• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.21-42
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• 2008

This study investigates economies of scale, cost complementarity and economies of scope for healthcare organizations using econometric approaches. The economies of scale appear to exist in each service provided by a hospital such as inpatient treatment services, outpatient treatment services, and other patient treatment services, respectively. When we test all services in aggregate level, it also indicates that the healthcare industry on average exhibits the economies of scale of 6 percent, which implies that scaling up hospital sizes will bring substantial cost savings to them Evidence shows that cost complementarity exists between outpatient services and other services for patients and, i.e., these other services for patients experience the reduction in marginal costs as the outputs of the outpatient services increase. For the economies of scope, they are present in most service areas; aggregate level services, outpatient services, and other services for patients, respectively. Inpatient treatment services, however, do not show any evidence of the economies of scope. Results show that the economies of scope are achieved by the general hospital type that provides all service areas such as inpatient treatments, outpatient treatments, and other services for patients. The existence of the economies of scope provides the rationale for extending the existing line of business in a hospital into more diverse areas of services where its benefit comes in the form of cost savings. In sum, it overall provides evidence that the M&As in this industry are encouraged to achieve cost reductions from the economies of scale and scope by changing the size and the output mix.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1609-1615
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• 2016

Breast cancer is one of among all cancers with increased incidence, high mortality rate, and high economic and social costs. The the most common type of cancer among females worldwide, breast cancer is actually the uncontrolled proliferation of cells which attain malignancy. Recently it has shown that breast cancer contributes 11% among all types of cancer diagnosed globally on an annual basis and it is one of the leading causes of death among women. The human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) is a receptor tyrosine-protein kinase erbB-2 normally involved in the proliferation and division of breast cells. In some abnormal cases the HER2 gene does not work correctly and makes too many copies of itself. HER2-positive (HER2+) breast cancers constitute an aggressive type of breast cancer and tend to grow faster and are more likely to spread. However, therapies that specifically target HER2, such as Herceptin$^{(R)}$ (traztuzumab), are very effective. HER2 targeted therapies, has significantly improved the therapeutic outcome for patients with HER2 positive breast cancer.

• The Korean Journal of Food & Health Convergence
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2020

The foremost problem in the agricultural industry in Ukraine is the issue of improving its energy resources efficiency. The existence of this problem is related to the substantial technological inferiority of the industry to those present in the developed countries, especially in terms of creation of no-waste production technologies of agricultural products. The direct effect on the solving of this issue has the necessity to ensure minimal energy costs during treatment of plant objects. This article presents the research results on the effect of electromagnetic energy on activation of plants development. It was found that each such object has its own individual energy resource and that forceful increase of the latter has specific maximum values and gives rise to the plant development process. At the same time, the implementation of the research results is hindered by some factors, among the most major of which are the following: lack of reliable and complete data on the bioenergy resources of plants, its "natural" chart; unavailability of research on the energy sources interaction processes and its effect on the physiological potential of biological objects, at least at the level of low series, absence of the appropriate electrotechnical equipment, including electromagnetic energy sources.

• The Korean Journal of Food & Health Convergence
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.17-20
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• 2020

Wheat is the most abundant crop in the world, accounting for one third of the world's population diet. In Ukraine, wheat is in fact, in addition to its nutritional value, a national symbol of the state. Therefore, the main thesis on the development of modern plant growing in Ukraine is the reduction of costs and the introduction of innovative technologies. The quality of grain and seed depends on many factors, namely: agro-climatic conditions, sowing condition of the seed material, quality characteristics of the soil, yielding properties of seeds, pre-sowing seed treatment. etc. For this purpose, the photosynthesis and intensity of photosynthesis need to be limited to the width of the leaf and the height of the leaves by a smaller cut of the stem. It is extremely important to ensure that the head and side pagons of wheat are in good condition. All parameters are often secured by the technology of grain preparation before delivery. Prior to this technology, it is possible to introduce processing of the material in the form for the development of the material. This article presents the effectiveness of the use of infrared irradiation for the pre-sowing treatment of winter wheat seeds in Sekobra Research, Germany.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.118-125
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• 2011

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of nursing units in a hospital using DEA. Methods: Data were collected using the medical information system of a general hospital in a city. Input variables were number of nurses, number of nurse-aides, number of beds, and overhead costs. Output variables included number of admitted patients, rate of bed utilization, satisfaction of discharged patients, and prevention rate of safety accidents and sores. EMS Window version 3.1 was used to measure the efficiency score and descriptive statistics were applied to analyze the general characteristics of variables. Results: The average efficiency score of 18 general nursing units was approximately .99. Nine nursing units had a 1.00 efficiency score. Conclusion: Our findings reveal that nursing units operated very efficiently. To increase efficiency of inefficient nursing units, we recommend results of the DEA slack analysis as a benchmark of the most efficient nursing unit.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.45
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• pp.126-155
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• 2001

It has been 5 years since evaluation systems were introduced to the social welfare field in Korea. More than half of social welfare agencies (617 out of 1,267) were evaluated in the past two years. Most areas of the agencies were the target of an extensive evaluation in 2000. As "the Evaluation Era" has come, problems were raised especially regarding the Accreditation system of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. More specifically, the problems were related to operation and management of the evaluation systems including the issue of evaluators' objectivity and fairness. In addition, evaluation costs have been too high to the government. The evaluation systems of OECD nations including the United States were quite different. These nations have used the Performance Measurement in order to secure the objectivity and the fairness. Although the quantity of information was limited compared to that of the Accreditation system, these nations have taken the lead in the governmental evaluation. In this context, this study compared social welfare evaluation systems between Korea and the United States. It presented the current status and problems of the Accreditation system of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, discussed the American Performance Measurement and its limitations, and compared the strengths and weaknesses of the two evaluation systems. In addition, this study suggested the strategies of Korean evaluation systems in the long term as well as in the short term.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.177-185
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• 2012

The endowed privilege to an established profession acts as an important motivation related to professionalization of occupations. The established profession enjoys cognitive, legal, and economic privilege. This study analyzes the professionalization process of interior design. Specifically, the study evaluates the suitability of the body of knowledge and professional ethos(i.e., protection of citizen's health, safety, and welfare), while analyzing the professionalization of interior design in the United States. The research aims at proposing a reference point for the professionalization of Korean interior design. Utilized data include research paper, court sentencing, and reports published by related professional organizations. The study concludes that 3E's are a means of professionalization of interior design, while separating interior design from interior decorating. In addition, there is no evidence to the protection of citizen's HSW. Rather, it increases service costs and restricts the job opportunities. When the public is not persuaded, the argument related to the necessity of license for the protecting citizen's HSW can be consumed as a mere rhetoric, concealing intentions for formulating a cartel. Thus, this study proposes that the professionalization of interior design may focus on the establishment of identity and body of knowledge, which are specific to interior design.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.787-809
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• 2009

Recent interest in the use of wireless sensor networks for structural health monitoring (SHM) is mainly due to their low implementation costs and potential to measure the responses of a structure at unprecedented spatial resolution. Approaches capable of detecting damage using distributed processing must be developed in parallel with this technology to significantly reduce the power consumption and communication bandwidth requirements of the sensor platforms. In this investigation, a damage detection system based on a distributed processing approach is proposed and experimentally validated using a wireless sensor network deployed on two laboratory structures. In this distributed approach, on-board processing capabilities of the wireless sensor are exploited to significantly reduce the communication load and power consumption. The Damage Location Assurance Criterion (DLAC) is used for localizing damage. Processing of the raw data is conducted at the sensor level, and a reduced data set is transmitted to the base station for decision-making. The results indicate that this distributed implementation can be used to successfully detect and localize regions of damage in a structure. To further support the experimental results obtained, the capabilities of the proposed system were tested through a series of numerical simulations with an expanded set of damage scenarios.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.191-201
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• 2004

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate economic viability of public health center visiting nurse services for the low-income elderly with long-term care needs. Method: The sample consisted of 252 community dwelling elderly who enrolled in public health center visiting nurse services for three months or more. Data was collected on physical (ADL and IADL) and cognitive impairments of the elderly, contents and frequency of visiting nurse services, cost per visit, and costs of alternative services for long-term care. Result: The mean score of ADL and IADL levels of the elderly was 2.80.4904, which indicated these patients were mostly independent. Eighty four percent of the elderly subjects were cognitively intact. Among visiting nurse services supplied, providing assessment was 34%, followed by education and counseling 26%, medication 22%, and referral. The mean cost per visit was 17,824.1 won, which transformed into a total cost per person per year of 161,130.2 won. Comparing the cost of a visiting nurse service with those of other long-term care alternatives, the visiting nurse service was the least costly alternative, followed by an outpatient clinic, hospital based home care, and nursing home. Conclusion: Overall, the results of the study provide evidence of the economic viability of visiting nurse services for the low-income elderly among long-term care alternatives.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.297-300
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• 2017

Employers are realizing that workplaces have an immense impact on productivity. And, because people typically represent about 90% of a company's costs, even a slight improvement in productivity hits the bottom-line in a very big way. The focus is shifting away from saving money by reducing space needs or cutting energy requirements, and moving toward making the workplace friendlier and healthier. What is a healthy workplace, exactly? The answer should be clear by now. Mountains of research have expounded on this very topic, and then news outlets cover the latest discoveres ad infinitum. The problem is, research is rather dense, while the news isn't comprehensive. Office managers trying to improve workplace wellness want neither a 55-page report nor a half dozen articles to convince their landlord that their space can do better. Recognizing this gap, Harvard researchers have released a concise-yet-complete list of healthy building features. Here, we're sharing these nine features with a few insights of our own on the value of being healthy and productive. Find out: ${\bullet}$ What makes a healthy building and why is it so important ${\bullet}$ How to improve the health of your own office ${\bullet}$ What happens for your people and your bottom line when you make health a priority.