• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.332-342
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• 2000

Background : The importance of pro-inflammatory cytokines, especially tumor necrosis factor $\alpha$ (INF-$\alpha$) and interleukin-1$\beta$ (IL-1$\beta$), have been extensively documented in the generation of inflammatory lung disease. Lung epithelial cells are also actively involved in initiating and maintaining inflammation by producing pro-inflammatory mediators. Understanding the mechanism of pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in lung epithelial cells is crucial to the development of new therapeutic modalities for inflammatory lung disease. Transcription of most pro-inflammatory cytokines is dependent on the activation of NF-${\kappa}B$. However, the relationship between pro-inflammatory cytokine expression and NF-${\kappa}B/I{\kappa}B$ pathway in lung epithelial cells is not clear. Methods : BEAS-2B, A549, Na-H157, NCI-H719 cells were stimulated with IL-$1{\beta}$ or TNF-$\alpha$ at various times, and then IL-8 and TNF-$\alpha$mRNA expressions were assayed by Northern blot analysis. IL-$1{\beta}$ or TNF-$\alpha$-induced NF-${\kappa}B$ activation was assessed by the nuclear translocation of p65 NF-${\kappa}B$ subunit. The degradation of $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ and $I{\kappa}B{\beta}$ by IL-$1{\beta}$ or TNF-$\alpha$stimulation was assayed by Western blot analysis. The phosphorylation of $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ was evaluated by Western blot analysis after pre-treating cells with proteasome inhibitor followed by IL-$1{\beta}$ or TNF-$\alpha$ stimulation. The basal level of IKK $\alpha$ expression was evaluated by Western blot analysis. Results: $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ and $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ was rapidly degraded after 5 minutes of incubation with IL-$1{\beta}$ or TNF-$\alpha$ in BEAS-2B, A549, and NCI-H157 cells. The activation of NF-${\kappa}B{\alpha}$ and the induction of IL-8 and TNF-$\alpha$ mRNA expression were observed by IL-$1{\beta}$ or TNF-$\alpha$ stimulation in these cells. In contrast, neither the changes in NF-${\kappa}B/I{\kappa}B$ pathway nor IL-8 and TNF-$\alpha$mRNA expression was induced by IL-$1{\beta}$ or TNF-$\alpha$ stimulation in NCI-H719 cells. IL-$1{\beta}$ and TNF-$\alpha$-induced $I{\kappa}B$ phosphorylation was observed in BEAS-2B, A549, and NCI-H157 cells, but not in NCI-H719 cells. The basal level of IKK$\alpha$ expression was not different between cell. Conclusion : NF-${\kappa}B/I{\kappa}B$ pathway plays an important role in the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine in most lung epithelial cells. The absence of the effect on NF-${\kappa}B/I{\kappa}B$ pathway in NCI-H719 cells sæms to be due to the defect in the intracellular signal transduction pathway upstream to IKK.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.139-166
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• 2010

The supply chain management (SCM) systems have emerged as strong managerial tools for manufacturing firms in enhancing competitive strength. Despite of large investments in the SCM systems, many companies are not fully realizing the promised benefits from the systems. A review of literature on adoption, implementation and success factor of IOS (inter-organization systems), EDI (electronic data interchange) systems, shows that this issue has been examined from multiple theoretic perspectives. And many researchers have attempted to identify the factors which influence the success of system implementation. However, the existing studies have two drawbacks in revealing the determinants of systems implementation success. First, previous researches raise questions as to the appropriateness of research subjects selected. Most SCM systems are operating in the form of private industrial networks, where the participants of the systems consist of two distinct groups: focus companies and vendors. The focus companies are the primary actors in developing and operating the systems, while vendors are passive participants which are connected to the system in order to supply raw materials and parts to the focus companies. Under the circumstance, there are three ways in selecting the research subjects; focus companies only, vendors only, or two parties grouped together. It is hard to find researches that use the focus companies exclusively as the subjects probably due to the insufficient sample size for statistic analysis. Most researches have been conducted using the data collected from both groups. We argue that the SCM success factors cannot be correctly indentified in this case. The focus companies and the vendors are in different positions in many areas regarding the system implementation: firm size, managerial resources, bargaining power, organizational maturity, and etc. There are no obvious reasons to believe that the success factors of the two groups are identical. Grouping the two groups also raises questions on measuring the system success. The benefits from utilizing the systems may not be commonly distributed to the two groups. One group's benefits might be realized at the expenses of the other group considering the situation where vendors participating in SCM systems are under continuous pressures from the focus companies with respect to prices, quality, and delivery time. Therefore, by combining the system outcomes of both groups we cannot measure the system benefits obtained by each group correctly. Second, the measures of system success adopted in the previous researches have shortcoming in measuring the SCM success. User satisfaction, system utilization, and user attitudes toward the systems are most commonly used success measures in the existing studies. These measures have been developed as proxy variables in the studies of decision support systems (DSS) where the contribution of the systems to the organization performance is very difficult to measure. Unlike the DSS, the SCM systems have more specific goals, such as cost saving, inventory reduction, quality improvement, rapid time, and higher customer service. We maintain that more specific measures can be developed instead of proxy variables in order to measure the system benefits correctly. The purpose of this study is to find the determinants of SCM systems success in the perspective of vendor companies. In developing the research model, we have focused on selecting the success factors appropriate for the vendors through reviewing past researches and on developing more accurate success measures. The variables can be classified into following: technological, organizational, and environmental factors on the basis of TOE (Technology-Organization-Environment) framework. The model consists of three independent variables (competition intensity, top management support, and information system maturity), one mediating variable (collaboration), one moderating variable (government support), and a dependent variable (system success). The systems success measures have been developed to reflect the operational benefits of the SCM systems; improvement in planning and analysis capabilities, faster throughput, cost reduction, task integration, and improved product and customer service. The model has been validated using the survey data collected from 122 vendors participating in the SCM systems in Korea. To test for mediation, one should estimate the hierarchical regression analysis on the collaboration. And moderating effect analysis should estimate the moderated multiple regression, examines the effect of the government support. The result shows that information system maturity and top management support are the most important determinants of SCM system success. Supply chain technologies that standardize data formats and enhance information sharing may be adopted by supply chain leader organization because of the influence of focal company in the private industrial networks in order to streamline transactions and improve inter-organization communication. Specially, the need to develop and sustain an information system maturity will provide the focus and purpose to successfully overcome information system obstacles and resistance to innovation diffusion within the supply chain network organization. The support of top management will help focus efforts toward the realization of inter-organizational benefits and lend credibility to functional managers responsible for its implementation. The active involvement, vision, and direction of high level executives provide the impetus needed to sustain the implementation of SCM. The quality of collaboration relationships also is positively related to outcome variable. Collaboration variable is found to have a mediation effect between on influencing factors and implementation success. Higher levels of inter-organizational collaboration behaviors such as shared planning and flexibility in coordinating activities were found to be strongly linked to the vendors trust in the supply chain network. Government support moderates the effect of the IS maturity, competitive intensity, top management support on collaboration and implementation success of SCM. In general, the vendor companies face substantially greater risks in SCM implementation than the larger companies do because of severe constraints on financial and human resources and limited education on SCM systems. Besides resources, Vendors generally lack computer experience and do not have sufficient internal SCM expertise. For these reasons, government supports may establish requirements for firms doing business with the government or provide incentives to adopt, implementation SCM or practices. Government support provides significant improvements in implementation success of SCM when IS maturity, competitive intensity, top management support and collaboration are low. The environmental characteristic of competition intensity has no direct effect on vendor perspective of SCM system success. But, vendors facing above average competition intensity will have a greater need for changing technology. This suggests that companies trying to implement SCM systems should set up compatible supply chain networks and a high-quality collaboration relationship for implementation and performance.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.50-63
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• 2018

The rapid urbanization had led to a distortion of natural hydrological cycle system. The change in hydrological cycle structure is causing streamflow depletion, changing the existing use tendency of water resources. To manage such phenomena, a streamflow depletion impact assessment technology to forecast depletion is required. For performing such technology, it is indispensable to build GIS-based spatial data as fundamental data, but there is a shortage of related research. Therefore, this study was conducted to use the use of GIS-based time series spatial data for streamflow depletion assessment. For this study, GIS data over decades of changes on a national scale were constructed, targeting 6 streamflow depletion impact factors (weather, soil depth, forest density, road network, groundwater usage and landuse) and the data were used as the basic data for the operation of continuous hydrologic model. Focusing on these impact factors, the causes for streamflow depletion were analyzed depending on time series. Then, using distributed continuous hydrologic model based DrySAT, annual runoff of each streamflow depletion impact factor was measured and depletion assessment was conducted. As a result, the default value of annual runoff was measured at 977.9mm under the given weather condition without considering other factors. When considering the decrease in soil depth, the increase in forest density, road development, and groundwater usage, along with the change in land use and development, and annual runoff were measured at 1,003.5mm, 942.1mm, 961.9mm, 915.5mm, and 1003.7mm, respectively. The results showed that the major causes of the streaflow depletion were lowered soil depth to decrease the infiltration volume and surface runoff thereby decreasing streamflow; the increased forest density to decrease surface runoff; the increased road network to decrease the sub-surface flow; the increased groundwater use from undiscriminated development to decrease the baseflow; increased impervious areas to increase surface runoff. Also, each standard watershed depending on the grade of depletion was indicated, based on the definition of streamflow depletion and the range of grade. Considering the weather, the decrease in soil depth, the increase in forest density, road development, and groundwater usage, and the change in land use and development, the grade of depletion were 2.1, 2.2, 2.5, 2.3, 2.8, 2.2, respectively. Among the five streamflow depletion impact factors except rainfall condition, the change in groundwater usage showed the biggest influence on depletion, followed by the change in forest density, road construction, land use, and soil depth. In conclusion, it is anticipated that a national streamflow depletion assessment system to be develop in the future would provide customized depletion management and prevention plans based on the system assessment results regarding future data changes of the six streamflow depletion impact factors and the prospect of depletion progress.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.53-74
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• 2012

A challenge in fostering virtual communities is the continuous supply of knowledge, namely members' willingness to contribute knowledge to their communities. Previous research argues that giving away knowledge eventually causes the possessors of that knowledge to lose their unique value to others, benefiting all except the contributor. Furthermore, communication within virtual communities involves a large number of participants with different social backgrounds and perspectives. The establishment of mutual understanding to comprehend conversations and foster knowledge contribution in virtual communities is inevitably more difficult than face-to-face communication in a small group. In spite of these arguments, evidence suggests that individuals in virtual communities do engage in social behaviors such as knowledge contribution. It is important to understand why individuals provide their valuable knowledge to other community members without a guarantee of returns. In virtual communities, knowledge is inherently rooted in individual members' experiences and expertise. This personal nature of knowledge requires social interactions between virtual community members for knowledge transfer. This study employs the social capital theory in order to account for interpersonal relationship factors and identity theory for individual and group factors that may affect knowledge contribution. First, social capital is the relationship capital which is embedded within the relationships among the participants in a network and available for use when it is needed. Social capital is a productive resource, facilitating individuals' actions for attainment. Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1997) identify three dimensions of social capital and explain theoretically how these dimensions affect the exchange of knowledge. Thus, social capital would be relevant to knowledge contribution in virtual communities. Second, existing research has addressed the importance of identity in facilitating knowledge contribution in a virtual context. Identity in virtual communities has been described as playing a vital role in the establishment of personal reputations and in the recognition of others. For instance, reputation systems that rate participants in terms of the quality of their contributions provide a readily available inventory of experts to knowledge seekers. Despite the growing interest in identities, however, there is little empirical research about how identities in the communities influence knowledge contribution. Therefore, the goal of this study is to better understand knowledge contribution by examining the roles of social capital and identity in virtual communities. Based on a theoretical framework of social capital and identity theory, we develop and test a theoretical model and evaluate our hypotheses. Specifically, we propose three variables such as cohesiveness, reciprocity, and commitment, referring to the social capital theory, as antecedents of knowledge contribution in virtual communities. We further posit that members with a strong identity (self-presentation and group identification) contribute more knowledge to virtual communities. We conducted a field study in order to validate our research model. We collected data from 192 members of virtual communities and used the PLS method to analyse the data. The tests of the measurement model confirm that our data set has appropriate discriminant and convergent validity. The results of testing the structural model show that cohesion, reciprocity, and self-presentation significantly influence knowledge contribution, while commitment and group identification do not significantly influence knowledge contribution. Our findings on cohesion and reciprocity are consistent with the previous literature. Contrary to our expectations, commitment did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This result may be due to the fact that knowledge contribution was voluntary in the virtual communities in our sample. Another plausible explanation for this result may be the self-selection bias for the survey respondents, who are more likely to contribute their knowledge to virtual communities. The relationship between self-presentation and knowledge contribution was found to be significant in virtual communities, supporting the results of prior literature. Group identification did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in this study, inconsistent with the wealth of research that identifies group identification as an important factor for knowledge sharing. This conflicting result calls for future research that examines the role of group identification in knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This study makes a contribution to theory development in the area of knowledge management in general and virtual communities in particular. For practice, the results of this study identify the circumstances under which individual factors would be effective for motivating knowledge contribution to virtual communities.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2003

Background: The megakaryopoiesis and platelet production is regulated by several hematopoietc factors such as thrombopoietin (TPO), interleukin-11 (IL-11) and interleukin- 3 (IL-3). IL-11 is a potent stimulator of megakaryopoiesis in vivo, and acts primarily as a megakaryocyte maturation factor in vitro and it can act synergistically with IL-3 and TPO. We performed this study to investigate the effects of recombinant human IL-11 (rhIL-11) with other hematopoietic factors on megakaryocyte colony formation in vitro. Methods: CD34+ cells were separated from umbilical cord blood and megakaryocyte colonies using MegaCult Assay Kit were cultured with rhIL-11, recombinant human IL-3 (rhIL-3), and recombinant human TPO (rhTPO) for 7 and 14 days. The number and percentage of CD34+ and CD41a+ cells were determined by flowcytometry. Results: The number of CD41a+ cells were $0.54{\pm}0.05{\times}10^4$ (rhIL-11 100 ng/ml), $5.32{\pm}0.23{\times}10^4$ (rhIL-3 100 ng/ml), and $8.76{\pm}0.15{\times}10^4$ (rhTPO 50 ng/ml) of total expanded cells during the culture of the purified CD34+ cells in liquid phase for 7 days. The number of CD41a+ cells were increased to $7.47{\pm}0.69{\times}10^4$ (rhIL-3+ rhIL-11), $11.92{\pm}0.19{\times}10^4$ (rhTPO+rhIL-11) of total expanded cells, respectively, during the culture of the purified CD34+ cells in liquid phase for 7 days in the presence of rhIL-11 (100 ng/ml). When the purified CD34+ cells were cultured in semisolid mediaincluding various concentration of rhIL-11, the megakaryocyte colonies were not formed. When the purified CD34+ cells were cultured with rhIL-11 and rhTPO or with rhIL-11 and rhIL-3, the number of megakaryocyte colonies were increased compared with rhTPO or rhIL-3 alone. Conclusion: These results indicate that IL-11 exerts a potent proliferative activity to colony forming unit-megakaryocyte from human umbilical cord blood, and it acts with other hematopoietic factors synergistically.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.194-201
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• 2012

Facing a number of global food-related accidents, the concept and system for food traceability have been designed and introduced in many countries to manage the food-safety risks. To connect and harmonize the various food traceability-information in food traceability system according to the food supply chain, the coding system of identification-number for food-traceability has to be standardized. The GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) barcode system which has been globally standardized and implemented, is reviewed with the mandatory food-labeling regulation in expiration date of processed foods. The integration of GTIN-13 bar-code system for food-traceability is a crucial factor to expand its function in the food-related industrial areas. In this literature, the standard coding system of identification-number for food-traceability is proposed with 20 digit coding number which is combined with GTIN-13 bar-code (13 digit), expiration date (6 digit), and additional classification code (1 digit). This proposed standard coding system for identification-number has a several advantages in application for prohibiting the sale of hazard goods, food-recall, and inquiring food traceability-information. And also, this proposed coding system could enhance the food traceability system by communicating and harmonizing the information with the national network such as UNI-PASS and electronic Tax-invoice system. For the global application, the identification-number for food-traceability needs to be cooperated with the upcoming global standards such as GTIN-128 bar-code and GS1 DataBar.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.113-139
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• 2007

This study aims to, looking from a standpoint of network, has investigated the shipping industry's B2B e-marketplace, the characteristics that can earn electronic trust from the users, and characteristics of the web-site. It has examined the mechanism whereby electronic trust be earned and how it affects web-site involvement and service transaction intention. Ultimately, The study attempts to make proposals whereby such trust can lead for a cooperative trading community in the shipping industry's B2B e-marketplace The Covalence structural equation modeling was designed and empirically tested for the shipping industry's B2B e-marketplace. The shipping industry employees were given questionnaires and data were analyzed. Except for perceived security of the three characteristic factors on the web-site, the perceived site quality and characteristics factors in operation only affected co-variables. Transaction Fairness was determined to be the most important factor among exogenous factors increasing electronic trust. With regards to transaction rules, if a transaction is beneficial only to one side, then no long term transaction will not take place. If the concerned parties properly recognize that transaction fairness is crucial to electronic transaction, then it will enormously contribute to successful operations of shipping e-marketplace. Also, Perceived efficiency in transaction also affects electronic trust. This reduces transaction costs and speeds up and simplifies the transaction process. It has reduced greater time and costs than existing off-line transaction, and would positively affect electronic trust. By making an open forum for participants to obtain information for transaction, they can gather useful information, and at the same time, the web-site operator can provide information, which, in turn, will increase electronic trust in electronic transaction. Furthermore, such formation of trust in electronic transaction influences shipping companies in such a way that they will want to continuously participate in the transaction, raising web-site involvement. The result of increased trust is that shipping companies in the future will do business with each other and form a foundation for continuous transactions amongst themselves. Consequently, the formation of trust in electronic transaction greatly influences web-site involvement and service transaction intention. The results of the study have again proved that in order to maintain continuous business relationship with the current clients, electronic trust in virtual space, which operates the shipping industry's B2B e-marketplace, is important for the interested parties.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.98-109
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• 2011

Habitat restoration initiative is an important factor for the on-site preservation of butterflies. A new habitat necessitates the investigation of the ecology of the butterfly, the landscape of the habitat, the work process, and a cost analysis. In this study, these factors were analyzed through1) re-consideration of the secured results from three years of field work, and 2) a habitat area estimation conducted according to the presence or absence of larvae and adults via a Parnassius bremeri Bremer survey. The investigation of the natural habitat, done for both larvae and adult butterflies found in South Korea, suggested that multiple patches with a minimum size exceeding $300m^2$ and with an average size of about $1,600m^2$were required for survival of this butterfly. Therefore, more than five patches should be considered for butterfly habitat and patches should have similarity to the present habitat environment with transplantation plans for diet plants and honeydew plants. In addition, to activate the migration of the butterfly, cutting down trees that are obstacles to migration, minimizing the distance between patches and the addition of a stepping patch are also required. A patch connectivity analysis showed that patches should be located within 300m of neighboring patches, as the migration of the butterfly will fail if it is more than 600m. Additionally, more than $10,000m^2$ for a single patch or a patch network composed more than five patches over $1,600m^2$ in size were recommended, with a total patch size of $8,000m^2$. Additionally, neighboring multiple patch networks are more desirable than a single habitat in the event a cyclic habitat pattern arises. In this study, we suggest a habitat restoration and optimal prerequisites for a butterfly habitat. It is expected that this research will lead to the creation of a good model for the restoration of butterfly species.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.779-795
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• 2002

Internet, a world wide network of computers, is considered as a sea of information because it allows people to share information beyond the barriors of time and space. However, in spite of the unmeasurable potential applications of the internet, its use in the field of biology education has been extremely limited mainly due to the scarcity of good biology-related sites. In order to provide useful guidelines for constructing user-friendly study sites, which can help high school students with different intellectual levels to study biology, comparative studies were performed on selected educational sites. Initially, hundreds of related sites were examined, and, subsequently, four distinct sites were selected not only because they are well organized, but also because each is unique in its contents. Also, a survey was carried out against the users of each site. The survey results indicated that the high school students regard the web-based biology study tools as effective teaching methods although there might be some bias in criteria for selecting target sites. In addition to the detailed biology topics and the related biology informations, multimedia data including pictures, animations and movies are found to be one of the important ingredients for desirable biology study sites. Thus, the inclusion of multimedia components should also be considered when developing a systematic biology study site. Overall, the role of the cyber space is expected to become more and more important. Since the development of the user-satisfied and self-guided sites require interdisciplinary collaborational efforts which should be made to promote extensive communication among teachers, education professionals, and computer engineers. Furthermore, the introduction of good biology study sites to the students by their teachers is also important factor for the successful web-based education.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.11-21
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• 2015

While the number of total population in Seoul has been on the constant decline for the last few years, the number of household has increased due to the rising tendency of the smaller households. In 2010, the small households in the metropolitan areas accounted for 44% of the entire households, and Statistics Korea has reported that one person household, which will take up more than 30% of the whole household, will have been the most common type of household by 2020. This reason of rise will be differently shown according to age like the preferred housing type or surrounding environments, this research is suggest to research hypothesis that distinction of age leads to the spatial distribution of one person household. Therefore, this research is to exercise a multiple regression analysis targeting on the facilities, which become the spatial distribution factor of one person household, with the independent variable gained from the concluded area calculated with the area ratio of the spatial unit followed by the service area analysis based on network. The spatial unit is the census output of Seoul, and based on this the interaction between the number of one person household according to age and the factors of its distribution. Also, the spatial regions - downtown, northeast, southeast, northwest, southwest - are designed as dummy variables and the results of each region are found out. As a result, the spatial regions occupied according to age are found to be varied - people in their 20s prefer housings near the college, 30s lease or the monthly rental housings, 40s the monthly rental housings, and over 60s the housing with the floor area of less than $40m^2$. Likewise, one person household has different types of housing environments preferred according to age, and thus a housing policy concerning this will have to be suggested.