• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2007

Unprecedented amount of genetic information being generated from the result of Human Genome Project (HGP) and advances in genetic research is already forcing changes in the paradigm of health and disease. The ultimate goal of genetic medicine is to use genetic information and technology to develop new ways of treatment or even prevention of the disease on an individual level for 'personalized medicine'. Genetics is play ing an increasingly important role in the diagnosis, monitoring and management of common multifactorial diseases in addition to rare single-gene disorders. While wide range of genetic testing have provided benefits to patients and family, uncertainties surrounding test interpretation, the current lack of available medical options for the diseases, and risks for discrimination and social stigmatization may remain to be resolved. However an increasing number of genetic tests are becoming commercially available, including direct to consumer genetic testing, yet public is often unaw are of their clinical and social implications. The personal nature of information generated by a genetic test, its power to affect major life decisions and family members, and its potential misuse raise important ethical considerations. Therefore appropriate genetic counseling is needed for patient to be informed with the benefits, limitations and risks of genetic tests, prior to informed consent for the tests. Physician also should be familiar with the legal and ethical issues involved in genetic testing to tell patients how w ell a particular genetic risk factor relates with likelihood of disease, and be able to provide appropriate genetic counseling. Genetic counseling become a mandatory requirement as global standard for many genetic testing such as prenatal diagnosis, presymtomatic DNA diagnostic tests and cancer susceptibility gene test for familial cancer syndrome. In oder to meet the challenge of genetic medicine of 21 century in korean health care system, professional education program and certification board for medical genetics specialist including non-MD genetic counselors should be addressed by medical society and regulatory policy of national health insurance reimbursement for genetic counseling to be in place to promote the implementation of clinical genetic service including genetic counseling for proper genetic testing.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 2023

Objectives: Rwanda reported a stunting rate of 33% in 2020, decreasing from 38% in 2015; however, stunting remains an issue. Globally, child deaths from malnutrition stand at 45%. The best options for the early detection and treatment of stunting should be made a community policy priority, and health services remain an issue. Hence, this research aimed to develop a model for predicting stunting in Rwandan children. Methods: The Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2019-2020 was used as secondary data. Stratified 10-fold cross-validation was used, and different machine learning classifiers were trained to predict stunting status. The prediction models were compared using different metrics, and the best model was chosen. Results: The best model was developed with the gradient boosting classifier algorithm, with a training accuracy of 80.49% based on the performance indicators of several models. Based on a confusion matrix, the test accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and F1 were calculated, yielding the model's ability to classify stunting cases correctly at 79.33%, identify stunted children accurately at 72.51%, and categorize non-stunted children correctly at 94.49%, with an area under the curve of 0.89. The model found that the mother's height, television, the child's age, province, mother's education, birth weight, and childbirth size were the most important predictors of stunting status. Conclusions: Therefore, machine-learning techniques may be used in Rwanda to construct an accurate model that can detect the early stages of stunting and offer the best predictive attributes to help prevent and control stunting in under five Rwandan children.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.157-185
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• 2014

The Kyoto Protocol has extended its life until 2020 by the decision at COP18 in Doha, Qatar in 2012. So has the Kyoto Mechanism of CDM, JI, and ETS. Nonetheless, the sustainability of CDM projects is jeopardized by the recent rule changes in the international emissions trade market such as EU ETS and the price decrease in emission credits. In particular, the domestic CDM projects reducing non-$CO_2$ GHG emissions are being directly affected. This study examines the trend of carbon credit price change in the international market. It also examines how the rule changes in the international emissions trade market have affected domestic non-$CO_2$ CDM projects through which mechanisms. The policy implications drawn from this study is two-fold: it suggests how the government can assist the project developers in utilizing GHG emission reduction technologies and the market in promoting investment environment before the domestic ETS enters into effect in 2015; apart from possible measures within ETS, an additional measures such as bilateral carbon offset system is suggested to help the private sector reduce uncertainty in investment and increase options to choose.