• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.565-575
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• 2017

This study analyzes the epistemic considerations and the argumentation level revealed in the discourse of the key concept of natural selection for science-gifted elementary students. The paper analyzes and discusses the results of a three-student focus group, drawn from a cohort of twenty gifted sixth-grade elementary students. Nature, generality, justification, and audience were used to analyze epistemic consideration. Learning progression in scientific argumentation including argument construction and critique was used to analyze students' scientific argumentation level. The findings are as follows: First, Epistemic considerations in discourse varied between key concepts of natural selection discussed. The nature aspect of epistemic considerations is highly expressed in the discourse for all natural selection key concepts. But the level of generality, justification and audience was high or low, and the level was not revealed in the discourse. In the heredity of variation, which is highly expressed in terms of generality of knowledge, the linkage with various phenomena against the acquired character generated a variety of ideas. These ideas were used to facilitate engagement in argumentation, so that all three students showed the level of argumentation of suggestions of counter-critique. Second, students tried to explain the process of speciation by using concepts that were high in practical epistemic considerations level when explaining the concept of speciation, which is the final natural selection key concept. Conversely, the concept of low level of epistemic considerations was not included as an explanation factor. The results of this study suggest that students need to analyze specific factors to understand why epistemological decisions are made by students and how epistemological resources are used according to context through various epistemological resources. Analysis of various factors influencing epistemological decisions can be a mediator of the instructor who can improve the quality and level of the argumentation.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.33-62
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• 2005

This study aims to explain the current upheaval in marriage that many young Korean men and women postpone or deny their marriage. In order to explain the delayed marriage, we need to understand the taste by which men and women choose their partners, the opportunity by which they find their ideational half in reality, and the context in which these values and opportunities of marriages intersect. This study examines the way in which the value and opportunities of marriage among Korean men and women have intersected differently in the changing economic conditions. Using KLIPS(Korea Labor Income Panel Survey, 1998-2002), differential effects of education and occupational status on marital time according to marriage cohort and gender are analyzed. Results find that the opportunity of marriage among men turns out to have been stratified significantly according to their educational achievement and labor status since the 1990s. For women, education and economic activities are likely to influence marriage decision in a discordant way; during the period of 1990-997, highly educated women are more likely than their counterparts to be married earlier while there is no significant difference according to economic activities. This implies that status homogamy has been intensified since the 1990s and many women with high motivation for social status are able to achieve a vicarious social status through marriage in a prosperous economy. For women married after 1998, however, the educational effect is insignificant but economic activity contributes to delaying marriage. This suggests that under the economic restructuring since the late 1990s, the constraint of opportunities finding decent jobs particularly for men results in the contingent change in women's perception about family roles and economic activities by reducing their expectation to achieve a vicarious status through marriage, but increasing their motive for their own economic activities.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2010

Purpose: To find the most effective method for extraction of cell-free DNA (cf-DNA) from maternal plasma, we compared a blood DNA extraction system (blood kit) and a viral DNA extraction system (viral kit) for non-invasive first-trimester fetal gender determination. Materials and Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted with maternal plasma collected from 44 women in the first-trimester of pregnancy. The cf-DNA was extracted from maternal plasma using a blood kit and a viral kit. Quantitative fluorescent-polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR) was used to detect the SRY gene and AMEL gene. The diagnostic accuracy of the QF-PCR results was determined based on comparison with the final delivery records. Results: A total of 44 women were tested, but the final delivery record was only obtained in 36 cases which included 16 male-bearing and 20 female-bearing pregnancies. For the blood kit and viral kit, the diagnostic accuracies for fetal gender determination were 63.9% (23/36) and 97.2% (35/36), respectively. Conclusion: In non-invasive first-trimester fetal gender determination by QF-PCR, using a viral kit for extraction of cf-DNA may result in a higher diagnostic accuracy.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.19-29
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• 2010

Objectives：Authors hypothesized that bipolar tendency of non-psychiatric person would be associated with stress vulnerability. To test the hypothesis, we compared perceived stress level, Type A Behavioral Pattern (TABP) and unhealthy lifestyle between person with and without bipolar tendency. Methods：The study cohort consisted of 1987 subjects without past and current psychiatric history. In this study, bipolar tendency was determined by MDQ response which requires endorsement of at least 7 of the 13 "yes or no" questions. We compared the scores of Perceived Stress Scale, A/B lifestyle questionnaire, and unhealthy lifestyle(alcohol, smoking, lack of exercise, irregular meal) between MDQ positive and negative respondents. Results：We identified the bipolar tendency group determined by the MDQ positive response were 329 subjects(16.6%). The overall score of the bipolar tendency group was significantly high on the A/B lifestyle questionnaire compared to the non-bipolar tendency group(125.4 vs. 115.9, p<0.001), and the rate of the subjects defined as TABP was also significantly high(41.3% vs. 30.1%, p<0.001). In comparison of subjectively perceived stress level, the bipolar tendency group was observed to be significantly higher than the non-bipolar tendency group (18.5% vs. 16.5%, p<0.001). The bipolar tendency group was significantly higher than the non-bipolar tendency group on the rate of answering：'irregular eating habit' (20.1% vs. 14.3%, p=0.002), '4-or-more-times alcohol intake per week' (29.8% vs. 16.5%, p<0.001), 'currently smoking' (41.9% vs. 23.0%, p<0.001), '2-or-less-times physical exercises per week' (63.2% vs. 55.1%, p=0.007). Conclusion：By clinical diagnosis, even a person who does not meet the criteria of bipolar disorder has a high risk of stress-related behavioral pattern, and perceived stress when possessing bipolar tendencies such as the (hypo) maniac tendency or affective instability. Such individual has significantly higher risk of having unhealthy life-style such as smoking, drinking, irregular eating habit and lack of exercise compared to non-bipolar tendency group. Since these risk factors lead to increase the risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, the individual with the bipolar tendency requires a more effort to manage stress and to maintain healthy lifestyle.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.50-69
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• 1987

There are about 400, 000 Korean ethnics living in Central Asia. Most of Koreans in Central Asia are leading a stable middle class life mostly engaged in farm work. With increase of educational attainment of their children, a number of Koreans are launching into political and academic circles as well as in the cultural world or the press. In recent years, however, the countries in this area(Uzbekistan and Kazakstan) for this study advocate an ethnic united policy to stabilize the politics and society and to carry out efficient transformation from the former socialistic economy to a market oriented economy. In addition, they are trying to recover the culture and the language of each nation which has been forgotten in the assimilation of Russia policy. Koreans have difficulty in adaption to this kind of change. In fact, a number of Koreans lost traditional culture and could not speak their mother language - Korean. Although they more or less maintain national consciousness, they recognize Uzbekistan or Kazakstan as their nation politically. They associated with North Korea unilaterally before the launching of the Perestroika policy. But after the Seoul Olympics held in 1998, there was movement to know and understand South Korea. There has been increased in the investment by Korean companies in Central Asia. Now, what is an alternative idea for Korean community consciousness\ulcorner It can be summarized as follows: 1) The increase of aid to Korean education institute : Considering the last few decades of Russia's strong racial assimilation policy, which leads most Koreans to lost their language and national culture, the priority should go to Koreans education. 2) Local Korean press support : Though Korean newspaper are published and Korean broadcasting is on the air currently in Uzbekistan and Kazakstan, they are suffering from qualified staff and poor financial status. Therefore, positive support should be established for these Korean mass communication media outlets to recover their own function and expand their dissemination powers quickly. 3) Research on the actual condition for Korean Community : It is essential to directly examine the local Korean community's regional distribution, population structure, Korean group's formation and operation, social and cultural understanding, racial consciousness, hope for their mother land and much more. 4) Increase of mother land and education opportunity : To stir up national culture and national consciousness within the Korean community, it is necessary to expand continuous opportunities for mother land visits and education training for local Koreans, especially for second and third generations.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.28 no.4 s.51
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• pp.845-862
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• 1995

We followed prospectively some hospital-delivered mothers to identify characteristics of those not initiated breast-feeding and predictors of breast-feeding discontinuation in monthly telephone interviews. Recruits were composed of 482 mothers who delivered their babies at one university hospital and one OB/GYN clinic in September to November 1991. Breast-feeding discontinuation was defined as switch to 100% formula lasting more than one week regardless of solid foods. Average age of the study subjects was 27.3 years of age(standard deviation 3.2). Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated native place, occupation, method of delivery and method of feeding considered to be better for maternal health were statistically significant(p<0.1) between initiators and non-initiators of breast feeding. In starting cohort(N=242) of those initiated breast-feeding, that median of breast-feeding discontinuation were 5 months and 25th and 75th percentiles were 3 and 9 months respectively. In Cox's proportional hazard model, mothers with $10\sim13$ years of education were 2.63 times (95% confidence interval, CI $1.50\sim4.60$) more likely to discontinue than those with less than 9 years of education and those with more than 13 years of education were 3.55 time (95% CI $1.99\sim6.33$). Compared with house wife, mothers with part-time jobs were 1.99 times (95% CI $0.86\sim4.57$) more likely to discontinue and those with employed full-time were 1.55 times (95% CI $0.96\sim2.51$). These results suggest that the predictors of initiation and discontinuation of breast-feeding may be different and different target populations should be selected to promote initiation and to prevent discontinuation of breast-feeding according to the period after birth.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.569-580
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• 2019

Purpose: This study examined the associations of Korean fermented cabbage kimchi consumption with the incidence risk of metabolic syndrome and its components in Korean adults. Methods: We used the community-based cohort data from the 2001 ~ 2012 Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES). General characteristics, food group frequencies and nutrient intakes at baseline from 3,560 healthy individuals aged 40 ~ 69 years and the incidence of metabolic syndrome and its component from 2,259 participants, after excluding the data with incomplete anthropometric and blood test, during 10-year follow-up were analyzed. The participants were classified into three groups according to their daily consumption frequency of Korean fermented cabbage kimchi: 'less than once (< 1/day)', 'once or twice (1 ~ 2/day)', and 'three times (3/day)'. Results: After controlling for potential confounders such as age, education, income, residence area, alcohol drinking and energy intake, the consumption frequencies of rice and legumes were significantly higher, and the consumption frequency of meat was significantly lower in the 3/day group compared to that of the other two groups in men and women. The average intakes of energy and most nutrients, except fat and cholesterol, were higher in the 3/day group compared to those of the other two groups in men and women. Frequent consumption of kimchi was associated with a lower incidence of metabolic syndrome in all the models (unadjusted, age-adjusted, and multivariable-adjusted models) in women. When examining the multivariable-adjusted model, the hazard ratio for metabolic syndrome was 0.63 (95% CI: 0.47 ~ 0.86) for the 3/day group compared to that of the < 1/day group in women. However, there was no significant association between kimchi consumption and the incidence of metabolic syndrome in men. Conclusion: Our results show that consumption of kimchi at every meal was significantly associated with a lower incidence of metabolic syndrome in women.

• Journal of health informatics and statistics
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2016

Objectives: Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and the presence of carotid artery plaque are widely used as preclinical markers of atherosclerosis. Due to operator dependency in measuring CIMT, it is important to evaluate the reliability of measuring CIMT and plaque between centers in a multicenter study. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of CIMT and plaque presence among three clinical centers of the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Etiology Research Center (CMERC). Methods: Twenty people without known cardiovascular disease (age 37-64) were enrolled during 2014-2015, and their left and right carotid arteries were examined repeatedly with ultrasonography for CIMT measurements at three clinical centers according to a predetermined protocol. Maximum and mean values of CIMT at distal common carotid artery were recorded. Plaque presence at a carotid artery was checked by an operator. The reliability of CIMT and carotid plaque presence was assessed using an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and kappa statistics, respectively. Results: Calculated ICC was 0.647 (95% CI: 0.487-0.779) for maximum CIMT, and 0.758 (95% CI: 0.632- 0.854) for mean CIMT. In Bland Altman plot, most observed values were distributed within mean difference ${\pm}1.96$ SD ranges. Kappa statistics of plaque presence between two centers were 0.304 (center 1 and 2), 0.507 (center 1 and 3), and 0.606 (center 2 and 3), respectively, while Fleiss kappa for overall agreement was 0.445. Conclusions: The inter-rater reliability of CIMT measurements among three clinical centers turned out to be high, and the agreement of measuring carotid plaque presence was fair.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.204-229
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• 1988

This paper documents and discusses trends and differentials in youth's participation in the labor force and employment. Youth in this study is defined asthe young aged 15-29. Youth passes through a series of life-course transitions,which include school completion own family formation(marriage and childbirth) .mandatory service in the army (by males) , and their economic activities are affectedby those life-course events. Accordingly we show how and to what extent youth'slabor force participation and employment varies with age and how the age patternhas changed over time.Throughout the 1980's and 1990's, youth's labor force participation showeddifferent trends by age group Labor fDrce participation rate of the 15-19 agedsteeply decreased, while that of the 25-29 steadily increased during the twodecades, the rate fsr the 20-24 aged showing not much variation. The former is dueto the increased rate of school enrollment among the age group, while the lattercould be attributed, in part, to the young women s increased and more steadyparticipation in the labor force over time.While labor force participation could be considered as a result of one's choicesand preferences, employment opportunities are more or less restricted by labormarket structure and institutions . This study documents how the structuralconstraints have interacted with individual and group attributes to differentiateemployment opportunities between individuals (educational background) and groups(especially sex diffrences) . One of the most salient feature of youth's em[ploymentstructure is the recent high unemployment rate of the college graduates. We discusshow that is related to the'credential society'in which one's educational credentials and it's social status play major role in determining who gets what in terms of job opportunities. Also is discussed the discordance between school and labor marketsupply and demand system, which is apparent in the prolonged oversupply of thecollege graduates, which is due to the consistently high rate of college entranceobserved since the early 1980's. Theoretically the job market for college graduates isviewed not as the'neoclassical'wage competition market but as job competition market in which one's (good) job opportunity is determined by one s position in thejob queue, which is in turn heavily dependent on from which college one get shis/her college degree as well as one's sex.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2019

Purpose: Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is the most common congenital endocrine disorder. The purpose of the present study was to determine the incidence of CH in South Korea during the period from January 1991 to March 2004. Methods: Central data from each city branch of SCL (Seoul Clinical Reference Laboratories) in Yongin, South Korea, was gathered and collectively analyzed. Newborn screening (NBS) for CH was based on measuring the levels of neonatal thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and free T4 (a cut-off of 20 mIU/L and less than 0.8 ng/dL, respectively). Results: During the study period, 671,805 live births were screened for CH based on TSH and free T4 ELISA assays. A total of 159 newborns were deemed positive for CH out of 671,805, with a corresponding incidence of 1 in 4,225. When a cut-off of 20 mIU/L was used in TSH assays, the associated sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive values (PPV) were 100.0%, 99.7%, and 10.8%, respectively. When a cut-off of 0.8 ng/dL in free T4 assays was used, the associated sensitivity, specificity, and PPV were 100.0%, 98.5%, and 3.9%, respectively. Conclusion: CH incidence in South Korea as evidenced by the results of NBS was compared with its incidence and comparable to the other countries prior to 2004.