks and green spaces policy in response to the post-COVID era by using various analysis methodologies such as carrier signal data analysis, GIS analysis, and statistical analysis.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.161-170
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• 2018

The epidemic of disorders associated with synthetic stimulants, such as methamphetamine (MA) and amphetamine (AP), is a health, social, legal, and financial problem. Owing to the high potential of their abuse and addiction, reliable analytical methods are required to detect and identify MA, AP, and their metabolites in biological samples. Thus, a dilute-and-shoot liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrophotometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed for simultaneous determination of MA, 4-hydroxymethamphetamine (4HMA), AP, and 4-hydroxyamphetamine (4HA) in urine. Urine sample ($100{\mu}L$) was mixed with $50{\mu}L$ of mobile phase consisting of 0.4 % formic acid and methanol and $50{\mu}L$ of working internal-standard solution. Aliquots of $8{\mu}L$ diluted urine was injected into the LC-MS/MS system. For all analytes, chromatographic separation was performed using a C18 reversed-phase column with gradient elution and a total run time of 5 min. The identification and quantification were performed by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). Linear least-squares regression was conducted to generate a calibration curve, with $1/x^2$ as the weighting factor. The linear ranges were 2.0-200, 1.0-800, and 10-2500 ng/mL for 4HA and 4HMA, AP, and MA, respectively. The inter- and intraday precisions were within 6.6 %, whereas the inter- and intraday accuracies ranged from -14.9 to 11.3 %. The low limits of quantification were 2.0 ng/mL (4HA and 4HMA), 1.0 ng/mL (AP), and 10 ng/mL (MA). The proposed method exhibited satisfactory selectivity, dilution integrity, matrix effect, and stability, which are required for validation. Moreover, the purification efficiency of high-speed centrifugation was clearly higher than 6-15 % for QC samples (n=5), which was higher than that of the membrane-filtration method. The applicability of the proposed method was tested by forensic analysis of urine samples from drug abusers.