• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.98-120
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to elicit preference for drug listing decision criteria and to estimate the ICER threshold in South Korea using the discrete choice experiment (DCE) method. To collect the data, a DCE survey was administered to a subject sample either educated in the principle concepts of pharmacoeconomics or were decision makers within that field. Subjects chose between alternative drug profiles differing in four attributes: ICER, uncertainty, budget impact and severity of disease. The orthogonal and balanced designs were determined through computer algorithm to take the optimal set of drug profiles. The survey employed 15 hypothetical choice sets. A random effect probit model was used to analyze the relative importance of attributes and the probabilities of a recommendation response. Parameter estimates from the models indicated that three attributes (ICER, Impact, Severity of disease) influenced respondents' choice significantly(p${\pm}$0.001). In addition, each parameter displayed an expected sign. The Lower the ICER, the higher the probability of choosing that alternative. Respondents also preferred low levels of uncertainty and smaller impact on health service budget. They were also more likely to choose drugs for serious diseases rather than mild or moderate ones. Uncertainty however is not statistically significant. The ICER threshold, at which the probability of a recommendation was 0.5, was 29,000,000 KW/QALY in expert group and 46,500,000 KW/QALY in industry group. We also found that those in our sample were willing to accept high ICER to get medication for severe diseases. This study demonstrates that the cost-effectiveness, budget impact and severity of disease are the main reimbursement decision criteria in South Korea, and that DCE can be a useful tool in analyzing the decision making process where a variety of factors are considered and prioritized.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1195-1211
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• 2016

The emerging video coding standard High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) has shown almost 40% bit-rate reduction over the state-of-the-art Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard but at about 40% computational complexity overhead. The main reason for HEVC computational complexity is the inter prediction that accounts for 60%-70% of the whole encoding time. In this paper, we propose several fast coding unit (CU) encoding schemes based on the Merge mode and motion estimation information to reduce the computational complexity caused by the HEVC inter prediction. Firstly, an early Merge mode decision method based on motion estimation (EMD) is proposed for each CU size. Then, a Merge mode based early termination method (MET) is developed to determine the CU size at an early stage. To provide a better balance between computational complexity and coding efficiency, several fast CU encoding schemes are surveyed according to the rate-distortion-complexity characteristics of EMD and MET methods as a function of CU sizes. These fast CU encoding schemes can be seamlessly incorporated in the existing control structures of the HEVC encoder without limiting its potential parallelization and hardware acceleration. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed schemes achieve 19%-46% computational complexity reduction over the HEVC test model reference software, HM 16.4, at a cost of 0.2%-2.4% bit-rate increases under the random access coding configuration. The respective values under the low-delay B coding configuration are 17%-43% and 0.1%-1.2%.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.132-145
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• 2001

The purpose and need of the study is to quantify the advantage or disadvantage of the environmental friendliness of the partitioning of nuclear fuel cycle. To this end, a preliminary study on the quantitative effect of the partition on the permanent disposal of spent PWR and CANDU fuel (HLW) was carried out. Before any analysis, the so-called reference radionuclide release scenario from a potential repository embedded into a crystalline rock was developed. Firstly, the feature, event and processes (FEPs) which lead to the release of nuclides from waste disposed of in a repository and the transport to and through the biosphere were identified. Based on the selected FEPs, the ‘Well Scenario’which might be the worst case scenario was set up. For the given scenario, annual individual doses to a local resident exposed to radioactive hazard were estimated and compared to that from direct disposal. Even though partitioning and transmutation could be an ideal solution to reduce the inventory which eventually decreases the release time as well as the peaks in the annual dose and also minimize the repository area through the proper handling of nuclides, it should overcome major disadvantages such as echnical issues on the partitioning and transmutation system, cost, and public acceptance, and environment friendly issues. In this regard, some relevant issues are also discussed to show the direction for further studies.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.20 no.2 s.22
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• pp.270-279
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• 1987

In all enterprises of Korea employing workers more than five, employeers have a duty of conducting a periodic health screening for improvement and maintaining healthful living and working conditions of employees. The health screening is performed annually in line workers and biennially in table workers under the supervision of the government. But there are some argument to the health screening programme in view of effectiveness, efficiency, reliability and etc. In order to obtain basic reference materials for increasing the efficiency of peridoic health screening programme for workers and understand the attitude of health screening institutions and enterprises toward the periodic health screening, mail questionnaire survey was conducted in July 1987. The questionnaire sent to 950 health screening institutions. and 700 enterprises in whole land but they were returned from 254 health istitutions and 187 enterprises, which were analyzed. The results were as follows: 1) The attitude of the respondents toward the necessity and benefit of the periodic health screening was showed highly positive responses in both of screening institutions and enterprises, and it was more positive in screening institutions. The attitude toward the affirmative and the contentment was showed less positive than that of the necessity and benefit. 2) The respondent recognized may problems on regard to the screening programme. The health screening institutions lie in the state of competition with other institutions for undertaking the screening programme. 3) One of major complaints from enterprises was the lack of sincerity in performing the screening programme. They wanted more practical and reliable health screening examination rather than showy one. 4) Health screening institutions and enterprises showed some mutual contradictions in the matter of screening fee, and so the screening fee should be adjusted to the appropriate cost.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.329-339
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• 2014

This study aims to estimate chlorophyll-a concentration in rivers using multi-spectral RapidEye imagery and Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) and assess the applicability of SMA for multi-temporal imagery analysis. Comparison between images (acquired on Oct. and Nov., 2013) predicted and ground reference chlorophyll-a concentration showed significant performance statistically with determination coefficients of 0.49 and 0.51, respectively. Two band (Red-RE) model for the October and November 2013 RapidEye images showed low performance with coefficient of determinations ($R^2$) of 0.26 and 0.16, respectively. Also Three band (Red-RE-NIR) model showed different performance with $R^2$ of 0.016 and 0.304, respectively. SMA derived Chlorophyll-a concentrations showed relatively higher accuracy than band ratio models based values. SMA was the most appropriate method to calculate Chlorophyll-a concentration using images which were acquired on period of low Chlorophyll-a concentrations. The results of SMA for multi-temporal imagery showed low performance because of the spatio-temporal variation of each end members. This approach provides the potential of providing a cost effective method of monitoring river water quality and management using multi-spectral imagery. In addition, the calculated Chlorophyll-a concentrations using multi-spectral RapidEye imagery can be applied to water quality modeling, enhancing the predicting accuracy.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.51-67
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• 2010

This study looked into the current conditions in Korean and Japanese care management for the elderly, cases of consumer counseling in these countries, and the supporting institutions for Japanese users regarding the use of care management for the elderly. The number of recipients of care management for the elderly in both Korea and Japan is growing every year, and more Japanese users receive various services compared to Korean users. The results of an analysis on consumer counseling regarding the use of Korean and Japanese care management revealed, two types of complaints: counseling for the improvement of the institution and complaints related to the procurement of service. Regarding the insurance system, the complaints were mostly related to affirmation of a rating and the burden incurred by cost-sharing. Regarding the use of service, such key impairment cases were related to in-service medical accidents, illegal acts including caregiver contract violations and forced retirement, careless service by workers, and human rights violations of the elderly. Japan has developed governmental and, related-administrative and business services as well as a local governmental system to redress customer impairment issues as this pertains to service for better quality care management. In addition, they have enlarged the locally closed service, provided exact information about the services offered, and improved service appraisal techniques. The Japanese cases will serve as a good reference to improve the Korean system. In particular, the construction of a system that reduces customer losses and the availability of more counseling information are urgently required to improve the system in terms of customer experiences when they seek care management.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.147-154
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• 2009

This paper presents a grating~integrated SPR (Surface Plasmon Resonance) sensor chip for simple and inexpensive biomolecule detection. The grating-integrated SPR sensor chip has two sensing channels having a nano grating for SPR coupling. An external mirror is used for multi channel SPR sensing. The present sensor chip replaces bulky and expensive optical components, such as fiber-optic switches or special shaped prisms, resulting in a simple and inexpensive wavelength modulated multi-channel SPR sensing system. We fabricate a SPR sensor chip integrated with 835 nm-pitch gratings by a micromolding technique to reduce the fabrication cost. In the experimental characterization, the refractive index sensitivity of each sensing channel is measured as $321.8{\pm}8.1nm$/RI and $514.3{\pm}8.lnm$/RI, respectively. 0.5uM of the target biomolecule (streptavidin) was detected by a $1.13{\pm}0.16nm$ shift of the SPR dip in the 10%-biotinylated sample channel, while the SPR dip in the reference channel for environmental perturbation monitoring remained at the same position. From the experimental results, multi-channel biomolecule detection capability of the present grating-integrated SPR sensor chip has been verified. On the basis of the preliminary experiments, we successfully measured the binding reaction rate for the $2\;nM{\sim}200\;nM$ monoclonal-antibiotin, thus verifying biomolecule concentration detectability of the present SPR sensor chip. The binding reaction rates measured from the present SPR sensor chip agredd well with those from a commercialized SPR sensor.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.68-79
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to provide a reference for stage space planning in modern theaters by analyzing and understanding stage components in terms of spatial composition, purposes, and correlation between them, and collecting various opinions from stage managers an directors. The findings are as follow: the determination of the size of proscenium arch is crucial, and it needs to be considered not only with the genre of the performance and the number of seats, but also with the size of the stage facility. The two-dimensional size of proscenium arch affects the scale of stage area in three-dimensional way; the size of main stage comes from the width of the arch, and the length of set battens comes from the stage width, and so on. The height of the arch affects the elevation of gridiron, and the height of the building itself ultimately. The number and length of the set battens are directly linked to the size of the winch room, and so is the number of the winches to the Mcc panel room. The 1st level gallery supplying power to lighting equipment needs to be wide enough for staffs to work with various equipments effectively and safely. Degree of practical usage of under-stage machinery turned out to be very low. In order to cut unnecessary waste and cost, the characteristics of the theater must get set first, and experts who know how stage works need to get involved in planning stage.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1411-1416
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• 2014

Gender selection is important in livestock industries; for example, female calves are required in the dairy industry. Sex-sorted semen is commonly used for the production of calves of the desired gender. However, assessment of the sex ratio of the sorted semen is tedious and expensive. In this study, a rapid, cost effective and reliable method for determining the sex ratio was developed using a multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. In this assay, the X and Y chromosome-specific markers, i.e., bovine proteolipid protein (PLP) gene and sex-determining region Y (SRY) were simultaneously quantified in a single tube. The multiplex real-time PCR assay was shown to have high amplification efficiencies (97% to 99%) comparable to the separated-tube simplex real-time PCR assay. The results obtained from both assays were not significantly different (p>0.05). The multiplex assay was validated using reference DNA of known X ratio (10%, 50%, and 90%) as templates. The measured %X in semen samples were the same within 95% confidence intervals as the expected values, i.e., >90% in X-sorted semen, <10% in Y-sorted semen and close to 50% in the unsorted semen. The multiplex real-time PCR assay as shown in this study can thus be used to assess purity of sex-sorted semen.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.95-100
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• 2016

Background: Survival time of lymphoma patients can be estimated with the help of microarray technology. In this study, with the use of iterative Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) method, survival time of Mantle Cell Lymphoma patients (MCL) was estimated and in reference to the findings, patients were divided into two high-risk and low-risk groups. Materials and Methods: In this study, gene expression data of MCL patients were used in order to select a subset of genes for survival analysis with microarray data, using the iterative BMA method. To evaluate the performance of the method, patients were divided into high-risk and low-risk based on their scores. Performance prediction was investigated using the log-rank test. The bioconductor package "iterativeBMAsurv" was applied with R statistical software for classification and survival analysis. Results: In this study, 25 genes associated with survival for MCL patients were identified across 132 selected models. The maximum likelihood estimate coefficients of the selected genes and the posterior probabilities of the selected models were obtained from training data. Using this method, patients could be separated into high-risk and low-risk groups with high significance (p<0.001). Conclusions: The iterative BMA algorithm has high precision and ability for survival analysis. This method is capable of identifying a few predictive variables associated with survival, among many variables in a set of microarray data. Therefore, it can be used as a low-cost diagnostic tool in clinical research.