Background: After the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak in Korea in 2015, the government newly established the additional reimbursement for infection prevention to encourage infection control activities in the hospitals. The new policy was announced in December 2015 and was implemented in September 2016. We evaluated how infection control activities improved in hospitals after the change of government policy in Korea. Methods: Three cross-sectional surveys using the WHO Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework (HHSAF) were conducted in 2013, 2015, and 2017. Using multivariable linear regression model including hospital characteristics, we analyzed the changes in total HHSAF scores according to the survey time. Results: In total, 32 hospitals participated in the survey in 2013, 52 in 2015, and 101 in 2017. The number of inpatient beds per infection control professionals decreased from 324 in 2013 to 303 in 2015 and 179 in 2017. Most hospitals were at intermediate or advanced levels of progress (90.6% in 2013, 86.6% in 2015, and 94.1% in 2017). In a multivariable linear regression model, the total HHSAF scores were significantly associated with hospital teaching status (β coefficient of major teaching hospital, 52.6; 95% CI, 8.9–96.4; P = .018), bed size (β coefficient of 100-bed increase, 5.1; 95% CI, 0.3–9.8; P = .038), and survey time (β coefficient of 2017 survey, 45.1; 95% CI, 19.3–70.9; P = .001). Conclusions: After the national policy implementation, the number of infection control professionals increased, and the promotion of hand hygiene activities was strengthened in Korean hospitals.

Funding: None

Disclosures: None

We study consumption and investment decisions given realistic time-varying constraints on borrowing. We first consider the case where borrowing is constrained by a maximum debt-to-income ratio. We then consider collateral borrowing with a maximum loan-to-value ratio. The resulting implications for optimal policies differ considerably from those obtained in the existing literature based on fixed borrowing limits but are consistent with those documented in the empirical literature.

We investigated microstructures, compositional distributions, and electrical properties of dielectric CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) thin films deposited on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates from 700 to 800 °C by pulsed laser deposition. With increasing the deposition temperature from 700 to 750 °C, the dielectric constants (εr) of CCTO films were greatly enhanced from ∼300 to ∼2000 at 10 kHz, respectively. However, the εr values of CCTO films were gradually decreased above 750 °C, which was surely attributable to the formation of a TiO2-rich dead layer at the interface between CCTO and Pt electrode. Compositional analyses by Auger electron spectroscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and electron energy loss spectroscopy revealed that the TiO2-rich dead layer became thicker because of severe Cu diffusion from CCTO films to Pt electrode. The leakage current behaviors of CCTO films are in good agreement with Poole–Frenkel conduction mechanism, where both the TiO2-rich dead layer and rutile TiO2 nanocrystalline particles are considered to play a role of charge trapping centers.

A simple and efficient way of preparing highly sensitive SnO2 nanowire-based gas sensors without an arduous lithography process was studied. The network of SnO2 nanowires could be suspended upon the Si substrate by separating the Au catalyst layer from the substrate. As the electric current is transported along the networks of the nanowires, not along the bottom layer on the substrate, the sensitivity to gases was maximized in the suspended and networked structures. The sensitivities were 18 and 180 when the NO2 concentrations were 0.5 and 5 ppm. The response time was typically 20-50 s.

This paper presents a micro-fluxgate magnetic sensor composed of a rectangular-ring shaped magnetic core and solenoid excitation and pick-up coils. In order to improve the sensitivity of sensing element, the excitation and pick-up Cu coils are formed as a closely coupled structure. This unique coil structure allows to excite the magnetic core in an optimal condition with reduced excitation current. The 11 μm thick excitation and pick-up Cu coils were electroplated using Cr (300 Å) / Au (1500 Å) seed layer. The 2.9 μm thick Ni0.8Fe0.2 (permalloy) magnetic core layer was also electroplated with photoresist frame using sputtered Ni0.8Fe0.2 seed layer. The rectangular-ring shaped core was covered by photoresist and wet etching using dilute sulfuric acid. The magnetic core has a DC permeability of ∼1100 and coercive field of 0.1 Oe. The magnetic core is easily saturated due to the low coercive field and closed magnetic path for the excitation field. The chip size of the fabricated sensing element is 1.3 × 1.0 mm2. Excellent linear response over the range of –100 μT to +100 μT is obtained with 14 V/T sensitivity at excitation sine wave of 3 VP-P and 150 kHz. This low magnetic field sensing element is very useful for various applications such as: portable navigation systems including north-up and map data scrolling, military research, medical research, and space research.

The low pressure chemical vapor deposition of Cu was investigated on TiN substrates that had been locally seeded with thin Cu layers. These Cu layers were 5Å, 40Å and 130Å thick and had been produced by PIB (Partially Ionized Beam) deposition. The growth rate and the XRD peak intensity ratio (I(111)/I(200)) of CVD-Cu increased somewhat in the case of Cu seeded TiN/Si substrates compared with as-received TiN/Si substrate. At the deposition temperature of 200°C, Cu film deposited on the 40Å seeded substrate had the lowest electrical resistivity value, 2.42 μ Ω cm that is as high as 1.5 times the bulk copper value. In adhesion test, as the seeding thickness increased from 0Å to 130Å, the adhesion strength increased from 21 N to 27 N.