• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.69-81
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• 2008

Purpose: To reduce side effects in image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) and to improve the quality of life of patients, also to meet accurate SETUP condition for patients, the various SETUP correction conditions were compared and evaluated by using on board imager (OBI) during the SETUP. Materials and Methods: Each 30 cases of the head, the neck, the chest, the belly, and the pelvis in 150 cases of IGRT patients was corrected after confirmation by using OBI at every 2∼3 day. Also, the difference of the SETUP through the skin-marker and the anatomic SETUP through the OBI was evaluated. Results: General SETUP errors (Transverse, Coronal, Sagittal) through the OBI at original SETUP position were Head & Neck: 1.3 mm, Brain: 2 mm, Chest: 3 mm, Abdoman: 3.7 mm, Pelvis: 4 mm. The patients with more that 3 mm in the error range were observed in the correction devices and the patient motions by confirming in treatment room. Moreover, in the case of female patients, the result came from the position of hairs during the Head & Neck, Brain tumor. Therefore, after another SETUP in each cases of over 3 mm in the error range, the treatment was carried out. Mean error values of each parts estimated after the correction were 1 mm for the head, 1.2 mm for the neck, 2.5 mm for the chest, 2.5 mm for the belly, and 2.6 mm for the pelvis. Conclusion: The result showed the correction of SETUP for each treatment through OBI is extremely difficult because of the importance of SETUP in radiation treatment. However, by establishing the average standard of the patients from this research result, the better patient satisfaction and treatment results could be obtained.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.254-259
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• 2010

Background: Diagnosing chronic pulmonary embolism at an early stage is difficult because of the patient’s nonspecific symptoms. This condition is not prevalent in Korea, and in fact, there have been only a few case reports on this in the Korean medical literature. We analyzed the surgical outcome of performing pulmonary thromboendarterectomy in patients with chronic pulmonary embolism. Material and Method: The study subjects included those patients who underwent surgery for chronic pulmonary embolism from 1996 to 2008. For making the diagnosis, echocardiography, chest CT and a pulmonary perfusion scan were performed on the patients who complained of chronic dyspnea. Result: Pulmonary endarterectomy was performed as follows: by incision via a mid-sternal approach (7 patients); by incision via a left posterolateral approach (1 patient); using the deep hypothermic circulatory arrest technique (4 patients); under ventricular fibrillation (3 patients); and under cardioplegic arrest (1 patient). The postoperative systolic pulmonary artery blood pressure significantly decreased from a preoperative value of $78.9{\pm}14.5\;mmHg$ to $45.6{\pm}17.6\;mmHg$ postoperatively (p=0.000). The degree of tricuspid regurgitation was less than grade II after surgery. Two patients died early on, including one patient who had persistent pulmonary hypertension without improvement and right heart failure. Conclusion: Patients who have chronic pulmonary embolism are known to have a poor prognosis. However, we think that early surgical treatment along with making the proper diagnosis before the aggravation of right heart failure can help improve the quality of a patient's life.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.253-263
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• 1991

Twenty-seven patients with unresectable extrahepatic bile duct carcinoma (n=21) or with microscopic evidence of tumor rest after aggressive surgery for extrahepatic bile duct carcinoma (n=6) between 1985 and 1990 were given radiotherapy consisting intentionally external radiotherapy and/or intraluminal therapy using Gamma-Med 12i (192-Ir) high dose rate (HDR) remote control afterloading system following bile drainage procedures and Gianturco stent insertion. The objectives of this study has been to assess the feasibility and effects on survival of a combination of external radiotherapy and brachytherapy with which we hope to achieve optimal loco-regional control for patients with unresectable extrahepatic bile duct tumors. Sixteen patients were men and eleven were women, and the mean age was 58 years (34-70). 10MV X-ray was used for radiation therapy, with the total dose ranging from 45 Gy to 55 Gy, and intraluminal brachytherapy performed after external radiotherapy, with the dose of total 15 Gy. The minimum follow up was 12 months. Failure were predominantly local-regional, without distant failure. Median survival was 10 months; 2-year actuarial survival rates was $21\%$. Median survival for common hepatic duct (CHD) cancer was 9 months; for common bile duct (CBD) cancer, was 16 months. And median survival for incomplete surgery/external radiotherapy group and external/intraluminal radiotherapy group was 10 months; for external radiotherapy alone group, was 6 months. Use of chemotherapy and/or hyperthermia were not affected in survival. Therefore, our result is that the survival rates in the group of external/intraluminal radiotherapy were comparable with ones in the group of incomplete resection/external radiotherapy, and so we believe that the aggressive local and regional radiotherapy can improve the quality of life and the survival length.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.242-248
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• 2016

The purposes of this study were to investigate the factors affection the Oral Impacts on Daily Performances for Children (C-OIDP) in elementary and middle school students, and identify the association between oral health-related behaviors, oral health condition and C-OIDP. A cross-sectional study was conducted in three schools in Incheon, Asan, Korea. A total of 175 selected children were interviewed by a trained examiner using a questionnaire. Oral Health Related Quality of Life was assessed by the Korean version of C-OIDP. Socio-economic characteristics, oral health-related behaviors, oral health condition and C-OIDP were verified using the questionnaire. ANOVA analysis was performed to determine the oral health and C-OIDP, and multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the factors affecting the C-OIDP. The activities with the greatest effect were eating (28.0%), cleaning teeth (22.9%), and smiling (18.9%). In the logistic regression model, the high item score of C-OIDP was associated with experiencing dental caries and gum pain in the past month. The more the C-OIDP prevalence item, the more the fillng deciduous tooth surface (fs) (p=0.024), caries experienced deciduous tooth surface (dfs) (p=0.049), total caries tooth surface (ds+DS) (p=0.021), and total caries experienced tooth surface (dfs+DMFS) (p=0.047). It can be concluded that the factors affecting C-OIDP are fs, dfs, dfs+DMFS, and gingival pain. Based on these results, we can improve C-OIDP to advance preventive practice.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.238-250
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• 2011

Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the service needs of the beneficiaries who had enrolled in home-based management programs for cancer patients. Methods: From March to May 2009, 676 cancer patients who were registered in home-based cancer patient management programs were selected as subjects for this study. The data were collected using a questionnaire along with a face-to-face interview performed by officers in charge of the home-based care programs of 47 regional health centers. Fifteen patients were excluded due to incomplete data, leaving 661 subjects who were ultimately enrolled in the study. Results: The mean age of subjects was $64.0{\pm}2.5$ years, and males comprised 45.1% (298/661) of the sample. The results of factor analysis for service needs showed that there were five main categories and Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.593 to 0.890 for each factor. The service needs categories in order of importance were social support, information and education, psychological problems, physical symptoms and household chores. The service needs scores were significantly different when subjects were stratified by age, habitation, religion and disease classification. When we divided the subjects into complete remission, under treatment and terminally ill groups, the needs scores of the terminally ill patient group were significantly higher than those of the other groups (p<0.001). Conclusions: Service provision based on patient and beneficiary needs could be an effective intervention to reduce the economic burden of cancer management and to improve the quality of life of cancer patients receiving home-based care. Therefore, it is recommended that individual cancer patient care programs be developed and administered according to patient age, habitation and disease severity.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.86-96
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• 2006

Ecoclimap-1, a new complete surface parameter global database at a 1-km resolution, was previously presented. It is intended to be used to initialize the soil-vegetation- atmosphere transfer schemes in meteorological and climate models. Surface parameters in the Ecoclimap-1 database are provided in the form of a per-class value by an ecoclimatic base map from a simple merging of land cover and climate maps. The principal objective of this ecoclimatic map is to consider intra-class variability of life cycle that the usual land cover map cannot describe. Although the ecoclimatic map considering land cover and climate is used, the intra-class variability was still too high inside some classes. In this study, a new strategy is defined; the idea is to use the information contained in S10 NDVI SPOT/VEGETATION profiles to split a land cover into more homogeneous sub-classes. This utilizes an intra-class unsupervised sub-clustering methodology instead of simple merging. This study was performed to provide a new ecolimatic map over Northeast Asia in the framework of Ecoclimap-2 global database construction for surface parameters. We used the University of Maryland's 1km Global Land Cover Database (UMD) and a climate map to determine the initial number of clusters for intra-class sub-clustering. An unsupervised classification process using six years of NDVI profiles allows the discrimination of different behavior for each land cover class. We checked the spatial coherence of the classes and, if necessary, carried out an aggregation step of the clusters having a similar NDVI time series profile. From the mapping system, 29 ecosystems resulted for the study area. In terms of climate-related studies, this new ecosystem map may be useful as a base map to construct an Ecoclimap-2 database and to improve the surface climatology quality in the climate model.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.75-82
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• 2010

Indoor cultivation plots for watermelon plant mostly have salt-accumulation problem because of continuous cropping especially with the heavy applications of chemical fertilizers. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate selected soil properties and watermelon growth condition as affected by the application of different farming practices in the salt-affected soils of greenhouse plots used for continuous watermelon production. Five different practice conditions in the experimental plots were applied, 1) a conventional farming practice (CFP), 2) a nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) fertilizer management practice (FMP), and 3) the FMP with different amounts (5, 10, and 15 ton $ha^{-1}$)of fresh rice straw treatments (FMP-RS), for three years of study. As comparing with CFP plots, soil organic matter content gradually increased during the experimental years, whereas it decreased in the FMP only plot. Soil pH was not changed in the CFP and FMP plot, but it declined in the FMP-RS plots; however, it increased again from the third year in the FMP-RS plots with applying 10 and 15 ton $ha^{-1}$ of RS treatments. The concentrations of exchangeable cations, $Ca^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$, except $K^+$, and water-soluble anions, ${NO_3}^-$, $Cl^-$, ${SO_4}^{2-}$ and ${PO_4}^{3-}$, markedly decreased in FMP and FMP-RS plots. In particular, the application of rice straw tended to significantly decrease the ion concentrations, especially most anions, in the first year, but there was no more decrease in the second and third study years. With relation to the ion concentrations, the changes of electrical conductivity (EC) after applying the management practices showed very similar to those of the ion concentrations. In addition, incidence of withered watermelon plant after applying the management practices dramatically declined from approximately 20% in the CFP plot to 3.5% in the FMP-RS plots. Water melon fruit weight was also improved by the management practices, especially FMP-RS. Therefore, the fertilizer and/or fresh rice straw application management practices are beneficial to improve salt-affected soils and watermelon plant growth condition.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 2007

Paddy fields are apparently nonpoint source pollution and influence water environment. In order to improve water quality in rivers or lakes, to low nutrient load from paddy fields are required. To establish comprehensive plan to control agricultural non-point source pollution, it is imperative to get a quantitative evaluation on pollutants and pollution load from paddy fields. A field monitoring study was carried out to investigate the water balance and losses of nutrients from fields in Sumjin river basin. The size of paddy fields was 115 ha and the fields were irrigated from a pumping station. The observed total nitrogen loads from paddy fields were larger than those of the unit loads determined by Ministry of Environment data (MOE). It is because the nitrogen fertilization level at the studied field was higher than the recommended rate and the high irrigation and subsequent drainage amount. On the contrary, total phosphorus loads were less than those addressed by MOE since phosphorus fertilization level was lower than that of standard level. Therefore, it was found that fertilization, irrigation, and drainage management are key factors to determine nutrient losses from paddy fields. When the runoff losses of nutrients were compared to applied chemical fertilizer, it was found that 42 to 60% of nitrogen lost via runoff while runoff losses of phosphorus account for 1.3 to 7.6% of the total applied amount during the entire year.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.68-76
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• 2021

Foodborne outbreaks frequently occur worldwide and result in huge economic losses. It is the therefore important to estimate the costs associated with foodborne diseases to minimize the economic damage. At the same time, it is difficult to accurately estimate the economic loss from foodborne disease due to a wide variety of cost components. In Korea, there are a limited number of analytical studies attempting to estimate such costs. In this study we investigated the components of economic cost used in foreign countries to better estimate the cost of foodborne disease in Korea. Seven recent studies investigated the cost components used to estimate the cost of foodborne disease in humans. This study categorized the economic loss into four types of cost: direct costs, indirect costs, food business costs, and government administration costs. The healthcare costs most often included were medical (outpatient) and hospital costs (inpatient). However, these cost components should be selected according to the systems and budgets of medical services by country. For non-healthcare costs, several other studies considered transportation costs to the hospital as an exception to the cost of inpatient care. So, further discussion is needed on whether to consider inpatient care costs. Among the indirect costs, premature mortality, lost productivity, lost leisure time, and lost quality of life/pain, grief and suffering costs were considered, but the opportunity costs for hospital visits were not considered in any of the above studies. As with healthcare costs, government administration costs should also be considered appropriate cost components due to the difference in government budget systems, for example. Our findings will provide fundamental information for economic analysis associated with foodborne diseases to improve food safety policy in Korea.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.119-128
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of obesity and stress on oral disease in Korean adults by using the data of the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The subjects of this study are 4,627 adults at the age of 19 to 64, and the data were analyzed by using SPSS Windows ver.18.0. The results are as follows: Obesity was higher in men and the age of 40 to 64 than the other. And the group with lower education or lower income level tended to show significantly higher obesity (p<0.05). As for stress, women, the age of 19 to 39 and the subjects with higher academic career tended to indicate significantly higher stress (p<0.05). As for the effects of obesity on oral disease, there were no significant difference between body mass index (BMI) or waist-hip ratio (WHR) and oral disease but there was statistically significant difference between stress and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) (p<0.05). Even when the subjects with stress were obese or abdominally obese, there was no significant difference in oral disease (p>0.05). As to correlation among variables, there were correlations between BMI and WHR, stress and TMD, masticatory problems and periodontal disease or TMD (p<0.05). About the effects of general characteristics, obesity, and stress on oral disease, age was the variable influencing TMD, and age and abdominal obesity were the variables influencing masticatory problems (p<0.05). In this society, the environment surrounding individuals is fairly complex, and the concept of health including quality of life has more complex meaning than in the past. Various factors are influencing obesity and stress, and they are also influencing oral health and behaviors. Accordingly, it will be needed not only to make efforts to reduce obesity and stress but also to employ approaches from different perspectives to improve oral health.