• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.418-427
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• 2014

Purpose: Objectives of this study were to investigate the association between efficiency and quality of health care in Long-term Care Hospitals (LTCH) and determine related factors that would enable achievement of both high efficiency and high quality at the same time. Methods: Major data sources were the "2012 Korean Assessment of Propriety by Long-term Care Hospitals" obtained from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service. Cost variables were supplemented by a National Tax Service accounting document. First, data envelopment analysis was performed by generating efficiency scores for each LTCH. Second, matrix analysis was conducted to ascertain association between efficiency and quality. Lastly, kruskal-wallis and mann-whitney tests were conducted to identify related factors. Results: First, efficiency and quality of care are not in a relationship of trade-offs; thus, LTCH can be confident that high efficiency-high quality can be achieved. Second, LTCH with a large number of beds, longer tenure of medical personnel, and adequate levels of investment were more likely to have improved quality as well as efficiency. Conclusion: It is essential to enforce legal standards appropriate to the facilities, reduce turnover of nursing staff, and invest properly in human resources. These consequences will help LTCH to maintain the balance of high efficiency-high quality in the long-run.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.117-128
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• 2015

An organization must restructure itself once it makes outsourcing decisions. Outsourcing is a strategy that a company adopts to direct internal efforts into strengthening its core business processes while contracting other companies for strategically less critical tasks thereby improving organizational production efficiency, and the strategy inevitably involves organizational restructuring. While public service organizations have increasingly embraced outsourcing as well, only a handful of studies analyze the change in efficiency from organizational restructuring. Therefore, this study uses Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) to test whether efficiency improved in Korea Expressway Corporation's restructured branch offices. Korea Expressway Corporation evaluated and grouped its branches based on road extensions management, traffic volume, the number of snow days, road deterioration, and the number of junctions to differentially allocate its personnel and budget. The extent of efficiency improvement in each group was compared, and results show that inefficiency did not exist in any of the groups. The efficiency index among the three group categories was similar across the board; 9 offices in the A-group with its expanded personnel and budget had an efficiency index of 0.954, 12 offices in the B-group with unchanged personnel and budget conditions had an index of 0.950, and 12 offices in the C-group with reduced personnel and budget had an index of 0.937. SFA facilitates efficiency analyses because it does not require pre-restructuring data. This study is easy to apply in practice and empirically tests efficiency improvement in organizational restructuring based on data collected from all the branch offices in Korea Expressway Corporation.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.49-63
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• 2014

With the huge concerns on the inefficiency of public enterprises, particularly a significant amount of debt, an increasing number of studies have been carried out to analyze the levels of inefficiency and investigate the causes of that inefficiency. However, very limited range of analytical methodologies have been used in the efficiency analysis and moreover, the effects of external factors have been little addressed. This study explores the efficiency of urban railway corporations in Korea by utilizing a method of stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). In particular, the potential effects of external factors including residential and floating populations of a station were statistically analyzed. A total of seven Korean urban railway corporations were selected to compare each other in terms of operational efficiency. The results present three important findings. First, the Cobb-Douglas model was found to be more valid for SFA compared to the Translog model. Second, the efficiencies of urban railway corporations in Seoul and Busan are relatively high whereas those of Daejeon and Gwangju are very low in efficiency in the area of sales revenue. In an aspect of number of transport of passengers, Gwangju Metro also showed the lowest efficiency. Third, the external factors are significantly associated with the efficiency, indicating that the efficiencies of Daejeon Metro and Gwangju Metro would increase while the efficiency of Seoul Metro would decreases when the external variables are excluded in the efficiency analysis. The results provide several meaningful implications for managers of the urban railway corporations as well as policy makers who are attempting to resolve the inefficiency problems of public enterprises.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.572-579
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• 2017

Increased impervious surface caused by rapid urbanization serves to produce the discharge of non-point source pollutants such as total suspended solid (TSS). There exist various methods of removing TSS, including a filtration process using granular media (a well-known method to be practically used after the consideration of removal efficiency, clogging, and backwashing efficiency). To determine the TSS removal capability of the filter, we initially performed lab-scale experiments which assessed flow rates, influent concentrations, permeability co-efficients, the particular shapes of suspended solids and potential clogging, and also evaluated TSS removal efficiency when applied to filtration facility in a pilot-scale. In low filtration flux condition, the removal efficiency of suspended solids was more than 95 %, while decreased to 83% in high filtration flux. Regarding the clogging aspect of the experiment, total cumulative solids were loaded up to $19.15kg/m^2$, and TSS removal efficiency was noted to commence to decrease when the loaded solids exceeded $9.0kg/m^2$. It was also noted, however, that superior efficiency was maintained for six hours. In addition, for pilot-scale experiment, the removal efficiency was still high enough (83.4 %) for the solid concentration of 140 ~ 343 mg SS/L and after backwashing, head loss was recovered to 92 ~ 95 % during two hour filtration. With these results, It was confirmed that lifetime of the filter applied to the test was prolonged due to the high treatment efficiency and good backwashing efficiency for the cumulative solids load.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.93-109
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• 2021

Purpose - The logistics industry is often featured by its location relevance and industrial concentration. Industrial concentration is conducive to the effective transmission of information by reducing transaction costs and improving transaction efficiency, thus promoting the development of trade. The main purpose of this paper is to measure the spatial total factor productivity and location quotient of the logistics industry in Korea, and to study the impact of the logistics industry efficiency and agglomeration effect on import and export trade in Korea. Design/methodology - First, used the spatial stochastic frontier method to measure the spatial total factor productivity of the logistics industry in Korea, this serves as the efficiency index of the logistics industry in various regions of Korea. Second, calculated the location quotient (LQ) of the logistics industry to measure the industry's concentration degree. Third, employed a spatial econometric model to analyze the impacts of factors such as the efficiency and concentration levels of the logistics industry on import and export trade in Korea. Findings - This study's main findings can be summarized as follows: this study found that the overall efficiency of the logistics industry in Korea needs to be improved, even though it showed an upward trend in all regions of the country; Moreover, the agglomeration level of Korea's logistics industry needs to be improved; Finally, the positive spatial correlation and industrial agglomeration effect of Korea's logistics industry had a positive impact on the country's import and export trade. Originality/value - This study is innovative in terms of research perspective and methods. Most of the previous studies have measured the development level of the logistics industry using the logistics performance index (LPI), Fewer studies have assessed through the spatial total factor productivity and location quotient of the logistics industry in Korea to measure the efficiency index of the logistics industry in various regions of Korea and concentration degree, as well as there was almost no study on the impact of logistics industry efficiency and agglomeration effect on import and export trade in Korea. This study addresses this limitation by analyzing the impacts of the efficiency and agglomeration effect of the logistics industry on import and export trade in Korea.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.83-97
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• 2022

Purpose - In this paper, we, taking South Korea's foreign direct investment in RCEP partners as an example, will examine its investment efficiency in these countries and analyze the main influencing factors, making suggestions for further liberalizing and facilitating its investment in and even for promoting its trade and economic cooperation with them. Design/methodology - In this study, we look at the panel data of South Korea and the other 13 RCEP countries (Brunei excluded) from 2000 to 2019 and apply the stochastic frontier analysis to measure its foreign direct investment efficiency and explore the influencing factors in RCEP countries. We examine the investment potential of South Korea in these places. Findings - We find that South Korea's average investment efficiency in RCEP countries reached 0.62, indicating large investment potential. We also find that its investment efficiency in RCEP partners was heterogeneous. Our study reveals that South Korea's foreign direct investment is significantly positively correlated with the market size and population of the two countries, as well as with whether the host country has a coastline and rich natural resources, while negatively with geographic distance. It shows that free trade agreements, economic freedom, and regulatory quality play significant roles in improving investment efficiency. Originality/value - Through theoretical and empirical analysis, we deal with the efficiency and influencing factors of South Korea's direct investment in RCEP partners, proposing new drivers for facilitating its trade and investment in these countries and comprehensively evaluating the efficiency and revealing the trend of its FDI in these countries. In this paper, we put forward a solid theoretical basis for empirical analysis of the future economic and trade development between South Korea and its RCEP partners and give objective insights for further improving its foreign direct investment efficiency and tapping its investment potential.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.167-175
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• 2006

With the recent prevalence of helical CT and multi-slice CT, which deliver higher radiation dose than conventional CT due to overbeaming effect in X-ray exposure and interpolation technique in image reconstruction. Although multi-detector and helical CT scanner provide a variety of opportunities for patient dose reduction, the potential risk for high radiation levels in CT examination can't be overemphasized in spite of acquiring more diagnostic information. So much more concerns is necessary about dose characteristics of CT scanner, especially dose efficient design as well as dose modulation software, because dose efficiency built into the scanner's design is probably the most important aspect of successful low dose clinical performance. This study was conducted to evaluate z-axis geometric dose efficiency in single detector CT and each level multi-detector CT, as well as to compare z-axis dose efficiency with change of technical scan parameters such as focal spot size of tube, beam collimation, detector combination, scan mode, pitch size, slice width and interval. The results obtained were as follows ; 1. SDCT was most highest and 4 MDCT was most lowest in z-axis geometric dose efficiency among SDCT, 4, 8, 16, 64 slice MDCT made by GE manufacture. 2. Small focal spot was 0.67-13.62% higher than large focal spot in z-axis geometric dose efficiency at MDCT. 3. Large beam collimation was 3.13-51.52% higher than small beam collimation in z-axis geometric dose efficiency at MDCT. 4. Z-axis geometric dose efficiency was same at 4 slice MDCT in all condition and 8 slice MDCT of large beam collimation with change of detector combination, but was changed irregularly at 8 slice MDCT of small beam collimation and 16 slice MDCT in all condition with change of detector combination. 5. There was no significant difference for z-axis geometric dose efficiency between conventional scan and helical scan, and with change of pitch factor, as well as change of slice width or interval for image reconstruction. As a conclusion, for reduction of patient radiation dose delivered from CT examination we are particularly concerned with dose efficiency of equipment and have to select proper scanning parameters which increase z-axis geometric dose efficiency within the range of preserving optimum clinical information in MDCT examination.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 1997

The objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of Pumping-and-Treatment system (PTS) for remediation of the saturated zones contaminated with NAPLs. A simulation is carried out for the removal of DNAPLs (denser-than-water non-aqueous phase liquids) and LNAPLS (lighter-than-water non-aqueous phase liquids) distributing at and below the water table. In the study, LNAPL and DNAPL are assumed to be n-hexane and 1,1-dichloroacetone, respectively. The model system studied consists of four heterogeneous soil layers with different permeabilities. Groundwater flows through the bottom layer and a pumping well is located under the initial water table. The time-driven deformation of the water table and removal efficiency of contaminants are estimated after vacuum application to the inlet of the well. In the calculation, FVM (Finite Volumetric Method) with SIMPLEC algorithm is applied. Results show that removal efficiencies of both DNAPL and LNAPL are negligible for the first 5 days after the PTS operation. However, when the cone-shape water table is formed around the inlet of the pumping well, the rapid removal rate is obtained since NAPLs migrate rapidly through the curvature of the water table. The removal efficiency of DNAPL is estimated to be higher than that of LNAPL due to the gravity. The results also show that the fluctuation or cone-shaped depression of the water table enhances the removal efficiency of NAPLs in saturated zones. The simulation results could provide a basis of the PTS design for the removal of NAPLs in saturated zones.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.127-136
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• 2010

Optimal pumping rate, well efficiency and radius of influence were estimated using field step-drawdown tests. According to the analysis results, optimal pumping rates were estimated as 9.37, 16.20 $m^3/day$ for KDPW 1 and 8.11, 14.10 $m^3/day$ for KDPW 2. The well efficiency was calculated as 72.02~90.73% for KDPW 1 while it was 70.62~88.52% for KDPW 2. In the meanwhile, the steady-state analysis yielded the radius of influence (ROI) of 3.50~31.92 m in case of pumping at KDPW 1 and the ROI of 0.14~37.43 m in case of pumping at KDPW 2. In addition, the transient analysis produced the ROI of 0.02~8.34 m for KDPW 1 pumping and the ROI of 0.24~9.68 m for KDPW 2 pumping. The methodology used in this study can be usefully applied in the pump and treat remediation design for contaminated groundwater.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.57-64
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• 1996

The main objectives of this research program were to study the ozonation characteristics of phenol wastewater in the continuous packed colamn reactor(PCR) and the bubble column reactor (BCR) using ozone and to provide the fundamentals of ozonizing the phenol wastewater. Among various influencing factors that affect on phenol decomposition through the oxidation by ozone, contacting method, and ozone flow rate were chosen as reaction parameters. The results were obtained from two different types of contacting methods where the countercurrent flow was more efficient than the cocurrent flow in both the phenol removal efficiency and the ozone utilization efficiency. Furthermore, PCR showed the phenol removal efficiency 1.6 to 3% higher than that of BCR in both contacting methods, as well as the ozone utilization efficiency, suggesting that the countercurrent flow is more efficient than the cocurrent flow. The phenol removal efficiency and the ozone utilization efficiency were reduced in both reactors as the influent ozone flow rate increased. Upon varing flow rate from 0.5l/min to 2.0 l/min by 0.5 l/min, the phenol removal efficiency was reduced approximately from 8.5% to 10.5% and the ozone utilization efficiency was reduced approximately from 6% to 8% in both reactors. The performance of PCR was superior to that of BCR in the aspects of phenol removal and ozone utilization efficiency.