• International Area Studies Review
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.215-235
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• 2018

Policy concerns related to raising fertility rates are not only common interests among the OECD countries, but they are also issues of great concern to South Korea whose fertility rate is the lowest in the world. The fertility rate in South Korea continues to decline, even though most of the national budget has been spent on measures to address this and many studies have been conducted on the increase in the fertility rates. In this regard, this study aims to verify the effectiveness of the detailed factors affecting the fertility rate that have been discussed in the previous studies on fertility rates, and to investigate the overall trend toward enhancing the quality of life and increasing the fertility rate through macroscopic and structural studies under the recognition of problems related to the policy approaches through the case studies of the European countries. Toward this end, this study investigated if a high quality of life in advanced countries contributes to the increase in the fertility rate, which country serves as a state model that has a high quality of life and a high fertility rate, and what kind of social and policy environment does the country have with regard to childbirth. The analysis of the OECD Better Life Index (BLI) and CIA fertility rate data showed that the countries whose people enjoy a high quality of life do not necessarily have high fertility rates. In addition, under the recognition that a country with a high quality of life and a high birth rate serves as a state model that South Korea should aim for, the social characteristics of Iceland, Ireland, and New Zealand, which turned out to have both a high quality of life and a high fertility rate, were compared with those of Germany, which showed a high quality of life but a low fertility rate. According to the comparison results, the three countries that were mentioned showed higher awareness of gender equality; therefore, the gender wage gap was small. It was also confirmed that the governments of these countries support various policies that promote both parents sharing the care of their children. In Germany, on the other hand, the gender wage gap was large and the fertility rate was low. In a related move, however, the German government has made active efforts to a paradigm shift toward gender equality. The fertility rate increases when the synergy lies in the relationship between parents and children; therefore, awareness about gender equality should be firmly established both at home and in the labor market. For this reason, the government is required to provide support for the childbirth and rearing environment through appropriate family policies, and exert greater efforts to enhance the effectiveness of the relevant systems rather than simply promoting a system construction. Furthermore, it is necessary to help people in making their own childbearing decisions during the process of creating a better society by changing the national goal from 'raising the fertility rate' to 'creating a healthy society made of happy families'

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.33-53
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• 1988

This study aimed at developing a desirable family planning policy and strategy by examining the current status of family planning practice in rural Korea and by indentifying the crucial factors which affect fertility control behavior. For this purpose, an analytical study was conducted, using the survey data collected in July 1985, on an interview basis, on 1, 440 married women living in the Soyi, Wonnam and Maingdong townships of Eumseong County(in North Chungcheong Province). This study population has the typical characteristics of rural areas, and the results of the analysis can be summarized as follows: 1. In regard to the demographic characteristics of the study population : their average age at marriage was 23.7, they had an average of 2.6 children( 1.3 boys, 1.3 girls) :10% experienced the death of their child (ren) :14% had spontaneous abortion(s) :4% weathered stillbirth(s) :35% went through induced abortion (s) : and 5.5% were currently pregnant. The average of their ideal numbers of children was 2.2, while 44% felt that they must have a son. 2. Looking at the contact rate with medical & health institutions, over the past 1 year, the visit rate to health subcenters was 43.7%, while 26.9% visited the (county) health center :59.6% had been to private clinics : and 41.5% went to the Soonchunhyang - Eumsung hospital : thus showing a relatively high rate of accessibility. 3. The utilization rate of family planning services was 76.5%, with tubectomy being the most prominent method at 52.3%, while the informants were health workers in 54.2% of the acceptors. Of the 8.4% who discontinued the use of contraceptive methods, only 26% did so due to want for pregnancy, natural infertility (meno - pause), or other reasons, while the remaining 74% stopped usage on account of side effects, failure in the methods themselves, and inconvenience of use, thus pointing to a situation where the proper choice of family planning methods have not yet been made. It can be noted that there is a strong motivation for early birth stopping as 35.3% practice family planning even with only one child, of which 38.3% have had sterilization operations. According to results of a multiple regression analysis, among the variables affecting contraception usage the most significant variable was the number of sons. 4. 34.8% experienced induced abortions. It was shown as a result of multiple regression analysis that the number of children and attitudes toward induced abortions extensively affected their frequency of abortions conducted. 5. In the regard to the relation between family planning and induced abortions, 33.7% of the women used both, while 52.0% of them used only the former(family planning), with only 1.4 % utilizing solely the latter(abortion), and 12.9% totally abstaining from fertility regulation : again, the discriminant analysis indicated that the choice of family planning and/or induced abortion was determined by the number of children and attitudes toward induced abortion. In view of the above mentioned results, the following are some comments and suggestions concerning problems related to the current family planning policies, in Korea : 1. It is difficult to expect a further quantitative expansion in family planning program operations, as there has been an excessive supply of target-oriented sterilization operations on women. From a maternal and child health care point of view, it will be desirable to have a diversification of service points in the future where family planning methods may be properly chosen, so that choices of methods which suit the mothers' characteristics and tastes may be made by the individuals themselves by strengthening their quality of family planning information services. 2. Along with the strengthening of the qualitative improvement of family planning services policies must be implemented to effectively promote the moral (ethical) deterrents to induced abortions and to preference for sons. From a maternal care standpoint, the social permissive norm toward induced abortion must be modified, and the bias towards son must be analyzed as the women with more daughters have a lower rate of family planning acceptance. Such changes in attitudes, however, can not be hoped to be accomplished with ad hoc policies, but will only be possible when an enhancement of the women's status(within the society) is brought about in a long - term perspective.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.118-138
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• 1985

This paper is aimed to analyse the recent changes in family planning as a step in an evaluation of the results of the population control policy which has been strenuously pursued by the government since December 1981. The data used in this analysis comes from the 1985 national fertility and family planning survey conducted by the Korea Institute for Population and Health (KIPH) in May 1985. According to the 1985 survey data, there have been great changes in both the contraceptive practice and fertility rates since the strengthening of the government's population control policy in 1 981. The contraceptive practice rate for married women aged 15-44 has increased from 57.7% in 1982 to 70.3% in 1985, an increase of 12.6% points in the short span of only 3 years. During the same period, the total fertility rate has declined from 2.7 in 1982 to the population replacement level which was planned to achieve by 1 988. More than 80% of women aged over 30 or with two children or more are practicing contraception, while the practice rates of women with 0-1 children are 14.0% and 45.1% respectively. The survey has revealed that the increase of contraceptive practice rate during 1982-1985 has mainly attributed to the high acceptance of sterilization procedures which practice rate of the married women has increased from 28.1% to 40.3% for the period. Also, the survey data shows that 24.7% of those women with only one child is practicing contraception for thepurpose of fertility termination. The government, taking into account of rapid changes in contraceptive practice and fertility rates, is formulating a population plan during the sixth fiveyear economic and social development plan (1987-1991) to achieve 1% ofpopulation growth rate by 1993, which was planned to realize by 2000. In order to meet this demographic goal, the existing population control policy measures should be improved to be suited to the recent contraceptive use and fertility changes. From this standpoint, the following considerations should be put forth; 1) improvement of the current program management systems including target allocation and evaluation schems for recruiting new acceptors in the young 20s groups to use contraceptives for birth spacing and to increase high continuation rates through the strengthening of follow-up services for the acceptors, 2) increase of self-supporting contraceptive users by promoting commercial advertisements on contraceptives through mass media including T.V. and radio, 3) development of social support policies including incentive schems, and strengthening of IE & C activities for increasing the proportion of the one-child family, 4) strengthening of population and family planning education in and out school youth, and 5) strengthening of management capabilities at the provincial and local program managers.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.192-198
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• 2020

Background: Korea National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) is operated as a social insurance system in which people pay a portion of their monthly income as insurance premiums and receive benefits when they experience illness or injury. Since 2005, the national health insurance remained surplus accumulating cumulative reserves each year. However, as of 2018, NHIS revenue recorded 62.11 trillion won and spending of 62.29 trillion won. The deterioration of NHIS finances is expected to accelerate with the aging population, income growth, new medical technology development, and enhanced security policies. Methods: To examine the financial health and sustainability of NHIS, we estimated the future revenue and spending until 2030 using the data from Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service statistical yearbook. 2004-2018 average percentage change in NHIS revenue and spending was calculated. We estimated the future NHIS financial status using two methods. In the first method, we calculated the revenue and spending of the future NHIS by applying the 2004-2018 average percentage change to the subsequent years consecutively. In the second method, we estimated the future NHIS financial status after adjusting for the predicted demographic changes such as the aging population and declining birth rate in South Korea. Results: The estimates from this study suggest that the NHIS's cumulative reserves will run out by 2024. Conclusion: In terms of spending on current health insurance, there should be a search for ways of more efficient spending and funding options.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.265-271
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• 2015

This study is the analysis about materials (from 2012 to 2014) which was stored in the data made from the 397 infants subjects who were born in 2012, with the basis of the preventive injection management, public health care information system by using SPSS win 18.0 program. After we analyzed the present non-injection state and the non-injection reasons with the basis of each birth month, each vaccine, each injection period, we found out that 89 infants(22.4%) were the ones who were not computerized. Except the 20 infants-the ones having uncertain phone numbers and addresses, and computerization errors, 69 infants (17.4%) were the ones that didn't get injection. We guided protective injection to them by sending SMS text message and we could inject 39 infants (9.8%) of them. We could achieve the high 92.4% injection rate. we want this research to be used to try wipe out the infectious diseases in this district and be utilized as the basic materials of protective injection cost support and health care policies, etc.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Educational Facilities
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.13-20
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to provide a fundamental data and establish policies for the utilization of closed schools in Korea. The closed schools have been increased in Korea because not only the birth rate, and the number of students have been decreased, but also a greate number of people have moved to big cities or the elderly population is increasing. In this context, this research explores the current circumstance of Japan where experienced the similar phenomenon before Korea had. The results of this study are summarized as follows: The reason for the closed schools in Japan is a decrease in population due to the urbanization and reducing students themselves by aging. The recycling proportion of the closed schools is only approximately 62% in Japan. It means that fewer facilities have been recycled due to the transfer of the managemental departments and the lack of budgets for purchasing the closed schools. As the number of children decreases, but elderly people increases as the same time, it is necessary to positively examine the transition of the closed schools to new facilities for the elderly people. Even though the number of children had been declined, and it is recently turning back to an increasing of the residential children in 23 districts of Tokyo, there are still existing many closed schools. This phenomenon is caused by the decrease of the children and residential areas due to the aging and urbanization. For these reasons, there are many diverse demands for the practical and valuable recycling of the closed schools. However, it seems that there are few cases of successful disposal or transfer of management to other suitable ministry. Therefore, it is necessary for the closed schools to be remodeled the facilities required by current residents.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.395-404
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• 2019

This paper investigated the changes in Hanwoo breeding farms and herds according to their farm size and farm types based on traceability data in the Hanwoo industry. The major results are summarized as follows. First, the notion that small sized farms are breeding farms and middle or large sized farms are fattening farms is wrong. The results show that middle or large farms are not only fattening cattle but also breeding female cattle. Based on cattle data for over 6 months and under the criteria of a female cow ratio of 10 and 90% using the 2/4 quarter of 2018, the results show that the ratio of fattening only farms is 5.7%, that of breeding only farms is 59.0%, and that of fattening and breeding farms is 36.1%. The ratios of fattening, breeding, and both are 13.3, 13.5, and 73.2%, respectively, for a farm size with over 100 cattle. Second, this study found that the ratio of breeding farms over total farms has been increasing continuously over the last 5 years. This trend is apparent in the middle or large sized farms. However, the birth rate of cows is relatively lower in the middle and large sized farms than in the small sized farms. Hence, we can infer that the demand for a detection system for standing estrus in female cattle will increase. Additionally, the government should prepare relevant policies to stabilize the managerial conditions of middle or large sized farms.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.79-85
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• 2022

Article 10 of the Constitution All citizens have dignity and values as humans and have the right to pursue happiness. There is a need for support measures such as a means to realize the respect of dignity and values as humans, and how to efficiently maintain policies on welfare for the elderly classified as the socially disadvantaged. It was considered necessary to develop an elderly-friendly city for economic, physical, and social life. Dasan Jeong Yak-yong's respect for adults was to practice the ideology of Confucianism, so this was the most important thing in the past Joseon Dynasty. In particular, it was considered important to think of adults first in practicing filial piety.This study focuses on the long-term care insurance system for the elderly, one of the welfare policy measures for the elderly. The significance of implementing the long-term care insurance system for the elderly is to benefit not only the elderly, but also all generations, including the middle-aged and children who were in charge of long-term care. To this end, the government should properly manage the factors of the social insurance financial crisis caused by the low birth rate and aging population.In addition, concerns about health insurance are high, so it is necessary to secure an appropriate level of government budget for health insurance financial management and minimize unnecessary non-benefit. In addition, it is necessary to induce appropriate medical use through connection with construction medical insurance.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.85-100
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to raise the importance of 'family culture and values' in the process of diagnosing and discussing the causes and measures of low fertility in Korean society. In addition, I sought to find the causes of over - fertilization and ways to cope with it in terms of educational approach to establishing family culture and values. Specifically, this study firstly reviews the causes of low fertility in Korea by examining the evaluation of low fertility policies, secondly, examines the actual conditions and changes in family culture and values related to low fertility, and third, In this paper, I examined the validity of educational intervention, the actual state of intervention, the contents of education in institutional education, the necessity and effect of education, the composition of educational content, and possible policies and arguments based on educational approach. The issue of low birth rate is a national social problem facing the Korean society in the modern age. Considering its causes and countermeasures at the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to the factors of family culture and values as well as economic factors. To further emphasize the educational approach to gender equality and family-friendly family culture and values.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.75-94
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• 2021

The low birth rate and shortened military service period are causing concerns about selecting excellent military officers. The Republic of Korea entered a low birth rate society in 1984 and an aged society in 2018 respectively, and is expected to be in a super-aged society in 2025. In addition, the troop-oriented military is changed as a state-of-the-art weapons-oriented military, and the reduction of the military service period was implemented in 2018 to ease the burden of military service for young people and play a role in the society early. Some observe that the application rate for military officers is falling due to a decrease of manpower resources and a preference for shortened mandatory military service over military officers. This requires further consideration of the policy of securing excellent military officers. Most of the related studies have used social scientists' methodologies, but this study applies the methodology of text mining suitable for large-scale documents analysis. This study extracts words of discriminative characteristics from the Republic of Korea Air Force Non-Commissioned Officer Applicant cover letters and analyzes the polarity of pass and fail. It consists of three steps in total. First, the application is divided into general and technical fields, and the words characterized in the cover letter are ordered according to the difference in the frequency ratio of each field. The greater the difference in the proportion of each application field, the field character is defined as 'more discriminative'. Based on this, we extract the top 50 words representing discriminative characteristics in general fields and the top 50 words representing discriminative characteristics in technology fields. Second, the number of appropriate topics in the overall cover letter is calculated through the LDA. It uses perplexity score and coherence score. Based on the appropriate number of topics, we then use LDA to generate topic and probability, and estimate which topic words of discriminative characteristic belong to. Subsequently, the keyword indicators of questions used to set the labeling candidate index, and the most appropriate index indicator is set as the label for the topic when considering the topic-specific word distribution. Third, using L-LDA, which sets the cover letter and label as pass and fail, we generate topics and probabilities for each field of pass and fail labels. Furthermore, we extract only words of discriminative characteristics that give labeled topics among generated topics and probabilities by pass and fail labels. Next, we extract the difference between the probability on the pass label and the probability on the fail label by word of the labeled discriminative characteristic. A positive figure can be seen as having the polarity of pass, and a negative figure can be seen as having the polarity of fail. This study is the first research to reflect the characteristics of cover letters of Republic of Korea Air Force non-commissioned officer applicants, not in the private sector. Moreover, these methodologies can apply text mining techniques for multiple documents, rather survey or interview methods, to reduce analysis time and increase reliability for the entire population. For this reason, the methodology proposed in the study is also applicable to other forms of multiple documents in the field of military personnel. This study shows that L-LDA is more suitable than LDA to extract discriminative characteristics of Republic of Korea Air Force Noncommissioned cover letters. Furthermore, this study proposes a methodology that uses a combination of LDA and L-LDA. Therefore, through the analysis of the results of the acquisition of non-commissioned Republic of Korea Air Force officers, we would like to provide information available for acquisition and promotional policies and propose a methodology available for research in the field of military manpower acquisition.