• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• 제44권5호
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• pp.232-236
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• 2018

Objectives: Hormonal changes during menopause alter a woman's susceptibility to some disorders. Information regarding the prevalence of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) in menopausal women is limited in the literature. In this study, the prevalence and severity of TMDs were compared between menopausal and non-menopausal women. Materials and Methods: The study included 140 women (69 premenopausal and 71 postmenopausal) 45 to 55 years of age that were examined in Shiraz Dental School, Shiraz in Iran. The Helkimo clinical dysfunction index (Di) was used to evaluate temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction. The data were analyzed using chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. Results: Occurrence of TMD was significantly higher in menopausal than non-menopausal women (P<0.001). All the TMD criteria based on Helkimo Di except range of mandibular movement were significantly more common in menopausal women. The range of mandibular movement was not significantly different between menopausal and non-menopausal women (P=0.178). Conclusion: The results from this study show that TMD can be considered more common and severe in menopausal than non-menopausal women. This finding indicates that, similar to other conditions in menopausal women such as arthritis and osteoporosis, TMD should be taken into consideration by dental and medical professionals.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.1633-1637
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• 2012

Introduction: The incidence of oral premalignant and malignant lesions is on the rise due to an increased number of people taking in tobacco and alcohol related habits. Material and Methods: 1028 patients with tobacco, alcohol and areca nut habits attending our Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology formed the study sample. An interviewer based questionnaire was used to record the habit details. All the patients were then examined clinically for the presence of lesions. Chi square and Fisher exact tests were used to assess the statistical significance of the study parameters. Results: Males had a higher prevalence and comprised 87.9% of the sample. The commonest habit in this study sample was smoking (39.2%) followed by smokeless tobacco use (28.1%). Out of the 1028 patients with habits 40% had no clinically detectable changes in their mucosa. Of the mucosal changes leukoplakia (14%) was the commonest. Conclusions: This study provided information about the habit trends in the patients visiting this institution. The study may serve as a useful tool in educating the patients about the deleterious effects of oral tobacco, alcohol and betel exposure.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2008년도 추계학술대회A
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• pp.1588-1593
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• 2008

This paper describes a real-time isometric pinch force prediction algorithm from surface electromyogram (sEMG) using multilayer perceptron (MLP) for human robot interactive applications. The activities of seven muscles which are observable from surface electrodes and also related to the movements of the thumb and index finger joints were recorded during pinch force experiments. For the successful implementation of the real-time prediction algorithm, an off-line analysis was performed using the recorded activities. Four muscles were selected for the force prediction by using the Fisher linear discriminant analysis among seven muscles, and the four muscle activities provided effective information for mapping sEMG to the pinch force. The MLP structure was designed to make training efficient and to avoid both under- and over-fitting problems. The pinch force prediction algorithm was tested on five volunteers and the results were evaluated using two criteria: normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE) and correlation (CORR). The training time for the subjects was only 2 min 29 sec, but the prediction results were successful with NRMSE = 0.112 ${\pm}$ 0.082 and CORR = 0.932 ${\pm}$ 0.058. These results imply that the proposed algorithm is useful to measure the produced pinch force without force sensors in real-time. The possible applications include controlling bionic finger robot systems to overcome finger paralysis or amputation.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• 제23권9호
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• pp.25.1-25.9
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• 2020

Fish is an extremely perishable food product which requires proper handling soon after harvest. The present study was aimed at assessing post-harvest fish losses and preservation practices in Siavonga district, Southern Zambia. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data on post-harvest fish losses and preservation practices from aquaculture producers, artisanal, and commercial fishers. All the fishers who landed on the lakeshore were interviewed, while aquaculture producers were randomly selected based on the information provided by the local department of fisheries. The results of the study revealed that all the fishers experienced post-harvest fish losses at varying degrees with those losing up to 10% of the total catch being in the majority. In contrast, aquaculture producers did not report any post-harvest fish losses. Most aquaculture producers commonly used chilling as preservation practice contrary to artisanal and commercial fishers who commonly used smoking and sun sun-drying respectively. Furthermore, fish product safety and quality control were poorly practiced in the district. Lack of cold storage facilities and fluctuating weather conditions were the major challenges impacting fish post-harvest activities. Therefore, to curb the loss of revenue due to post-harvest fish losses, we propose the introduction of new technology, self-development skills for fishing communities, and enhanced access to refrigeration facilities.

• 대한간호학회지
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• 제39권1호
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• pp.107-115
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of an exercise program on frontal lobe cognitive function in seniors. Methods: The participants were 42 seniors using a health center in Seoul (experimental group) and 28 seniors using a facility for elders in Seoul (control group). The exercise program was carried out for 16 weeks from April to August 2007. The frontal lobe cognitive function, which includes short term memory, attention, immediate memory, delayed memory, verbal fluency and motor function, was measured by the Digit Span Forward test, Trail Making test, Immediate recall words test, Delayed recall words, Controlled oral word association test and Finger tapping test. The collected data were analyzed by Fisher's exact test, Chi-square, t-test, and ANCOVA using the SAS program. Results: The major findings of this study were as follows: Attention (p=.009), immediate memory (p=.005), delayed memory (p=.009), and verbal fluency (p=.004) improved after the exercise program. Conclusion: In this study, the exercise program was effective in improving frontal lobe cognitive function in elders. So it provides basic information for further nursing education on exercise programs which will be effective for prevention of early cognitive function decline in normally aging elders.

• 대한간호학회지
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• 제48권5호
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• pp.506-520
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• 2018

Purpose: To compare the effects of the Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior (IMCHB)-based oral health program (OHP) and walking exercise program (WEP) on oral health behaviors, periodontal disease, physical activity, and psychological indicators (depression, stress, and quality of life) in pregnant women. Methods: A nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was adopted to compare the effects of a 12-week OHP and WEP on pregnant women (n=65). Pregnant women were randomly assigned to the oral health group (OHG; n=23), walking exercise group (WEG; n=21), or control group (CG; n=21). Data were analyzed by the ${\chi}^2-test$, Fisher's exact test, Scheffe test, and repeated measures ANOVA, using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for Windows (version 21.0). Results: The OHG and WEG showed significant improvements in oral health behaviors, periodontal disease, and psychological indicators as compared to the CG. The WEG showed significant improvement in physical activity as compared to the OHG and CG. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the IMCHB-based OHP and WEP were effective in improving periodontal disease, physical activity, and psychological indicators. However, further studies are needed to identify the positive effects of the OHP and WEP on birth outcomes.

• 기본간호학회지
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.419-426
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• 2010

Purpose: Women's weight perception and obesity-related quality of life were analyzed according to BMI (Body Mass Index). Methods: A survey was conducted using self-report questionnaires from 178 participants. The data analysis included descriptive statistics, frequency, percentage, t-test, ANOVA, Fisher's exact test and Kendall's tau using the SPSS version 14.0. Results: There were significant differences in BMI according to age (F=8.037, p=<.001), weight perception (F=60.71, p<.001), weight control experience (F=2.504, p=.013), weight control method (F=5.839, p=.001) and weight control success (F=-2.451, p=.016). There was a significant difference in obesity-related quality of life according to weight perception in the low weight group (F=5.587, p=.021) and in the obesity group (t=3.419, p=.003). Higher correlations were found between the women's BMI group, weight perception and obesity-related quality of life. Conclusion: A program to provide appropriate information for weight perception is needed for the low weight group. There is a need for a program about weight reduction as well as weight perception for the obesity group.

• International Journal of Reliability and Applications
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.19-35
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• 2012

This paper presents an optimum design of step-stress partially accelerated life test (PALT) plan which allows the test condition to be changed from use to accelerated condition on the occurrence of fixed number of failures. Various life distribution models such as exponential, Weibull, log-logistic, Burr type-Xii, etc have been used in the literature to analyze the PALT data. The need of different life distribution models is necessitated as in the presence of a limited source of data as typically occurs with modern devices having high reliability, the use of correct life distribution model helps in preventing the choice of unnecessary and expensive planned replacements. Truncated distributions arise when sample selection is not possible in some sub-region of sample space. In this paper it is assumed that the lifetimes of the items follow Truncated Logistic distribution truncated at point zero since time to failure of an item cannot be negative. Optimum step-stress PALT plan that finds the optimal proportion of units failed at normal use condition is determined by using the D-optimality criterion. The method developed has been explained using a numerical example. Sensitivity analysis and comparative study have also been carried out.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제12권3_4호
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• pp.235-250
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• 2013

Optimal sensor placement (OSP) technique plays a key role in the structural health monitoring (SHM) of large-scale structures. According to the mathematical background and implicit assumptions made in the triaxial effective independence (EfI) method, this paper presents a novel multi-dimensional OSP method for the Canton Tower focusing on application demands. In contrast to existing methods, the presented method renders the corresponding target mode shape partitions as linearly independent as possible and, at the same time, maintains the stability of the modal matrix in the iteration process. The modal assurance criterion (MAC), determinant of the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) and condition number of the FIM have been taken as the optimal criteria, respectively, to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. Numerical investigations suggest that the proposed method outperforms the original EfI method in all instances as expected, which is looked forward to be even more pronounced should it be used for other multi-dimensional optimization problems.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.43-60
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• 2018

This paper considers the use of classical and Bayesian inference methods to analyze data generated by variables whose natural behavior can be modeled using asymmetric distributions in the presence of left censoring. Our approach used a $L{\grave{e}}vy$ distribution in the presence of left censored data and covariates. This distribution could be a good alternative to model data with asymmetric behavior in many applications as lifetime data for instance, especially in engineering applications and health research, when some observations are large in comparison to other ones and standard distributions commonly used to model asymmetry data like the exponential, Weibull or log-logistic are not appropriate to be fitted by the data. Inferences for the parameters of the proposed model under a classical inference approach are obtained using a maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) approach and usual asymptotical normality for MLEs based on the Fisher information measure. Under a Bayesian approach, the posterior summaries of interest are obtained using standard Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation methods and available software like SAS. A numerical illustration is presented considering data of thyroglobulin levels present in a group of individuals with differentiated cancer of thyroid.