• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.151-162
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• 2022

This study was conducted to develop a rail-type boom sprayer, performing safe spraying with improved ergonomic postures during pesticide spraying of agro-photovoltaic power system. The sprayer was designed to reduce labor cost and to be safe from pesticide exposure, and was analyzed through a comparison with a conventional spray method. The rail-type boom sprayer, consisted of a self-propelled spray and hose winder, hose, and boom sprayer parts, was designed to automatically pull and spray in the vertical and horizontal directions. The performance of the sprayer for an agro-photovoltaic power system was appropriate. From the analysis of postures with the Ovako Working posture Analysis System (OWAS), Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), and Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) methods, the musculoskeletal risk factors to the body using the rail-type boom sprayer were less than those with the conventional power sprayer. In addition, the possibility of pesticide poisoning was reduced compared to the conventional power sprayer. The working capacity with the rail-type boom sprayer was more than five times greater, compared with the conventional power sprayer. After performing pesticide spraying with the rail-type boom sprayer, the labor cost was reduced to 42,750 won·yr^-1, which was 90% (402,750 won·yr^-1) less than the cost with the use of a conventional power sprayer (445,500 won·yr^-1).

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.20-27
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• 2024

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of mechanizing onion harvesting on labor reduction and work efficiency in Shinan Area. The mechanized harvesting system comprised a stem cutter, digging harvester, and collector. The field tests showed that the average residual stem length after using the stem cutter was 13.22±5.01 cm, with a stem cutting ratio of 91.3% and a damage ratio of 0%. The digging harvester achieved a digging ratio of 100% and a damage ratio of 1.2%, while the collector's damage ratio was 4.1%, loss ratio was 2.7%, and debris mixing ratio was 3.2%. The total working capacity of the mechanized system was 2.3 h/10a, significantly reducing 97.2% of labor time compared to manpower. These results indicate that the mechanization of onion harvesting can effectively reduce labor costs and increase work efficiency. Future research should include performance verification in various environments and an economic analysis of the mechanized system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2000.11b
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• pp.489-497
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• 2000

Since Chinese cabbages weigh 3 to 5kgf and are big in size at the time of harvest, handling operations such as harvesting, loading and unloading including transportation require the highest labor demand among all other cultivation processes. Recently, though several cabbage harvesters were developed in Japan and Europe, those harvesters were not suitable for Chinese cabbages cultivated in Korea because of the size and shape. The cabbage harvester is almost meaningless without any proper cabbage piling and pallet unloading mechanism. Most harvesters developed so far adopted a sort of slide and free falling way in collecting cabbages into the pallet. Three or four labors are usually required for cleaning incoming cabbages and loading those in the pallet. Because of the required time for piling cabbages without severe damage and the required space capacity to carry empty and loaded pallets, harvesting speed should be adjusted in accordance with time required for consecutive operations. Up to now, any automatic or semi-automatic collecting device has not been developed in the world to pile cabbages on the layer one by one into the pallet in the ordered way with little damage and to unload pallet from the harvester continuously during the harvest process. To compromise system expenses and function, Semi-automatic cabbage piling and pallet unloading mechanism was devised and it required one labor. The foldable mesh pallet with a size of 1050mm x 1050mm x 1000mm and holding capacity of around 70 cabbages was utilized. The prototype for piling and unloading mechanism was composed of three parts such as feeding device, automatic piling device with retractable bellows, and pallet unloading device. Prior to developing the prototype, the geometric properties and the amount of the damage of the cabbage caused during the piling operation were investigated. Considering the height of the pallet, a series of cabbage carrying plates were mounted to the bracket chain to lift and to carry cabbages to the loading device. Indoor laboratory experiments showed that the cabbage carrying chain conveyor worked successfully. Considering the conveying speed 0.46m/sec of the pull up belt from the cabbages on the ground, the speed of cabbage carrying chain conveyor worked property in the range of 0.26m/sec to 0.36m/sec. The system allowed the operator to modify the position of cabbage slightly. Overall system worked successfully resulting into almost same capacity without severe damage to the cabbage as human did.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.167-174
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• 2008

Cost related to building equipment accounts for about 85% of the life cycle cost of buildings. Therefore proper selection of air-conditioning system is important for reducing the overall cost of buildings. In this study, medium capacity EHP and GHP for air-conditioning a building with a floor area of 1,200 $m^2$ are compared economically. To consider all the factors of initial and operation costs effectively, an annual equal payment method is proposed. For the initial cost, cost of equipment, construction, installation, electric facility, financial subsidy and tax cut is considered. Cost of basic electricity, energy(electricity and gas), space charge, labor, insurance and repair is considered for the operation cost. Under the assumptions made in this study, overall cost of EHP is less than that of GHP, but this is not absolute and different outcome may result if different assumptions are made. This study is useful for those who are interested in choosing an air-conditioning system that costs less for mid-size buildings with simple calculations.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2018

This research aims to evaluate the current state of technology of enterprises in Vietnam in comparison with several countries in the AEC economic community, thereby to propose several recommendations to Vietnamese enterprises in order able to promote technology innovation activities, create competitiveness with enterprises in the region. Qualitative research methods are used through statistics and comparative descriptions from data collected from various sources: WEF, World Bank, CIEM, General Statistic Office. The study results show that Vietnamese enterprises still have many limitations in technology, originated from their small business scale (capital and labor), the current research capacity is still low, the funding for this activity is not high and the accessibility of the capital is still difficult. According to the Global Competitiveness Index, Vietnam's science and technology indexes are low compared to other AEC-developed countries including the availability of the latest technology; the acquisition of technology at the enterprise level; the capacity of improvement; quality of scientific research organizations..., which shall be a major barrier for Vietnamese enterprises to have to overcome to be able to create the competitiveness when entering the global market. From then on, the authors proposed solutions for two subjects, enterprises and government, to help Vietnamese enterprises to overcome this barrier.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.83-92
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• 2020

In South Korea, problems caused by material deterioration of time-worn concrete structures have been increased recently. Because severe material deterioration could damage the structure's safety, it's important to evaluate the old structure's condition and structural capacity regularly to keep its proper performance. The safety evaluation of concrete structures has been initiated and performed periodically since 1995 according to a guideline in accordance with a law in Korea. The guideline prescribes the evaluation types, intervals and methods of the target structure. A lot of cost and labor have been invested every year to carry out the regular safety evaluation. However, it's not clear that the current manual could inspect the old structure's condition and assess the structural capacity precisely. Thus, the verification study initiated to figure out the Korean safety evaluation manual's practicalness. First, the Korean manual was analyzed and then compared with that of other countries for concrete bridges which are representative concrete structure. After that, the previously written evaluation reports were collected and analyzed to find out how the safety evaluation has been carried out. Based on the study results, the parts requiring verification of the manual were drawn. A research program is in progress in order to verify the parts by performing tests with actual structural members from decommissioned concrete bridges.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.17-36
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• 2022

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between structural and process difficulties experienced by childcare center directors in operating childcare centers and to explore characteristics of childcare centers that affect the path. Methods: The participants were 309 childcare center directors, and data were collected through a mobile survey method. Descriptive statistics and SEM were implemented using SPSS and AMOS. Results: Unsupported childcare centers and capacity aggravated structural difficulties in operation of childcare centers, while the number of enrolled children and the enrollment rate reduced such difficulties that were reported by directors. In the case of labor cost supported centers and childcare centers with a high enrollment rate reported a high level of process difficulties. Because the effect of structural difficulties on process difficulties were significant, the indirect influences of structural difficulties that mediated the influences of general background characteristics on process difficulties were also significant. Conclusion/Implications: This study shows that difficulties in operating childcare centers could be considered in terms of structure and process aspects. This study is also meaningful in that it suggests that the characteristics of individual childcare centers should be emphasized in a customized way to alleviate such difficulties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• autumn
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• pp.539-542
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• 2002

Crack sealing is a maintenance procedure that is commonly used to reduce pavement degradation. If cracks in pavements are not sealed, surface water penetration can reduce the strength of the sub-base layers, which can result in increased deflections of the pavement. Reduced strength of the sub-base also accelerates the deterioration of the surface, due to development of greater cracking and potholes. Crack sealing is performed to reduce water and debris penetration, thereby helping to maintain pavement structural capacity and limiting future degradation. The process of sealing cracks in pavements is however dangerous, costly, and labor-intensive operation. Labor turnover and training are increasing problems related to crack sealing crews, and as traffic volumes increase. Automating crack sealing can reduce labor and road user costs, improve work quality, and decrease worker exposure to roadway hazards. The main objective of this research is to develop an automated system for sealing cracks in pavement. Extension of the algorithms and tools presented in this research is also recommended for future study.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.47-67
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• 2007

This paper aims at suggesting several ways lo change financial vulnerability and to improve managerial capability of local public hospitals (LPHs) in Korea through the identification of factors affecting profitability. Several findings of the research are as follows: To begin with, LPHs exhibited a statistically significant difference in their profitability from one another, according to tile analyses of their profitable margins from tile general characteristics. It depends on the number of hospitals in the area, the population of the hospital-built area, the number of competing hospitals, the number of staff per 100 beds, the opening of special clinic, the educational function, and the capacity of rooms. However, there was no variable in the managerial characteristics, presenting a significant difference, in contrast with hospitals which have been managed by private companies and made a great amount of profits. Second, according to the analyses of profit differences in behavioral effort-characteristics, a statistically significant difference was revealed upon the basis of the efforts to improve the clinic service, invite special patients, and shorten the period of being hospitalized. Third, the result of analyses about the difference of profitability from medical care and finance is statistically significant in the rate of labor cost, the rate of management cost, bed-occupancy rate, and the period of being hospitalized. Fourth, according to the analyses of the factors influencing the net profit ratio of the entire capital, Adjusted explanatory power(Adjusted $R^2$) was shown up to 65.2%, which is high. To compare the adjusted explanatory power stage by stage, the first stage model applying only two variables such as structural and strategic characteristics exhibited 23.8%, and the second stage model adding financial characteristics showed 51.5%. The explanatory power was much improved up to 65.2% when the third stage model incorporated the outcome of medical care performance. When the return on investment(ROI) was examined by using the multi-variate linear regression analysis at the final model of third stage, it was found that ROI had a positive relationship with the increase rate of patients, labor costs per doctor, and medical care rate of socially protected inpatients. However, it revealed that ROI had a negative relationship with the ratio of labor costs, the number of patients per managerial staff, and occupancy rate of rooms, respectively. The research suggests that in order for LPHs to increase profitability, LPH, should make efforts not only to attract patients to the hospitals without any discrimination of the patients depending on their financial status, but also to develop efficient management methods to reduce labor costs.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.5 no.2 s.18
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• pp.162-171
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• 2004

Crack sealing is a maintenance procedure that is commonly used to reduce pavement degradation. If cracks in pavements are not sealed, surface water penetration can reduce the strength of the sub-base layers, which can result in increased deflections of the pavement. Reduced strength of the sub-base also accelerates the deterioration of the surface, due to development of greater cracking and potholes. Crack sealing is performed to reduce water and debris penetration, thereby helping to maintain pavement structural capacity and limiting future degradation. The process of sealing cracks in pavements is however dangerous, costly, and labor-intensive operation. Labor turnover and training are increasing problems related to crack sealing crews, and as traffic volumes increase. Automating crack sealing can reduce labor and road user costs, improve work quality, and decrease worker exposure to roadway hazards. The main objective of this research is to develop an automated system for sealing cracks in pavement. Extension of the algorithms and tools presented in this research is also recommended for future study.