• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.4927-4935
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• 2015

Northeastern India is a major nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) high risk-area although the rest of the country has very low incidence. A case-control study of 105 NPC cases and 115 controls was conducted to identify the potential risk factors for NPC development in this region. Information was collected by interviewer about socio-demographic characteristics, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary history, occupational history, and a family history of cancer. Epstein-Barr viral load was assayed from the blood DNA by real time PCR. Associations between GSTs genotypes, cytochrome P450 family including CYP1A1, CYP2E1 and CYP2A6 polymorphisms and susceptibility to relationship between the diseases were studied using PCR-RFLP assay. Results indicate that Epstein-Barr virus load was significantly higher in patients compared to controls (p<0.0001). Furthermore, concentration of blood EBV-DNA was significantly higher in advanced stage disease (Stage III and IV) than in early stage disease (Stage I and II) (p<0.05). Presence of CYP2A6 variants that reduced the enzyme activity was significantly less frequent in cases than controls. Smoked meat consumption, exposure to smoke, living in poorly ventilated house and alcohol consumption were associated with NPC development among the population of Northeastern India. Thus, overall our study revealed that EBV viral load and genetic polymorphism of CYP2A6 along with living practices which include smoked meat consumption, exposure to smoke, living in poorly ventilated houses and alcohol consumption are the potential risk factors of NPC in north eastern region of India. Understanding of the risk factors and their role in the etiology of NPC are helpful forpreventive measures and screening.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.65-77
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze factors in country risk between Cambodia and Vietnam. OECD and the Export-Import Ban of Korea assess country risk of Cambodia more highly than Vietnam. As results of the parametric tests for evaluation factors on the basis of country risk classification, the economic growth rate, the foreign trade index, and the foreign exchange reserves among the economic risks with the corruption index as the political and social risk have statistically significant effect on the difference between country risks of two countries. However, discriminant factor analysis indicates that the economic growth rate, the foreign exchange reserves, and the corruption index are key variables, which represent the difference between country risks of Cambodia and Vietnam. Consequently, the government of Cambodia needs to try to root out the corruption and to expand trade through increasing export for lowering the country risk to the level of Vietnam. Vietnam would also need to focus on attaining the sustainable high economic growth rate and increasing the foreign exchange reserves.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.257-258
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• 2015

The amount of damages caused by natural hazards is consistently growing due to the unusual weather and extreme events. At the same time, property damage by natural hazards is rapidly increasing as well. Hence, we need systematic anti-disaster activities and consulting that can react to such a situation. To address these needs, we investigated and analyzed insured claim payouts from natural hazards by administrative area, and calculate the risk index utilizing GIS. According to the index, this map is identifying the areas of greatest natural hazard risk. The ranking of natural disaster vulnerability based on the risk index, and risk grades were divided into five based on the ranking. This map integrates the natural hazard losses to assist in comprehensive and effective loss prevention activities using analysis of regional loss claims from natural hazards. Moreover, this map can be as utilized as loss mitigation and prevention activities to verify the distribution of exposure and hazards.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.847-859
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• 2019

Purpose: The companies must be located in the area, scale up, create jobs, and return to the local economy. This paper attempted to analyze empirically the relationship between regional context and entrepreneurial orientation(EO) in the region of Korea. Methods: This paper analyzed survey data and regional statistics. We measured EO by region and then examined which regional context affect EO. Regional contexts were measured by population, economic size, budget size, firm size, innovation capacity, and education level. EO was measured by innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, autonomy, competitive aggressiveness, and need for achievement. Results: EO was high in the region where the budget size per thousand population, the number of manufacturers per thousand population, the number of new corporations per thousand population, the number of R&D personnel per thousand population, and the number of students of higher education institutions per thousand population were high. Conclusion: The implications of this paper are that regional context affect EO, and there are differences in budget scale, firm size, innovation capacity, and education level. In regions with many investment resources for innovation and startups and manufacturers, the number of R&D personnel and students of higher education institutions (future R&D personnel), in particular, determines EO.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.353-356
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• 2016

Background: This study used receiver operating characteristic curve to analyze Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) for glassy cell carcinoma data to identify predictive models and potential disparities in outcome. Materials and Methods: This study analyzed socio-economic, staging and treatment factors. For risk modeling, each factor was fitted by a generalized linear model to predict the cause specific survival. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs) were computed. Similar strata were combined to construct the most parsimonious models. A random sampling algorithm was used to estimate modeling errors. Risk of glassy cell carcinoma death was computed for the predictors for comparison. Results: There were 79 patients included in this study. The mean follow up time (S.D.) was 37 (32.8) months. Female patients outnumbered males 4:1. The mean (S.D.) age was 54.4 (19.8) years. SEER stage was the most predictive factor of outcome (ROC area of 0.69). The risks of cause specific death were, respectively, 9.4% for localized, 16.7% for regional, 35% for the un-staged/others category, and 60% for distant disease. After optimization, separation between the regional and unstaged/others category was removed with a higher ROC area of 0.72. Several socio-economic factors had small but measurable effects on outcome. Radiotherapy had not been used in 90% of patients with regional disease. Conclusions: Optimized SEER stage was predictive and useful in treatment selection. Underuse of radiotherapy may have contributed to poor outcome.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2020

Background: As the impact of climate change intensifies, exposure to heat stress will grow, leading to a loss of work capacity for vulnerable occupations and affecting individual labor decisions. This study estimates the future work capacity under the Representative Concentration Pathways 8.5 scenario and discusses its regional impacts on the occupational structure in the Republic of Korea. Methods: The data utilized for this study constitute the local wet bulb globe temperature from the Korea Meteorological Administration and information from the Korean Working Condition Survey from the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute of Korea. Using these data, we classify the occupations vulnerable to heat stress and estimate future changes in work capacity at the local scale, considering the occupational structure. We then identify the spatial cluster of diminishing work capacity using exploratory spatial data analysis. Results: Our findings indicate that 52 occupations are at risk of heat stress, including machine operators and elementary laborers working in the construction, welding, metal, and mining industries. Moreover, spatial clusters with diminished work capacity appear in southwest Korea. Conclusion: Although previous studies investigated the work capacity associated with heat stress in terms of climatic impact, this study quantifies the local impacts due to the global risk of climate change. The results suggest the need for mainstreaming an adaptation policy related to work capacity in regional development strategies.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.3B
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• pp.243-252
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• 2011

The change of rainfall pattern due to recent climate change increases the occurrence probability of drought in Korea. Unlike other natural disasters, a drought has long duration, extensive area subject to damage, and greater socioeconomic damage than other disasters. In order to evaluate drought severity, meteorological drought indices are mainly used in practice. This study presents a more realistic method to evaluate drought severity considering drought climate factors as well as socioeconomic factors which are vulnerable to disaster. To perform a spatial evaluation of drought risk in Gyeongsang-do, drought risk was defined and analyzed through the hazard index and the vulnerability index. The drought hazard index was spatially assessed using the drought index and GIS. The drought vulnerability index was also spatially assessed using the 5 socioeconomic factors. As a result, the drought risks were compared and used for evaluating regional drought risk considering regional characteristics of Gyeongsang-do.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.37-51
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• 2023

Türkiye has made significant changes and updates in both seismic risk maps and design codes over time, as have other countries with high seismic risk. In this study, the last two seismic design codes and risk maps were compared for the Aegean Region (Western Türkiye) where the earthquake risk has once again emerged with the 2020 Izmir Earthquake (Mw=6.9). In this study, information about the seismicity of the Aegean Region was given. The seismic parameters for all provinces in the region were compared with the last two earthquake risk maps. The spectral acceleration coefficients of all provinces have increased and differentiated with the current seismic hazard map as a result of the design spectra used on a regional basis have been replaced by the geographical location-specific design spectra. In addition, section damage limits were obtained for all provinces within the scope of the last two seismic design codes. Structural analyses for a sample reinforced-concrete building were made separately for each province using pushover analysis. The deformations in the cross-sections were compared with the limit states corresponding to the damage levels specified in the last two seismic design codes for the region. Target displacement requests for all provinces have decreased with the current code. The differentiation of geographical location-specific design spectra both in the last two seismic design code and between provinces has caused changes in section damages and building performance levels. The main aim of this study is to obtain and compare both seismic and structural analysis results for all provinces in the Aegean Region (Western Türkiye).

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.3-18
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• 2021

The fourth Industrial Revolution is transforming the industrial structure of the region, and it is necessary to develop new industries and technologies that reflect regional characteristics. The purpose of this study is to measure the knowledge relatedness and technological complexity in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam, and to identify technologies with potential for regional industrial differentiation strategies. Using patent data from 2015 to 2019, co-occurrence matrices were derived from 652 IPC codes, and the knowledge relatedness density and technology complexity index were calculated. Network analysis was performed using the knowledge relatedness density. As a result of analysis, it was found that mechanical engineering occupied a large proportion, followed by chemistry and electrical engineering. As a result of applying the risk-benefit framework to derive technologies with the potential to differentiate local industries, the technological capabilities of low-risk-high-benefit were different. Among mechanical engineering, technologies such as engine, machine operation, and transportation were included in Busan. In Ulsan, environmental technology in chemical and materials, and heat treatment technology in mechanical engineering were technologies with low-risk and high-benefit capabilities. Gyeongnam showed competence in mechanical engineering, chemistry, and electrical engineering in some areas such as Gimhae, Yangsan, and Changwon. The results of this study are meaningful in that they identified technologies with potential for selecting and deriving strategic industries for regional growth based on latent knowledge in the region.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.151-163
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• 2023

This study explored the 2022 drought over the Nakdong River watershed. Here, we developed a bivariate regional frequency analysis method to evaluate the risk of hydrological drought. Currently, natural streamflow data are generally limited to accurately estimating the drought frequency. Under this circumstance, the existing at site frequency analysis can be problematic in estimating the drought risk. On the other hand, a regional frequency analysis could provide a more reliable estimation of the joint return periods of drought variables by pooling available streamflow data over the entire watershed. More specifically, the Copula-based regional frequency analysis model was proposed to effectively take into account the tail dependencies between drought variables. The results confirmed that the regional frequency analysis model showed better performance in model fit by comparing the goodness-of-fit measures with the at-site frequency analysis model. We find that the estimated joint return period of the 2022 drought in the Nakdong River basin is about eight years. In the case of the Nam river Dam, the joint return period was approximately 20 years, which can be regarded as a relatively severe drought over the last three decades.