• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.659-668
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• 2006

The optimization of supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) process for decomposing nitromethane was studied by means of a design of experiments. The optimum operating region for the SCWO process to minimize COD and T-N of treated water was obtained in a lab scale unit. The authors had compared the results from a SCWO pilot plant with those from a lab scale system to explore the problems of scale-up of SCWO process. The COD and T-N in treated waters were selected as key process output variables (KPOV) for optimization, and the reaction temperature (Temp) and the mole ratio of nitromethane to ammonium hydroxide (NAR) were selected as key process input variables (KPIV) through the preliminary tests. The central composite design as a statistical design of experiments was applied to the optimization, and the experimental results were analyzed by means of the response surface method. From the main effects analysis, it was declared that COD of treated water steeply decreased with increasing Temp but slightly decreased with an increase in NAR, and T-N decreased with increasing both Temp and NAR. At lower Temp as $420{\sim}430^{\circ}C$, the T-N steeply decreased with an increase in NAR, however its variation was negligible at higher Temp above $450^{\circ}C$. The regression equations for COD and T-N were obtained as quadratic models with coded Temp and NAR, and they were confirmed with coefficient of determination ($r^2$) and normality of standardized residuals. The optimum operating region was defined as Temp $450-460^{\circ}C$ and NAR 1.03-1.08 by the intersection area of COD < 2 mg/L and T-N < 40 mg/L with regression equations and considering corrosion prevention. To confirm the optimization results and investigate the scale-up problems of SCWO process, the nitromethane was decomposed in a pilot plant. The experimental results from a SCWO pilot plant were compared with regression equations of COD and T-N, respectively. The results of COD and T-N from a pilot plant could be predicted well with regression equations which were derived in a lab scale SCWO system, although the errors of pilot plant data were larger than lab ones. The predictabilities were confirmed by the parity plots and the normality analyses of standardized residuals.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.120-128
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• 2024

From February to now 2024, there continues to be controversy over the expansion of admission number to medical school. Some of the controversy arises from a mix of present and future time points. In the present time point, the controversy over whether physicians are some shortages or not has various aspects. Some aspects are presented as evidence of the physician shortage and others as non-shortage. Also, the presenting evidence of shortage is being disputed, and so is the evidence of the contrary. This controversy over whether there is a shortage or not in the present time point makes it difficult to reach a consensus. In 10 years, the shortage of doctors will increase due to the rapid increase in the elderly population, so the admission number of medical schools will need to be increased. However, the increase must be such that there is minimal deterioration in the quality of medical education. More admission numbers should be allocated to medical schools with a high quality of medical education. This study suggests that large-scale medical schools increase the admission number by 20%-30%, and small-scale medical schools increase the admission number by 40%-50%, if so, the total increasing number is 760 to 1,066. If the 2,000-person increase is enforced, the quality of medical education must be carefully evaluated and the results should be reflected in adjusting the admission number of medical schools. In 20 years later, the admission number of medical schools will have to be reduced. This is because the physician supply is changing to a linear function and the physician demand (medical care demand) is changing to a quadratic function. Even if the current number is maintained, there will be an excess of doctors from 2048, so the medical school admission number must be reduced and its size will be reduced to about 2,000, a 30% reduction from the current number. Because the same reduction rate for all medical schools will result in many small-scale medical schools, the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) strategy should be considered with 40 medical schools and 12 Korean medical schools. In Korea, the main contributor to estimating physician demand is the change in population structure. Due to the rapid decrease in the total fertility rate, future population projections are uncertain. The recent rapid increase in healthcare utilization should be reexamined in the forecasting of physician demand. Since the various factors that affect the estimate of doctor supply and demand are unclear, the estimate of physician supply and demand must be continuously conducted every five years, and the Health Care Workforce Committee must be established and operated. The effects of increasing the admission number of medical schools should be evaluated and adjusted annually.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.349-356
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• 2010

This study was conducted to estimate heritabilities, repeatabilities and rank correlation coefficients among breeding values for litter size and sex ratio of Yorkshire and Landrace pigs using various single trait animal models. The analyses were carried out the data comprising 26,390 litters of Yorkshire and 26,173 litters of Landrace collected from the year 1998 to 2008 at a private swine breeding farm located in central part of Korea. Five different analytical models were used for genetic parameter estimation. Model 1 was most simple basic model fitted with year-month contemporary group fixed effect, random additive genetic effect and random residual effect. Model 2 was similar to the model 1 but permanent maternal environmental effect added as random effect, and model 3 was similar with the model 2 but linear and quadratic effects of sow age were added as fixed covariate effect. Model 4 was similar as model 2 except that the parity was added as fixed effect and model 5 was similar to model 3 or model 4 but covariate of sow age was nested within parity effect. The results obtained in this study are summarized as follows: The means and standard error of total number of pigs born per litter (TNB) and number of pigs born alive per litter (NBA) were $11.35{\pm}0.02$ and $10.04{\pm}0.02$ for Yorkshire, $10.97{\pm}0.02$ and $9.98{\pm}0.02$ for Landrace, respectively. The sex ratio (percentage of female per litter) was $45.75{\pm}0.11%$ and $45.75{\pm}0.11%$ for Yorkshire and Landrace, respectively. The heritability estimates of TNB (0.243) and NBA (0.192) from model 1 tended to be higher than those from any other models in both breeds. Differences in heritability and repeatability for TNB were not large among models 3, 4 and 5 and same tendency of negligible differences among estimates by models 3, 4 and 5 were observed for NBA, where heritability and repeatability ranged from 0.096 to 0.099 and from 0.188 to 0.193, respectively, in Yorkshire; and ranged from 0.092 to 0.098 and from 0.193 and 0.196, respectively, in Landrace. The heritability estimates for sex ratio were close to zero which was ranged from 0.002 to 0.003 for TNB and from 0.001 to 0.003 for NBA over the models applied. The rank correlation coefficients of breeding values by model 1 with those from other models (model 2, 3, 4 and 5), and breeding values by model 2 with those from other models (model 1, 3, 4 and 5) were highly positive but lower than the coefficients among breeding values by model 3, model 4 and model 5 which were high of 0.99, approximately, for TNB and NBA of both breeds.