• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.446-463
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• 2022

This study suggests the need for polar literacy education as an effective conceptual system to explain climate change in terms of science education in line with the common effort of humankind to respond to global environmental changes. To this end, we investigated the status of polar literacy in high school students through quantitative tests and qualitative interviews and discussed the resulting implications. A total of 329 high school sophomore students from two high schools participated in a test consisting of 25 true and false questions developed by referring to the Polar Literacy Principles, while 13 students agreed to be interviewed. The results showed that a somewhat insufficient understanding and conceptual gaps appeared regarding several areas of the Polar Literacy Principles. Knowledge of the geographic features of the polar regions was weak, and little was known about the components and key characteristics of the cryosphere. The lack of understanding of these concepts results in the inability of students to link the operational mechanisms of polar and global climate change sufficiently. While accepting unsatisfactory concepts in the school curriculum without criticism from outside media, students perceived the mechanism of climate change as somewhat monotonous or distorted. Moreover, linguistic information, analogies, and visual observation were used as cognitive strategies to compensate for the ambiguous understanding of polar and climate change. Based on the abovementioned results, we argue that polar literacy education should be introduced as a new knowledge system that can be used to aid a systematic and comprehensive understanding of climate change within the school science curriculum. Additionally, we suggest the following implications: review the consistency of knowledge related to polar literacy in other subjects, provide critical standards for out-of-school media information related to climate change, examine students' misconceptions, and identify improved thinking strategies.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1259-1275
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• 2015

Background: This study reviewed the published evidence as to how prostate cancer outcomes vary across geographical remoteness and area level disadvantage. Materials and Methods: A review of the literature published from January 1998 to January 2014 was undertaken: Medline and CINAHL databases were searched in February to May 2014. The search terms included terms of 'Prostate cancer' and 'prostatic neoplasms' coupled with 'rural health', 'urban health', 'geographic inequalities', 'spatial', 'socioeconomic', 'disadvantage', 'health literacy' or 'health service accessibility'. Outcome specific terms were 'incidence', 'mortality', 'prevalence', 'survival', 'disease progression', 'PSA testing' or 'PSA screening', 'treatment', 'treatment complications' and 'recurrence'. A further search through internet search engines was conducted to identify any additional relevant published reports. Results: 91 papers were included in the review. While patterns were sometimes contrasting, the predominate patterns were for PSA testing to be more common in urban (5 studies out of 6) and affluent areas (2 of 2), higher prostate cancer incidence in urban (12 of 22) and affluent (18 of 20), greater risk of advanced stage prostate cancer in rural (7 of 11) and disadvantaged (8 of 9), higher survival in urban (8 of 13) and affluent (16 of 18), greater access or use of definitive treatment services in urban (6 of 9) and affluent (7 of 7), and higher prostate mortality in rural (10 of 20) and disadvantaged (8 of 16) areas. Conclusions: Future studies may need to utilise a mixed methods approach, in which the quantifiable attributes of the individuals living within areas are measured along with the characteristics of the areas themselves, but importantly include a qualitative examination of the lived experience of people within those areas. These studies should be conducted across a range of international countries using consistent measures and incorporate dialogue between clinicians, epidemiologists, policy advocates and disease control specialists.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3469-3476
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• 2016

Background: The cancer research literature suggests that women, especially premenopausal women, have lower cancer mortality rates than men. However, it is unclear if that is true for populations at all age levels in all countries and what factors affect such sex differences. This paper attempts to fill that gap. Materials and Methods: Sex- and country-specific cancer mortality data were statistically analyzed with particular attention to geographic, social, and economic factors that may affect the sex differences. Results: The sex differences were age and country specific, rather than universal. Premenopausal women actually tend to have a disadvantage compared to men or postmenopausal women. Male cancer mortality appears to be the affecting factor in explaining variations in sex differences. Latitude of residence and literacy rate are the affecting factors in cancer mortality and sex differences. African and Latin American countries tend to have a female disadvantage, while East Asian and Eastern European countries are more likely to have a female advantage. Conclusions: The findings challenge the cancer mortality literature and indicate that the sex differences and their possible causes are more complicated than the current literature suggests. They also highlight the urgency of adapting age- and country- specific health systems and policies to better meet the needs of younger women.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.29-51
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• 2021

The present research explores the tendency of the items that require Place Location Knowledge (PLK) of the Korean Geography subject in the College Scholastic Ability Test. The major findings are as follows. First, the geographical regions of the items are spatially skewed, especially in the Yeongnam regions, which are tested more frequently compared to the others. Second, the fact-based items more concern with regionality such as geographic indication system and regional festivals. Third, the concept-based items can be divided into physical geography and human geography and there were four items related to economic geography. Fourth, students tend to find it challenging in the items asking PLK. The difficulty varies according to the type of items. The students find concept-based items which require high-order thinking more challenging. There is also differences identified between contents. For example, the section of physical geography, especially climatology-related, were considered the most challenging followed by those of economic geography. Finally, the differences in the rate of correct answer are associated with the scale of the regions covered in the items and students experienced more difficulty in the items asking more precise scale.