• Health Policy and Management
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.38-53
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• 2001

The price of the hospitals' services is regulated by the governmental health insurance reimbursement schedule in Korea. On the other hand, the emphasis on the quality of care of hospitals service is ever increasing. Under the environment, hospitals have to understand the effects of the activities to improve quality of care on efficiency and on financial performance so that they develop a management strategy that allows quality of care, operational efficiency, and financial achievement simultaneously. This study investigates the relationship among the concepts. The sample for the study includes 23 hospitals that have more than 300 beds. The concept of quality of care is measured by the score reported by the Hospital Standardization Survey (HSS) instituted by Korean Hospital Association. Efficiency is measured by the ratio of number of employee to the number of patients served. Financial performance is measured by the financial ratios indicating the profitability of a hospital. An analysis is performed using the multiple regression. The results show significant positive relationships between the HSS score and efficiency indicators, md between the HSS score and profit measures. However, the significant positive relationship between the HSS score and profit measures disappeared when efficiency indicators were introduced to the model. This study concludes that the structural quality of a hospital has a positive effect on efficiency of the hospital and that the structural qualify indirectly affects the financial performance of a hospital through the improvement of efficiency. Based on the findings, the implications on hospital management and health policy are discussed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.19-34
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• 2007

This paper presents results of a non-linear finite element analysis of axially loaded slender hollow structural section (HSS) columns, strengthened using high modulus carbon-fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) longitudinal sheets. The model was developed and verified against both experimental and other analytical models. Both geometric and material nonlinearities, which are attributed to the column's initial imperfection and plasticity of steel, respectively, are accounted for. Residual stresses have also been modeled. The axial strength in the experimental study was found to be highly dependent on the column's imperfection. Consequently, no specific correlation was established experimentally between strength gain and amount of CFRP. The model predicted the ultimate loads and failure modes quite reasonably and was used to isolate the effects of CFRP strengthening from the columns' imperfections. It was then used in a parametric study to examine columns of different slenderness ratios, imperfections, number of CFRP layers, and level of residual stresses. The study demonstrated the effectiveness of high modulus CFRP in increasing stiffness and strength of slender columns. While the columns' imperfections affect their actual strengths before and after strengthening,the percentage gain in strength is highly dependent on slenderness ratio and CFRP reinforcement ratio, rather than the value of imperfection.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.135-148
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• 2021

Hollow structural section (HSS) columns have been increasingly popular due to their structural and architectural merits. However, practical difficulty lies in developing proper connections. The through-diaphragm connections are considered as suitable connection type that is widely adopted in Asian countries. However, the stress concentration occurs at the location connecting through-diaphragm and steel beam. Furthermore, the actual load path from the beam flange is not uniformly transferred to the HSS column as conventionally assumed. In this paper, tensile tests were further conducted on three additional specimens with beam flange plate to evaluate the load versus displacement response. The load-displacement curves, yield and ultimate capacity, ductility ratio were obtained. Furthermore, the strain development at different loading levels was discussed comprehensively. It is shown that the studied connection configuration significantly reduces the stress concentration. Meanwhile, simplified trilinear load-displacement analytical model for specimen under tensile load was presented. Good agreement was found between the theoretical and experimental results.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.119-125
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• 2006

The rat is an accepted model for studying human psychiatric/neurological disorders. We provide a protocol for total soluble protein extraction using trichloroacetic acid/acetone (TCA/A) from rat (female) whole brain, 10 brain regions and the pituitary gland, and show that two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DGE) using precast immobilized pH (4-7) gradient (IPG) strip gels (13 cm) in the first dimension yields clean silver nitrate stained protein profiles. Though TCA/A precipitation may not be "ideal", the important choice here is the selection of an appropriate lysis buffer (LB) for solubilizing precipitated proteins. Our results reveal enrichment of protein spots by use of individual brain regions rather than whole brain, as well as the presence of differentially expressed spots in their proteomes. Thus individual brain regions provide improved protein coverage and are better suited for differential protein detection. Moreover, using a phosphoprotein-specific dye, ingel detection of phosphoproteins was demonstrated. Representative high-resolution silver nitrate stained proteome profiles of rat whole brain total soluble protein are presented. Shortcomings apart (failure to separate membrane proteins), gel-based proteomics remains a viable option, and 2-DGE is the method of choice for generating high-resolution proteome maps of rat brain and brain regions.

• Atmosphere
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.479-490
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• 2018

This study assesses the prediction skill of regional scale model for the mean temperature anomaly over South Korea produced by Pusan National University Coupled General Circulation Model (PNU CGCM)-Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) chain. The initial and boundary conditions of WRF are derived from PNU CGCM. The hindcast period is 11 years from 2007 to 2017. The model's prediction skill of mean temperature anomaly is evaluated in terms of the temporal correlation coefficient (TCC), root mean square error (RMSE) and skill scores which are Heidke skill score (HSS), hit rate (HR), false alarm rate (FAR). The predictions of WRF and PNU CGCM are overall similar to observation (OBS). However, TCC of WRF with OBS is higher than that of PNU CGCM and the variation of mean temperature is more comparable to OBS than that of PNU CGCM. The prediction skill of WRF is higher in March and April but lower in October to December. HSS is as high as above 0.25 and HR (FAR) is as high (low) as above (below) 0.35 in 2-month lead time. According to the spatial distribution of HSS, predictability is not concentrated in a specific region but homogeneously spread throughout the whole region of South Korea.

• Clean Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.22-32
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• 2015

In this study, we studied the characteristics of ion exchange for treatment of HSS (heat stable salts) which cause performance reduction in CO₂ gas capture amine solution using anion exchange resins. The optimum HSS removal efficiency, 96.1% was obtained when using strong base anion exchange resin SAR10 at dosage 0.05 g/mL, 316 K, pH 12 and the best resin regeneration efficiency, 78.8% was obtained using NaOH solution of 3 M at 316 K. The adsorption data were described well by the Freundlich model and the sorption intensity(n) was 2.0951 lying within the range of favorable adsorption. The adsorption selectivity coefficients were increased by increasing valences and size of ion and desorption selectivity coefficients showed a contradictory tendency to adsorption selectivity coefficients. By continuous HSS removal experiments, 13.3 BV of HSS contaminated solution was effectively treated and the optimum NaOH solution consumption was 5.2 BV to regenerate resins.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.463-471
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• 2014

As building height and span is getting taller and longer, the researches to increase material's strength and serviceability are continuously performed. This study evaluated mechanical and chemical properties of newly developed high-strength steel (HSS) for building structures, namely HSA800 and verified cost-effectiveness and applicability of HSS for a tall building by comparing the analysis results of normal strength steel (SM490) model. HSA800 was manufactured by TMCP to have a good weldability in spite of HSS and satisfied Korean Industrial Standards (KS). The analysis results for evaluating cost-effectiveness show that total steel quantity could be saved approximately 30% when using HSS compared to SM490. It is expected that HSA800 will contribute to enhance constructability of building.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.309-318
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• 2013

Abutment-to-pile connection in an integral abutment bridge is vulnerable to lateral displacement induced by thermal movement of the superstructure. However, previous researches have merely focused on the connection. In order to improve the performance of the connection, new abutment-to-pile connection designs were proposed based on quasi-static nonlinear finite element model. The reinforcement detail specified in PennDOT DM4 and HSS tube were barely effective in controlling crack growing but spiral rebar effectively performed to delay crack growth as well as absorbing energy capacity. However, it was found that delaying cracking and strengthening the connection also caused the high lateral load in superstructures. Consequently, shape of HP pile were modified to introduce plastic hinge of the HP pile for reducing the lateral load in superstructures. Connections with modified HP pile significantly prevented crack propagations under the lateral displacement.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.291-300
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• 2019

This study investigates the characteristics of evaluation measures for classification models on a binary response variable in order to evaluate their suitability for use. Six measures are considered: Accuracy, Sensitivity, Specificity, Precision, F-measure, and the Heidke's skill score (HSS). Evaluation measures are reformulated using x(ratio of actually 1), y(ratio predicted by 1), z(ratio of both actual and predicted by 1) from the confusion matrix. We suggest two necessary conditions to assess the suitability of the evaluation measures. The first condition is that the measure function is constant for x and y in the case of a random model. The second condition is that the measure function is increasing for z and decreasing for x and y. Since only HSS satisfies the two conditions, that is always appropriate as an evaluation measure for the classification model on the binary response variable, and the other measures should be used within a limited range.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.49-70
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• 2005

This paper reports on finite element analysis techniques that may be applied to the study of circular hollow structural sections and related bearing connection geometries. Specifically, a connection detail involving curved steel saddle bearings and a Structural Tee (ST) connected directly to a large-diameter Hollow Structural Section (HSS) truss chord, near its open end, is considered. The modeling is carried out using experimentally verified techniques. It is determined that the primary mechanism of failure involves a flexural collapse of the HSS chord through plastification of the chord wall into a well-defined yield line mechanism; a limit state for which a shell-based finite element model is well-suited to capture. It is also found that classical metal plasticity material models may be somewhat limited in their applicability to steels in fabricated tubular members.