• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.137-145
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• 2020

The recent bridge construction projects demand thorough and systematic safety and risk management, due to the increase of risk factors following the introduction of new and complex construction methods and technologies. Among many types of damages that can occur in bridge construction projects, the damages to third parties who are not directly related to the existing property of the contractor construction project can also bring about critical loss in the project in order to compensate the damages. Therefore, risks that could be caused by the loss occurred to indemnify the third party damages should be clearly analyzed, although there are not subsequent amount of studies focusing on the issue. Based on the past record of insurance payment from domestic insurance companies for bridge construction projects, this study aimed to analyze the risk factors of bridge construction for loss caused to compensate the third-party damages happened in actual bridge construction projects and to develop a quantified and numerical predictive loss model. In order to develop the model, the loss ratio was selected as the dependent variable; and among many analyzed independent variables, the superstructure, foundation, flood, and ranking of contractors were the four significant risk factor variables that affect the loss ratio. The results produced can be used as an essential guidance for balanced risk assessment, supplementing the existing analysis on material losses in bridge construction projects by taking into account the third-party damage and losses.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.153-185
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• 2020

In principle, even if serious consequences such as death or serious injury of a patient occur as a result of a medical accident, if the medical malpractice of a health care worker is not recognized, the health care worker is not held liable for said consequences. However, with the opening of the Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency on April 7, 2012, a system was established to compensate health care personnel for their medical malpractices only in the case of "injuries caused by medical accidents in the course of childbirth" (hereinafter referred to as "program for compensation of medical accidents"). Article 46 paragraph 1 of the current Medical Dispute Mediation Act, which is the basis of the Force Majeure Medical Accident Compensation System, stipulates that "medical accidents under delivery" claims are to be determined by the Medical Accident Compensation Review Committee are subject to the compensation project. And the details of the compensation, ratio of sharing financial resources for compensation, scope of compensation, and the guidelines and procedure for the payment of compensations are prescribed by Presidential Decree. In other words, the Presidential Decree requires the state to pay 70 percent of the compensation funds, and 30 percent of the above funds among health care providers. The Constitutional Court has decided on the 2015Hun-Ga13 that the scope of the health care institution's founders and the share of the compensation funds cannot be directly determined by the law, and that the portion delegated by the Presidential decree does not violate the Principle of Legal Protection nor Comprehensive Nondelegation Doctrine. However, this can be seen as an exclusion of accountability for force-induced delivery accidents even if there is no negligence of the medical staff. If the nature of the system is a type of social security system with a social compensatory nature, it could consider eliminating the health care innovator's cost-sharing provisions, leaving the full cost to the state. However, it is also necessary to review institutional protocols that strengthen the efforts of medical institutions in areas such as analysis of the causes of medical accidents and measures to prevent their recurrence. In addition, I think that the conclusion of the Act is in line with the purpose of the Comprehensive Wage Support Regulations that at minimum the law sets an upper limit of the compensation funds that are to be paid by health and medical institutions. Moreover, it is reasonable for the Medical Accident Compensation Review Committee to specify gestational age and weight of births, which are the criteria for compensation, under the Enforcement Decree of the Medical Dispute Mediation Act, in relation to the criteria for payment of contributions by the Medical Accident Compensation Review Committee, and to set the detailed criteria.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.1-31
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• 2015

Korea has continuously increased investment on R&D to improve global technology competitiveness through technology innovation. Korea's R&D expenditure as a percent of GDP is world's No. 1 as 4.15 and it accomplished 1 trillion won trade volume for 4 consecutive years. However, despite these efforts, technology balance of payment, which is an important factor that can measure nation's technology competitiveness is in a state of chronic deficit and the lowest level among OECD countries. In this paper, we studied methods to improve Korea's technology balance of payment We figured out concept and current state of technology trade and examined the importance of technology trade through making a comparison between commodity trade and technology trade. There have been studies regarding technology trade, but there was no study which tried to figure out cognition on technology trade from the point of view of companies which plays an important role in technology trade. For this, this study distinguished companies with experience in technology trade and which have not and conducted a survey to figure out cognition and current state of companies. The survey result showed noticeable difference on cognition of top decision makers between companies with experience in technology trade and which have not and there are serious shortage in department and staff which is exclusively responsible for technology trade. Also, despite their needs for education regarding technology trade, the ratio of employees who received education is below 10 % of the total respondents. This study suggested improvement methods such as reforming survey methods of technology trade statistics, enhancing social cognition, supporting to vitalize technology export, building infrastructure regarding technology trade, and opening education programs for cultivating experts based on preceding research and industry survey.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.169-178
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• 2021

Background and objective: Education based on agricultural experience in school gardens is coming to the fore as a solution to reduce the negative effect of rapid urbanization and the development of information technology (IT) on students. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate how parents of elementary, middle, and high school students in Korea perceive the value of education service using school gardens, as well as their willingness to participate in and pay for such service, and to utilize the results in a quantitative assessment of the socioeconomic value of the education service. Methods: A contactless online survey on the perceived value of education service using school gardens was conducted on 1,010 parents of elementary, middle, and high school students in Korea's five major districts from October 22 to 26 (5 days) of 2020 by M, a Korean specialized survey agency. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS for Windows 25.0 and Excel to obtain the frequency and ratio of each measured item. Results: The respondents had an average of 1.83, of which 52.8% were male. 55.3% of the respondents were aware of the education service using school gardens, and 27.9% experienced the service. When asked if they saw the educational service using school gardens as necessary, 79% answered in the affirmative. In terms of the difference in perception of the need for the service according to experience, 91.8% of the parents who experienced the service responded that it was necessary, indicating that it is important to provide opportunities to experience this service to expand the scope of service. 54.9% of all respondents responded they were willing to pay the costs required for school gardens. When income tax was used as a payment method, the average amount parents were willing to pay was 13,193 KRW, and the tax rate was 2.02%. Based on experience, those who experienced this service had a higher need and willingness to pay for the service than those who had not experience, but the actual amount or tax rate was low as they knew how it was operated. Conclusion: As basic research on the assessment of the value of agricultural experience education using school gardens, this study determined how parents perceive this form of education service as well as their willingness to participate and pay for the service. These findings can be used to systemize the assessment indicators and promote the value of the education service using school gardens, allowing students to maintain a healthy and happy school life through agricultural experience.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 1997

In order to analyze the shifts in the volume and profits of Computed Tomography(CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI) utilization for a year before and after the implementation of insurance coverage for CT, this study has been undertaken examining CT and MRI cost data from 'Y' University Hospital situated in Seoul, Korea. Following are the results of this study: 1. The medical insurance payment for CT, implemented on January 1, 1996, increased CT utilization from January 1996 to April 1996 due to low insurance premiums: however, from May 1996 the number of CT cases significantly decreased as a result of strengthened medical cost reviews and the new 'Detailed standards for approval of CT' announced near the end of April 1996 by the insurer. 2. Since the implementation of insurance coverage for CT, CT fee reduction rates for reimbursements by the insurer to the hospital were 50% and 40% for January and February, respectively, and 31% and 15% for March and April. A significant point in the lowering of the reduction rate was reached in May at 11%; furthermore, since June the reduction rate fell below the average reduction rate for reimbursements for all procedures. If the 'Detailed standards for approval of CT' had been announced before the implementation of insurance coverage for CT, CT utilization would not have been so high due to the need to meet those 'standards'. In addition, loss of hospital profits resulting from the reduction for reimbursements would not have occurred. 3. The shifts in MRI utilization showed that there was no particular change with the beginning of insurance coverage for CT, and the introduction of the 'Detailed standards for approval of CT' made MRI utilization increase because MRI is free of restrictions imposed by the insurer. 4. The relationship between CT utilization and MRI utilization showed that they were supplementary to each other before insurance coverage for CT, but that CT was substituted for MRI because of strengthened medical cost reviews after t~e beginning of insurance coverage for CT. 5. The shifts in volume by patient characteristics showed that the number of inappropriate case patients, according to the insurer's "Standards for approval", decreased more than the number of appropriate case patients after the introduction of insurance coverage for CT. Therefore, the health insurance fee schemes for CT have influenced patient care. 6. The shifts in profits from CT utilization showed a net profit decrease of 31.6%. In order to match the pre-coverage profit level, 5,471 more cases would need to be seen and productivity would need to be increased by 32.7%. This profit decrease resulted from a decrease of CT utilization and low reimbursements. With insurance coverage, net profits from CT were 24.4%, and a margin of safety ratio was 39.6%. Because of the net profits and margin of safety ratio, CT utilization fees for insured appropriate cases could not be considered inappropriate. 7. The shifts in profits from MRI utilization before and after the introduction of CT coverage showed that in order to match pre-CT coverage profit levels, 2,011 more cases would need to be seen and productivity would need to be increased by 9.2%. The reasons for needing to increase the number of cases and productivity result from cost burdens created by adding new MRI units. But with CT coverage already begun, MRI utilization increased. Combined with a minor increase in the MRI fee schedule, MRI utilization showed a net profit increase of 18.5%. Net profits of 62.8% and a 'margin of safety ratio' of 43.1% for MRI utilization showed that the hospital relied on this non-covered procedure for profits. 8. The shifts in profits from CT and MRI utilization showed the net profits from CT decreased by 2.33billion Won while the net profits from MRI increased by 815.7million Won. Overall, these two together showed a net profit decrease of 1.51billion Won. The shifts in utilization showed a functional substitutionary relationship, but the shifts in profits did not show a substitutionary relationship. From these results, We can conclude that if insurance is to be expanded to include previously uncovered procedures using expensive medical equipment, detailed standards should be prepared in advance. The decrease in profits from the shifts in coverage and changes in fees is a difficult burden that should be shared, not carried by the hospital alone. Also, a new or improved fee schedule system should include revised standards between items listed and the appropriateness of the fee schedule should constantly be ensured. This study focused on one university hospital in Seoul and is therefore limited in general applicability. But it is valuable for considering current issues and problems, such as the influence of CT coverage on hospital management. Future studies will hopefully expand the scope of the issues considered here.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.1 s.69
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• pp.72-86
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• 2007

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the cost-effectiveness of Eastern, Western, and collaborative treatments and suggest a cost-effective approach for patients with frozen shoulder pain. Methods : Using the data of fifty-two patients, treatment effectiveness was measured by CSA, SPABI, and ROM scales and changes from the baseline score were evaluated. Data source for cost estimation was based on the national health insurance (NHI) payment system. Because the price in NHI was differentiated by health care institutions, five collaborative types were considered in assessing costs. Cost-effective ratios were computed for economic evaluation. Results : Compared with Eastern treatment, collaborative and Western treatments showed better effects on CSA scale after 4 weeks' treatment. The collaborative approach was also the most effective treatment on SPADI and ROM scales. The direct cost per patient receiving Eastern treatment was less than other treatments. In general, collaborative treatment dominated Eastern and Western treatments in cost-effectiveness an analysis. However, the cost-effectiveness ratio of Eastern treatment resulted in \9,000 compared to \29,000 of collaborative treatment on SPADI. Four different indicators of ROM scales resulted in different approaches as the cost-effective treatment. Conclusions : Considering cost-effectiveness ratios, collaborative treatment was the best treatment on CSh and SPADI scales after 4 weeks' treatment. As for ROM scales, the recommended alternatives were Eastern treatment for patients with abduction and adduction disabilities, Western treatment for those with flexion disability, and collaborative approach fir those with extension disabiliry.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.33-75
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• 2011

The ownership structure of a franchise system is determined by the franchisor's strategic choice. A close look at the extant theories and perspectives in economics and management such as resource scarcity theory, agency theory, transaction cost analysis, and mixed ownership theory reveals that firms choose their ownership structure for the sake of economic efficiency, profit potentials, the chance of survival, and other strategic concerns. The present study, on the basis of strategic choice perspective, reviews the divergent theories of a franchise system's ownership structure and its determinants, thus providing a theoretical framework for comparing the contradictory arguments along the several critical dimensions. We also developed and tested the conflicting hypotheses regarding key determinants of ownership structure including firm's age, size, transaction-specific investments, uncertainty, and risk-sharing propensity. Using a FDD (Franchise Disclosure Document) data set of 543 Korean franchisors, we found that the years in business, the total number of employees, days of training, the inverse of the years of franchising, and the requirement of royalty payment have positive relationships with the proportion of company-owned outlets to total number of outlets. On the other hand, the proportion of company-owned outlets was found to have negative relationships with the total number of outlets and the extent of geographic dispersion of outlets, but to have no significant relationships with the initial investment required and the inverse of contract length. Based on the findings, we provide several theoretical and managerial implications for studying ownership structure of franchise systems.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.157-175
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• 2012

It is difficult to evaluate the performance of process innovation of e-procurement which has large scale and complex processes. The existing evaluation methods for measuring the effects of process innovation have been mainly done with statistically quantitative methods by analyzing operational data or with qualitative methods by conducting surveys and interviews. However, these methods have some limitations to evaluate the effects because the performance evaluation of e-procurement process innovation should consider the interactions among participants who are active either directly or indirectly through the processes. This study considers the e-procurement process as a complex system and develops a simulation model based on MAS(Multi-Agent System) to evaluate the effects of e-procurement process innovation. Multi-agent based simulation allows observing interaction patterns of objects in virtual world through relationship among objects and their behavioral mechanism. Agent-based simulation is suitable especially for complex business problems. In this study, we used Netlogo Version 4.1.3 as a MAS simulation tool which was developed in Northwestern University. To do this, we developed a interaction model of agents in MAS environment. We defined process agents and task agents, and assigned their behavioral characteristics. The developed simulation model was applied to G2B system (KONEPS: Korea ON-line E-Procurement System) of Public Procurement Service (PPS) in Korea and used to evaluate the innovation effects of the G2B system. KONEPS is a successfully established e-procurement system started in the year 2002. KONEPS is a representative e-Procurement system which integrates characteristics of e-commerce into government for business procurement activities. KONEPS deserves the international recognition considering the annual transaction volume of 56 billion dollars, daily exchanges of electronic documents, users consisted of 121,000 suppliers and 37,000 public organizations, and the 4.5 billion dollars of cost saving. For the simulation, we analyzed the e-procurement of process of KONEPS into eight sub processes such as 'process 1: search products and acquisition of proposal', 'process 2 : review the methods of contracts and item features', 'process 3 : a notice of bid', 'process 4 : registration and confirmation of qualification', 'process 5 : bidding', 'process 6 : a screening test', 'process 7 : contracts', and 'process 8 : invoice and payment'. For the parameter settings of the agents behavior, we collected some data from the transactional database of PPS and some information by conducting a survey. The used data for the simulation are 'participants (government organizations, local government organizations and public institutions)', 'the number of bidding per year', 'the number of total contracts', 'the number of shopping mall transactions', 'the rate of contracts between bidding and shopping mall', 'the successful bidding ratio', and the estimated time for each process. The comparison was done for the difference of time consumption between 'before the innovation (As-was)' and 'after the innovation (As-is).' The results showed that there were productivity improvements in every eight sub processes. The decrease ratio of 'average number of task processing' was 92.7% and the decrease ratio of 'average time of task processing' was 95.4% in entire processes when we use G2B system comparing to the conventional method. Also, this study found that the process innovation effect will be enhanced if the task process related to the 'contract' can be improved. This study shows the usability and possibility of using MAS in process innovation evaluation and its modeling.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.187-194
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• 2010

As the design of the pillar width (PW) of the parallel tunnels in downtown area, in which are located in plains zone with deep alluvium compared with mountain tunnels, is directly related with pre-compensation payment and costs of the underground area, it has to be planned as to keep minimum distance while securing the stability of the parallel tunnels. Although PW of downtown road tunnel in Korea is standardized as 1.5D(D: diameter of the tunnels), PW sometimes has to be reduced within 1.5D to adjust the tunnel lines to the city plan in the cases of the inlet and outlet of the tunnels. In this paper, the design and the analyses of optimum PW of the NATM type road tunnel in the downtown area are introduced. The relationship among the tunnel line planning and underground compensation fee, and ground characteristics are evaluated. In the determination of PW distance, the numerical analyses of underground road tunnels were performed, including the use of the strength decrease method and strength/stress ratio method. In the cases of inlet and outlet part of the tunnels where the stability of the pillars is poor due to contiguous construction of the parallel tunnels, the reinforcement methods are recommended for securing the stability. Numerical verification was performed for the reinforcement proposed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.4359-4368
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• 2011

Among several macroeconomic missteps blamed for the recent global financial crisis including the social problems of income distribution and the lack of proper financial remedies, two of them have received particular attention: the global BOP(Balance of Payment) imbalance and the misguided monetary policy. Such BOP imbalance was blamed for massive foreign exchange investment flows from Asia into the U.S., triggering the financial and real estate bubble in America. The latter refers to the excessively loose monetary policy of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which pushed financial institutions and households into reckless investment behavior in search of higher returns. Given the abuse of certain innovative financial techniques and new investment instruments that have been created in recent decades, both collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and credit default swaps (CDS) enjoyed a symbiotic and toxic relationship prior to the financial crisis This paper is organized as follows: The first section analyzes the real causes of the recent financial crisis. The second details the role of CDOs and CDS. Then, to identify key determinants of the CDS spreads in an emerging capital market, the sample data of major Korean firms' CDS spreads are used to estimate the risk premium by utilizing the multiple regression analysis. The empirical test result indicates that Korean 3-year treasury bond rate(TYIELD), market to book value ratio(MV/BV), and assets size(INASSETS) are shown to demonstrate statistically significant influences on the changes of the CDS premium for sample firms.