• Health Policy and Management
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.194-220
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• 1992

In recent years there has been a rapid influx of high cost MRI equipment into Korea. This diffusion has raised concerns about the changes it will bring for the health care utilization. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify socio-economic characteristics of MRI uses in Korea. A structured questionnaire was designed for this purpose, and 1, 091 users were surveyed at the 35 MRI units of 33 hospitals during a week, sometimes March 1992. The study reveals that high cost technology such as MRI, CT scanner is so prevalent in Korea. This is particularly the case in metropolitan areas. Among others, Seoul has the highest percentage of MRI equipment, 51.05%, Pusan 12.10% and Kwangju 11.9%. Unfortunately, most high cost technology equipments are foreign products. Thus, hospitals with such a high cost technology have difficulties in maintenance of the equipment. The average performance of MRI equipment has declined from 10.2 cases per day in 1988 to 7.16 cases in March 1992. Due to the rapid increase, the performance of MRI equipment seems to be deterioration. Male usere are dominant in the case of MRI use. The utilization rate has positively increased with the rise of educational level of users. The same is true for the level of income; the MRI utilization rate by income level shows that it is negatively proportional to income, which indicates that the poor have difficulties in the use of high cost technology. Particularly, the cost of MRI is so high that ordinary patients are unable to pay for it. For example, 86.3% of respondents have answered that the cost is too high even though they are insured by health insurance. This is the first empirical study on the use status of MRI. The information obtained in this study is sufficient to maintain that the Korean health insurance programme is urgently in need of improving the insurance benefit schemes. The easiest way to do this is to include provision of high cost technology service into the benefit package.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.335-349
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• 2023

Bridges constantly undergo deterioration and damage, the most common ones being concrete damage and exposed rebar. Periodic inspection of bridges to identify damages can aid in their quick remediation. Likewise, identifying components can provide context for damage assessment and help gauge a bridge's state of interaction with its surroundings. Current inspection techniques rely on manual site visits, which can be time-consuming and costly. More recently, robotic inspection assisted by autonomous data analytics based on Computer Vision (CV) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been viewed as a suitable alternative to manual inspection because of its efficiency and accuracy. To aid research in this avenue, this study performs a comparative assessment of different architectures, loss functions, and ensembling strategies for the autonomous segmentation of bridge components and damages. The experiments lead to several interesting discoveries. Nested Reg-UNet architecture is found to outperform five other state-of-the-art architectures in both damage and component segmentation tasks. The architecture is built by combining a Nested UNet style dense configuration with a pretrained RegNet encoder. In terms of the mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) metric, the Nested Reg-UNet architecture provides an improvement of 2.86% on the damage segmentation task and 1.66% on the component segmentation task compared to the state-of-the-art UNet architecture. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that incorporating the Lovasz-Softmax loss function to counter class imbalance can boost performance by 3.44% in the component segmentation task over the most employed alternative, weighted Cross Entropy (wCE). Finally, weighted softmax ensembling is found to be quite effective when used synchronously with the Nested Reg-UNet architecture by providing mIoU improvement of 0.74% in the component segmentation task and 1.14% in the damage segmentation task over a single-architecture baseline. Overall, the best mIoU of 92.50% for the component segmentation task and 84.19% for the damage segmentation task validate the feasibility of these techniques for autonomous bridge component and damage segmentation using RGB images.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.33-40
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• 2010

Many trails have been built and utilized in each sub-basin of Apsan Park. This study focused on the conditions and the present flora of several overused trails within three basins called Kun-Gol, Anjiroung-Gol, and Meaja-Gol in Apsan Park. There are two purposes for this study. The first is to make a plan for restoration by classifying the type of damage to these overused trails. The second is to provide preliminary data for reestablishing a more pleasant urban nature park. As a result of the survey, the average length of these trails is 9.0km and mean width is 2.0 to 2.6m. 2,108m of the sections studied(23.4% of the total) had exposed root, 3,199m of the sections studied (35.5% of the total) had exposed rock, 3,270m of the sections studied(36.6% of the total) displayed damaged pathways, and 4,841m of the sections studied (53.8% of the total) had higher soil hardness. Eighty-three areas of deterioration were found and there has been extensive property destruction. As an indication of human disturbances, the Naturalization Index and Urbanization Index appeared as: Kun-Gol, 7.0%, 5.5%; Anjiroung-Gol, 8.3%, 4.5%; Meaja-Gol 8.6%, 6.2%; in total, 7.8%, 8.3%. As a method of checking the level and extent of the damage process, an impact rating classification was used at each point on the trails. Kun-Gol had the highest rating and Anjiroung-Gol had the lowest rating in impact rating classification. With the impact rating classification, it was found that each trail would continue to worsen, meaning that roots and rocks are more likely to be further exposed and the trail width will continue to widen through overuse. An actual plan for reparations and restoration of the trails is needed through further study.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.47-57
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• 2016

PURPOSES : This study aims to examine the differences between the existing traffic demand forecasting method and the traffic demand forecasting method considering future regional development plans and new road construction and expansion plans using a four-step traffic demand forecast for a more objective and sophisticated national highway maintenance. This study ultimately aims to present future pavement deterioration and budget forecasting planning based on the examination. METHODS : This study used the latest data offered by the Korea Transport Data Base (KTDB) as the basic data for demand forecast. The analysis scope was set using the Daejeon Metropolitan City's O/D and network data. This study used a traffic demand program called TransCad, and performed a traffic assignment by vehicle type through the application of a user equilibrium-based multi-class assignment technique. This study forecasted future traffic demand by verifying whether or not a realistic traffic pattern was expressed similarly by undertaking a calibration process. This study performed a life cycle cost analysis based on traffic using the forecasted future demand or existing past pattern, or by assuming the constant traffic demand. The maintenance criteria were decided according to equivalent single axle loads (ESAL). The maintenance period in the concerned section was calculated in this study. This study also computed the maintenance costs using a construction method by applying the maintenance criteria considering the ESAL. The road user costs were calculated by using the user cost calculation logic applied to the Korean Pavement Management System, which is the existing study outcome. RESULTS : This study ascertained that the increase and decrease of traffic occurred in the concerned section according to the future development plans. Furthermore, there were differences from demand forecasting that did not consider the development plans. Realistic and accurate demand forecasting supported an optimized decision making that efficiently assigns maintenance costs, and can be used as very important basic information for maintenance decision making. CONCLUSIONS : Therefore, decision making for a more efficient and sophisticated road management than the method assuming future traffic can be expected to be the same as the existing pattern or steady traffic demand. The reflection of a reliable forecasting of the future traffic demand to life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) can be a very vital factor because many studies are generally performed without considering the future traffic demand or with an analysis through setting a scenario upon LCCA within a pavement management system.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.73-81
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• 2020

Considering the difficulties associated with the creation of deterioration maps for stone cultural heritages, quantitative determination of chemical and biological contaminants in them is still challenging. Hyperspectral image analysis has been proposed to overcome this drawback. In this study, hyperspectral imaging was performed on Stone Buddhas Temple in Four Directions at Gulbulsa Temple Site(Treasure 121), and several surface contaminants were observed. Based on the color and shape, these chemical and biological contaminants were classified into ten categories. Additionally, a method for establishing each class as a reference image was suggested. Simultaneously, with the help of Spectral Angle Mapper algorithm, two classification methods were used to classify the surface contaminants. Method A focused on the region of interest, while method B involved the application of the spectral library prepared from the image. Comparison of the classified images with the reference image revealed that the accuracies and kappa coefficients of methods A and B were 52.07% and 63.61%, and 0.43 and 0.55, respectively. Additionally, misclassified pixels were distributed in the same contamination series.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.509-532
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• 2013

Minimum Housing Standard is an instrument to cope with the problems of public health and community hygiene, deterioration of working class housing conditions appeared commonly in the process of capitalist industrialization and rapid rural-to-urban migration. This paper aims to examine the institutionalization of histories of minimum housing standard in the advanced countries, and analyze the spatio-temporal changes and characteristics of households failing to meet the New Minimum Housing Standard in Seoul Metropolitan since 1995. The analysis of this paper is based on the census data on population and housing. The results are as follows; Households failing to meet the New Minimum Housing Standard in Seoul are 501,000 households(1.368 million person, 14.4%). This means Seoul has overtaken the national average 11.8% for the first time and there are structurally marginal band of households who can not improve the housing conditions by themselves. In addition, the fact that the rate of Seoul households living in the marginal shelter including the basement and rooftop room is the highest in Korea means the housing quality issues of Seoul is serious. Spatial distribution of households failing to meet the standard is divided into the northeast area and the southwest area in Seoul. Main features of the households are female-headed families, middle and old-aged people, divorce families, lower educated people, under and graduate students, non-apartments, dweller in 15~20 year old houses.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.543-553
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• 2023

This study was conducted to propose a simple method to evaluate the load-carrying capacity of RC slab bridges, which have been most frequently constructed in Korea. A number of RC slab bridges have been considerably deteriorated associate with the long service year. However, since these bridges are not included in the 1st and 2nd class infrastructures due to their short span length, they have been relatively neglected compared to other bridge types in terms of safety management. In the previous theoretical study, a process (draft) was proposed for evaluating the damage of RC slab bridges using the relationship between the displacement response ratio and the stiffness reduction rate derived by the measured displacement and natural frequency. In this paper, to verify the validity of the proposed damage evaluation process (draft), the results to the actual bridges were compared with the safety grade and the Matsui's deterioration index. In addition, to enhance the practical applicability of the existing process (draft), an improved method approximately evaluating the load-carrying capacity using only the measured natural frequency was presented. If an error of 10% of the load-carrying capacity is allowed, it is judged that the proposed damage evaluation process can be appropriately used not only for evaluating the safety of RC slab bridges, but also for determining priorities for their maintenance.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.12-23
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• 2024

In this study, a structural concrete square beam was developed using the centrifugal molding technique. In order to secure the bending stiffness of the cross section, the hollow rate of the cross section was set to 10% or less. Instead of using the current poor mixture of concrete and a concrete mixing ratio with a high slump (150-200) and a design strength of 100 MPa or more was developed and applied. In order to investigate the durability of centrifugally formed PSC square beams to be used as the superstructure of the avalanch tunnel or ramen bridge, the durability performance of ultra-high-strength centrifugally formed concrete with a compressive strength of 100 MPa was evaluated in terms of deterioration and chemical resistance properties.Concrete durability tests, including chloride penetration resistance, accelerated carbonation, sulfate erosion resistance, freeze-thaw resistance, and scaling resistance, were performed on centrifugally formed square beam test specimens produced in 2022 and 2023. Considering the information verified in this study, the durability of centrifugally molded concrete, which has increased watertightness in the later manufacturing stage, was found to be superior to that of general concrete.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.35.1-35.16
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• 2022

Tobacco smoking (TS) has been known as one of the most potent risk factors for airway inflammatory diseases. However, there has been a paucity of information regarding the immunologic alteration mediated by TS in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). To identify the effect of TS, we harvested human tissue samples (never smoker: n=41, current smoker: n=22, quitter: n=23) and analyzed the expression of epithelial-derived cytokines (EDCs) such as IL-25, IL-33, and thymic stromal lymphopoietin. The expressions of Th2 cytokines and total serum IgE showed a type-2 inflammatory alteration by TS. In addition, the epithelial marker E-cadherin and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated markers (N-cadherin, α-SMA, and vimentin) were evaluated. Histological analysis showed that EDC expressions were upregulated in the current smoker group and downregulated in the quitter group. These expression patterns were consistent with mRNA and protein expression levels. We also found that the local Th2 cytokine expression and IgE class switching, as well as serum IgE levels, were elevated in the current smoker group and showed normal levels in the quitter group. Furthermore, the expressions of E-cadherin decreased while those of N-cadherin, α-SMA, and vimentin increased in the current smoker group compared those in the never smoker group. Taken together, these results indicate that TS contributes to the deterioration of pathogenesis by releasing local EDCs and Th2 cytokines, resulting in EMT in patients with CRSwNP. We verified that alterations of immunological response by TS in sinonasal epithelium can play a vital role in leading to CRSwNP.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.99-118
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• 2015

Object-oriented programming languages have been widely selected for developing modern information systems. The use of concepts relating to object-oriented (OO, in short) programming has reduced efforts of reusing pre-existing codes, and the OO concepts have been proved to be a useful in interpreting system requirements. In line with this, we have witnessed that a modern conceptual modeling approach supports features of object-oriented programming. Unified Modeling Language or UML becomes one of de-facto standards for information system designers since the language provides a set of visual diagrams, comprehensive frameworks and flexible expressions. In a modeling process, UML users need to consider relationships between classes. Based on an explicit and clear representation of classes, the conceptual model from UML garners necessarily attributes and methods for guiding software engineers. Especially, identifying an association between a class of part and a class of whole is included in the standard grammar of UML. The representation of part-whole relationship is natural in a real world domain since many physical objects are perceived as part-whole relationship. In addition, even abstract concepts such as roles are easily identified by part-whole perception. It seems that a representation of part-whole in UML is reasonable and useful. However, it should be admitted that the use of UML is limited due to the lack of practical guidelines on how to identify a part-whole relationship and how to classify it into an aggregate- or a composite-association. Research efforts on developing the procedure knowledge is meaningful and timely in that misleading perception to part-whole relationship is hard to be filtered out in an initial conceptual modeling thus resulting in deterioration of system usability. The current method on identifying and classifying part-whole relationships is mainly counting on linguistic expression. This simple approach is rooted in the idea that a phrase of representing has-a constructs a par-whole perception between objects. If the relationship is strong, the association is classified as a composite association of part-whole relationship. In other cases, the relationship is an aggregate association. Admittedly, linguistic expressions contain clues for part-whole relationships; therefore, the approach is reasonable and cost-effective in general. Nevertheless, it does not cover concerns on accuracy and theoretical legitimacy. Research efforts on developing guidelines for part-whole identification and classification has not been accumulated sufficient achievements to solve this issue. The purpose of this study is to provide step-by-step guidelines for identifying and classifying part-whole relationships in the context of UML use. Based on the theoretical work on Meta-model Formalization, self-check forms that help conceptual modelers work on part-whole classes are developed. To evaluate the performance of suggested idea, an experiment approach was adopted. The findings show that UML users obtain better results with the guidelines based on Meta-model Formalization compared to a natural language classification scheme conventionally recommended by UML theorists. This study contributed to the stream of research effort about part-whole relationships by extending applicability of Meta-model Formalization. Compared to traditional approaches that target to establish criterion for evaluating a result of conceptual modeling, this study expands the scope to a process of modeling. Traditional theories on evaluation of part-whole relationship in the context of conceptual modeling aim to rule out incomplete or wrong representations. It is posed that qualification is still important; but, the lack of consideration on providing a practical alternative may reduce appropriateness of posterior inspection for modelers who want to reduce errors or misperceptions about part-whole identification and classification. The findings of this study can be further developed by introducing more comprehensive variables and real-world settings. In addition, it is highly recommended to replicate and extend the suggested idea of utilizing Meta-model formalization by creating different alternative forms of guidelines including plugins for integrated development environments.