• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.364-388
• /
• 1995

Even though rarely recognized as a separate approach, the institutional approach in geography is defined as an attempt to seek an explanation of the phenomena of geographical interest through focusing on the effects of institutional structure and actions. It can provide interdisciplinary links with other works and can offer complementary explanations for geographical interests. The concerns for institutions in geography can be found in early studies, the study of the state, the managerial approach, and the regulation approach. The Korean financial systems can provide good examples to apply institutional concepts into creating spatial outcomes, as it has been regarded as a useful tool to promote Korean economic development. Behind the current spatial pattern of financial systems, four different stages of institutional changes are identified in Korea. Each stage has different institutional features reflecting unique spatial implication.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.75-111
• /
• 2020

The civilian drone world has evolved in recent years from one dominated by hobbyists to growing involvement by companies seeking to profit from unmanned flight in everything from infrastructure inspections to drone deliveries that are already subject to regulations. Drone flight under the property right relation with the land owner would be deemed legal on the condition that expeditious and innocent passage of drone flight over the land be assured. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) enshrines the concept of innocent passage through a coastal state's territorial sea. Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal state. A vessel in innocent passage may traverse the coastal state's territorial sea continuously and expeditiously, not stopping or anchoring except in force majeure situations. However, the disturbances caused by drone flight may be removed, which is defined as infringement against the constitutional interest of personal rights. For example, aggressive infringement against privacy and personal freedom may be committed by drone more easily than ever before, and than other means. The cost-benefit analysis, however, has been recognjzed as effective criteria regarding the removal of disturbances or injunction decision. Applying that analysis, the civil action against such infringement may not find suitable basis for making a good case. Because the removal of such infringement through civil actions may result in only the deletion of journal article. The injunction of drone flight before taking the information would not be obtainable through civil action, Therefore, more detailed and meticulous regulation and criteria in public law domain may be preferable than civil action, at present time. It may be suitable for legal stability and drone industry to set up the detailed public regulations restricting the free flight of drone capable of acquiring visual information amounting to the infrigement against the right of personal information security.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.135-151
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine the work environments of dental hygienists, to find out about what problems there were with their work environments and ultimately to help improve their work environments. It's basically intended to pave the way for furthering the welfare and interests of dental hygienists. The subjects in this study were dental hygienists who were selected by random sampling from among the members of Korean Dental Hygienists Association. Approximately 20 percent of the members each were selected from every region across the nation, and their work environments were investigated in consideration of the kind of their workplaces, service area, career and field of duties. As for the demographic characteristics of the dental hygienists investigated, there were differences between those who worked in the field of health care and the clinical workers. More of the former were older and married, and the former was ahead of the latter in career and education as well. Regarding working hours and leave of absence by kind of workplace, the number of regular average holidays was different according to their place of employment. Dental hospitals(6.66 days) and dental clinics(6.81 days) gave their employees less days off on the whole, whereas public dental clinics(19.29 days) granted the dental hygienists the longest leave of absence. Also, there was a broad gap in the number of regular average holidays among different regions in the nation. The dental hygienists who worked in Gangweon province enjoyed the longest holidays(10.88 days), while those on Jeju Island took the shortest vacation(4.46 days). Concerning monthly mean pay by place of employment, those who worked in public dental clinics were paid the best, and the dental hospital employees received the smallest pay. Their monthly mean pay significantly varied with the kind of their workplaces. As to connections between service area and pay level in the event of the dental hygienists with a four-year career, those who served in Seoul were paid the best(1,820,800 won), followed by Gyeonggi province(1,795,800 won), Gyeongsang province(1,604,200 won), metropolitan cities(1,424,800), Gangweon province(1,300,000 won) and Jeolla province(1,016,700 won). In regard to the starting pay in the different areas, the starting pay was largest in Seoul(1,501,800 won) and smallest in Jeolla province(904,000 won). Concerning work environments by place of employment, the dental hygienists in public dental clinics, general hospitals and university hospitals were far older than the others, and the career of the former was much larger than that of the latter. As to the number of regular leave of absence, public dental clinics, general hospitals and university hospitals were different from dental hospitals and clinics in that regard as well. Concerning monthly pay, public dental clinics paid their employees the best, and dental hospitals and clinics were ahead in terms of pay raise. But the reason seemed that public dental clinics and general hospitals increased the pay of their employees based on a fixed wage system and according to a fixed rate at the same time. As for relations between career and work environments, the pay of the dental hygienists differed with their career. The amount and rate of pay raise were largest for those whose career was between four years and less than six years, and smallest for those whose career was between seven years and less than nine years. The above-mentioned findings of the study suggested that in order to give dental hygienists better treatment, pay and welfare benefits should urgently be improved, and that it's required to take actions to boost their job satisfaction. Besides, they should be given more chances to receive education or to take training courses in pursuit of self-development, and how to narrow gaps in work environments among different regions or fields should carefully be considered.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.273-275
• /
• 2017

It has been forty years since the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Korea. Following the 1977 legislature mandating medical insurance for employees and dependents in firms with more than 500 employees, South Korea expanded its health insurance to urban residents in 1989. Resultantly, total expenses of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) have greatly increased from 4.5 billion won in 1977 to 50.89 trillion won in 2016. With multiple insurers merging into the NHI system in 2000, a single-payer healthcare system emerged, along with separation policy of prescribing and dispensing. Following such reform, an emerging financial crisis required injections from the National Health Promotion Fund. Forty years following the introduction of the NHI system, both praise and criticism have been drawn. In just 12 years, the NHI achieved the fastest health population coverage in the world. Current medical expenditure is not high relative to the rest of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The quality of acute care in Korea is one of the best in the world. There is no sign of delayed diagnosis and/or treatment for most diseases. However, the NHI has been under-insured, requiring high-levels of out-of-pocket money from patients and often causing catastrophic medical expenses. Furthermore, the current environmental circumstances of the NHI are threatening its sustainability. Low birth rate decline, as well as slow economic growth, will make sustainment of the current healthcare system difficult in the near future. An aging population will increase the amount of medical expenditure required, especially with the baby-boomer generation of those born between 1955 and 1965. Meanwhile, there is always the problem of unification for the Korean Peninsula, and what role the health insurance system will have to play when it occurs. In the presidential election, health insurance is a main issue; however, there is greater focus on expansion and expenditure than revenue. Many aspects of Korea's NHI system (1977) were modeled after the German (1883) and Japanese (1922) systems. Such systems were created during an era where infections disease control was most urgent and thus, in the current non-communicable disease (NCD) era, must be redesigned. The Korean system, which is already forty years old, must be redesigned completely. Although health insurance benefit expansion is necessary, financial measures, as well as moral hazard control measures, must also be considered. Ultimately, there are three aspects that we must consider when attempting redesign of the system. First, the health security system must be reformed. NHI and Medical Aid must be amalgamated into one system for increased effectiveness and efficiency of the system. Within the single insurer system of the NHI must be an internal market for maximum efficiency. The NHIS must be separated into regions so that regional organizers have greater responsibility over their actions. Although insurance must continue to be imposed nationally, risk-adjustment must be distributed regionally and assessed by different regional systems. Second, as a solution for the decreasing flow of insurance revenue, low premium level must be increased to an appropriate level. Likewise, the national reserve fund (No. 36, National Health Insurance Act) must be enlarged for re-unification preparation. Third, there must be revolutionary reform of benefit package. The current system built a focus on communicable diseases which is inappropriate in this NCD era. Medical benefits must not be one-time events but provide chronic disease management. Chronic care models, accountable care organization, patient-centered medical homes, and other systems that introduce various benefit packages for beneficiaries must be implemented. The reimbursement system of medical costs should be introduced to various systems for different types of care, as is the case with part C (Medicare Advantage Program) of America's Medicare system that substitutes part A and part B. Pay for performance must be expanded so that there is not only improvement in quality of care but also medical costs. Moreover, beneficiaries of the NHI system must be aware of the amount of their expenditure through a deductible payment system so that spending can be profiled and monitored. The Moon Jae-in Government has announced its plans to expand the NHI system; however, it is important that a discussion forum is created so that more accurate analysis of the NHI, its environments, and current status of health care system, can take place for reforming NHI.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.11-21
• /
• 2015

As growing interest in Human-Computer Interaction(HCI), research on HCI has been actively conducted. Also with that, research on Natural User Interface/Natural User eXperience(NUI/NUX) that uses user's gesture and voice has been actively conducted. In case of NUI/NUX, it needs recognition algorithm such as gesture recognition or voice recognition. However these recognition algorithms have weakness because their implementation is complex and a lot of time are needed in training because they have to go through steps including preprocessing, normalization, feature extraction. Recently, Kinect is launched by Microsoft as NUI/NUX development tool which attracts people's attention, and studies using Kinect has been conducted. The authors of this paper implemented hand-mouse interface with outstanding intuitiveness using the physical features of a user in a previous study. However, there are weaknesses such as unnatural movement of mouse and low accuracy of mouse functions. In this study, we designed and implemented a hand mouse interface which introduce a new concept called 'Virtual monitor' extracting user's physical features through Kinect in real-time. Virtual monitor means virtual space that can be controlled by hand mouse. It is possible that the coordinate on virtual monitor is accurately mapped onto the coordinate on real monitor. Hand-mouse interface based on virtual monitor concept maintains outstanding intuitiveness that is strength of the previous study and enhance accuracy of mouse functions. Further, we increased accuracy of the interface by recognizing user's unnecessary actions using his concentration indicator from his encephalogram(EEG) data. In order to evaluate intuitiveness and accuracy of the interface, we experimented it for 50 people from 10s to 50s. As the result of intuitiveness experiment, 84% of subjects learned how to use it within 1 minute. Also, as the result of accuracy experiment, accuracy of mouse functions (drag(80.4%), click(80%), double-click(76.7%)) is shown. The intuitiveness and accuracy of the proposed hand-mouse interface is checked through experiment, this is expected to be a good example of the interface for controlling the system by hand in the future.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.760-771
• /
• 2012

Marine triterpene glycosides are physiologically active natural compounds isolated from sea cucumbers(holothurians). It was demonstrated that they have a wide range of biological activities, including antifungal, cytotoxic, and antitumor effects. A previous study showed that stichoposide C (STC) isolated from Thelenota anax induces apoptosis through generation of ceramide by activation of acid sphingomyelinase (SMase) and neutral SMase in human leukemia cells. In this study, we investigated whether STD, a structural analog of STC, can induce apoptosis and examined the molecular mechanisms for its activity. It was found that STC and STD induce apoptosis in a dose- and time-dependent manner and lead to the activation of caspase-8, mitochondrial damage, activation of caspase-9, and activation of caspase-3 in K562 and HL-60 cells. STC activates acid SMase and neutral SMase, which results in the generation of ceramide. Specific inhibition of acid SMase or neutral SMase partially blocked STC-induced apoptosis, but not STD-induced apoptosis. In contrast, STD generates ceramide through the activation of ceramide synthase. Specific inhibition of ceramide synthase partially blocked STD-induced apoptosis, but not STC-induced apoptosis. Moreover, STC and STD markedly reduced tumor growth of HL-60 xenograft tumors and increased ceramide generation in vivo. These results indicate that STC and STD can induce apoptosis and have antitumor activity through the different molecular mechanisms, because they have a different sugar residue attached to aglycones. Thus, these results suggest that their actions are affected by a sugar residue attached to aglycones and they can be used as anticancer agents in the treatment of leukemia.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.648-655
• /
• 2018

Enhancement mechanistic actions of testosterone (TS) productions in mouse Leydig TM3 cells by the eritadenine (EA) and/or the Agaricus blazei mycelial liquid culture extract (ABMLCE). Productions of TS in TM3 cells were investigated in normal and oxidative-stressed culture conditions. In the normal culture condition, TM3 cells grown in a Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM) were treated with EA (0~100 ppm) and ABMLCE (10 ppm) + EA (0~50 ppm) for 24 hr, and in the oxidative-stressed culture condition, the cells grown in DMEM containing $50{\mu}M$ $H_2O_2$ to induce oxidative stress for 4 h were treated with the same as those in the normal culture condition. TS content, $3{\beta}$-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 2 (HSD3B2) enzyme activity, $5{\alpha}$-reductase 2 ($5{\alpha}-R2$) enzyme activity, and free-radical nitric oxide (NO) content in the culture media were measured using their corresponding assay kits. EA, ABMLCE, and ABMLCE + EA significantly, p<0.05, enhanced TS productions in both cultural conditions, relative to control treatment. The activity of the HSD3B2 enzyme, which is involved in the production of precursors for TS production, was elevated by EA, ABMLCE, and ABMLCE + EA treatments in both culture conditions. The activity of the $5{\alpha}-R2$ enzyme, which converts TS to dihydroxytestosterone (DHT), was not significantly affected in either culture condition by EA, ABMLCE, or ABMLCE + EA treatments. The treatments included reduced NO content. These results indicate that EA, ABMLCE, and EA + ABMLCE treatments elevated TS in TM3 cells via the enhancements of HSD3B2 activity and the reduction of NO production, and also imply that EA and ABMLCE or EA + ABMLCE could be useful materials for the production of TS in humans.

• Proceedings of the KSAR Conference
• /
• 2000.10a
• /
• pp.10-12
• /
• 2000

Members of the glycoprotein family, which includes CG, LH, FSH and TSH, comprise two noncovalently linked $\alpha$- and $\beta$-subunits. Equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG), known as PMSG, has a number of interesting and unique characteristics since it appears to be a single molecule that possesses both LH- and FSH-like activities in other species than the horse. This dual activity of eCG in heterologous species is of fundamental interest to the study of the structure-function relationships of gonadotropins and their receptors. CG and LH $\beta$ genes are different in primates. In horse, however, a single gene encodes both eCG and eLH $\beta$-subunits. The subunit mRNA levels seem to be independently regulated and their imbalance may account for differences in the quantities of $\alpha$ - and $\beta$ -subunits in the placenta and pituitary. The dual activities of eCG could be separated by removal of the N-linked oligosaccharide on the $\alpha$-subunit Asn 56 or CTP-associated O-linked oligosaccharides. The tethered-eCG was. efficiently secreted and showed similar LH-like activity to the dimeric eCG. Interestingly, the FSH-like activity of the tethered-eCG was increased markedly in comparison with the native and wild type eCG. These results also suggest that this molecular can implay particular models of FSH-like activity not LH-like activity in the eCG/indicate that the constructs of tethered molecule will be useful in the study of mutants that affect subunit association and/or secretion. A single-chain analog can also be constructed to include additional hormone-specific bioactive generating potentially efficacious compounds that have only FSH-like activity. The LH/CG receptor (LH/CGR), a membrane glycoprotein that is present on testicular Leydig cells and ovarian theca, granulosa, luteal, and interstitial cells, plays a pivotal role in the regulation of gonadal development and function in males as well as in nonpregnant and pregnant females. The LH/CGR is a member of the family of G protein-coupled receptors and its structure is predicted to consist of a large extracellular domain connected to a bundle of seven membrane-spanning a-helices. The LH/CGR phosphorylation can be induced with a phorbol ester, but not with a calcium ionophore. The truncated form of LHR also was down-regulated normally in response to hCG stimulation. In contrast, the cell lines expressing LHR-t63I or LHR-628, the two phosphorylation-negative receptor mutant, showed a delay in the early phase of hCG-induced desensitization, a complete loss of PMA-induced desensitization, and an increase in the rate of hCG-induced receptor down-regulation. These results clearly show that residues 632-653 in the C-terminal tail of the LHR are involved in PMA-induced desensitization, hCG-induced desensitization, and hCG-induced down-regulation. Recently, constitutively activating mutations of the receptor have been identified that are associated with familial male-precocious puberty. Cells expressing LHR-D556Y bind hCG with normal affinity, exhibit a 25-fold increase in basal cAMP and respond to hCG with a normal increase in cAMP accumulation. This mutation enhances the internalization of the free and agonist-occupied receptors ~2- and ~17-fold, respectively. We conclude that the state of activation of the LHR can modulate its basal and/or agonist-stimulated internalization. Since the internalization of hCG is involved in the termination of hCG actions, we suggest that the lack of responsiveness detected in cells expressing LHR-L435R is due to the fast rate of internalization of the bound hCG. This statement is supported by the finding that hCG responsiveness is restored when the cells are lysed and signal transduction is measured in a subcellular fraction (membranes) that cannot internalize the bound hormone.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.324-332
• /
• 2014

In order to reveal the long-term variations of water quality in Jinhae Bay, water qualities had been monitored at 9 survey stations of Jinhae Bay during 2000~2012. The surface and bottom waters concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP), and chlorophyll-a (Chl.-a) were higher at the survey stations of Masan Bay than the stations of other Bays. Especially, station 1 which is located at the inner area of Masan Bay had the highest values in the concentrations of COD, DIN, and Chl.-a because there were terrestrial pollutant sources near the station 1 and sea current had not well circulated in the inner area of Masan Bay. In factor analysis, the station 1 also had the highest factor values related to factors which increase organic matters and nutrients in surface and bottom waters of Masan Bay. However, the stations (st.5, st.6, st.7, st.8, and st.9) of other Bays had lower values of the factors. In time series analysis, the COD concentrations of the bottom waters at 8 stations except for station 1 distinctly decreased. However, the COD concentrations of the surface waters showed no distinct decrease trends at all stations. In the concentrations of nutrients (DIN and DIP) of both surface and bottom waters, there were tremendous decrease trends at all stations. Therefore, these distinct decrease trends of the COD in bottom waters and the nutrients in surface and bottom waters of Jinhae Bay could have been associated with water improvement actions such as TPLMS (total pollution load management system).

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.47-63
• /
• 1978

This study was conducted to obtain a basic information necessary to assess present rice milling technology in Korea The profiles for milling plants was analyzed by survey work.For the private custom-work mills, which process about 80 percent of domestic rice consumption ,their actual milling test for the identical samples as used for filed mills was conducted. Two rice varieties Japonica and Tongil-type were associated with the experiments. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Analyses for private custom-work mills showed their general aspects as; about 91 percent of the mills belonged to an individual owner ship ; more than 93 percent of the mills was established earlier than 1950 ; about 80 percent of the mills was powered with electric motor; mills having less than two employees were about 75 percent; about 45 percent of the mills provided for warehouse in storing customers cereal grains. 2. The polishers installed in 1,255mills within the surveyed area (7 counties) have been supplied by 44 different domestic manufacturers ;in but about 60 percent of which was supplied by 6major manufacturers. The polishers could be classified into two categories in terms of principles of their polishing actions ;jet-pearler and friction types. About 51 percent of the mills was equipped with the former which has been recognized as giving greater milling recovery than the friction types. 3. Reason for owners of private mills to supplement new machines was due mainly to pgrading their mills to meet the requirements that established by the Government. However, about 60 percent of the mill owners intended to replace with new pearler by their own needs to meet with new high yielding varieties. 4. Processing systems of each previate rice mills surveyed could be classified into three categories, depending upon whether the systems posessed such components as precleaner and paddy separator or not. Only 36.7 percent of mills was installed with both precleanr ad paddy seperrator, 5.0 percent of mills did have neither percleaner nor paddy seperator, and rest of them equipped only one of the two. Hence,it is needed for about 63% of rice miils to be supplemented with these basic facilities to meet with the requirements for the standaized system. 5. Actual milling capacity measured at each field rice mills was shown a wide variation, having range from about 190 to 1,210 kg/hr. The percentages of mills classified according to daily milling capacity based on this hourly capacity were 24.3% for the capacity less than 3 M/T a day; 20.0% for 3-4 M/T; 15.6% for 4-5 M/T; 6.7% for 5-6 M/T; 22.3% for 6-7 M/T; and 11.0% for more than 7 M/T a day. 6. Actual amount of rice processed was about 310 M/T a year in average. About 42% of total milled rice was processed during October to Decembear, which formed a peak demand period for rice mills. The amount of rice milled during January to May was relatively small, but it had still a large amount compared to that during June to September. 7. Utilization rate of milling facility, i. e., percentage of the actual amount of milled rice to the capacity of rice mills, was about 18% on the year round average, about 41% in the peak demand season, and about 10% during June to September. Average number of operating days for mills surveyed was about 250 days a year, and about 21 days a month. 8. Moisture contents of paddy at the time of field mill tests were ranged 14.5% to 19.5% for both Japonica and Tong-i] varieties, majority of paddy grains having moisture level much higher than 1530. To aviod potential reduction of milling recovery while milling and deterioration of milled rice while storage due to these high grain mJisture contents, it may be very important for farmers holding rice to dry by an artificial drying method. 9. Milling recovery of JapJnica varieties in rice mills was 75.0% in average and it was widely ranged from 69.0% to 78.0 % according to mills. Potential increase in milJing recovery of Japonica variety with improvement of mill facilities was estimated to about 1.9%. On the other hand, milling recovery of Tong-il varieties in the field mill tests was 69.8% in average and it ranged from 62% to 77 %, which is much wider than that of Japonica varieties. It is noticed that the average milling recovery of Tong-il variety of 69.8% was much less than that of the Japonica-type. It was estimated th3.t up to about 5.0% of milling recovery for Tong-il variety could be improved by improving the present lo'.ver graded milling technology. 10. Head rice recoveries, as a factor of representing the quality of commercial goods, of Japonica and Tong-il varieties were 65.9% and 53.8% in average, and they were widely ranged from 52% to 73% and from 44% to 65% , respectively. It was assessed that head rice recovery of Japonica varieties can be improved up 3.3% and that of Tong-il varieties by 7.0% by improving mill components and systems.