• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.715-727
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• 2020

It is well known that atmospheric environments, including both meteorology and air quality, significantly affect public health, such as chronic lung disease and cancer, and respiratory infections. In this study, we have analyzed correlations between the number of daily respiratory outpatients and the atmospheric environments data for about ten years for the city of Busan, South Korea. The respiratory problem patients data have been categorized into two health-vulnerable groups by age over 65(DayPA_O65) and under 20(DayPA_U20), each of which shows relatively higher correlations with air quality and meteorology, respectively. However, time series analysis with factor separation results in that DayPA_O65 and DayPA_U20 show a higher relation with variance components and daily irregular factors of atmospheric concentrations, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.13-27
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify health-related factors, especially for the elderly who are subject to visiting health care at vulnerable populations. Methods: Tools were Guide to Community Integrated Health Promotion Project 2016, Visit Health Care Health Interview Survey, measures of physical function, motor skills, composite mobility, BMI, and subjective fitness levels. Depression was measured with the Short Results: Older elders living alone were more vulnerable than those with living others. Elders with less education showed greater weakness but the difference was not significant. Average scores for frailty were 2.21 (healthy group), 7.66 (high-risk group) and 15.69 (frail group). Scores based on weakness level differed significantly with the exception of nutrition. Nine out of 10 elders in disadvantaged areas were in the frail group or at high risk. Conclusion: Results support the goal to maintain/improve physical/mental functions through individual management of high-risk/frail older adults at risk of becoming infirm. It is imperative to implement a public health care delivery system to ensure programs are operated effectively and personalized.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.225-232
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• 2017

This study aimed to identify worker groups that are to accidents and to track the changes in their socioeconomic status there after. We analyzed the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) database(2001-2006) were recorded according to the participant's economic activity status at the beginning of follow-up, and economic activity status was. During the follow-up period, the unemployed group experienced more accidents that resulted in disability than the economically active group. Interestingly, the unemployed group also had the highest industrial accident rate. Among the employed, daily and unpaid family workers were more vulnerable to disabilities. After the accidents, the participants tended to become economically inactive or unemployed. Compared to other worker groups, the economically inactive, unemployed, and daily and unpaid family workers experienced higher rates of accidents and faced graver conditions as a result. Although they constitute a significantly large part of society, these vulnerable workers are not currently covered by any social security measures, such as accident surveillance, training, and accident insurance. Social policy should therefore be directed toward protecting these vulnerable worker groups.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2016

Physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling can provide an effective way to utilize in vitro and in silico based information in modern risk assessment for children and other potentially sensitive populations. In this review, we describe the process of in vitro to in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) to develop PBPK models for a chemical in different ages in order to predict the target tissue exposure at the age of concern in humans. We present our on-going studies on pyrethroids as a proof of concept to guide the readers through the IVIVE steps using the metabolism data collected either from age-specific liver donors or expressed enzymes in conjunction with enzyme ontogeny information to provide age-appropriate metabolism parameters in the PBPK model in the rat and human, respectively. The approach we present here is readily applicable to not just to other pyrethroids, but also to other environmental chemicals and drugs. Establishment of an in vitro and in silico-based evaluation strategy in conjunction with relevant exposure information in humans is of great importance in risk assessment for potentially vulnerable populations like early ages where the necessary information for decision making is limited.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.83-98
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• 2018

This study was conducted on rare plants distributed in Chungnam area from April, 2012 to November, 2017. The rare plant populations that are emerging are: Utricularia pilosa, Jeffersonia dubia, Iris ruthenica, Tipularia japonica, Calanthe discolor, Parasenecio pseudotaimingasa, Ranunculus kazusensis, Berchemia racemosa, Pogonia minor and Glehnia littoralis. According to the criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), plant resources in the rare species category were one important type (CR), three hazardous species (EN) and six vulnerable species (VU). As a result of analyzing characteristics of ecological environment and threats, five types of habitat types, two aquatic areas, two types of flatland and coastal sand dune distribution types were analyzed. The decreasing tendency of the rare plant populations in the surveyed area is judged to be artificial disturbance and habitat destruction rather than climate or environmental change. Considering the characteristics of habitat, conservation measures should be prepared for each population.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2021

Invasive species threaten global biodiversity as well as human livelihood and much of the global lands are vulnerable to these threats. Numerous freshwater turtles from the northern hemisphere have been introduced in East Asian countries, including the Republic of Korea. Knowing turtle's behavioral ecology is valuable to manage introduced populations and a distinctive behavior is basking for behavioral thermoregulation. To understand the possibility of using basking to enhance trapping, we tested thermotaxis in the river cooter (Pseudemys concinna). Turtles were placed in an aquarium containing heated and non-heated mats under controlled water and air temperature, air humidity and light. We found that P. concinna stayed significantly longer on heated mats than on unheated control mats in 11 out of 18 trials, demonstrating that heat source is a potential attractant for P. concinna. We recommend the use of heat source to bait traps used for population control of invasive freshwater turtles.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.444-453
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• 2014

Inequality of environmental impact is forecast to deepen due to the damage of environmental risk by the interaction between environmental and social inequalities causing more harms to environmentally vulnerable population. This study assessed the integrated cumulative impact of Seoul using Environmental Health Screening Tool developed by Environmental Protection Agency of California. In order to screen vulnerable area to environmental health, 10 indexes have been selected according to the environmental burden of exposure to environment and public health effects, population characteristics of sensitive populations and socio-economic factors. As a result of assessment conducted on cumulative impact of Seoul for years 2009~2011 through Environmental Health Screening Tool, risk factor for districts of Gangseo and Gangnam of Seoul showed high - Gangseo area indicated high risk factor both in environmental burden and population characteristics, while Gangnam area appeared high in environmental burden. The result of survey will be able to suggest scientific basis to push through fair and effective environmental policy in consideration of environment vulnerable population.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.588-594
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• 2016

As more populations are getting older, the number of vulnerable pedestrians is increasing, thereby social problems related to transportations also frequently occur in different areas and situations. Many of such problems come from bus drivers who may pass bus stops not recognizing passengers about to board. In this paper, we propose a new IoT bus notification system developed to avoid these situations. Our implementation aims to gain bus service routes using publicly opened data, notify passengers about bus stop locations using GPS information and finally deliver the positions of those passengers to the bus drivers so that they can hardly miss passengers who are willing to board on the right stop. By creating an application, it was conducted by means of a GPS to communicate the location of the vehicle by means of GPS and transfer data to the location of the vehicle. Experimental results show that it is possible to accurately determine the position of passengers even in a crowded race area. The average error distance is 31m, and if the data to be processed as error is excluded, it provides a high reliability as 19m.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.383-394
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• 2023

Purpose : This study focuses on improvements in cell broadcast service(CBS) with consideration of socially vulnerable groups, and identifies service factors necessary for elderly people in particular. Method : Multiple regression analysis was applied to test overall satisfaction with cell broadcast service as the dependent variable and each of the service factors as the independent variable. Result : The results showed that fast delivery had the greatest effect on overall satisfaction with cell broadcast service in both groups, followed by the delivery of sufficient content for the elderly group and system quality for the non-elderly group. The results demonstrated that the elderly group cared more about information content, while the non-elderly group considered functions such as system quality and text message transmission criteria more important. Conclusion : Elderly people consider the delivery of sufficient information important as well as fast delivery, which suggests that it is necessary when sending cell broadcast service to give consideration to the characteristics of elderly people, as they tend to have weaker understanding and thinking abilities than the non-elderly.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.279-287
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• 2024

Objectives: This study validated the Vietnamese version of the Disaster Adaptation and Resilience Scale (DARS) for use in vulnerable communities in Vietnam. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving 595 adults from 2 identified communities. The original DARS assessment tool was translated, and the validity and reliability of the Vietnamese version of DARS (V-DARS) were assessed. The internal consistency of the overall scale and its subscales was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega reliability coefficients. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to evaluate its construct validity, building upon the factor structure identified in exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Construct validity was assessed based on convergent and discriminant validity. Results: Following the established criteria for EFA, 8 items were removed, resulting in a refined V-DARS structure comprising 35 items distributed across 5 distinct factors. Both alpha and omega reliability coefficients indicated strong internal consistency for the overall scale (α=0.963, ω=0.963) and for each of the 5 sub-scales (all>0.80). The CFA model also retained the 5-factor structure with 35 items. The model fit indices showed acceptable values (RMSEA: 0.072; CFI: 0.912; TLI: 0.904; chi-square test: <0.01). Additionally, the convergent and discriminant validity of the V-DARS were deemed appropriate and satisfactory for explaining the measurement structure. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the V-DARS is a valid and reliable scale for use within vulnerable communities in Vietnam to assess adaptive responses to natural disasters. It may also be considered for use in other populations.