• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.325-337
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• 2023

Background: While there are many studies estimating the effects of private health insurance on various types of health care utilization, few have examined how such effects change in conjunction with important policy reforms in national health insurance (NHI). This study examined how the effect of private health insurance (supplemental and fixed cash benefit) on high-cost outpatient imaging test utilization changed following the expansion of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coverage in 2018, which is a key example of the NHI benefit expansion policy in recent years. Methods: Data from the 2017 and 2019 Korea Health Panel Survey, which contained information about healthcare utilization before and after the expansion of MRI coverage in 2018, were used. The incremental effect of private health insurance on high-cost outpatient imaging test utilization for each period were quantified and compared, with special attention given to the type of private health insurance. Results: While people with supplemental private health insurance were more likely to use high-cost outpatient imaging tests than those without, both before and after the expansion of MRI coverage, the incremental effect increased from 1.6% points in 2017 to 2.5% points in 2019. Conclusion: Benefit expansion in NHI does not necessarily reduce disparities in the use of health care between private health insurance subscribers and non-subscribers. The results of our study also suggest that the path through which private health insurance affects healthcare utilization may not be limited to the price mechanism alone but can be more complex.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.345-351
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• 2017

A wind tunnel test for the scaled parachute models was performed to verify aerodynamic characteristics for practical usage of Korean low cost low altitude aerial delivery system. The cruciform shaped cargo parachute models for heavy and light weight were ejected into wind tunnel test section; and the drag forces acting on the models in steady condition were measured in accordance with velocity. Also, the maximum opening forces during inflation were obtained and captured by a high speed camera to analyze the inflation characteristics and evaluate the design of the low cost aerial delivery system. The results showed a reliable stability and met the design requirement of delivery operation system for R.O.K Air Force.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.298-310
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• 1996

This research is designed to study the sales promotion strategy and advertising program which can provide the effective materials to the clothing industry. The purposes of this study are as follows. First, After college students are classified according to clothing involvement level, the relations between clothing involvement groups sand demographic variables, such as, sex, residence, pocket money, and clothing cost are understood. Second, attitude toward the expression of awertising according to clothing involvement is analyzed. Third, attitudes toward the expression of advertising were analyzed according to demo- graphic variables. Subjects were 474 students of universtiy in Seoul. This study was conducted by means of a questionnaire survey and random sampling method was used. In order to test the attitude toward advertising, the questionnaire was made through pre test and validity test. Study results were as follows. First, Subjects were divided into groups ccording to the clothing involvement level, and it was proved that sex, residence, pocket money, and clothing cost were related. Second, there was significance in attitude toward the expression of advertising according to clothing involvement level. Third, sex, residence, pocket money, clothing cost, reasonable level of cost were relatively connectd with attitude according to the expression of the jeans advertising.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.10 no.3 s.35
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• pp.89-99
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• 2005

The testing time and cost of developed software can be reduced by automation of the whole or part of testing process. Since the testing automation tools to be used currently have been developed without their interoperability, test case information such as test procedures, test data, and expectation of test results generated at the stage of test execution cannot be shared and reused in other testing automation tools, In order to reduce testing time and cost, in this thesis, we have proposed a software testing automation framework which makes it possible to share and reuse the test case information generated in testing process. To prove the availability and effectiveness of proposed testing automation framework, three testing automation tools that are available in current market were experimented by the test scenario. As a result of experiment, the testing time and cost could be reduced by sharing and reusing the test case information in software testing automation framework.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.275-288
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• 1996

The purposes of this study were to investigate children's prosocial behavior by age and sex and to examine the relationship between children's prosocial moral reasoning and prosocial behavior by costs and types of tasks. The subjects were 300 3th-and 6th-graders enrolled in elementary schools in Seoul. The revised form of Prosocial Moral Dilemmas including costs and types of tasks was used. The tasks of prosocial behaviors included time-cost tasks, money-cost tasks and physical strength-cost tasks. For data analysis, the paired t-test, two-way ANOVA, and Pearson's Correlations were used. Major findings were as follows; (1)There was age difference in children's prosocial behavior. 6th-graders performed at a higher level than 3th-graders. Sex differences weren't significant. In low- and high-cost tasks and in time-, money-, and physical strength-cost tasks, there were (2) Scores on high-cost behavior tasks were higher than on low-cost tasks. (3) Children's prosocial moral reasoning was positively related to prosocial behavior; in low- and high-cost tasks, and in time-, money-, and physical strength-cost tasks.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.3-12
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• 1981

To identify the changes in professional care patterns after the introduction of medical insurance in Korea, professional care in hospitals and clinics of two succeeding years were compared. The hospitals and clinics selected for this study were those which located in Seoul city. Hospitals were classified into 3 categories: university hospital, general hospital and hospital. The diseases selected for this study were acute appendicitis and normal delivery. They were selected because their disease courses are considered to be fairly stable. The variables used for this study were length of stay, total hospital costs, costs of each components of cares. The information used for this study was obtained from the official forms requested by the medical facilities to the Korea Medical Insurance Corporation. The two periods studied were 3 months of each year from March 1st to May 31st in 1979 and 1980, The total number of normal delivery studied was 289 in 1979, 301 in 1980 respectively and the acute appendicitis was 92 and 111 respectively. In order to compare the quantity of medical care between 2 study periods the insurance price scores of 1979 were converted to prices of 1980. For statistical test of difference between 2 periods T-test and Welch's test were used. The result of the study were briefly summarized in below. 1. No significant difference was observed in the average length of stay of both disease between two study periods in all types of hospitals. 2. No significant difference was observed in the average total hospital costs of both diseases in all types of hospital, but in the private clinic the average clinic costs was rather decreased significantly in 1980. 3. More cost decrease were seen than cost increase in 1980 in all types of facilities, More cost changes by items were seen in acute appendicitis than in normal delivery between two study periods. The total hospital costs can be devided into 2 portions: charges for drug and material and for physician. In normal delivery, costs for physician's charges was significantly decreased in almost all the hospitals and costs for drug and material were not changed significantly in all the hospitals in 1980. In the university hospitals, however, the costs for drug and material were increased significantly in 1980. The cost decrease for physician's charge were mainly due to the decrease in the costs of laboratory test, treatment and physical therapy. The increase in the costs for the drug and material in the university hospitals was mainly due to the increase in the cost for drugs for oral administration and injection. 4. The proportion of components of medical care in the hospital has not been changed significantly, however, the cost for injection in normal delivery was characteristically increased in 1980 in all hospitals studied. In general the proportion of the costs for drug and material was tended to increase and the costs for physician was tended to decrease in 1980. The increase in the costs for drug and material were considered to be due to increase in the cost for drugs for oral administration and injection. The decrease in the costs for physician were due to decrease in the costs of laboratory test, treatment and physical therapy. Above mentioned changes in hospital and clinic care patterns are considered to be mostly influenced by the review criteria set by the K.I.C. for the assessment of the fee request made by clinics and hospitals.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.34-41
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• 2015

Bonding strength of a thermal sprayed coating is difficult to measure using a conventional pull-off test method. Scratch test is a potential alternative testing method. An adhesive and a cohesive bond strength of the coating can be measured by the pull-off test while the scratch test performed on the cross-section of the thermal sprayed coating can only demonstrate the cohesive bond strength of the coating. Nevertheless, it is still beneficial to perform the scratch testing on the cross-section of the coating for the sake of comparison thus providing an alternative to the pull-off test. The scratch test method can reduce testing time and cost in the long run due to a significant cost reduction in consumables and energy and time saving from the curing step of the glue used in the pull-off test. This research investigates the possibility of using the scratch test to measure the cohesive bond strength of Mo/NiCrBSi composite coating. The results from the pull-off test and the scratch test indicate that the cohesive bond strengths of the Mo composite coating show similar trend and that the cohesive bond strength are increased when increasing NiCrBSi content.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.93-103
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• 2017

PURPOSE: This study aimed to determine the effect of active trunk training in the sitting position on balance and energy consumption in early stroke patients. METHODS: The subjects of this study were twenty four early stroke patients were recruited and randomly divided into two groups; experimental group (n=12) and control group (n=12). The subjects in the experimental group participated in active trunk training (20 min) and conventional physical therapy (20 min) five times a week for four weeks. The control group conducted general balance exercise (20 min) and conventional physical therapy (20 min) five times a week for four weeks. The outcomes were assessed using the Berg balance scale, Timed up and go test and energy cost and physiological cost index. RESULTS: Both groups showed a significant increase in their Berg balance scale and significant decrease in their Timed up and go test score, and energy cost and physiological cost index (p<.05). Compared to the control group, the experimental group experienced a greater increase in the Berg balance scale (p<.05) and a larger decrease in the timed up and go test score, and energy cost and physiological cost index (p<.05). CONCLUSION: We suggest that active trunk training in the sitting position may be effective in improving balance and energy consumption in early stroke patients. Thus, active trunk training is important for such patients. Further studies are needed to better understand the effectiveness of trunk training in early stroke patients.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.184-193
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• 2015

This paper proposes a cost-efficient and automatic method for large data acquisition from a test chip without expensive equipment to characterize random process variation in an integrated circuit. Our method requires only a test chip, a personal computer, a cheap digital-to-analog converter, a controller and multimeters, and thus large volume measurement can be performed on an office desk at low cost. To demonstrate the proposed method, we designed a test chip with a current model logic driver and an array of 128 current mirrors that mimic the random process variation of the driver's tail current mirror. Using our method, we characterized the random process variation of the driver's voltage due to the random process variation on the driver's tail current mirror from large volume measurement data. The statistical characteristics of the driver's output voltage calculated from the measured data are compared with Monte Carlo simulation. The difference between the measured and the simulated averages and standard deviations are less than 20% showing that we can easily characterize the random process variation at low cost by using our cost-efficient automatic large data acquisition method.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.129-155
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• 2000

This empirical study, activity-based costing, a newly introduced approach that has proved to be an improvement over the conventional costing system in product or service costing, is applied at department of clinical pathology in K university hospital. The study subjects were 233 test procedures done in clinical laboratory of K university hospital. Activity analysis was done by interview, questionnaires, and time study, and the amount of resources consumed by each activity and their costs are then traced and applied to the laboratory tests. The main purpose of this study were to compare the test costs of activity-bases costing with those of conventional costing, and test fees of medical insurance, and to provide accurate cost informations for the decision makers of hospital. The major findings of this study were as belows. 1. The cost drivers for application of activity-based costing at clinical laboratory were cases of sample collection, case of specimen, cases of test, and volume-related allocation bases such as direct labor hours and total revenue of each test. 2. The profits of each clinical laboratory fields analyzed by conventional costing were different from the profits analyzed by activity-based costing, especially in the field of Urinalysis(approximately over estimated 750%). 3. The standard full costs by conventional costing were quite different from the costs computed by using activity-based costing, and the difference is most significant with the tests of long labor time. 4. From the comparison between costs computed by using activity-based costing and medical insurance fees, some test fees were significantly lower than the costs, especially in the non-automated fields. As described in this study, activity-based costing provides more accurate cost information than does conventional costing system. The former approach is especially important in the health care industry including hospitals in which planning and controlling the costs services provided are the key to maintaining a healthy financial status for the organization. Despite the contribution of activity-based costing the economic as well as technical feasibilities of implementing such a cost accounting system in an organization must be evaluated. In the development of activity-based costing systems, an activity analysis has to be conducted to identify activities that consume resources. This involves a detailed study of the organization's logistics and accounting information systems, and it is an expensive project in itself. Besides, it can be quite difficult and time consuming to identify and trace resource consumption to a specific activity. Thus the activity-based costing system should be implemented only when the decrease in cost of error far exceeds the increase in cost of measurement. By combining activity-based costing with standard costing, health care administrators can better plan and control the costs of health services provided while ensuring that the organization's bottom line is healthy.