• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.14-33
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• 2022

Purpose: To examine whether the Patient Experience Assessment (PEA) has led to perceptible changes at the ground level of health care, as a way of evaluating PEA as a policy intervention for quality improvement. Methods: Four focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted, each comprising six to eight participants who were employees responsible for patient experience at their respective hospitals. The primary focus of the FGDs was on questions such as: 1) How do hospitals respond to PEA? 2) What significant changes were observed after the implementation of PEA? 3) What were the unintended consequences of implementing PEA, if any? 4) What areas of improvement have been identified for maximizing the potential of PEA? Results: Two broad themes emerged out of the FGDs: changes observed post implementation of PEA, and areas for improvement of PEA. Four significant changes were reported by participants: changes in perception and attitude regarding patient experience in hospital employees, increased active involvement by the hospital leadership, enhanced efforts to improve patient experience, and increased cooperation between such activities. Furthermore, eight areas of improvement were identified, which have been grouped in three categories: improving the process of data collection for PEA, introducing additional catalysts to facilitate further changes, and paying attention to structure- and patient-level constraints that must be addressed in parallel. Conclusion: The implementation of PEA led to perceptible changes within hospitals, which implies that it can serve as an effective catalyst for improving patient experience. A number of areas of improvement that would aid in maximizing the potential of PEA were also identified.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.203-208
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• 2022

Recently, various digital technology issues such as e-Navigation, Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS) and Smart ships have constantly emerged in the maritime industry, based on the fourth industrial revolution. The International Maritime Organization is gradually tightening regulations for marine safety and marine environmental protection, and these strengthened regulations are leading to new maritime industries. Thus, the purpose of this study was to design a suitable model to analyze the industrial competitiveness of domestic autonomous operation technology industry, based on the Porter's diamond model. Based on a total of five evaluation factors and 13 detailed factors, the industrial competitiveness of the domestic autonomous operation technology industry was evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively. This industry, which is in the early stage of industrial development, was evaluated as 16.9 points relative to indexing industrial competitiveness. Currently, it is characterized by the simultaneous development of related regulations and core technologies, from the establishment of the scope of the industry. The industrial competitiveness evaluation considering these industrial characteristics is expected to serve as the basis for strategic support and new industrial policy, and impact a wide range of related industries such as shipping, logistics, ports, and shipbuilding and equipment industries.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.176-183
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• 2021

Purpose: The introduction of smart factories that reflect the 4th industrial revolution technologies such as AI, IoT, and VR, has been actively promoted in Korea. However, in order to solve various problems arising from existing file-based operating systems, this research will focus on identifying and verifying non-file system-based data protection technology. Method: The research will measure security storage that cannot be identified or controlled by the operating system. How to activate secure storage based on the input of digital key values. Establish a control unit that provides input and output information based on BIOS activation. Observe non-file-type structure so that mapping behavior using second meta-data can be performed according to the activation of the secure storage. Result: First, the creation of non-file system-based secure storage's data input/output were found to match the hash function value of the sample data with the hash function value of the normal storage and data. Second, the data protection performance experiments in secure storage were compared to the hash function value of the original file with the hash function value of the secure storage after ransomware activity to verify data protection performance against malicious ransomware. Conclusion: Smart factory technology is a nationally promoted technology that is being introduced to the public and this research implemented and experimented on a new concept of data protection technology to protect crucial data within the information system. In order to protect sensitive data, implementation of non-file-type secure storage technology that is non-dependent on file system is highly recommended. This research has proven the security and safety of such technology and verified its purpose.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.638-649
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• 2020

Purpose: The objective of this study is to evaluate the load carrying capacity of a target bridge structure based on the simple slab bridge of concrete over 20 years of public service. Method: By performing static loading test and dynamic loading test, the displacement, strain, impact factor, and natural frequency values were measured and evaluated through analysis method. Result: The main results of this study are as follows. First, the maximum displacement and maximum strain of S1 were assessed at 2.917 mm and 44.720 𝜇ε( tensile) and -13.760 𝜇ε(compression), respectively, with S2 maximum displacement and maximum strain being 2.100 mm and 4.870 𝜇ε(tensile), respectively. Second, the maximum measured impact factor was 0.191 in section S1 A-A, and the maximum measured impact factor was 0.155 in section S2 C-C. Third, the natural frequency was assessed at 6.086 Hz, and the measurement was found to be within the range of 6.152 Hz to 6.738 Hz. Conclusion: The tested bridge may be evaluated to show good behavior and characteristics for the design load.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.21-29
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• 2022

The room-and-pillar method or grid-type underground space is a method of forming a space by excavating the excavation part at regular intervals so that it is orthogonal and using natural rock mass as a structure. Such excavation may appear different in size from the excavation stage where the maximum displacement occurs depending on the excavation direction and sequence. In this study, considering the installation of support materials such as shotcrete and rock bolts for the optimal design of the excavation process, the safety and constructability of the design and construction of the grid-type underground space under specific ground conditions were analytically reviewed. The ground conditions were set using an numerical method, and the stress at pillar and displacement at center of room were considered for each excavation stage and construction type under a constant surcharge. The height of the space was 8m, which was set higher than the size of a general office, and was reviewed in consideration of equipment and plant facilities. In addition, the degree of displacement control according to the installation of support materials was reviewed in consideration of shotcrete and rock bolts.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.45-65
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• 2022

In this paper, a diaphragm wall that supports soils and rock was modeled using FLAC, a finite difference analysis program, to evaluate the seismic behavior of temporary retaining structures in a deep excavation. The appropriateness of the numerical model was verified by comparing its results with those of the centrifuge test performed in a similar condition. The bending moment distribution along the diaphragm wall shows a very similar tendency, and the maximum acceleration obtained at the backfill and top of the wall shows a difference within 5%. Based on the developed model, a parametric study was conducted in various input earthquake, ground, and excavation conditions. The maximum structural forces and bending moment under earthquake loading were compared with the maximum values during excavation, from which the critical condition that requires a seismic design was roughly sorted out. The maximum bending moment of a wall that retains soil layers increased 17%. Particularly, the axial force of struts located in loose soils increased 32% under 100 years return period of an earthquake event, which strongly is estimated to require seismic design for structural safety.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.447-455
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• 2022

Currently, the problem of pollution of the marine environment by microplastics is emerging seriously internationally. In this study, to develop a lightweight portable microplastic collection device, the types and number of microplastics in 21 coastal areas nationwide in Korea were investigated. And CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic), GFRP (Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic), ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene copolymer) and aluminum were applied for design and analysis of microplastic collection device to have the durability, corrosion resistance and lightweight. As a result of sample collection and classification from the shore, it was confirmed that microplastics were distributed the most in Hamdeok beach, and the polystyrene was found to be mainly distributed microplastics. Particle information through coastal field survey and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis were used to analyze the flow rate and distribution of particles such as sand and impurities, which were applied to the structural analysis of the cyclone device using the finite element method. As a result of structural analysis considering the particle impact inside the cyclone device, the structural safety was examined as remarkable in the order of CFRP, GFRP, aluminum, and ABS. In the view of weight reduction, CFRP could be reduced in weight by 53%, GFRP by 47%, and ABS by 61% compared to aluminum for the cyclone device.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.230-237
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• 2022

It is essential that service life of reinforced concrete structures in economic and safety aspects should be secured. It is well-known that chloride attack is a typical deterioration mechanism in field concrete structures. To prevent serious accidents like collapse, many studies have been conducted to increase resistance of chloride ingress using concrete mixed with GGBS. The usage of GGBS concrete is nowadays mandatory. Since most concretes in the field are unsaturated, study regarding chloride absorption is necessary, but many studies have focused on the chloride diffusion phenomenon. Methods for evaluating chloride absorption are cost and improper in the field. It is necessary to develop a simple method for evaluating chloride absorption in practice. This study evaluated resistance of chloride ingress in GGBS concretes with impedance measurement and absorption test. From the results, it was confirmed that the contents of absorbed chloride were linearly correlated with the measured electrical resistivities (or conductivities) in the concrete. At the end of the test, the electrical conductivities were 250.8 S/m (w/b=0.4) and 303.1 S/m (w/b=0.6) for PC concretes, and 2.6 S/m (w/b=0.4) and 64.4 S/m (w/b=0.6) for GGBS concretes, respectively. Considering influencing factors for chloride absorption and impedance measurement, chloride ingress into concrete is mainly affected by pore structures due to replacement of GGBS. Especially, formations of pore structure are different with binder, thereby binders should be considered in building reinforced concrete structures exposed to chloride environments.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.175-181
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• 2022

The condition of infrastructure deteriorates as the service life increases. Since most infrastructure in South Korea were intensively built during the period of economic growth, the proportion of outdated infrastructure is rapidly increasing now. Aging of such infrastructure can lead to safety accidents and even human casualties. To prevent these issues in advance, periodic and accurate inspection is essential. For this reason, the need for research to detect various types of damage using computer vision and deep learning is increasingly required in the field of remotely controlled or autonomous inspection. To this end, this study proposed a neural network structure that can detect concrete damage by classifying it into three types. In particular, the proposed neural network can detect them more accurately through a hierarchical learning technique. This neural network was trained with 2,026 damage images and tested with 508 damage images. As a result, we completed an algorithm with average mean intersection over union of 67.04% and F1 score of 52.65%. It is expected that the proposed damage detection algorithm could apply to accurate facility condition diagnosis in the near future.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.55 no.11
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• pp.865-875
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• 2022

Field measurements and numerical simulations using EFDC model were performed to quantify the changes of water circulation near Gusipo coast located in the Yellow Sea of Korea to estimate the impact of the construction of the coastal structures (jetty, groin, Gusipo port and bridge). The model predicted tide and tidal currents agreed reasonably well with the measurements. The maximum currents during spring tide near the Gusipo Beach (GB) have the range of 20~40 cm/sec whereas those off the GB range from 60 to 80 cm/sec. The typical patterns of tidal current show parallel with the local isobath. Tidal currents flow northeastward during the flood tide whereas the currents during the ebb tide flow southwestward. The current speeds at shielded waters after the construction of coastal structures strongly decreased as compared with those before the construction. The tidal volume due to the construction of coastal structures was estimated using the depth averaged velocity for 24 hours of spring tide. Tidal volume after construction of coastal structures was compared with initial state (before construction). Tidal volume at present state (after construction of jetty, groin, Gusipo port and bridge) decreased by 28.4% as compared with that of the initial state. The volume after construction of jetty and groin decreased by 21.3%, and the volume after construction of Gusipo port and bridge decreased by 9.8%.