• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3173-3177
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• 2016

Background: The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) in Lebanon provides cancer drugs free of charge for uninsured patients who account for more than half the total case-load. Other categories of cancer care are subsidized under more stringent eligibility criteria. MOPH's large database offers an excellent opportunity to analyze the cost of cancer treatment in Lebanon. Materials and Methods: Using utilization and spending data accumulated at MOPH during 2008-2013, the cost to the public budget of cancer drugs was assessed per case and per drug type. Results: The average annual cost of cancer drugs was 6,475$ per patient. Total cancer drug costs were highest for breast cancer, followed by chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), which together represented 74% of total MOPH cancer drug expenditure. The annual average cancer drug cost per case was highest for CML ($31,037), followed by NHL ($11,566). Trastuzumab represented 26% and Imatinib 15% of total MOPH cancer drug expenditure over six years. Conclusions: Sustained increase in cancer drug cost threatens the sustainability of MOPH coverage, so crucial for socially vulnerable citizens. To enhance the bargaining position with pharmaceutical firms for drug cost containment in a small market like Lebanon, drug price comparisons with neighboring countries which have already obtained lower prices may succeed in lowering drug costs.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.84-87
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• 2017

Catastrophic healthcare expenditure refers to out-of-pocket spending for healthcare exceeding a certain proportion of a household's income and can lead to subsequent impoverishment. The aim of this study was to investigate the proportion of South Korean households that experienced catastrophic healthcare expenditure between 2006 and 2015 using available data from the Korea Health Panel, National Survey of Tax and Benefit, and Household Income and Expenditure Survey. Frequencies and trend tests were conducted to analyze the proportion of households with catastrophic healthcare expenditure. Subgroup analysis was performed based on income level. The results of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey revealed that around 2.88% of households experienced catastrophic healthcare expenditure in 2015 and that this proportion was highest in the low income group. Results also showed a statistically significant increasing trend in the number of households with catastrophic healthcare expenditure (annual percentage change= 0.92%, p-value < 0.0001). Therefore, the findings infer a need to strengthen public health care financing and to particularly monitor catastrophic healthcare expenditure in the low income group.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.158-170
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• 2007

Purpose: To measure the sexual life and life satisfaction of the elderly in a rural sea village. Method: Data were collected from November 20, 2006 to January 10, 2007 through a personal. interview with 262 elderly registered at one primary health care post in Gyeongsangnam do using a questionnaire. Results: The mean life satisfaction score was each 20.9. Of the scores related to life satisfaction according to general characteristics, there were statistically significant differences in age(p=.003, p=.026), education level(p=.036), presence of spouse(p=.016), residence(p=.039), economic status(p=.000, p=.013), monthly spending(p=.000, p=.000), economic supporter(p=.001, p=.022), and perceived health condition(p=.005, p=.009). Of the scores related to life satisfaction according to sexual life characteristics, there were statistically significant differences in importance of sexual life(p=.000, p=.047), performance of sexual life(p=.018), frequency of sexual life(p=.006), satisfaction of sexual life(p=.002, p=.005), and sexual life of youth(p=.022, p=.000). Conclusion: We should investigate influencing factors on sexual life and life satisfaction of the elderly and include knowledge about sexual life of the elderly in health promotion programs for the elderly.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.63-81
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to analyze the characteristics and problems of "Reading Cheongju" campaign which started as "One Book, One City" reading promotion campaign in 2006 and conducted three times in two years. The analysis of such steps as the selection and distribution of "one book", reading and discussion. events and programs, financial assistance, public relations, etc. documents both positive and negative aspects of its performance. "Reading Cheongju" campaign helped improve both the image of the Cheongju Information Library and the importance of reading and discussion in the community, while lacking in participation from diverse groups of community members, flexibility in spending public expenses, and cooperation among libraries and other related organizations.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2017

There has been a pronounced increase in research and development (R&D) expenditure in Singapore over the last two decades, with government spending accounting for a sizeable share. This increase has been spurred by public policy emphasis on research and innovation as engines of economic growth. This paper analyses the impact of R&D on economic performance in Singapore from 1978 to 2012 through the use of time series analysis. The Cobb-Douglas based analysis shows a long-run equilibrium relationship between Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and R&D investments. We found that the short-run productivity of R&D in Singapore is comparable to smaller advanced economies in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). However, in terms of long-run R&D productivity, Singapore lags slightly behind the smaller OECD nations and far behind the G7 countries. This suggests leakage of value capture and low absorptive capacity in local firms. Possibility of productivity improvements induced by policy changes in the 1990s was considered, but no evidence of significant structural breaks was found. Lastly, Granger causality analysis reveals that public sector R&D augments private sector R&D capital, thus playing an important role in generating externalities and spillover effects. Policy implications and lessons for other middle-income countries are discussed.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.289-294
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• 2019

As social network service platforms grow and one-person media market expands, people upload their own photos and/or videos through multiple open platforms. However, it can be illegal to upload the digital contents containing the faces of others on the public sites without their permission. Therefore, many people are spending much time and effort in editing such digital contents so that the faces of others should not be exposed to the public. In this paper, we propose an automatic face hiding system called 'autoblur', which detects all the unregistered faces and mosaic them automatically. The system has been implemented using the GitHub MIT open-source 'Face Recognition' which is based on deep learning technology. In this system, two dozens of face images of the user are taken from different angles to register his/her own face. Once the face of the user is learned and registered, the system detects all the other faces for the given photo or video and then blurs them out. Our experiments show that it produces quick and correct results for the sample photos.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.50-67
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• 2007

This study investigated income elasticity of household health expenditures and differences by income level from 1998 through 2003. Data from Korean Labor and Income Panel Study was used for empirical analyses. To estimate the income effects on health expenditure, the two-part model was employed: a logistic regression for any health expenditure-first part-and a Ordinary Least Square regression for health expenditure conditional on any spending-second part. To estimate income elasticity, both health expenditure and income were log transformed in the second part. In addition, the random effects(RE) model was used for a longitudinal panel which was continuously followed from 1998 through 2003 to estimate income effects on health expenditures controlling for within and between unobservable household characteristics. Furthermore, difference in income effects on health expenditure across income level was investigated. Although income slightly increased odds of any health expenditure, there was not no table differences across income level. Income significantly increased health expenditures during study period(overall income elasticity: about 0.2) and the highest 20% income group presented higher income elasticity than the lowest 20% income group.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.85-107
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• 2021

Wildfires have become increasingly common and intense in South Korea because of climate change, but few have recognized the catastrophic level of the problem. Given the significant impact of wildfires, emergency management stakeholders must have effective risk communication structures for rapidly responding to such phenomena and overcoming geographical difficulties. Despite the country spending billions of dollars to build a big databased early warning system, risk communication flow during the 2017 Gangneung wildfire was ineffective, thereby causing substantial economic, social, and environmental losses. To examine the patterns of information exchange in South Korea's risk communication networks and their structural characteristics during the wildfire, we conducted semantic and network analyses of real-time data collected from social media. The results showed that the inefficient flow of risk information prevented emergency responders from adequately assessing the emergency and protecting the population. This study provides new insights into effective risk communication responses to catastrophic events and methods of research on webometric approaches to emergency management.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.291-300
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• 2012

Objectives: We aimed to estimate the annual socioeconomic burden of coronary heart disease (CHD) in Korea in 2005, using the National Health Insurance (NHI) claims data. Methods: A prevalence-based, top-down, cost-of-treatment method was used to assess the direct and indirect costs of CHD (International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision codes of I20-I25), angina pectoris (I20), and myocardial infarction (MI, I21-I23) from a societal perspective. Results: Estimated national spending on CHD in 2005 was $2.52 billion. The majority of the spending was attributable to medical costs (53.3%), followed by productivity loss due to morbidity and premature death (33.6%), transportation (8.1%), and informal caregiver costs (4.9%). While medical cost was the predominant cost attribute in treating angina (74.3% of the total cost), premature death was the largest cost attribute for patients with MI (66.9%). Annual per-capita cost of treating MI, excluding premature death cost, was $3183, which is about 2 times higher than the cost for angina ($1556). Conclusions: The total insurance-covered medical cost ($1.13 billion) of CHD accounted for approximately 6.02% of the total annual NHI expenditure. These findings suggest that the current burden of CHD on society is tremendous and that more effective prevention strategies are required in Korea.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.21-43
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• 2015

Korean floricultural industry has grown under the full backing of government, as it placed itself as the main export item since 2000s. Despite its high-speed growth after the domestic production scale of trillion won, the floricultural industry lost its pace after 2005, due to the market-opening of agricultural product and global economic depression. Although the national income is growing and the level of civilized living is following, spending on flowers is faltering. As of such circumstances, necessity for analyzing flower consumption trend and behavior has came out, along with the calls for expansion plan of flower consumption, under the basis of result analysis on consumer reports. The result of the research contains the trend/consumption behavior analysis on domestic and foreign flower industry to boost floricultural industry, along with reviews on various studies of the developmental process of domestic and foreign cut-flowers/pot-plants consumption trend. Also this study has reached to the various recognition of people toward flower, through a public survey. Through such results, this study would like to propose the measures for diffusion of flower-consumption culture, achieving the improvement of life-quality of public along. First, efforts on reviewing the customer accessibility is essential to create flower- culture and the consumption. Second, to eliminate the obstacles that prevents flowers from public's daily life is essential. Third is the effective public-relations on flowers. To create consuming culture and to adhere the positive images, it is essential to research and systematically organize categories of color, scent, and elements of flower and utilize them. Last proposal is the organization of flower-concerned personnels and the leading groups. The change is affected by the economical, social environment, along with the emotions of consumers. Therefore the necessity for the leading group to be the control-tower of such changes are very clear.