• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.8-17
• /
• 2017

Globally, efforts are being made to develop and strengthen a palliative care policy to support a comprehensive healthcare system. Korea has implemented a hospice and palliative care (HPC) policy as part of a cancer policy under the 10 year plan to conquer cancer and a comprehensive measure for national cancer management. A legal ground for the HPC policy was laid by the Cancer Control Act passed in 2003. Currently in the process is legislation of a law on the decision for life-sustaining treatment for HPC and terminally-ill patients. The relevant law has expanded the policy-affected disease group from terminal cancer to cancer, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic liver disease/liver cirrhosis. Since 2015, the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme reimburses for HPC with a combination of the daily fixed sum and the fee for service systems. By the provision type, the HPC is classified into hospitalization, consultation, and home-based treatment. Also in place is the system that designates, evaluates and supports facilities specializing in HPC, and such facilities are funded by the NHI fund and government subsidy. Also needed along with the legal system are consensus reached by people affected by the policy and more realistic fee levels for HPC. The public and private domains should also cooperate to set HPC standards, train professional caregivers, control quality and establish an evaluation system. A stable funding system should be prepared by utilizing the long-term care insurance fund and hospice care fund.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.60 no.3
• /
• pp.227-234
• /
• 2017

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Sulfasalazine commonly used in IBD, possibly has various side effects after high dosage and long term intake. The present study aimed to investigate the sulfasalazine and combination with herbal medicine on 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced in mice model. TNBS-induced mice were injected through a flexible catheter 4 cm in length 1.6 mg TNBS. Animals were divided into five groups (n=12): Normal group, TNBS control group, Sulfasalazine (30 mg/kg) group, Sulfasalazine (60 mg/kg) group, Sulfasalazine (30 mg/kg)+Cinnamomi cortex and Bupleuri radix mixture (30 mg/kg) (SCB) group. Administration groups were fed extract during 7 days. The inflammatory, and apoptotic protein levels were determined using western blotting. SCB treatment showed an outstanding effectiveness in counteracting the IBD, as assessed by reduction of body weight loss, down-regulation of pro-inflammatory proteins and cytokines, and by inhibition of proteins related to apoptosis. This is the first report that sulfasalazine and Cinnamomi cortex plus Bupleuri radix mixture improve the severity of experimental IBD through the inhibition of both inflammation and apoptosis. We confirm that the SCB treatment instead of sulfasalazine alone may be promising as an alternative therapeutic plan against IBD, without any evidence of adverse effects.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.190-199
• /
• 2020

The utilization of multiple water sources becomes important due to the master plan for development of water supply released by Ministry of Environment, Korea in 2018. In this study, therefore, the analysis of comprehensive effect in blending applicable water sources in Daesan where 100,000 ㎥/d seawater desalination plant will be constructed for industrial use was performed. The increase in mixing ratio of other water sources with seawater reduced salinity up to 50%, but negatively impacted the turbid and organic matter. Lab-scale reverse osmosis performance test also found that membrane fouling was exacerbated in blended water condition. The simulation results of reverse osmosis indicated 39% energy saving on average is expected at the one-to-one blending ratio, however, long-term performance test at the pilot-scale plant is highly required to evaluate the inclusive impact of mixing seawater and other water sources.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.853-874
• /
• 2010

This study examines the acceptability of nuclear facilities using the latent class analysis. Even though, nuclear power is useful in terms of economic and energy security aspects, it is very difficult to expand the existing nuclear power plants or build a new one. Many studies analysed the cause of unacceptability of nuclear facilities but it has not been focused how large portion of people are divided pro and con. It is very important to know the distribution of people by the attitude toward nuclear facilities in order to meet the long term National Energy Plan. Through the latent class analysis with 1,025 respondents, people are classified into three groups(favor-class, support-class, opposition-class). The favor-class is the largest group which has moderate good attitudes toward the nuclear facilities in terms of economy, cleanness. and necessity but concerns a little about safety. The second largest group is the support-class which comprises 1/4 portion of people. The people in the class show the aggressive support for the nuclear facilities. 15% of the respondents belong to the opposition-class which show the negative attitudes to expansion of neclear facilities. In order to increase the acceptability of nuclear faculties, the most urgent work for the government to do is to less people's concern about nuclear safety.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.43-61
• /
• 2017

The wetlands are facing environmental changes such as desiccation that occurs with the passage of time and reduced ecosystem services from wetlands in the city. In order to maintain the ecosystem services provided by wetlands in urban areas, a system thinking about the trade-off phenomenon of ecosystem services occurring as the wetlands undergo environmental changes is needed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop strategies for wetland design using system thinking approach to enhance the resilience of ecosystem services degraded by the desiccation of wetlands and other disturbances. The objectives of this study include the system boundary and variables. Second, analyzing the dynamics of wetland design strategy. Third, it analyzes the trade-off phenomenon of ecosystem services in terms of the hydrology, hydric soil, and plants strategies to mitigate these effects. Fourth, wetland basic design to improve the resilience of ecosystem services. A wetland in Abuk-Mountain Neighborhood Park, Miryang-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, has been selected as a case study. Causal loop diagrams(CLDs) are used to analyze feedback in the wetland regime. In summary, hydrology, hydric soil, and plants is suggested as system boundaries to design plan. Design strategies for the wetland focused on robustness, redundancy, rapidity, and resourcefulness as a result of CLD analysis are first proposed in order to effectively maintain the wetland regime over the long term. Secondly, in a section related to hydrology, the CLD results show the trade-offs between provisioning-cultural services and regulating services. In order to control these services, a "water cycling system" has been implemented due to its strength in terms of robustness. The CLDs for hydric soil showed the trade-offs between regulating services and supporting services. An "installation of storm drainage for maintaining water levels" was selected due to the strength offered in terms of redundancy and rapidity. The CLDs for plants showed the trade-offs between provisioning - cultural services and regulating services. In order to control the strategic points, the "planting of indigenous vegetation" was suggested given the strength in terms of redundancy. In this study, a wetland design method is proposed that can improve the resilience of wetland ecosystem services by analyzing the dynamics overtime. The results of this research can theoretically be applied to help restore ecosystem services in wetlands using ecological landscape design. In addition, this study will contribute to reducing maintenance costs by improving wetland resilience.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.743-751
• /
• 2016

It is critical to effectively change the measures of prevention from the breakdown maintenance proceeding an apartment housing maintenance task scope. It is necessary that systematization be performed for a series of tasks, such as facility inspection, diagnosis and replacement. In addition, it is preceded by establishing a standardization for maintenance work scope. Therefore, this study examined the problems related to public rental housing maintenance work scope to manage it more systematically. In addition, the study suggests a work process section for facility repairs, long term replacement and general maintenance using one on one interviews with experts to classify the occupants, management office and head office. This study's standard work system is expected to provide fairness and transparency in addition to improving the productivity in public rental housing maintenance via an efficiency promotion plan. In addition, it is used as the basic reference for developing a system of public rental housing maintenance costs and diagnosis actions. Finally, it is necessary to create improvements that provide a more objective work system standardization throughout the analysis of the productivity data according to the work flow and the review of the occupants, management office and head office in the future applications of the pilot site.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.53 no.3
• /
• pp.321-336
• /
• 2020

The Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion (HERP) represents the upper-most level of Japan's earthquake disaster prevention governance. Its policy committee establishes the national earthquake investigation research promotion plan. The earthquake investigation committee of HERP collects survey geo-data and evaluates the research results of each earthquake disaster prevention agency. The establishment of an earthquake-related geo-resilience research strategy is both necessary and desirable for Korea. The concept of geo-resilience entails the ability to improve disaster resilience through the application of research results and the convergence of geoscience with science and technology (S&T) including the humanities and social sciences. The achievement of geo-resilience requires a national long-term roadmap and strategy for earthquake prediction research, the development of earthquake disaster prediction and prevention technology, Geo-ICT convergence technology development, implementation of a geocyber physics system (Geo-CPS), the use of geo-mimetics, and geoscientific R&D as it relates to local communities. Through such efforts, the national research institutes of Korea will be able to develop earthquake prediction capacities in relevant fields, reinforce proactive response capabilities, enhance community-level confidence in geodata and its research results, foster next-generation geoscientific manpower, and expand geoscientific infrastructure.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.131-141
• /
• 2004

For geotechnical applications, engineers use data obtained from a site investigation to interpret the structure and potential behavior of the subsurface. In most cases, these data consist of samples that represent 1/100,000 or less of the total volume of soil. These samples and associated field and lab testing provide the information used to estimate soil parameter values. The resulting values are estimated ones and there exists some likelihood that actual soil conditions are significantly different from the estimates. This may be the case even if the sampling and interpretation procedures are performed in accordance with standard practice. Although these efforts have been made to characterize the uncertainty associated with geotechnical parameters, there is no commonly accepted method to evaluate quantitatively the quality of an investigation plan as a whole or the relative significance of individual sampling points or potential sampling points.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.18-23
• /
• 2000

The changes of the microorganism composition after therapeutic radiation for oral cancer patients are not well known and the long-term follow-up data are not reported. To obtain basic data for understanding of pathogenesis and prevention and treatment of dental caries and mucositis occuring after radiation therapy, 7 of the oral cancer patients presented at the Seoul National University Oral & Maxillofacial Department between 1997 and 1998 whose treatment plan included radiation therapy were recruited to investigate the changes in bacterial composition(total aerobic count, Candida, Staphylococci, Lactobacilli, S. mutans, and S. salivarius (mitis, sanguis)) of the saliva before, during, and after radiation therapy. The basic data obtained from this study on identification and composition change of the bacteria in saliva of patients treated with radiation therapy can be used (1) as a reference for deciding on the ideal anti-microbial spectrum of the oral rinsing agent to be used in patients treated with radiation therapy for malignant tumor of the head and neck region. (2) to enhance the understanding of increase of opportunistic infection after immunochemical changes of the saliva and its relation to specific bacterial infection. (3) as a reference in prescribing prophylactic antibiotics in immunodepressed patients after radiation therapy.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.62 no.4
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2020

The extreme 2017 spring drought affected a large portion of South Korea in the Southern Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheongnam-do districts. This drought event was one of the climatologically driest spring seasons over the 1961-2016 period of record. It was characterized by exceptionally low reservoir water levels, with the average water level being 36% lower over most of western South Korea. In this study, we consider drought response methods to alleviate the shortage of agricultural water in times of drought. It could be to store water from a stream into a reservoir. There is a cyclical method for reusing water supplied from a reservoir into streams through drainage. We intended to present a decision-making plan for water supply based on the calculation of the quantity of water supply and leakage. We compared the rainfall-runoff equation with the TANK model, which is a long-term run-off model. Estimations of reservoir inflow during non-irrigation seasons applied to the Madun, Daesa, and Pungjeon reservoirs. We applied the run-off flow to the last 30 years of rainfall data to estimate reservoir storage. We calculated the available water in the river during the non-irrigation season. The daily average inflow from 2003 to 2018 was calculated from October to April. Simulation results show that an average of 67,000 tons of water is obtained during the non-irrigation season. The report shows that about 53,000 tons of water are available except during the winter season from December to February. The Madun Reservoir began in early October with a 10 percent storage rate. In the starting ratio, a simulated rate of 4 K, 6 K, and 8 K tons is predicted to be 44%, 50%, and 60%. We can estimate the amount of water needed and the timing of water pump operations during the non-irrigation season that focuses on fresh water reservoirs and improve decision making for efficient water supplies.