• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.29-62
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• 2012

As distribution environment is changing rapidly and competition is more intensive in the channel of distribution, the importance of retailer image and retailer equity is increasing as a different competitive advantages. Also, consumers are not functionally oriented and that their behavior is significantly affected by the symbols such as retailer image which identify retailer in the market place. That is, consumers do not choose products or retailers for their material utilities but consume the symbolic meaning of those products or retailers as expressed in their self images. The concept of self-image congruence has been utilized by marketers and researchers as an aid in better understanding how consumers identify themselves with the brands they buy and the retailer they patronize. Although self-image congruity theory has been tested across many product categories, the theory has not been tested extensively in the retailing. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the impact of self image congruence between retailer image and self image of consumer on retailer equity such as retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty. The purpose of this study is to find out whether retailer-self image congruence can be a new antecedent of retailer equity. In addition, this study tries to examine how four-dimensional retailer equity constructs (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) affect customers' repatronage intention. For this study, data were gathered by survey and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The sample size in the present study was 254. The reliability of the all seven dimensions was estimated with Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability values and average variance extracted values. We determined whether the measurement model supports the convergent validity and discriminant validity by Exploratory factor analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. For each pair of constructs, the square root of the average variance extracted values exceeded their correlations, thus supporting the discriminant validity of the constructs. Hypotheses were tested using the AMOS 18.0. As expected, the image congruence hypotheses were supported. The greater the degree of congruence between retailer image and self-image, the more favorable were consumers' retailer evaluations. The all two retailer-self image congruence (actual self-image congruence and ideal self-image congruence) affected customer based retailer equity. This result means that retailer-self image congruence is important cue for customers to estimate retailer equity. In other words, consumers are often more likely to prefer products and retail stores that have images similar to their own self-image. Especially, it appeared that effect for the ideal self-image congruence was consistently larger than the actual self-image congruence on the retailer equity. The results mean that consumers prefer or search for stores that have images compatible with consumer's perception of ideal-self. In addition, this study revealed that customers' estimations toward customer based retailer equity affected the repatronage intention. The results showed that all four dimensions (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) had positive effect on the repatronage intention. That is, management and investment to improve image congruence between retailer and consumers' self make customers' positive evaluation of retailer equity, and then the positive customer based retailer equity can enhance the repatonage intention. And to conclude, retailer's image management is an important part of successful retailer performance management, and the retailer-self image congruence is an important antecedent of retailer equity. Therefore, it is more important to develop and improve retailer's image similar to consumers' image. Given the pressure to provide increased image congruence, it is not surprising that retailers have made significant investments in enhancing the fit between retailer image and self image of consumer. The enhancing such self-image congruence may allow marketers to target customers who may be influenced by image appeals in advertising.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.151-171
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• 2014

Firms today have sought management effectiveness and efficiency utilizing information technologies (IT). Numerous firms are outsourcing specific information systems functions to cope with their short of information resources or IT experts, or to reduce their capital cost. Recently, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) as a new type of information system has become one of the powerful outsourcing alternatives. SaaS is software deployed as a hosted and accessed over the internet. It is regarded as the idea of on-demand, pay-per-use, and utility computing and is now being applied to support the core competencies of clients in areas ranging from the individual productivity area to the vertical industry and e-commerce area. In this study, therefore, we seek to quantify the value that SaaS has on business performance by examining the relationships among firm strategies, SaaS technology maturity, and business performance of SaaS providers. We begin by drawing from prior literature on SaaS, technology maturity and firm strategy. SaaS technology maturity is classified into three different phases such as application service providing (ASP), Web-native application, and Web-service application. Firm strategies are manipulated by the low-cost strategy and differentiation strategy. Finally, we considered customer acquisition as a business performance. In this sense, specific objectives of this study are as follows. First, we examine the relationships between customer acquisition performance and both low-cost strategy and differentiation strategy of SaaS providers. Secondly, we investigate the mediating and moderating effects of SaaS technology maturity on those relationships. For this purpose, study collects data from the SaaS providers, and their line of applications registered in the database in CNK (Commerce net Korea) in Korea using a questionnaire method by the professional research institution. The unit of analysis in this study is the SBUs (strategic business unit) in the software provider. A total of 199 SBUs is used for analyzing and testing our hypotheses. With regards to the measurement of firm strategy, we take three measurement items for differentiation strategy such as the application uniqueness (referring an application aims to differentiate within just one or a small number of target industry), supply channel diversification (regarding whether SaaS vendor had diversified supply chain) as well as the number of specialized expertise and take two items for low cost strategy like subscription fee and initial set-up fee. We employ a hierarchical regression analysis technique for testing moderation effects of SaaS technology maturity and follow the Baron and Kenny's procedure for determining if firm strategies affect customer acquisition through technology maturity. Empirical results revealed that, firstly, when differentiation strategy is applied to attain business performance like customer acquisition, the effects of the strategy is moderated by the technology maturity level of SaaS providers. In other words, securing higher level of SaaS technology maturity is essential for higher business performance. For instance, given that firms implement application uniqueness or a distribution channel diversification as a differentiation strategy, they can acquire more customers when their level of SaaS technology maturity is higher rather than lower. Secondly, results indicate that pursuing differentiation strategy or low cost strategy effectively works for SaaS providers' obtaining customer, which means that continuously differentiating their service from others or making their service fee (subscription fee or initial set-up fee) lower are helpful for their business success in terms of acquiring their customers. Lastly, results show that the level of SaaS technology maturity mediates the relationships between low cost strategy and customer acquisition. That is, based on our research design, customers usually perceive the real value of the low subscription fee or initial set-up fee only through the SaaS service provide by vender and, in turn, this will affect their decision making whether subscribe or not.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.1102-1139
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• 2002

A review on the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineering in 2000 and 2001 has been done. Focus has been put on current status of research in the aspect of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation and building environment. The conclusions are as follows. (1) Most of fundamental studies on fluid flow were related with heat transportation of facilities. Drop formation and rivulet flow on solid surfaces were interesting topics related with condensation augmentation. Research on micro environment considering flow, heat, humidity was also interesting for comfortable living environment. It can be extended considering biological aspects. Development of fans and blowers of high performance and low noise were continuing topics. Well developed CFD technologies were widely applied for developing facilities and their systems. (2) Most of papers related with heat transfer analysis and heat exchanger shows dealt with convection, evaporation, and channel flow for the design application of heat exchanger. The numerical heat transfer simulation studies have been peformed and reported to show heat transfer characteristics. Experimental as well as numerical studies on heat exchanger were reported, while not many papers are available for the system analysis including heat exchanger. (3) A review of the recent studies on heat pump system shows that performance analysis and control of heat pump have been peformed by various simulations and experiments. The research papers on multi-type heat pump system increased significantly. The studies on heat pipe have been examined experimently for change of working characteristics and strut lure. Research on the phase change has been carried out steadily and operation strategies of encapsulated ice storage tank are reported experimentally in several papers. (4) A review of recent studies on refrigeration/air conditioning system have focused on the system performance and efficiency for new alternative refrigerants. Evaporation and condensation heat transfer characteristics are investigated for tube shapes and new alternative refrigerants. Studies on components of refrigeration/air conditioning system are carried to examine efficiency for various compressors and performance of new expansion devices. In addition to thermophysical properties of refrigerant mixtures, studies on new refrigerants are also carried out, however research works on two-phase flow seemed to be insufficient. (5) A review of the recent studies on absorption cooling system indicates that heat and mass transfer phenomena have been investigated to improve absorber performance. Various experimental data have been presented and several simulation models have been proposed. A review of the recent studies on duct and ventilation shows that ventilation indices have been proposed to quantify the ventilation performance in buildings and tunnels. Main efforts have been focused on the applications of ventilation effectiveness in practice, either numerically using computational fluid dynamics or experimentally using tracer gas techniques. (6) Based on a review of recent studies on indoor thermal environment and building service systems, research issues have mainly focused on many innovative ideas such as underfloor air-conditioning system, personal environmental modules, radiant floor cooling and etc. Also, the new approaches for minimizing energy consumption as well as improving indoor environmental conditions through predictive control of HVAC systems, various activities of building energy management and cost-benefit analysis for economic evaluation were highlighted.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.295-302
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• 2014

This study demonstrates a double-path CDI as an alternative of advanced wastewater treatment process. While the CDI typically consists of many pairs of electrodes connected in parallel, the new double-path CDI is designed to have series flow path by dividing the module into two stages. The CFD model showed that the double-path had uniform flow distribution with higher velocity and less dead zone compared with the single-path. However, the double-path was predicted to have higher pressure drop(0.7 bar) compared the single-path (0.4 bar). From the unit cell test, the highest TDS removal efficiencies of single- and double-path were up to 88% and 91%, respectively. The rate of increase in pressure drop with an increase of flow rate was higher in double-path than single-path. At 70 mL/min of flow rate, the pressure drop of double-path was 1.67 bar, which was two times higher than single-path. When the electrode spacing was increased from 100 to $200{\mu}m$, the pressure drop of double-path decreased from 1.67 to 0.87 bar, while there was little difference in TDS removal. When proto type double-path CDI was operated using sewage water, TDS, $NH_4{^+}$-N, $NO_3{^-}$-N and $PO_4{^{3-}}$-P removal efficiencies were up to 78%, 50%, 93% and 50%, respectively.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.149-156
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• 2014

The resistance levels of the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer), against 10 insecticides was checked and selected the applicable insecticide resistance markers. We conducted our study in 5 cabbage cultivation regions (Pyeongchang, Hongcheon, Bongwha, Muju, and Jeju) of Korea, over 3 successive years (2009-2011). We selected a multi-resistant (MR) strain from among the 5 field-collected populations. We analyzed esterase over-expression and mutation(s) in the target sites, by using native isoelectric focusing (IEF) and quantitative sequencing (QS). We detected esterase over-expression and StoF mutation in the acetylcholinesterase 1 gene (ace1) in all of the field-collected populations, including the MR strain. We did not detect the LtoF mutation, which is a well-known knockdown resistance (kdr) mutation in the para-type sodium channel gene (para), in the MR strain; however, the value of the MR strain for bifenthrin was 3,461-fold higher than that of the susceptible strain. Our results indicate that insecticide resistance is more effectively evaluated using molecular markers than by conducting a bioassay. The molecular markers StoF in ace1 and MtoL in para can easily be applied in diagnostic methods such as QS or PCR amplification of specific alleles (PASA). These methods may be extended to management of M. persicae resistance in the field.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.272-277
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• 2008

Background: The efficacy of the use of the interventional bronchoscope for palliation of patients with central airway obstruction has been established. In the palliative setting to alleviate central airway obstruction, the use of laser resection, electrocautery, argon plasma coagulation, photodynamic therapy and cryotherapy can provide relief of an airway obstruction. Cryotherapy is the therapeutic application of extreme cold for the local destruction of living tissue. Recently, this technique has been used for endoscopic management of central airway obstructions in Korea. We report the role and complications of the use of cryotherapy for airway obstructions in patients with advanced lung cancer. Methods: We used a flexible cryoprobe for cryotherapy using nitrous oxide as a cryogen. The cryoprobe was applied through the working channel of a flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope. The temperature of the tip was approximately $-89^{\circ}C$, and the icing time was 5~20 seconds. Results: Four patients with a central airway obstruction from advanced lung cancer were treated with cryotherapy. Three of the four patients were treated successfully and the airway obstruction was improved after the cryotherapy procedure. Dyspnea, hypoxia and atelectais were improved in three cases. Two patients experienced complications- one patient experienced pneumomediastinum and the other patient experienced massive hemoptysis during the cryotherapy procedure. However, these complications resolved and did not influence mortality. Conclusion: This technique is effective and relatively safe for palliation of inoperable advanced lung cancer with a central airway obstruction.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.43-72
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• 2009

Recently, user-created content (UCC) have emerged as popular medium of on-line participation among users. The Internet environment has been constantly evolving, attracting active participation and information sharing among common users. This tendency is a significant deviation from the earlier Internet use as an one-way information channel through which users passively received information or contents from contents providers. Thanks to UCCs online users can now more freely generate and exchange contents; therefore, identifying the critical factors that affect content-generating activities has increasingly become an important issue. This paper proposes a set of critical factors for stimulating contents generation and sharing activities by Internet users. These factors were derived from the theories of folklores such as tales and songs. Based on some shared traits of folklores and UCC content, we found four critical elements which should be heeded in constructing UCC contents, which are: context of culture, context of situation, skill of generator, and response of audience. In addition, we selected three major UCC websites: a specialized contents portal, a general internet portal, and an official contents service site, They have different use environments, user interfaces, and service policies, To identify critical factors for generating, sharing and transferring UCC, we traced user activities, interactions and flows of content in the three UCC websites. Moreover, we conducted extensive interviews with users and operators as well as policy makers in each site. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data, this research identifies nine critical factors that facilitate contents generation and sharing activities among users. In the context of culture, we suggest voluntary community norms, proactive use of copyrights, strong user relationships, and a fair monetary reward system as critical elements in facilitating the process of contents generation and sharing activities. Norms which were established by users themselves regulate user behavior and influence content format. Strong relationships of users stimulate content generation activities by enhancing collaborative content generation. Particularly, users generate contents through collaboration with others, based on their enhanced relationship and specialized skills. They send and receive contents by leaving messages on website or blogs, using instant messenger or SMS. It is an interesting and important phenomenon, because the quality of contents can be constantly improved and revised, depending on the specialized abilities of those engaged in a particular content. In this process, the reward system is an essential driving factor. Yet, monetary reward should be considered only after some fair criterion is established. In terms of the context of the situation, the quality of contents uploading system was proposed to have strong influence on the content generating activities. Among other influential factors on contents generation activities are generators' specialized skills and involvement of the users were proposed. In addition, the audience response, especially effective development of shared interests as well as feedback, was suggested to have significant influence on contents generation activities. Content generators usually reflect the shared interest of others. Shared interest is a distinct characteristic of UCC and observed in all the three websites, in which common interest is formed by the "threads" embedded with content. Through such threads of information and contents users discuss and share ideas while continuously extending and updating shared contents in the process. Evidently, UCC is a new paradigm representing the next generation of the Internet. In order to fully utilize this innovative paradigm, we need to understand how users take advantage of this medium in generating contents, and what affects their content generation activities. Based on these findings, UCC service providers should design their websites as common playground where users freely interact and share their common interests. As such this paper makes an important first step to gaining better understand about this new communication paradigm created by UCC.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.20-31
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• 2002

This study was carried out to investigate the composition and the distribution of the benthic polychaetous communities in Deugryang Bay, semi-enclosed bays, on the southern coast of Korea and to deduce temporal changes in community with the comparison of the past studies. In Deugryang Bay, benthic polychaetous community structure was investigated on the base of the samples from 98 stations in 1996 and 1997. The main facies of surface sediment was clayey silt. The overall benthic macrofaunal density was 871 ind./m$^{2}$. The density was highest in the middle part of the bay because Musculus senhousia (Bivalvia) and cumaceans (Crustacea) had their highest densities in some stations. Benthic polychaetes were comprised of 100 species with a mean density of 138 ind./m$^{2}$. Their abundances were higher in the inner bay, in the middle bay, and in the mouth of bay, but poor community structures were established in the whole bay. The dominant species over 1.0 percentage were composed of the total 21 species, and they occupied 78.3% of the total abundance of the benthic polychaetes. The most dominant species was Lumbrineris longifolia (9.3%), followed by Eteone longa (7.3%), Heteromastus filifomis (7.1%), Sternaspis scutata (6.1%). From the cluster analysis, the study area could be divided into three station groups. Station group AI was located in the inner bay and in the shallow coastal region, and its most dominant species was Heteromastus filiformis. At the station group AII in the mouth of bay and in some channel region, its most dominant species were Lumbrineris longifolia and Eteone longa. And at the station group B located in middle part of the bay, the most dominant specis was Sternaspis scutata. In comparison with previous studies, the benthic polychaetous community experienced great change in the view of species number, density and dominant species. The dominant species were Sternaspis scutata and Eteone longa, but their densities declined greatly. Instead of these species, Lumbrineris longifolia and Heteromastus filiformis, known as the potential organic enrichment indicator species, appeared to the new dominant species even if their low densities. These facts mean that Deugryang Bay was maintained yet as little organic enriched area compared to other bays on the coast of Korea, but needed some caution of marine environmental management.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.492-507
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• 2010

This article reviews the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering during 2009. It is intended to understand the status of current research in the areas of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation, and indoor environments of buildings and plant facilities. Conclusions are as follows. (1) Research trends of thermal and fluid engineering have been surveyed as groups of general thermal and fluid flow, fluid machinery and piping, and new and renewable energy. Various topics were covered in the field of general thermal and fluid flow such as an expander, a capillary tube, the flow of micro-channel water blocks, the friction and anti-wear characteristics of nano oils with mixtures of refrigerant oils, etc. Research issues mainly focused on the design of micro-pumps and fans, the heat resistance reliability of axial smoke exhaust fans, and hood systems in the field of fluid machinery and piping. Studies on ground water sources were executed concerning two well type geothermal heat pumps and multi-heat pumps in the field of new and renewable energy. (2) Research works on heat transfer area have been reviewed in the categories of heat transfer characteristics and industrial heat exchangers. Researches on heat transfer characteristics included the heat transfer in thermoelectric cooling systems, refrigerants, evaporators, dryers, desiccant rotors. In the area of industrial heat exchangers, researches on high temperature ceramic heat exchangers, plate heat exchangers, frosting on fins of heat exchangers were performed. (3) In the field of refrigeration, papers were presented on alternative refrigerants, system improvements, and the utilization of various energy sources. Refrigeration systems with alternative refrigerants such as hydrocarbons, mixed refrigerants, and $CO_2$ were studied. Efforts to improve the performance of refrigeration systems were made applying various ideas of suction line heat exchangers, subcooling bypass lines and gas injection systems. Studies on heat pump systems using unutilized energy sources such as river water, underground water, and waste heat were also reported. (4) Research trend in the field of mechanical building facilities has been found to be mainly focused on field applications rather than performance improvements. In the area of cogeneration systems, papers on energy and economic analysis, LCC analysis and cost estimating were reported. Studies on ventilation and heat recovery systems introduced the effect on fire and smoke control, and energy reduction. Papers on district cooling and heating systems dealt with design capacity evaluation, application plan and field application. Also, the maintenance and management of building service equipments were presented for HVAC systems. (5) In the field of architectural environment, various studies were carried to improve indoor air quality and to analyze the heat load characteristics of buildings by energy simulation. These studies helped to understand the physics related to building load characteristics and to improve the quality of architectural environment where human beings reside in.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.5-9
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• 1976

The categories of national health problems may be mainly divided into health promotion, problems of diseases, and population-economic problems which are indirectly related to health. Of them, the problems of diseases will be exclusively dealt with this speech. Rurality and Disease Problems There are many differences between rural and urban areas. In general, indicators of rurality are small size of towns, dispersion of the population, remoteness from urban centers, inadequacy of public transportation, poor communication, inadequate sanitation, poor housing, poverty, little education lack of health personnels and facilities, and in-accessibility to health services. The influence of such conditions creates, directly or indirectly, many problems of diseases in the rural areas. Those art the occurrence of preventable diseases, deterioration and prolongation of illness due to loss of chance to get early treatment, decreased or prolonged labour force loss, unnecessary death, doubling of medical cost, and economic loss. Some Considerations of Innovative Approach The followings art some considerations of innovative approaches to the problems of diseases in the rural Korea. 1. It would be essential goal of the innovative approaches that the damage and economic loss due to diseases will be maintained to minimum level by minimizing the absolute amount of the diseases, and by moderating the fee for medical cares. The goal of the minimization of the disease amount may be achieved by preventive services and early treatment, and the goal of moderating the medical fee may be achieved by lowering the prime cost and by adjusting the medical fees to reasonable level. 2. Community health service or community medicine will be adopted as a innovative means to disease problems. In this case, a community is defined as an unit area where supply and utilization of primary service activities can be accomplished within a day. The essential nature o the community health service should be such activities as health promotion, preventive measures, medical care, and rehabilitation performing efficiently through the organized efforts of the residents in a community. Each service activity should cover all members of the residents in a community in its plan and performance. The cooperation of the community peoples in one of the essential elements for success of the service program, The motivations of their cooperative mood may be activated through several ways: when the participation of the residents in service program of especially the direct participation of organized cooperation of the area leaders art achieved through a means of health education: when the residents get actual experience of having received the benefit of good quality services; and when the health personnels being armed with an idealism that they art working in the areas to help health problems of the residents, maintain good human relationships with them. For the success of a community health service program, a personnel who is in charge of leadership and has an able, a sincere and a steady characters seems to be required in a community. The government should lead and support the community health service programs of the nation under the basis of results appeared in the demonstrative programs so as to be carried out the programs efficiently. Moss of the health problems may be treated properly in the community levels through suitable community health service programs but there might be some problems which art beyond their abilities to be dealt with. To solve such problems each community health service program should be under the referral systems which are connected with health centers, hospitals, and so forth. 3. An approach should be intensively groped to have a physician in each community. The shortage of physicians in rural areas is world-wide problem and so is the Korean situation. In the past the government has initiated a system of area-limited physician, coercion, and a small scale of scholarship program with unsatisfactory results. But there might be ways of achieving the goal by intervice, broadened, and continuous approaches. There will be several ways of approach to motivate the physicians to be settled in a rural community. They are, for examples, to expos the students to the community health service programs during training, to be run community health service programs by every health or medical schools and other main medical facilities, communication activities and advertisement, desire of community peoples to invite a physician, scholarship program, payment of satisfactory level, fulfilment of military obligation in case of a future draft, economic growth and development of rural communities, sufficiency of health and medical facilities, provision of proper medical care system, coercion, and so forth. And, hopefully, more useful reference data on the motivations may be available when a survey be conducted to the physicians who are presently engaging in the rural community levels. 4. In communities where the availability of a physician is difficult, a trial to use physician extenders, under certain conditions, may be considered. The reason is that it would be beneficial for the health of the residents to give them the remedies of primary medical care through the extenders rather than to leave their medical problems out of management. The followings are the conditions to be considered when the physician extenders are used: their positions will be prescribed as a temporary one instead of permanent one so as to allow easy replacement of the position with a physician applicant; the extender will be under periodic direction and supervision of a physician, and also referral channel will be provided: legal constraints will be placed upon the extenders primary care practice, and the physician extenders will used only under the public medical care system. 5. For the balanced health care delivery, a greater investment to the rural areas is needed to compensate weak points of a rurality. The characteristics of a rurality has been already mentioned. The objective of balanced service for rural communities to level up that of urban areas will be hard to achieve without greater efforts and supports. For example, rural communities need mobile powers more than urban areas, communication network is extremely necessary at health delivery facilities in rural areas as well as the need of urban areas, health and medical facilities in rural areas should be provided more substantially than those of urban areas to minimize, in a sense, the amount of patient consultation and request of laboratory specimens through referral system of which procedures are more troublesome in rural areas, and more intensive control measures against communicable diseases are needed in rural areas where greater numbers of cases are occurred under the poor sanitary conditions.