• Health Policy and Management
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.48-67
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• 2006

The aim of the study was to examine levels of satisfaction with health care in North Korea and to identify factors associated with it using a convenience sample of North Korean refugees in China. Data from the 2004 Survey of Health Seeking Behavior of North Korean Households conducted by the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health were used. The study subjects were 273 North Korean refugees whose length of stay in China was less than 3 months. Factor analysis was used to extract factor dimensions from the 12 satisfaction items. Bivariate (t test and ANOVA) and multiple regression analyses were used in examining factors associated with satisfaction with health care use in North Korea Overall, satisfaction level was low ($2.36{\pm}0.36$, score range: 1-5). Of the three-factor dimensions, physician skills scored the highest $(2.93{\pm}0.36)$, followed by drug availability $(2.51{\pm}0.07)$ and general cleanliness $(1.66{\pm}0.55)$. In the multiple regression analysis, having a usual source of care was significantly associated with patient satisfaction. Respondents who identified primary care (section) doctors as their usual source of care tended to be less satisfied than those with the city or county hospital as their usual source of care. County residents tended to report a lower degree of satisfaction with general cleanliness than city residents. Among socioeconomic characteristics, the number of household assets positively predicted satisfaction with drug availability. North Korean residents appear to be dissatisfied with their medical care. It may reflect some inadequacies in the North's universal health care system to meet the healthcare needs of its people.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.26 no.2 s.42
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• pp.293-309
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• 1993

With expanded and extended coverage of the national medical insurance and fast growing health care expenditures, appropriateness of health service utilization and quality of care are concerns of both health care providers and insurers as well as patients. An accurate patient classification system is a basic tool for effective health care policies and efficient health services management. A classification system applicable to Korean medical information-Korean Diagnosis Related Groups (K-DRGs)-was developed based on the U.S. Refined DRGs, and the performance of the developed system was assessed in this study. In the process of the development, first the Korean coding systems for diagnoses and procedures were converted to the systems used in the definition of the U.S. Refined DRGs using the mapping tables formulated by physician panels. Then physician panels reviewed the group definition, and identified medical practice patterns different in two countries. The definition was modified for the differences in K-DRGs. The process resulted in 1,199 groups in the system. Several groups in Refined DRGs could not be differentiated in K-DRGs due to insufficient medical information, and several groups could not be defined due to procedures which were not practiced in Korea. However, the classification structure of Refined DRGs was retained in K-DRGs. The developed system was evaluated fur its performance in explaining variations in resource use as measured by charges and length of stay(LOS), for both all and non-extreme discharges. The data base used in this evaluation included 373,322 discharges which was a random sample of discharges reviewed and payed by the medical insurance during the five-month period from September 1990. The proportion of variance in resource use which was reduced by classifying patients into K-DRGs-r-square-was comparable to the performance of the U.S. Refined DRGs: .39 for charges and .25 for LOS for all discharges, and .53 for charges and .31 for LOS for non-extreme discharges. Another measure analyzed to assess the performance was the coefficient of variation of charges within individual K-DRGs. A total of 966 K-DRGs (87.7%) showed a coefficient below 100%, and the highest coefficient among K-DRGs with more than 30 discharges was 159%.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.173-186
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• 2004

This paper proposed the content-based retrieval system as a method for performing image retrieval through the effective feature extraction of the object of significant meaning based on the characteristics of man's visual system. To allow the object region of interest to be primarily detected, the region, being comparatively large size, greatly different from the background color and located in the middle of the image, was judged as the major object with a meaning. To get the original features of the image, the cumulative sum of tile declination difference vector the segment of the object contour had and the signature of the bipartite object were extracted and used in the form of being applied to the rotation of the object and the change of the size after partition of the total length of the object contour of the image into the normalized segment. Starting with this form feature, it was possible to make a retrieval robust to any change in translation, rotation and scaling by combining information on the texture sample, color and eccentricity and measuring the degree of similarity. It responded less sensitively to the phenomenon of distortion of the object feature due to the partial change or damage of the region. Also, the method of imposing a different weight of similarity on the image feature based on the relationship of complexity between measured objects using the fractal dimension by the Boxing-Counting Dimension minimized the wrong retrieval and showed more efficient retrieval rate.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.27-41
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• 2017

This study dealt with the characteristics and the interrelations of hydrogeological parameters such as hydraulic conductivity, dispersivity and effective porosity of unconsolidated sediments for providing the basic data necessary for the planning of the management and preservation of groundwater quality in the Nakdong River Delta of Busan City, Korea. Groundwater quality in this area has been deteriorated due to seawater intrusion, agricultural fertilizer and pesticide, industrial wastewater, and contaminated river water. The physical properties (grain size distribution, sediment type, sorting) and aquifer parameters (hydraulic conductivity, effective porosity, longitudinal dispersivity) were determined from grain size analysis, laboratory permeability test and column tracer test. Among 36 samples, there were 18 Sand (S), 7 Gravelly Sand (gS), 5 Silty Sand (zS), 5 Muddy Sand (mS), and 1 Sandy Silt (sZ). Hydraulic conductivity was determined through a falling head test, and ranged from $9.2{\times}10^{-5}$ to $2.9{\times}10^{-2}cm/sec$ (0.08 to 25.6 m/day). From breakthrough curves, dispersivity was calculated to be 0.35~3.92 cm. Also, effective porosity and average linear velocity were obtained through the column tracer test, and their values were 0.04~0.46 and 1.06E-04~6.49E-02 cm/sec, respectively. Statistical methods were used to understand the interrelations among aquifer parameters of hydraulic conductivity, effective porosity and dispersivity. The relation between dispersivity and hydraulic conductivity or effective porosity considered the sample length, because dispersivity was affected by experimental scale. The relations between dispersivity and hydraulic conductivity or effective porosity were all in inverse proportion for all long and short samples. The reason was because dispersivity was in inverse proportion to the groundwater velocity in case of steady hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient, and groundwater velocity was in proportion to the hydraulic conductivity or effective porosity. This study also elucidated that longitudinal dispersivity was dependent on the scale of column tracer test, and all hydrogeological parameters were low to high values due to the sand quantity of sediments. It is expected that the hydrogeological parameter data of sediments will be very useful for the planning of groundwater management and preservation in the Nakdong River Delta of Busan City, Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.20-35
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• 2008

This study used crop data from statistics yearbooks in Naju and climate data from Gwangju weather station to investigate whether climate changes have had significant impact on crops. The sample crops are rice, barley, pear, radish, Korean cabbage and red pepper. The results showed that the changes in temperature have shifted crop phonology and affected crop growth. The rice and barley heading date were advancing and had negative correlation with average temperature over 30days before average heading date. The number of rice grains per unit area $(m^2)$ were decreasing while the number of barley grains per unit area $(m^2)$ were increasing because average temperature during grain filling period of rice (barley) was increasing (decreasing). Therefore, decreasing (increasing) yields of rice (barley) can be predicted by global warming. The sprouting, flowering and full flowering date of pear were advancing. The sprouting date of pear had negative correlation with average temperature from February to March and the flowering and full flowering date of pear had negative correlation with average temperature from February to April. The brix and weight of pear were increased and were most sensitive to August and September average temperature. An earlier blossom of pear trees holds the danger of damage by late frosts. The plant length of radish and chinese cabbage were decreasing and negatively influenced by maximum temperature on September. The fruit set numbers of red pepper were increasing recently and had positive correlation with minimum temperature on August. The growth of radish and Korean cabbage will be poor, but the growth of red pepper will be good by rising temperature.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2017

In the present study, the multiple light scattering method was used for analysis of early hardening behavior of natural hydraulic lime (NHL) containing inorganic additives. In order to improve the properties of self-manufactured NHL, blast furnace slag and three types of gypsum were mixed with mixing ratio, and a water/solid ratio of fresh NHL paste was fixed 0.6. The fresh pastes in flat-bottomed cylindrical glass tubes were placed in the instrument. The backscattering flux (BS) of light from fresh pastes was then periodically measured at 10 minutes intervals the entire length of the sample (55mm) at $23^{\circ}C$ for 24 hours. The rate of increase of BS, slope of a linear equation to the mean value of BS (%) as a function of hydration time, was increased from 0.02 to 0.38 BS %/hour due to addition of blast furnace slag and gypsum. In the case of addition of hemi-hydrate, BS (%) and rate of increase in BS were highest.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.345-353
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• 2007

We have obtained a topographical image nondestructively for a Cu thin film in liquid using a near-field scanning microwave microscope (NSMM), its operating frequency was 3.5 to 5.5 GHz. We have kept a distance of 10 nm between tip and sample using a quartz tuning fork shear force feedback system. As an end of tip was attached to one prong of the quartz tuning fork has a length of 2 mm, the only tip of tuning fork was immersed in water tank. A loss cause by evaporation in water tank is regulated with actuator was connected to a supplementary tank. Moreover, using a revise program of LabView, we could increase the accuracy of a measurement in liquid.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.37-45
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze a sample of single corridor, pod type and composite type of ICUs in terms of patient visibility, spatial configurations and nurse walking distance focused on Korean cases. Methods: The measures of static visibility were used to quantify the patient visibility (upper third part of the patient bed) from the nurse station. The measure of space programme and area distribution (patient zone percentage, staff zone percentage, circulation zone percentage, corridor length per bed, distance from nurse station (NS) to patient bed and departmental gross square meter (DGSM) per patient bed) were calculated by using AutoCAD and MS Excel programs. In the second step of analysis the values of space distribution were compared among the three type of ICUs as well as the nurse walking distance, DGSM per bed and gross factor. in the third step of analysis regression analysis was conducted for the possible correlation between visibility and space programme and area distribution factors as well as nurse walking distance factors. Results: (1) It was found that on average composite type unit offer highest value of patient visibility followed by pod type, while single corridor type unit offers the minimum value of patient visibility among the three plan typologies. (2) Average patient visibility and DGSM per bed shows a strong positive correlation ($r^2=0.75$) and p=0.026. (3) Average patient visibility and average distance from NS has a strong negative correlation ($r^2=0.78$), and P=0.02. (4) On average composite type unit offer the minimum walking distance from NS (7.22 meter) followed by pod type unit (8.35 meter) and single corridor (9.76 meter). (5) Maximum distance from NS was noted in single corridor (18.19 meter) followed by pod type unit (15.14 meter) and Composite type unit (11.1 meter). Implications: This study may contribute to the visibility analysis of existing and future ICU design in Korea to achieve maximum patient visibility and reduced nurse walking distance.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.93-104
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• 2018

Purpose - This study is to investigate the relationship among emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and job stress of foreign life insurance consultants focusing on the mediating effect of self-efficacy. Regarding job security, in general foreign life insurance companies in Korea have more severe working conditions in terms of required contract performance. For foreign life insurance consultants, they are assumed to need higher level of emotional intelligence and self efficacy to meet the conditions. In this study, focus is cast on these aspects. Research design, data, and methodology - Basically the research is conducted upon questionnaires responded by foreign life insurance consultants. That is, data are collected from 255 sample of insurance consultants who work for a foreign owned life insurance company. The Questionnaire measure the level of emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and job stress of insurance consultants. The data are analyzed using pearson's correlation coefficient and hierarchical multiple regression, descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Durbin-Watson test. Results - The general characteristics of respondents are gender, age, marital status, education level, income monthly, career length, change jobs no, working day per week, call no. per week, meeting no. with client per week, contract regularity, contract no. per month and cancellation contract per year. The mean of emotional intelligence is 2.63, self-efficacy is 3.44 and job stress is 2.20. Emotional intelligence is composed with mean value of self emotion appraisal(3.93), other's emotion appraisal(3.78), regulation of emotion(3.29) and use of emotion(3.52). The mean of self efficacy is composed with mean value of self-confidence(3.41), self-regulated efficacy(3.59) and preference task difficulty(3.30). The job stress is composed with mean value of job requirement(2.61), lack of job autonomy(1.99), conflict of personal relations(1.99), job instability(2.38), organizational system(2.19) and inappropriate compensation(2.07). There is a significant positive correlation between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy. The emotional intelligence and self-efficacy are significantly negative correlation with job stress. The self-efficacy is showed a mediating variable between emotional intelligence and job stress. Conclusions - To decrease job stress level, foreign life insurance company should find the factors to improve the emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of life insurance consultants, and develop appropriate plans using a mediating role of self- efficacy between emotional intelligence and job stress.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.578-584
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• 1999

The purpose of this experiment was to determine: (1) the safe automatic apical reverse setting that prevents overinstrumentation of the root canal, using Tri Auto ZX$^{(R)}$ and (2) the effect of various irrigant on such instrumentation. The instrumentation was carried out with the automatic apical reverse setting of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0. The root canal irrigants used in usual manner were normal saline(0.9%), NaOCl(2.5%), and RC Prep$^{(R)}$. For each reverse setting and each irrigant, ten teeth were used with the total of 120 teeth. The distance between the file tip and the apical constriction was determined by stereomicroscope using the point that the file began to rotate in reverse direction. When the reverse setting mode was set to 0.5, 18 of 30 were overinstrumented. If these were discriminated by irrigant, 10 of 6 with 0.9% saline, 10 of 6 with NaOCl, and 10 of 6 with RC Prep$^{(R)}$ has the file tip located 0.57${\pm}$0.30mm, 0.73${\pm}$0.39mm, and 0.26${\pm}$0.25mm beyond the apical constriction respectively. In 1.0 setting 15 of 29 were over the apical constriction, and the distribution was 6 in saline, 5 in NaOCl, and 4 in RC Prep$^{(R)}$. The mean distance over the apical constriction was 0.28${\pm}$0.13mm with saline, 0.75${\pm}$0.61mm with NaOCl, and 0.25${\pm}$0.17mm with RC Prep$^{(R)}$. When the autoatic reverse mode was set to 1.5, and 2.0, 5, and 1 teeth were found to be overinstrumented in respective settings. But there were large variations in overinstrumented distances when an attempt was made to compare the effect of irrigants on this overinstrumentations and they were meaningless for the small sample size. When all of the autoreverse setting were combined to compare the number of overinstrumented teeth with each irrigant, there were no significant differences (14 for normal saline, 12 for NaOCl, 13 for RC Prep$^{(R)}$). When 0.5 or 1.0 automatic apical reverse setting mode was used the Tri Auto ZX$^{(R)}$ in clinical application, the possibility of overinstrumentation beyond the apical constriction exists in 55.9% of cases. Therefore 1.5 or 2.0 setting is safer for the preparation inside the canal but this type setting needs additional apical hand preparation of the root canal because the accuracy is lower than 0.5 or 1.0 setting.