• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.851-860
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• 2020

With an increase in the aging population and a rising social interest in health and welfare, studies to improve healthcare in the elderly are being actively conducted. This study attempted to improve the current design and manufacture of elevating electric wheelchairs to enhance user safety and convenience. Seat design based on the user's body shape, convenience while boarding or alighting, caster turning radius and, safety and stability features that prevent shaking when the user gets up or sits down were improved. A driving experiment was conducted to evaluate the operation of the indoor electric wheelchair designed and manufactured with these additional functionalities. During the test, the performance parameters evaluated were continuous driving time, turning radius, maximum lifting and lowering load, maximum lifting height, noise level, minimum distance sensing by the driving auxiliary sensor, ability to interact with server and app programs, and the duty cycle maximum error rate. The test confirmed that this improved electric wheelchair successfully met target parameters. In a future study, we will evaluate this improved electric wheelchair from a user's perspective for its usability parameters, such as satisfaction, convenience and stability.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.211-227
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• 2023

Personal service robots, a type of social robot that has emerged with the aging population and technological advancements, are undergoing a transformation centered around technologies that can extend independent living for older adults in their homes. For older adults to accept and use social robot innovations in their daily lives on a long-term basis, it is crucial to have a deeper understanding of user perspectives, contexts, and emotions. This research aims to comprehensively understand older adults by utilizing a mixed-method approach that integrates quantitative and qualitative data. Specifically, we employ the Van Kaam phenomenological methodology to group conversations into nine categories based on emotional cues and conversation participants as key variables, using voice conversation records between older adults and social robots. We then personalize the conversations based on frequency and weight, allowing for user segmentation. Additionally, we conduct profiling analysis using demographic data and health indicators obtained from pre-survey questionnaires. Furthermore, based on the analysis of conversations, we perform K-means cluster analysis to classify older adults into three groups and examine their respective characteristics. The proposed model in this study is expected to contribute to the growth of businesses related to understanding users and deriving insights by providing a methodology for segmenting older adult s, which is essential for the future provision of social robots with caregiving functions in everyday life.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.41
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• pp.387-408
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• 2014

South Korea already became an aging society, and is now in the process of becoming an aged society. With increasing elderly population, elderly safety issues such as traffic accidents and elderly suicides are becoming important problems. Elderly victimization are increasing, and elderly safety accident is also becoming an imporotant social problem. The police is doing various activities for elderly safety. The police is conducting programs for the elderly, such as a prevention program for fraud against elderly, and safety checks and traffic safety education for preventing elderly traffic accidents. Also, there's a program of providing regular visits for a lone elderly, expansion of CCTV network and fingerprint registration to prevent elderlies with Alzheimer's disease going missing. However, these programs are not done on a national scale, but rather limited to local police stations. The purpose of this study is to seek police roles for enhancing elderly safety, due to lack of police activity in this area. Recommendation for police roles in enhancing elderly safety is to first conduct routine crackdowns on fraud against elderly and also conduct education programs for preventing fraud. Also, crimes such as elderly abuse is lead by elderly protection agencies, but considering elderly abuse is a crime, the police should take a leading role. Also, to prevent elderly suicide, meticulous management of elderlies with high suicide risk is necessary, and elderly protection areas should be designated to prevent traffic accidents. Also, elderlies should be induced to turn in their driver's license. To conduct these matters of elderly safety, an organization exclusively charged with elderly safety is necessary. Elderly safety is a broad concept, and since police alone cannot handle the task of ensuring elderly safety, the police should take on a leading role in cooperative efforts with various institutions of the government, non-profit organizations and the community to establish a social saftey net for elderly safety.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.96-103
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• 2015

This study investigates the socio-economic and clinical characteristics associated with emergency medical transport use by the elderly based on 2008~2011 Korea Health Panel data. A model of emergency medical transport use was analyzed, and the results indicate that use of 119 ambulances and private ambulances by the elderly accounted for 46.8% of all users, and 35.1% of their emergency room visits. Statistically significant factors associated with emergency medical transport use were gender (OR = 2.19, 95% CI = 1.51-3.17), relationship to household (OR = 2.19, 95% CI = 1.45-3.32), insurance type (OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.10-1.82), handicap (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.14-1.83), reason for emergency department visits (OR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.20-1.97), and treatment after emergency medical service completed (OR = 3.45, 95% CI = 2.80-4.25). The increased elderly population in an aging society will lead to a surge in demand for emergency patient transport services, and emergency medical services that are tailored to the elderly need to be developed accordingly.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.61-72
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• 2020

Social problems, such as economic instability, aging population, heightened competition, and changes in personal values, might become more serious in the near future. Affective computing has received much attention in the scholarly community as a possible solution to potential social problems. Accordingly, we examined domestic and global knowledge structure, major keywords, current research status, international research collaboration, and network for each major keyword, focusing on keywords related to affective computing. We searched for articles on a specialized academic database (Scopus) using major keywords and carried out bibliometric and network analyses. We found that China and the United States (U.S.) have been active in producing knowledge on affective computing, whereas South Korea lags well behind at around 10%. Major keywords surrounding affective computing include computing, processing, affective analysis, research, user modeling categorizing recognitions, and psychological analysis. In terms of international research collaboration structure, China and the U.S. form the largest cluster, whereas other countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Canada have been strong collaborators as well. Contrastingly, South Korea's research has not been diverse and has not been very successful in producing research outcomes. For the advancement of affective computing research in South Korea, the present study suggests strengthening international collaboration with major countries, including the U.S. and China and diversifying its research partners.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2019.09a
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• pp.5-5
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• 2019

The objectives of this paper are (i) to analyze past trends and future directions of rice production, consumption and trade across the world and (ii) to discuss emerging challenges and future directions in the global rice industry. Rice is a staple food of over half of the world's 7.7 billion people. It is an important economic, social, political, and cultural commodity in most Asian countries. Rice is the $1^{st}$ most widely consumed, $2^{nd}$ largely produced, and $3^{rd}$ most widely grown food crop in the world. It was cultivated by 144 million farms in over 100 countries with harvested area of over 163 million ha producing about 745 million tons paddy in 2018. About 90% of the total rice is produced in Asia. China and India, the biggest rice producers, account for over half of the world's rice production. Between 1960 and 2018, world rice production increased over threefold from 221 to 745 million tons (2.1% per year) due to area expansion from 120 to 163 million ha (0.5% per year) and paddy yield increase from 1.8 to 4.6 t/ha (1.6% per year). The Green Revolution led massive increase in rice production prevented famines, provided food for millions of people, reduced poverty and hunger, and improved livelihoods of millions of Asians. The future increase in rice production must come from yield increase as the scope for area expansion is limited. Rice is the most widely consumed food crop. The world's average per capita milled rice consumption is 64 kilograms providing 19% of daily calories. Asia accounted for 84% of global consumption followed by Africa (7%), South America (3%), and the Middle East (2%). Asia's per capita rice consumption is 100 kilograms per year providing 28% of daily calories. The global and Asian per capita consumption increased from the 1960s to the 1990s but stable afterward. The per capita rice consumption is expected to decline in Asia but increase outside Asia especially in Africa in the future. The total milled rice consumption was about 490 million tons in 2018 and projected to reach 550 million tons by 2030 and 590 million tons by 2040. Rice is thinly traded in international market because it is a highly protected commodity. Only about 9% of the total production is traded in global rice market. However, the volume of global rice trade has increased over six-fold from 7.5 to 46.5 million tons between the 1960s and 2018. A relatively small number of exporting countries interact with a large number of importing countries. The top five rice exporting countries are India, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, and China accounting for 74% of the global rice export. The top five rice importing countries are China, Philippines, Nigeria, European Union and Saudi Arabia accounting for 26% of the global rice import. Within rice varieties, Japonica rice accounts for the highest share of the global rice trade (about 12%) followed by Basmati rice (about 10%). The high concentration of exports to a few countries makes international rice market vulnerable to supply disruptions in exporting countries, leading to higher world prices of rice. The export price of Thai 5% broken rice increased from 198 US$/ton in 2000 to 421 US$/ton in 2018. The volumes of trade and rice prices in the global market are expected to increase in the future. The major future challenges of the rice industry are increasing demand due to population growth, rising demand in Africa, economic growth and diet diversification, competition for natural resources (land and water), labor scarcity, climate change and natural hazards, poverty and inequality, hunger and malnutrition, urbanization, low income in rice farming, yield saturation, aging of farmers, feminization of agriculture, health and environmental concerns, improving value chains, and shifting donor priorities away from agriculture. At the same time, new opportunities are available due to access to new technologies, increased investment by the private sector, and increased global partnership. More investment in rice research and development is needed to develop and disseminate innovative technologies and practices to overcome problems and ensure food and nutrition security of the future population.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.251-265
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• 2022

According to the 2019 statistics of the National Statistical Office, the population of old people over 65 is 7.69 million which consists of 14.9% of total population in Korea, and the world's fastest compressed-aging is being processed. Employees engaged in financial business as representative high-wage workers tend to choose voluntary retirement regardless of their business types, and rarely get a new job or establish their own business successfully. This study analyzes the effects of retirement expectations, social supports, and entrepreneurial intention for employees engaged in financial business, and the differences by individual characteristics on the preparation for their old age. The subjects include 280 people working at Seoul metropolitan and Daegu area. The data were analyzed with the SPSS Win Ver. 18.0 for frequency analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis, regression analysis, etc. and the results of the study are as follows. First, the result of analyzing the effect of retirement expectations of employees engaged in financial business on the preparation for old age shows that the retirement expectations of the people who consider retirement is a new start meaningfully affect the financial and physical preparations for old age. Second, it is shown that family relations for employees engaged in financial business meaningfully affect the financial preparation, and family relations and friendship relations meaningfully affect the emotional and social preparations, despite social supports do not relevantly affect the financial preparation for old age. Third, it is also shown that the entrepreneurial intention of employees engaged in financial business does not relevantly affect the financial and physical preparations, but meaningfully affects the emotional and social preparations for old age. Fourth, the result of analyzing the effect of the individual characteristics of employees engaged in financial business on the preparation for their old age shows that age, marital status, and job grade do not relevantly affect, but the experience of entrepreneurship education more affects the preparation for old age than no-experience.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.99-134
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to examine major factors that affect patterns of living arrangements of older Korean noncitizens in the United States using the 1990 8% Public Use Microdata Sample(PUMS). In order to do so, I analyzed the effects of four factors including acculturation(English proficiency and Age at migration), economic circumstances(Personal Income and Supplemental Security Income: SSI receipt), health status(Mobility and Personal care limitation), and the ethnic community. The results show that acculturation and economic circumstances play an important role in determining the patterns of living arrangements among older Korean aliens, whereas the health status and the ethnic community do not show consistent effects. Regardless of marital status, the impact of age at migration is positively associated with solitary living of older Korean noncitizens, though, the effect of English proficiency show the opposite direction in accordance with marital status. That is, among nonmarried elders, those who cannot speak English are more likely to live alone. The case is reverse for married elders. The impact of economic feasibility is also positively associated with independent living arrangements. Those who receive SSI are much more likely to live apart from family, and elders whose annual personal income between $5, 001 and $10, 000 have the greatest propensity of solitary living-a large proportion of their income source is SSI. Individuals who receive SSI are also qualified to collect Medicaid, food stamps, rent subsidies, and other welfare benefits. In a sense, the economic feasibility provided by welfare benefits is the key determinant of independent living of older Korean noncitizens. Therefore, the recent welfare reform which denies legal aliens welfare benefits such as SSI and food stamps will severly affect the present living arrangements of older Korean aliens, and give economic burden to their family member The findings also show that there are significant differences within the elderly Korean Americans in terms of demographics, income, fertility, health status, and patterns of living arrangements by U.S. citizenship status. In particular, after controlling for age at migration as a proxy for acculturation, there is a statistically significant variation in living arrangements between elderly Korean noncitizens and naturalized citizens. For both theoretical and methodological reasons, future research on minority aging needs to investigate the concept of U.S. citizenship status for its impact on patterns of living arrangements among the minority elderly.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.109-121
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• 1991

To investigate the period prevalence rate and therapeutic practic for low back pain (LBP) in the adult population of rural area, a personal interview was conducted for 2.024 persons or 20-59 years old in Seohu Myon, Andong County, Kyungpook Province between 1st and 20th of April, 1991. The period prevalence rate (l February 1990-31 January 1991) of LBP for 1,106 adults who were interviewed was $47.9\%$. The age adjusted period prevalence rate for males was $43.7\%$ and that for females was $52.3\%$ and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.005). Clinical course of th LBP was acute in $14.1\%$ of males and $9.0\%$ of females, recurrent in $57.0\%$ and $55.2\%$, and chronic in $28.9\%$ and $35.8\%$, respectively. Common causes of the LBP were insidious on set with aging without known cause$(48.1\%)$, heavy work $(15.1\%)$, and trauma $(11.3\%)$. Due to LBP $12.5\%$ of the patients were not able to stand or walk for more than an hour and $2.5\%$ were bed-ridden or unable to carry out daily routine. To have the LBP diagnosed $10.2\%$ of the patients utilized a oriental medical clinic or hospital, $31.3\%$ visited a clinic or hospital, and $56.6\%$ hat not utilized any medical facility. Main reason for not having the LBP diagnosed was that the LBP was tolerable. The most popular therapeutic method that the LBP patients chose at the first was drug and physical therapy. Herb medicine was most commonly used when the first therapeutic method was not effective and the acupuncture was the most popular choice of therapy when the second therapeutic method failed. Folk medicine was utilized in $15.5\%$ of the LBP patients and it included 36 regimens such as tincture of motherwort (Leonurus sibiricus), boiled chicken with liquor, etc. It was revealed by this survey that the LBP is a serious health problem in the rural area and many of the LBP patients do not utilize a clinic or hospital but take non-scientific folk remedy. To prevent the economic waste and side effects of the folk remedy, public health education is needed for tile rational therapy of LBP.