• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.349-364
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• 2011

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between new-building of rural public health centers and the outpatient medical utilization. Methods : The study subjects were 141 public health centers in rural area. The data were collected from 1995 to 2001, medical utilization and local population, healthcare resources, and economic characteristics were included. In order to evaluate new-building effects, we performed paired t-tests and multivariate regression analyses. Results : The following variables are significant affecting the medical utilization of rural public health centers: urban side location of public health centers(p<0.05), pre- and post-IMF economic crisis(p<0.001), number of medical aid recipients(p<0.01), number of private clinics(p<0.05), workers of public health centers(p<0.001), financial independent level of local governments(p<0.001). In contrast, the existence of new-building and number of the aged 65 and over were not significant variables. Conclusions : We could not find out the positive relationship between the existence of new-building and the volume of medical utilization in rural public health centers. In particular the medical utilization of rural public health centers is significantly affected by IMF economic recession and number of the poor strata, the economically depressed area.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2009

In this study, recognized building-related health symptoms of various workers in dental college hospitals are surveyed and analyzed in order to improve indoor environment at dental college hospitals. We conducted a questionnaire survey for 682 workers in three dental college hospitals located in Seoul from Sep. 20 to Oct. 8, 2004. Most workers at dental hospitals complained about noise, poor ventilation, dusty environment, and air dryness. SBS symptoms score for subjects was 1.43${\pm}$0.74 (often feel) and major symptoms was throat, CNS, eye, and nose symptoms. Recognized Building-related health symptoms are significantly related to tasks, working experience, job-satisfaction, indoor environment recognition index, medical history, used to special material, and number of dental unit chair. Also working places and ventilation are significantly related to the symptom. Based on the results, it can be said that special dental treatment causes undesirable environment such as noise, dust, and bad odor. It is also related to recognized building related health symptoms reported by workers at dental hospitals. So managemental efforts are needed to improve indoor environment which is related by dental treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 2016

This paper presents the measurement and analysis results for the cooling performance of ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) system using a cooling tower as a supplemental heat rejector. In order to demonstrate the performance of the hybrid approach, we installed the monitoring equipments including sensors for measuring temperature and power consumption, and measured operation parameters from May 1 to October 30, 2014. The results showed that the entering source temperature of brine returning from the ground heat exchanger was in a range of design target temperature. Leaving load temperatures to building showed an average value of $11.4^{\circ}C$ for cooling season. From the analysis, the daily performance factor (PF) of geothermal heat pumps ranged from 4.4 to 5.2, while the daily PF of hybrid GCHP system varied from 3.0 to 4.0 over the entire cooling season.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.105-110
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• 2014

The basic factors determining the amount of energy used in hospital buildings are weather conditions and building factors. But the real energy consumer is central plant equipment such as boilers and chillers that produce thermal energy for heating and cooling. Inaccurate decision of the primary equipment's size can cause a high initial-cost, an excessive equipment space, a wasted energy by low operation-efficiency and shortening of the machine's life. In this reason, the decision of optimal size for central plant equipment is very important. There are several factors for the decision such as an operation factor, a factor (equipment factor), piping losses and a simultaneous usage factor applied in the sizing process except a basic cooling load. But there is no standard method for applying those factors. Usually, factors are applied individually by an experience or custom of each engineer. In this study, the authors emphasize the meaning and the problem of those factors, examine them by analyzing factors which were applied to actual practices, and propose the recommendation value of safety, load, operation factors and application methods.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.264-266
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• 2016

A 21-year-old healthy Korean man worked on a building construction site every day for almost 2 months and exercised every day for 1 or 2 hours after working hard. He felt dizziness, nausea, and experienced vomiting and body aches immediately after exercise and immediately took cold medicines including acetaminophen, cimetidine, bepotastine, and Codenal? complex for the common cold symptoms for 2 days because he was scheduled to participate in navy training at that time. He complained of severe trapezius pain and aches in his left calf 3 days after joining the Navy training. Testing revealed creatine phosphokinase (CPK) 6260 U/L, myogloblin 176 mcg/L in the urine, liver enzymes increased, and oliguria, suggesting rhabdomyolysis. He recovered with intravenous fluids without any complications.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2017

Purpose: Since the large hospitals are one of the most intensive energy users among building types in Korea, it is important to investigate and apply appropriate energy conservation measures. There are many researches on energy conservation measures for HVAC system in hospitals, but only few useful guidelines for envelope design variables were existed. The building envelope is one of the important factors to building energy consumption and patients' comfort. The purpose of this study is to suggest the most influential envelope design variables for each end-use energy demand. Methods: 100 samples were generated by LHS(Latin Hypercube Sampling) method. After energy performance simulation, global sensitivity analysis was performed by the regression method. DesignBuilder, Simlab 2.2 and JEPlus were used in this process. Results: The most influencing variables are SHGC, SHGC and VT for heating, cooling, and lighting, respectively. However, the most influencing variable for total energy demand is WWR(Window to Wall Ratio). The analysis was conducted based on the coefficient of variance results. Implications: The six envelop design variables were ranked according to the end-use energy demand.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.198-204
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• 2007

In mobile robotics, ultrasonic sensors became standard devices for collision avoiding. Moreover, their applicability for map building and navigation has exploited in recent years. In this paper, as the preliminary step for developing a multi-purpose autonomous carrier mobile robot to transport trolleys or heavy goods and serve as robotic nursing assistant in hospital wards. The aim of this paper is to present the use of multi-sensor data fusion such as ultrasonic sensor, IR sensor for mobile robot to navigate, and presents an experimental mobile robot designed to operate autonomously within both indoor and outdoor environments. The global map building based on multi-sensor data fusion is applied for recognition an obstacle free path from a starting position to a known goal region, and simultaneously build a map of straight line segment geometric primitives based on the application of the Hough transform from the actual and noisy sonar data. We will give an explanation for the robot system architecture designed and implemented in this study and a short review of existing techniques, Hough transform, since there exist several recent thorough books and review paper on this paper. Experimental results with a real Pioneer DX2 mobile robot will demonstrate the effectiveness of the discussed methods.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 2008

In Korea, air source heat pump system is less efficient than conventional heat source facilities, such as ground source, river water, because the air temperature in winter season is so low that COP of air source heat pump system drops below 3.0. Therefore, the study on the application of heat pump heating and cooling systems is crucial for the efficient popularization of heat pump. In this work, we present the dynamic analysis of energy consumption for the large resident building by heat resistance-capacitance method. The system simulation of water storage air source heat pump is additionally performed by changing of sizes and locations of the hospital building. The computed results show that energy cost of water storage air source heat pump is low, so it is more economical than absorption chiller & heater.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.261-276
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• 2013

Purpose: This study intends to offer strategic implications that can be used in Korean medicine hospitals through analysis of causal relationship among factors focusing on image improvement and trust building. Methods: Differential model was introduced to test causal relationship. Questionnaire was developed, and data was collected and analyzed with Structural Equation Modeling. Results: Medical service has effects on image, trust, and CS. CS has an effect on trustworthiness, and trustworthiness has positive effect on loyalty intention and has negative effect on switching intention. Emotional attachment has moderating functions between trust and loyalty intention and between trust and switching intention. Conclusion: This study offers practical implications to relevant managers, at the same time it has limitations that omits relevant study of inducing factor for emotional attachment.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.389-396
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• 2015

Objectives: A hospital is a complex building that serves many different purposes. It has a major impact on patient's well-being as well as on the work efficiency of the hospital staff. Thermal comfort is one of the major factors in indoor comfort. The purpose of this study was to determine thermal comfort in various locations in a hospital. Methods: Various indoor environmental conditions in a general hospital were measured in February 2014. The predicted mean vote (PMV) and carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) concentration were measured simultaneously in the lobby, office, restaurant, and ward. Results: The ward was the most thermally comfortable location (PMV=0.44) and the lobby was the most uncomfortable (PMV = -1.39). However, the $CO_2$ concentration was the highest in the ward (896 ppm) and the lowest in the lobby (572 ppm). The average PMV value was the most comfortable in the ward and the lowest in the lobby. In contrast, for concentration of carbon dioxide, the highest average was in the ward and the lowest in the lobby. Due to air conditioner operation, during operating hours the PMV showed values close to 0 compared to the non-operating time. Correlation between PMV and $CO_2$ differed by location. Conclusion: The PMV and concentration of carbon dioxide of the hospital lobby, office, restaurant and ward varied. The relationship between PMV and carbon dioxide differed by location. Consideration of how to apply PMV and carbon dioxide is needed when evaluating indoor comfort.