• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.269-282
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• 2004

Luminescence dating of a coastal dune from the Shindu dunefield on the T'aean Peninsula shows that deposition of the dune structure began about 500-600 years ago. The lower section of the dune has remained stable since then but the upper part yields an age of about 30 years, suggesting reactivation or additional deposition since the 1970's. The two samples that were collected from the lower part of the dune at depths of 3.5 m and 2.0 m below the surface differ by an age interval of about 50-70 years. This indicates a net depositional rate of around 2.5 cm a year which is relatively slow for a coastal dune. Whilst only one dune structure has been dated for the time being and even though the dunefield was probably established much earlier in the Holocene, the OSL ages obtained demonstrate that some dunes in the area could be younger than 1000 years. Such chronologies point to a dynamic environment where the dune structures are not permanently fixed. Sedimentological properties of the dune sands are consistent with those of particles initially deposited under subaqueous conditions and then later transported by wind.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.289-309
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• 2023

While South Korea's universal healthcare system has garnered attention in public health, the issue of inequality in healthcare service provision among different age groups has incessantly become a significant concern. The focus of this concern is primarily on essential healthcare services, encompassing fundamental aspects of healthcare such as internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatric and adolescent care. This inequality is not limited to differences among age groups (both junior and senior demographics) but also extends to potential disparities in healthcare services based on geographic location, particularly in urban and rural contexts. This paper aims to investigate disparities in primary healthcare service resources in South Korea's evolving economic landscape between 1995 and 2021. We utilize a set of inequality indices with a spatial perspective through geographic cluster analysis. The findings reveal that concerns about inequality have been amplified during various economic events, including the IMF crisis in 1999, the global financial crisis in 2008, and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. These years are identified as significant phases that have contributed to manifesting spatial disparities in primary healthcare provisions, with a particular emphasis on the senior-aged population rather than junior or all population groups. Our findings underscore the pressing need to address the unequal distribution of essential healthcare resources as part of preparedness for potential economic impacts, requiring a comprehensive consideration of the interconnected nature of demographic and spatial dimensions in healthcare services.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.267-285
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• 2004

Globalization has been the buzzword during the past couple of decades, embroiling humankind into the inescapable maelstrom of homogenization. Some critics identify the globalization process undergoing in the realms of politics, economy, culture and ecology with Americanization which entails Neoconservatives' scheme to stretch out the hegemony of the United States. The top-down transcontinental movement, however, deems to confront localization or a reasoned resistance from the local driven by the spiritual attachment to places and, in that sense, regional identity. What is needed to cope with this complex circumstance of glocalization is to be acquainted with beth the global sense of the local and the localized sense of the global at once. For this, it seems indispensible to do justice to area studies. As far as American studies are concerned, this research field has so far been tainted by an overdose of politics, economics, business administration, law and sociology. Regional analysis which constitutes the reason d'etre of the discipline of geography has remained marginal to the political economic mainstream. It is the mounting concerns about America and enhanced research caliber that raises the regional geographical studies of America on the right track. Particularly, a number of articles have been published since the mid-1990s owing to the combined efforts of practitioners, institutions and periodicals. It is expected that systematic training of new generation of American specialists, advance in research infrastructure, and generous funding will stimulate geographical investigation of America in the coming future.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.615-632
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• 2014

This study aims to explore 'bluffing', one of the most important topics in order to ensure the objectivity, validity, reliability of scoring of constructed-response items. The author identifies the conception of bluffing, and classifies major types of bluffing on the basis of previous studies on the theoretical level. Next, the author analyzes empirically the bluffing strategies and types of learners on key terms of Korean Geography subject. Compared with the existing research reports, the result of this study shows a significantly lower average bluffing score. On the other hand, it is consistent in results of previous studies reported that average bluffing score is similar between genders and that those students who got highest grades did least bluffing. Actually bluffing types are classified into four categories: 'repeating the question' type, 'depending on a well-known or existing knowledge' type, 'applying some basic concepts regardless of understanding' type, and 'inducing scorer's basic beliefs' type. Some comments and suggestions are as follows. First, it is necessary to continue researches of the relations among bluffing and age, gender, grade, intelligence and learning styles. Second, it is required for scorers who score constructed-response items to develop and supply the scoring guide including analysis contents of bluffing types and cases, and increase opportunity for training. Third, we need to inquire the domain-specific bluffing types in geography subject based on the generalizable sample size.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.66-77
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• 2001

The contents and results of teaching should be evaluated periodically and intermationally in the age of globalization. The Third Internatinal Geography Competition, held from August 13 to August 19,2000 in Seoul, was a good opportunity to compare the level of achievement in geography among Korean students with that of other countries. Students from 13 countries competed with one another by demonstrating their geographical knowledge via three kinds of test. The aim of this study is to evaluate the international level of high school students in geography education in light of the result of the competiton. Four specific contents ate analysed here: 1)the process and result of the competiton, 2) the analysis of test scores of all students, 3) the international comparison of achievement level of the Korean students, and 4)the evaluation of the examination items and their comparison with those of the first competition. The result of this study will help to evaluate ths competitive achievement of geography education in high school. Although the Korean studenrs scored high marks overall, their were relafively weak in the fieldwork assignment. This shows that instructions in geography are unbalanced.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1567-1574
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• 2014

The incidence and mortality rates of liver and nasopharyngeal cancer in Guangxi province of China have always been among the highest in the world, and cancer is one of the major diseases that pose a threat to the health of residents in Guangxi. However, no systematic study has been performed to evaluate the time trends in the structure of cancer-related deaths and cancer mortality. In this study, we reveal sex, age and geography differences of cancers mortality between three death surveys (1971 to 1973, 1990 to 1992, and 2004 to 2005). The results show that the standardized mortality rate of cancer in Guangxi residents has risen from 43.3/100,000 to 84.2/100,000, the share of cancer deaths in all-cause deaths has increased from 13.3% to 20.7%, and cancer has become the second most common cause of death. The five major cancers, liver cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer and colorectal cancer, account for 60% of all the cancer deaths. Cancers with growing mortality rates over the past 30 years include lung cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer and female breast cancer, of which lung cancer is associated with the sharpest rise in mortality, with a more than 600% rise in both men and women. Cancer death in Guangxi residents occurs mainly in the elderly population above 45 years of age, especially in people over the age of 65. The areas with the highest mortality rates for liver cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer, which feature regional high incidences, include Chongzuo and Wuzhou. Therefore, for major cancers such as liver cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer and female breast cancer in Guangxi, we can select high-risk age groups as the target population for cancer prevention and control efforts in high-prevalence areas in a bid to achieve the ultimate goal of lowering cancer mortality in Guangxi.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.4459-4463
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• 2014

Background: Gastric cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide and infection with H. pylori is considered essential for its development. Helicobacter pylori infects more than 50% of the world's population with higher prevalence in developing countries than developed countries. The prevalence of H. pylori varies in different societies and geographical locations. The objectives of this study were to estimate the seroprevalence and determine the risk factors of H. pylori infection in dyspeptic patents in Ethiopia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 209 dyspeptic patients was carried out from February 15 to April 30, 2013. Five to ten ml venous blood was collected from each dyspeptic patient and analyzed for detection of Helicobacter pylori immunoglobulin (IgG). The socio-demographic characteristic, hygienic practices, alcohol consumption, sources of drinking water and types of latrine were also obtained with a pre-tested questionnaire. Results: The overall seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori was 72.2%. There was statistically significant difference in the prevalence of H. pylori among age groups (p=0.02). Seroprevalence of H. pylori was higher in those patients who used unprotected surface water (76.4%) than those with access to piped tap water (65.9%). There was also statistically significant differences in prevalence of H. pylori with the habit of hand washing before meal (p=0.01) and alcohol consumption (p=0.001). Conclusions: The prevalence of H. pylori was high in the study area and increased with age of dyspeptic patients. Alcohol consumption and the type of drinking water are risk factors that have associations with the prevalence of H. pylori. Molecular epidemiological techniques can show a true picture of H. pylori and improvement in the drinking water quality is recommended.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.104-111
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• 2014

This study puts its purpose on presenting an integral system of representative urban landscapes, public design and colors, in practicing urban design in the context of local identity. An integral design of public design that successfully plans and executes local identity, and changes recognition of integral management of urban design, is suggested as followings. Firstly, when the catchment area is divided in metropolitan area, it should be reset according to the natural environment condition regardless of administrative area system like city and county. It is the method to classify the metropolitan area by researching and analyzing geographical condition, weather condition, soil and vegetation in detail and subclassify it by the visual commonness of natural environment. Secondly, it is necessary to access the urban landscape, public design and urban color from the overall aspect emphasizing the plan for each field and local identity. They should be practiced by the role and category of each field on the basis of consistent design strategy and instruction but the cooperation system is required as a process to reinforce and specify the mutual limit. Thirdly, the artificial structure is constructed through artificial adjustment depending on the urban formation process and the development time point. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the rapid urban development, the change speed and the landscape formation of each age. It is necessary to classify the type of artificial landscape by age and form similarity and separate the area that should be generalized and controlled by entire metropolitan area form the area that should be specialized by basic local government.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.72-109
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• 1999

This study is conducted to investigate the current status on the utilization of health care and plan for solving this problem. The claims data of the fiscal tear 1995 obtained from the regional health insurance society are used for the study. The main findings of the study are summarized as follows. Indexes(The Extremal Quotient(EQ), coefficients of variance(CV's))which represent the regional difference in the admission rate of the tertiary medical diagnosis group report that there is difference in quantity and quality of utilization of health care. The admission rate is lower in the big city areas, Kyoungkido, Kangwondo and Chunlapukdo. Even after age-sex adjustment, the admission rate is still low in Kangwondo, Chunlapukdo and Kyoungsangpukdo. The big city areas tend to have higher rates in the expenses per claim, hospital days per claim, and daily expenses but the rates are still low in some area in Kangwondo, Chunlanamdo and Kyoungsangpukdo. This result remains as same after age-sex adjustment. There is a large regional difference in average utilization rate for the tertiary hospital of the tertiary medical diagnosis group: 57.2%(SD 11.53). The utilization rates for the tertiary hospital in their large catchment area are 96.34%, 83.19% and 73.22% in each Kyoungin, Kyoungnam and Kyoungpuk areas whereas it is lower in a Chungpuk and Chungnam areas. The regional differences of health care utilization of the tertiary medical diagnosis group gave some relationships with their geographical characteristics such as socio-economic characteristics and supply factors of medical services. It is important that many medical policies should be developed in order to minimize and balance out the regional differences of health care utilization. The service allocation policy should include the reconstruction of manpower policy, developing the resource allocating formula, finding the self-sufficient catchment area and reforcing of public health services. Moreover, in order to achieve the balanced development by region, they should investigate and consider each county's microscopic properties under the consistent macrocopic policy. The further studies to find causes of regional difference are needed.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.245-253
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• 2012

Background: Prevalence of chronic pain and its association with demographic characteristics have been reported by different studies from different geographical regions in the world. However, data from many Middle East countries including Iran (especially southern Iran) are scare. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate the prevalence of chronic pain and its association with demographic, psychological and socioeconomic factors in an Iranian population. Methods: In this population-based survey, the target population was comprised of subjects aged 20 to 85 years residing in Jahrom, southern Iran during 2009-2011. All eligible subjects were invited to participate in the study. Before a detailed questionnaire was given; face to face interviews were done for each individual. Results: There were 719 men and 874 women with an average age of 40.5 years at the onset of the study. Among the study population, 38.9% (620/1,593) complained of chronic pain, of whom 40.8% (253/620) were men and 59.2% (367/620) were women. Foot and joint pain were observed in 31.9%. Hip and spine pain, migraine and tension headaches, heart pain, and abdomen pain were observed in 21.5%, 15.5%, 9.5%, and 8.0% of chronic pain cases, respectively. There was a significant association among the covariables age, sex, overweight, educational level, income, and type of employment with chronic pain as the dependent variable (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Our findings show the prevalence of chronic pain and its association with demographic, psychological and socioeconomic factors. Individuals with low incomes and less education became accustomed to pain due to a lack of knowledge.