• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.343-363
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• 2023

Sulawesi island, as a global producer of nickel resources, is leading the rapid growth of nickel industry of Indonesia. Nickel laterite deposits in Sulawesi was formed by lateritization of the world-scale East Sulawesi Ophiolite (ESO) under the active tectonic setting and tropical rainforest climate. In this paper, exploration cases for nickel laterite deposits in five regions of Sulawesi are reported. Regional characteristics on nickel laterite deposits in Sulawesi are understood based on various exploration activities such as outcrop, trench and pit survey, petrological observation, geochemical analysis, and interpretation of drilling data, etc.. In the northeastern part of 'Southeast-Arm', which is a strategic location for nickel industry of Indonesia, ESO is extensively exposed to the surface. In the Morombo and Morowali regions, typical high-grade saprolite-type orebodies with a thickness of 10 to 20 m occur. The cases showed that topographic relief tends to regulate Ni-grade distribution and orebody thickness, and that high grade intervals tend to occur in places where joints and garnierite veins are dense. In the Tinanggea and South Palangga regions in the southern part of the Southeast-Arm, overburden composed of Neogene to Quaternary deposits is a major factor affecting the preservation and profitability of nickel laterite deposits. Despite the overburden, high-grade saprolite-type orebodies composed of Ni-bearing serpentine with garnierite veins occur in a thickness of around 10 m to secure economic feasibility. In contrast, in the Ampana region in the northern part of 'East-Arm', low-grade nickel laterite deposits with immature laterite profile was identified, which is thought to be the result of active denudation due to tectonic uplift. Exploration cases in this paper will help to understand characteristics and controlling factors on nickel laterite deposits in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.273-275
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• 2017

It has been forty years since the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Korea. Following the 1977 legislature mandating medical insurance for employees and dependents in firms with more than 500 employees, South Korea expanded its health insurance to urban residents in 1989. Resultantly, total expenses of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) have greatly increased from 4.5 billion won in 1977 to 50.89 trillion won in 2016. With multiple insurers merging into the NHI system in 2000, a single-payer healthcare system emerged, along with separation policy of prescribing and dispensing. Following such reform, an emerging financial crisis required injections from the National Health Promotion Fund. Forty years following the introduction of the NHI system, both praise and criticism have been drawn. In just 12 years, the NHI achieved the fastest health population coverage in the world. Current medical expenditure is not high relative to the rest of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The quality of acute care in Korea is one of the best in the world. There is no sign of delayed diagnosis and/or treatment for most diseases. However, the NHI has been under-insured, requiring high-levels of out-of-pocket money from patients and often causing catastrophic medical expenses. Furthermore, the current environmental circumstances of the NHI are threatening its sustainability. Low birth rate decline, as well as slow economic growth, will make sustainment of the current healthcare system difficult in the near future. An aging population will increase the amount of medical expenditure required, especially with the baby-boomer generation of those born between 1955 and 1965. Meanwhile, there is always the problem of unification for the Korean Peninsula, and what role the health insurance system will have to play when it occurs. In the presidential election, health insurance is a main issue; however, there is greater focus on expansion and expenditure than revenue. Many aspects of Korea's NHI system (1977) were modeled after the German (1883) and Japanese (1922) systems. Such systems were created during an era where infections disease control was most urgent and thus, in the current non-communicable disease (NCD) era, must be redesigned. The Korean system, which is already forty years old, must be redesigned completely. Although health insurance benefit expansion is necessary, financial measures, as well as moral hazard control measures, must also be considered. Ultimately, there are three aspects that we must consider when attempting redesign of the system. First, the health security system must be reformed. NHI and Medical Aid must be amalgamated into one system for increased effectiveness and efficiency of the system. Within the single insurer system of the NHI must be an internal market for maximum efficiency. The NHIS must be separated into regions so that regional organizers have greater responsibility over their actions. Although insurance must continue to be imposed nationally, risk-adjustment must be distributed regionally and assessed by different regional systems. Second, as a solution for the decreasing flow of insurance revenue, low premium level must be increased to an appropriate level. Likewise, the national reserve fund (No. 36, National Health Insurance Act) must be enlarged for re-unification preparation. Third, there must be revolutionary reform of benefit package. The current system built a focus on communicable diseases which is inappropriate in this NCD era. Medical benefits must not be one-time events but provide chronic disease management. Chronic care models, accountable care organization, patient-centered medical homes, and other systems that introduce various benefit packages for beneficiaries must be implemented. The reimbursement system of medical costs should be introduced to various systems for different types of care, as is the case with part C (Medicare Advantage Program) of America's Medicare system that substitutes part A and part B. Pay for performance must be expanded so that there is not only improvement in quality of care but also medical costs. Moreover, beneficiaries of the NHI system must be aware of the amount of their expenditure through a deductible payment system so that spending can be profiled and monitored. The Moon Jae-in Government has announced its plans to expand the NHI system; however, it is important that a discussion forum is created so that more accurate analysis of the NHI, its environments, and current status of health care system, can take place for reforming NHI.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2023

Variations in geochemical and mineralogical properties of the ferromanganese(Fe-Mn) crust reflect environmental changes. In the present study, geochemical and mineralogical analyses, including micro X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction, were utilized to reconstruct the paleo-ocean environment of western Pacific Magellan seamount cluster. Samples of the Fe-Mn crust were collected using an epibenthic sledge from the open seamount XX (151° 51.12' 7.2" E and 16° 8.16' 9.6" N, 1557 meters below sea level) in the Western Pacific Magellan Seamount. According to the structure and phosphating status, the Fe-Mn crust of the OSM-XX can be divided into the following: phosphatizated (L4-L5), massive non-phosphatizated (L3), and porous non-phosphatizated (L1-L2) portions. All ferromanganese layers contain vernadite, and owing to the presence of carbonate fluorapatite (CFA), the phosphatizated portion (L4-L5) is rich in Ca and P. The massive non-phosphatizated section (L3) contains high Mn, Ni, and Co, whereas the porous non-phosphatizated portion (L1-L2), which comprises detrital quartz and feldspar, is rich in Fe. Variations in properties of the Fe-Mn crust from the OSM-XX reflect changes in the nearby marine environment. The formation of this crust started at approximately 51.87 Ma, and precipitation of the CFA during the global phosphatization event that occurred at approximately 36-32 Ma highlights an elevated sea level and low temperature during the associated period. The high Mn, Ni, and Co concentrations and elevated Mn/Fe ratios of samples from the massive phosphatizated portion indicate that the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) was enhanced, and reducing conditions prevailed during the crust formation. The high Fe and low Mn/Fe ratios in the porous portion indicate a weak OMZ and dominantly oxidizing conditions. These data reflect environmental changes following the end of the Mi-1 glacial period in the Miocene-Oligocene boundary. Subsequently, Mn/Fe and Co/Mn ratios increased slightly in the outermost part of Fe-Mn crust because of the enhanced bottom current and OMZ associated with the continued cooling from approximately 9 Ma. However, the reduced carbonate dissolution rate in the Pacific Ocean from approximately 6 Ma decreased the growth rate of the Fe-Mn crust.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.75-90
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• 2003

When we think of fundamental problems of the aquaculture industry, there are several strict conditions, and consequently the aquaculture industry is forced to change. Fish aquaculture has a structural supply surplus in production, aggravation of fishing grounds, stagnant low price due to recent recession, and drastic change of distribution circumstances. It is requested for us to initiate discussion on such issue as “how fish aquaculture establishes its status in the coastal fishery\ulcorner, will fish aquaculture grow in the future\ulcorner, and if so “how it will be restructured\ulcorner” The above issues can be observed in the mariculture of yellow tail, sea scallop and eel. But there have not been studied concerning seabream even though the production is over 30% of the total production of fish aquaculture in resent and it occupied an important status in the fish aquaculture. The objectives of this study is to forecast the future movement of sea bream aquaculture. The first goal of the study is to contribute to managerial and economic studies on the aquaculture industry. The second goal is to identify the factors influencing the competition between production areas and to identify the mechanisms involved. This study will examine the competitive power in individual producing area, its behavior, and its compulsory factors based on case study. Producing areas will be categorized according to following parameters : distance to market and availability of transportation, natural environment, the time of formation of producing areas (leaderㆍfollower), major production items, scale of business and producing areas, degree of organization in production and sales. As a factor in shaping the production area of sea bream aquaculture, natural conditions especially the water temperature is very important. Sea bream shows more active feeding and faster growth in areas located where the water temperature does not go below 13∼14$^{\circ}C$ during the winter. Also fish aquaculture is constrained by the transporting distance. Aquacultured yellowtail is a mass-produced and a mass-distributed item. It is sold a unit of cage and transported by ship. On the other hand, sea bream is sold in small amount in markets and transported by truck; so, the transportation cost is higher than yellow tail. Aquacultured sea bream has different product characteristics due to transport distance. We need to study live fish and fresh fish markets separately. Live fish was the original product form of aquacultured sea bream. Transportation of live fish has more constraints than the transportation of fresh fish. Death rate and distance are highly correlated. In addition, loading capacity of live fish is less than fresh fish. In the case of a 10 ton truck, live fish can only be loaded up to 1.5 tons. But, fresh fish which can be placed in a box can be loaded up to 5 to 6 tons. Because of this characteristics, live fish requires closer location to consumption area than fresh fish. In the consumption markets, the size of fresh fish is mainly 0.8 to 2kg.Live fish usually goes through auction, and quality is graded. Main purchaser comes from many small-sized restaurants, so a relatively small farmer and distributer can sell it. Aquacultured sea bream has been transacted as a fresh fish in GMS ,since 1993 when the price plummeted. Economies of scale works in case of fresh fish. The characteristics of fresh fish is as follows : As a large scale demander, General Merchandise Stores are the main purchasers of sea bream and the size of the fish is around 1.3kg. It mainly goes through negotiation. Aquacultured sea bream has been established as a representative food in General Merchandise Stores. GMS require stable and mass supply, consistent size, and low price. And Distribution of fresh fish is undertook by the large scale distributers, which can satisfy requirements of GMS. The market share in Tokyo Central Wholesale Market shows Mie Pref. is dominating in live fish. And Ehime Pref. is dominating in fresh fish. Ehime Pref. showed remarkable growth in 1990s. At present, the dealings of live fish is decreasing. However, the dealings of fresh fish is increasing in Tokyo Central Wholesale Market. The price of live fish is decreasing more than one of fresh fish. Even though Ehime Pref. has an ideal natural environment for sea bream aquaculture, its entry into sea bream aquaculture was late, because it was located at a further distance to consumers than the competing producing areas. However, Ehime Pref. became the number one producing areas through the sales of fresh fish in the 1990s. The production volume is almost 3 times the production volume of Mie Pref. which is the number two production area. More conversion from yellow tail aquaculture to sea bream aquaculture is taking place in Ehime Pref., because Kagosima Pref. has a better natural environment for yellow tail aquaculture. Transportation is worse than Mie Pref., but this region as a far-flung producing area makes up by increasing the business scale. Ehime Pref. increases the market share for fresh fish by creating demand from GMS. Ehime Pref. has developed market strategies such as a quick return at a small profit, a stable and mass supply and standardization in size. Ehime Pref. increases the market power by the capital of a large scale commission agent. Secondly Mie Pref. is close to markets and composed of small scale farmers. Mie Pref. switched to sea bream aquaculture early, because of the price decrease in aquacultured yellou tail and natural environmental problems. Mie Pref. had not changed until 1993 when the price of the sea bream plummeted. Because it had better natural environment and transportation. Mie Pref. has a suitable water temperature range required for sea bream aquaculture. However, the price of live sea bream continued to decline due to excessive production and economic recession. As a consequence, small scale farmers are faced with a market price below the average production cost in 1993. In such kind of situation, the small-sized and inefficient manager in Mie Pref. was obliged to withdraw from sea bream aquaculture. Kumamoto Pref. is located further from market sites and has an unsuitable nature environmental condition required for sea bream aquaculture. Although Kumamoto Pref. is trying to convert to the puffer fish aquaculture which requires different rearing techniques, aquaculture technique for puffer fish is not established yet.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.113-132
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• 2019

The degree of females' participation in corporate activity has been recently increased over the world and females' participation in economic activity may be new dynamic fuel for the Korean economy that falls into the vicious cycle of low growth. Start-up, therefore, has increasingly taken attention as an opportunity for females whose careers were interrupted to re-enter the labor market. The need for studies that examine factors influencing the decision of start-up is also increased along with the increase of the ratio of females' start-up. This study aims to verify effects of the women's characteristics(women discrimination, women's role conflict) and the human networks of females whose careers were interrupted, with the intention for entrepreneurial intention, which are mediated by personal attitudes and subjective norm suggested by Ajzen's Theory of Reasoned Action, based on an empirical research. The findings show that the human networks of females have an effect on attitudes toward start-up activity and subjective norm and the woman discrimination influence the personal attitudes. In contrast, the women's role conflict have no effect on both personal attitude toward start-up activity and subjective norm. This can be supposed as an outcome resulted from the subjects' low level of conflict caused by their sex roles, on their age distribution. The relation between subjective norm and entrepreneurial Intention seemed to be moderated by their perceived strong entrepreneurial supporting policy. Their attitudes toward start-up activity were found to have a mediating effect on the relation between the women discrimination, human networks and entrepreneurial Intention, while the subjective norm only mediated the relation between human networks and entrepreneurial Intention. Based on such results, this study attempts to suggest theoretical suggestions and the direction of various entrepreneurial supporting policy for the increase and the growth of start-up of females whose careers were interrupted, in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.96-106
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• 2008

The Korean Construction Industry significantly contributed to the Korean economic development not only by preparing the domestic infrastructure but also by successfully conducting various international projects. However, major incidents such as the collapse of Sung-Su Bridge and Sam-Pung Department Store along with stagnation of Korean Economy have raised questions about underlying systematic problems of the Korean Construction Industry. As a solution to resurrect the Korean Construction Industry, the Construction Management (CM) system introduced in late 1990's and increasingly utilized as an innovative delivery system. Despite of the fast growth of CM, the performance of CM has not been up to the hype and low CM fee has been identified as one of the main reasons of unsatisfactory CM performance. Therefore, this research attempted to propose ways of improving 'CM Fee Guidelines' published by Korean Ministry of Construction and Transportation by conducting a benchmarking study on Global Standards of estimating CM Fee. International organizations benchmarked in this research include CMAA, ASCE, DOL, DOE, etc. Various investigation and analysis revealed that Korean 'CM Fee Guidelines' need to significantly modified comparing to Global Standards. This research also tried to prepare recommendations to improve the CM deliver system focusing on the 'Method of CM Fee Estimation' and Selection of a CM firm as an owner's agent.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.95-106
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• 2016

Air transportation demand is consistently increasing in Korea due to economic growth and low cost carriers. For this reason, airport expansion plans are being discussed in Korea. Therefore, it is essential to forecast reliable air transportation demand with adequate methods. However, most of the air transportation demand models in Korea has been developed by simple regression analysis with several dummy variables. Simple regression analysis without considering stationarity of time-series data can bring spurious outputs when a direct causal relationship between explanatory variables and dependent variable does not exist. In this paper, econometric model were developed for air transportation demand based on stationarity in time-series data. Unit root test and co-integration test are used for testing hypothesis of stationarity.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.237-246
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• 2011

To explore the sources of carbonaceous material in the airborne particulate matter (PM), comprehensive PM sampling was performed (3 to 14 January 2010) at a traffic hot spot site (HS), Farm Gate, Dhaka using several samplers: AirMetrics MiniVol (for $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$) and MOUDI (for size fractionated submicron PM). Long-term PM data (April 2000 to March 2006 and April 2000 to March 2010 in two size fractions ($PM_{2.2}$ and $PM_{2.2-10}$) obtained from two air quality-monitoring stations, one at Farm Gate (HS) and another at a semi-residential (SR) area (Atomic Energy Centre, Dhaka Campus, (AECD)), respectively were also analyzed. The long-term PM trend shows that fine particulate matter concentrations have decreased over time as a result of government policy interventions even with increasing vehicles on the road. The ratio of $PM_{2.5}/PM_{10}$ showed that the average $PM_{2.5}$ mass was about 78% of the $PM_{10}$ mass. It was also found that about 63% of $PM_{2.5}$ mass is $PM_1$. The total contribution of BC to $PM_{2.5}$ is about 16% and showed a decreasing trend over the years. It was observed that $PM_1$ fractions contained the major amount of carbonaceous materials, which mainly originated from high temperature combustion process in the $PM_{2.5}$. From the IMPROVE TOR protocol carbon fraction analysis, it was observed that emissions from gasoline vehicles contributed to $PM_1$ given the high abundance of EC1 and OC2 and the contribution of diesel to $PM_1$ is minimal as indicated by the low abundance of OC1 and EC2. Source apportionment results also show that vehicular exhaust is the largest contributors to PM in Dhaka. There is also transported $PM_{2.2}$from regional sources. With the increasing economic activities and recent GDP growth, the number of vehicles and brick kilns has significantly increased in and around Dhaka. Further action will be required to further reduce PM-related air pollution in Dhaka.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.97-104
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• 2020

The study participants selected three participants in their late 40s and conducted a total of six sessions and in-depth interviews for 90 minutes to collect and analyze data using the phenomenological Giorgi research method. The conclusion according to the research results was drawn as follows. First, the shame, fear, reprimand, violence, passive attitude, and childhood that had to be adjusted seemed to maintain a stable life in the late forties, but still appeared in the present life. It was found that they showed a low self-satisfaction rather than positive satisfaction with self-concept and pursued an ideal self-image. Second, lifestyle was a time of severe depression, lethargy, and emptiness as a child, experiencing an unstable childhood due to a violent family, loss of attachment, overprotection, difficult economic conditions, and parental strife. It has been found that in the late forties, families have been established and religious life is being stabilized, and the responsibility for the family is valued. This shows how a lifestyle that gives meaning and recognizes what experience gives meaning to the childhood that one experienced. Insight into change and growth in middle-aged life, searching for and interpreting the initial recollections that they have experienced, accompanied by social and psychological changes in middle-aged men, discovering inappropriate meanings and goals and preparing for a second life in the age of 100 It is meaningful to provide.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.37-45
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• 2015

Purpose - This paper's aim is to investigate whether or not gross profitability explains the cross-sectional variation of the stock returns in the Korean stock market. Gross profitability is an alternative profitability measure proposed by Novy-Marx in 2013 to predict cross-sectional variation of stock returns in the US. He shows that the gross profitability adds explanatory power to the Fama-French 3 factor model. Interestingly, gross profitability is negatively correlated with the book-to-market ratio. By confirming the gross profitability premium in the Korean stock market, we may provide some implications regarding the well-known value premium. In addition, our empirical results may provide opportunities for the fund distribution industry to promote brand new styles of funds. Research design, data, and methodology - For our empirical analysis, we collect monthly market prices of all the companies listed on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) of the Korea Exchanges (KRX). Our sample period covers July1994 to December2014. The data from the company financial statementsare provided by the financial information company WISEfn. First, using Fama-Macbeth cross-sectional regression, we investigate the relation between gross profitability and stock return performance. For robustness in analyzing the performance of the gross profitability strategy, we consider value weighted portfolio returns as well as equally weighted portfolio returns. Next, using Fama-French 3 factor models, we examine whether or not the gross profitability strategy generates excess returns when firmsize and the book-to-market ratio are controlled. Finally, we analyze the effect of firm size and the book-to-market ratio on the gross profitability strategy. Results - First, through the Fama-MacBeth cross-sectional regression, we show that gross profitability has almost the same explanatory power as the book-to-market ratio in explaining the cross-sectional variation of the Korean stock market. Second, we find evidence that gross profitability is a statistically significant variable for explaining cross-sectional stock returns when the size and the value effect are controlled. Third, we show that gross profitability, which is positively correlated with stock returns and firm size, is negatively correlated with the book-to-market ratio. From the perspective of portfolio management, our results imply that since the gross profitability strategy is a distinctive growth strategy, value strategies can be improved by hedging with the gross profitability strategy. Conclusions - Our empirical results confirm the existence of a gross profitability premium in the Korean stock market. From the perspective of the fund distribution industry, the gross profitability portfolio is worthy of attention. Since the value strategy portfolio returns are negatively correlated with the gross profitability strategy portfolio returns, by mixing both portfolios, investors could be better off without additional risk. However, the profitable firms are dissimilar from the value firms (high book-to-market ratio firms); therefore, an alternative factor model including gross profitability may help us understand the economic implications of the well-known anomalies such as value premium, momentum, and low volatility. We reserve these topics for future research.