• Health Policy and Management
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-27
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• 2007

This study is designed to estimate an appropriate level of patient's cost-sharing for oriental medical services in the Korean National Health Insurance. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows: 1) The current co-payment system for oriental medical services does not reflect its cost structure in clinical practice due to inconsistency of cost-sharing plan in the NHI. 2) Both oriental medical institutions and their patients, as a result, are at a relative disadvantage in financial burden, compared with other services. 3) The substantial proportion of patients' cost-sharing depends on the amount of co-payment and the range of medical cost that a flat rate is applied to. 4) The extension of the range doesn't make any substantial decrease in patient's cost-sharing. 5) The fixed amount of co-payment is more sensitive than a range to total variations of patient's cost-sharing. Based on the above, the budget impacts of a new co-payment system were estimated for each co-insurance rate, according to given scenarios. The results range from -59 billion Won (-8.5%) to 16 billion Won(2.3%).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.707-710
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• 1995

Structure of product, which is not considered by easy of assembly, has many hidden costs. For reduction of hidden costs, concepts of line balancing and assembly-oriented design are used. We find that part of structure can be improved by concept of line balancing. To reduce assembly time and enhance easy of assembly, design principles are developed by concept of assembly-oriented design. And design principles for improvement are applied according to condition of the grasped parts of product structure. Thersfore, we could design assembly-oriented design for better structure and low cost.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.25-52
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• 1993

Variation in the utilization of medical services is a very important issue in cost containment and quality assurance of health care. Practice variation directly affects health care expenditure especially in fee-for-service system, which is the payment system of health insurance in Korea. In addition to cost issue it is generally accepted that variations in medical practice and the cost of inpatient care suggest the possibility of inappropriate quality of care. This study is to closely examine the patterne and degrees of variation in cost structure of inpatient care among types of hospital and individual hospitals in some tracer diseases, and also to inquire into the service items which contribute much to the variation of total medical care cost. Foru common diseases, i.e. Cesarean Section, appendectomy, cataract extraction and pediatric pneumonia, were selected as tracer diseases. In most tracer diseases there were statistically significant differences in total medical care cost among hospitals in same type of hospital as well as among types of hospital(p<0.01). When total medical care cost were subdivided into the types of service, cost of medication and diagnostic examination varied the most prominenly. When the cost of medication were subdivided again, cost of parenteral antibiotics showed the most prominent variation. Of total medical care cost, medication was most contributory to the variation of total medical care cost(58.1~82.3%), and cost of antibiotics was most contributory to the variation of medication cost(63.9~92.2%). The results of study implicated that reducing the variation of medication may plays a significant role in containing the cost of inpatient care. In order to sort out the factors affecting practice variations including drug prescription pattes further researches are required.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.39-45
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the energy saving and cost benefit analysis of the Low-income Energy Efficiency Treatment Program supported by KOREF(Korea Energy Foundation). This program was launched in 2007 and performs building energy retrofit for the low-income and energy poverty houses. Method: Energy simulation and cost benefit analysis were accomplished for the low-income detached houses. The structure of detached house was a lot og block structure, wood frame (single glass) and concrete roof. Baseline model of the low-income detached houses was proposed. Result: Annual heating energy consumptions were decreased by about 3.2% with the window system replacement(Case 1), 9.3% with reinforcement of insulation(Case2), and 12.5% with both(Case 3) compared to those of baseline model. The construction cost will be recouped within 5 years for the Case 1, 3 years for the Case 2, and 3 years for the Case 3. Case 3 was the most cost beneficient construction method in the analyzed cases in this study.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.335-350
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• 2013

With the efforts to development of renewable energy technologies, and increasing awareness to environmental issues, the usage of wood pallets has been increasing every year since the introduction of wood pallet technology to the domestic market. until 2009, majority usage of pellet boiler was in the residential houses. In an effort to increase the distribution of wood pellet boiler to cultivation facilities with high usage of fuels, The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has launched a distribution project of wood pellet boiler for fuel usage as a part of the agricultural and fishery energy efficiency projects. Although only small number of farms with a heat-culturing facility have replaced from conventional boiler to pellet boiler. Although part of reason for low usage of pallet boiler is lack of understanding and information of it, the main reasons are high initial cost and uncertainty of its cost efficiency. Also, most people from agricultural industry don't realize it's significance in terms of environmental benefit due to lack of understanding in 'resource circulation' and 'adopting to climate change'. In this study, first, we did a cost-efficiency analysis of the farm which uses a diesel boiler to grow cucumber, tomato, paprika. Then we replaced the diesel boiler to a pallet boiler and measured its cost-efficiency again. By comparing the cost-efficiency of the diesel boiler with the pellet boiler, we analyzed the economic viability of pellet boiler. Then we analyzed viability of pallet boiler usage in terms of 'resource circulation' and 'adopting to climate change'. As a result of our analysis, we have found out that under the current system of government support, the energy usage varies depends of the types crops grown and the higher the energy use, the more cost efficient it is to use the pallet boiler. Also, it is economically viable to use the pallet boiler in terms of 'resource circulation' and 'adopting to climate change'.

• Bulletin of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.67-71
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• 1990

This study is concerned with the optimum design of stiffened cylindrical members frequently found in floating offshore platforms with constraints on reliability. Minimised is the expected total cost which is composed of the structural cost and the expected failure cost. Some design requirements drawn from variotus design codes are also considered as constraints. Reliability of critical component in a structure only is considered in this paper and the system failure is discarded since the probability of system failure is in general much smaller than the probability of component failure and it is very difficult to evaluate the cost due to system failure. Ultimate strength only is considered and not the fatigue strength. Several parametric studies are illustrated and the optimum solutions for different strength models which are now in use for the design of stiffened cylinders are derived to show the optimum designs against different strength models for the same type of structural component. The present results lead to the important conclusions relating to the posibility of more cost saving in the design of such structure through the reliability-based optimisation process.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.3-12
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• 2018

The present remodeling makes almost no difference from rebuilding as all the building materials are removed remaining frame structure only. And, in case of vertical extension of building, higher construction cost and safety problem occur. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, therefore, recommends customized remodeling that can be made in light of the resident' needs such as parking lot, elevator, bathroom, and room for the alternative of remodeling of vertical extension of building. The purpose of this study is to present real data that can be referred to the constructor's decision making before starting the remodeling, by investigating and analyzing the weight and importance between evaluation factors for customized remodeling at the completed time of remodeling. Accordingly, the factors were divided into environmental factor, social factor, and economical factor, and the survey was performed for the residents living in remodeling houses. In addition, for the professionals, AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) has been carried out for the priority in the customized remodeling. For environmental factor, the level of importance made difference from that before remodeling, except parking level. For social factor, every item, including psychological satisfaction and community satisfaction, made difference. For economical factor, the recognition level of importance in rent made difference, except sale price of the factor for price satisfaction. In case of the factor for cost satisfaction, it was checked that construction cost and administration cost both could be considered important. As a result of AHP, the most importantly emphasized item was construction cost, and sale price, administration cost, residence structure, and parking lot were followed by priority in order. This study could contribute to reliably settle down customized remodeling by giving reasonable and substantial help from the analysis of the differences in the customized remodeling items before/after the remodeling.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2002

$Cu_2$$ZnSnS_4$(CZTS) thin film is one of the candidate materials for the solar cell. It has an excellent optical absorption coefficient as well as appropriate 1.4~1.5eV band gap. The purpose of this study is replacing a half of high-cost Indium(In) atoms with low-cost Zinc(Zn) atoms and the other half with low-cost Tin(Sn) atoms in the lattice of CIS. Thin films were deposited on ITO glass substrates using a compact target which were made by $Cu_2$S, ZnS, SnS$_2$ powder at room temperature by rf magnetron sputtering and were annealed in the atmosphere of Ar and $S_2$(g). We investigated potentialities of a low-cost material for the solar cell by measuring of thin film composition, the structure and optical properties. We could get an appropriate $Cu_2$$ZnSnS_4$ composition. Structure was coarsened with increasing temperature and (112), (200), (220), (312) planes appeared to conform to all the reflection Kesterite structure. A (112) preferred orientation was advanced with increasing the annealing temperature as shown in the diffraction peaks of the CIS cells and was available for photovoltaic thin film materials. The band gap increased from 1.51 to 1.8eV as the annealing temperature increased. The optical absorption coefficient of the thin film was about $10^4$$cm^{-1}$.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.40-47
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• 2009

The lightweight bubble mixture soil is used for soft ground rear-filling material by applying reduced weight on structure. However, comparing with the general soil, it is not applied in domestic because of initial phase cost of construction. General soil, which has lower initial phase cost is usually used for rear-filling, but the use of overlay method of general soil is reduced as the number of layers increases. Especially box structure placed in soft ground or the overlay method when gap near pier rear-filling can be replaced with temporary alternative method, however, it can't be a solution to gap by generation of extra weight of thickness of overlaying. Therefore, execute LCC analysis of two alternative-the general and the lightweight bubble mixture soils, which are rear-filling material of box structure- and present economical analysis in order to make resonable decision from the economics. As a result, although the lightweight bubble mixture soil takes higher initial phase cost than the general soil, it has been analyzed to procure economical efficiency by having less cost of maintenance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.27 no.4_2
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• pp.833-840
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• 2024

According to recent data from the Korea Meteorological Administration(KMA), the frequency of typhoons around the Korea Peninsula is almost unchanged, but the intensity is on the rise due to climate change. A typhoon that has become so powerful can cause partial or complete damage to the traffic signal structures, limiting the operation of the vehicle and causing traffic congestion. If the traffic signal structure fails to function properly due to the influence of the typhoon, not only the v ehicle operation will be disrupted, but also direct damage to the traffic signal structure will occur. In addition, if the social overhead cost of traffic congestion is included, the recovery cost caused by the typhoon will increase to an extent that it is difficult to estimate. Therefore, in this study, a wind tunnel experiment was performed by producing a wind tunnel model of an existing fixed traffic signal structure and a traffic signal structure in which signs and traffic lights are hinged. Also, The fixed and hinge structures were modeled as 3D finite elements, and wind-resistant analysis was performed by wind speed, and, wind-resistant safety of traffic signal structures were analyzed and examined through wind-resistant analyses. From the comparative analysis of the results of experiment and FE analysis, it was known that the stress reduction rate of the hinge connection structure was at least 30% compared to that of the fixed connection structure from the results of the wind tunnel experiment and FE analysis. And As a result of finite element analysis for the maximum design wind speed of 50m/s, it was found that the maximum stress generated in the existing structure exceeded all the yield stress, but the maximum stress of the hinge connection structure was within the yield stress. Finally The hinge connection structure showed a relatively large stress reduction rate as the wind speed increased and the length of the lateral beam was shorter at the same wind speed.