• Health Policy and Management
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2005

The aim of this study was to compare medical cost of hospice care and that of conventional care during the last year of life, and identify factors that influenced the cost. From January to August 2003 592 terminal cancer patients receiving care from 5 hospice care units and 2 hospice care teams in general hospitals were enrolled to case group. Two hundreds and seventy two terminal cancer patients receiving conventional care from 7 general hospitals were enrolled to hospital-based control group, and 1,636 terminal cancer patients from 122 general hospitals located in same regions with the 7 hospitals were enrolled to community-based control. We used characteristics and medical cost from data of National Health Insurance Cooperation. Total medical cost per beneficiary in cases was about 10 millions won, 14.5 millions in hospital-based controls and 11.1 millions in community-based controls. The hospice care saved $45\%$ over the last year of life compared with hospital-based controls (p<0.0001). Saving of inpatient cost account for approximately $80\%$ of saving per beneficiary. Hospice care saved $29\%$ of medical cost per hospitalization day compared with hospital­based controls and $17\%$ compared with community-based controls (p<0.0001). Multiple regression analyses showed that hospice care significantly saved the medical cost. This study suggest that hospice care save medical cost compared with hospital-based control and community-based control. Most of saving of inpatient cost account for approximately $80\%$ of saving of medical cost.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.30-36
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• 2014

The pressurized smoke control system in the vestibule is important for fire safety in buildings because it is concerned with egress time of people and the safety of fire fighters. The vestibule pressurization system can prevent smoke from entering the vestibule using differential pressure when fire doors are closed and using the egress velocity when fire doors are open. Air supplying units in the vestibule need to be arranged by taking account of the location of doors and the volume of the vestibule in order to assure the uniform air egress velocity through a fire door when it is open. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted for the vestibule where multiple doors are installed and it was found that the reverse flow occurs when the damper position in vestibule is not appropriate.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.143-162
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• 2019

Motivated by a simpler and more compact hybrid active tuned mass damper (ATMD) system with wide frequency spacing (i.e., high robustness) but not reducing the effectiveness using the least number of ATMD units, the active tuned tandem mass dampers (ATTMD) have been proposed to attenuate undesirable oscillations of structures under the ground acceleration. Likewise, it is expected that the frequency spacing of the ATTMD is comparable to that of the active multiple tuned mass dampers (AMTMD) or the multiple tuned mass dampers (MTMD). In accordance with the mode generalised system in the specific vibration mode being controlled (simply referred herein to as the structure), the closed-form expression of the dimensionless displacement variances has been derived for the structure with the attached ATTMD. The criterion for the optimum searching may then be determined as minimization of the dimensionless displacement variances. Employing the gradient-based optimization technique, the effects of varying key parameters on the performance of the ATTMD have been scrutinized in order to probe into its superiority. Meanwhile, for the purpose of a systematic comparison, the optimum results of two active tuned mass dampers (two ATMDs), two tuned mass dampers (two TMDs) without the linking damper, and the TTMD are included into consideration. Subsequent to work in the frequency domain, a real-time Simulink implementation of dynamic analysis of the structure with the ATTMD under earthquakes is carried out to verify the findings of effectiveness and stroke in the frequency domain. Results clearly show that the findings in the time domain support the ones in the frequency domain. The whole work demonstrates that ATTMD outperforms two ATMDs, two TMDs, and TTMD. Thereinto, a wide frequency spacing feature of the ATTMD is its highlight, thus deeming it a high robustness control device. Furthermore, the ATTMD system only needs the linking dashpot, thus embodying its simplicity.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.225-232
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• 2012

Purpose: Accurate monitoring of information from various agricultural vehicles is one of the most important factors for appropriate management strategy of field operations. While there has been a number of study and design on applications of sensors and actuators for data acquisition and control system in tractor, incompatibility between various customized hardware and software has become a major obstacle to the universal deployment in real field operation. International standard for implementation of electronic control unit (ECU) in agricultural vehicles has becoming a mandatory requirement for inter-operation compatibility in the international trade of agricultural vehicle industries. The ISO 11783 standard is basically based upon well known communication technology designated using the controller area network (CAN) bus. While CAN bus could provide 1.0 Mbps of communication speed, the standard only recommended 250 kbps. Methods: This study presents the implementation and evaluation of ISO 11783 for tractor electronic control units (TECU)with a higher transmission rate from multiple ECU than 250 kbps. Throughput and loss rate of the developed prototype were calculated across manipulated bus load for laboratory experimental tests, and the maximum requirement of transmission rate by ISO 11873 was satisfied with lower than 60% of bus load. Results: Field tests with a TECU implemented to process messages from global positioning system (GPS) receiver resulted that the root mean square error of position information was lower than 4 m with 0.5 m/s as a travelling speed. Conclusions: Results of this study represent the utilization of the international standard ISO 11783 to providepractical developments in terms with the inter-operability of TECU.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.414-429
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• 2021

Purpose: This systematic review and meta-analysis analyzed the effects of 2% chlorhexidine bathing on the incidence of hospital-acquired infection (HAI) and multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) in adult intensive care units. Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane library, and RISS database were systematically searched, and 12 randomized studies were included in the analysis. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis version 3.0 was used to calculate the effect size using the odds ratio (OR) and a 95% confidence interval (CI). Subgroup analysis was performed according to the specific infection and intervention types. Results: In general, 2% chlorhexidine bathing has a significant effect on the incidence of HAI (OR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.40~0.86) and MDRO (OR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.34~0.79). Subgroup analyses show 2% chlorhexidine bathing is effective in bloodstream infections (OR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.39~0.66) but not for urinary tract infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia infections, and Clostridium difficile infections. Moreover, 2% chlorhexidine bathing alone or its combination with other interventions has a significant effect on the incidence of HAI and MDRO (OR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.38~0.92). Conclusion: This meta-analysis reveals that 2% chlorhexidine bathing significantly reduces the incidence of HAI and MDRO in intensive care units. The effect of 2% chlorhexidine bathing on pediatric patients or patients at general wards should be further assessed as a cost-effective intervention for infection control.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.274-284
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• 2016

The increasing penetration of distributed energy resources on the distribution networks have brought a number of technical impacts where voltage and thermal variations have been identified as the dominant effects. Active network management in distribution networks aims to integrate distributed energy resources with flexible network management so that distributed energy resources are organized to make better use of existing capacity and infrastructure. This paper propose active solutions which aims to solve the voltage and thermal issues in a distributed manner utilizing a collaborative approach. The proposed algorithms have been fully tested on a distribution network with distributed generation units.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1771-1774
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• 2005

Recently, RFID has become popular in the field of remote sensing applications. Location awareness is one of the most important keys to deploying RFID for advanced object tracking. Generally, multiple reference RF stations or additional sensors are used for the location sensing with RFID, but, particularly in indoor environments, spatial layout and cost problems limit the applicability of those approaches. In this paper, we propose a novel method for location sensing with active RFID systems not requiring the need for reference stations or additional sensors. The system triangulates the position of RF signal source using the signal pattern of the loop antenna connected to the power detector. The power detector consists of a signal strength detector and a signal analysis unit. The signal analysis unit indicates the signal strength and serial number using the signal from the strength detector, and provides the direction of the signal to the application target. We designed three different signal analysis units depending on the threshold type. The developed system can sense the direction to the transponder located over 10 m away within the maximum error of $5^{\circ}$. It falls within a reasonable range in our normal office environment.

• Journal of The Korean Dental Society of Anesthesiology
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• v.2 no.2 s.3
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• pp.114-117
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• 2002

Special anesthetic considerations were required for children with acute or chronic liver disease. We experienced a case of dental treatment to control infection under general anesthesia in the 2-year-old girl with liver failure. She was also scheduled for liver tansplantation. Her preanesthetic results of liver function test, electrolytes, and coagulation panel were unstable and out of normal ranges. Uneventful anesthetic induction using isoflurane and atracurium and nasotracheal intubation were carried out. General anesthesia was maintained with isoflurane for 2 hours. Oozing from multiple extraction sites was sustained, so the transfusion of platelet concentration 1 units, fresh frozen plasma 1 unit, and packed red blood cell 1 unit was done. She was recovered without complication but was transferred to pediatric intensive care unit for wound care with her endotracheal tube kept. She was transferred to a ward without noticeable complications next day. So we report this successful case of anesthetic management for dental treatment in a child with liver failure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.904-913
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• 2005

This paper deals with an integrated problem of inventory control and dynamic pricing strategies for a commodity with price and sales-period dependent demand pattern, where a seller and customers have complete information of each other. The problem consists of two parts; one is each buyer's benefit problem which makes the best decision on price and time for buyer to purchase items, and the other one is a seller's profit problem which decides an optimal sales strategy concerned with inventory control and discount schedule. The seller's profit function consists of sales revenue and inventory holding cost functions. The two parts are closely related into each other with some related variables, so that any existing general solution methods can not be applied. Therefore, a simplified model with single seller and two customers in considered first, where demand for multiple units is allowed to each customer within a time limit. Therewith, the model is generalized for a n-customer-classes problem. To solve the proposed n-customer-set problem, a dynamic programming algorithm is derived. In the proposed dynamic programming algorithm, an intermediate profit function is used, which is computed in case of a fixed initial inventory level and then adjusted in searching for an optimal inventory level. This leads to an optimal sales strategy for a seller, which can derive an optimal decision on both an initial inventory level and a discount schedule, in $O(n^2)$ time. This result can be used for some extended problems with a small customer set and a short selling period, including sales strategy for department stores, Dutch auction for items with heavy holding cost, open tender of materials, quantity-limited sales, and cooperative buying in the on/off markets.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.7
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• pp.943-949
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• 2013

Recently, an electric vehicle (EV) has been become a huge issue in the automotive industry. The EV has many electrical units: electric motors, batteries, converters, etc. The DC distribution power system (DPS) is essential for the EV. The DC DPS offers many advantages. However, multiple loads in the DC DPS may affect the severe instability on the DC bus voltage. Therefore, a voltage bus conditioner (VBC) may use the DC DPS. The VBC is used to mitigate the voltage transient on the bus. Thus, a suitable control technique should be selected for the VBC. In this research, Current controller with fixed switching frequency is designed and applied for the VBC. The DC DPS consist of both a resistor load and a boost converter load. The load variations cause the instability of the DC DPS. This instability is mitigated by the VBC. The simulation results by Matlab simulink and experimental results are presented for validating the proposed VBC and designed control technique.