• Journal of Acupuncture Research
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.67-73
• /
• 2016

Objectives : The objective of this study is to discuss problems and potential improvements of national health insurance fees associated with miniscalpel acupuncture according to Korean medical doctors' workload, material cost and degree of risk. Methods : We researched the change of relative value points, national health insurance fees, the acupuncture process, and Korean medicine doctors' workload related to Miniscalpel acupuncture, as compared to general meridian point acupuncture. We also examined material cost by surveying pharmacies, internet shopping malls and medical appliance shops. Results : Relative value point for Miniscalpel acupuncture decreased from 2010 to 2012, and remained the same from 2012 to 2016. National health insurance fees for Miniscalpel acupuncture increased by a small margin annually for rise of equivalent index. There was no reporting on workload related to Miniscalpel acupuncture. Material cost of Miniscalpel acupuncture was 18.2~20.7 times higher than actual cost of procedure. There were few studies examining medical accidents related to Miniscalpel acupuncture, and thus we could not evaluate degree of risk. Conclusion : We suggest revaluating Korean medical doctors' workload related to including Miniscalpel acupuncture, to consider the material costs of Miniscalpel acupuncture, and investigate its degree of risk by researching medical accidents.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.143-155
• /
• 2016

Recently, a massive loss of life and property is occurring in Korea due to traffic accidents, with the rapid increase in cars. For improvement of traffic safety, the Korea Transportation Safety Authority intensively analyzes accident data in local governments with low traffic safety index, performs a field investigation to extract problems and offers local governments improvements for problems, by conducting the 'Special Survey of Actual Conditions of Traffic Safety' each year, starting 2008. But local governments cannot strongly push forward the improvement projects due to the limited budget and the uncertainty of the improvement plan effects. Therefore, this study suggested a model which applied the Utility concept to the AHP theory, in order to efficiently decide a priority of the improvement plans in accident black spots in consideration of the limited budget of local governments. The number of accidents in each spot for improvement and accident severity, traffic volume, pedestrian volume, the improvement project cost and the accident reduction effect were chosen as evaluation factors for deciding a priority, and data about the improvement plan costs and the accident reduction effects, traffic accidents and traffic volume in the spots to undergo the special research on the real condition of traffic accident in the past were collected from the existing studies. Then, regression analysis was carried out and the Utility Curve of each evaluation factor was computed. Based on the AHP analysis findings, this study devised a priority decision method which calculated the weight and the utility function of each evaluation factor and compared the total utility values. The AHP analysis findings showed that among the evaluation factors, accident severity had the biggest importance and it was followed by the improvement plan cost, the number of accidents, the improvement effect, traffic volume and pedestrian volume. The calculated utility function shows a rise in utility, as the variables of the 5 evaluation factors; the number of accidents, accident severity, the improvement plan effect, traffic volume and pedestrian volume increase and a fall in utility, as the variables of the improvement plan cost increase, since the improvement plan cost is included in the budget spent by a local government.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.57-72
• /
• 2018

Organic agriculture seeks sustainable agriculture. Organic agriculture is based on circulating agriculture of a family farm unit. However, as of the end of 2016, only 33 out of the total organic farming farms were implementing Crop-Livestock cycling organic farming. The reason seems to be a matter of income after all. The optimal size combination refers to the scale by which family farms can maintain their quality of life while engaging in farming activities. In other words. it is a farm scale that maintains optimal income through stable labor costs. In the meantime, there has been no previous study on the optimal economical combination of Crop-Livestock cycling farming. Choi (2016) analyzed whether the economies of scope (EOS) were realized in the combined production by using the management data of the farmers who practiced Crop-Livestock cycling organic farming for four years. As a result, it has been revealed that the EOS measurement value is 0 or more so the economies of scope are being realized. Therefore, the purpose of this empirical analysis is to identify farm incomes under this circumstance. It is assumed that the optimum production is achieved by balancing the total income curve and the total cost curve in the optimal scale production range. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, the income after the conversion to Crop-Livestock cycling farming was 44,789,280 won, the sum of the seedling-livestock sector, which was 17,873,120 won higher when the non-Crop-Livestock cycling farming was assumed. The same is true for 2014 and 2015. The reason for this is that pig droppings were composted from organic seedlings, and the cost of selling pork was 150,000 won/per pig more expensive even though the manufacturing cost of organic feeds was higher than the purchasing cost. Secondly, this study simulated the result that the economic index varies when the farm size combination is changed by the farm size of 100% standard (S100) as of 2014. S130 is the increase in size from 100% of 2014, whereas S30 is the result of 3ha crop and 66 livestock (pigs). As a result of this simulation, Crop-Livestock cycling farming income decreased more than non-Crop-Livestock cycling farming as the farm size decreased, whereas the income decreased as the farm size increased. When the size was reduced below S50, the income tended to decrease. In this situation, EOS changed in the same direction. The results showed that when the farming size was reorganized and reduced to 50% compared to 2014, the income and income difference was the highest. At the same time, economies of scope (EOS) were the highest at 0.12985. In other words, it was found that the income of farm houses in a family farm unit sector was the best in the combination of 1.5ha crop agriculture and 110 livestock (pigs).

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.3-11
• /
• 2019

The construction of a facility is an act whereby infrastructure such as roads and railways and other facilities such as housing and office spaces are constructed, and due to the characteristics of the relevant industry where such construction is carried out in a custom order method, it requires a long period of time mostly. While the construction is carried out over a long period of time, fluctuations in the price of raw materials required for the construction occur. Therefore, the cost of the construction also fluctuates inevitably. The fluctuation of the construction cost meshes closely with the profit of a constructor and the efficiency of government spending. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the construction cost at a reasonable level by adjusting the construction cost rationally in order to secure the required construction quality and spend the budget efficiently. The buffer system for solving such problem is the contract amount adjustment system by fluctuations in prices (Escalation/De-Escalation). In this study, the method combining the escalation method based on the item adjustment method was suggested for an efficient contract amount adjustment method. In addition, it is proposed that there be an investigation and codification of matters not applied to government acts and regulations on contracts related to the adjustment of fluctuations in prices legally.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.79-89
• /
• 2023

The inventory of many materials requires a large storage space, and the longer the storage period, the higher the potential maintenance cost. When materials are stored on a construction site, there are also concerns about safety due to the reduction of room for movement and working. On the other hand, construction sites that do not store materials have insufficient inventory, making it difficult to respond to demands such as sudden design changes. Ordering materials is then subject to delays and extra costs. Although securing an appropriate amount of inventory is important, in many cases, material management on a construction site depends on the experience of the site manager, so a reasonable material inventory management plan that reflects the construction conditions of a site is required. This study proposes an economical material management method by reflecting variables such as the status of the preceding and following activities, site size, material delivery cost, timing of an order, and quantity of orders. To this end, we set the appropriate inventory amount while adjusting related activities in the activity network, using float time for each activity, the size of the yard, and the order quantity as the main variables, and applied a genetic algorithm to this process to suggest the optimal order timing and order quantity. The material delivery cost derived from the results is set as a fitness index and the efficiency of inventory management was verified through a case application.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.99-123
• /
• 2008

Consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction is key determinant of brand loyalty and store patronage behavior. But the results of many customer satisfaction surveys implemented by department stores show that consumer satisfactions do not predict the actual patronage behaviors well. The main reason of these surprising results would be that the consumer satisfaction indexes do not include some important determinants of consumer satisfaction. Many customer satisfaction surveys mainly focus on the evaluation of functional benefits including product assortments, merchandise prices and locational convenience. Recent studies indicate that emotional/hedonic benefits strongly influence the consumer satisfaction, intention to repurchase and intention to revisit. Our study suggests that both functional values and hedonic values should be included in developing the index of consumer satisfactions. The purpose of our study is to investigate the relationship between shopping value and consumer satisfaction, and actual patronage behavior. Shopping values is defined as the difference between total benefits and total shopping costs. Total benefits include the dimensions of product quality, service quality, and hedonic benefits. Total costs are classified as the monetary costs and non-monetary cost. The conceptual framework developed for this empirical study is as follows.

• Korean small business review
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.1-24
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is verifying with corporate financial data that the required investment amount flow shows a similar pattern as times passed, in new product development by start-up company. In the previous paper, the same authors proposed the required investment amount flow as a 'New Product Investment Curve (NPIC)'. In this study, we have studied further in various types of companies. The samples used are accounting data of 462 companies selected from 5,873 Korean companies which were finished external audit in 2015. The results of this study are as follows; The average investment period was 3 years for the listed companies, while 6 years for the unlisted companies. The investment payback period was 6 years for listed companies, while 17 years for unlisted companies. The investment payback period of the company supported by big affiliate company (We call 'greenhouse company') was 14~15 years, while 17 years for real venture companies. When we divide all companies into 4 groups in terms of R&D cost and variable cost ratio, NPIC explanatory power of 'high R&D and high variable cost ratio group (Automobile Assembly Business) is best. Among the eight investment cost indexes proposed to estimate the investment amount, the 'cash 1' (operating cash flow+fixed asset excluding land & building+intangible asset, deferred asset change)/year-end total assets) turned out to be the most effective index to estimate the investment flow patterns. The conclusion is that NPIC explanatory power is somewhat reduced when we estimate all companies together. However, if we estimate the sample companies by characteristics such as listed, unlisted, greenhouse, and venture company, the proposed NPIC was verified to be effective by showing the required investment amount pattern.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.19-23
• /
• 2024

Patients with amputations of both hands need prosthetic hands that serve both cosmetic and functional purposes, and research on prosthetic hands using electromyography of remaining muscles is active, but there is still the problem of high cost. In this study, an artificial prosthetic hand was manufactured and its performance was evaluated using low-cost parts and software such as a surface electromyography sensor, machine learning software Edge Impulse, Arduino Nano 33 BLE, and 3D printing. Using signals acquired with surface electromyography sensors and subjected to digital signal processing through Edge Impulse, the flexing movement signals of each finger were transmitted to the fingers of the prosthetic hand model through training to determine the type of finger movement using machine learning. When the digital signal processing conditions were set to a notch filter of 60 Hz, a bandpass filter of 10-300 Hz, and a sampling frequency of 1,000 Hz, the accuracy of machine learning was the highest at 82.1%. The possibility of being confused between each finger flexion movement was highest for the ring finger, with a 44.7% chance of being confused with the movement of the index finger. More research is needed to successfully develop a low-cost prosthetic hand.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.53-56
• /
• 2007

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of ME and crude protein (CP) content of diet on the performance and production cost of white semibroiler chickens. Three hundred sixty hatched white semibroiler chickens (Hy-Line $female\;{\times}\;Ross^{(R)}$ male) were assigned to low dietary treatments of different metabolizable energy (ME) value and crude protein (CP) content: T1; ME 3,040 and 3,070 kcal/kg, CP 21.40 and 20.86%, T2; ME 2,950 and 3,000 kcal/kg, CP 20.62 and 19.70%, T3; ME 2,950 and 3,000 kcal/kg, CP 19.90 and 18.70% and T4; ME 2,900 and 2,920 kcal/kg, CP 18.50 and 18.00% for starter diet ($0{\sim}1st$ wk) and power diet ($2{\sim}5th$ wk), respectively There were significant (P<0.01) differences among treatments in weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio. T1 was significantly higher in weight gain and feed intake and love. in feed conversion ratio than other treatments. Production index of T1 (153.42) was far greater than T2 (112.13), T3 (108.40) and T4 (100.95). It was concluded that semibroilers required similar ME and CP to those of regular commercial broilers (highbro).

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.195-203
• /
• 2016

Concrete slab track was applied to the Gyeoungbu High Speed Railroad step 2 and the Honam High Speed Railroad. Concrete slab track incurs higher construction cost and lower maintenance cost than existing gravel track. For these reasons, the use of concrete slab track has increased in Korea. The biggest problem in the use of concrete slab track is repairing damage from settlement that can occur while trains are in service. High speed railroad design standards require allowable residual settlement of concrete slab track of less than 25mm. In order to satisfy the requirement of long term stability of concrete slab track, it is necessary to manage the secondary compression settlement within the allowable residual settlement. This study is to evaluate the secondary compression settlement with the variation of the secondary compression index, thickness of soft ground, and concrete slab track life. Statistical analysis is performed to determine the probability of distribution of areas where serious problems will be caused after the concrete slab track is constructed.