• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.1-12
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effect of the copayment reduction policy on the health care utilization of patients under age 15 after the policy started in 2017. (이하는 아래 methodoloty로 이동) Methodology: Data on the ALOS, the average admission cost, and the out-of-pocket expenditure for patients under 15 years of age from 2015 to 2019 were obtained from the National Health Insurance database. Policy effects were measured by analyzing three dependent variables before and after policy: the average length of stay (ALOS), the average admission cost, and the out-of-pocket expenditure for patients under 15 years of age. The collected data were analyzed using the SAS package, and the analysis methods used in this study were the mean difference test and linear regression analysis. Findings: The study results reveal that, after the copayment reduction policy in the year 2017, the ALOS and the out-of-pocket expenditure were significantly decreased, but the average admission cost was significantly increased. Practical Implications: These results imply that the policy of copayment reduction for the patients under the age of 15 has contributed to mitigating the patients' financial burden with little concern about growing medical utilization.

• Infection and chemotherapy
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.319-327
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• 2018

Background: Lancet-related needlestick injuries (NSIs) occur steadily in clinical practices. Safety-engineered devices (SEDs) can systematically reduce NSIs. However, the use of SEDs is not active and no study to guide the implementation of SEDs was known in South Korea. The lancet-related NSIs may be eliminated to zero incidence using a SED lancet with effective sharp injury protection and reuse prevention features. Materials and Methods: We implemented a SED lancet by replacing a conventional prick lancet in a tertiary hospital in a sequential approach. A spot test of the new SED was conducted for 1 month to check the acceptability in practice and a questionnaire survey was obtained from the healthcare workers (HCWs). A pilot implementation of the SED lancet in 2 wards was made for 1 year. Based on these preliminary interventions, a hospital-wide full implementation of the SED lancet was launched. The incidence of NSIs and cost expenditure before and after the intervention were compared. Results: There were 29 cases of conventional prick lancet-related NSIs for 3 years before the full implementation of SED lancet. The proportion of prick lancet-related NSIs among yearly all kinds of NSIs during two years before the pilot study was average 11.7% (22/188). Pre-interventional baseline incidence of all kinds of NSIs was 7.01 per 100 HCW-years. After the full implementation of SED lancet, the lancet-related NSIs became zero in the 2nd year (P = 0.001). The average direct cost of 18,393 US dollars (USD) per year from device and post-exposure medical care before the intervention rose to 20,701 USD in the 2nd year of the intervention. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was 210 USD per injury avoided. Conclusion: The implementation of a SED lancet could eliminate the lancet-related NSIs to zero incidence. The cost increase incurred by the use of SED lancet was tolerable.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2024

This paper proposes a neural network that can reduce the number of parameters while reducing matching errors in occluded regions to increase the accuracy of depth maps in stereo matching. Stereo matching-based object recognition is utilized in many fields to more accurately recognize situations using images. When there are many objects in a complex image, an occluded area is generated due to overlap between objects and occlusion by background, thereby lowering the accuracy of the depth map. To solve this problem, existing research methods that create context information and combine it with the cost volume or RoIselect in the occluded area increase the complexity of neural networks, making it difficult to learn and expensive to implement. In this paper, we create a depthwise seperable neural network that enhances regional feature extraction before cost volume generation, reducing the number of parameters and proposing a neural network that is robust to occlusion errors. Compared to PSMNet, the proposed neural network reduced the number of parameters by 30%, improving 5.3% in color error and 3.6% in test loss.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.693-712
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• 2006

A pre-feasibility test is done for renewable energy hybrid power systems at off~grid islands in which the current power supply is provided only by diesel generation. We apply Homer (Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables) which was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for the analysis to identify the cost-minimizing combination of power generating facilities for the given load profiles. Chuja-Do, Geomun-Do and Youngsan-Do have been selected for our analysis considering the wind resources data of the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER). Information on wind speed, solar radiation and temperature is also used for the analysis. System component cost information from overseas market has been used due to the lack of domestic information. Site specific Load profile for electricity demand for those islands are reconstructed based on the partial survey results obtained form other sources. The LCOE of the least cost hybrid power systems for Chuja-Do, Geomun-Do and Youngsan-Do are $0.278/kWh, $0.234/kWh and $0.353/kWh, respectively Considering the fact that diesel generation is being subsidized at the price of $0.300/kWh by the government, first 2 cases are economically feasible for the introduction of renewable energy hybrid systems to those islands. But the third case of Youngsan-Do does not meet the criteria. The basic differences of these pre-feasibility test results are from the differences of the site specific renewable energy conditions, especially wind resources. In summary, promoting hybrid systems in the off-grid remote island should be based on the economic feasibility test results. Not all the off-grid islands are feasible for introducing this renewable energy hybrid system.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.41-48
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• 2019

In modern-war campaign, precision-guided missiles are dominantly used to minimize the collateral damage. Imaging infrared seekers are widely applied for the precise guidance. Due to the high cost of the infrared detector, the cost for the one-shot weapon's test is a burden for the development. To reduce the test cost, a simulation method including imagery tracking is required, which is so-called integrated-flight simulation(IFS). The synthetic image generation(SIG)-based simulation method is typically used, which however cannot represent various environmental and target conditions. In this paper, a new IFS method is proposed using on-sight measured image to overcome the limitations of the SIG-based IFS(SIIFS). The target image acquired at the launching sight has been used only for checking the performance criteria of the image tracker and has not been tried for IFS since it has low resolution and little information. The study described in this paper, however, shows that the on-sight image-based IFS can predict the pre- and mid-course flight performance quite similarly and is very useful for the flight test analysis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.535-542
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• 2004

Background : Despite the clinical clues of bronchial asthma, some chronic coughers fail to be diagnosed due to negative test results. This study was aimed at evaluating the diagnostic performance of routine objective tests and identifying a cost-effective approach for asthmatics with a chronic cough. Methods : Patients with a chronic cough of more than 3 weeks duration, and showing normal chest radiograph and spirometry were enrolled. On the first visit, objective tests, composed of serum total IgE, peripheral blood eosinophil count, spontaneous sputum eosinophil count, methacholine bronchial provocation test (MBPT) and paranasal sinus radiograph, were performed, with the simultaneous administration of oral prednisolone (0.5mg/kg) for one week. The final diagnoses were made on the basis of the test results, and the patients grouped according to their steroid responsiveness. The role of the etiologic diagnosis tests was evaluated, and the medical costs of the final management plan simulated with respect to three assumed models. Results : Sixty chronic coughers were finally analyzed. The final diagnoses were as follows: bronchial asthma 21.7%, eosinophilic bronchitis 6.7%, paranasal sinusitis 18.3%, presumptive allergy 8.3% and non-diagnostic case 45.0%. Ninety percent were steroid responder. With the bronchial asthma cases, the positive rate of MBPT was 38.5%, with sputum eosinophil count in 84.6%, serum total IgE in 38.5%, and a peripheral blood eosinophil count rate of 30.8%. When the test results and steroid responsiveness data were applied to the 3 models, the chest radiograph, spirometry, sputum eosinophil count and paranasal sinus radiograph test results, and simultaneous short term steroid treatment seemed to have acceptable diagnostic performances, which could be used as a further guide to cost-effective planning. Conclusion : Objective tests, composed of chest radiograph, spirometry, paranasal sinus radiograph and sputum eosinophil count, with simultaneous short term steroid treatment, are suggested as cost-effective approaches for asthmatics with a chronic cough.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.189-197
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• 2011

In the field of structural test, it is a very important factor to apply with an appropriate test jig to enhance test accuracy and efficiency. Especially in the large scale structure test, proper test apparatus scheme will reduce overall cost and time of the test project. Actuators, oil jack and UTM is generally used to evaluate the flexural capacity of the test beam. But in the case of multiple loading point or asymmetric loading of large scale test specimen, existing test method such as UTM have a difficulty in giving an accurate load. In this study new test method which is composed of existing test apparatus will be developed to improve test accuracy and economic efficiency.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.353-360
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• 2009

Software, once developed, has a long life and evolves through numerous additions and modifications because of the faults, the changes in user requirements, the changes in environments, and so forth. With the evolution of the software, assuring the quality of the software is getting more difficult because of numerous versions of the software. Meanwhile, regression testing has been used to support the software testing activities and assure acquiring appropriate quality through several versions of software. Regression testing, however, is too expensive because it requires lots of test cases executions and the number of test cases increases sharply as the software evolves. For this reason, several techniques are suggested to help conducting regression testing then test case prioritization technique is understood the most effective and efficient technique to support regression testing. In this paper, we propose an approach, Historical Value-Based Approach, which is based on the use of historical information to estimate the current cost and fault severity for cost-cognizant test case prioritization. As a result of the proposed approach, software testers who perform regression testing prioritize their test cases more effectively so that the test effectiveness of them can be improved in terms of APFDc.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.271-277
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• 2020

"Health examinations" means medical examinations conducted by health examination institutions, including a physical examination, consultation, physical measurement, diagnostic laboratory test (also known as clinical laboratory test, clinical pathology test), pathology test, and Imaging test for checking the health condition and the prevention and early detection of diseases. The types of health examinations include general health examinations, comprehensive health examinations, special health examinations, and other health examinations. The proportion of the general health examination work of medical technologists working at health examination centers has been estimated to comprise more than 50% of the total work. The cost aspect of suspicious diseases can be estimated to be more than 25%. The cost of diagnostic laboratory test has been estimated to be approximately 5%, and the proportion of medical diagnosis use is 70%. The results show that it is time to revisit whether medical technologists are receiving appropriate social, economic, and reasonable policy treatment in health examination work. The future of medical technologists will further expand their professionalism in diagnostic laboratory test and quality control in precision medicine and telemedicine in the future. Therefore, medical technologists will need to participate proactively in government policy decisions related to national health examinations and make efforts to improve treatment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.174-187
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• 2005

Recently, because of environment, cost, supply and demand factors, though applying sea-sand as horizontal drains is getting difficult that usage of Gravel has been growing in large size of construction sites, Study on engineering properties and behavior characteristics of Gravel stratum is not thoroughgoing enough. We have applied Gravel Mat as the horizontal drains in O O construction site. We also conducted several field tests such as Material property test, Geosynthetics damage test with Repeated load, Discharge capacity test performed by inflow of upper soil and In-situ PBD Penetration test to review the application of Gravel Mat. Test results show that Gravel Mat is not only advantageous in Trafficability and Water drainage by Consolidation due to its great Internal friction angle and Permeability, but also easy to penetrate with Mandrel and has great discharge capacity and guarantee of the stability against geosynthetics damage at the same time. With these benefits Gravel Mat shows great application in fields.