• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.163-177
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• 2024

Background: This study aims to examine changes in fraudulent claim counts and total reimbursements before and after enhancements in counterfeit claim controls and monitoring of provider claim patterns under the "Proactive self-audit pilot program of fraudulent claims." Methods: This study used the claims data and hospital information (July 2021-February 2022) of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. The data was collected from 1,129 hospitals assigned to the pilot program, selected from the providers who filed a claim for reimbursement for intravenous injections. Paired and independent t-tests, along with regression analysis, were utilized to analyze changing patterns and factors influencing claim behaviors. Results: This program led to a reduction in the number of fraudulent claims and the total amount of reimbursements across all levels of hospitals in the experimental groups (except for physicians below 40 years old). In the control group, general hospitals and hospitals demonstrated some significant decreases based on the duration since opening, while clinics showed significant reductions in specified subjects. Additionally, a notable increase was observed among male physicians over the age of 50 years. Overall, claims and reimbursements significantly declined after the intervention. Furthermore, a positive correlation was found between hospital opening duration and claim numbers, suggesting longer-established hospitals were more likely to file claims. Conclusion: The results indicate that the pilot program successfully encouraged providers to autonomously minimize fraudulent claims. Therefore, it is advised to extend further support, including promotional activities, training, seminars, and continuous monitoring, to nonparticipating hospitals to facilitate independent improvements in their claim practices.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.178-184
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• 2024

Background: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of drug utilization review (DUR) evaluation indicators on safe drug use by comparing the changes in DUR inspection rates and drug duplication prescription prevention rates between the pre- and post-implementation of the DUR evaluation indicators of the Healthcare Quality Evaluation Grant Initiative. Methods: This study used DUR data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in 2018 (pre-implementation) and the evaluation results of the Healthcare Quality Evaluation Grant Initiative in 2023 (post-implementation). The dependent variables were the DUR evaluation indicators, including DUR inspection rate and drug duplicate prescription prevention rate. The independent variable was the implementation of the DUR evaluation indicators, and the control variables included medical institution characteristics such as type, establishment classification, location, DUR billing software company, and number of beds. Results: The results of the analysis of the difference in the prevention rate of drug duplicate prescriptions between the pre- and post-implementation of the DUR evaluation indicators of the Healthcare Quality Evaluation Grant Initiative showed that the prevention rate of drug duplicate prescriptions increased statistically significantly after the implementation of the DUR evaluation indicators. Conclusion: The policy implications of this study are as follows: First, ongoing evaluation of DUR systems is needed. Second, it is necessary to establish a collaborative partnership between healthcare organizations that utilize DUR system information and the organizations that manage it.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.196-210
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• 2024

Background: In January 2018, revised elderly fixed outpatient copayment for the elderly were implemented. When people ages 65 years and older receive outpatient treatment at clinic-level medical institutions (clinic, dental clinic, Korean medicine clinic), with medical expenses exceeding 15,000 won but not exceeding 25,000 won, their copayment rates have decreased differentially from 30%. This study aimed to examine the changes of health utilization of elderly after revised elderly fixed outpatient copayment. Methods: We used Korea health panel data from 2016 to 2018. The time period is divided into before and after the revised elderly fixed outpatient copayment. We conducted Poisson segmented regression to estimate the changes in outpatient utilization and inpatient utilization and conducted segmented regression to estimate the changes in medical expenses. Results: Immediately after the revised policy, the number of clinic and Korean medicine outpatient visits of medical expenses under 15,000 won decreased. But the number of clinic outpatient visits in the range of 15,000 to 20,000 won and Korean medicine clinic in the range of 20,000 to 25,000 won increased. Copayment in outpatient temporarily decreased. The inpatient admission rates and total medical expenses temporarily decreased but increased again. Conclusion: We confirmed the temporary increase in outpatient utilization in the medical expense segment with reduced copayment rates. And a temporary decrease in medical expenses followed by an increase again. To reduce the burden of medical expense among elderly in the long run, efforts to establish chronic disease management policies aimed at preventing disease occurrence and deterioration in advance need to continue.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.68-81
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• 2006

As one of the on-going projects to investigate the biogeochemical characteristics of tidal flat, we develop seasonal mass balance calculations (or DIP, DIN and DON in Gomso Bay. We have obtained 13-hours time-series data of salinity, tidal current, nutrients, and chlorophyll-a of seawater for spring, dry summer, rainy summer and winter during $1999{\sim}2000$. DIP of $-1.10{\times}10^6g\;P\;day^{-1},\;-4.50{\times}10^5g\;P\;day^{-1}$ was out-fluxed from the bay to the bay proper for spring and dry summer, respectively. Whereas $1.06{\times}10^4g\;P\;day^{-1}$ of net influx of DIP was found during winter and $2.72{\times}10^6g\;P\;day^{-1}$ of net influx was also found during the rainy summer. Therefore we suggest the role of Gomso tidal flat as a source of DIP fur the seasons of spring and summer, but as an opposite role during the rainy summer and winter but much smaller in magnitude. Except winter, the advection process by tidal current is found the most dominant flux among the diverse fluxes of DIP in the bay. Whereas ground water is estimated as the strongest flux of TDN except winter. TDN of $1.38{\times}10^7g\;N\;day^{-1},\;2.45{\times}10^6g\;N\;day^{-1},\;and\;4.65{\times}10^7g\;N\;day^{-1}$ was in-fluxed to the bay from the bay proper far spring, rainy summer and summer, respectively. Only $-1.70{\times}10^7g\;N\;day^{-1}$ of net out-flux was found during the winter. Therefore we suggest the role of Gomso tidal flat as a sink of TDN far the year round except winter.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.813-825
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to identify students' conceptions and their conceptualization traits in terms of the explanation of subjects: human, animals, and plants. A questionnaire was specially developed to make sure students' conceptions of evolution, students' explanation patterns with the five evolutionary explanations: creationism, internal will explanation, theological explanations, use and disuse explanation and natural selection after mutation and perceived ideas of evolution in terms of the genetic characters of human, animals and plants. 1,540 elementary, middle and high school students participated in responding to the questions. The data was collected and analyzed cross-sectionally by age. Results showed that students' evolutionary explanations were different among each subject: human, animals and plants. Students had concentrated with more 'theological explanations' than 'internal will explanation' and 'use and disuse explanation' about plant evolution. 'Natural selection after mutation explanation' was less represented in explaining human characters. This result showed that the anthropocentric thoughts had influenced students' evolution conceptions. Accordingly, as student's age, 'theological explanation' and 'internal will explanation' became least used in explaining the theory of creation. 'Use and disuse explanation' attained more representation in their explanation. In addition, the diversity of students' evolutionary explanations was getting less attention as age increases. Among youngers, 'theological explanation', 'internal will explanation' and 'use and disuse explanation' showed an even number of responses. The elders responded with more 'use and disuse explanation'. This result let us infer that 'use and disuse explanation' was strongly adhered to by student cognitive structures. Many students recognized that evolution was a kind of scientific hypothesis with little evidence. They have had a little interest in evolution and conceptualized it through informal educational sources. This study mentions that to teach evolution more effectively, teachers should make 'use and disuse explanation' adhere strongly to students' cognitive structure.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.137-155
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• 2009

The purpose of the present study was to analyse the effectiveness of a gifted education program. To analyse the effectiveness of an education program for the gifted affiliated with a university, the study carried out a quasi-experimental design to compare the 153 gifted students who enrolled in an education center for the gifted and the 131 potentially gifted students who were nominated by teachers for their high achievements and interests in science but without any education services for the gifted. These two groups of students were compared in the aspects of problem finding ability in science, motivation, self regulation, science-related attitudes, and science anxiety through the pre- and post-treatment settings. The results indicated that the gifted group showed a significant improvement in originality and elaboration of problem-finding ability, but the potentially gifted group showed significant decrease in most variables of problem finding. Related to motivation and self-regulated learning, gifted students showed an increase in cognitive strategy use and decrease in intrinsic value, but the potentially gifted students showed significant decreases in most variables related to motivation and self-regulation, except intrinsic value. Related to the scientific attitudes and science anxiety, there were no significant changes between pre- and post-tests in the gifted group, but significant decreases in most variables were found in the potentially gifted group. The results of paired t-test and Ancova indicate that significant differences between the gifted and the potentially gifted groups are mainly due to the significantly lowered performance in post tests in the potentially gifted group, rather than a significant increase in gifted group.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.168-177
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• 2008

Trafficablility of a miner and potential environmental impacts due to mining activities should be considered in the selection of a commercial manganese nodule mining site. These two factors can be evaluated comparatively with physical properties and shear strength of sea-bed sediments. For the qualitative comparison of potential minig sites in terms of these two factors, physical properties such as water contents, void ratios, porosities, and grain densities, and shear strengths of surface sediments were determined for the three potential manganese nodule mining sites(KR1, KR2, and KR5) in the Korean manganese nodule contract area, northeast Pacific. For the study, sediment samples were collected from 107 stations from 2004 to 2006. The physical properties of surface sediments showed more significant differences between northern(KR1, KR2) and southern(KR5) blocks than between northern blocks(KR1 vs. KR2). Water content, void ratio, and porosity of sediments from KR5 were relatively higher than those from KR1 and KR2. Grain density of sediments from KR5 was relatively lower than those from KR1 and KR2. Shear strengths of the top 10cm sediments were higher in KR1 and KR2, whereas those of the deeper part were highest in KR5 block. Generally, sediments of high water contents are less suspendible than those of the low water contents by benthic disturbances, thus less disturbance is expected in the sediments of high water content by mining activities. In terms of trafficability, the shear strength of sediment below 10 cm deep is more important than shallower part because miner will disturb at least top 10 cm interval of the surface sediments. Base on these results, we conclude that KR5 area will be the best site for commercial mining among three investigated sites in this study.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.251-261
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• 2007

The wind-wave interaction around the Kyung-gi Bay, Korea, was studied using the observed data from ocean buoy at DeuckJeuck-Do from Jan. to Dec., 2005, and from waverider data at KeuckYeulBee-Do on Mar. 19-26 and May 23-28, 2005. Wind-driven surface waves and wave-driven wind speed decrease were estimated from the ocean buoy data, and the characteristics of wave spectrum response were also investigated from the waverider data for the wave developing and calm stages of sea surface, including the time series of spectrum pattern change, frequency trend of the maximum energy level and spectrum slope for the equilibrium state range. The wind speed difference between before and after considering the wave effect was about $2ms^{-1}$ (wind stress ${\sim}0.1Nm^{-2}$) for the wind speed range $5-10ms^{-1}$ and about $3ms^{-1}$ (wind stress ${\sim}0.4Nm^{-2}$) for the wind speed range $10-15ms^{-1}$. Correlation coefficient between wind and wave height was increased from 0.71 to 0.75 after the wave effect considered on the observed wind speed. When surface waves were generated by wind, the initial waves were short waves about 4-5 sec in period and become in gradual longer period waves about 9-10 sec. For the developed wave, the frequency of maximum energy was showed a constant value taking 6-7 hours to reach at the state. The spectrum slope for the equilibrium state range varied with an amplitude in the initial stage of wave developing, however it finally became a constant value 4.11. Linear correlation between the frictional velocity and wave spectrum for each frequency showed a trend of higher correlation coefficient at the frequency of the maximum energy level. In average, the correlation coefficients were 0.80 and 0.82 for the frequencies 0.30 Hz and 0.35 Hz, respectively.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.305-314
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• 2007

We studied spatial and temporal distributions of the phytoplankton and their relationships to physico-chemical environmental factors in the western Jinhae Bay, Korea from November 2003 to August 2004. In most cases, physico-chemical environmental factors showed homogeneous distribution. The phytoplankton communities were composed of mainly diatoms and dinoflagellates, and their standing crops ranged from $16{\times}10^3\;cells\;l^{-1}\;to\;5,845{\times}10^3\;cells\;l^{-1}$ (with a mean value of $555{\times}10^3\;cells\;l^{-1}$). The bloom of phytoplankton was observed in Gohyun Port in the summer. Seasonal variation of phytoplankton standing crops was higher in winter and summer than in spring and autumn. The dominant species were Skeletonema costatum, Akashiwo sanguinea, Pseudo-nitzschia pungens, Dactyliosolen sp., Leptocylindrus danicus, cryptomonads and etc. Especially, S. costatum was predominant in the summer and A. sanguinea (spring and autumn), Pseudo-nitzschia sp. (summer), Guinardia striata (spring), unidentified flagellates (summer) and cryptomonads (spring) appeared to be an opportunistic species. Concentrations of Chl a ranged from $0.6{\mu}g{\cdot}l^{-1}\;to\;16.7{\mu}g{\cdot}l^{-1}$ (with a mean value of $3.4{\mu}g{\cdot}l^{-1}$). The results of the canonical correspondence analysis implies the study area was grouped into the 2 water masses (inner and outer waters of Gohyun Port) and inner waters had higher abundance and Chl a concentration than outer waters. Also, phytoplankton sanding crops were related with temperature, DO and nutrients ($SiO^2$, TN, TP and etc.) in inner waters. Inner water-mass of Gohyun Port expanded between Gacho Is. and Chilchon Is. during the winter.

• Clean Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2024

Zeolite template carbon (ZTC) was synthesized as an adsorbent to remove low-concentration CH₄ from the atmosphere. The synthesis of ZTC was performed using CH₄ and C₂H₂ as carbon precursors and their impact on adsorption was investigated. ZTC was also synthesized using Y zeolite ion-exchanged with CaCl₂ and LiCl as templates to investigate the effect of using metals in ion exchange. The comparison of the carbon precursors revealed that C₂H₂ had a higher carbon yield than CH₄. The synthesized ZTC exhibited developed micropores due to carbon deposition deep inside the micropores of the zeolite template. The kinetic diameter of C₂H₂ (0.33 nm) is smaller than that of CH₄ (0.38 nm), which allowed for its deposition. The study compared metal precursors used for ion exchange and confirmed that the CaCl₂-based ZTC developed more micropores compared to the LiCl-based ZTC. The ion-exchanged Ca inhibited pore blocking by the carbon precursor, allowing it to enter the pores. The ability of synthesized ZTC to adsorb N₂ and CH₄ at 298 K was investigated. The results showed that CH₄ had a higher overall adsorption amount than N₂. The sample synthesized using C₂H₂ and CaY exhibited the highest N₂ and CH₄ adsorption capacity. However, the sample synthesized with CH₄ had the highest CH₄/N₂ gas uptake ratio, which is a crucial factor in designing an adsorption process. The observed difference was likely caused by the underdevelopment of ultrafine pores that are associated with N₂ adsorption. This resulted in a reduction of N₂ adsorption, leading to an increase in CH₄/N₂ separation.