• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1185-1193
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• 2023

The increasing interest in soil moisture data from satellite imagery for applications in hydrology, meteorology, and agriculture has led to the development of methods to produce variable-resolution soil moisture maps. Research on accurate soil moisture estimation using satellite imagery is essential for remote sensing applications. The purpose of this study is to generate a soil moisture estimation map for a test area using KOMPSAT-3/3A and KOMPSAT-5 SAR imagery and to quantitatively compare the results with soil moisture data from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission provided by NASA, with a focus on accuracy validation. In addition, the Korean Environmental Geographic Information Service (EGIS) land cover map was used to determine soil moisture, especially in agricultural and forested regions. The selected test area for this study is the western part of Jeju, South Korea, where input data were available for the soil moisture estimation algorithm based on the Water Cloud Model (WCM). Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery from KOMPSAT-5 HV and Sentinel-1 VV were used for soil moisture estimation, while vegetation indices were calculated from the surface reflectance of KOMPSAT-3 imagery. Comparison of the derived soil moisture results with SMAP (L-3) and SMAP (L-4) data by differencing showed a mean difference of 4.13±3.60 p% and 14.24±2.10 p%, respectively, indicating a level of agreement. This research suggests the potential for producing highly accurate and precise soil moisture maps using future South Korean satellite imagery and publicly available data sources, as demonstrated in this study.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.109-118
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• 2024

With the increasing number of social media users worldwide, cases of social media being abused to perpetrate various crimes are increasing. Specifically, drug distribution through social media is emerging as a serious social problem. Using social media channels, the curiosity of teenagers regarding drugs is stimulated through clever marketing. Further, social media easily facilitates drug purchases due to the high accessibility of drug sellers and consumers. Among various social media platforms, we focused on Instagram, which is the most used social media platform by young adults aged 19 to 24 years in South Korea. We collected four types of information, including profile photos, introductions, posts in the form of images, and posts in the form of texts on Instagram; then, we analyzed the similarity among each type of collected information. The profile photos and posts in the form of image were analyzed for similarity based on the SSIM(Structural Simplicity Index Measure), while introductions and posts in the form of text were analyzed for similarity using Jaccard and Cosine similarity techniques. Through the similarity analysis, the similarity among various accounts for each collected information type was measured, and accounts with similarity above the significance level were determined as the same drug sales account. By performing logistic regression analysis on the aforementioned information types, we confirmed that except posts in image form, profile photos, introductions, and posts in the text form were valid information for tracking the same drug sales account.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.167-172
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• 2024

In major wars of the 21st century, drones are expanding beyond surveillance and reconnaissance to include land and air as well as sea and underwater for purposes such as precision strikes, suicide attacks, and cognitive warfare. These drones will perform multi-domain operations, and to this end, they will continue to develop by improving the level of autonomy and strengthening scalability based on the High-Low Mix concept. Recently, drones have been used as a major means in major wars around the world, and there seems to be a good chance that they will evolve into game changers in the future. North Korea has also been making significant efforts to operate reconnaissance and attack drones for a long time. North Korea has recently continued to engage in provocations using drones, and its capabilities are gradually becoming more sophisticated. In addition, with the recent emergence of new strategic Drones, wartime and peacetime threats such as North Korea's use of these to secure surveillance, reconnaissance and early warning capabilities against South Korea and new types of provocations are expected to be strengthened. Through this study, we hope to provide implications by analyzing the capabilities of North Korea's strategic Drones, predicting their operation patterns, and conducting active follow-up research on the establishment of a comprehensive strategy, such as our military's drone deployment and counter-drone system solutions.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.17-26
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• 2010

Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to examine people's awareness of health insurance in a bid to help improve the management of dental health insurance coverage. The subjects in this study were 1,036 people who included experts in that field and medical consumers. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. In regard to the demographic characteristics of the expert group including gender and age, the female experts outnumbered the males, as the former accounted for 84.7 percent. And the experts in their 20s made up the largest age group, followed by the 30-39 age group and those in their 40s. As to the demographic characteristics of the medical consumers, the rates of the men and women stood at 49.8 percent and 50.2 percent respectively, which were similar. By age, the largest number of the medical consumers were in their 20s, followed by in their 30s and in their 40s. 2. Concerning opinions on the procurement of finance for health insurance, many respondents in both groups agreed that the health insurance coverage should be enlarged by securing more finance, and that items involved in the coverage should be prioritized again. Regarding a means of securing financial resources, the experts placed the most emphasis on extended budgetary support from the government, followed by establishing a social security system and budget compilation by local governments. The medical consumers attached the most importance to extended budgetary backing from the government, followed by budget compilation by local governments and determining contribution according to income level. 3. As for general view of the dental health insurance, the experts believed that the amounts of copayment and self-payment by the insured were appropriate(2.47), and they found the number of benefitted items to be proper(2.29) as well. The medical consumers thought that the benefit percentage of the dental health insurance in the overall health insurance budget was appropriate(2.26), and they also considered the number of benefitted items adequate(2.16). But this group didn't give a lot of marks to the appropriateness of those things. 4. As to perception about the dental health insurance, both groups took a similar view of it. Specifically, they felt the strong need for a dental health insurance system. In terms of satisfaction level, both groups were dissatisfied with it, and there was a strong tendency for them to be discontented with the health insurance coverage.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.273-275
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• 2017

It has been forty years since the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Korea. Following the 1977 legislature mandating medical insurance for employees and dependents in firms with more than 500 employees, South Korea expanded its health insurance to urban residents in 1989. Resultantly, total expenses of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) have greatly increased from 4.5 billion won in 1977 to 50.89 trillion won in 2016. With multiple insurers merging into the NHI system in 2000, a single-payer healthcare system emerged, along with separation policy of prescribing and dispensing. Following such reform, an emerging financial crisis required injections from the National Health Promotion Fund. Forty years following the introduction of the NHI system, both praise and criticism have been drawn. In just 12 years, the NHI achieved the fastest health population coverage in the world. Current medical expenditure is not high relative to the rest of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The quality of acute care in Korea is one of the best in the world. There is no sign of delayed diagnosis and/or treatment for most diseases. However, the NHI has been under-insured, requiring high-levels of out-of-pocket money from patients and often causing catastrophic medical expenses. Furthermore, the current environmental circumstances of the NHI are threatening its sustainability. Low birth rate decline, as well as slow economic growth, will make sustainment of the current healthcare system difficult in the near future. An aging population will increase the amount of medical expenditure required, especially with the baby-boomer generation of those born between 1955 and 1965. Meanwhile, there is always the problem of unification for the Korean Peninsula, and what role the health insurance system will have to play when it occurs. In the presidential election, health insurance is a main issue; however, there is greater focus on expansion and expenditure than revenue. Many aspects of Korea's NHI system (1977) were modeled after the German (1883) and Japanese (1922) systems. Such systems were created during an era where infections disease control was most urgent and thus, in the current non-communicable disease (NCD) era, must be redesigned. The Korean system, which is already forty years old, must be redesigned completely. Although health insurance benefit expansion is necessary, financial measures, as well as moral hazard control measures, must also be considered. Ultimately, there are three aspects that we must consider when attempting redesign of the system. First, the health security system must be reformed. NHI and Medical Aid must be amalgamated into one system for increased effectiveness and efficiency of the system. Within the single insurer system of the NHI must be an internal market for maximum efficiency. The NHIS must be separated into regions so that regional organizers have greater responsibility over their actions. Although insurance must continue to be imposed nationally, risk-adjustment must be distributed regionally and assessed by different regional systems. Second, as a solution for the decreasing flow of insurance revenue, low premium level must be increased to an appropriate level. Likewise, the national reserve fund (No. 36, National Health Insurance Act) must be enlarged for re-unification preparation. Third, there must be revolutionary reform of benefit package. The current system built a focus on communicable diseases which is inappropriate in this NCD era. Medical benefits must not be one-time events but provide chronic disease management. Chronic care models, accountable care organization, patient-centered medical homes, and other systems that introduce various benefit packages for beneficiaries must be implemented. The reimbursement system of medical costs should be introduced to various systems for different types of care, as is the case with part C (Medicare Advantage Program) of America's Medicare system that substitutes part A and part B. Pay for performance must be expanded so that there is not only improvement in quality of care but also medical costs. Moreover, beneficiaries of the NHI system must be aware of the amount of their expenditure through a deductible payment system so that spending can be profiled and monitored. The Moon Jae-in Government has announced its plans to expand the NHI system; however, it is important that a discussion forum is created so that more accurate analysis of the NHI, its environments, and current status of health care system, can take place for reforming NHI.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.685-695
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• 2012

We studied the detailed bathymetry and the geophysical characteristics of the summit of the Dokdo volcano using mutibeam echosounding and geophysical survey data. The bathymetry around the main east and west islets of the Dokdo volcano shows very shallow within about 10 m water depth. From near islets to about 30 m b.s.l., the shallow water area has very steep slope and many irregular sunken rocks. The area from about 30 m to about 80 m b.s.l. shows gentle rises and falls, and less steep slope. The area from 80 m b.s.l. has gradually flat undulation and smooth slope seabaed and is extended to offshore. The main islets of the Dokdo volcano and the rocky sea bottom elongated from the islets might be the residual part of the eroded and collapsed main crater of the Dokdo volcano. The bathymetry and the seafloor image(from backscattering) data show small craters, assumed to be formed by the eruption of later volcanism. The seafloor images propose that, except some areas with shallow sand sedimentary deposits, there are typical rocky bottom such as rocky protrusions and lack of sediments in the main morphology of the survey area. The stepped slopes of the seabed are deduced to be submarine terraces. The several prominent submarine terraces are found at the summit of the Dokdo volcano, suggesting repetition of sea level changes(transgressions and regressions) in the Quaternary. The results of the magnetic anomaly and the analytic signal have a good coherence with other geophysical consequences regarding to the location of the residual crater.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.25-39
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• 1985

This study was conducted to assess the morbidity and medical facilities utilization patterns of the residents in urban low income area. Study population included 2,002 family members of 468 households in the low income area (LA) of Nam-san 4 Dong, Jung Gu of Taegu city and 1,709 family members of 374 households in surrounding neighbourhood control area (CA). Well trained nursing school students interviewed mainly with housewives according to the pretested questionaire between July 1 and July 30, 1984. Age-sex distribution of the study population in LA was similar to that in CA. The average monthly income of a household in LA was 236,000 won and 356,000 won in CA. Educational level of the residents in LA was lower than that in CA; average years of school education of the 20 years old or above in LA was 6.9 years compared with 8.5 years in CA. The average family members per room in LA was 2.6 and 2.2 in CA, and proportion of Medicaid program beneficiary was 29.4% in LA and 1.9% in CA. Prevalence rate of illness during 15-day period was 131 per 1,000 population in LA and 71 in CA(p<0.01) and that of the chronic illness for 1 year was 134 per 1,000 population in LA and 89 in CA(p<0.01). The most common illness experienced during 15 days was respiratory disease(24.0% in LA ana 29.8% in CA) and followed by gastro-intestinal disorders(21.0% in LA, 20.6% in CA). Injury or poisoning was 10.3% in LA and 3.3% in CA. Castro-intestinal disorder was the most common chronic illness in both LA (22.7%) and CA (21.7%), and followed by musculoskeletal disease in LA and neuralgia in CA. Mean activity restricted days among the persons with illness during 15-day period was 4.0 days in LA and 2.2 days in CA. Among persons with illness during 15 days, 17.9% in LA and 11.6% in CA did not seek any medical treatment and the most frequently utilized medical facility was pharmacy in LA (35.5%) and local clinic or hospital OPD in CA (42.1%). Among persons with chronic illness, 15.2% in LA and 9.2% in CA did not seek for medical treatment, and residents in LA as well as residents in CA utilized local clinic or hospital OPD more frequently than pharmacy or drugstores, especially those who have medical insurance. The most common reason for not treating illness experienced during 15-day period and chronic illness was economical constraint in both LA and CA. The higher prevalence rate of illness during 15-day period and chronic illness in LA than that in CA seems to be highly correlated with their lower economic status and educational level and crowded living condition. The utilization pattern of medical facilities was associated with the medical security status. A program to improve the economic status and living condition should be integrated with the health program to promote the health of the population in low income area.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.51-67
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• 2004

This study analyzed the effects of nutrition technicians' hygiene education on cooking workers' performance of hygiene management in order to ensure the security of school meals. The situation of cooking workers' disposition in subject schools was elementary school(51.1%) and middle school(48.9%) and the type of meals was rural area type(54.2%), urban type(36.5%). and island and isolated area type(9.3%). The methods of meals management were single cooking(88.2%) and joint cooking and management(11.8%). The type of distributing meals was distributing in a dining room(93.5%), in a classroom(3.7%), and in both dining room and classroom(2.8%). Nutrition technicians' employment form included regular(53.5%) and daily(88.2%). Their education was junior college graduate(50.2%), university graduate(44.8%). and graduate school students(5.0%). Cooking workers' employment form included daily(88.2%) and regular (11.1%). suggesting that most were regular. Most cooking workers(77.4%) had at least high school certificate. Regarding the situation of cooking workers' disposition in subject schools, the number of student per one cooking worker was found as 91-120(37.2%), 61-90(22.6%). 60 and under(21.l %). 121-15006.7%). and 151 and over(2.5%). Cooking workers' level of performance of hygiene management was post-working stage(66.37/75 marks), pre-working stage(64.22/75 marks). and working stage(20.34/25 marks), The counting of meals articles in a pre-working stage(20.34/25 marks). temperature and required time in a working stage(18.78/25 marks), and machinery equipment and hygiene in a pre-working stage(21.40/25 marks) showed lowest of performance, which suggest poor service of hygiene. Cooking workers' performance of hygiene management by working stage showed the significant difference with school class(p<.001), type of schools with meals(p<.05). state of cooking workers' employment(p<.001), and cooking worker's disposition(p<.05). A working stage showed the significant difference with type of schools with meals(p<.05). A post-working stage showed the significant difference according to type of schools with meals(p<.05), and the methods of meals management(p<.05), and cooking workers' disposition(p<.05). In the execution of hygiene education, individual hygiene was highest(94.8%), followed by the management of machinery equipment and tools(89.7%), food poisoning and microorganism(94.7%), and the method of food treatment(76.4%). A yearly plan of hygiene education included established(83.9%) and not established(l6.1%). Regular education included not executed(25.1%), 2-3 times a month(l6.1%), and more than 4 a month(4.0%) and occasional education was not executed(57.0%), 1-3 times a month(26.3%), and more than 4 a month(l5.7%). In the methods for hygiene education, oral education(95.7%) was used most, followed by demonstration(10.5%), poster/photo(10.5%), video/slide(3.7%), and computer(3.7%). Frequency of improvement and complement of hygiene education included once a month(56.3%), once a year(20.7%), by quarter(l1.5%), and every six months(1l.5%). Newspaper was used most in materials of hygiene education, followed by internet, TV, nutrition technician's reeducation, information exchange between members, educational office's training, and reference book, and educational office's material. and symposium. Cooking workers' assessment of the effect of hygiene education was conducted through observation(56.8%), check table(l5.2%), question(l4.0%), and examination(14.0%). The reason of cooking workers' low level of performance included habitual custom(53.9%), lack of understanding(20.4%), overwork(l4.6%), and lack of knowledge(l1.l%) and the reason of difficulty in hygiene education included lack of time(55.3%), lack of understanding(27.6%), lack of knowledge and information(8.7%), and lack of budget(48.0%).

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.101-114
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• 2001

Transportation enterprises should maintain constant and qualitative operation. Thus, in short period, transportation enterprises don't change supply in accordance with demand. In the result, transportation enterprises don't reduce operation in spite of management deficit at will. In freight transportation type, less-than-truckload(LTL) has more relation with above transportation feature than truckload(TL) does. Because freight transportation supply of TL is more flexible than that of LTL in correspondence of freight transportation demand. Relating to above mention, it appears that shortage of road and freight terminal of LTL is larger than that of TL. Especially in road and freight terminal comparison, shortage of freight terminal is larger than that of road. Shortage of road is the largest in 1990, and improved after-ward. But shortage of freight terminal is serious lately. So freight terminal needs more expansion than road, and shows better investment condition than road. Freight terminal expansion brings road expansion in LTL, on the contrary, freight terminal expansion substitutes freight terminal for road in TL. In transportation revenue, freight terminal's contribution to LTL is larger than that to TL. However, when we adjust quasi-fixed factor - road and freight terminal - to optimal level in the long run, in TL, diseconomies of scale becomes large, but in LTL, economies of scale becomes large. Consequently, it is necessary for TL to make counterplans to activate management of small size enterprises and owner drivers. And LTL should make use of economies of scale by solving the problem, such as nonprofit route, excess of rental freight handling of office, insufficiency of freight terminal, shortage of driver, and unpreparedness of freight insurance.