• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.41-63
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• 2016

Energy policy is known to have higher path dependency among policy fields (Kuper and van Soest, 2003; OECD, 2012; Kikkawa, 2013) and is a critical component of the infrastructure development undertaken in the early stages of nation building. Actor roles, such as those played by interest groups, are firmly formed, making it unlikely that institutional change can be implemented. In resource-challenged Japan, energy policy is an especially critical policy area for the Japanese government. In comparing energy policy making in Japan and Germany, Japan’s policy community is relatively firm (Hartwig et al., 2015), and it is improbable that institutional change can occur. The Japanese government’s approach to energy policy has shifted incrementally in the past half century, with the most recent being the 2012 implementation of the “Feed-In Tariff Law” (Act on Special Measures Concerning Procurement of Renewable Electric Energy by Operators of Electric Utilities), which encourages new investment in renewable electricity generation and promotes the use of renewable energy. Yet, who were the actors involved and the factors that influenced the establishment of this new law? This study attempts to assess the factors associated with implementing the law as well as the roles of the relevant major actors. In answering this question, we focus on identifying the policy networks among government, political parties, and interest groups, which suggests that success in persuading key economic groups could be a factor in promoting the law. Our data is based on the “Global Environmental Policy Network Survey 2012-2013 (GEPON2)” which was conducted immediately after the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake with respondents including political parties, the government, interest groups, and civil society organizations. Our results suggest that the Feed in Tariff (FIT) Law’s network structure is similar to the information network and support network, and that the actors at the center of the network support the FIT Law. The strength of our research lays in our focus on political networks and their contributing mechanism to the law’s implementation through analysis of the political process. From an academic perspective, identifying the key actors and factors may be significant in explaining institutional change in policy areas with high path dependency. Close examination of this issue also has implications for a society that can promote renewable and sustainable energy resources.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.25-40
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• 2001

The purposes of the study were to identify satisfaction and achievement of learning by female learner's characteristics, and to suggest measures to improve quality of education in internet education programs. In order to determine the educational effectiveness associated with the characteristics of learners, this study attempted to employ two way approaches by observing the degree of achievement for learning, which represents an instructor-oriented approach, and the degree of satisfaction for education, which represents a learner-oriented approach to enhance the quality of internet education for female learners. As an approach to evaluate the educational effectiveness, the degree of achievement in learning(Tyler's classical approach), and the degree of satisfaction for education (Scriven's consumer-oriented evaluation model) were utilized. A survey form was developed by the researcher after reviewing the various tools originated from Boshier, Cross, Gagne and Choi, and distributed to a panel of judges that examined the content validity of the instrument. The sample for the study consisted of 160 female learners from three universities in Seoul and capital area, and the survey form was used to collect data for this study. The SPSS WIN program was used in analyzing the data and a series of statistical tests were conducted including frequency, percentile, t-test, ANOVA, correlation, multiple regression, and factor analysis. The statistical significance level was 0.05. The following conclusion were drawn from this study of female internet education. First, it was evident that female internet learners tend to utilize information from internet, and this can be interpreted as participants' positive attitude, and voluntary participation. Second, educational facilities and services should be improved in the future, because the level of satisfaction was low in these areas compared to curriculum and educational methodology. Third, the participating factors influenced by the level of satisfaction for education of learner characteristics were the 'formation of inter-personal relationship and willingness to change' and the 'needs for education on internet', thus appeared that both social and educational needs influenced the level of satisfaction for education. Fourth, the degree of achievement in learning was higher in the order of 1) attitude 2) function 3) knowledge, thus, attitude change was the most important in achievement of learning. Fifth, the individual background that influenced the level of achievement in learning were age and educational experience. As for the individual level of achievement for learning, the younger and more educated group were more satisfied.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.237-244
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• 2001

Objectives：Dysfunctional parent-child relationships have been associated with various mental and conduct disorders in adolescence and mental problems in adulthood as well. Most studies have done in clinical settings and little is known about the relationship between parenting and adolescent problem behaviors in community settings. This study is done to compare the perceived parenting and problem behaviors between problem behavior group and those of non-problem behavior group in male adolescents. Methods：The subjects of this study were 147 male high school students in Seoul, who do not have any known mental or conduct disorders and live with their real parents. Parental Bonding Instrument and Youth Self Report were administered to evaluate the perceived parenting and problem behaviors of adolescents. Results：There were significantly higher scores of mother overprotection in problem behavior group when comparing to non-problem behavior group. There was a significant association between mother overprotection and problem behavior when adjusting the number of family members, mother's job, parents' education level, grades, and religion. Conclusion：The parenting such as mother overprotection can be helpful to predict the problem behaviors in male adolescents, and appropriate parenting may prevent various problem behaviors in male adolescents.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.405-409
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• 2008

Churg-Strauss syndrome is a rare form of systemic necrotizing vasculitis that occurs exclusively in patients with asthma, and is associated with blood and tissue eosinophilia. The classic pathology findings in the lung include a combination of eosinophilic pneumonia, granulomatous inflammation and necrotizing vasculitis. However, there are few reports of tracheobronchial mucosal lesions in Churg-Strauss syndrome. We report a case of Churg-Strauss syndrome with multiple tracheobronchial mucosal lesions in a 33-year-old man with a history of bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis. He had been diagnosed with community acquired pneumonia at another hospital and was treated with antibiotics. However, the chest radiographic findings were aggravated and showed multifocal consolidations in the whole lung fields. He was transferred to the Asan Medical Center. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy revealed multiple nodular mucosal lesions of the trachea and bronchi. The histopathology of the mucosal lesions revealed necrotizing bronchial inflammation with eosinophilic infiltration. Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery was performed. The wedge resected lung tissue revealed chronic eosinophilic pneumonia that was consistent with Churg-Strauss syndrome. Methylprednisolone (1 mg/kg q 8 hr) was prescribed and his symptoms resolved gradually. The chest radiographic findings improved significantly, and a follow-up fiberoptic bronchoscopy performed eight days later showed that the tracheobronchial mucosal lesions had resolved. The patient was prescribed oral prednisolone for 20 months after discharge. Currently, the patient is not taking steroids and is being followed up.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.164-176
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• 2000

Purpose : This study was done to identify the factors of decisional balance for smoking cessation among middle aged men in Korea. This was composed of a set of variables at the level of decision making when middle aged men decide to stop smoking. It was used to classify and identify the characteristics of the stages of change for smoking cessation to which the middle aged men belong, and was used to identify the variables of decisional balance which influenced the stages of change for smoking cessation in middle aged men. Methods : A convenience sample of 169 men who had smoked and were smoking, were between age 30 and 60 and lived in Seoul(mean age=44), were selected from the community. The data was collected from December 10, 1999 to February 28, 2000. The research instrument was the Decisional Balance Measure for Smoking Cessation (Velicer et al., 1985). and Stage of Change Measure(DiClemente et al., 1991). The data were analyzed using the SAS Program. Results : 1. According to stage of change measure, the 169 subjects were distributed in each stage of change for smoking cessation: in the pre-contemplation stage 63 subjects(32.7%), contemplation stage 60 subjects (35.5%), preparation stage 17 subjects(10.1%), and maintenance stage 29 subjects(17.2%). 2. Factor analysis identified 4 factors of decisional balance as appropriate factors for smoking cessation of middle aged men. There were named by the researchers; 1)'Perceived Burden to Self', 2)'Perceived Benefit to Others' 3)'Perceived Approval to Others', and 4)'Perceived Disapproval to Self'. 3. Analysis of variance showed that the three components, 1)'Perceived Burden to Self(F=8.50, P=.0001)', 2)'Perceived Benefit to Others(F=3.19, P=.025)' and 3)'Perceived DisApproval to Self(F=2.87, P=.038)were significantly associated with stage of change. 4. Through discriminant analysis, it was found that 'Perceived Burden to self' was the most influential variable in discriminating the four stages of change(pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, and maintenance). Conclusion : The results are consistent with the application of the Transtheoretical model, which has been used to understand how people change health behavior. Even though this study is a cross-sectional, not a longitudinal study, the findings of this study give useful information for smoking cessation intervention for the middle aged men.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.949-969
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to analyze the share of global citizenship education in the 2009 Revised Social Studies (geography area) School Curriculum of the Republic of Korea. I selected the achievement standards of the geography domain in the fifth and sixth grades as the subjects of analysis. The chosen subjects were examined using content analysis: I used KrKwic, a Korean language content analysis tool, to analyze the content and drew a semantic network of the analysis results using UciNet/NetDraw. I found that the geography domain of the 2009 Revised Primary School Curriculum included the concepts of and factors of global citizenship education. However, global citizenship education did not account for a major portion of the curriculum, and the curriculum achievement standards were noticeably nation-state centered. Global citizenship education factors were not closely associated with to other related factors in fact, they even revealed a isolated pattern. These findings suggest that the inclusion of global citizenship education in primary geography education is limited, because the connections between global citizenship education and related contents, such as the environment, sustainable development, conflict, and cooperation, are probably impeded. Globalization accompanies the transformation of territories, identities, and the relations between nation-states and the world, although nation-states continue to play a significant role in the globalized worlds. Therefore global citizenship education, a educational trend focusing on the global community, is particularly important and is required in the geography curriculum of the global era. I expect that the examination undertaken in this study to contribute to future curriculum revisions regarding globalizatin and global citizenship.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.13
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• pp.5531-5536
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• 2015

Background: Increased pricing of cigarettes might be one of the most effective approaches for reducing the prevalence of smoking. This study aimed to investigate the effects of increasing cigarette prices through taxation by a tobacco intervention policy on the changes in smoking prevalence in Korean university students. Materials and Methods: The participants in this study were 23,047 healthy university students aged 18-29 years from a health examination in 2011-2015. We investigated the adjusted prevalence of daily and occasional smoking before and after increasing cigarette prices through taxation. Results: The prevalence of occasional smoking was significantly decreased in 2015 from 2014 in both male (from 10.7% in 2014 to 5.4%) and female (from 3.6% to 1.1%) students, but the prevalence of daily smoking did not decrease significantly. The frequency of individuals who had attempted smoking cessation during the past year was significantly higher among occasional smokers in male students (90.2%) compared with daily smokers (64.9%). For female students, there were no differences in experience of smoking cessation, willingness for smoking cessation, or E-cigarette experience between daily and occasional smokers. Conclusions: We found that a policy of increasing cigarette prices through taxation is associated with decreases in the prevalence of occasional smokers, who have relatively lower nicotine dependence compared with individuals who smoke daily. The results of our study suggest that social support and direct intervention for smoking cessation at the community level are needed for university students alongside the pricing policy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.4335-4338
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• 2015

Background: Oral cancer is the third most common malignancy in Saudi Arabia, the highest incidence of which is reported from Jazan province. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association of various locally used substances, especially shamma, with oral cancer in the Jazan region of Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: A hospital-based case-control study was designed and patient records were scanned for histologically confirmed oral cancer cases. Forty eight patients who were recently diagnosed with oral cancer were selected as cases. Two healthy controls were selected for each observed case and they were matched with age (+/- 5 years) gender and location. Use of different forms of tobacco such as cigarettes, pipe-smoking and shamma (smokeless-tobacco) was assessed. Khat, a commonly used chewing substance in the community was also included. Descriptive analysis was first performed followed by multiple logistic regression (with and without interaction) to derive odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CIs). Results: Mean age of the study sample (56% males and 44% females) was 65.3 years. Multinomial regression analysis revealed that shamma use increased the odds of developing oral cancer by 29 times (OR=29.3; 10.3-83.1). Cigarette (OR=6.74; 2.18-20.8) was also seen to have an effect. With the interaction model the odds ratio increased significantly for shamma users (OR=37.2; 12.3-113.2) and cigarette smokers (OR=10.5; 2.88-3.11). Khat was observed to have negative effect on the disease occurrence when used along with shamma (OR=0.01; 0.00 - 0.65). Conclusions: We conclude that shamma, a moist form of smokeless tobacco is a major threat for oral cancer occurrence in the Jazan region of Saudi Arabia. This study gives a direction to conduct further longitudinal studies in the region with increased sample size representing the population in order to provide more substantial evidence.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3483-3487
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• 2016

Background: Cigarette smoking is one of the leading causes of death in the world. Tobacco consumption has grave negative consequences for health so that it is important to understand the reasons and motivations towards cigarette smoking and barriers against quitting smoking among the young generation for developing effective policies to control this widespread problem. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional survey was carried out at the Faculty of Medicine, Rabigh, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A total of 438 young smokers participated from the University and the general population. Data were collected through anonymous, self-administered questionnaires in the Arabic language that contained questions about the reasons and motivations towards cigarette smoking and barriers against quitting smoking. The questionnaire also contained several questions regarding knowledge and attitude of the participants towards cigarette smoking. The data was analyzed on SPSS-16. Results: The mean age of the respondents was $22.9{\pm}3.48$, out of 438 subjects 87 (19.9%) were married, and 351 (80.1%) were unmarried, and 331 (75.6%) belonged to urban areas while 107 (24.5%) were from the rural areas. Responding to a question about a number of cigarettes smoked per day, 31% answered 11-20, 29% answered 21-30, and 25% answered 1-10. Questioned about smokers in the family, 34.5% responded more than one, with 19% for brother and 13% for father. About the reasons for not quitting smoking, 26% described lack of willpower, 25% had no reason, 22% said that people around me smoke, and 15.3% responded stress at home/work. The major motivation for smokers was smoker friends (42%), for 33.8% others, for 12% father/brother and 7.8% media. Conclusions: There are several avoidable and preventable reasons and barriers against quitting smoking. However, knowledge and attitude about smoking were good, and the majority of the smokers were well aware of the associated hazards. Therefore, there is a need to search out ways and means to help them to quit this addiction.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3545-3549
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• 2016

Background: The incidence of bladder cancer is lower in Asian than in Western countries. However, the crude incidence and mortality of bladder cancer have recently increased in Japan because of the increased number of senior citizens. We have already reported risk factors for urothelial cancer in a large population-based cohort study in Japan (JACC study). However, we did not evaluate the cancer risk in the upper and lower urinary tract separately in our previous study. Materials and Methods: Here we evaluated the risk of cancer death in the upper and lower urinary tracts, separately, using the database of the JACC study. The analytic cohort included 46,395 males and 64,190 females aged 40 to 79 years old. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to determine hazard ratios and their 95% confidence intervals. Results: Current smoking increased the risk of both upper and lower urinary tract cancer deaths. A history of kidney disease was associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer death, even after controlling for age, sex and smoking status. Conclusions: The present study confirmed that current smoking increases the risk of both upper and lower urinary tract cancer deaths and indicated the possibility that a history of kidney disease may be a risk factor for bladder cancer death in the Japanese population.