• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.280-291
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• 2021

The study examined the influence of climate and soil dynamics on vegetation health across the ecological zones in Rivers State, Nigeria. MODIS imagery was used to assess the vegetation health through NDVI and point grid pattern of meteorological data for total precipitation (TP), air temperature (AT), soil moisture (SM) and soil temperature (ST) of 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015 were used for the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Findings showed that NDVI ranged between 0.420 and 0.612 in the freshwater swamp (FWS) while between 0.465 and 0.611 in the rainforest and the NDVI in the mangrove was generally low. The highest mean AT was experienced in the mangrove ecological zone and the least was experienced in the rainforest. The mean SM was generally highest in the rainforest with highest value in 2000 (774.44 m³/m³). The ST was highest in the mangrove and the least was experienced in the rainforest while the TP was highest in the mangrove. NDVI correlated significantly with SM (r=0.720; p<0.05) and ST (r= -0.493; p<0.05). NDVI, SM, TP and ST significantly varied among the ecological zones. Regression analysis showed that vegetation health was significantly related to the combination of soil temperature and soil moisture (R²=0.641; p=0.000). Thus, monitoring the factors that affect vegetation health in a changing climate and soil environments is highly required.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.583-592
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• 2015

As the increase of an environmental disease has become a social problem after industrialization, academic interest in a spatial difference and characteristics of an environmental disease is on rise. The purpose of this study is to analyze the spatial distribution and characteristics of an environmental disease using the data provided by National Health Insurance Corporation in 2009. This research is focusing on atopic dermatitis among a variety of environmental diseases and shows the map that atopic dermatitis patients are distributed. Also, The Local Moran's I show how spatial autocorrelation of atopic dermatitis patients are distributed. First, the distribution of atopic dermatitis patients show the spatial difference. Second, 42 places including the western part of Incheon are hot spots of atopic dermatitis. Third, 39 places including Danyang are cold spot of atopic dermatitis. Forth, Jeju-si and Seogwipo-si are unusually hot spot of atopic dermatitis. These results have important implications that further research need to be done in public health geography.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.32 no.2 s.89
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• pp.149-163
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• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of human constitution adapting to environment. Human constitution adapting to climate zone is basically classified into four types: The $Af^{\ominus}$ constitution adapting to warm-humid climate, the $Aw^{\ominus}$ constitution adapting to warm-arid climate, the $Dw^{\oplus}$ constitution adapting to cold-arid climate and the $Df^{\oplus}$ constitution adapting to cold-humid climate. The ${\ominus}constitution$ can be changed into a ${\oplus}constitution$ by adapting to cold climate or by heredity combination with the ${\oplus}constitution$. The ${\oplus}constitution$ can be changed into a ${\ominus}constitution$ by adapting to warm climate or by heredity combination with the ${\ominus}constitution$. The four constitution types consequently can be classified into eight types: The $Af^{\ominus}$ constitution, the $Af^{\oplus}$ constitution, the $Aw^{\ominus}$ constitution, the $Aw^{\oplus}$ constitution, the $Dw^{\oplus}$ constitution, the $Dw^{\ominus}$ constitution, the $Df^{\oplus}$ constitution and the $Df^{\ominus}$ constitution. This study investigated the characteristics of fingers of people with these constitutions and confirmed that the fingers of the ${\ominus}constitution$ man are longer, slender and cooler than the fingers of the ${\oplus}constitution$ man.

• 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 Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.919-924
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• 2009

Geographical location carries information such as demography, local economy, environment, and life styles, which could be the sources of cancer occurrence. Analyzing geographical location associated with cancer occurrence can be instructive to physicians, patients, and health administrators regarding resource allocation, expenditures, prophylaxis and treatments. In this paper, we explored the correspondence relationship between geographical locations and mortality rates of the cancers using correspondence analysis and illustrated the approach with the mortality rates of the top 10 cancers in the 75 counties in Arkansas from 2001 to 2005. Geographical variations with respect to the mortality rates of cancers are evaluated across Arkansas counties. Based on the contingency table, correspondence analysis model is developed and the simple indices which indicate the degree to which the regions and the cancers affect each other are calculated. Quantitative results are visualized and mapped in two-dimensional graphs.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.897-916
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• 2014

There is a considerable community between Eight Constitution Medicine and disease ecology in that they examine the relationship between humans and environment in terms of genetic, environmental and cultural factors, in addition to the factor of germs. In this respect, the purpose of this research aims to investigate the community between Eight Constitution Medicine, a branch of Eastern Medicine and disease ecology in geography. The research method is to analyse the clinical results from 647 patients and the data from a field survey on the Yeonggwang-gun County, Jeollanam-do Province. The results are summarized as the following: First, geographical distribution of patients varies depending on the type of physical constitution; it is also divided into two types, an oceanic type and an inland type. Second, it is highly probable that there is a significant relation between a vulnerable disease in association with a type of physical constitution and patient's native place; there are diseases that are not associated with all the patients who have the same constitution; they might be incurred by the eating or life habits in association with the characteristics of geographical environment. Third, the case study of Yeonggwang-gun County, Jeollanam-do Province, with a focus on the mutual relationship among the three factors. shows that patients, who share in common the eating or life habits that coincide with their own personal types of constitution, maintain a good health condition; if not, they tend to be exposed to a various kinds of disease. Because the study on the community between Eight Constitution Medicine and disease ecology is now at the early stage, diverse types of approaches should be tried to be applied in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.813-832
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• 2009

As accessibility to health-care service in less populated rural areas is geographically limited and demand for public health-care by the aging is increasing, a new approach for health-care service such as a home care service is becoming more popular. For a home care service, health-care personnels directly visit to location of health-care clients. Such changes in provision of health services require developing innovative and scientific approaches for efficient allocation of health resources and managing services by public health-care organizations. The purpose of this study is to formulate a location model for visiting health-care districting for the rural elderly and to develop an Automated Zoning Procedure (AZP) to solve this model. Mobility, workload balance and contiguity criteria are considered in the model. Three different objective functions are evaluated; 1) minimizing the sum of network distance between the unit areas in a district, 2) maximizing spatial interaction between the unit areas in a district, and 3) minimizing tour distance that visits each unit area exactly once in a district. The AZP for solving the model is developed and applied to a rural area. The application results demonstrate that the AZP can generate different districting systems for each objective functions.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.728-738
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• 2015

The main goal of this study to find out the relationship between the volume of tap water usage and the prevalence of environmental diseases and thus derive a conclusion that environmental diseases such as atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, and asthma are subject to spatial factors. The results of this study are summarized as follows: First, the more the household consumes more tap water the higher the instance of atopic dermatitis; second, the number of allergic rhinitis patients increases as the volume of wastewater rises in an area; and finally, the number of asthma patients is not influenced by any of the variables including household water usage volume, industrial water usage volume, and wastewater output volume. This study has proven statistically that water usage volume is closely related to environmental diseases, in particular, to atopic dermatitis, which the authors believe will be used as important basis.

• Proceedings of the KGS Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.75-78
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• 2003

A recent rise in mean global temperatures suggests a shift in the temporal cycles of natural seasons. The impacts of warming trends can alter the temporal and spatial distribution of flora and fauna. Especially, phenological cycles are very sensitive to the occurrence of alternation of hot and cold seasons. Phenological calendars reflect the natural seasonality. In more detail, phenological cycles affects agriculture and human health (i.e. the amount of fruit production and allergies), as well as tourism industries like flower fairs or festivals. (omitted)

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.143-148
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• 2020

Objectives: We calculated life expectancy and inequalities therein by income for the period of 2016-2018 across the 253 electoral constituencies of the 20th National Assembly election in Korea. Methods: We obtained population and death data between 2016 and 2018 from the National Health Information Database and constructed abridged life tables using standard life table procedures according to gender and income quintiles for the electoral constituencies of the 20th National Assembly election held in 2016. Results: Life expectancy across the 253 constituencies ranged from 80.51 years to 87.05 years, corresponding to a gap of 6.54 years. The life expectancy difference by income across the 253 constituencies ranged from 2.94 years to 10.67 years. In each province, the difference in life expectancy by income across electoral constituencies was generally greater than the inter-constituency differences. Constituencies in capital and metropolitan areas showed a higher life expectancy and a lower life expectancy difference by income than constituencies in rural areas. Conclusions: Pro-rich inequalities in life expectancy by income existed in every electoral constituency in Korea. Both intra-constituency and inter-constituency socioeconomic inequalities in health should be highlighted in future policy-making in the National Assembly.