• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.267-274
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• 2017

Recently, several researches have been studied on agricultural automation system according to convergence of IT technology with agriculture. An automatic control system of the growth environment in crops is one of the these researches. The controls of damages caused by diseases and insects pest in crops are mainly carried out by manual mode or semi-automatic mode because of farmer's concerns for poor efficiency. But, this situation needs to be improved because it occurs various problems, such as human exposure to toxic pesticides, environmental pollution and waste due to drug overuse. In order to solve these problems, we developed an automatic quantity control system which based on the amount of pesticides for area under cultivation. The amount of pesticides is calculated according to the manufacturer's instruction for pesticides. To verify the effectiveness of our developed automatic system, we also compared with the systems of manual mode and the semi-automatic mode. The experimental results of a pest control performance of an automatic quantity control system showed that automatic system can reduce overuse of drugs. These results suggested that it can be expected to replace the existing system, with equivalent effectiveness to the manual mode.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.58-75
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• 1998

Background : In Korea, the rational use of antibiotics are rarely controlled, and their patterns of utilization are not understood. In order to reduce the excessive use and to improve the appropriate use of antibiotics, it is necessary to accurately determine present uses of antibiotics in hospitals. Methods : Analysis of the use of prescription drugs was performed on NFMI(National Federation of Medical Insurance) 1994 medical expense claim data. A stratified sampling by types of hospitals, departments, and diseases was obtained from 1994 August data. Patients with secondary diseases were excluded. In this study, 2,697 adults with URI, 6,397 children with URI, 704 adults with bronchitis, and 1,838 children with bronchitis were included. Results : Most patients were prescribed medication (95.2-99.6%). Of the patients prescribed medication, more than 85% of URI patients and more than 91% of bronchitis patients were prescribed antibiotics. Antibiotics expenses accounted for 14% of total medical expenses in adults and 9% of total medical expenses in children. In adults with URI, antibiotics expenses accounted for 52% of drug expenses. Of the patients prescribed antibiotics, average number of antibiotics used was 1.6-1.7. For patients who are prescribed antibiotics, drug expenses were 62-97% greater than patients not prescribed antibiotics. When children were prescribed antibiotics, the highest price of drugs prescribed were 3.4-fold greater. In addition, the number of drugs prescribed also increased by more than one. Elderly patients, more than 60 years, were prescribed antibiotics less frequently. Children less than 10 years and elderly patients greater than 60 years old were prescribed fewer antibiotics than other patients. And they were prescribed medications for longer days than other patients. Conclusion : This study demonstrated that the average rate of prescribing antibiotics was higher in Korea than other countries. Measures to reduce overuse of antibiotics and to improve the appropriate prescription of antibiotics must be considered for cost effective treatment and overall health of people.