• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.46-69
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• 2001

Hospice Care is the best way to care for terminally ill patients and their family members. However most of them can not receive the appropriate hospice service because the Korean health delivery system is mainly be focussed on acutly ill patients. This study was carried out to clarify the situation of hospice in Korea and to develop a hospice care delivery system model which is appropriate in the Korean context. The theoretical framework of this study that hospice care delivery system is composed of hospice resources with personnel, facilities, etc., government and non-government hospice organization, hospice finances, hospice management and hospice delivery, was taken from the Health Delivery System of WHO(1984). Data was obtained through data analysis of litreature, interview, questionairs, visiting and Delphi Technique, from October 1998 to April 1999 involving 56 hospices, 1 hospice research center, 3 non-government hospice organizations, 20 experts who have had hospice experience for more than 3 years(mean is 9 years and 5 months) and officials or members of 3 non-government hospice organizations. There are 61 hospices in Korea. Even though hospice personnel have tried to study and to provide qualified hospice serices, there is nor any formal hospice linkage or network in Korea. This is the result of this survey made to clarify the situation of Korean hospice. Results of the study by Delphi Technique were as follows: 1.Hospice Resources: Key hospice personnel were found to be hospice coordinator, doctor, nurse, clergy, social worker, volunteers. Necessary qualifications for all personnel was that they conditions were resulted as have good health, receive hospice education and have communication skills. Education for hospice personnel is divided into (i)basic training and (ii)special education, e.g. palliative medicine course for hospice specialist or palliative care course in master degree for hospice nurse specialist. Hospice facilities could be developed by adding a living room, a space for family members, a prayer room, a church, an interview room, a kitchen, a dining room, a bath facility, a hall for music, art or work therapy, volunteers' room, garden, etc. to hospital facilities. 2.Hospice Organization: Whilst there are three non-government hospice organizations active at present, in the near future an hospice officer in the Health&Welfare Ministry plus a government Hospice body are necessary. However a non-government council to further integrate hospice development is also strongly recommended. 3.Hospice Finances: A New insurance standards, I.e. the charge for hospice care services, public information and tax reduction for donations were found suggested as methods to rise the hospice budget. 4.Hospice Management: Two divisions of hospice management/care were considered to be necessary in future. The role of the hospice officer in the Health & Welfare Ministry would be quality control of hospice teams and facilities involved/associated with hospice insurance standards. New non-government integrating councils role supporting the development of hospice care, not insurance covered. 5.Hospice delivery: Linkage&networking between hospice facilities and first, second, third level medical institutions are needed in order to provide varied and continous hospice care. Hospice Acts need to be established within the limits of medical law with regards to standards for professional staff members, educational programs, etc. The results of this study could be utilizes towards the development to two hospice care delivery system models, A and B. Model A is based on the hospital, especially the hospice unit, because in this setting is more easily available the new medical insurance for hospice care. Therefore a hospice team is organized in the hospital and may operate in the hospice unit and in the home hospice care service. After Model A is set up and operating, Model B will be the next stage, in which medical insurance cover will be extended to home hospice care service. This model(B) is also based on the hospital, but the focus of the hospital hospice unit will be moved to home hospice care which is connected by local physicians, national public health centers, community parties as like churches or volunteer groups. Model B will contribute to the care of terminally ill patients and their family members and also assist hospital administrators in cost-effectiveness.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.182-191
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• 2011

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the sleep patterns of South Korean elementary school children and whether the differences in sleep patterns were related to behavior, emotional problems, attention and academic performance. Method: This study included a community sample of 268 boys and girls from fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade classes in a South Korean metropolitan city from November to December 2010. The primary caregivers completed a questionnaire that included information on demographic characteristics, as well as the Child's Sleep Habit Questionnaire (CSHQ), the Korean version of Child Behavior Checklist (K-CBCL), the Korean version of the Learning Disability Evaluation Scale (K-LDES), the Korean version of ADHD Rating Scale (K-ARS) and the Disruptive Behavior Disorder Scale (DBDS). We conducted analyses on the CSHQ individual items, between the subscales, on the total scores and on the K-CBCL, the K-LEDS, the K-ARS and the DBDS. Results: Based on the findings from the CHSQ, the subjects had significantly higher scores for bedtime resistance ($9.18{\pm}2.17$), delayed sleep onset ($1.32{\pm}0.62$), the sleep duration ($4.19{\pm}1.52$) and daytime sleepiness ($14.10{\pm}3.55$) than the scores from the previous reports on children from western countries. The total CHSQ score showed positive correlations to all subscales of the K-CBCL : withdrawn (r=0.24, p<.005), somatic complaint (r=0.24, p<.005) and anxious/depressive (r=0.38, p<.005). Bedtime resistance was associated with oppositional defiant disorder (r=0.15, p<.05) and a positive correlation was demonstrated between sleep anxiety and the oppositional defiant disorder score (r=0.13, p<.05), night waking and the conduct disorder score (r=0.16, p<.05). Delayed sleep onset was related with low performance on the K-LDES with respect to thinking (r=-0.17, p<.05) and mathematical calculation (r=-0.17, p<.05). Conclusion: The results of this study reconfirm Korean children's problematic sleep patterns. Taken together the results provide that the reduced sleep duration and disruption of sleep pattern can have a significant impact on emotion, behavior, performance of learning in children. Further studies concerning more diverse psychosocial factors affecting sleep pattern will be helpful to understanding of the sleep health in Korean children.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.26-37
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• 2015

Halophyte distribution pattern and area in the Suncheon-bay and Beolgyo estuary coastal wetlands were analyzed using KOMPSAT-2 landsat images were taken in 2008 and 2009, and field investigations were fulfilled for confirming the precise boundaries of individual halophyte areas. The salt-marsh vegetation in those areas can be classified mainly into two dominant communities: Suaeda japonica-dominant and Phragmites communis-dominant communities. In order to identify sedimentary characteristics, tidal-flat surface leveling and sedimentary facies analysis had been conducted. The sedimentary facies of marsh area are mostly silty clayey and clay facies with a little seasonal change and its slope is very gentle (0.0007~0.002 in gradient). Phragmites communis and Suaeda japonica communities were distributed in the mud-flat zone between 0.7 m and 1.8 m higher than MSL (mean sea level): zone of 1.1~1.8 m in the former and zone of 0.7~1.3 m in the latter. In the Suncheon-bay estuarine wetland, on the basis of 2009 distribution, Phragmites communis-dominant and Suaeda japonica-dominant communities are about $0.79km^2$ and $0.22km^2$ in distribution area, respectively. On the other hand, Bulgyo estuarine marsh shows that the distribution areas of Phragmites communis-dominant and Suaeda japonica-dominant communities are about $0.31km^2$ and 0.031km2 in distribution area, respectively. Individual 105 and 60 dominant community areas and their distribution patterns can be well defined and indicated in the Suncheon-bay and Bulgyo estuarine marshes, respectively. The distribution pattern and area of hylophyte communities analyzed in this study based on 2008/2009 satellite images would be valuable as a base of future monitoring of salt-marsh related studies in the study area which is the most important salt-marsh research site in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.521-529
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• 2008

This research conducted a survey on waterbirds visiting this area four times by season from February to October in 2007 to look into the habitat use of waterbirds, to do a value and grade testing of the tidal flat by dividing the foreshore on Muan Bay located in Jeollanam-do into four areas (Dongam, Guro, Bokryong and Wangsan tidal flats). The survey results revealed that there existed a total of 15,755 individuals of 54 species including 2 species of grebes, 7 species of herons, 7 species of dabbling ducks, 6 species of diving ducks, 20 species of waders, 3 species of gulls and 9 other species and this survey also observed 9,291 individuals of the wading birds as a dominant group on Muan Bay. In these classified groups, the gulls and waders were observed to mostly use Dongam tidal flat as their habitat, while the group using Guro tidal flat as their habitat was mostly grebes, dabbling and diving ducks. As a result of UPGMA clustering analysis in consideration of the species and number of individuals, there appear the close similarities between Dongam and Bokryong tidal flats and so do Guro and Wangsan tidal flats. Taking a look at the grading of tidal flats by setting up ecological indexes, such as diversity index, abundance index, and dominance index, etc. legally reserved species and maximum number of individuals as a standard, the rank for the value and importance degree of Bokryong tidal flat appeared higher than that of the other three tidal flats. Like this, the gradation of tidal flats according to waterbirds are judged to able to suggest objective data on the issue of proper judgment and designation of valuable tidal flat areas and its subsequent effective preservation and management.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.17-41
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• 1992

During the month of October, 1990, 676 practicing physicians in Taegu City were surveyed by mail questionnaires about their general characteristics and the reasons why they chose Taegu as a practice location and 331 out of them responded completely. Collected data were analyzed to provide basic reference data for future health manpower policy which intends to solve the problem of geographical maldistribution of physicians, The major findings are as follows: For the question asking why Taegu area is favored, following lists are as the order of their magnitude of the reasons replied by more than 20% of the respondents: 1) Taegu is a foundation of life until now(81.3%) 2) Better educational environments are available for their offsprings(73.7%) 3) They can have intimate relationship with acquaintances or friends sharing same or similar interests(61.0%) 4) Due to characteristics of their specialty, metropolitan seems to fit better(52.0%), 5) They graduated from the medical school in Taegu(49.8%) 6) Never thought of selecting practice location in other area than Taegu without any specific reasons(45.9%) 7) Intelligent communications are available with other physicians(39.9%) 8) More opportunities to participate in social life, such as medical, or alumni association etc., can be given(33.2%) 9) No specific knowledge or relationships with other area are available(32.6%) 10) They finished internship or residency training in Taegu area(31.4%) 11) Facilitation of transferring patients including emergent patients can be obtained (30.8%) 12) Continuing medical educational programs are available(29.9%) 13) Sufficient medical demands are provided because of the large population(28.1%) 14) More chances to be grown up as a medical professionals can be achieved(25.7%) 15) More leizure time can be utilized for cultural activities(23.9%) 16) They had experiences to work in hospitals or facilities in Taegu area(23.3%) 17) Medical facilities of fellow physicians or alumni can be used(20.5%) In addition, 37% of female physicians answered that their spouse strongly influenced them to choose Taegu, and 33.3% of physicians with age of thirty replied that parents did so. Physicians of specialty in radiology, clinical pathology, anatomical pathology, and anesthesiology considered that patients from other hospitals and medical facilities would be referred often to them and that less competition seemed to be expected in their specialty (30.8%). In contrast, general practitioners anticipated that larger population would increase the medical demand(62.5%). 28.6% of medical practitioners who graduated medical schools in other are than Taegu and 22.0% of medical practitioners who were trained in hospitals of other area than Taegu were influenced to choose Taegu by their spouses. In consideration of above findings, we may conclude that long term and rational manpower policies should be implemented to solve the problem of geographical maldistribution of physicians as well as short term physician-inducing policies, and they have to be incorporated with equitable community development.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.137-144
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and assess the needs of the cancer patients and their families and provide basic data to meet with their needs. Methods: This is a descriptive study using questionnaire method. Questionnaire were collected by mail from 76 discharged patients from a hospice ward from May until the end of October, 2004, and data were analyzed by SPSS 10.0. Results: Admitted patients had needs of pain control (85.5%), non-pain symptoms (63.2%) such as vomiting, dyspnea, ascites, etc, and emotional and spiritual problem solving (28.9%, 14.5%). Interests of patients were health care of himself/herself (65.8%), concern for their spouses left alone (32.9%), and future of their children (15.8%). In families' needs of care of 5 areas, "information on patient's status and treatment/nursing care" was shown most high score ($3.48{\pm}0.62$). In detailed questions, they request most 'to inform the prognosis of patients' and the next is 'to inform the reasons that nursing care was required'. The next highest score was to 'inform family roles' ($3.39{\pm}0.64$), and next was spiritual support ($3.11{\pm}0.79$), and emotional support ($3.08{\pm}0.72$). Expectations of family on the treatment were comfortable dying (73.4%) scored the highest. Patients' families were satisfied with volunteer service most in service area (97.4%). The next was pain control (89.5%) and nursing service (77.6%). Conclusion: Health care staff should identify the actual needs of families caring cancer patients and they should operate realistic programme which can give continuous and assistance by reflecting individual needs and characteristics. With these srategies, the quality of life of patients and families can be improved. And then the intervention programme should be developed to measure subjective nursing care needs of terminally ill cancer patients and their families.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.130-142
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• 2007

This study was to examine impacts of turbid water on fish community in the downstream of Yongdam Dam during the period from June to October 2006. For the research, we selected six sampling sites in the field: two sites were controls with no influences of turbid water from the dam and other remaining four sites were the stations for an assessment of potential turbid effects. We evaluated integrative health conditions throughout applications of various models such as necropsy-based fish health assessment model (FHA), Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) using fish assemblages, and Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI). Laboratory tests on fish exposure under 400 NTU were performed to find out impact of turbid water using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Results showed that fine solid particles were clogging in the gill in the treatments, while particles were not found in the control. This results indicate that when inorganic turbidity increases abruptedly, fish may have a mechanical abrasion or respiratory blocking. The stream health condition, based on the IBI values, ranged between 38 and 48 (average: 42), indicating a "excellent" or "good" condition after the criteria of US EPA (1993). In the mean time, physical habitat condition, based on the QHEI, ranged 97 to 187 (average 154), indicating a "suboptimal condition". These biological outcomes were compared with chemical dataset: IBI values were more correlated (r=0.526, p<0.05, n=18) with QHEI rather than chemical water quality, based on turbidity (r=0.260, p>0.05, n=18). Analysis of the FHA showed that the individual health indicated "excellent condition", while QHEI showed no habitat disturbances (especially bottom substrate and embeddeness), food-web, and spawning place. Consequently, we concluded that the ecological health in downstream of Yongdam Dam was not impacted by the turbid water.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.293-305
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• 2019

In this study we investigated the effect of a floating photovoltaic (FPV) system in Cheongpung Lake on water quality. The FPV with a tilt angle of 33° covered ca. 0.04% of surface area (97 ㎢) of Chungju Lake. The water qualities of the whole lake before and after installation of FPV were first compared. DO, BOD, TOC, and Chl-a of the whole lake were increased, while conductivity decreased after installation period at the significance level of 0.05. This change was probably due to the increased influx of nutrients by 40% resulting from increased precipitation during the same period. We also measured water quality parameters on May and Nov. 2017 at the FPV center (FPVC) and nearby control sites, and compared water quality. The result showed that the FPVC and nearby sites were not significantly different (p>0.05), demonstrating that the FPV does not cause a decline of water quality. The water temperature, light intensity, and phytoplankton community were also measured. The water temperature was not different between the sites, while the light intensity decreased to 27~50%. Despite reduced light intensity at FPVC, the phytoplankton standing crops and the number of species were not significantly different (p>0.05). However, in the early November samples, standing crops was significantly higher in FPVC than control with periphytic diatoms belonging to Aulacoseira genus being dominant. This may be due to the temporal water body behavior or local retention of current by FPV system. This study may provide a measure of future installation of a FPV system.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.38-45
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• 2012

Purpose: The incidence of community-acquired urinary tract infection (UTI) due to extended-spectrum ${\beta}$-lactamase producing $Escherichia$ $coli$ (ESBL(+) $E.$ $coli$) has increased worldwide. ESBL causes resistance to various types of the newer ${\beta}$-lactam antibiotics, including the expanded spectrum cephalosporins and monobactams. We aimed to investigate the severity of UTI and associated genitourinary malformations in children with febrile UTI caused by ESBL(+) $E.$ $coli$. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 290 patients diagnosed as febrile UTI caused by $E.$ $coli$ between January 2008 and October 2010 at Korea University Medical center. We classified the patients into two groups with ESBL(+) and ESBL(-) $E.$ $coli$ group according to the sensitivity of urine culture. Fever duration, admission period, white blood cell (WBC) counts and C-reactive protein (CRP) in peripheral blood, the presence of hydronephrosis, cortical defects, vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) and renal scar were compared between the two groups. Results: Patients with ESBL(+) $E.$ $coli$ were 32, and those with ESBL(-) $E.$ $coli$ were 258. If we excluded those tested with a sterile urine bag, patients with ESBL(+) $E.$ $coli$ were 22, and those with ESBL(-) $E.$ $coli$ were 212. Whether the results of sterile urine bag tests were included or not, there was no significant difference in all parameters between the two groups statistically. Conclusion: Our data shows that ESBL(+) $E.$ $coli$ may not be related to the severity of UTI and associated genitourinary malformations.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.209-223
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to estimate the contributed concentration of each emission source to $CH_4$ by verifying the simulated concentration of $CH_4$ in the Korean peninsula, and then to compare the $CH_4$ emission used to the $CH_4$ simulation with that of a box model. We simulated the Weather Research Forecasting-Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model to estimate the mean concentration of $CH_4$ during the period of April 1 to 22 August 2010 in the Korean peninsula. The $CH_4$ emissions within the model were adopted by the anthropogenic emission inventory of both the EDGAR of the global emissions and the GHG-CAPSS of the green house gases in Korea, and by the global biogenic emission inventory of the MEGAN. These $CH_4$ emission data were validated by comparing the $CH_4$ modeling data with the concentration data measured at two different location, Ulnungdo and Anmyeondo in Korea. The contributed concentration of $CH_4$ estimated from the domestic emission sources in verification of the $CH_4$ modeling at Ulnungdo was represented in about 20%, which originated from $CH_4$ sources such as stock farm products (8%), energy contribution and industrial processes (6%), wastes (5%), and biogenesis and landuse (1%) in the Korean peninsula. In addition, one that transported from China was about 9%, and the background concentration of $CH_4$ was shown in about 70%. Furthermore, the $CH_4$ emission estimated from a box model was similar to that of the WRF-CMAQ model.