• Journal of the Korean Academic Society of Industrial Cluster
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.67-86
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• 2007

Wonju Medical Equipment Industry, despite of its short history, poor sales and weak manpower and so on, have shown remarkable outcomes in a relatively short period. At the end of 2007, totally 79 enterprises (only 4.6% of whole enterprises in Korea) made 10% of the nationwide production and 15% of the nationwide exports with an annual average growth rate of 66.7%, contributing domestic medical equipment industry tremendously. In addition, many leading medical equipment enterprises in various fields already moved or plan to move to Wonju, accelerating Wonju Medical Equipment Cluster. Wonju Medical Equipment Industry Cluster now enters into the growth stage, getting out of the initial business setup stage. Especially, the nomination of Wonju cluster project from the government accelerates networking (e.g. the development of the universal parts, the establishment of the mutual collaboration model among enterprises, and the mutual marketing), making a rapid growth in Wonju Medical Equipment Industry. Wonju Medical Equipment Industry Cluster revealed positive outcomes despite of the weakness in investment size and infra-structure comparing with the other medical industry cluster in the advanced country, while many domestic enterprises pursued their own growth models and thus failed to promote the international competitive power. Wonju Medical Equipment Industry has been developed rapidly. However, there are many challenging problems to support enterprises: small R&D investment and thus weak technology power, difficulties in recruiting R&D engineers, and poor marketing capabilities, financial infrastructure & policies, and network architecture. In order to develop a world-competitive medical equipment industry cluster at Wonju, the complement of infrastructures, the technology innovation, the mutual marketing, and the network expansion to support enterprises are further required. Wonju' s experiences in developing medical equipment industry so far suggest that our own flexible cluster model considering the industry structure and maturity for different regions should be developed, and specific action plans from the local and central governments based on their systematic strategies for industry development should be implemented in order to build world-competitive industry clusters in Korea.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.66-94
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• 2004

The objective of this study is to examine how to maximize the efficiency of hospital management by minimizing the unit cost of hospital operation. For this purpose, this paper proposes to develop a model of the profit maximization based on the cost minimization dictum using the statistical tools of arriving at the maximum likelihood values. The preliminary survey data are collected from the annual statistics and their analyses published by Korea Health Industry Development Institute and Korean Hospital Association. The maximum likelihood value statistical analyses are conducted from the information on the cost (function) of each of 36 hospitals selected by the random stratified sampling method according to the size and location (urban or rural) of hospitals. We believe that, although the size of sample is relatively small, because of the sampling method used and the high response rate, the power of estimation of the results of the statistical analyses of the sample hospitals is acceptable. The conceptual framework of analyses is adopted from the various models of the determinants of hospital costs used by the previous studies. According to this framework, the study postulates that the unit cost of hospital operation is determined by the size, scope of service, technology (production function) as measured by capacity utilization, labor capital ratio and labor input-mix variables, and by exogeneous variables. The variables to represent the above cost determinants are selected by using the step-wise regression so that only the statistically significant variables may be utilized in analyzing how these variables impact on the hospital unit cost. The results of the analyses show that the models of hospital cost determinants adopted are well chosen. The various models analyzed have the (goodness of fit) overall determination (R2) which all turned out to be significant, regardless of the variables put in to represent the cost determinants. Specifically, the size and scope of service, no matter how it is measured, i. e., number of admissions per bed, number of ambulatory visits per bed, adjusted inpatient days and adjusted outpatients, have overall effects of reducing the hospital unit costs as measured by the cost per admission, per inpatient day, or office visit implying the existence of the economy of scale in the hospital operation. Thirdly, the technology used in operating a hospital has turned out to have its ramifications on the hospital unit cost similar to those postulated in the static theory of the firm. For example, the capacity utilization as represented by the inpatient days per employee tuned out to have statistically significant negative impacts on the unit cost of hospital operation, while payroll expenses per inpatient cost has a positive effect. The input-mix of hospital operation, as represented by the ratio of the number of doctor, nurse or medical staff per general employee, supports the known thesis that the specialized manpower costs more than the general employees. The labor/capital ratio as represented by the employees per 100 beds is shown to have a positive effect on the cost as expected. As for the exogeneous variable's impacts on the cost, when this variable is represented by the percent of urban 100 population at the location where the hospital is located, the regression analysis shows that the hospitals located in the urban area have a higher cost than those in the rural area. Finally, the case study of the sample hospitals offers a specific information to hospital administrators about how they share in terms of the cost they are incurring in comparison to other hospitals. For example, if his/her hospital is of small size and located in a city, he/she can compare the various costs of his/her hospital operation with those of other similar hospitals. Therefore, he/she may be able to find the reasons why the cost of his/her hospital operation has a higher or lower cost than other similar hospitals in what factors of the hospital cost determinants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.77 no.4
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• pp.382-388
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• 1988

Improvement of productivity by forest tree breeding work in Korea was estimated for a few important tree species. Progenies of 17 plus trees of red pine (Pines densiflora) outgrew by 57 percentage compared with progenies of unselected trees at age 15. If best three families are selected among the 17, more than double in volume grow-th is expected. The hybrid Pinus rigida ${\times}$ P. taeda showed more than double volume growth compare to P. rigida at a southern plantation at age 15. However, the superiority of the hybrid decreased at northern plantations, mainly because of low coldhardiness of the hybrid. At a northern plantation, the hybrid grew less than the P. rigida on upper hill, while the hybrid grew much better than the P. rigida on flat area. Another hybrid Populus alba ${\times}$ P. glandulosa grew faster than both parents by two to two and half times according to planting sites at age 10. Introduction of Pinus rigida also showed increased volume growth. Volume increase by selection of best five provenances among 45 at age 12 was estimated as 53 percent compare to progenies of plus trees in Korea, Additional 19 percent of volume increase was expected by selection of the best families within the best provenances. Annual production of chestnuts reached about 70,000 M/T by planting resistant clones to chestnut gall wasp (Dryocosmus kuriphilus), which killed almost all susceptible trees. Although polyploid trees and mutants have been produced by colchicine treatments in over 10 tree species, none of them is economically important Remarkable improvement of productivity is expected by biotechnology in future through selection, hybridization, introduction of foreign genes at cell, cell organelle and gene level, and gene transformation. At present, mass propagation of superior planting materials by tissue culture will increase the productivity.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.103 no.3
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• pp.431-438
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• 2014

This study was conducted to assess forest biomass resource which is a carbon sink and a renewable resource in Korea. The total forest biomass resource potential was 804 million tons, and conifers, broadleaved forest and mixed forest accounted for 265 million tons, 282 million tons, and 257 million tons, respectively. Proportionately to regional forest stocks, biomass potential of Gangwon-do had most biomass potential, followed by Gyeongsangbuk-do and Gyeongsangnam-do. The woody biomass from the byproduct of sawn timber in commercial harvesting was 707 thousand ton/year, and that from the byproduct of forest tending was 592 thousand ton/year. The amount resulted in about 1,300 thousand ton/year of potential supplies from forest biomass resource into the energy market. It's tonnage of oil equivalent(toe) was 585 thousand ton/year. In this study, we developed a program (BiomassMap V2.0) for forest biomass resource mapping. Used system to develop this program was Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office Access ArcGIS and Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. Additionally, This program made use of tool such as ESRI MapObjects2.1 in order to take advantage of spatial information. This program shows the map of total biomass stock, annual biomass growth at forest land in Korea, and biomass production from forest tending and commercial harvesting. The information can also be managed by the program. The biomass resource map can be identified by regional and forest type for the purpose of utilization. So, we expect the map and program to be very useful for forest managers in the near future.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.105 no.3
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• pp.275-283
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• 2016

The objective of this study was to examine carbon dynamics with biomass, soil $CO_2$ efflux, litter and root decomposition after tree density control in young Pinus densiflora stands. The stands were established with 50% thinning, clear-cut, and control stands with three pseudo-replicated plots and a bare soil plot in 8-year-old Pinus densiflora nursery field. Monthly measurements were conducted from March 2012 to February 2014 and aboveground biomass and coarse-roots were estimated by derived allometric equations. Average diameter growth at root collar in control and thinned was 0.89 cm and 1.48 cm per year, respectively, and the diameter growth of control stand was significantly higher than that of thinned stands (p<0.05). Total biomass was estimated to 5.17, $4.85kg\;C\;m^{-2}$ per year in control and thinned, respectively. Annual soil $CO_2$ efflux in control, thinned, clear cut, and bare soil was 3.71, 3.90, 4.17, $4.56kg\;CO_2\;m^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$, respectively and removing trees significantly increased soil $CO_2$ efflux (p<0.05). Net Ecosystem Production (NEP) was 1.57, 1.36, -0.67, $-1.25kg\;C\;m^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$ in control, thinned, clear cut and bare soil in the young Pinus densiflora stands. NEP was significantly decreased by removing trees. Thinning increased diameter at root collar and carbon of individual tree and recovered 86% of carbon removed by thinning after one-year. In addition, soil $CO_2$ efflux increased and NEP increased by thinning. Results of this study, tree density control such as thinning increased the carbon storage and growth of the young Pinus densiflora stands.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.481-492
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• 1999

The observations on the spatio-temporal distribution and seasonal fluctuations of phytoplankton community were carried out in Deukryang Bay of the Korean Southwestern Sea from June 1992 to April 1993. A total of 75 species of phytoplankton belonged to 47 genera was identified. In Deukryang Bay seasonal succession in dominant species; P. alata, G. flaccida, S. costatum, L. danicus and N. longissima in summer, St. palmeriana, Ch. curvisetus and B. paxillifera in autunm, S. costatum, Ch. curvisetus, E. zodiacus and Pn. pungens in winter, and As. glacialis, As. kariana, N. pelagica, Th. nitzschioides and S. costatum in spring, were very marked, that is to say, the communities structure of phytoplankton in Deukryang Bay appeared to be various species composition and it was occupied with diatoms all the year round. Phytoplankton standing crops fluctuated with an annual mean of $1.4{\times}10^5 cells/1 between the lowest value of 2.6{\times}10^3 cells/1 in July and the highest value of 1.0{\times}10^6 cells/1$ by S. costatum in January. Densities of the phytoplankton cell number by the samples of Deukryang Bay ranged from $2.6{\times}10^3cells/1 to 1.2{\times}10^5 cells/1 with the mean value of 3.6{\times}10^4cells/1 in summer, from 6.0{\times}10^3cells/1 to 2.6{\times}10^5 cells/1 with mean of 1.5{\times}10^5 cells/1 in autumn, from 1.3{\times}10^4cells/1 to 1.0{\times}10^6 cells/1 with mean 3.5{times}10^5 cells/1 in winter, and from 4.8{\times}10^3cells/1 to 6.0{\times}10^5 cells/1 with mean of 1.6{\times}10^5 cells/1$ in autumn. That is to say, phytoplankton standing crops was large in low temperature seasons, on the other hand small in high temperature seasons. Chlorophyll $\alpha$ concentration fluctuated between 0.l9 $\mu$g/l and 12.3 $\mu$g/l in March. in Deukryang Bay seasonal flucturation in chi-$\alpha$ concentration was not marked. Especially, chl-$\alpha$ concentration in the water around Deukryang Island located in the middle part of Deukryang Bay showed patchy distributions with a very high concentration. And chl-$\alpha$ concentration was high during a year. Therefore, phytoplankton production in Deukryang Bay could be very high year-round.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.233-260
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• 2018

The West Coast is known as one of the world's three largest intertidal mudflats but the mudflat ecosystems have been constantly destroyed by various reclamation projects and industrial complexes. This study intends to estimate the economic values of major ecosystem services provided by the Seocheon intertidal flats using a choice modeling method. The benefits of the intertidal flats are categorized as four different attributes: number of migratory birds (related to biodiversity and cultural services), production of fish and shellfish (regulating services and habitats), tourism activities (cultural services), and number of fishing households in local communities (cultural services). Study results show that the general public enjoys the economic benefits of 1.777 trillion won (900 million won/hectare) as of 2015 in order to preserve 1,200ha of Seocheon mudflat. Assuming that future generations continue to enjoy these economic benefits of mudflat conservation, the annual value converted is about 64.7 billion won/year, corresponding to 53.9 million won/hectare per year. Individuals are willing to pay are expected to maintain their entire life in the 1,000 households living in the Seocheon tidal-flat fishing village, with an average of 11,000 won per person and an additional 50,000 tourist activities per year. It was estimated to have the amount of payment of 9,000 won. An individual's marginal willingness to pay was estimated to be about 11,000 won per year for supporting a total of 1,000 fishing households, 6,000 won to provide tourism activities of 50,000 visitors, and 9,000 won to provide the habitats of 90,000 migratory birds. For segmentation analysis, residents of Seocheon did not place significant values for the attributes besides migratory bird conservation. However, those of Gunsan showed relatively low margtinal willingness to pay for conservation of migratory birds and fishing villages but showed similar preferences for the maintenance of tourism activities compared to the general public. The results imply that the introduction of economic incentive system is needed to effectively manage and conserve ecosystem services of specific intertidal flats.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.235-251
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• 2016

After carrying out on-the-spot observation targeting each farmhouse of large-scale environment-friendly agricultural district (LEAD), Suncheon, Sancheong, Jangheung, Yeongam, Hamyang, Okcheon, and Jeongseon in 2015, only one LEAD, a farmhouse in Jangheung had used sustainable compost coming out under their own non-antibiotic livestock. The soil pH and EC at a depth of 0-20 cm in the seven LEADs were ranged between 5.3-6.6 and $0.4-1.2dS\;m^{-1}$, respectively, with 0.03- 0.27% for T-N concentration, $22-322mg\;kg^{-1}$ for P, and $0.05-0.29mg\;kg^{-1}$, which were, in particular, low a farmhouse in Jeongseon. When intensively surveying on each farmhouse of Suncheon, Jangheung, and Okcheon for a growing period, seasonal soil pH was maintained above 6.0 and high in a farmhouse in Okcheon, with similar soil EC observed among the three LEADs. Seasonal soil T-N was 0.1% higher on the farmhouse in Suncheon than other two LEADs, with higher seasonal soil P observed on the farmhouse in Okcheon and higher soil K in the Jangheung. T-N concentration in rice (Oryza sativa L.) crops was the highest in Jangheung, and concentrations of T-N, P, and K decreased in a season. Plant height and number of tillers per hill were the highest on the farmhouse in Okcheon, where was similar or low plant diameter and SPAD levels compared to other two LEADs. Dry weight (DW) before harvest was ranged between 52-63 g, and DW, rough rice yield (kg), brown rice/rough rice (%), brown rice yield (kg), head rice (%), and broken rice (%) were not significantly different among the three LEADs. Total annual gross production ha-1 was the highest on the farmhouse in Okcheon (16,230,000 won) planting with high class of variety, 'Milky queen' at early maturation, which was expected to be increased on an agricultural income. However, high amount of fertilizer was applied for growing the following crops on the farmhouse in Okcheon, affecting the highest balance of T-N, P, and K more than $200kg\;ha^{-1}$.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.794-803
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• 1997

Long line suspended culture of oysters has been started commercially in Hansan-Koje Bay since 1969. However, its Annual production has been decreased and culturing periods extended in recent years. So, we investigated environmental parameters and food organisms to identity the causes of poor fatness of oysters in Hansan-Koje Bay from February to November, 1994. As the result, the Water quality of Hansan-Koje Bay was found to be good for culture. For example, the mean concentration of COD was $1.35mg/\ell$, phosphate phosphorus was $0.30{\mu}g-at/\ell$ and dissolved inorganic nitrogen was $4.68{\mu}g-at/\ell$. However, the Hwado island and the inner part of the Hansan-Koje Bay were found to be eutrophicated due to various contaminants transported by land-based activities. But in the central pan of the Hansan-Koje Bay where the oyster farms Have been developed densely, the level of nutrient concentration was very low. During the study period, the dominant species of phytoplankton was Chaetoceros spp. with the percentage of $72.6\%\~87.8\%$ and the mean values of Chlorophyll-a concentration and phytoplankton standing crops were $2.05mg/m^3\;and\;188ind./m\ell$, respectively. The distribution of these parameters also showed similar trends those of nutrients. Especially, chlorophyll-a contents was very low with the concentration of below $0.5mg/m^3$ at central part of the Bay, Juklimpo. The fatness of oysters and the eutrophic index in this area were $18.1\%$ and 0.54, respectively. These values were lower than those of other culturing farms in the southern coastal areas in Korea. Therefore, we estimated that the insufficient food supply due to the low level of nutritional status was the major factors affecting the poor fatness of the Pacific oysters in Hansan-Koje Bay.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.245-263
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• 2013

This study was conducted to find out the influence of elevated atmospheric $CO_2$ concentrations and air temperature on photosynthesis and fruit quality of 'Fuji'/M.9 apple trees and to investigate these to the effects of climate change during the last four years (2009-2012). The treatments employed were: 'Ambient' (ambient temperature + ambient $CO_2$ concentration); 'High $CO_2$' (ambient temperature + elevated $CO_2$ concentration); 'High Temp'. (elevated temperature + ambient $CO_2$ concentration); and 'High $CO_2$ + High Temp'. (elevated temperature + elevated $CO_2$ concentration). The elevated temperature plots were maintained at $4^{\circ}C$ higher than ambient air temperature, while the elevated $CO_2$ plots were maintained at 700 ${\mu}mol{\cdot}mol^{-1}$. Annual treatment period was applied from end of April to beginning of November for four years. Results showed that elevated $CO_2$ decreased stomatal conductance and leaf SPAD value, but increased photosynthetic rate, intercellular $CO_2$ concentration (Ci), and starch content of mesophyll tissue. In the vegetative growth, elevated temperature increased total number of shoot and total shoot growth per tree, but elevated $CO_2$ decreased average shoot length. In the fruit quality, elevated $CO_2$ increased soluble solid content, fruit red color, and ethylene production. In conclusion, elevated $CO_2$ increased photosynthetic rate of apples during the early growth, but effect of increased photosynthetic rate due to elevated $CO_2$ was decreased during latter growth stage. Elevated temperature, on the other hand, tended to decrease photosynthetic rate of apples during the early growth, but that tended to increase during latter growth stage. Both elevated $CO_2$ and temperature tended to decrease the degree of decreased photosynthetic rate due to each factor.