• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.277-291
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• 2016

Objective: The aim of this study is to propose a unit touch gesture model, which would be useful to predict the performance time on mobile devices. Background: When estimating usability based on Model-based Evaluation (MBE) in interfaces, the GOMS model measured 'operators' to predict the execution time in the desktop environment. Therefore, this study used the concept of operator in GOMS for touch gestures. Since the touch gestures are comprised of possible unit touch gestures, these unit touch gestures can predict to performance time with unit touch gestures on mobile devices. Method: In order to extract unit touch gestures, manual movements of subjects were recorded in the 120 fps with pixel coordinates. Touch gestures are classified with 'out of range', 'registration', 'continuation' and 'termination' of gesture. Results: As a results, six unit touch gestures were extracted, which are hold down (H), Release (R), Slip (S), Curved-stroke (Cs), Path-stroke (Ps) and Out of range (Or). The movement time predicted by the unit touch gesture model is not significantly different from the participants' execution time. The measured six unit touch gestures can predict movement time of undefined touch gestures like user-defined gestures. Conclusion: In conclusion, touch gestures could be subdivided into six unit touch gestures. Six unit touch gestures can explain almost all the current touch gestures including user-defined gestures. So, this model provided in this study has a high predictive power. The model presented in the study could be utilized to predict the performance time of touch gestures. Application: The unit touch gestures could be simply added up to predict the performance time without measuring the performance time of a new gesture.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.19
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• pp.8423-8427
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• 2014

Background: Cancer is the most common cause of death in Thailand, where treatment outcomes and prognosis are poor and mortality rates remain high. This study reports new cancer cases and trends of all cancers registered in Srinagarind Hospital from 1993 to 2012 and also provides a picture of the cancer situation in Northeast Thailand. Materials and Methods: All new cases of cancer registered in the hospital-based cancer registry at Faculty of Medicine, Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University during 1993-2012 were included in the study. Results and Conclusions: The number of new cancer cases has gradually increased each year during the last 20 years. The three most common cancers at present in males are liver and bile duct cancer, lung cancer and colorectal cancer, respectively. In females, liver and bile duct, breast and thyroid cancers are now the most frequent. Interestingly, the number of cases of both liver and bile duct cancer and colorectal cancer in males noticeably increased during the second decade of the study. Additionally, breast cancer greatly increased in the same decade and lung cancer in females climbed into the top five most common cancers. Thyroid cancer has also risen steadily in the last decade. Trends of common cancers are similar to those throughout Thailand.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.68-75
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• 2011

BACKGROUND: To assess and prevent the environmental impacts and risks by veterinary pharmaceuticals, Guidance on Estimating Soil Persistence and Degradation Kinetics from Environmental Fate Studies on Veterinary Pharmaceuticals for Environmental Risk Assessment was proposed. METHODS AND RESULTS: Proposed guidance was coined by VICH, EU guideline, OECD guideline and soil dissipation studies for the purpose of international harmonizing. Guidance was also modified from pesticide soil persistence testing guidelines of US, EU, and Korea, with practical approaches adopting in-use test guideline for Korea. CONCLUSION(S): Proposed guidance are consisted of three parts; Laboratory Soil Experiment, Field Soil Dissipation Study, and Estimation of $DT_{50}/DT_{90}$. Proposed guidance is to be available for the requirement for registration of veterinary pharmaceuticals with fit for purpose in Korea.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.49 no.sup1
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• pp.14-19
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• 2016

Background: This study uses the relevance index to understand the condition of regional medical service use for cardiovascular surgery and to identify the medical service use imbalance between regions. Methods: This study calculated the relevance index of 16 metropolitan cities and provinces using resident registration address data from the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and the 2010-2014 health insurance, medical care assistance, and medical benefits claims data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. We identified developments over the 5-year time period and analyzed the level of regional imbalance regarding cardiovascular surgery through the relative comparison of relevance indexes between cardiovascular and other types of surgery. Results: The relevance index was high in large cities such as Seoul, Daegu, and Gwangju, but low in regions that were geographically far from the capital area, such as the Gangwon and Jeju areas. Relevance indexes also fell as the years passed. Cardiovascular surgery has a relatively low relevance index compared to key types of surgery of other fields, such as neurosurgery and colorectal surgery. Conclusion: This study identified medical service use imbalance between regions for cardiovascular surgery. Results of this study demonstrate the need for political intervention to enhance the accessibility of necessary special treatment, such as cardiovascular surgery.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.355-365
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• 2020

Background: This study is aimed to verify individual and regional-level factors affecting the depression of Koreans and to develop social programs for improving the depressive status. Methods: This study used individual-level variables from the Korean Community Health Survey (2018) and used the e-regional index of the Korean Statistical Information Service as the regional-level variable. A multi-level logistic regression was executed to identify individual and regional-level variables that were expected to affect the extent of depressive symptoms and to draw the receiver operating characteristic curve to compare the volume of impact between variables from both levels. Results: The results of the multi-level logistic regression analysis in regards to individual-level factors showed that older age, female gender, a lower income level, a lower education level, not having a spouse, the practice of walking, the consumption of breakfast higher levels of stress, and having high blood pressure or diabetes were associated with a greater increase in depressive symptoms. In terms of regional factors, areas with fewer cultural facilities and fewer car registration had higher levels of depressive symptoms. The comparison of area under the curve showed that individual factors had a greater influence than regional factors. Conclusion: This study showed that while both, individual and regional-level factors affect depression, the influence of the latter was relatively weaker as compared to the first. In this sense, it is necessary to develop programs focused on the individual, such as social prescribing at the local or community-level, rather than the city and nation-level approach that are currently prevalent.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7517-7522
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• 2013

Background: Cancer incidence rates are increasing particularly in developing countries. It is crucial for policy makers to know basic cancer epidemiology in each region to design comprehensive prevention plans. There have hitherto been no population-based data available for cancer in Khuzestan province. The present report is a first from the regional population-based cancer registry for the period of 2002-2009. Materials and Methods: Data were collected retrospectively reviewing all new cancer patients whom were registered in Khuzestan province cancer registry during an 8-year period (2002-2009). All cases were coded based on the ICD-O-3 coding system and collected data were computerized using SPSS (Chicago, IL) software, version 11.5. The age standardized incidence rates (ASRs) per 100,000 person-year for all cancers were computed using the indirect method of standardization to the world population. Results: During the 8-year study period, 16,801 new cancer cases were registered. Based on the computed ASRs, the five most frequent malignancies in females were breast (26.4 per 100,000), skin (13.6), colorectal (5.72), stomach (4.31) and bladder(4.07) and in males, the five most frequent were skin (16.0 per 100,000), bladder (10.7),prostate (7.64), stomach (7.17), and colorectal (6.32).The ASR for all malignancies in women was 92.5 per 100,000, and that for men was 87.4. Conclusions: The observed patterns from the analysis of Khuzestan cancer registry data will lead to better understanding of the epidemiology of various malignancies in this part ofthe country and consequently provide a useful guide for authorities to make efficacious decisions and policies about a cancer control program for south-west Iran.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.544-553
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• 2017

There is an overall guideline of the installation of air quality monitoring stations in Korea, but specified steps for the selection of monitoring sites for hazardous air pollutants(HAPs) are not provided. In this study, we proposed a systematic method for the selection of monitoring sites for HAPs using geographic information system (GIS). As a case study, the Seoul metropolitan area (Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province) was chosen, and 15 factors including population, vehicle registration, and emission data were compiled for each grid cell ($7km{\times}7km$). The number of factors above the top 30% of individual data for each grid cell was used to select priority monitoring sites for HAPs. In addition, several background sites were added for data comparison and source identification. Three scenarios were suggested: Scenario 1 with 7 sites, Scenario 2 with 17 sites, and Scenario 3 with 30 sites. This proposal is not the final result for an intensive monitoring program, but it is an example of method development for selecting appropriate sampling sites. These results can be applied not only to HAPs monitoring in megacities but also to the national HAPs monitoring network.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.996-1008
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• 2009

This paper proposes a novel approach for the model-based pose matching of a human body using Active Shape Models. To improve the processing time of model creation and registration, we use a skeleton-type model instead of the conventional silhouette-based models. The skeleton model defines feature information that is used to match the human pose. Images used to make the model are for 600 human bodies, and the model has 17 landmarks which indicate the body junction and key features of a human pose. When applying primary Active Shape Models to the skeleton-type model in the matching process, a problem may occur in the proximal joints of the arm and leg due to the color variations on a human body and the insufficient information for the fore-rear directions of profile normals. This problem is solved by using the background subtraction information of a body region in the input image and adding a 4-directions feature of the profile normal in the proximal parts of the arm and leg. In the matching process, the maximum iteration is less than 30 times. As a result, the execution time is quite fast, and was observed to be less than 0.03 sec in an experiment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8525-8531
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• 2016

Background: Cancer has become a major health problem associated with high mortality worldwide, especially in developing countries. The aim of our study was to evaluate the incidence rates of different types of cancer in Sulaymaniyah from January-2006 to January-2014. The data were compared with those reported for other middle east countries. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study depended on data collected from Hiwa hospital cancer registry unit, death records and histopathology reports in all Sulaymaniyah teaching hospitals, using international classification of diseases. Results: A total of 8,031 cases were registered during the eight year period, the annual incidence rate in all age groups rose from 38 to 61.7 cases/100,000 population/year, with averages over 50 in males and 50.7 in females. The male to female ratio in all age groups were 0.98, while in the pediatric age group it was 1.33. The hematological malignancies in all age groups accounted for 20% but in the pediatric group around half of all cancer cases. Pediatric cancers were occluding 7% of total cancers with rates of 10.3 in boys and 8.7 in girls. The commonest malignancies by primary site were leukemia, lymphoma, brain, kidney and bone. In males in all age groups they were lung, leukaemia, lymphoma, colorectal, prostate, bladder, brain, stomach, carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP) and skin, while in females they were breast, leukaemia, lymphoma, colorectal, ovary, lung, brain, CUP, and stomach. Most cancers were increased with increasing age except breast cancer where decrease was noted in older ages. High mortality rates were found with leukemia, lung, lymphoma, colorectal, breast and stomach cancers. Conclusions: We here found an increase in annual cancer incidence rates across the period of study, because of increase of cancer with age and higher rates of hematological malignancies. Our study is valuable for Kurdistan and Iraq because it provides more accurate data about the exact patterns of cancer and mortality in our region.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8513-8517
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• 2016

Background: GLOBOCAN12 recently reported high cancer mortality in Malaysia suggesting its cancer health services are under-performing. Cancer survival is a key index of the overall effectiveness of health services in the management of patients. This report focuses on Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC) care performance as measured by patient survival outcome for up to 5 years. Materials and Methods: All women with breast cancer treated at SJMC between 2008 and 2012 were enrolled for this observational cohort study. Mortality outcome was ascertained through record linkage with national death register, linkage with hospital registration system and finally through direct contact by phone or home visits. Results: A total of 675 patients treated between 2008 and 2012 were included in the present survival analysis, 65% with early breast cancer, 20% with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) and 4% with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). The overall relative survival (RS) at 5 years was 88%. RS for stage I was 100% and for stage II, III and IV disease was 95%, 69% and 36% respectively. Conclusions: SJMC is among the first hospitals in Malaysia to embark on routine measurement of the performance of its cancer care services and its results are comparable to any leading centers in developed countries.