• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.9-35
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• 2007

The Health care program in Korea has now been systemized after 30 years of declaring the inauguration of the national health insurance system by the current government. The national health care covering all Korean citizens was achieved after 12 years of implementing the national health insurance and the health care program since 1977. Hundreds of multiple operational agencies managing the insured individually had undergone the amalgamation process from 1998 to 2000, and had been restructured as one agency, the National Health Insurance Corporation. In 2003, the community/area based financial management was also merged together with the employment based financial management. The National health care system of Korea offer various merits, compared with that of other countries, such as health care provision covering all Koreans, low insurance premium, accessibility of medical services/facilities etc. However, there are still some weak features which need to be addressed for improvement; below expectation insurance cover system, mistrust on the medical services, low medical charges resulted from excessive restrictions, and unstable financial status of the national health insurance etc. Therefore, the National health care system should continue to evolve to re-establish itself as more effective national health care system by further strengthening its merits, and by improving its weaknesses; with adopting the positive system to optimize the costs of prescribed medicines/drugs, applying simpler insurance coverage system to calculate the optimum medical charges, promoting private medical insurances, and increasing insurance premium etc.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.247-255
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• 2017

Background: South Korea has experienced problems with excessive pharmaceutical expenditures. In 2010, the South Korean government introduced an outpatient prescription incentive program to effectively manage pharmaceutical expenditures. Therefore, we examined the relationship between the outpatient prescription incentive program and pharmaceutical expenditures. Methods: We used data from the Korean National Health Insurance claims database, which included medical claims filed for 22,732 clinics from 2011-2014 to evaluate associated pharmaceutical expenditures. We performed multiple regression analysis and Poisson regression analysis using generalized estimating equation models to examine the associations between outpatient prescription incentives and the outcome variables. Results: The data used in this study consisted of 123,392 cases from 22,372 clinics (average 5.4 periods follow-up). Clinics that had received outpatient prescription incentives in the last period had better cost saving and Outpatient Prescribing Costliness Index (OPCI) (received: proportion of cost saving, ${\beta}=6.8179$; p-value < 0.0001; OPCI, ${\beta}=-0.0227$; p-value < 0.0001; reference = non-received). Moreover, these clinics had higher risk in the provision of outpatient prescription incentive (relative risk, 2.772; 95% confidence interval, 2.720 to 2.824). The associations were higher in clinics that had separate prescribing and dispensing programs, or had professional staff. Conclusion: The introduction of an outpatient prescription incentive program for clinics effectively managed problems with rapid increases of pharmaceutical expenditures in South Korea. However, the pharmaceutical expenditures still increased in spite of the positive impact of the outpatient prescription incentive program. Therefore, healthcare professionals and health policy makers should develop more effective alternatives (i.e., for clinics without separate prescribing and dispensing programs) based on our results.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.91-122
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• 2014

For a variety of reasons, the number of medical disputes is continuously rising. Due to the intrinsic qualities of medical treatments, one would find it more apt to subject medical disputes to general conflict resolution procedures rather than to once-for-all decisions under legal suits. To address the increasing medical disputes with greater professionalism and efficiency, the Medical Disputes Mediation Act was enacted and a medical dispute mediation system put in place, while drawbacks have been blamed to both. The current mediation procedures require the respondent's agreement as a disclosure requirement. A reasonable improvement to this would be to amend the regulation of agreement supposition, or to enforce procedural participation only to public health facilities managed by the national or regional government. Furthermore, small claims cases of 20 million KRW or less in claim may be considered for conciliation-prepositive principle. The concentration on small claim medical disputes is a phenomenon that can be addressed by carrying out maximum authentication commissions or similar measures, one of the solutions by enhancing the public trust in the Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency. The proper management of medical authentication teams is one way to address the existing problems in the authentication system. For this, the number of team members shall be increased under more flexible authentication procedures. All indemnity resources for medical accidents of force majeure must be borne by the Government, for it is the body principally responsible for social compensation. Placing this cost on the establisher of the subject medical facility holds the possibility of violating fundamental rights. While the costs for subrogation payment system for damages may be borne by the healthcare facility establisher, a deposit-based system must be created for cases in which the facility shuts down, without holding the responsibility for accident cause. Such change to a deposit-based system will evade the controversies of unconstitutionality, etc.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.289-300
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• 2013

Background: Patients' trust in their physicians or hospitals is important to guarantee the effectiveness of care and to encourage revisits. This study aimed to identify the relationship between the experience of requesting verification of healthcare benefit coverage via the Health Insurance Review Agency (HIRA) and patients' trust in their physicians or hospitals. Methods: For this population-based study, 800 adult respondents aged 20 to 65 years were recruited using random sampling and telephone surveys. Respondents were divided into two groups: 1) 400 people had experience in requesting the HIRA verification service for the purpose of confirmation of whether the costs they paid were appropriate among metropolitan habitants, and 2) 400 people comprised members of the public who had no experience requesting the verification service. Results: Experience with requesting verification services was likely to lower the patients' trust in medical institutions, but not in their physicians (p<0.05). In addition, patients who were satisfied with their physicians and hospitals were more likely to trust the physicians and hospitals than dissatisfied patients. Conclusion: Patients' trust might be an important factor influencing hospital success. Patients' trust in medical suppliers, such as physicians and hospitals, encourages a positive relationship between medical suppliers and patients. Therefore, medical suppliers must provide appropriate care to patients to improve patients' trust in them.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.346-356
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• 2004

14 Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) in Korea use a remote monitoring system (RMS), which have been used in Korea since 1998. A Memorandum of Understanding on Remote Monitoring, based on Enhanced Cooperation on PWRs, was signed at the 10th Safeguards Review Meeting in October 2001 between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Ministry Of Science and Technology (MOST). Thereafter, all PWR power plants applied for remote monitoring systems. However, the existing method is high cost (involving expensive telephone costs). So, it was eventually applied to an Internet system for Remote Monitoring. According to the Internet-based Virtual Private Network (VPN) applied to Remote Monitoring, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) came to an agreement with the IAEA, using a Member State Support Program (MSSP). Phase I is a Lab test. Phase II is to apply it to a target power plant. Phase III is to apply it to all the power plants. This paper reports on the penetration testing of Phase I. Phase I involved both domestic testing and international testing. The target of the testing consisted of a Surveillance Digital Integrated System (SDIS) Server, IAEA Server and TCNC (Technology Center for Nuclear Control) Server. In each system, Virtual Private Network (VPN) system hardware was installed. The penetration of the three systems and the three VPNs was tested. The domestic test involved two hacking scenarios: hacking from the outside and hacking from the inside. The international test involved one scenario from the outside. The results of tests demonstrated that the VPN hardware provided a good defense against hacking. We verified that there was no invasion of the system (SDIS Server and VPN; TCNC Server and VPN; and IAEA Server and VPN) via penetration testing.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.160-165
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• 2013

Background: Occupational accidents are unplanned events that cause damage. The socio-economic impacts and human costs of accidents are tremendous around the world. Many fatalities happen every year in workplaces such as electricity distribution companies. Some electrical injuries are electrocution, electric shock, and burns. This study was conducted in an electricity distribution company (with rotational 12-hour shift work) in Iran during an 8-year period to survey descriptive factors of injuries. Methods: Variables collected included accident time, age of injured worker, employment type, work experience, injury cause, educational background, and other information about accidents. Results: Results indicated that most of the accidents occurred in summer, and 51.3% were during shift work. Worker negligence (malpractice) was the cause of 75% of deaths. Type of employment had a significant relationship with type of injuries (p < 0.05). Most injuries were electrical burns. Conclusion: High rate of accidents in summer may be due to the warm weather or insufficient professional skills in seasonal workers. Shift workers are at risk of sleep complaints leading to a high rate of work injuries. Acquiring knowledge about safety was related to job experiences. Temporary workers have no chance to work all year like permanent workers, therefore impressive experiences may be less in them. Because the lack of protective equipment and negligence are main causes of accidents, periodical inspections in workshops are necessary.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2015

Currently, abundant wastes from the palm oil refining process have been generated which are hard to handle. Spent Bleaching Earth (SBE) is the solid waste from this process and leads the cost of elimination to the company. This study aims to utilize the SBE as the alternative material in the non-fired wall tiles. The main raw materials used in non-fired wall tiles consist of laterite soil, fluvial sand, and Portland cement. The experimental formulas have been conducted and divided into 3 groups by varying the percentage of the SBE in main raw materials. The specimens of material mixture have been produced by uniaxial pressing at 100 bars, dimensions in $50{\times}100{\times}8mm$. These specimens are sprayed with water and cured in the air for 7 days. After that, bending strength and water absorption test of these specimens has been performed. It can be concluded that the best formula with the percentage of laterite soil, fluvial sand, Portland cement, and SBE are 60.94%, 13.125%, 22.5%, and 3.435%, respectively. Its bending strength and %water absorption are 0.68 MPa and 5.64%. Material costs of specimen are approximately $0.00276 USD/100g. Furthermore, the comparison of curing period between 7 days and 30 days has been performed. The 30 days of curing period can improve the bending strength of the specimen, but there is no effect on water absorption.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.59-64
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• 2020

Occasionally, MODEM test in satellite communication systems are needed. But Rx terminals in satellite communications are designed to obtain high SNR generally, therefore artificial bad conditions and environments are demanded for the test. One of the typical method is satellite output power reduction. Using noise generator can be another method. However, these costs a lot of money, time, and procedures in reality. In order to overcome these problems, this paper proposes an artificial noise generation method for MODEM test in satellite communication systems. First of all, SNR of a general heterodyne Rx terminal is calculated. Based on the calculation, a new model which is including variable attenuator is proposed to increase noise level. Simulation results illustrate the variable attenuator can control SNR, and these show that MODEM test in satellite communication systems be possible.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2012

It is growing in size of database in companies. This caused to develope data mining techniques to predictive information from the large database. Costs and other effects can give variety of sales exploding through the analysis of the differences. Analysis of the various classification techniques, various angle can be analyzed point of view of the area information. The analysis of rules and patterns associated with a large amount of useful information from the database can be analyzed effectively. Goods store were analyzed using association rules, one of the data mining analysis techniques. Through this type of existing products according to analyze customer buying patterns, data mining has been studied to establish strategic marketing analysis.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.313-320
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• 2019

Nowadays, as the availability of tiny, low-cost microcomputer increases at a high level, mobile robots are experiencing remarkable enhancements in hardware design, software performance, and connectivity advancements. In order to control Turtlebot 2, several algorithms have been developed using the Robot Operating System(ROS). However, ROS requires to be run on a high-cost computer which increases the hardware cost and the power consumption to the robot. Therefore, design an algorithm based on low-cost hardware is the most innovative way to reduce the unnecessary costs of the hardware, to increase the performance, and to decrease the power consumed by the computer on the robot. In this paper, we present a path-finding algorithm for TurtleBot 2 based on low-cost hardware. We implemented the algorithm using Raspberry pi, Windows 10 IoT core, and RPLIDAR A2. Firstly, we used Raspberry pi as the alternative to the computer employed to handle ROS and to control the robot. Raspberry pi has the advantages of reducing the hardware cost and the energy consumed by the computer on the robot. Secondly, using RPLIDAR A2 and Windows 10 IoT core which is running on Raspberry pi, we implemented the path-finding algorithm which allows TurtleBot 2 to navigate from the starting point to the destination using the map of the area. In addition, we used C# and Universal Windows Platform to implement the proposed algorithm.