• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.204-210
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• 2023

This study focuses on analyzing medical device standards and regulatory requirements in the medical device industry, based on the Medical Device Act in Korea. The objective of this analysis is to determine whether the domestic standards for medical devices in Korea align with international and regional standards. Furthermore, it aims to identify the current application of domestic standards in ensuring the safety and essential performance of medical devices. The analysis revealed that out of a total of 281 domestic standards, 127 standards reference international standards. In terms of the application of domestic standards to specific items, there were 473 types of instruments/machines, 30 types of medical supplies, and 45 types of dental materials. However, the level of compliance with international standards among the domestic medical device standards was only 21%. Upon detailed analysis, general and collateral standards accounted for 24%, while particular standards accounted for 19%. This indicates a significant deviation from the latest international standards. On the other hand, the level of compliance with international standards was analyzed to be 60% for particular standards and 72% for general and collateral standards in Korean industrial standards (KS). Considering these results, the disparities between domestic standards and international standards underscore the need for discussions on domestic medical device regulation and standardization. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the significance of maintaining up-to-date medical device standards and ensuring their alignment with international standards to ensure the safety and quality of medical devices. The findings highlight the necessity for further efforts to strengthen the domestic standardization system in order to promote the development of safe and high-quality medical devices.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.426-438
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• 2023

Purpose: Walking practice is a representative indicator of the level of physical activity of local residents. Although the world health organization addressed reduction in prevalence of insufficient physical activity as a global target, the rate of walking practice in Korea has not improved and there are large regional disparities. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the spatial variations of walking practice and its associated factors in Korea. Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted using Community Health Outcome and Health Determinants Database 1.3 from Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A total of 229 districts was included in the analysis. We compared the ordinary least squares (OLS) and the geographically weighted regression (GWR) to explore the associated factors of walking practice. MGWR 2.2.1 software was used to explore the spatial distribution of walking practice and modeling the GWR. Results: Walking practice had spatial variations across the country. The results showed that the GWR model had better accommodation of spatial autocorrelation than the OLS model. The GWR results indicated that different predictors of walking practice across regions of Korea. Conclusion: The findings of this study may provide insight to nursing researchers, health professionals, and policy makers in planning health programs to promote walking practices in their respective communities.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.117-125
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• 2023

This study aimed to analyze the recent status and changes in impervious surface areas and their ratios across regions in Gyeongsangnam-do, providing fundamental data for regional development and impervious surface management. Based on the 'Guidelines for Calculating Water Cycle Management Indicators for Nonpoint Pollution Source Control(Ministry of Environment)', we processed the land characteristics survey map(shapefile) from 2018 and 2022 to analyze impervious surface area and their rates by administrative boundaries. The impervious surface area in Gyeongsangnam-do increased from 75,652 ha in 2018 to 81,055 ha in 2022, with the rate rising by 0.51% from 7.18% to 7.69%. The average of impervious surface area across 545 eupmyeon units expanded by approximately 9 ha, from 139.8 ha in 2018 to 148.8 ha in 2022, with the rate increasing by 0.71%. Concurrently, the whole population declined by 2.8% while the number of households surged by 6.4%, correlating with the growth in impervious areas. Despite population decreases, factors such as population migration, increased household fragmentation, new residential developments, and industrial facility expansions have consistently contributed to the rise in impervious surface area. Notably, even in areas with high impervious surface area rate, significant disparities existed between urbanized areas and predominantly rural regions. Furthermore, about 333 units(61% of the whole eupmyeons), showed negligible changes in their impervious surface area rate, with an increase of less than 0.5%.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.348-357
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• 2024

Objectives: The total population of Korea began to decline in 2019; in particular, the population in rural areas has been rapidly decreasing and is aging. Therefore, the government has designated depopulation areas and is seeking ways to support them. To assess whether health disparities exist between areas with population decline and those without, this study used community health survey data to observe temporal changes in health behaviors between the two types of areas. Methods: The analysis used Community Health Survey data from 2010 to 2019, and regional classification was divided by depopulation areas designated by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Trends in health behavior and chronic disease prevalence between depopulation and non-depopulation areas were analyzed. All analyses were conducted using complex sample analysis procedures in SAS 9.4 software. Results: The smoking rate steadily decreased in both depopulation and non-depopulation areas, whereas the high-risk drinking rate increased slightly. The walking practice rate did not improve in depopulation areas compared to non-depopulation areas. Furthermore, nutritional labeling usage rate was consistently lower in depopulation areas than in non-depopulation areas, with the gap being the largest. The prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension showed that the gap between depopulation and non-depopulation areas is continuously increasing. Conclusions: Health behaviors in depopulation areas have not improved, and the prevalence of chronic diseases is increasing rapidly. Therefore, the demand for health care services that support healthy lifestyle practices and chronic disease management in these areas is expected to increase.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.3-32
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• 2007

This age is called the age of global trade, and the World Trade Organization is a forerunner in promoting the global free trade through multilateral negotiations as the global level. On the other hand, regional economic cooperation such as North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) is appearing, saying that promotion by WTO takes too much time. As is known to everybody, Europe is on the way of integrating member states through EU not to mention economic cooperation. Even in Asia such tendency is shown through ASEAN, Korea, China and Japan in Northeast Asia share geographical proximity, many common historical experiences, and similar cultural norms and values although they have disparities in stages of development, trade and economic policies, and financial and legal frameworks. Under the situation, efforts have been made between three countries of Korea, China and Japan for the conclusion of investment agreements including FTA. If the conclusion of the FTA between the three countries would be realized, it would promote regional trade and investment, contributing to economic growth in the Northeast Asian region. The writer in this paper reviewed the settlement of private commercial dispute including investment dispute arising from the FTA and investment agreements. The investment dispute is quite different from an ordinary commercial dispute arising from commercial transactions in view of disputing parties, applicable laws and rules, etc. Therefore it is a problem of vital importance that the parties interested in investment under the FTA as well as the relevant investment agreement should understand and cope with the settlement mechanism of investment disputes arising therefrom. The ICSID Convention provides facilities for the conciliation and arbitration of disputes between member countries and investors who qualify as nationals of other member countries. All contracting states of the ICSID Convention are required by the Convention to recognize and enforce the ICSID arbitral awards. The New York Convention(formally called "United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards") is also applicable for the enforcement of arbitral awards to be rendered under the FTA. As to applicable rules, the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules may be required for the settlement of investment disputes under the FTA. This Rules has adopted by the internationally recognized arbitral organizations although it was developed primarily for use in ad hoc arbitration. The promotion of arbitral cooperation may be realized through agreements between arbitral institutions. Especially under the NAPTA system, a central common system was established to resolve jointly private commercial disputes arising from such free trades by the initiative of arbitral organizations among the member countries. It is called Commercial Arbitration and Mediation Center for the Americas(CAMCA), which may be a good example for the settlement promotion of the private commercial disputes between Korea and other relevant countries.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.307-326
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• 2003

In Korea, as the state has played a vital role for industrial development, the location and development of industrial complexes have not been merely decided by economic factors but political and social factors as well. The location of industrial complexes in Chonbuk province has not been decided by industrial enterprises to be located there, but by investment strategies of the state. In the early stage of industrialization, Chonbuk could not attract a large-scale major complex because it had relatively inferior infrastructure for industry and uneasy access to overseas export markets, as compared to the capital region or the Southeast region of the country, and it has been left behind as a periphery in the national industrial system. Since 1980, the spatial policies for lessening regional disparities had much contributed to the development of industrial complexes in this province. The industrial complexes leading to the development of manufacturing activities in this region have also great influenced on structural changes of manufacturing as well as changes in the structure of the regional economy. Especially, capital goods manufacturing tends to increase in this region as the development of sectors required relative higher skill and technology mainly occurs in these complexes. And where the large-scale industrial complexes are located greatly influences the locational patterns of manufacturing in this province. The patterns of the industrial complexes in this region have concentrated in Chonju, Iksan, and Kusan, which are the largest cities in this province. Given these three cities to be very closely proximate, it seems to be easy to build network between them to develop the manufacturing activities in the near future.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.578-592
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• 2001

Based on a survey sample of farm households in three provinces of Korea, this article reports the perspectives of fuel-time farmers regarding trade liberalization, its effects on their lives, and the future of small-scale farming. While the agricultural sector is being transformed under neoliberal policies, farmers, with life or no preparation for a global market order, are forced to modernize their farming operations. The findings from the survey indicate that farmers accede to terms of global integration in principle while disapproving state rural policies in practice. The survey data also confirm that intra-regional differences in farmers'perceived satisfaction with living conditions, government farm policies, and socio-economic/labor issues. Disparities in the degree of discontent with government policies and socio-economic well-being are explicit between the relatively diversified region of Kyonggi Province and the farming-dependent regions of Chunbuk and Kyongbuk Provinces. The overall findings uphold that most farmers who have not been fully exposed to free market mechanisms are confronted by increased uncertainties and economic hardships. The findings propound that agricultural/rural policies need to reflect long-term, macroeconomic changes, and regionally/locally-based agricultural structure.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.6_1
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• pp.1647-1656
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• 2021

In order to reduce the spread of infection due to COVID-19, South Korea has established a four-step social distancing standard and implemented it by changing the steps based on the rate of confirmed cases. The implementation of social distancing brought about a change in the amount of activity of citizens by limiting social contact such as movement and gathering of people. One of the data that can intuitively confirm this is Night Time Light (NTL). NTL is a variable that can measure the size of the national economy measured using lights captured by satellites, and can be used to understand people's social activities during the night. The NTL visible data is obtained via the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day-Night Band (DNB) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite. 1023 of Suomi data from 1 January 2019 until 26 October 2021 were collected to generate time series of NTL radiance change over Seoul to analyze the correlation with social distancing policy. The results show that implementing the level of social distancing generally decreased the NTL radiance both in spatial disparities and temporal patterns. The higher level of policy, limiting human activities combined with the low number of people who have been vaccinated and the closure of various facilities. Because of social distancing, the differences in human activities affected the nighttime light during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Seoul, South Korea. Therefore, this study can be used as a reference for the government in evaluating and improving policies related to efforts reducing the transmission of COVID-19.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.225-249
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to develop an evaluation tool for map-based data visualization platforms and to conduct heuristic usability evaluations on existing platforms representing inter-regional information. We compared and analyzed the usability evaluation criteria of map-based platforms from the previous studies along with Nielsen's (1994) 10 usability evaluation principles. We proposed nine evaluation criteria, including (1) visibility, (2) representation of the real world, (3) consistency and standards, (4) user control and friendliness, (5) flexibility, (6) design, (7) compatibility, (8) error prevention and handling, and (9) help provision and documentation. Additionally, to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed criteria, four experts was invited to evaluate five domestic and international map-based data visualization platforms. As a result, the experts were able to rank the usability of the five platforms using the proposed map-based data visualization usability evaluation criteria, which included quantified scores and subjective opinions. The results of this study are expected to serve as foundational material for the future development and evaluation of map-based visualization platforms.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.121-144
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• 2024

This study analyzes how the academic achievement of students in Korea changes as they transition from 4th grade of elementary school to 2nd grade of middle school, considering that the 4th graders in the previous TIMSS cycle become 2nd graders in the next cycle. In particular, this study selects and compares the eight main countries in the TIMSS math evaluation (Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, USA, UK, Australia, and Russia) to analyze the trend of change in academic achievement of Korean students according to school grade transition. The trend of change in academic achievement of students was analyzed not only overall but also by content area (number, geometry and measurement, data representation (data and probability/data and probability), gender, and regional scale. The analysis focused on the average score and the proportion of students by achievement level. The results of the study are as follows. First, there was no significant change in the average score of Korean students' academic achievement as the school grade transitioned, but the achievement gap widened in terms of the proportion by achievement level. Second, there were differences in students' academic achievement by content area according to school grade transition, and the pattern differed depending on the evaluation cycle. Third, there was a significant gap in students' math academic achievement depending on gender and regional scale of school location. This study reveals that the achievement gap among students in our country widens as they transition between school levels. The gap is found to vary in terms of achievement level, math content area, student gender, and school location. To alleviate these disparities, more substantial research and support are proposed in addition to policy implementation by the government or provincial offices of education.