• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.455-464
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• 2020

Objectives: The distribution of hospitals in Korea is unbalanced in terms of accessibility. Many local public health centers (PHCs) exempt out-of-pocket payments (OOPs) based on local government laws to increase coverage. However, this varies across administrative regions, as many make this exemption for the elderly, while others do not. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the OOP exemption at local PHCs among elderly individuals. Methods: This study used online data on Korean national law to gather information on individual local governments' regulations regarding OOP exemptions. Individual-level data were gathered from the 2018 Community Health Survey and regional-level data from public online sources. Results: The study analyzed 132 regions and 44 918 elderly people. A statistical analysis of rate differences and 2-level multiple logistic regression were carried out. The rate difference according to whether elderly individuals resided in areas with the OOP exemption was 1.97%p (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07 to 2.88) for PHC utilization, 1.37%p (95% CI, 0.67 to 2.08) for hypertension treatment, and 2.19%p (95% CI, 0.63 to 3.74) for diabetes treatment. The regression analysis showed that OOP exemption had an effect on hypertension treatment, with a fixed-effect odds ratio of 1.25 (95% CI, 1.05 to 1.48). Conclusions: The OOP exemption at PHCs can affect medical utilization in Korea, especially for hypertension treatment. The OOP exemption should be expanded to improve healthcare utilization in Korea.

• Ocean Science Journal
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.245-254
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• 2006

Long term wave climate of both extreme wave and operational wave height is essential for planning and designing coastal structures. Since the field wave data for the waters around Korean peninsula is not enough to provide reliable wave statistics, the wave climate information has been generated by means of long-term wave hindcasting using available meteorological data. Basic data base of hindcasted wave parameters such as significant wave height, peak period and direction has been established continuously for the period of 25 years starting from 1979 and for major 106 typhoons for the past 53 years since 1951 for each grid point of the North East Asia Regional Seas with grid size of 18 km. Wind field reanalyzed by European Center for Midrange Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) was used for the simulation of waves for the extra-tropical storms, while wind field calculated by typhoon wind model with typhoon parameters carefully analyzed using most of the available data was used for the simulation of typhoon waves. Design wave heights for the return period of 10, 20, 30, 50 and 100 years for 16 directions at each grid point have been estimated by means of extreme wave analysis using the wave simulation data. As in conventional methodsi of design criteria estimation, it is assumed that the climate is stationary and the statistics and extreme analysis using the long-term hindcasting data are used in the statistical prediction for the future. The method of extreme statistical analysis in handling the extreme vents like typhoon Maemi in 2003 was evaluated for more stable results of design wave height estimation for the return periods of 30-50 years for the cost effective construction of coastal structures.

• Atmosphere
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.407-420
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• 2007

Optical characteristics of aerosols in Seoul are investigated from the measurements of sky radiance by Skyradiometer at Yonsei University from December 2005 to November 2006. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) shows a maximum in June due to weak ventilation and particle growth by aging process and hygroscopic effect. Single scattering albedo (SSA) and Angstrom Exponent (AE) show the lowest value in spring due to the Asian dust. It is clear that coarse mode is dominant in spring and fine mode is dominant in summer from the volume size distribution measured in this study. The explanations on the changes of aerosol loadings are provided through the correlation between AOD and AE, while the pattern of wavelength dependency related to particle size is shown through the correlation between SSA and AE. Backward trajectory analysis by HYSPLIT provides information about origin of aerosol, which allows us to classify the case according to the source region and the path distance. Although the direction of backward trajectory traces back mostly to west, coarse mode particle is dominant in the case of long pathway and fine mode particle is dominant in the case of short pathway. This discrepancy is caused by the regional difference of emitted particles.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.773-781
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• 2007

The objective of this study was to investigate the nutritional and health status of women industrial workers by working fields. One hundred forty eight (105 lead and 43 office) workers were recruited from March 2005 to October 2005. Information on age, education, smoking and drinking status were collected using questionnaire and nutrient intake and diet quality of workers were assessed by average of two-day 24 hr recall method. Biochemical indexes including blood lead level (PbB), indexes for iron status, serum calcium (Ca) and serum lipid profiles were analyzed from fasting venous blood or serum. Results showed that education level of lead workers was lower than that of office workers (p<0.05), but nutrient intake levels were not significantly different by working fields. Overall nutritional status of the subject were good except for calcium, vitamin $B_2$, C and folic acid intakes. PbB of lead workers were significantly higher than that of office workers while mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and serum Ca levels were significantly lower in lead workers. MCHC was positively correlated with zinc intake (r=0.166) and serum Ca was positively correlated with vitamin C intake (r=0.179). This study confirms that lead workers need extra care to keep their health and nutritional management especially for the nutrients known to interact with lead. Tailored nutrition education for workers at specific working fields needs to be more focused for the improvement of health status of industrial workers.

• Architectural research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.27-35
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• 2007

Our nation has a problem with discrimination of income distribution and inefficient of resources distribution caused by real estate price rising from a sudden economy growth and industrialization. Specially, in recent years, there is a great disparity of apartment price between the north and south of the Han river. Because the housing price is decided by the immanent value of a house and neighborhood effects of the regional where the house is situated, the housing price is occurred difference. The purpose of study was to analyze the influence of various factors of housing price. Also, this study tried to predict real estate market and to establish previous effective real estate policy. In this study, we analyzed the differences of housing price determinants about apartment developments between the north and south of the Han river, and found the important factors that affect the housing price using Structural Equation Modeling(SEM). As a result of this study, the older the buildings are, the more the housing price and the housing price rising ratio have increased, in Gang Nam area. This reason is that these have large possibility to be reconstructed and many convenient facilities, in this area. In the case of Kang Buk area, the increase rate of housing price are so low that they couldn't take effect on the housing price and they were declined. So to speak, constructing the infrastructure which takes effect on the increase rate of housing price is very urgent.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.16 no.6 s.65
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• pp.451-466
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• 2006

Analysis of slope behavior concerning the structural characteristics of field rock mass can be processed by virtue of borehole information of joint orientation and position acquired from DOM drilled core. Anticipated sliding potential of pre-failed rock slope is analyzed and the regional slope instability is investigated by inspecting the hazardous joints and blocks the traces of which is projected on the cut-face. Cross section has been set at the center of rock slope and the traces of both joints and tetrahedral blocks, which potentially can induce the slope failure, are drawn to investigate the failure modes and the triggering mechanism. Automated monitoring system has been established to measure the slope movement and especially, inclinometer has been installed inside DOM borehole to analyze the slope movement by considering the internal rock structure. Algorithms for predicting the slope failure time have been reviewed and the significance of heavy rainfall on the slope behavior has been investigated.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.210-218
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics and nursing activities of severe trauma patients regarding damaged body parts in Busan Regional Emergency Medical Center. Methods: A survey using a 'trauma patient information questionnaire and a list of nurse activities' was conducted with 133 patients over 15 points ISS on EMR from June 1, 2011 to May 31, 2012. The collected data were analyzed by the SPSS/WIN 12.0 program. Results: Almost all of the subjects were men, and the mean age was 48.8. The amount of road traffic accidents was 60.4%, and the mean RTS and ISS were 6.08, and 23.14 points. Nursing activities in common were airway management, assessment of LOC & GCS, and EKG monitoring. Most of head and neck trauma patients were cared for manasing using intracranial pressure: each patience had the following assessed: pupil size and light reflex, they were checked the leak of CSF, kept $30^{\circ}$ head elevation, and administered medications. Some of chest trauma patients were treated for chest tube and central venous catheter insertion. Partial abdominal trauma patients were administered analgesic and cared for using arterial pressure measurement. Part of the limbs and pelvis trauma patients were given a blood transfusion. Conclusion: Based on the results, the characteristics and nursing activities were specific according to the specific damaged body parts.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.152-160
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• 2016

Purpose: Endoscopic diagnosis of gastric cancer (GC) that emerges after eradication of Helicobacter pylori may be affected by unique morphological changes. Using comprehensive endoscopic imaging, which can reveal biological alterations in gastric mucosa after eradication, previous studies demonstrated that Congo red chromoendoscopy (CRE) might clearly show an acid non-secretory area (ANA) with malignant potential, while autofluorescence imaging (AFI) without drug injection or dyeing may achieve early detection or prediction of GC. We aimed to determine whether AFI might be an alternative to CRE for identification of high-risk areas of gastric carcinogenesis after eradication. Materials and Methods: We included 27 sequential patients with metachronous GC detected during endoscopic surveillance for a mean of 82.8 months after curative endoscopic resection for primary GC and eradication. After their H. pylori infection status was evaluated by clinical interviews and $^{13}C$-urea breath tests, the consistency in the extension of corpus atrophy (e.g., open-type or closed-type atrophy) between AFI and CRE was investigated as a primary endpoint. Results: Inconsistencies in atrophic extension between AFI and CRE were observed in 6 of 27 patients, although CRE revealed all GC cases in the ANA. Interobserver and intraobserver agreements in the evaluation of atrophic extension by AFI were significantly less than those for CRE. Conclusions: We demonstrated that AFI findings might be less reliable for the evaluation of gastric mucosa with malignant potential after eradication than CRE findings. Therefore, special attention should be paid when we clinically evaluate AFI findings of background gastric mucosa after eradication (University Hospital Medical Information Network Center registration number: UMIN000020849).

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.282-296
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• 2012

This study compared effects of spatial resolution ratio in image fusion by Korea Multi-Purpose SATellite 2 (KOMPSAT II), also known as Arirang-2. Image fusion techniques, also called pansharpening, are required to obtain color imagery with high spatial resolution imagery using panchromatic and multi-spectral images. The higher quality satellite images generated by an image fusion technique enable interpreters to produce better application results. Thus, image fusions categorized in 3 domains were applied to find out significantly improved fused images using KOMPSAT 2. In addition, all fused images were evaluated to satisfy both spectral and spatial quality to investigate an optimum fused image. Additionally, this research compared Pixel-Based Image Analysis (PBIA) with the GEOgraphic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) to make better classification results. Specifically, a roof top of building was extracted by both image analysis approaches and was finally evaluated to obtain the best accurate result. This research, therefore, provides the effective use for very high resolution satellite imagery with image interpreter to be used for many applications such as coastal area, urban and regional planning.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.24
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• pp.10735-10738
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• 2015

Background: Cancers of the breast, uterine cervix and ovary are common cancers amongst females of North East India. Not much is known about the descriptive epidemiology of these cancers in our population. The present retrospective analysis was therefore performed. Materials and Methods: The data set available at the hospital based cancer registry of a regional cancer center of North-East India, containing information on patients registered during the period of January 2010 to December 2012, was applied. A total of 2,925 cases of breast, uterine cervix and ovarian cancer were identified. Results: Of the total, 1,295 (44.3%) were breast cancers, 1,214 (41.5%) were uterine cervix and 416 (14.2%) ovarian cancer, median age (range) for breast, uterine cervix and ovary were 45 (17-85), 48 (20-91) and 45 years (7-80), respectively. Some 43.5% of cases with uterine cervix patients were illiterate, 5.4% and 5.7% stage I in breast and cervix respectively and 96.4% of ovarian cancers in advanced stage. Conclusions: Improvement of female education can contribute to increase the proportion of early stage diagnosis of breast and uterine cervix in our population. Any population-based intervention for the detection of cancers of breast, uterine cervix and ovarian cancer should be started early in our population.