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Purpose: Critical care medicine continues to evolve. However, critical care cases require increasing amount of medical resources. Intensive care unit (ICU) mortality significantly impacts the overall efficiency of healthcare resources within a system of limited medical resources. This study investigated the factors related to ICU mortality using long-term nationwide cohort data in South Korea. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cohort study used data of 14905721 patients who submitted reimbursement claims to the Korean Health Insurance Service between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2015. A total of 1498102 patients who were admitted to all ICU types, except neonatal and long-term acute care hospitals, were enrolled. Results: Of the total 1498102 participants, 861397 (57.5%) were male and 636705 (42.5%) were female. The mean age at admission was 63.4±18.2 years; most of the subjects were aged over 60 years. During the 5-year period, in-hospital mortality rate was 12.9%. In Cox analysis, both in-hospital and 28-day mortality rates were significantly higher in male patients and those of lower socioeconomic status. As age increased and the number of nursing staff decreased, the mortality risk increased significantly by two or three times. The mortality risk was lower in patients admitted to an ICU of a tertiary university hospital and an ICU where intensivists worked. Conclusion: The number of nursing staff and the presence of an intensivist in ICU were associated with the ICU mortality rate. Also, increasing the number of nursing staff and the presence of intensivist might reduce the mortality rate among ICU patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to carry out a theoretical survey on the development of evaluation theories for foreign language textbooks. This study also focuses on recognizing the importance of textbook development in the field of not only teaching English as a foreign language, but also teaching Korean as a foreign language. Recently, the field of teaching Korean as a foreign language has made progress and we should admit that the theoretical basis of Korean as a foreign language is closely related to English as a foreign language. So it is necessary to adapt the theories for evaluating EFL textbooks in the field of KFL. Hence, this study intends to pursue three aims: the first is to study the existing theories of English textbook analysis, classifying them by the time (1970s, 1980s and 1990s), the second is to examine the transitional aspects of theoretical analysis of English textbooks, in order to develop a textbook of Korean as a foreign language, and the third purpose is to suggest a direction for which the future textbooks of KFL (Korean as a foreign language) and EFL (English as a foreign language) should progress through studying the theoretical analysis of textbooks for teaching English as a foreign language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to introduce the distance learning class model for a foreign language in university-level education context, and to prove that this class model is effective in cultivating the motivation and interest of university students for learning a foreign language. This distance learning lesson consists of two parts: Online chatting session, BBS session. The data for this research were collected from the university students who participated in this program during the spring semester, 2012. The participants of this program are the university students who learn English as a Foreign Language in Korea and Japan. The results from the students' responses through the questionnaire prove that this distance learning class is very effective in cultivating the learner's motivation and interest for learning a foreign language and understanding the cultural differences between two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is the reality of Korean language education that the development of teaching materials for Korean language for academic purposes are not so brisk, compared to that of the materials for general purpose, as the education of Korean language as a foreign language has just begun to proceed. The focuses of this study are to survey the brief history of teaching Korean as a foreign language and the development of the textbooks to teach KFL, and to compare the textbooks designed to teach English as a Foreign Language(EFL) and Korean as a Foreign Language(KFL) in order to find more desirable ways to develop the academic area of teaching Korean as a foreign language. Therefore, this study aims to suggest a more desirable way for the development of teaching materials for KFL for academic purpose, by comparing the composition of a Korean language textbook for academic purposes with the composition of an EFL textbook that has already achieved excellent outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]