• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2014

Objectives : Breast cancer has been the most prevalent female cancer in South Korea since 2001. Early detection of this disease is the most effective strategy for reducing mortality. The objective of this study was to identify factors which could predict advanced stage at diagnosis of breast cancer. Methods : Participants who were initially diagnosed with breast cancer and referred to the Stress Clinic of the Breast Cancer Center at Kyungpook National University Hospital were included. Through a semi-structured interview, the authors investigated psychosocial variables such as the extent of marital and family functioning and emotional-economic family burden as well as sociodemographic and health behavior-, health characteristic- and cancer-related variables. Results : Data were collected from 219 participants. One hundred and twenty(54.8%) subjects were diagnosed with advanced-stage breast cancer. Variables that were significantly different between the advanced-stage and early-stage groups included : monthly breast self examination(p<0.000), annual mammographic screening(p<0.000), mode of tumor detection(p<0.000), nature of the first symptoms(p<0.000), time to treatment after diagnosis(p<0.000), overloaded economic and family burden(p=0.018), marital functioning(p<0.000) and family functioning(p<0.00). Logistic regression analysis indicated that irregular annual mammography screening(OR=7.431 ; 95% CI 2.407-22.944) or a lack of screening(OR=25.299 ; 95% CI 7.855-81.482) and a dysfunctional marital relationship(OR=4.772 ; 95% CI 2.244-10.145) were significantly associated with advanced stage at diagnosis of breast cancer. Conclusions : We reconfirmed screening behavior to be a risk factor for delayed diagnosis of breast cancer. Our findings also emphasized the importance of psychosocial factors such as marital functioning in early detection of breast cancer. Psychiatric consultation in the area of martial functioning could be beneficial for increasing early detection in breast cancer.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.844-852
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• 1997

Background : Recent studies have documented increased release of endothelin(ET) during acute attack of asthma. The purpose of this study is to observe the link between plasma level and urinary excretion of each and changes during acute exacerbation. Method : Plasma and 24 hour urine were collected from sixteen asthmatics during acute exacerbation, twice ; first day of symptomatic exacerbation and two weeks after treatment. Controls were ten healthy normal subjects. All patients were treated with corticosteroid and beta-2 adrenergic agonist on admission. ET was determined by radioimmmunoassay and had 100% cross reactivity with ET-1, 67% with ET-2, 84% with ET-3, and 8% with Big-ET. Results : Plasma ETs were significantly elevated during acute attack of asthma compared with those in remission and controls.,However, there was no significant changes in urine ET concentrations or total ET amounts in 24 hour urine during exacerbation upto two weeks. Those levels of urine ET in asthmatics were still higher than controls. ET concentrations in plasma or urine were not correlated with pulmonary functional parameters and hypoxemia. Conclusion : The findings suggests that increased plasma ETs are related with exaggerated release during acute asthma. Urinary ET excretion is increased in asthma. However, urine ET changes during exacerbation should be observed in a larger and longer scale.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1784-1792
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• 2007

This study set out to identify the problems with hat labels and to search for improvement measures by examining and analyzing consumers' practice of managing their hats. It also intended to provide accurate and enough information about how to keep and wash hats and thus help consumers use their hats for a long period. In an attempt to investigate how consumers wash and manage their hats, a survey was carried out to 395 individuals in their twenties and over who owned hats living in urban areas including Seoul, and were quota sampled according to age and gender. The survey period is March to April 2007. The collected data were statistically treated with the SPSS 12.0 program in terms of frequency, percentage, mean, standard error, cross tabulation, t-test, and one-way ANOVA. The findings were as followed. First, the respondents were in the average level of perceiving and practicing the washing methods of their hats. The female respondents who had more experiences with laundering than the males knew and practiced the washing methods for hats better than males. Second, compared to other clothing items, hat wearers were more likely to pay careful attention to their hats by putting their hats in a laundry net and applying a laundry detergent for wool fabrics when using a washing machine or washing their hats with their own hands. And third, most of the hat wearers were aware of the importance of hat labels and showed a lower level of trust in them than other clothing items. The suppliers need to offer accurate and practical labels in order to regain the consumers' trust. Many consumers had some difficulties figuring out the size system of hats. In particular, the male consumers had a low level of perception of labels, which implies that there should be specific efforts to educate them about general labels.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.170-178
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• 2014

Purpose: Delirium is a common and serious neuropsychiatric complication among terminally ill cancer patients. We investigated risk factors related to the development of delirium among hospice care patients. Methods: Between May 2011 and September 2012, we included patients who were mentally alert and had no psychiatric disease or drug addiction at the hospice ward of two local hospitals. Among them, participants who had been diagnosed with delirium by two doctors according to the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-4th edition) criteria were grouped as Delirium Group. We analyzed results of psychometric and other laboratory tests performed at the time of patient's admission - psychometric tests included cognitive function (mini-mental status examination, MMSE), depression (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI), anxiety, and insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index, ISI). Logistic regression analysis was used to compare delirium and the related factors. Cox's proportional hazard model was performed using significant factors of logistic regression analysis. Results: Of the 96 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 41 (42.7%) developed delirium. According to the logistic regression analysis, primary cancer site, cognitive impairment (MMSE < 24), depression ($BDI{\geq}16$), and insomnia ($ISI{\geq}15$) were significant factors related to delirium. Among the four factors, depression (OR 5.130; 95% CI, 2.009~13.097) and cognitive impairment (OR 5.130; 95% CI, 2.009~13.097) were found significant using Cox's proportional hazard model. Conclusion: The development of delirium was significantly related to depression and cognitive impairment among patients receiving hospice care. It is necessary to carefully monitor depression and cognitive function in hospice care.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.136-145
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of organic slovents and noise on hearing loss. We selected organic solvents exposed group of 32 cases, noise exposed group of 31 cases, both noise and solvent exposed group of 31 cases, and control group of 53 cases and studied the relation between exposure level of noise and organic solvents and degree of hearing loss. The results were as follows. The subjects under investigation were exposed to noise and organic solvents under threshold limit values and the amount of urinary hippuric acid excretion were also under biological exposure indices. In case of noise, both noise and organic solvents exposed group and noise exposed group were more exposed than organic solvents exposed group(p<0.05). When urinary hippuric acid excretion were concerned, both noise iud organic solvents exposed group and organic solvents exposed group showed higher values than noise exposed group(p<0.05). In comparison of mean auditory threshold values by frequency, on the air conduction test, both noise and organic solvents exposed group showed significantly higher hearing loss than noise exposed group in 500Hz of right ear, 500 and 2000Hz of left ear(p<0.05). Forty-three cases among 147 subjects were regarded as hearing loss group and average age(42.6years) of hearing loss group was higher than normal groups average age of 38.0 years. Urinary hippuric acid excretions of hearing loss group were significantly higher than normal group(p<0.05). Thirty-eight percent(12cases) of noise exposed group, 40.6 $\%$(13cases) of organic solvents exposed group, 51.6 $\%$(16cases) of both noise and organic solvents exposed group, and 3.8 $\%$(2cases) of unexposed group were regarded as hearing losers. Exposed groups showed higher incidence of hearing loss than unexposed group but there were no significant differences among the exposed groups. The variables showing significant correlation with hearing loss were age and the amount of hippuric acid in urinary excretion. When age were adjusted for the purpose of seeing the effects of hearing losses due to organic solvent, urinary excretion of hippuric acids was the only variable with significant correlation with hearing loss (p<0.05). When odds ratio to hearing loss between control and exposed groups was considered, noise exposed group showed 6.1 times (95 $\%$ CI: 3.3-8.7), organic solvents exposed group showed 7.4 times (95 $\%$ CI: 3.5-14.6) and both noise and organic solvents exposed group showed 17.2 times(95% CI: 5.6-31.8) higher values than unexposed group(p<0.01). Above results suggest that health screening test of hearing loss is also needed in organic solvents exposed workers.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.309-316
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• 2006

$\underline{Purpose}$: To analyze the recent citation trend and to find a way to improve impact factor (IF) of the Journal of Korean Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (JKSTRO) by analysis of Korean Medical Citation Index (KoMCI) citation data of JKSTRO and comparison with that of mean citation data of all journals enlisted on KoMCI (KoMCI journals) during 2000-2005. $\underline{Materials\;and\;Methods}$: All citation data of entire journals enlisted on KoMCI and JKSTRO from 2000 to 2005 were obtained from KoMCI. The trend of total and annual number of published articles and reference citations, total citations and self-citations per paper, IF and impact factor excluding self-citations (ZIF) were described and compared on both KoMCI journals and JKSTRO. $\underline{Results}$: Annual number of published articles was decreased for 6 years on both KoMCI journals and JKSTRO (32% and 38% reduction rate). The number of Korean journal references per article is 1.6 papers on JKSTRO comparing to 2.0 papers on KoMCI journals. The percentage of Korean references/total references increased from 5.0% in 2000 to 7.7% in 2005 on JKSTRO and from 8.5% in 2000 to 10.1% on KoMCI journals. The number of total citations received/paper on JKSTRO (average 1.333) is smaller than that of KoMCI journals (average 1.694), there was an increased rate of 67% in 2005 comparing to 2000. The percentage of self-citations/total citations (average 72%) on JKSTRO is slightly higher than that of KoMCI journals (average 61%). IF of JKSTRO was gradually improved and 0.144, 0.125, 0.088, 0.107, 0.187, and 0.203 in 2000-2005 respectively. However, ZIF of JKSTRO is steadily decreased from 0.038 in 2000 to 0.013 in 2005 except 0.044 in 2004. $\underline{Conclusion}$: IF of JKSTRO was slightly improved but had some innate problem of smaller number of citations received. To make JKSTRO as a highly cited journal, the awareness of academic status of JKSTRO and active participation of every member of JKSTRO including encouraging self-citations of papers published recent 2 years and submission of English written papers, and active academic cooperation with related academic societies.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.21 no.spc
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• pp.39-50
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• 2019

This study aims to assess the influence of climate change on the hydrological cycle at a basin level in North Korea. The selected model for this study is MRI-CGCM 3, the one used for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Moreover, this study adopted the Spatial Disaggregation-Quantile Delta Mapping (SDQDM), which is one of the stochastic downscaling techniques, to conduct the bias correction for climate change scenarios. The comparison between the preapplication and postapplication of the SDQDM supported the study's review on the technique's validity. In addition, as this study determined the influence of climate change on the hydrological cycle, it also observed the runoff in North Korea. In predicting such influence, parameters of a runoff model used for the analysis should be optimized. However, North Korea is classified as an ungauged region for its political characteristics, and it was difficult to collect the country's runoff observation data. Hence, the study selected 16 basins with secured high-quality runoff data, and the M-RAT model's optimized parameters were calculated. The study also analyzed the correlation among variables for basin characteristics to consider multicollinearity. Then, based on a phased regression analysis, the study developed an equation to calculate parameters for ungauged basin areas. To verify the equation, the study assumed the Osipcheon River, Namdaecheon Stream, Yongdang Reservoir, and Yonggang Stream as ungauged basin areas and conducted cross-validation. As a result, for all the four basin areas, high efficiency was confirmed with the efficiency coefficients of 0.8 or higher. The study used climate change scenarios and parameters of the estimated runoff model to assess the changes in hydrological cycle processes at a basin level from climate change in the Amnokgang River of North Korea. The results showed that climate change would lead to an increase in precipitation, and the corresponding rise in temperature is predicted to cause elevating evapotranspiration. However, it was found that the storage capacity in the basin decreased. The result of the analysis on flow duration indicated a decrease in flow on the 95th day; an increase in the drought flow during the periods of Future 1 and Future 2; and an increase in both flows for the period of Future 3.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2002

Background: Ischemia-reperfusion myocardial injury is an important factor to determine the early and the late mortality of transplanted patients. Recently, modulation of the cytosolic NADH/NAD+ ratio by Pyruvate and aspartate was tested to Protect the heart from ischemia-reperfusion injury. Material and Method: We added pyruvate and aspartate to the University of Wisconsin solution, and evaluated their effect on myocardial protection. We used 16 piglet(age 1 to 3 days) hearts. Eight hearts were arrested with and stored in the University of Wisconsin solution(UW solution) for 24 hours(control group), and the other eight hearts were arrested with and stored in the modified UW solution added pyruvate(3mmol/L) and aspartate(2 mmol/L)(test group). All hearts underwent modified reperfusion with blood cardioplegic solution followed by conversion to a left-sided working model with perfusion from a support pig. And then, we measured stroke work index(SWI), high-energy phosphate stores, and myocardial water content of the hearts. SWI was calculated at left ventricular end-diastolic pressures of 3, 6, 9, and 12 mmHg after 60 and 120 minutes reperfusion, respectively, Result: At 60 minutes and 120 minutes after reperfusion, SWI was higher in the test group than in the control group significantly. The levels of AMP, ADP, ATP of the test group were also higher. But, the creatine phosphate level and myocardial water content were similar in the two groups. Conclusion: From these results, we could Prove that pyruvate and aspartate enhance cardiac contractility and high-energy phosphate stores after ischemia.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.125-153
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• 2005

It has been widely known that the seismic piezo-cone penetration test (SCPTU) is one of the most useful techniques for investigating the geotechnical characteristics including dynamic soil properties. As the practical applications in Korea, SCPTU was carried out at two sites in Busan and four sites in Incheon, which are mainly composed of alluvial or marine soil deposits. From the SCPTU waveform data obtained from the testing sites, the first arrival times of shear waves were and the corresponding time differences with depth were determined using the cross-over method, and the shear wave velocity profiles (VS) were derived based on the refracted ray path method based on Snell's law and similar to the trend of cone tip resistance (qt) profiles. In Incheon area, the testing depths of SCPTU were deeper than those of conventional down-hole seismic tests. Moreover, for the application of the conventional CPTU to earthquake engineering practices, the correlations between VS and CPTU data were deduced based on the SCPTU results. For the empirical evaluation of VS for all soils together with clays and sands which are classified unambiguously in this study by the soil behavior type classification Index (IC), the authors suggested the VS-CPTU data correlations expressed as a function of four parameters, qt, fs, $\sigma$, v0 and Bq, determined by multiple statistical regression modeling. Despite the incompatible strain levels of the down-hole seismic test during SCPTU and the conventional CPTU, it is shown that the VS-CPTU data correlations for all soils clays and sands suggested in this study is applicable to the preliminary estimation of VS for the Korean deposits and is more reliable than the previous correlations proposed by other researchers.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.75-93
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• 2010

Seen topographically, Busan is a city that is coastal and hilly. In the city, most parks have been formed around mountain areas that are not so useful. They also are unbalanced in location among different regions of the city. The purpose of this study is to find how to manage urban parks towards green network promotion. For the purpose, this researcher first analyzed physical and environmental characteristics of urban parks located within the main living spheres of Busan. Then, the researcher examined interactive relations between those parks and downtown areas surrounding them to classify types of the parks. In association, the researcher classified the entire of the city into inland and coastal regions. And the researcher examined mountainous and hilly urban parks that were 150 to 300 meters above sea level in the former region and 100 to 150 meters above sea level in the latter. Findings of the study can be summarized as follows. The above examination found that parks of Busan feature physically penetrating and overlapping with downtown areas of the city. How well the green zones of Busan in form of urban park are inter-connective and influential to each other heavily depends on shapes and functions that the downtown areas of the city have. In this study, urban parks of Busan were grouped according to their types and then analyzed. Based on results of the analysis, the researcher tried to find how to increase the utility of another urban parks that are expected to be formed and how to promote so-called the green network that integrates greens. Considering findings of the study, the researcher would make the following suggestions. In case of forming an urban park in a gently sloped green zone which is easily accessible and noticeable, it's important that the park should include a stream to which another green zone is converged or, if the park is located near a costal area, contribute to promote urban functions and openness. While, in a high-altitude green zone, it's more effective to form so-called the green way that consists of some limited usable site of the zone and greens behind it and then form a hub of regional community at the intersection between the main road and main gate to the urban park, contributing to the green network promotion.