• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2159-2165
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• 2013

Cancer registries help to establish and maintain cancer incidence reporting system, serve as a resource for investigation of cancer and its causes, and provide information for planning and evaluation of preventive and control programs. However, their wider role in directly enhancing oncology drug access has not been fully explored. We examined the value of cancer registries in oncology drug access in the Asia-Pacific region on three levels: (1) specific registry variable types; (2) macroscopic strategies on the national level; and (3) a regional cancer registry network. Using literature search and proceedings from an expert forum, this paper covers recent cancer registry developments in eight economies in the Asia-Pacific region - Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand - and the ways they can contribute to oncology drug access. Specific registry variables relating to demographics, tumor characteristics, initial treatment plans, prognostic markers, risk factors, and mortality help to anticipate drug needs, identify high-priority research area and design access programs. On a national level, linking registry data with clinical, drug safety, financial, or drug utilization databases allows analyses of associations between utilization and outcomes. Concurrent efforts should also be channeled into developing and implementing data integrity and stewardship policies, and providing clear avenues to make data available. Less mature registry systems can employ modeling techniques and ad-hoc surveys while increasing coverage. Beyond local settings, a cancer registry network for the Asia-Pacific region would offer cross-learning and research opportunities that can exert leverage through the experiences and capabilities of a highly diverse region.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.150-166
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• 2011

This study aims to investigate the differences of synoptic characteristics and frontal structures over East Asia according to the main path types of water vapor flux (WVF) of 850hPa surface in cases of the heavy rainfall in the south coastal region of Korea during the Changma season (June and July), In the cases of type A in which the main path of WVF is running from the South china Sea via the South china to the South Sea of Korea, the North Pacific subtropical anticyclone (NPSA) expands to the South China and strong cyclones appear in the Yellow Sea. In cases of type B and C in those the main paths of WVF are running from the South China Sea via the Western Pacific Ocean near Taiwan to the South Sea and from the Western North Pacific Ocean to the South Sea respectively, tropical cyclones appear frequently near Taiwan and the NPSA shifts northward. In the case of type D in which the main path of WVF appear only near the South Sea, strong cyclones appear near the Yellow Sea. In all cases upper jets are intensified in the northern part of the heavy rainfall region and low-level jets appear near the main paths of WVF. In the view of frontal structure, deep active-type of the Changma front is identified in most cases of all types. In this point the Changma season is different from the Baiu season in Western Japan where many cases of shallow active-type of the Baiu front appear.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.845-849
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• 2016

Background: Worldwide, the incidence of cancers is increasing and is becoming a major public health issue, including those in the Asia Pacific region. South-East Asia is a region with diverse populations with different disease spectra. This study looked at the spectrum of cancers among South-East Asians working in Brunei Darussalam. Materials and Methods: The cancer registry from 1994 to 2012 maintained by the State Laboratory was retrospectively reviewed. Crude incidence rates were calculated based on the population census of 2010. Results: Altogether, there was a total of 418 cancer cases diagnosed among South-East Asians, giving an incidence of 5.1% (n=418/8,253). The affected nationals in decreasing frequency were Malaysians (53.1%), followed by Filipinos (25.8%), Indonesians (15.3%), Thais (3.8%), Myanmese (1.7%) and Vietnamese (0.2%) with no recorded cases for Singapore and the People's Republic of Laos. The overall mean age of diagnosis was $46.1{\pm}4.2$ years old, with an increasing trend over the years (p<0.05 ANOVA). The overall gender ratio was 42.3:57.7 (male:female), more females among the Filipinos and Indonesians, more males among the Thais, and equal representation among the Malaysians and the Myanmese. The most common were cancers of the digestive system (19.9%), followed by female reproductive/gynecologic system (16.0%), breast (15.6%), hematological/lymphatic (12.0%) and head/neck (8.1%). There were differences in the prevalence of cancers among the various nationalities with highest crude incidence rate among the Myanmese (141.2/100,000), followed by the Malaysian (88.5/100,000), and the Filipinos (40.6/100,000) and the lowest among the Thais (18.4/100,000), Indonesians (10.5/100,000) and the Vietnamese (6.3/100,000). Conclusions: Cancers among South-East Asian residing in Brunei Darussalam accounted for 5.1% of all cancers. The most common cancers were cancers of the digestive, gynecologic/female reproductive system and breast with certain types slowly increasing in proportions. There mean age of diagnoses was increasing.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.285-288
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• 2008

We analyzed evaporation data in the Japanese Ocean Flux Data Sets with Use of Remote Sensing Observations (J-OFURO) Ver.2. There exists huge evaporation in Gulf Stream, Kuroshio Extension, the ocean dessert and the southern part of the Indian Ocean. The temporal variation of evaporation is overwhelmingly large, of which the standard deviation is more than 120(mm), in the Kuroshio Extension region. Also, the result of harmonic analysis gives that this large variation is closely related to annual variation. In addition, the first EOF mode shows long-term variation showing the maximum amplitude between 1992 and 1994 and remarkable decrease after 1994, and large amplitude in the equatorial region and northeast of Australia. The second and third modes were strongly influenced by El Nino. Moreover, we compared J-OFURO2 evaporation product with other products. We used six kinds of data sets (HOAPS3 and GSSTF2 of satellite data, NRA1, NRA2, ERA40 and JRA25 of reanalysis data) for comparison. Most products show underestimation in the most regions, in particular, in the northern North Pacific, mid-latitudes of the eastern South Pacific, and high-latitudes of the South Pacific compared with J-OFUR02. On the other hand, JRA25 and NRA2 show large overestimation in the equatorial regions. RMS difference between NRA2 and J-OFURO2 in the Kuroshio Extension was significantly large, more than 120(mm).

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.827-840
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• 2015

This study analyzed a correlation between South China Sea summer (June to September) monsoon (SCSSM) and the ENSO for the last 32 years (1979 to 2010). There was a correlation that the higher (lower) the SST in the $Ni{\tilde{n}}o-3.4$ region was, the weaker (stronger) the SCSSM intensity was. To identify the reason for this correlation, a difference of means between 8 El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ years and 8 La $Ni{\tilde{n}}a$ years (June to September). The analysis on the difference between two groups with respect to the 850 hPa stream flows showed that there were anomalous huge cyclones in the subtropical Pacific in the both hemispheres so that cold and dry anomalous northerlies were strengthened in the South China Sea relatively while anomalous westerlies were strengthened from the Maritime Continent to the off the coast of Chile. The analysis on the difference between two groups with respect to the 200 hPa stream flows showed that the opposite anomalous pressure system pattern to that in the 850 hPa stream flows were shown. In the subtropical Pacific of the both hemispheres, anomalous anticyclones existed so that anomalous easterlies were strengthened from the Maritime Continent to the equatorial central Pacific. Considering the anomalous atmospheric circulations in the upper and lower layers of the troposphere, upward airflows from the equatorial central and eastern Pacific were downward in the South China Sea and the Maritime Continent, which was a structure of anomalous atmospheric circulations. This means that the Walker Circulation was weakened and it was a typical structure of atmospheric circulations revealed in El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ years.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.893-905
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• 2015

This study analyzes the correlation between Western Pacific (WP) teleconnection pattern index (WPI) in April during 1954-2008 and rainfall amounts in the same month. Based on the results, it is identified that there have been strong positive correlations between central China, Korea and the southwestern part of Japan in the East Asian region. Through differences between 10 positive WP years and 10 negative WP years selected from the April WPI excluding ENSO years, it is found that rainfall amounts increase in April of positive WP years due to the following characteristics. Increases in rainfall amounts are evident in the East Asian middle latitudinal region where the positive correlation between the two variables is the highest and this is because anomalous southwesterlies are strengthened in the East Asian middle latitudinal region due to the spatial pattern of a south-low-north-high anomalous pressure system centered on this region that is made by anomalous anticyclones centered on the southeastern side of the region and other anomalous anticyclones centered on the northeastern side of the region. In addition, anomalous westerlies (jet) are strengthen in the upper troposphere of the East Asian middle latitudinal region and as a result, anomalous upward flows are strengthened in this region and thus anomalous warm air temperatures are formed in the entire level of the troposphere in the region. In addition to atmospheric environments, anomalous warm sea surface temperatures are formed in the seas in the East Asian middle latitudinal region to help the rainfall amount increases in the East Asian middle latitudinal region.

• Strategy21
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• s.45
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• pp.5-32
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• 2019

The paper introduces US Indo-Pacific Strategy and discusses its meanings and implications for international security and our strategy. It tries to look at the Indo-Pacific strategy(IPS) through the lenses of international political theories. The paper provides three important observations. First, the US Indo-Pacific strategy is a declaration of the national identity of the US as an Indo-Pacific nation. The paper argues that the IPS reflects the US leadership that would facilitate the formation of, so called, the Indo-Pacific community. In arguing these points, the paper notes that the IPS has rich elements of constructivist approaches including norms and national identity. Second, the paper observes that the IPS report serves as an effective deterrent strategy. The IPS does not call out China as an enemy. But, it tries to deter against a range of actors including China by warning that whoever violates the rules-based order in the region would have consequences. Third, the paper maintains that the IPS is an effort by the US to mitigate the risk of a great power war between the US (an established power) and China (a challenging power) because the IPS articulates the United States's willingness to work with China as long as it plays by the rules. There will be challenges to the US and other countries in the region including South Korea particularly because of economic interdependence. However, the paper argues that the IPS stands for an optimistic sign of the future security in the Indo-Pacific region because it is a manifestation of the US for its national will to defend the status quo characterized as Pax Americana which has been maintained since the end of the Second World War. It also argues that South Korea also can, and should make the most of this opportunity by enhancing our capacity in national defense.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.199-203
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• 2008

Desmotimmia mirabilis (Timm), a rarely known desmoscolecid nematode species, was discovered for the first time from the Yellow Sea off southwestern coast of Korea. This is the third record of the species, and the first report from the northwestern Pacific region. Redescription is prepared on the basis of a male specimen from South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.21-31
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• 1986

The author investigated the relation between the catches of tuna species and the distribution of horizontal mean temperature at the Jepth of 10m and of vertical temperture sections in the different fishing grounds, using the date of catches in 1980, showing a relative good ones during six years from 1975 to 1980, and of oceanographic observations. Yellowfin and bigeye are mainly caught in South Equatorial Current regions including equatorial upwelling region in 5$^{\circ}$N to 5$^{\circ}$S, and albacore is mainly caught in Subtropical region in 20$^{\circ}$5 to 40$^{\circ}$5. The good fishing grounds of yellowfin and bigeye are made in the depth layer of 100 m to 250 m and temperature of 15$^{\circ}$C to 26$^{\circ}$C having a smooth gradient of thermocline in the Central Pacific between 180$^{\circ}$ and 1500W. But albacore is caught well in which the temperature of thermocline ranges from 100e to 25$^{\circ}$C and its gradient very smoothly. Approaching to the American Continent, the catches of yellowfin and big eye decrease because the thermocline becomes shallower and steeper at Eastern Pacific Region between 1500 and 800W.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.169-177
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• 2002

An eddy-resolving free-surface primitive-equation model with nonlinear terrain-following coordinates is established to study the exchange of water masses among the Asian marginal seas and their adjacent waters. A curvilinear coordinate system is used to generate the horizontal grid with a variable resolution for the regional oceans from $5^{\circ}$S to $45^{\circ}$N and $100^{\circ}$E to $155^{\circ}$E. The higher resolution region has about a 10 km by 10 km grid covering the complex geometry of the coastal marginal seas, while the lower resolution region has about a 30 km by 30 km grid covering the eastern Pacific. The model is initialized by the Levitus annual climitology and forced by the monthly mean air-sea fluxes of momentum, heat, and freshwater derived from the Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set. High-resolution and low-viscosity are identified as the key factors for a better representation of the exchange of waters through narrow straits and passages between the marginal seas and their adjacent waters. The dynamics of the loop currents and eddies in the South China Sea and Celebes Sea are examined in detail. It has found that the anticyclonic loop and detached eddies from the Kuroshio through the Luzon Strait play an important role in transporting warm and salty water into the South China Sea, while the cyclonic circulation of the Mindanao Current in the Celebes Sea plays a role in contributing cold water to the Indonesian throughflow. The deep undercurrent of the western Pacific is shown to provide fresher water to the South China Sea and Celebes Sea. These modeling results suggest that the exchange processes via the narrow straits and passages are of fundamental importance to the maintenance of water masses for the marginal sea region.