• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.241-261
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• 2024

This study analyzes the determinants of greenhouse gas emissions using data from 16 metropolitan municipalities in South Korea. The STIRPAT model, which probabilistically models environmental impacts, was employed for the analysis. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous panel analyses were utilized. Recognizing that results from homogeneous panel analysis could be distorted due to the characteristics of panel data, cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity tests were conducted. The tests indicated that it is appropriate to use estimates that consider cross-sectional dependence and reflect slope heterogeneity. Therefore, the results from heterogeneous panel analysis were presented as the main findings. The analysis identified income (per capita GRDP) and energy efficiency (energy intensity) as key determinants of greenhouse gas emissions. Conversely, population was found not to be a key factor, and the industrial structure of the regions (share of the service industry in value-added) was also identified as a potential determinant of greenhouse gas emissions. The hypothesis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve was not statistically significant, suggesting that improving energy efficiency, rather than income growth and economic development, would be the most effective policy tool for reducing greenhouse gases in each municipality.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 2024

Purposes: When rehabilitation services are provided remotely using information and communication technologies to patients living at home, there is an advantage in providing rehabilitation services to individuals in their everyday social and physical environment, which can improve functional outcomes and satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of the pilot project by analyzing the outpatient and inpatient medical use and expenses of patients who participated in the rehabilitation patient home-based care pilot project. Methodology: To analyze the effectiveness of the home-based care pilot project for rehabilitation patients, health insurance claims data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service was used. The subjects of analysis were patients who had undergone major lower extremity joint replacement surgery, including hip, knee, and ankle joint replacement surgery, and patients who had lower extremity fracture surgery, which were the targets of the rehabilitation patient home-based care pilot project. To compare medical use and expenses between patients participating in the rehabilitation patient home-based care pilot project and those not participating, chi-square test, t-test, and multiple regression analysis were performed. Findings: As a result of analyzing the number of medical use cases and expenses of patients who participated and those who did not participate in the rehabilitation patient home-based care pilot project, the average outpatient medical use and outpatient medical expenses per person for participating patients were lower than those for patients who did not participate. The average hospitalization cost per person and the average length of stay per person were also lower than those of patients who did not participate. Practical Implications: Home-based care for rehabilitation patients continues to provide medical services at home, not at medical institutions, and can be expected to reduce readmissions and complications by resolving patients' emergency situations at home or on their own, thereby reducing medical use.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.184-190
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• 2024

Given the increasing health disparities across regions and populations, social accountability is not an option but an obligation for health professions schools, including medical schools. In this short communication, the authors report the case of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIU SOM), which has been an exemplary medical school for social accountability, receiving the 2013 AMEE ASPIRE Award in social accountability and the 2018 Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Award for Institutional Excellence in Social Mission in Health Professions Education. This paper focuses on the school's admission policies in the discussion of its social accountability. It starts with the background of central and southern Illinois, where the school is located to address the shortage of healthcare professionals in the areas. It discusses the school's holistic admission policies and two pipeline programs-namely, MEDPREP and McNeese Physician Preparatory Pipeline Program (P4)-that are strategically designed as a long-term physician workforce development plan to address health disparities in rural areas. As of January 30, 2024, 3,233 students have earned the MD (Doctor of Medicine) degree at SIU SOM. In total, 770 alumni (33%) are practicing in primary care. Among 901 graduates practicing in Illinois, 484 (54%) are practicing in SIU SOM service area counties (i.e., central and southern Illinois). Social accountability is the core value and organizational identity of SIU SOM and the guiding principle of the school's innovation and excellence.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.131-142
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• 2024

Background: The Republic of Korea has maintained a stable number of convalescent hospitals; however, the presence of Korean Medicine(KM) doctors in such establishments has increased. Despite this trend, it is hard to find the recent researches on KM within convalescent hospitals. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the current status of convalescent hospitals, particularly focused on patient characteristics and the provision of KM. Method: Data were obtained from the Health Insurance Review&Assessment Service, relying on the Korea Institute Healthcare Accreditation, spanning from January to March 2024. Analysis was conducted through the categorization of in-patients and the provision of KM, utilizing R software. Results: Among the 143 convalescent hospitals, the majority(83.9%) provided KM, with 43.4% of them located near Seoul. Convalescent hospitals offering KM were characterized by a higher number of doctors(p=0.003) and a greater total bed number(p<0.001). The hospitals with KM specializing in dementia care located near Seoul and exhibited a higher proportion of doctors, total beds(p=0.010), uninsured beds, grade of certification evaluation(Gr) and supported activities of daily living(ADL)(p<0.001, respectively). However, the hospitals with KM specializing in cancer care had higher rate of doctors(p=0.036), total beds, uninsured beds, Gr, and average daily out-of-pocket per person and lower levels of self ADL(p<0.001, respectively). In addition, the hospitals with specialists in KM belonging to dementia care only located near Seoul(p=0.042) and exhibited a higher rate of total beds(p=0.007). Conclusion: These findings indicate significant differences among convalescent hospitals based on patient characteristics and the provision of KM. Consequently, such distinctions merit consideration in future studies.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1291-1298
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• 2014

Background: Evidence for associations between dietary factors and breast cancer risk is inconclusive among Chinese females. To evaluate this question, we conducted a systematic review of relevant case-control and cohort studies. Methods: Studies were systematically searched among 5 English databases (PudMed, ScienceDirect, Wiley, Clinicaltrials.gov, and Cochrane) and 3 Chinese databases (CNKI, WanFang, and VIP) until November 2012. Random effects models were used to estimate summary odds ratios (ORs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Thirty one case-control studies and two cohort studies involving 9,299 cases and 11,413 controls were included. Consumption of both soy and fruit was significantly associated with decreased risk of breast cancer, with summary ORs of 0.65 (95% CIs: 0.43-0.99; I2=88.9%, P<0.001; N=13) and 0.66 (95% CIs: 0.47-0.91; $I^2$=76.7%, P<0.001; N=7), respectively. Consumption of fat was significantly associated with increased risk of breast cancer (OR=1.36; 95% CIs: 1.13-1.63; $I^2$=47.9%, P=0.088; N=6). There was nonsignificant association between consumption of vegetables and breast cancer risk (OR=0.72; 95% CIs: 0.51-1.02; $I^2$= 74.4%, P<0.001; N=9). However, sensitivity analysis based on adjusted ORs showed decreased risk of breast cancer was also associated with consumption of vegetables (OR=0.49; 95% CIs: 0.30-0.67). Conclusion: Both soy food and fruit are significantly associated with decreased risk of breast cancer among Chinese females, and vegetables also seems to be protective while dietary fatexerts a promoting influence.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.139-149
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• 2003

Objectives：To review the history of the development and current status of Korean Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and to propose the future tasks at this 20th anniversary of Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Methods：Records and publications of Korean Academy, personal communications with senior members of the Academy, the author's recollections and memoirs. Results：Korean Child Psychiatry started with opening Child Psychiatry Clinic at Seoul National University Hospital in 1979 and establishing Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the same hospital in 1980. A Child Psychiatry Study Group was formed in 1983 and it transformed into Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 1986. In the past 20 years, Korean child and adolescent psychiatry made an impressive progress and contributed significantly to the development of Korean medicine as well as to the establishment of child mental health service. There are 77 board-certified and 48 board-eligible child psychiatrists, and 18 child psychiatry fellows are in training as of 2003. Main forces of this successful introduction of child psychiatry are 1) 7 child psychiatry training centers at major university hospitals, 2) publication of Korean Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 1990, 3) the establishment child psychiatry board certification system in 1996. Korean child psychiatry has extended its role in the international child psychiatry and took leadership in establishing Asian Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions(ASCAPAP). Conclusion：Korean child psychiatry has achieved a remarkable progress for the past 20 years and is currently producing 15 or more child psychiatry each year. However, there are needs of more active involvements in adolescent problems, more active consultation-liaison services at general hospitals as well as community mental health institutions. More school consultation and preventive educational services are desired. There is a urgent need of carrying out more empirical studies with strong scientific rigor. Korean Academy should pay attention and provide assistance to the development of child psychiatry service in other countries in Asia.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.517-528
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• 2007

Domestic or international existing researches regarding rail damage factors are focused on laying, vehicle conditions, driving speed and driving habits and overlook characteristics of track structure (elasticity, maintenance etc). Also in ballast track, as there is no special lateral spring stiffness of track also called as ballast lateral resistance in concrete track, generally, existing study shows concrete track has 2 time shorter life cycle for rail replacement than ballast track due to abrasion. As a result of domestic concrete track design and operation performance review, concrete track elasticity is lower than track elasticity of ballast track resulting higher damage on rail and tracks. Generally, concrete track has advantage in track elasticity adjustment than ballast track and in case of Europe, in concrete track design, it is recommended to have same or higher performance range of vertical elastic stiffness of ballast track but domestically or internationally review on lateral spring stiffness of track is very minimal. Therefore, through analysis of service line track on site measurement and analysis on performance of maintenance, in this research, dynamic characteristic behaviors of commonly used ballast and concrete track are studied to infer elasticity of service line track and experimentally prove effects of track lateral spring stiffness that influence curved rail damage as well as correlation between track elasticity by track system and rail damage to propose importance of appropriate elastic stiffness level for concrete and ballast track.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.325-341
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• 2011

Objectives : This research has investigated the reality of the education of the claim and the degree of the education for the claimed of the dentistry recuperation organization in the Daejeon and Chuncheong are for the improvement of the problem in the medical expenses. Methods : It use as a basic data for the vitalizations of the education and performed the survey in the dentistry recuperation organization in the Daejeon and ChungCheong Nam BukDo which are registered in the evaluating organization for judging the health insurance in the present May 2010, and concluded just like the below. Results : 1. The education of the claim in the requirer in the dentistry recuperation organization, and the education of the claim was especially lacking when the dentist was studying in the university, and the dental hygienist had the similar educational experience in the school and the clinic (p<0.05) 2. Most of the requirer in the dental recuperation organization was hoping to get the education related to the claim work, but the dentist and the nurse's aid was relatively low (p<0.05) 3. For fixing the error of the claim, the participation and the extension of the judging standard of the insurance was the highest among the university subordinate dental hospital/dental hospital, but the health center was relatively low (p<0.05). 4. The dentist feels the economic burden in employing the special employee because the raising of the special judging people, compared to others, but the staffs such as the dental hygienist preferred it as one of ways to fix the error of the claim of the dental insurance (p<0.05) 5. Both dentists and the dental hygienist said proper time to teach the insurance was all needed in the school, and the clinic, but other workers relatively believed it should be held in the clinic (p<0.05). 6. The important factors to decide the participation of the lecture was in order of the contents of the lecture, the place of the lecture, the amount for the lecture, the superintendent of the lecture, whether it has gone through the educational score, and whether it has passed the conserving educational score was relatively less important in the university subordinate dentist/dentist, but the medical center was very effective as 4.50 (p<0.05) 7. Health Insurance Review and assessment service was very high as the managing department for supplying the lecture and the information, 70.5%, and the next was the Korean Dental Association/ Korean dental hygiene association, but dentists were preferring the association to manage in than the Health Insurance Review and assessment service to manage (p<0.05) 8. In preferring lecture for the inquiring the insurance, periodontal surgery was the highest as 4.51, the diagnosis standard for injection was high in the university subordinate hospital/dentists, and the more the year of the insurance inquiry, the less the doctor who was hoping for the lecture about the basic treatment. Conclusions : Taken together, it is decided that the inquiry education about the medical expense in the dentist, so the consistent and systematic education should be held to the related people, and from this, it is thought to reduce the problem of the inquiry of the medical expenses by fostering the knowledge and supplying the information which are related to the inquiry of the dentists.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.75-97
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• 2012

Fostering trusting belief in financial transactions is a challenging task in Internet banking services. Authenticated Certificate had been regarded as an effective method to guarantee the trusting belief for online transactions. However, previous research claimed that this method has some loopholes for such abusers as hackers, who intend to attack the financial accounts of innocent transactors in Internet. Two types of methods have been suggested as alternatives for securing user identification and activity in online financial services. Control transparency uses information over the transaction process to verify and to control the transactions. Outcome feedback, which refers to the specific information about exchange outcomes, provides information over final transaction results. By using these two methods, financial service providers can send signals to involved parties about the robustness of their security mechanisms. These two methods-control transparency and outcome feedback-have been widely used in the IS field to enhance the quality of IS services. In this research, we intend to verify that these two methods can also be used to reduce risks and to increase the security protections in online banking services. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the effects of the control transparency and the outcome feedback on the risk perceptions in Internet banking services. Our assumption is that these two methods-control transparency and outcome feedback-can reduce perceived risks involved with online financial transactions, while increasing perceived trust over financial service providers. These changes in user attitudes can increase the level of user satisfactions, which may lead to the increased user loyalty as well as users' willingness to pay for the financial transactions. Previous research in IS suggested that the increased level of transparency on the process and the result of transactions can enhance the information quality and decision quality of IS users. Transparency helps IS users to acquire the information needed to control the transaction counterpart and thus to complete transaction successfully. It is also argued that transparency can reduce the perceived transaction risks in IS usage. Many IS researchers also argued that the trust can be generated by the institutional mechanisms. Trusting belief refers to the truster's belief for the trustee to have attributes for being beneficial to the truster. Institution-based trust plays an important role to enhance the probability of achieving a successful outcome. When a transactor regards the conditions crucial for the transaction success, he or she considers the condition providers as trustful, and thus eventually trust the others involved with such condition providers. In this process, transparency helps the transactor complete the transaction successfully. Through the investigation of these studies, we expect that the control transparency and outcome feedback can reduce the risk perception on transaction and enhance the trust with the service provider. Based on a theoretical framework of transparency and institution-based trust, we propose and test a research model by evaluating research hypotheses. We have conducted a laboratory experiment in order to validate our research model. Since the transparency artifact(control transparency and outcome feedback) is not yet adopted in online banking services, the general survey method could not be employed to verify our research model. We collected data from 138 experiment subjects who had experiences with online banking services. PLS is used to analyze the experiment data. The measurement model confirms that our data set has appropriate convergent and discriminant validity. The results of testing the structural model indicate that control transparency significantly enhances the trust and significantly reduces the risk perception of online banking users. The result also suggested that the outcome feedback significantly enhances the trust of users. We have found that the reduced risk and the increased trust level significantly improve the level of service satisfaction. The increased satisfaction finally leads to the increased loyalty and willingness to pay for the financial services.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.3-37
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• 2012

In perspective of biodiversity conservation and protected areas (PAs), the aims of the study are to review the mid-long term national plans, which deal with national territory and environment in Korea, and to find out the way to improve this issue. Key issues were drawn by referring "Biodiversity 2011-2020 Strategic Targets" and "Protected Area Decision" in CBD CoP-10 and 7 National comprehensive or basic Plans were reviewed. Quoting Biodiversity 2011-2020 Strategic Target 5, "By 2020, the rate of loss of all natural habitats, including forests, is at least halved and where feasible brought close to zero, and degradation and fragmentation is significantly reduced", most of national plans included various methods such as "No Net Loss of Green", "No Net Loss of Wetlands", and so on. Regarding the target 11, "By 2020, at least 17% of terrestrial and inland water, and 10% of coastal and marine areas, ecologically representative and well connected systems of PAs and other effective area-based conservation measures, and integrated into the wider landscape and seascapes", 15% by 2015 was set up as a target of total PAs in Korea and 13% by 2015 or 2020 was set up as a target of coastal and marine PAs. CBD CoP-10 Decision X/31 (Protected Areas) invites parties to develop a national long-term action plan for the implementation of PoWPA and describes 10 issues that need greater attention. National action plan for the implementation of PoWPA doesn't be mentioned at any national plans even PoWPA. Regarding the 10 issues, most of issues were well reflected within various national plans, however there is still a need to improve the details and corelation between plans. Particularly, in terms of management effectiveness evaluation (MEE), there was no national plan to directly deal with MEE even though CBD invites parties to work towards assessing 60% of the total PAs by 2015. Based on the review results, below 4 items were suggested; (1)"The Comprehensive Plan of the National Territory" needs more attention on the Biodiversity Conservation and PAs, (2)Consider to establish "National PA System Plan" embedded into "the Comprehensive Plan of National Environment", (3)Establish a "National Action Plan for the implementation of PoWPA", (4)Improve the National Plans through linking with Biodiversity 2011-2020 Strategic Targets and relevant PA key issues.