• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.1627-1632
• /
• 2012

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Malaysia. Barriers for practicing breast self examination (BSE) await exploration. Objective: To assess the practice of BSE and its correlated factors and particularly barriers amongst urban women in Malaysia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 222 Malaysian women using a self-administered questionnaire. Results: The mean (SD) age was 28.5 (${\pm}9.2$) years, 59.0% were university graduates. Of the total, 81.1% were aware of breast cancer and 55% practiced BSE. Amongst 45% of respondents who did not practice BSE, 79.8% did not know how to do it, 60.6% feared being diagnosed with breast cancer, 59.6% were worried about detecting breast cancer, 22% reported that they should not touch their bodies, 44% and 28% reported BSE is embarrassing or unpleasant, 29% time consuming, 22% thought they would never have breast cancer or it is ineffective and finally 20% perceived BSE as unimportant. Logistic regression modeling showed that respondents aged ${\geq}45$ years, being Malay, married and having a high education level were more likely to practice BSE (p<0.05). Conclusion: In this study sample, a significant proportion of respondents was aware of breast cancer but did not practice BSE. Knowledge, psychological, cultural, perception and environmental factors were identified as barriers. BSE practice was associated significantly with socio-demographic factors and socioeconomic status.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.12
• /
• pp.5959-5963
• /
• 2012

Background: The term 'hardcore' has been applied to use of smoking tobacco and generally referred to as the inability or unwillingness of regular smokers to quit. The component constructs of hardcore except nicotine dependence are product neutral. With the use of 'time to first chew' as a measure of nicotine dependence, hardcore definition can be extended to characterize smokeless tobacco users. Hardcore users respond less to tobacco cessation interventions, and are prone to tobacco induced diseases including cancer. Thus identifying hardcore users would help in estimate the burden of high risk population for tobacco induced diseases. Smokeless tobacco use is predominant and accounts for more than 50% of oral cancer in India. Hence, hardcore chewing information could be used for planning of tobacco and cancer control interventions. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of hardcore smokeless tobacco use in India. Materials and Methods: Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS)-India 2010 data were analyzed to quantify hardcore smokeless tobacco use in India with following five criteria: (1) current daily smokeless tobacco use; (2) no quit attempt in the past 12 months of survey or last quit attempt of less than 24 hours duration; (3) no intention to quit in next 12 months or not interested in quitting; (4) time to first use of smokeless tobacco product within 30 minutes of waking up; and (5) knowledge of smokeless tobacco hazards. Results: The number of hardcore smokeless tobacco users among adult Indians is estimated to be 5% (39.5 million). This group comprises 23.2% of daily smokeless tobacco users. The population prevalence varied from 1.4-9.1% across different national regions of India. Logistic regression modeling indicated age, education and employment status to be the major predictors of hardcore smokeless tobacco use in India. Conclusions: The presence of a huge number (39.5 million) of hardcore smokeless tobacco users is a challenge to tobacco control and cancer prevention in India. There is an unmet need for a universal tobacco cessation programme and intensification of anti-tobacco education in communities.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.76-82
• /
• 2001

Most fluid machines can be considered as periodic noise sources when operated under constant conditions, which allows for a frequency domain representation of the source and the associated acoustic field In the duct. In such a representation, the source is characterized by frequency-dependent values of both strength and impedance. Although knowledge of these values can be gained by either experimentation or by modeling, one-port acoustic characteristics of an in-duct source with high flow velocity, high temperature, and high sound level can be measured only by the multiload method using an overdetermined set of open pipes with different lengths as applied loads. However, the problem is that negative source resistances have been often measured. This paper reviews the possible causes of the problem, with reference to experimental and theoretical results, in an attempt to clarify the issue. A new interpretation is given for the violation of basic assumptions and the defect in the algorithm of multiload method. The major cause and mechanism of the problem is due to the violation of time invariance assumption of the source and the load impedance can seriously affect the final measured result of source impedance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.247-270
• /
• 2009

This paper reviews studies on information searching behavior in process control systems and discusses some implications learned from previous studies for use in human factors studies on nuclear power plants (NPPs) main control rooms (MCRs). Information searching behavior in NPPs depends on expectancy, value, salience, and effort. The first quantitative scanning model developed by Senders for instrument panel monitoring considered bandwidth (change rate) of instruments as a determining factor in scanning behavior. Senders' model was subsequently elaborated by other researchers to account for value in addition to bandwidth. There is also another type of model based on the operator's situation awareness (SA) which has been developed for NPP application. In these SA-based models, situation-event relations or rules on system dynamics are considered the most significant factor forming expectancy. From the review of previous studies it is recommended that, for NPP application, (1) a set of symptomatic information sources including both changed and unchanged symptoms should be considered along with bandwidth as determining factors governing information searching (or visual sampling) behavior; (2) both data-driven monitoring and knowledge-driven monitoring should be considered and balanced in a systematic way; (3) sound models describing mechanisms of cognitive activities during information searching tasks should be developed so as to bridge studies on information searching behavior and design improvement in HMI; (4) the attention-situation awareness (A-SA) modeling approach should be recognized as a promising approach to be examined further; and (5) information displays should be expected to have totally different characteristics in advanced control rooms. Hence much attention should be devoted to information searching behavior including human-machine interface (HMI) design and human cognitive processes.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.213-228
• /
• 2014

Alkali-activated binder (AAB) is recently being considered as a sustainable alternative to portland cement (PC) due to its low carbon dioxide emission and diversion of industrial wastes and by-products such as fly ash and slag from landfills. In order to comprehend the behavior of AAB, detailed knowledge on relations between microstructure and mechanical properties are important. To address the issue, a new approach to characterize hardened pastes of AAB containing fly ash as well as those containing fly ash and slag was adopted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectra microanalyses. The volume stoichiometries of the alkali activation reactions were used to estimate the quantities of the sodium aluminosilicate (N-A-S-H) and calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) produced by these reactions. The 3D plots of Si/Al, Na/Al and Ca/Si atom ratios given by the microanalyses were compared with the estimated quantities of CSH(S) to successfully determine the unique chemical compositions of the N-A-S-H and CSH(S) for ten different AAB at three different curing temperatures using a constrained nonlinear least squares optimization formulation by general algebraic modeling system. The results show that the theoretical and experimental quantities of N-A-S-H and CSH(S) were in close agreement with each other. The $R^2$ values were 0.99 for both alkali-activated fly ash and alkali-activated slag binders.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.76-84
• /
• 2007

The goal of this paper is to improve the watermarking performance using the following two methods; watermark estimation and low density parity check (LDPC) codes. For a blind watermark decoding, the power of a host image, which is hundreds times greater than the watermark power, is the main noise source. Therefore, a technique that can reduce the effect of the power of the host image to the detector is required. To this end, we need to estimate watermark from the watermarked image. In this paper, the watermark estimation is done by an adaptive estimation method with the generalized Gaussian distribution modeling of sub-band coefficients in the wavelet domain. Since the watermark capacity as well as the error rate can be improved by adopting optimum decoding principles and error correcting codes (ECC), we employ the LDPC codes for the decoding of the estimated watermark. Also, in LDPC codes, the knowledge about the noise power can improve the error correction capability. Simulation results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithm comparing to LDPC decoding with other estimation-based watermarking algorithms.

• Korean Medical Education Review
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.67-76
• /
• 2020

The structures and processes of medical education have changed little since the publication of Flexner's report, which stressed the scientific orientation of medical education and the curricular structure of 2 years of formal knowledge education and 2 years of clinical experience. However, the previous perspectives on medical education are facing challenges, and these call for new pedagogy and theories on which to base medical education practice. Considering that social dimensions of learning have been emphasized in practice, perspectives that integrate these aspects are needed. Among the various learning theories, social cognitive theory refers to the theoretical framework which contends that learning occurs within interactions with others and environments. From a social cognitive standpoint, learning through observation is a critical component in human functioning. Indeed, observational learning has particular significance in medical education in that it provides the context for which the importance and meaning of role models can be understood. In addition, as theoretical constructs such as self-efficacy and outcome expectations allow us to establish an effective learning environment, exploring the concepts of the theory could be beneficial to medical education practice. In this context, the present review article aims to provide a glimpse of the fundamental assumptions and theoretical concepts of social cognitive theory and discusses the implications the theory has on teaching and learning. Further, a review of previous studies could help explain how the theory has informed medical education practice. Finally, the author will conclude with the implications and limitations of applying social cognitive theory in medical education.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
• /
• v.37 no.5
• /
• pp.493-498
• /
• 2013

This paper is aimed to priority evaluation of preliminary cases for IMO -IMS(International Maritime Organization- Information Management System) using fuzzy TOPSIS(Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process). To this solve, therefore, this paper extract 24 preliminary cases and select 4 major preliminary alternative cases after analysing the structure of its alternative cases using FSM(Fuzzy Structure Modeling). Also, the weights of evaluation factors determine using AHP which able to keep the consistency when decision-makers assess. In AHP method, but, the numbers of paired comparison incerase as much as the numbers of the comparison items increase and because this evaluation have the many of vagueness, the decision of final ranking is used to fuzzy TOPSIS method which is included TOPSIS and Fuzzy Set Theory. The result are developed as order as Management of IMO Convention Information, Delivery of IMO Convention Information, Total IMO Database, Knowledge Hub of IMO Convention Information in IMO-IMS.

• The Journal of Korean Institute for Practical Engineering Education
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.23-29
• /
• 2010

In this study, there is a modeling for the procedure and operational method of the project based capstone design and related products which are a certificate of graduate status, and those results were evaluated by self-review and the performance assessment. Finally, the improvements in the operating management method are proposed. Before one semester by the end of to the assessment, the design thesises of capstone results are fixed to the 15 sets by 2 people in each group. All teams are satisfied the criteria of evaluation, and they all got a grad over 60 points. The mean value of their's score are similar to the average of recent 5 years. The results of self-evaluations and questionaries indicate a totally self-satisfied(3.8~4points out of 5), but the weak parts of this procedure are known as the area of plan making and Implementation. Also, there are some problems associated with a group of people into a team by the human relation rather than knowledge based mutual supplementation.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.141-160
• /
• 2001

The challenge of predicting the Japanese coastal ocean motivated Frontier Observational Research System for Global Change (FORSGC) and the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC) to start a multiyear observational programme in the upstream Kuroshio in November 2000. This field effort, the Kuroshio Observation Program (KOP), should enable us to determine the barotropic and baroclinic components of the western boundary current system, thus, to better understand interactions of the currents with mesoscale eddies, the Kuroshio instabilities, and path bimodality. We, then, will be able to improve modeling predictability of the mesoscale, seasonal, and inter-annual processes in the midstream Kuroshio near the Japanese main islands by using this knowledge. The KOP is focused on an enhanced regional coverage of the sea surface height variability and the baroclinic structure of the mainstream Kuroshio in the East China Sea, the Ryukyu Current east of the Ryukyu's, and the Kuroshio recirculation. An attractive approach of the KOP is a development of a new data acquisition system via acoustic telemetry of the observational data. The monitoring system will provide observations for assimilation into extensive numerical models of the ocean circulation, targeting the real-time monitoring of the Japanese coastal waters.