• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.273-275
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• 2017

It has been forty years since the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Korea. Following the 1977 legislature mandating medical insurance for employees and dependents in firms with more than 500 employees, South Korea expanded its health insurance to urban residents in 1989. Resultantly, total expenses of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) have greatly increased from 4.5 billion won in 1977 to 50.89 trillion won in 2016. With multiple insurers merging into the NHI system in 2000, a single-payer healthcare system emerged, along with separation policy of prescribing and dispensing. Following such reform, an emerging financial crisis required injections from the National Health Promotion Fund. Forty years following the introduction of the NHI system, both praise and criticism have been drawn. In just 12 years, the NHI achieved the fastest health population coverage in the world. Current medical expenditure is not high relative to the rest of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The quality of acute care in Korea is one of the best in the world. There is no sign of delayed diagnosis and/or treatment for most diseases. However, the NHI has been under-insured, requiring high-levels of out-of-pocket money from patients and often causing catastrophic medical expenses. Furthermore, the current environmental circumstances of the NHI are threatening its sustainability. Low birth rate decline, as well as slow economic growth, will make sustainment of the current healthcare system difficult in the near future. An aging population will increase the amount of medical expenditure required, especially with the baby-boomer generation of those born between 1955 and 1965. Meanwhile, there is always the problem of unification for the Korean Peninsula, and what role the health insurance system will have to play when it occurs. In the presidential election, health insurance is a main issue; however, there is greater focus on expansion and expenditure than revenue. Many aspects of Korea's NHI system (1977) were modeled after the German (1883) and Japanese (1922) systems. Such systems were created during an era where infections disease control was most urgent and thus, in the current non-communicable disease (NCD) era, must be redesigned. The Korean system, which is already forty years old, must be redesigned completely. Although health insurance benefit expansion is necessary, financial measures, as well as moral hazard control measures, must also be considered. Ultimately, there are three aspects that we must consider when attempting redesign of the system. First, the health security system must be reformed. NHI and Medical Aid must be amalgamated into one system for increased effectiveness and efficiency of the system. Within the single insurer system of the NHI must be an internal market for maximum efficiency. The NHIS must be separated into regions so that regional organizers have greater responsibility over their actions. Although insurance must continue to be imposed nationally, risk-adjustment must be distributed regionally and assessed by different regional systems. Second, as a solution for the decreasing flow of insurance revenue, low premium level must be increased to an appropriate level. Likewise, the national reserve fund (No. 36, National Health Insurance Act) must be enlarged for re-unification preparation. Third, there must be revolutionary reform of benefit package. The current system built a focus on communicable diseases which is inappropriate in this NCD era. Medical benefits must not be one-time events but provide chronic disease management. Chronic care models, accountable care organization, patient-centered medical homes, and other systems that introduce various benefit packages for beneficiaries must be implemented. The reimbursement system of medical costs should be introduced to various systems for different types of care, as is the case with part C (Medicare Advantage Program) of America's Medicare system that substitutes part A and part B. Pay for performance must be expanded so that there is not only improvement in quality of care but also medical costs. Moreover, beneficiaries of the NHI system must be aware of the amount of their expenditure through a deductible payment system so that spending can be profiled and monitored. The Moon Jae-in Government has announced its plans to expand the NHI system; however, it is important that a discussion forum is created so that more accurate analysis of the NHI, its environments, and current status of health care system, can take place for reforming NHI.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.1701-1708
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• 2007

Seed pelleting is generally conducted in order to save the labor for sowing and thinning by enabling the precision mechanical planting. In the present study, the influence of physical and chemical properties of pelleting solid materials was investigated on carrot seed germination. Among the pelleting solid materials evaluated, dialite, kaolin, and talc showed low bulk density and high porosity. Bentonite and dialite carried high water holding capacities of 184% and 173%, respectively, while calcium carbonate, calcium oxide, and fly ash showed relatively low water holding capacity. The pH of kaolin (6.8) and dialite (7.4) were close to neutral, while limestone (12.8), calcium oxide (13.0), and bentonite (10.0) were highly basic. High electro-conductivity was shown in limestone and calcium oxide. EDS analysis revealed that the main elemental compositions of talc were Si (71.0%) and Mg (29.0%), and those of calcium carbonate were Ca (66.6%), Si (22.9%), and Mg (10.5%). High granulation capacity was observed from talc and the mixture of talc and calcium carbonate. Seeds pelleted with bentonite showed the highest hardness. The dissolving type of the pellet layer after imbibition was split type in talc, limestone, zeolite, and fly ash, melt type in calcium carbonate and calcium oxide, and swell type in bentonite and vermiculite. The shortest dissolving time of pellet layer was observed from calcium carbonate and kaolin. The germination speed $(T_{50})$ was delayed as the size of pelleted seeds increased. The optimum size of pelleting was 19 ratio in carrot.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.225-233
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• 2019

This study was conduct to investigate the effect of mixed seed sowing and flour blending on the uniformity of flour quality of Korean domestic wheat. Two wheat varieties (Keumkang and Baegjoong) were selected for sowing mixed seeds, and their growth characteristics and flour quality were analyzed. Quality of flour blending with the same varieties was also evaluated. The ratios for mixed seed sowing and flour blending were from 0 to 100% with a 10% increase of interval for each treatment. On increasing the portion of Baegjoong in mixed seed sowing, the heading time was a little delayed, however, yield increased. The results of the flour quality showed lower damaged starch content and sodium carbonate SRC (solvent retention capacity) value for Keumkang than for Baegjoong. Protein quantity by protein content and quality by SDSS (Sodium Dodecyle Sulfate-Sedimentation) volume, lactic acid SRC, and mixograph pattern of Keumkang were superior to those of Baegjoong. Compared with mixed seed sowing, overall quality characteristics of flours with different ratios showed predictable and proportional change by flour blending. This demonstrated the successful application of flour blending, compared with mixed seed sowing, for improving the uniformity of flour quality.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.66 no.4
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• pp.419-427
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• 2021

In South Korea, direct seeding of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is difficult during spring cultivation in early March because of the low yield production associated with late flowering and poor seed quality. To compare the period of direct sowing, the present study investigated the growth characteristics of rapeseed according to planting dates. Specifically, 35 day-old seedlings were transplanted or directly sown on four different dates (late February, early March, late March, and early April) in 2020 and 2021. As the planting date was delayed, the days to flowering of rapeseed decreased. Similarly, the plant height, seed set percentage, and seed yield of rapeseed were reduced upon delay in planting. The seed yield of rapeseed through direct seeding in late February was the highest, 2.76 ton·ha^-1. On all seeding dates, except for late February, the transplanted rapeseed produced a higher yields than the directly seeded rapeseed. The crude oil and oleic acid content, which is related to the quality of rapeseed, decreased with the delay in planting dates, and this decrease was greater, with the direct seeding of rapeseed depending on the sowing time. In the correlation analysis, the planting date was significantly and negatively correlated with the yield, crude oil content, and oleic acid content of the transplanted rapeseed, while the sowing date was negatively correlated with the plant height, silique size, yield, and seed quality of the directly seeded rapeseed. Finally, the effect of planting date on rapeseed growth was stronger in direct seeding than in transplanting. Therefore, during spring cultivation after late February to early March, transplanting, rather than direct seeding, in more advantageous in terms of seed quality and yield.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.3
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• pp.89-98
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• 1965

The experimental studies were intended to clarify the effects of selection, and also aimed at estimating the heritabilities, the genotypic correlations among some agronomic characters, and at calculating the selection index on some selective characters for the selection of desirable lines, under different climatic conditions. Finally practical implications of these studies, especially on the selection index, were discussed. Twenty-two varieties, determinate growing habit type, were selected at random from the 138 soybean varieties cultivated the year before, were grown in a randomized block design with three replicates at Chinju, Korea, under May and June sowing conditions. The method of estimating heritabilities for the eleven agronomic characters-flowering date, maturity date, stem length, branch numbers per plant, stem diameter, plant weight, pod numbers per plant, grain numbers per plant and 100 grain weight, shown in Table 3, was the variance components procedures in a replicated trial for the varieties. The analysis of covariance was used to obtain the genotypic correlations and phenotypic correlations among the eight characters, and the selection indexes for some agronomic characters were calculated by Robinson's method. The results are summarized as follows: Heritabilities : The experiment on the genotype-environment interaction revealed that in almost all of the characters investigated the interaction was too large to be neglected and materially affected the estimates of various genotypic parameters. The variation in heritability due to the change of environments was larger in the characters of low heritability than in those of high heritability. Heritability values of flowering date, fruiting period (days from flowering to maturity), stem length and 100 grain weight were the highest in both environments, those of yield(grain weight) and other characters were showed the lower values(Table 3). These heritability values showed a decreasing trend with the delayed sowing in the experiments. Further, all calculated heritability values were higher than anticipated. This was expected since these values, which were the broad sense heritability, contain the variance due to dominance and epistasisf in addition to the additive genetic variance. Genotypic correlations : Genotypic correlations were slightly higher than the corresponding phenotypic correlations in both environments, but the variation in values due to the change of environment appeared between grain weight and some other characters, especially an increase between grain weight and flowering date, and the total growing period(Table 6). Genotypic correlations between grain weight and other characters indicated that high seed yield was genetically correlated with late flowering, late maturity, and the other five characters namely branch numbers per plant, stem diameter, plant weight, pod numbers per plant and grain numbers per plant, but not with 100 grain weight of soybeans. Pod numbers and grain numbers per plant were more closely correlated with seed yields than with other characters. Selection index : For the comparison and the use of selection indexes in the selection, two kinds of selection indexes were calculated, the former was called selection index A and the later selection index B as shown in Table 7. Selection index A was calculated by the values of grain weight per plant as the character of yield(character Y), but the other, selection index B, was calculated by the values of pod numbers per plant, instead of grain weight per plant, as the character of yield'(character Y'). These results suggest that selection index technique is useful in soybean breeding. In reality, however, as the selection index varies with population and environment, it must be calculated in each population to which selection is applied and in each environment in which the population is located. In spite of the expected usefulness of selection index technique in soybean breeding, unsolved problems such as the expense, time and labor involved in calculating the selection index remain. For these reasons and from these experimental studies, it was recognized that in the breeding of self-fertilized soybean plants the selection for yield should be based on a more simple selection index such as selection index B of these experiments rather than on the complex selection index such as selection index A. Furthermore, it was realized that the selection index for the selection should be calculated on the basis of the data of some 3-4 agronomic characters-maturity date(X$_1$), branch numbers per plant(X$_2$), stem diameter(X$_3$) and pod numbers per plant etc. It must be noted that it should be successful in selection to select for maturity date(X$_1$) which has high heritability, and the selection index should be calculated easily on the basis of the data of branch numbers per plant(X$_2$), stem diameter(X$_3$) and pod numbers per plant, directly after the harvest before drying and threshing. These characters should be very useful agronomic characters in the selection of Korean soybeans, determinate growing habit type, as they could be measured or counted easily thus saving time and expense in the duration from harvest to drying and threshing, and are affected more in soybean yields than the other agronomic characters.