• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.135-164
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• 2003

The operating room is the major facility that costs the highest investment per unit area in a hospital. It requires commitment of hospital resources such as manpower, equipments and material. The quantity of these resources committed actually differs from one type of operation to another. Because of this, it is not an easy task to allocate the operating cost to individual clinical departments that share the operating room. A practical way to do so may be to collect and add the operating costs incurred by each clinical department and charge the net cost to the account of the corresponding clinical department. It has been customary to allocate the cost of the operating room to the account of each individual department on the basis of the ratio of the number of operations of the department or the total revenue by each operating room. In an attempt to set up more rational cost allocation method than the customary method, this study proposes a new cost allocation method that calls for itemizing the operation cost into its constituent expenses in detail and adding them up for the operating cost incurred by each individual department. For comparison of the new method with the conventional method, the operating room in the main building of hospital A near Seoul is chosen as a study object. It is selected because it is the biggest operating room in hospital A and most of operations in this hospital are conducted in this room. For this study the one-month operation record performed in January 2001 in this operating room is analyzed to allocate the per-month operation cost to six clinical departments that used this operating room; the departments of general surgery, orthopedic surgery, neuro-surgery, dental surgery, urology, and obstetrics & gynecology. In the new method(or method 1), each operation cost is categorized into three major expenses; personnel expense, material expense, and overhead expense and is allocated into the account of the clinical department that used the operating room. The method 1 shows that, among the total one-month operating cost of 814,054 thousand wons in this hospital, 163,714 thousand won is allocated to GS, 335,084 thousand won to as, 202,772 thousand won to NS, 42,265 thousand won to uno, 33,423 thousand won to OB/GY, and 36.796 thousand won to DS. The allocation of the operating cost to six departments by the new method is quite different from that by the conventional method. According to one conventional allocation method based on the ratio of the number of operations of a department to the total number of operations in the operating room(method 2 hereafter), 329,692 thousand won are allocated to GS, 262,125 thousand won to as, 87,104 thousand won to NS, 59,426 thousand won to URO, 51.285 thousand won to OB/GY, and 24,422 thousand won to DS. According to the other conventional allocation method based on the ratio of the revenue of a department(method 3 hereafter), 148,158 thousand won are allocated to GS, 272,708 thousand won to as, 268.638 thousand won to NS, 45,587 thousand won to uno, 51.285 thousand won to OB/GY, and 27.678 thousand won to DS. As can be noted from these results, the cost allocation to six departments by method 1 is strikingly different from those by method 2 and method 3. The operating cost allocated to GS by method 2 is about twice by method 1. Method 3 makes allocations of the operating cost to individual departments very similarly as method 1. However, there are still discrepancies between the two methods. In particular the cost allocations to OB/GY by the two methods have roughly 53.4% discrepancy. The conventional methods 2 and 3 fail to take into account properly the fact that the average time spent for the operation is different and dependent on the clinical department, whether or not to use expensive clinical material dictate the operating cost, and there is difference between the official operating cost and the actual operating cost. This is why the conventional methods turn out to be inappropriate as the operating cost allocation methods. In conclusion, the new method here may be laborious and cause a complexity in bookkeeping because it requires detailed bookkeeping of the operation cost by its constituent expenses and also by individual clinical department, treating each department as an independent accounting unit. But the method is worth adopting because it will allow the concerned hospital to estimate the operating cost as accurately as practicable. The cost data used in this study such as personnel expense, material cost, overhead cost may not be correct ones. Therefore, the operating cost estimated in the main text may not be the same as the actual cost. Also, the study is focused on the case of only hospital A, which is hardly claimed to represent the hospitals across the nation. In spite of these deficiencies, this study is noteworthy from the standpoint that it proposes a practical allocation method of the operating cost to each individual clinical department.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.33-60
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• 2007

This study alms to analyze the entrepreneur characteristics of founder on enterprise performance from the strategic viewpoint as well as features of founder of small firms such as background feature of founder, psychological features and management skill. As considered by Background features of founder include educational background of founder, his experience in business creation, consultation or course related to business creation. This study verified the effects of factor which business performance (financial, non financial) on small firms. Also, this study considered psychological features of founder include achievement desire, risk-free propensity, level of patience on vagueness and control position. And it analyzed that between such factors and performance of small firms were examined in related. In the mean time, management ability of founder, entrepreneur ability, technical and function ability were considered for management skill of founder and alalyzed effect of the factors on performance of small firm were examined. Effects of strategic intention of founder of small firm were analyzed by the strategic viewpoint. At this time, strategy of small firm was divided into product-service reform differentiation strategy, marketing differentiation strategy and cost leadership strategy. This study distributed questionnaire on CEO of small firms in Daejeon and Chungnam area for accomplish the study objective and it collected a total of 145 copies of questionnaires. As a result of analyzing collected questionnaire, this study deduced the following study results and suggestions. First, results different from those of existing studies were found Since sales, net income and profit rate of small firm were not high cause economic depression on the whole. Second, entrepreneur ability was found to be required for success of business creation. Entrepreneur ability of founder was the factor that affects both financial and non - financial performance of small firm. As such, entrepreneur ability can be regarded as the most important factor for success in business creation of small firm. Accordingly, entrepreneur ability is the most important source for success in business creation of small firm. Third, strategy of small firm was found to be the important factor that affects the non-financial performance even if it could not give significant effects on financial performance. Thus, product service reform differentiation strategy, marketing differentiation strategy and cost leadership strategy have significant effects on non - financial performance of small firm. Accordingly, it is required to operate small firm with strategic mind - set for small firm to achieve success. This study analyzed the effects of feature of founder and strategy of small firm on business performance of small firm through practical analysis on small firms in Daejeon and Chungnam area, and deduced meaningful results. However, Since this study collected data on small firms in Daejeon and Chungnam only, there is a limit in generalizing the results of this study to all small firms in Korea. Companies answering to this questionnaire process were mainly wholesale and retail service companies. In addition, there is a limit in that it failed to analyze feature of representative type of industry due to limit in number of sample, it is required to divide representative type of industry and to compare and analyze types of industry in future studies.

• Korean Parent-Child Health Journal
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.68-81
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• 2001

This research is to study about the weight-change of a pregnant woman, conditions of the woman and an infant. The weight-change of a mother during pregnancy was observed and that was expressed as the basis on the body mass index of a mother before pregnancy. The effects of weight-changes on both the discomfort, complications of pregnant mother and the condition of an infant were also investigated. Thus we set a purpose that this study would help pregnant woman and an infant to maintain and enhance their health conditions by proper weight control through nursing mediation. This study was performed in a certain hospital of university in seoul from Feb. 1. 2000 to Mar. 31. 2000. We explained the purpose of this study to the hospital institution and obtained consent of investigation. 152 inpatients who were in condition from PA 37 weeks to PA 42 weeks were the subject of this study. The research materials were made through of question paper that inpatients make answer by themselves and investigation paper. The question paper was about general background, weight and height before pregnancy and discomfort of the physical degree. And the investigation paper was about parity, maternal weight(late pregnancy), high pregnancy, delivery method, hemoglobin level, Apgar score, fetal weight. Physical discomfort was measured using the implement made by Kim hae won(1996) (chronbach's ${\alpha}=0.85$). SPSS was used to do statistics for managing and analyzing data. The results of this study were like followings. 1. The mean value of gained weight during pregnancy was about 13.8kg within from 3 kg to 26 kg. Among 152 research candidates, the gained weight of 80(52.6%) candidates remained within an ideal range. But that of 37 candidates(24.3%) became less than the ideal range. Also that of 35 candidates(23.0%) became over than the ideal range. 2. In the investigation of the relation between the weight change of a pregnant woman and her condition, the scores to represent physical discomfort were middle in all candidates. And the physical discomfort of over weight-gained group was more than that of low weight-gained group, but there was no difference in statistics(F=0.234, p=0.791). The weight-changes of pregnant woman didn't have an influence with the high risk of pregnancy(F=0.509, p=0.477). Also, the weight-changes didn't have an influence on delivery method($x^2=3.825$, p=0.148). However, in the investigation of the relation between weight-change and hemoglobin level, the change of hemoglobin level was highest in over weight gained group(F=3.062, p=0.05). 3. In the investigation of the weight-change of pregnant woman and the condition of infant. the weight changes didn't have an influence on both 1 min Apgar score(F=0.157, p=0.855) and 5 min Apgar score(F=0.030, p=0.970) of infant. Also, in the investigation of weight-change of a pregnant woman and weight difference of a infant with Pearson Correlation Coefficient, the weight-change of a pregnant woman affected vastly the weight of a infant. It was also found that the more pregnant woman gained in weight, the more did gain weighty infants. This relation was in net proportion(r=0.256, p=0.001). In conclusion, these results suggest that the weight-changes during pregnancy in Korea women of these days are more increased than that of the past days and individual variation in weight-changes is very high. Also, these results suggest that the changed hemoglobin level of a mother and weight of an infant were meaningfully affected by the weight-changes of a pregnant woman during pregnancy. However, the physical discomfort of a pregnant woman, the high risks of pregnancy, the delivery method and Apgar score of an infant were not affected by the weight-changes during pregnancy. Because the recommendation suggesting the ideal weight-change, used this study, is basis on the subject of American women, therefore, these results also suggest the necessity of such recommendation which is subject to Korean women.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.136-146
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• 1999

The telemetry system for the oxygen, pH, turbidity and the distribution ecology of fishes was constructed by the authors in order to product and manage effectively in shallow sea culture and setnets fisheries, and then the experiments for the telemetry system carried out at the culturing fishing ground in coast of Sanyang-Myon, Kyoungsangnam-Do and the set net fishing ground located Nungpo bay in Kojedo province respectively from October, 1997 to June 1998.As those results, the techniques suggested in the telemetry system for which find out the relationship between the physical and chemical environment in the sea and the distribution ecology of fishes gave full display its function, and its system could be operated as real time system. This research can also provide base-line data to develope a hybrid system unifying the marine environment information and the fisheries resources information in order to manage effectively coastal fishing ground.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.603-616
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• 2007

Roy Huddle, having invented the coated particle in Harwell 1957, stated in the early 1970s that we know now everything about particles and coatings and should be going over to deal with other problems. This was on the occasion of the Dragon fuel performance information meeting London 1973: How wrong a genius be! It took until 1978 that really good particles were made in Germany, then during the Japanese HTTR production in the 1990s and finally the Chinese 2000-2001 campaign for HTR-10. Here, we present a review of history and present status. Today, good fuel is measured by different standards from the seventies: where $9*10^{-4}$ initial free heavy metal fraction was typical for early AVR carbide fuel and $3*10^{-4}$ initial free heavy metal fraction was acceptable for oxide fuel in THTR, we insist on values more than an order of magnitude below this value today. Half a percent of particle failure at the end-of-irradiation, another ancient standard, is not even acceptable today, even for the most severe accidents. While legislation and licensing has not changed, one of the reasons we insist on these improvements is the preference for passive systems rather than active controls of earlier times. After renewed HTGR interest, we are reporting about the start of new or reactivated coated particle work in several parts of the world, considering the aspects of designs/ traditional and new materials, manufacturing technologies/ quality control quality assurance, irradiation and accident performance, modeling and performance predictions, and fuel cycle aspects and spent fuel treatment. In very general terms, the coated particle should be strong, reliable, retentive, and affordable. These properties have to be quantified and will be eventually optimized for a specific application system. Results obtained so far indicate that the same particle can be used for steam cycle applications with $700-750^{\circ}C$ helium coolant gas exit, for gas turbine applications at $850-900^{\circ}C$ and for process heat/hydrogen generation applications with $950^{\circ}C$ outlet temperatures. There is a clear set of standards for modem high quality fuel in terms of low levels of heavy metal contamination, manufacture-induced particle defects during fuel body and fuel element making, irradiation/accident induced particle failures and limits on fission product release from intact particles. While gas-cooled reactor design is still open-ended with blocks for the prismatic and spherical fuel elements for the pebble-bed design, there is near worldwide agreement on high quality fuel: a $500{\mu}m$ diameter $UO_2$ kernel of 10% enrichment is surrounded by a $100{\mu}m$ thick sacrificial buffer layer to be followed by a dense inner pyrocarbon layer, a high quality silicon carbide layer of $35{\mu}m$ thickness and theoretical density and another outer pyrocarbon layer. Good performance has been demonstrated both under operational and under accident conditions, i.e. to 10% FIMA and maximum $1600^{\circ}C$ afterwards. And it is the wide-ranging demonstration experience that makes this particle superior. Recommendations are made for further work: 1. Generation of data for presently manufactured materials, e.g. SiC strength and strength distribution, PyC creep and shrinkage and many more material data sets. 2. Renewed start of irradiation and accident testing of modem coated particle fuel. 3. Analysis of existing and newly created data with a view to demonstrate satisfactory performance at burnups beyond 10% FIMA and complete fission product retention even in accidents that go beyond $1600^{\circ}C$ for a short period of time. This work should proceed at both national and international level.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.59-67
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• 1983

An experiment on the rearing of tilapia stocked in closed recirculating tanks eliminating biological filter beds was carried out at the Fish Culture Experiment Station of the National Fisheries University of Pusan, from May 18 through October 21, 1982, and the growth rates, feed conversion, water quality, spawning prevention and space utilization efficiency were discussed. Finally discussed is the feasibility on the establishment of commercial production units. On the water quality, the water temperature ranged from $22.8^{\circ}C\;to\;29.1^{\circ}C$, and total ammonia arround 10 ppm or slightly up. Maintaining phytoplankton bloom was not successful probably because of the active consumption by the heavily stocked tilapia. Several attempts were made by changing the culture water with green water from a nearby earthen pond with results of fading-away in a couple of days. Feed conversions were relatively high ranging from 0.9 to 1.2 except for experiment 1 when the fish were not fully recovered from weakened wintering state. The feed used was partly laboratory prepared $25\%$ protein diet and mostly commercially available $39\%$ protein carp feed. Spawning was completely controlled during the experiment, resulting from density effect, which ranged from 10kg to 40.7kg per square meter with water depth of 0.5 to 0.6m. Space utilization efficiency was very high. Daily net production from the experiment division 3, which showed the highest result, was 6.206 kg per tank, which is calculated 3,235 metric tons per hectare per year, This time, water temperature ranged from 27.8 to $29.1^{circ}C$, average being $28.4^{circ}C$, and total ammonia arround 10 ppm. An estimation for the commercial set-up of the production system based on the results of experiment divisions which had initial stocking rate $15\;kg/m^2$ or up, is made. If the total facility, 8 tanks comprising $56\;m^2$ in surface area, is used for the present study, the yield would become 5,639 kg from 200 day rearing, which would be possible under double sheets vinyl house without additional heating, and it is thought feasible in the economic view point, when 10 or more units are operated.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.21-39
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• 2013

As the utilization of information technology and the turbulence of technological change increase in organizations, the adoption of IT outsourcing also grows to manage IT resource more effectively and efficiently. In this new way of IT management technique, service level management(SLM) process becomes critical to derive success from the outsourcing in the view of end users in organization. Even though much of the research on service level management or agreement have been done during last decades, the performance of the service level management process have not been evaluated in terms of final objectives of the management efforts or success from the view of end-users. This study explores the relationship between SLM maturity and IT outsourcing success from the users' point of view by a analytical case study in four client organizations under an IT outsourcing vendor, which is a member company of a major Korean conglomerate. For setting up a model for the analysis, previous researches on service level management process maturity and information systems success are reviewed. In particular, information systems success from users' point of view are reviewed based the DeLone and McLean's study, which is argued and accepted as a comprehensively tested model of information systems success currently. The model proposed in this study argues that SLM process maturity influences information systems success, which is evaluated in terms of information quality, systems quality, service quality, and net effect proposed by DeLone and McLean. SLM process maturity can be measured in planning process, implementation process and operation and evaluation process. Instruments for measuring the factors in the proposed constructs of information systems success and SL management process maturity were collected from previous researches and evaluated for securing reliability and validity, utilizing appropriate statistical methods and pilot tests before exploring the case study. Four cases from four different companies under one vendor company were utilized for the analysis. All of the cases had been contracted in SLA(Service Level Agreement) and had implemented ITIL(IT Infrastructure Library), Six Sigma and BSC(Balanced Scored Card) methods since last several years, which means that all the client organizations pursued concerted efforts to acquire quality services from IT outsourcing from the organization and users' point of view. For comparing the differences among the four organizations in IT out-sourcing sucess, T-test and non-parametric analysis have been applied on the data set collected from the organization using survey instruments. The process maturities of planning and implementation phases of SLM are found not to influence on any dimensions of information systems success from users' point of view. It was found that the SLM maturity in the phase of operations and evaluation could influence systems quality only from users' view. This result seems to be quite against the arguments in IT outsourcing practices in the fields, which emphasize usually the importance of planning and implementation processes upfront in IT outsourcing projects. According to after-the-fact observation by an expert in an organization participating in the study, their needs and motivations for outsourcing contracts had been quite familiar already to the vendors as long-term partners under a same conglomerate, so that the maturity in the phases of planning and implementation seems not to be differentiating factors for the success of IT outsourcing. This study will be the foundation for the future research in the area of IT outsourcing management and success, in particular in the service level management. And also, it could guide managers in practice in IT outsourcing management to focus on service level management process in operation and evaluation stage especially for long-term outsourcing contracts under very unique context like Korean IT outsourcing projects. This study has some limitations in generalization because the sample size is small and the context itself is confined in an unique environment. For future exploration, survey based research could be designed and implemented.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2014

With continued economic growth, Korea has seen an increase in the nighttime activities of its citizens as hours of activity have extended into night. There is an increasing trend in energy consumption related to citizens' nighttime activities. In order to analyze ideas for an efficient replacement of the power consumption of streetlights and for profit generation by applying grid-type solar systems, this study used an RETScreen model. Through energy analysis and cost analysis, the application benefit and viability of grid-type solar street light systems were analyzed. With analysis result of a total weekly power generation of 114 kWh via a grid-connected solar streetlight system, it was shown that the net present value of a grid-connected solar street light system is 155,362 KRW, which would mean a payback period of about 5.2 years, and as such, it was shown that profit could be generated after about 6 years. In addition, if the grid-connected solar power generation system proposed by this study is to be applied, it was shown that 401,935 KRW in profit could be generated after the 20-year useful life set for the solar system. In addition, the sensitivity analysis was performed taking into account the price fluctuations of SMP, maintenance. As a result, a payback period has increased by 1~2 years, and there were no significant differences. Because the most important factor that affect the economic analysis is the cost of supply certification of renewable energy, a stable sales and acquisition of this certification are very important. the Seoul-type Feed in Tariff(FIT) connected to other institutions will enable steady sales by confirming to purchase the certification for 12 years. Therefore, if those issues mentioned above are properly reflected, Central-grid PV system project will be able to perform well in the face of unfavorable condition of solar PV installation.