• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.129-155
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• 2008

The rate of antibiotics prescription for an acute airway infection significantly varies depending upon the diagnosis type, specialty, and the location of the hospital along with many other related factors. The objective of this study is to empirically investigate the possible relationship between the antibiotics prescription rates for an acute airway infection and the degree of competition in the hospital market regions of mainly the providers of primary medical care services such as clinics, internal medicines, pediatrics and otorhinolaryngology department. Using the data from Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) regarding the hospitals' antibiotics prescription rates for the acute airway infection and controlling for selected variables of demand and supply sectors, this study tries to figure out that the degree of competition in the hospital market, regardless of what type of competition indexes we employed, has a statistically significant effect on the variations of antibiotics prescription rate of the clinics in local areas. This result implies that as an economic consideration itself, the change in the degree of competition in the hospital market can play a crucial role influencing the treatment behaviors of the medical doctors. More specifically, this study reveals that as the degree of competition increases the antibiotics prescription rate goes up. This result means that if the market becomes more competitive in a specific region so that it might cause a reduction in doctor's income, doctors with rational decision-making process, recognize that the benefit created from inducing patients' seemingly unnecessary demand for medical care (income effect) would be higher than the costs associated with sustaining their targeted income (substitution effect). It is because that the doctors are more likely to prescribe antibiotics which create relatively higher margins than other medical care services in order to sustain their targeted income when the hospital market competition becomes tighter. Even though this study empirically confirms that antibiotics prescription can be affected by the economic incentives, it still raises following issues as limitations of the study: first issue is about the representativeness of the hospital regions segregated for this study, which might be weak in explaining whether these regions are mutually exclusive in reality. Patients actually consider the quality of services, transportation cost, time costs, and any other related factors choosing the doctors or hospitals, and in that sense, this study rules out 'border-crossing' in using the medical care services. Second issue arises in capturing the data of antibiotics prescription rate. Since we use the average rate for each medical institution, we cannot figure out the average rate for each patient so that we are not able to control for the variation of patients' medical conditions. It is because of the unavailability of data regarding each patient's medical condition from HIRA. Thirdly, since this study mainly analyzes the medical institutions providing primary care such as clinics, internal medicines, pediatrics, and otorhinolaryngology department, it is skeptical of whether those institutions can represent the hospital market in respective regions and truly reflect the degree of competition. It needs to extend the study areas and disease types as well as any micro data for future studies.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.844-861
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• 2008

The papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering during the year of 2007 have been reviewed. Focus has been put on current status of research in the aspect of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation and building environments. The conclusions are as follows. (1) The research trends of fluid engineering have been surveyed as groups of general fluid flow, fluid machinery and piping, etc. New research topics include micro nano fluid, micropump and fuel cell. Traditional CFD was still popular and widely used in research and development. Studies about fans and pumps were performed in the field of fluid machinery. Characteristics of flow and fin shape optimization are studied in the field of piping system. (2) The research works on heat transfer have been reviewed in the field of heat transfer characteristics, heat exchangers, and desiccant cooling systems. The research on heat transfer characteristics includes thermal transport in pulse tubes, high temperature superconductors, ground heat exchangers, fuel cell stacks and ice slurry systems. For the heat 'exchangers, the research on pin-tube heat exchanger, plate heat exchanger, condensers and gas coolers has been cordially implemented. The research works on heat transfer augmenting tubes have been also reported. For the desiccant cooling systems, the studies on the design and operating conditions for desiccant rotors as well as performance index are noticeable. (3) In the field of refrigeration, many papers were presented on the air conditioning system using CO2 as a refrigerant. The issues on the two-stage compression, the oil selection, and the appropriate oil charge were treated. The subjects of alternative refrigerants were also studied steadily. Hydrocarbons, DME and their mixtures were considered and various heat transfer correlations were proposed. (4) Research papers have been reviewed in the field of building facilities by grouping into the researches on heat and cold sources, air conditioning and air cleaning, ventilation and fire research including tunnel ventilation, flow control of piping system, and sound research with drain system. Main focuses have been addressed to the promotion of efficient or effective use of energy, which helps to save energy and results in reduced environmental pollution and operating cost. (5) Studies were mostly focused on analyzing the indoor environment in various spaces like cars, old tombs, machine rooms, and etc. in an architectural environmental field. Moreover, subjects of various fields such as the evaluation of noise, thermal environment, indoor air quality and development of energy analysis program were researched by various methods of survey, simulation, and field experiment.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.50-60
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• 2010

For the last half a century, the personal computer and software industries have been prosperous due to the incessant evolution of computer systems. In the 21st century, the embedded system market has greatly increased as the market shifted to the mobile gadget field. While a lot of multimedia gadgets such as mobile phone, navigation system, PMP, etc. are pouring into the market, most industrial control systems still rely on 8-bit micro-controllers and simple application software techniques. Unfortunately, the technological barrier which requires additional investment and higher quality manpower to overcome, and the business risks which come from the uncertainty of the market growth and the competitiveness of the resulting products have prevented the companies in the industry from taking advantage of such fancy technologies. However, high performance, low-power and low-cost hardware and software platforms will enable their high-technology products to be developed and recognized by potential clients in the future. This paper presents such a platform for industrial embedded systems. The platform was designed based on Telechips TCC8300 multimedia processor which embedded a variety of parallel hardware for the implementation of multimedia functions. And open-source Embedded Linux, TinyX and GTK+ are used for implementation of GUI to minimize technology costs. In order to estimate the expected performance and power consumption, the performance improvement and the power consumption due to each of enabled hardware sub-systems including YUV2RGB frame converter are measured. An analytic model was devised to check the feasibility of a new application and trade off its performance and power consumption. The validity of the model has been confirmed by implementing a real target system. The cost can be further mitigated by using the hardware parts which are being used for mass production products mostly in the cell-phone market.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.94-131
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• 2007

A review on the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineering in 2004 and 2005 has been done. Focus has been put on current status of research in the aspect of heating, cooling, air-conditioning, ventilation, sanitation and building environment. The conclusions are as follows. (1) Most of fundamental studies on fluid flow were related with heat transportation of facilities. Drop formation and rivulet flow on solid surfaces were interesting topics related with condensation augmentation. Research on micro environment considering flow, heat, humidity was also interesting for comfortable living environment. It can be extended considering biological aspects. Development of fans and blowers of high performance and low noise were continuing topics. Well developed CFD and flow visualization(PIV, PTV and LDV methods) technologies were widely applied for developing facilities and their systems. (2) The research trends of the previous two yews are surveyed as groups of natural convection, forced convection, electronic cooling, heat transfer enhancement, frosting and defrosting, thermal properties, etc. New research topics introduced include natural convection heat transfer enhancement using nanofluid, supercritical cooling performance or oil miscibility of $CO_2$, enthalpy heat exchanger for heat recovery, heat transfer enhancement in a plate heat exchanger using fluid resonance. (3) The literature for the last two years($2004{\sim}2005$) is reviewed in the areas of heat pump, ice and water storage, cycle analysis and reused energy including geothermal, solar and unused energy). The research on cycle analysis and experiments for $CO_2$ was extensively carried out to replace the Ozone depleting and global warming refrigerants such as HFC and HCFC refrigerants. From the year of 2005, the Gas Engine Heat Pump(GHP) has been paid attention from the viewpoint of the gas cooling application. The heat pipe was focused on the performance improvement by the parametric analysis and the heat recovery applications. The storage systems were studied on the performance enhancement of the storage tank and cost analysis for heating and cooling applications. In the area of unused energy, the hybrid systems were extensively introduced and the life cycle cost analysis(LCCA) for the unused energy systems was also intensively carried out. (4) Recent studies of various refrigeration and air-conditioning systems have focused on the system performance and efficiency enhancement. Heat transfer characteristics during evaporation and condensation are investigated for several tube shapes and of alternative refrigerants including carbon dioxide. Efficiency of various compressors and expansion devices are also dealt with for better modeling and, in particular, performance improvement. Thermoelectric module and cooling systems are analyzed theoretically and experimentally. (5) According to the review of recent studies on ventilation systems, an appropriate ventilation systems including machenical and natural are required to satisfied the level of IAQ. Also, an recent studies on air-conditioning and absorption refrigeration systems, it has mainly focused on distribution and dehumidification of indoor air to improve the performance were carried out. (6) Based on a review of recent studies on indoor environment and building service systems, it is noticed that research issues have mainly focused on optimal thermal comfort, improvement of indoor air Quality and many innovative systems such as air-barrier type perimeter-less system with UFAC, radiant floor heating and cooling system and etc. New approaches are highlighted for improving indoor environmental condition as well as minimizing energy consumption, various activities of building control and operation strategy and energy performance analysis for economic evaluation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.956-962
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• 2009

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of dentifrice-contatning grapefruit seed extract (GSE) and processed sulfur solution (PSS) on antimicrobial effects against oral pathogens. We first evaluated the antimicrobial effects of GSE and PSS against oral microbes: Streptococcus mutans (Sm), Prevotella intermedia (Pi), Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) and Candida albicans (Ca). When antimicrobial activity against Sm, Pi, Pg and Ca was tested, at 40 $\mu$l/disk, the inhibition zones of GSE were 11.0, 9.5, 8.0 and 9.0 mm, respectively. With the same method, the inhibition zones of PSS were 2.0, 3.5, 0.0 and 1.5 mm, respectively. In the micro broth dilution method, the MIC values of GSE against Sm, Pi, Pg and Ca were 0.24, 0.06, 0.10 and 15.63 $\mu$l/rnl, respectively. The MIC values of PSS were 0.12, 3.91,>125 and 7.81 $\mu$l/ml, respectively. When pH, refractive index, viscosity and color value of dentifrice-containing GSE and PSS were measured, there were no significant changes in these physical properties compared to the control samples. Antimicrobial activities of dentifrice products containing 0.5% GSE and 0.5% PSS against oral pathogens were 7.3, 4.3, 2.2 and 1.5 mm, respectively. According to these results, we conclude that there may be a role for GSE and PSS in the development of new oral supplies.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.35-48
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• 2014

In order to estimate the effect of additional nutrients on phytoplankton growth and horizontal phytoplankton community distribution during the autumn season in 2010 and 2011, we investigated the abiotic and biotic factors of surface and bottom waters at 20 stations of inner and offshore areas in Gwangyang Bay, Korea. Also, nutrient additional experiments were conducted to assess additional nutrient effects on phytoplankton assemblage using the surface water. In both years, the total nutrients were high at the enclosed inner bay and the mouth of Seomjin River, whereas it was low at the St.15~20 where in influenced by the surface warm water current from offshore of the bay. On the other hand, nano- and pico-sized Chl. a were gradually increased towards the outer bay and their trends were significant in 2011 than in 2010. The cryptophyta species occupied more than 85% of total phytoplankton assembleges in 2010, whereas their abundance in 2011 remainds to be 1/10 levels of 2010. Following the cryptophata species, the diatom Chaetoceros spp. and Skeletonema-like spp. were found to be dominant species. Further the biosaasy experimental results shows that the phytoplankton biomass in the +N and +NP treatments was higher compared to control and +P treatments and its trend was significant at St.8 and St.20 where nutrient concentration were low. Based on the bioassay and field survey, providing the high nutrients may have stimulated to phytoplankton growth such as S. costatum-like spp.. In particular, opportunistic micro-algae such as Cryptomonas spp. were able to achieve the high biomass under the relatively mid nutrient condition from bottom after break down of seasonal stratification in the Gwangyang Bay.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.33-43
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• 2007

Because usually signal controllers on the crosswalks of mid-block provide pedestrian signals every cycle based on the fixed signal plan, pedestrian signals are provided even when there is no pedestrian demand. Consequently, signal is operated inefficiently and this may cause drivels to experience useless delay or violate the signal. Even though recently pushbuttons have been installed to improve the efficiency of pedestrian signal control in the crosswalks of mid-block and the pedestrian safety. they are not spread out national-wide in Korea because of the cost of the pushbutton equipments and the lack of an acknowledgement of the efficiency of the pushbutton. In this study, the effectiveness of the pushbutton on saving the vehicle delay was verified through before and after study in 4 study sites using a traffic micro-simulation model, VISSIM. To evaluate the viability of the pushbutton, a benefit/cost analysis was also performed for 4 study sites. It was found that B/C ratio of all of 4 study sites was greater than 1. The sensitivity analysis for the traffic volume and pedestrian volume were performed to identify the impact of the both volume on the operation of pushbutton. And, a benefit/cost analysis was performed for all scenarios. It was found that when the pedestrian volume is greater than 90ped/h, the pedestrian signal was operated same as the fixed signal plan. That is, there is no benefit of pushbutton at all once the pedestrian volume is greater than 90ped/h. When the pedestrian volume is equal to or less than 90ped/h and the traffic volume is greater than 2,500veh/h, B/C ratio is greater than 1. Also it was found that as traffic volume increases and pedestrian volume decreases, the benefit increases. In this study, the criteria for installation of pushbutton on the crosswalks of mid-block are developed through the sensitivity analysis and benefit/cost analysis. The results of this study may be used as a criteria for expansion of pushbutton system.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.274-280
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• 2005

Enormous amount of oyster-shell waste has been illegally disposed at oyster farm sites along the southern coast of Korea and then made a serious problem in environmental side. To increase the consumption of oyster shell meal as a soil amendment, the effects of oyster shell meal on soil properties and spring Chinese cabbage productivity were evaluated in silt loam soil to which 0, 4, 8, 12 and $16Mg\;ha^{-1}$ of oyster-shell meal fertilizer were added. Hydrated lime treatment ($2Mg\;ha^{-1}$) was selected as a control. Oyster-shell meal fertilizer, which made by a simple crushing and has high alkalinity as a calcium materials, had significant effects on neutralizing acid soil and on supplying calcium element. Spring Chinese cabbage yields increased with shell meal application. Plant uptakes of macro-nutrients such as P and C, and micro-nutrient such as B were significantly increased by oyster-shell meal application and then contributed to promote Chinese cabbage growth. The highest yield was achieved following the addition of $8Mg\;ha^{-1}$ shell meal application, and the same yield with that in lime treatment was at the $4Mg\;ha^{-1}$. Oyster-shell meal had more substantial effect on suppling calcium and on improving soil pH than that of lime. In conclusion, oyster shell meal fertilizer could be a good supplement to other inorganic soil amendments to improve nutrient balances in upland soils.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.3 s.83
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• pp.435-443
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• 2007

Antimicrobial susceptibility test of the 116 strains of Mycoplasma pneumoniae isolates were performed by a broth micro-dilution method against to moxifloxacin, levofloxacin, sparfloxacin, ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin minocycline, erythromycin, josamycin, and tetracycline. The initial-minimum inhibitory concentration (I-MIC) was evaluated as the lowest concentration of antimicrobial agents that prevented a color change in the medium at that time when the drug-free growth control, about 7 days after incubation, and the final-minimum inhibitory concentration (F-MIC) was defined a color change about 14 days after incubation. The evaluation to the drug-resistant M. pneumoniae isolates were determined the $MIC{\pm}1.0$ ${\mu}g/ml$ of each antimicrobial agent. According to the I-MIC, single drug-resistant M. pneumoniae strains to ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, clarithromycin and erythromycin were 79.3, 53.5, 10.3, and 7.8%, respectively. Two kinds of drug-resistant M. pneumoniae strains to ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin, or ciprofloxacin and clarithromycin were 42.2 and 9.5%. Three kinds of drug-resistant M. pneumoniae strains to erythromycin, ofloxacin, and ciprofloxacin, or ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and clarithromycin were 6.9 and 6.0% . According to the F-MIC, single drug-resistant M. pneumoniae strains to tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, minocycline,erythromycin, josamycin, clarithromycin and sparfloxacin were 91.4, 91.4, 91.4, 89.7, 68.1, 52.6, 28.5, and 11.2%, respectively. The incidence of two kinds of drug-resistant M. pneumoniae strains were from 20.7% to 91.4%, three kinds of drug-resistant M. pneumoniae strains were from 28.5% to 89.7%, four kinds of drug-resistant M. pneumoniae strains were 2.6%, five kinds of drug-resistant M. pneumoniae were from 2.6% to 21.6%, six kinds of drug-resistant M. pneumoniae strains were from 0.9% to 24.1%, seven kinds of drug-resistant M. pneumoniae strains were from 0.9% to 2.6%, and eight kinds of drug-resistant M. pneumoniae strains were 1.7%. These results suggest that sparfloxacin, moxifloxacin and levofloxacin might be promising antimicrobial agents for the treatment of M. pneumoniae infection in Korea. However, most strains of M. pneumoniae isolates were single or multi-resistance pattern to the other tested antimicrobial agents. Therefore, tetracycline, minocycline, erythromycin, clarithromycin, and second-generation quinolones are more carefully used to patients with M. pneumoniae infection in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.427-446
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• 2008

A review on the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering in 2006 has been accomplished. Focus has been put on current status of research in the aspect of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation and building environments. The conclusions are as follows. (1) The research trends of fluid engineering have been surveyed as groups of general fluid flow, fluid machinery and piping, etc. New research topics include micro heat exchanger and siphon cooling device using nano-fluid. Traditional CFD and flow visualization methods were still popular and widely used in research and development. Studies about diffusers and compressors were performed in fluid machinery. Characteristics of flow and heat transfer and piping optimization were studied in piping systems. (2) The papers on heat transfer have been categorized into heat transfer characteristics, heat exchangers, heat pipes, and two-phase heat transfer. The topics on heat transfer characteristics in general include thermal transport in a cryo-chamber, a LCD panel, a dryer, and heat generating electronics. Heat exchangers investigated include pin-tube type, plate type, ventilation air-to-air type, and heat transfer enhancing tubes. The research on a reversible loop heat pipe, the influence of NCG charging mass on heat transport capacity, and the chilling start-up characteristics in a heat pipe were reported. In two-phase heat transfer area, the studies on frost growth, ice slurry formation and liquid spray cooling were presented. The studies on the boiling of R-290 and the application of carbon nanotubes to enhance boiling were noticeable in this research area. (3) Many studies on refrigeration and air conditioning systems were presented on the practical issues of the performance and reliability enhancement. The air conditioning system with multi indoor units caught attention in several research works. The issues on the refrigerant charge and the control algorithm were treated. The systems with alternative refrigerants were also studied. Carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and their mixtures were considered and the heat transfer correlations were proposed. (4) Due to high oil prices, energy consumption have been attentioned in mechanical building systems. Research works have been reviewed in this field by grouping into the research on heat and cold sources, air conditioning and cleaning research, ventilation and fire research including tunnel ventilation, and piping system research. The papers involve the promotion of efficient or effective use of energy, which helps to save energy and results in reduced environmental pollution and operating cost. (5) Studies on indoor air quality took a great portion in the field of building environments. Various other subjects such as indoor thermal comfort were also investigated through computer simulation, case study, and field experiment. Studies on energy include not only optimization study and economic analysis of building equipments but also usability of renewable energy in geothermal and solar systems.