• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.29-54
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• 2009

This study is intended to figure out determinants affecting the economic preparations for old age of pastors from major four protestant associations having a church ministerial pension system: the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church in Korea (GAPCK), the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK), the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK), and the Korean Methodist Church (KMC). Thereby, it conducted a survey to 452 pastors from the four religious associations in Korea. The followings sum up the results of this research. First, it was shown that the conventional idea that there is no need for pastors to prepare for their old age or their preparations for old age imply disbelief had been diminished. Second, there were few pastors who had made economic preparations for their old age privately. Third, associations adopting a compulsory church ministerial pension system were PCK, PROK, and KMC indicating a high occupation of more than 75% whereas GAPCK with an optional system showed a very low percentage of 11.5%. Fourth, with regard to the national pension system, the associations except for PROK (61.8%) had more non-enrolled pastors (53.3%), and they responded economic difficulty as the biggest reason for the unenrollment. Fourth, determinants affecting their economic preparations for old age were academic career, total income, church independency, church reserving, and national pension enrollment. Fifth, among the pastors from the four associations, the ones of PROK prepared for their old age best in consideration of GAPCK. According to the results of this paper, the most critical determinant affecting pastors' economic preparations for old age was total income. Pastors with higher income can make church ministerial pension, national pension, and private preparations while the ones with lower income cannot afford for public as well as private preparations; that is, there exists a polarization phenomenon in pastors' economic preparations for old age. Therefore, it is necessary to make devices to narrow the income gap between pastors in religious associations. Second, even in the associations having a compulsory church ministerial pension system, many pastors were not insured, so it is needed to reform or improve the pension system. Third, it is also required to better the national pension system and change the recognition on it.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.135-151
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine the work environments of dental hygienists, to find out about what problems there were with their work environments and ultimately to help improve their work environments. It's basically intended to pave the way for furthering the welfare and interests of dental hygienists. The subjects in this study were dental hygienists who were selected by random sampling from among the members of Korean Dental Hygienists Association. Approximately 20 percent of the members each were selected from every region across the nation, and their work environments were investigated in consideration of the kind of their workplaces, service area, career and field of duties. As for the demographic characteristics of the dental hygienists investigated, there were differences between those who worked in the field of health care and the clinical workers. More of the former were older and married, and the former was ahead of the latter in career and education as well. Regarding working hours and leave of absence by kind of workplace, the number of regular average holidays was different according to their place of employment. Dental hospitals(6.66 days) and dental clinics(6.81 days) gave their employees less days off on the whole, whereas public dental clinics(19.29 days) granted the dental hygienists the longest leave of absence. Also, there was a broad gap in the number of regular average holidays among different regions in the nation. The dental hygienists who worked in Gangweon province enjoyed the longest holidays(10.88 days), while those on Jeju Island took the shortest vacation(4.46 days). Concerning monthly mean pay by place of employment, those who worked in public dental clinics were paid the best, and the dental hospital employees received the smallest pay. Their monthly mean pay significantly varied with the kind of their workplaces. As to connections between service area and pay level in the event of the dental hygienists with a four-year career, those who served in Seoul were paid the best(1,820,800 won), followed by Gyeonggi province(1,795,800 won), Gyeongsang province(1,604,200 won), metropolitan cities(1,424,800), Gangweon province(1,300,000 won) and Jeolla province(1,016,700 won). In regard to the starting pay in the different areas, the starting pay was largest in Seoul(1,501,800 won) and smallest in Jeolla province(904,000 won). Concerning work environments by place of employment, the dental hygienists in public dental clinics, general hospitals and university hospitals were far older than the others, and the career of the former was much larger than that of the latter. As to the number of regular leave of absence, public dental clinics, general hospitals and university hospitals were different from dental hospitals and clinics in that regard as well. Concerning monthly pay, public dental clinics paid their employees the best, and dental hospitals and clinics were ahead in terms of pay raise. But the reason seemed that public dental clinics and general hospitals increased the pay of their employees based on a fixed wage system and according to a fixed rate at the same time. As for relations between career and work environments, the pay of the dental hygienists differed with their career. The amount and rate of pay raise were largest for those whose career was between four years and less than six years, and smallest for those whose career was between seven years and less than nine years. The above-mentioned findings of the study suggested that in order to give dental hygienists better treatment, pay and welfare benefits should urgently be improved, and that it's required to take actions to boost their job satisfaction. Besides, they should be given more chances to receive education or to take training courses in pursuit of self-development, and how to narrow gaps in work environments among different regions or fields should carefully be considered.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 2002

Purpose : Renal transplantation which allows children normal growth and development and a return to normal life. is now proven to be the best modality for children with ESRD Up to Recently, the number of renal transplantations in Asia has rapidly increased and the outcome has also improved. This investigation was planned to estimate the current status of pediatric renal transplantation in Asia and to find the keys for better improvement of outcome in pediatric renal allograft in Asian countries. Material and methods : The participating countries and institutions for this investigation were China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Korea, KSPN (Korean Society of Pediatric Nephrology), KONOS (Korean Network for Organ Sharing). Results : Many countries in Asia still do not have a well organized nation wide renal transplantation registration system independently in the pediatric field. So it's very difficult to evaluate the real state of pediatric transplantation among Asian countries. According to the estimation with fragmented data from each countries, in the front running countries of pediatric renal transplantation in Asia, about 40 or more transplants were performed in each country per year and the five year actuarial renal allograft survival was around 80% which is similar to that of western countries. But there were large gaps among the behind groups. Conclusion : Vigorous attempts to perform renal transplantation for children especially younger than 5 years old would be encouraged as well as organ donation from brain dead donor and non heart beating cadaveric donor also should be activated to cope effectively with the shortage of living donor supply. Large number of recent reports shows the favorable outcome of pre-emptive renal transplantation, we should make more efforts toward pre-emptive renal transplantation. First of all, in order to improve the outcome and to narrow the gap between Asian countries in pediatric renal transplantation, effective and continuous efforts to establish nationwide pediatric renal transplantation registration program as well as official, nation-to-nation data sharing program should be needed.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.493-513
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• 2014

With the development of related technologies, Location-Based Services (LBS) are growing fast and being used in many ways. Past LBS studies have focused on adoption of LBS because of the fact that LBS users have privacy concerns regarding revealing their location information. Meanwhile, the number of LBS users and revenues from LBS are growing rapidly because users can get some benefits by revealing their location information. Little research has been done on how LBS affects consumers' information search behavior in product purchase. The purpose of this paper is examining the effect of LBS information filtering on buyers' uncertainty and their information search behavior. When consumers purchase a product, they try to reduce uncertainty by searching information. Generally, there are two types of uncertainties - knowledge uncertainty and choice uncertainty. Knowledge uncertainty refers to the lack of information on what kinds of alternatives are available in the market and/or their important attributes. Therefore, consumers having knowledge uncertainty will have difficulties in identifying what alternatives exist in the market to fulfil their needs. Choice uncertainty refers to the lack of information about consumers' own preferences and which alternative will fit in their needs. Therefore, consumers with choice uncertainty have difficulties selecting best product among available alternatives.. According to economics of information theory, consumers narrow the scope of information search when knowledge uncertainty is high. It is because consumers' information search cost is high when their knowledge uncertainty is high. If people do not know available alternatives and their attributes, it takes time and cognitive efforts for them to acquire information about available alternatives. Therefore, they will reduce search breadth. For people with high knowledge uncertainty, the information about products and their attributes is new and of high value for them. Therefore, they will conduct searches more in-depth because they have incentive to acquire more information. When people have high choice uncertainty, people tend to search information about more alternatives. It is because increased search breadth will improve their chances to find better alternative for them. On the other hand, since human's cognitive capacity is limited, the increased search breadth (more alternatives) will reduce the depth of information search for each alternative. Consumers with high choice uncertainty will spend less time and effort for each alternative because considering more alternatives will increase their utility. LBS provides users with the capability to screen alternatives based on the distance from them, which reduces information search costs. Therefore, it is expected that LBS will help users consider more alternatives even when they have high knowledge uncertainty. LBS provides distance information, which helps users choose alternatives appropriate for them. Therefore, users will perceive lower choice uncertainty when they use LBS. In order to test the hypotheses, we selected 80 students and assigned them to one of the two experiment groups. One group was asked to use LBS to search surrounding restaurants and the other group was asked to not use LBS to search nearby restaurants. The experimental tasks and measures items were validated in a pilot experiment. The final measurement items are shown in Appendix A. Each subject was asked to read one of the two scenarios - with or without LBS - and use a smartphone application to pick a restaurant. All behaviors on smartphone were recorded using a recording application. Search breadth was measured by the number of restaurants clicked by each subject. Search depths was measured by two metrics - the average number of sub-level pages each subject visited and the average time spent on each restaurant. The hypotheses were tested using SPSS and PLS. The results show that knowledge uncertainty reduces search breadth (H1a). However, there was no significant correlation between knowledge uncertainty and search depth (H1b). Choice uncertainty significantly reduces search depth (H2b), but no significant relationship was found between choice uncertainty and search breadth (H2a). LBS information filtering significantly reduces the buyers' choice uncertainty (H4) and reduces the negative relationship between knowledge uncertainty and search breadth (H3). This research provides some important implications for service providers. Service providers should use different strategies based on their service properties. For those service providers who are not well-known to consumers (high knowledge uncertainty) should encourage their customers to use LBS. This is because LBS would increase buyers' consideration sets when the knowledge uncertainty is high. Therefore, less known services have chances to be included in consumers' consideration sets with LBS. On the other hand, LBS information filtering decrease choice uncertainty and the near service providers are more likely to be selected than without LBS. Hence, service providers should analyze geographically approximate competitors' strength and try to reduce the gap so that they can have chances to be included in the consideration set.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.38-61
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• 2019

Up until the early twentieth century in Germany, there were two research trends: 1) emphasizing objectives and making detailed observations of archaeological artifacts and sites, 2) tracing the remains of specific nations or ethnic groups and defining their temporal-spatial boundaries by conducting research on material culture in terms of nationalism or ethnocentrism. After the Second World War ended and Germany was divided, West German archaeology focused on observations of artifacts and sites, cataloging them, and doing research on chronology and distribution following their own traditional methodologies. East German archaeology attempted to prove the developing process of history and its Marxist principles based upon material culture and to examine the historic value of inherent specific cultural heritage based on criteria regarding how it corresponded to socialism and contributed to the development of socialism. Nevertheless, East and West German archaeology shared traditional archaeological methods inherited from German archaeology since the nineteenth century, and contact between archaeologists in West and East Germany continued to a degree. Furthermore, East German archaeology produced significant archaeological achievements acknowledged by West German and European archaeologists. These facts provided the momentum to complete rapid incorporation of the archaeologies of West and East Germany in spite of a one-sided process imposed by West German archaeology. In the case of Korea, it seems necessary to make an effort to share common research history and traditions and to encourage mutual academic exchange (e.g. joint excavation and archaeological research). Furthermore, it is also imperative to have open-minded attitudes toward accepting substantial results and interpretations achieved by North Korean archaeologists under scrutiny when and where necessary, despite seeming to have been fossilized by Marxism and Juche ideology. Any efforts to narrow the gap in archaeological research and conservation of cultural heritage between the archaeologies of South and North Korea should be made immediately. The case of Germany demonstrates how such a project could proceed efficaciously.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.66
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• pp.243-272
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• 2021

Corona 19 brought about a major shift in the Korean church's pastoral style. Contact and non-contact ministry styles using the Internet and media devices are being held together. The elderly, who have been classified as digital vulnerable, need to see whether they are properly adapting to these changes and they have any difficulties in their religious lives. This study is to organize the current status of Corona 19 related to Korean churches, look at the current state of church programs for Christian elderly people, look at how important the religious life is to their lives, and to suggest educational pastoral methods for their religious lives based on the theory of Maria Harris' educational ministry. First, in terms of Koinonia, it was suggested that the heritage, beliefs, values and ways of life held by the Christian elderly be shared with people inside and outside the church in order to entertain and embrace everyone without alienation. Second, from the perspective of Leiturgia, educational ministry was proposed to expand prayer life from a personal area to a public area to become a life of practicing prayer and justice by providing public prayer content with media that can be used by the elderly to perform spirituality. Third, it was suggested that in terms of Didache, it should be required that the elderly should be educated to be familiar with the changing technologies, that teaching environment should be extended from church to online, and that the educational content of tradition and new forms should be dealt with extensively. Fourth, from the perspective of Kerigma, Christian elderly people who have suffered in various life environments, both personally and socially, should listen to the words again and gain the power to overcome the corona crisis through the God's words, so that they can be melted into the curriculum of koinonia, leiturgia, didache, and diakonia. Fifth, it was suggested that senior citizens should switch their consciousness to become subjects of service, not objects of service, and that digital literacy education should be provided individually at eye level to narrow the digital gap for Diakonia curriculum.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.137-159
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• 2017

This study divides manufacturing in 18 countries including Korea, China, Japan and OECD countries into 11 areas and estimates and compares the technological efficiency of each industry. The traditional view of productivity is to increase production capacity through technological innovation or process innovation, but it is also influenced by the technological efficiency of production process. A Stochastic Frontier Production Model (SFM) is a representative method for estimating the technical efficiency of such production. First, as a result of estimating the production function by setting the output variable as total output or value-added, in both cases, the output increased significantly in all manufacturing sectors as inputs of labor, capital, and intermediate increased. On the other hand, R&D investment has a large impact on output in chemical, electronics, and machinery industries. Next, as a result of estimating the technological efficiency through the production function, when the total output is set as the output variable, the overall average of each sector is 0.8 or more, showing mostly high efficiency. However, when value-added was set, Japan had the highest level in most manufacturing sectors, while other countries were lower than the efficiency of the total output. Comparing the three countries of Korea, China and Japan, Japan showed the highest efficiency in most manufacturing sectors, and Korea was about half or one third of Japan and China was lower than Korea. However, in the food and electronics sectors, China is higher than Korea, indicating that China's production efficiency has greatly improved. As such, Korea is not able to narrow its gap with Japan relatively faster than China's rapid growth. Therefore, various policy supports are needed to promote technology development. In addition, in order to improve manufacturing productivity, it is necessary to shift to an economic structure that can raise technological efficiency as well as technology development.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.28
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• pp.237-266
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• 2010

This thesis is to check whether the modernization, promoted mainly in 1960-1970 of Korea may have the relations with Confucian values or have a gap between this and that, and have the question about the idea of the appearance of modernity under Park Jung-hee's government, which is based on the viewpoint that Confucianism would have been made ill use of or have contribution to the nation-directing modernity, especially to the modernization of people. In a sense this thesis demands the overcome of the modern ills such as social dichotomy, leaving out matters of locals, and neglecting the diversities and singularities of creatures, resulted from efficiencies and uniformity caused by nation-centralism. At first Confucianism have represented humanism with a view to finding the mean between the two of locals, affairs, and men. As such it has seek to find centrality, which means my real mind for meeting outward things or the optimum as the mean, the best state between of the two. The political doctrines modified from Confucian learnings including chung, hyo, samgang, and oryun worked as the mechanism for finding nation-directing modernity. As a result we have lived in the modernity, strengthened by nation-centralism. And the leading concepts in related with Neo-Confucianism had people lose their spaces of desire for their own future or got them to be narrow. Accordingly the modernization of Korea means not an integral space in which we can achieve what we want in various aspects, but a deficient space to be complemented, resulted from the centralization of all conditions of life, dichotomous way of approaching matters by nation-centralism, far from being the essence of Confucianism. In the end the rapid modernization by the leaders in Korea has given rise to the concentration politics, economy, and so forth on Seoul as the center. Then we should deeply reflect the deficiency state of centralism like this and how Confucianism would have been responsible for it and will give how to relieve the unequal centralism of nation. Now for this matter we would like to expect our study in the future.v