• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.163-193
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• 1997

Medical services are a fundamental and essential service in all urban areas. The location and accessibility of medical service facilities and institutions are critical to the diagnosis, control and prevention of illness and disease. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study on the location of medical facilities in Kwangju and the utilization of these facilities by the inhabitants. The following information is a summary of the findings: (1) Korea, like many countries, is now witnessing an increase in the age of its population as a result of higher living standards and better medical services. Korea is also experiencing a rapid increase in health care costs. To ensure easy access to medical consultation, diagnosis and treatment by individuals, the hierarchical efficient location of medical facilities, low medical costs, equalized medical services, preventive medical care is important. (2) In Korea, the quality of medical services has improved significantly as evident by the increased number of medical facilities and medical personnel. However, there is still a need for not only quantitative improvements but also for a more equitable distribution of and location of medical services. (3) There are 503 medical facilities in Kwangju each with a need to service 2,556 people. This is below the national average of 1,498 inhabitants per facility. The higher locational quotient and satisfactory population per medical facility showed at the civic center. On the other hand, problem regions such as the traditional residential area in Buk-Gu, Moo-deung mountain area and the outer areas of west Kwangju still maintain rural characteristics. (4) In the study area there are 86 general medicine clinics which provide basic medical services. i. e. one clinic per every 14,949 residents. As a basic service, its higher locational quotient showed in the residential area. The lower population concentration per clinic was found in the civic center and in the former town center, Songjeong-dong. In recently build residential areas and in the civic center, the lack of general medicine clinics is not a serious medical services issue because of the surplus of medical specialists in Korea. People are inclined to seek a consultation with a specialist in specific fields rather than consult a general practitioner. As a result of this phenomenon, there are 81 internal medicine facilities. Of these, 32.1% provide services to people who are not referred by a primary care physician but who self-diagnose then choose a medical facility specializing in what they believe to be their health problem. Areas in the city, called dongs, without any internal facilities make up 50% of the total 101 dongs. (5) There are 78 surgical facilities within the area, and there is little difference at the locational appearance from internal medicine facilities. There are also 71 pediatric health clinics for people under 15 years of age in this area, represents one clinic per 5,063 people. On the quantitative aspect, this is a positive situation. Accessibility is the most important facility choice factor, so it should be evenly located in proportion to demander distribution. However, 61% of 102 dongs have no pediatric clinics because of the uneven location. (6) There are 43 obstetrical and gynecological clinics in Kwangju, and the number of residents being served per clinic is 15,063. These services need to be given regularly so it should increase the numbers. There are 37 ENT clinics in the study area with the lower concentration in Dong-gu (32.4%) making no locational differences by dong. There are 23 dermatology clinics with the largest concentration in Dong-Gu. There are 17 ophthalmic clinics concentrated in the residential area because of the primary function of this type of specialization. (7) The use of general medicine clinics, internal medicine clinics, pediatric clinics, ENT clinics by the inhabitants indicate a trend toward primary or routine medical services. Obstetrics and gynecology clinics are used on a regular basis. In choosing a general medicine clinic, internal medicine clinic, pediatric clinic, and a ENT clinic, accessibility is the key factor while choice of a general hospital, surgery clinic, or an obstetrics and gynecology clinic, thes faith and trust in the medical practitioner is the priority consideration. (8) I considered the efficient use of medical facilities in the aspect of locational and management and suggest the following: First, primary care facilities should be evenly distributed in every area. In Kwangju, the number of medical facilities is the lowest among the six largest cities in Korea. Moreover, they are concentrated in Dong-gu and in newly developed areas. The desired number of medical facilities should be within 30 minutes of each person's home. For regional development there is a need to develop a plan to balance, for example, taxes and funds supporting personnel, equipment and facilities. Secondly, medical services should be co-ordinated to ensure consistent, appropriate, quality services. Primary medical facilities should take charge of out-patient activities, and every effort should be made to standardize and equalize equipment and facility resources and to ensure ongoing development and training in the primary services field. A few specialty medical facilities and general hospitals should establish a priority service for incurable and terminally ill patients. (9) The management scheme for the inhabitants' efficient use of medical service is as follows: The first task is to efficiently manage medical facilities and related services. Higher quality of medical services can be accomplished within the rapidly changing medical environment. A network of social, administrative and medical organizations within an area should be established to promote information gathering and sharing strategies to better assist the community. Statistics and trends on the rate or occurrence of diseases, births, deaths, medical and environment conditions of the poor or estranged people should be maintained and monitored. The second task is to increase resources in the area of disease prevention and health promotion. Currently the focus is on the treatment and care of individuals with illness or disease. A strong emphasis should also be placed on promoting prevention of illness and injury within the community through not only public health offices but also via medical service facilities. Home medical care should be established and medical testing centers should be located as an ordinary service level. Also, reduced medical costs for the physically handicapped, cardiac patients, and mentally ill or handicapped patients should be considered.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.209-237
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• 2012

1. Research Purpose Consumers rely on various clues to evaluate their decision to patronize a retail store, and store brand is one of them (Dodds 1991; Grewal et al. 1998). As consumers find ever increasing variety of contact points connecting them to specific store, the value of experiential shopping as a means of increasing store's brand equity warrants greater attention from scholars of retail management. Retail shopping values are credited for creating not only cognitive experiences like brand knowledge but also emotional experiences such as shopping pleasure and pride (Schmitt 1999). This may be because today's consumers place emphasis on emotional values associated with shopping pleasure, lifestyle brought to life, brand relationship, and store atmosphere more than utilitarian values such as product quality and price. Many previous literature found this to be true (Ahn and Lee 2011; Mathwick et al. 2001). This brings forth important research issues and questions regarding the roles of shopping experiential values and brand equity with regard to consumer's retail patronage choice. However, despite this importance, research on this area remains quite inadequate (Hwang 2010). For this reason, this study aims to verify the relationships among experiential shopping values, retail store brand equity and tries to link that with customer loyalty by surveying large-scale discount store shoppers in Korea and China. 2. Research Contents In order to carry out the research objective, this study conducted comprehensive literature survey on previous literature by discussing major findings and implications with regard to shopping values and retail brand equity and store loyalty. For data collection, researcher employed survey-based research method where data were collected in two major cities of Korea (Seoul) and China (Bejing) and sampling frame was based on patrons of large discount stores in both countries. Specific research questions raised in this study are as follows; RQ1: How do Korean and Chinese consumers differently perceive of shopping values regarding shopping at large-sclae discount stores? RQ2: Are there differences in consumers' emotional consumption propensities? RQ3: Do Korean and Chinese consumers display different perceptions of brand equity towards large-scale discount stores? RQ4: Are there differences in relationships between shopping values and brand equity for Korean and Chinese consumers? For statistical analysis, SPSS17.0, AMOS17.0 and SmartPLS were employed. 3. Research Results The data collected through face-to-face survey conducted in Seoul and Bejing revealed appropriate data validity and reliability as a result of exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis and reliability tests, andh SEM model yielding satisfactory model fitness. The result of the study may be summarized by three main points. First, as a result of testing differences in consumption dispositions, Chinese consumers showed higher scores in aesthetic and symbolic dispositions, whereas Korean consumers scored higher in hedonic disposition. Second, testing on perceptions toward brand equity of large discount stores showed that Korean consumers exhibited more positive perceptions of brand awareness and brand image than Chinese counterparts. Third, the result of exploratory factor analysis on the experiential shopping values revealed different factors for each country. On Korean side, consumer interest value, aesthetic value, and hedonic value were prominent, whereas on Chinese side, hedonic value, aesthetic value, consumer interest value, and service excellence value were found salient. 4. Research Implications While many previous studies on inter-country differences in retailing area mainly focused on cultural dispositions or orientations to explain the differences, this study sets itself apart by specifically targeting individual consumer's shopping values from an experiential viewpoint. The study result provides important theoretical as well as practical implications for large-scale discount store, especially the impotance of fully exploring the linkage between shopping values and brand equity, which has significant influence on loyalty. Therefore, the specific implications deriving from the result shed some important insights upon the consumption values based on shopping experiences and brand equity. The differences found in store shoppers between the two countries may also provide useful insights for Korean and Chinese retailers who plan to expand their operations globally. Related strategic implications derived from this study is the importance of localizing retail strategy which is based on the differences found in experiential shopping values between the two country groups. Especially the finding that Chinese consumers value consumer interest and service excellence, whereas Koreans place importance on hedonic or aesthetic values indicates the need to differentiate the consumer's psychographical profiles when it comes to expanding retail operations globally. Particularly important will be to pursue price-orienated strategy in China in consideration of the high emphasis on consumer interests and service excellence, but to emphasize the symbolic aspects of brand equity in Korea by maximizing the brand equity associated with aesthetic values and hedonic orientations. 5. Recommendations This study focused on generic retail branded discount stores in both countries, thus making it difficult to tease out store-specific strategies based on specific retail brands. Future studies may benefit fro employing actual brand names in survey questionnaire to verify relationship between shopping values and brand-based store strategy. As with other studies of this nature, this study needs to strengthen the result's generalizability by selecting respondents from a wider spectrum of respondents.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-44
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• 1973

Needless to say, the management of national forest in all countries is very important in view of the national mission and management purposes. Korean national forest is also in particular significant in promoting national economy for the continuous increasing of the demand for wood, conservation of the land and social welfare. But there's no denying the fact that the leading aim of the Korean forest policy has been based upon the conservation of forest resources and recovery of land conservation function instead of improvement of the forest productive capacity. Therefore, the management of national forest should be aimed as an industry in the chain of the Korean national economy. And the increment of the forest productive capacity based on rationalized forest management is also urgently needed. Not only the increment of the timber production but also the establishment of the good forest in quality and quantity are to bring naturally many functions of conservation and other public benefits. In 1908 Korean national forest was historically established for the first time as a result of the notification for ownership, and was divided into two kinds in 1911-1924, such as indisposable national forest for land conservation, forest management, scientific research and public welfare, and the other national forest to be disposed. Indisposable forest is mostly under the jurisdiction of national forest stations (Chungbu, Tongbu, Nambu), and the tother national forests are under custody of respective cities and provinces, and under custody of the other government authorities. As of the end of 1971, national forest land is 19.5% (1,297,708 ha) of the total forest land area, but growing stock is 50.1% ($35,406,079m^3$) of the total forest growing stock, and timber production of national forest is 23.6% ($205,959m^3$) of the year production of total timber in Korea. Accordingly, it is the important fact that national forest occupies the major part of Korean forestry. The author positively affirms that success or failure of the management of national forest controls rise or fall of forestry in Korea. All functions of forest are very important, but among others the function of timber production is most important especially in Korea, that unavoidably imports a large quantity of foreign wood every year (in 1971 import of foreign wood-$3,756,000m^3$, 160,995,000 dollars). So, Korea urgently needs the improvement of forest productive capacity in national forest. But it is difficult that wood production meets the rapid increase of demand for wood to the development of economy, because production term of forestry is long, so national forest management should be rationalized by the effective investment and development of forestry techniques in the long view. Although Korean national forest business has many difficulties in the budget, techniques and the lack of labour due to outflow of rural village labour by development of national economy, and the increase of labour wages and administrative expenses etc. the development of national forest depends on adoption of the suitable forest techniques and management adapted for social and economical development. In this view point the writer has investigated and analyzed the status of the management of national forest in Korea to examine the irrational problems and suggest an improvement plan. The national forestry statistics cited in this study is based on the basic statistics and the statistics of the forest business as of the end of 1971 published by Office of Forestry, Republic of Korea, and the other depended on the data presented by the national forest stations. The writer wants to propose as follows (seemed to be helpful in improvement of Korean national forest management). 1) In the organization of national forest management, more national forest stations should be established to manage intensively, and the staff of working plan officials should be strengthened because of the importance of working plan. 2) By increasing the staff of protection officials, forest area assigned for each protection official should be decreased to 1,000-2,000 ha. 3) The frequent personnel changes of supervisor of national forest station(the responsible person on-the-spot) obstructs to accomplish the consistent management plan. 4) In the working plan drafting for national forest, basic investigations should be carefully practiced with sufficient expenditure and staff not to draft unreal working plan. 5) The area of working-unit should be decreased to less than 2,000 ha on the average for intensive management and the principle of a working-unit in a forest station should be realized as soon as possible. 6) Reforestation on open land should be completed in a short time with a debt of the special fund(a long term loan), and the land on which growing hardwood stands should be changed with conifers to increase productivity per unit area, and at the same time techical utilization method of hardwood should be developed. 7) Expenses of reforestation should be saved by mechanization and use of chemicals for reforestation and tree nursery operation providing against the lack of labour in future. 8) In forest protection, forest fire damage is enormous in comparison with foreign countries, accordingly prevention system and equipment should be improved, and also the minimum necessary budget should be counted up for establishment and manintenance of fire-lines. 9) Manufacture production should be enlarged to systematize protection, processing and circulation of forest business, and, by doing this, mich benefit is naturally given for rural people. 10) Establishment and arrangement of forest road networks and erosion control work are indispensable for the future development of national forest itself and local development. Therefore, these works should be promoted by the responsibility of general accounting instead of special accounting. 11) Mechanization of forest works should be realized for exploiting hinterlands to meet the demand for timber increased and for solving lack of labour, consequently it should promote import of forest machines, home production, training for operaters and careful adminitration. 12) Situation of labour in future will grow worse. Therefore, the countermeasure to maintain forest labourers and pay attention to public welfare facilities and works should be considered. 13) Although the condition of income and expenditure grows worse because of economical change, the regular expenditure should be fixed. So part of the surplus fund, as of the end of 1971, should be established for the fund, and used for enlarging reforestation and forest road networks(preceding investment in national forest).

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.93-114
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• 1978

The purpose of the study was to find out possible ways for increasing farm income through the sheep and Korean native goats farming, and to investigate meat productivity, wool productivity; woolskin utility, physiological characteristics and correlation between economical college animal farm of the Chungnam National University and sample farms in the suburbs of Dae jeon City were selected for feeding 20 heads of Corriedale wethers and another 20 heads Korean native kids as research materials for the periods of 5th May-26th November, 1977. The data such as growth rate, carcass, viscera weight, blood picture and plamsa components, hebage intake and economic traits were obtained and analysed. The result of the study are summarized as follows: 1. Meat production and quality 1) After 196days of feeding, the body weight of sheep and Korean native goats was increased by two times of those at the beginning of the trial, i.e. 20kg and 8kg respectively. 2) There was no significance of growth rates of sheep in housing and grazing. 3) The growth rate of Korean native goats were excellent at the mountainous areas of Gong ju-Gun where infectious diseases were not found 4) Accroding to the body measurements of 18-month-old sheep, percentages of hip height, body length, rump length, chest depth, chest width, hip width, chest girth and forearm circumference to the withers height were 103,%, 104%, 33%, 44%, 31%, 23%, 135% and 15% respectively, and those of hip height, body length, chest depth and chest girth of 8-month-old native goats to the withers height were 106%, 109%, 46% and 122,% respecitively. As a result, it was found that the percentage of hip height, body length and chest depth of Korean native goats were higher than those of sheep while that of the chest girth of goats was lower. 5) In the carcass data, 47, $52{\pm}2.27%$ of carcass percentage, $34.61{\pm}1.62%$ of lean meat, $26.07{\pm}2.51%$ of viscera, $9.75{\pm}1.4%$ of bone, and $20.95%{\pm}2.14%$ of woolskin for sheep, and $45.58{\pm}5.63%$ of carcass percentage, $27.62{\p}3.81%$ of meat, $34.86{\pm}4.16%$ of viscera, $11.66{\pm}1.83%$ of bone, $3.63{\pm}1.61%$ of skull and $9.26{\pm}2.41%$ of woolskin for native goats were obtained. 6) The contents of moisture, crude protein, crude fat and crude ash in native goat meat were much similar in both plots of housing and grazing. It was, however, known that the contents of moisture and protein were higher in grazinrg than in housing, while fat content was lower in grazing plots. 7) The weights of visceral organs shown similar tendency for both of sheep and native goats. For the weights of liver, heart, kidney and spleen, significance was not reconized among the treatments. Those of rumen, reticulum, small and large intestine were heavier in grazing than in housing, while the amount of visceral fat was heavier in housing. 2. Wool productivity and woolskin 1) The wool production of sheep for 7 months was $3.88{\pm}1.02kg$, and wool percentage, staple length, straighten length, wool growth per day and number of crimps were $9.27{\pm}1.48%$, 8. $47{\pm}1.00cm$, $10.63{\pm}0.99cm$, $0.40{\pm}0.04cm$ and $2.78{\pm}0.40$ respecitively. 2) The tensile strength and tear strength of woolskin treated by alum tanning were highest on the skin obtained from rump, i.e. $1,351kg/mm^2$ and $2,252kg/mm^2$ respectively, and they are in order of loin and shoulder. 3. Utilization and improvement of pasture. 1) The difference of herbage intake of native goats was not recognized between grazing and tethering, but the intake in the afternoon was s lightly higher than that in the morning. However the hervage intake of sheep was superior in grazing and in the afternoon. 2) The cultivation effect was lower in the native goat plots due to their cultivation abilities, in other words, the establishment rates of pasture by hoof cultivation were 60.25% in the goat plots and 77.35% in the sheep plots. 4. Correlation among economical traits. 1) The correlation between live weight of sheep and daily gain was higher. On the other hand, the correlation between other traits was not significant except that live weight, daily gain and lean meat percentage to the length of thoracic vertebrae. The live weight of native goats and meat production were highly correlated, and high correlation was also found between weights of carcass and meat. However, negative correlation was shown between viscera weight and live weight as well as daily gain. 2) The correlatoin between fleece weight of sheep and other traits such as live weight, daily gain and fleece percentage is very high at the 1% siginficant level, and this means that rapid-growth individuals can produce much fleece. 3) The correlation between the factors such as weights of live body, lean meat and viscera of sheep and body measurements, i. e. chest girth and body length was highest, and weights, of carcass and lean meat was highly correlated to chest width and depth. It will be therefore reasonable that the meat productivity estimates will have to be made on the basis of chest girth and body length. The meat production traits of native goats were highly correlated to the most of body measurement data, and the correlation coefficient between chest girth and weights of live body, carcass, lean meat and bone percentage was very high, i. e. 0.992-0.974 in particular. The correlations of meat production traits to chest depth, forearm circumference, body length were 0.759-0.911, 0.759-0.909 and 0.708-0.872 respectively. Therefore, the meat production of native goats will have to be estimated on the basis of chest data. 5. Blood picture and plasma components. 1) The number of erythrocyte and MCHC of native goats were $12.93{\times}10^6/mm^3$ and 36.14%, and those of sheep were $10.68{\times}10^6/mm^3$ and 36.26 respectively. The values of native goats were significantly higher than those of sheep. 2) The hemoglobin concentration, PVC, MCV and MCR of native goats were 10.92 g/100ml, $23.40{\mu}^3$ and 10.94 pg, and those of sheep were 11.73 g/100ml, 36.25 ml/100ml, $33.97{\mu}^3$ and 30.2 ml/100ml 8.43 pg respectively. The values of native goats were significantly lower those of sheep. 3) The number of leukocytes of native goats was significantly higher than that of sheep, that is, $11.64{\times}10^3/mm^3$ in native goats and $9.32{\times}10^3/mm^3$ in sheep. 4) In differential count of leukocyte, neutrophil was significantly high in native goats while lympocyte in sheep. On the other hand, the basophil, eosinophil and monocyte were not significant between native goats and sheep. 5) The amounts of total protein and glucose in the plasma of native goats were 6.2g/100ml and 53.6mg/100ml, and those of sheep were 5.6g/100ml and 45.7mg/100ml, which means that the values of native goats were significantly higher that those of sheep. The amount of total-lipid of native goats(127.6mg/100ml) was significantly than that of sheep(149.6mg/100ml). 6) The amount of non-protein nitrogen, cholesterol, Ca, P, K, Na and Cl were not different between native goats and sheep. 6. Economic analysis. 1) The gross revenue of a farm which fed native goats and sheep was 4,000won per head and the optimum size for feeding them in a farm as a subsidiary work is 5-10 heads. 2) Since there was no difference between housing and grazing, they can be fed in group for farm's subsidiary work. 3) They can be also fed by youths and house wives in the suburbs of cities, because labour requirement is estimated as only two hours per days for feeding 5 heads of native goats and sheep.