• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.61-95
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• 2007

Small-and-medium sized enterprises(SMEs) represent quite a large proportion of the industry as a whole in terms of the number of enterprises or employees. However researches on information system so far have focused on large companies, probably because SMEs were not so active in introducing information systems as larger enterprises. SMEs are now increasingly bringing in information systems such as ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning Systems) and some of the companies already entered the stage of ongoing use. Accordingly, researches should deal with the use of information systems by SME s operating under different conditions from large companies. This study examined factors and mechanism inducing faithful appropriation of information systems, in particular integrative systems such as ERP, in view of individuals` active feedback-seeking behavior. There are three factors expected to affect end users` feedback-seeking behavior for faithful appropriation of information systems. They are management support, peer IT champ support, and IT staff support. The main focus of the study is on how these factors affect feedback-seeking behavior and whether the feedback-seeking behavior plays the role of mediator for realizing faithful appropriation of information systems by end users. To examine the research model and the hypotheses, this study employed an empirical method based on a field survey. The survey used measurements mostly employed and verified by previous researches, while some of the measurements had gone through minor modifications for the purpose of the study. The survey respondents are individual employees of SMEs that have been using ERP for one year or longer. To prevent common method bias, Task-Technology Fit items used as the control variable were made to be answered by different respondents. In total, 127 pairs of valid questionnaires were collected and used for the analysis. The PLS(Partial Least Squares) approach to structural equation modeling(PLS-Graph v.3.0) was used as our data analysis strategy because of its ability to model both formative and reflective latent constructs under small-and medium-size samples. The analysis shows Reliability, Construct Validity and Discriminant Validity are appropriate. The path analysis results are as follows; first, the more there is peer IT champ support, the more the end user is likely to show feedback-seeking behavior(path-coefficient=0.230, t=2.28, p<0.05). In other words, if colleagues proficient in information system use recognize the importance of their help, pass on what they have found to be an effective way of using the system or correct others' misuse, ordinary end users will be able to seek feedback on the faithfulness of their appropriation of information system without hesitation, because they know the convenience of getting help. Second, management support encourages ordinary end users to seek more feedback(path-coefficient=0.271, t=3.06, p<0.01) by affecting the end users' perceived value of feedback(path-coefficient=0.401, t=6.01, p<0.01). Management support is far more influential than other factors that when the management of an SME well understands the benefit of ERP, promotes its faithful appropriation and pays attention to employees' satisfaction with the system, employees will make deliberate efforts for faithful appropriation of the system. However, the third factor, IT staff support was found not to be conducive to feedback-seeking behavior from end users(path-coefficient=0.174, t=1.83). This is partly attributable to the fundamental reason that there is little support for end users from IT staff in SMEs. Even when IT staff provides support, end users may find it less important than that from coworkers more familiar with the end users' job. Meanwhile, the more end users seek feedback and attempt to find ways of faithful appropriation of information systems, the more likely the users will be able to deploy the system according to the purpose the system was originally meant for(path-coefficient=0.35, t=2.88, p<0.01). Finally, the mediation effect analysis confirmed the mediation effect of feedback-seeking behavior. By confirming the mediation effect of feedback-seeking behavior, this study draws attention to the importance of feedback-seeking behavior that has long been overlooked in research about information system use. This study also explores the factors that promote feedback-seeking behavior which in result could affect end user`s faithful appropriation of information systems. In addition, this study provides insight about which inducements or resources SMEs should offer to promote individual users' feedback-seeking behavior when formal and sufficient support from IT staff or an outside information system provider is hardly expected. As the study results show, under the business environment of SMEs, help from skilled colleagues and the management plays a critical role. Therefore, SMEs should seriously consider how to utilize skilled peer information system users, while the management should pay keen attention to end users and support them to make the most of information systems.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.43-57
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• 2012

To enhance the competitive advantage in a constantly changing business environment, an enterprise management must make the right decision in many business activities based on both internal and external information. Thus, providing accurate information plays a prominent role in management's decision making. Intuitively, historical data can provide a feasible estimate through the forecasting models. Therefore, if the service department can estimate the service quantity for the next period, the service department can then effectively control the inventory of service related resources such as human, parts, and other facilities. In addition, the production department can make load map for improving its product quality. Therefore, obtaining an accurate service forecast most likely appears to be critical to manufacturing companies. Numerous investigations addressing this problem have generally employed statistical methods, such as regression or autoregressive and moving average simulation. However, these methods are only efficient for data with are seasonal or cyclical. If the data are influenced by the special characteristics of product, they are not feasible. In our research, we propose a forecasting framework that predicts service demand of manufacturing organization by combining Case-based reasoning (CBR) and leveraging an unsupervised artificial neural network based clustering analysis (i.e., Self-Organizing Maps; SOM). We believe that this is one of the first attempts at applying unsupervised artificial neural network-based machine-learning techniques in the service forecasting domain. Our proposed approach has several appealing features : (1) We applied CBR and SOM in a new forecasting domain such as service demand forecasting. (2) We proposed our combined approach between CBR and SOM in order to overcome limitations of traditional statistical forecasting methods and We have developed a service forecasting tool based on the proposed approach using an unsupervised artificial neural network and Case-based reasoning. In this research, we conducted an empirical study on a real digital TV manufacturer (i.e., Company A). In addition, we have empirically evaluated the proposed approach and tool using real sales and service related data from digital TV manufacturer. In our empirical experiments, we intend to explore the performance of our proposed service forecasting framework when compared to the performances predicted by other two service forecasting methods; one is traditional CBR based forecasting model and the other is the existing service forecasting model used by Company A. We ran each service forecasting 144 times; each time, input data were randomly sampled for each service forecasting framework. To evaluate accuracy of forecasting results, we used Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) as primary performance measure in our experiments. We conducted one-way ANOVA test with the 144 measurements of MAPE for three different service forecasting approaches. For example, the F-ratio of MAPE for three different service forecasting approaches is 67.25 and the p-value is 0.000. This means that the difference between the MAPE of the three different service forecasting approaches is significant at the level of 0.000. Since there is a significant difference among the different service forecasting approaches, we conducted Tukey's HSD post hoc test to determine exactly which means of MAPE are significantly different from which other ones. In terms of MAPE, Tukey's HSD post hoc test grouped the three different service forecasting approaches into three different subsets in the following order: our proposed approach > traditional CBR-based service forecasting approach > the existing forecasting approach used by Company A. Consequently, our empirical experiments show that our proposed approach outperformed the traditional CBR based forecasting model and the existing service forecasting model used by Company A. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides some research background information such as summary of CBR and SOM. Section 3 presents a hybrid service forecasting framework based on Case-based Reasoning and Self-Organizing Maps, while the empirical evaluation results are summarized in Section 4. Conclusion and future research directions are finally discussed in Section 5.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.903-927
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• 2012

The study aimed to analyze middle school students construction of physics inquiry problems for open inquiry from the viewpoint of variable isolation and clarification, and investigate students' difficulties during the processes of variable isolation and clarification to get implications for teaching and learning strategies for small group open inquiry activities which have been included in the 2007 national curriculum. The participants were 4 students who had attended an outreach program for the science gifted run by a university institution located in Seoul area. They performed an open inquiry on egg drop for 13 lessons for 30 hours. Level descriptions for variable isolation and clarification have been developed and applied to analyze students' inquiry problems and variables included by the problems. Students iterated inquiry processed 5 times and the inquiry problem showed progress gradually. Dependent variables have been isolated ahead and the levels of variable isolation and clarification showed higher than the independent variables. Many kinds of independent variables isolated extensively and the independent variables and control variables have been mingled. One of the reasons why students had some difficulties in isolation of independent variables could be the absence of theoretical models. The realities of school lab could restrict the variable isolation and clarification as well as topic selections. Some sensory or extensive variables such as broken eggs and drop height seem to be salient to be focused on as core variables. Lack of background knowledges could be one of the reasons for students' difficulties in variable clarification, such as theoretical definitions and operational definitions. As a result of lacking background knowledges, students could not construct theoretical models even though they could isolate and clarify variables as scientific lexical definitions. Some perceptions of inquiry as trial and error or reckless establishment of causal relations between variables could be accounted as one reason.

• Journal of forensic and investigative science
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.5-19
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• 2006

Data mining is an information extraction activity to discover hidden facts contained in databases. Using a combination of machine learning, statistical analysis, modeling techniques and database technology, data mining finds patterns and subtle relationships in data and infers rules that allow the prediction of future results. Typical applications include market segmentation, customer profiling, fraud detection, evaluation of retail promotions, and credit risk analysis. Law enforcement agencies deal with mass data to investigate the crime and its amount is increasing due to the development of processing the data by using computer. Now new challenge to discover knowledge in that data is confronted to us. It can be applied in criminal investigation to find offenders by analysis of complex and relational data structures and free texts using their criminal records or statement texts. This study was aimed to evaluate possibile application of data mining and its limitation in practical criminal investigation. Clustering of the criminal cases will be possible in habitual crimes such as fraud and burglary when using data mining to identify the crime pattern. Neural network modelling, one of tools in data mining, can be applied to differentiating suspect's photograph or handwriting with that of convict or criminal profiling. A case study of in practical insurance fraud showed that data mining was useful in organized crimes such as gang, terrorism and money laundering. But the products of data mining in criminal investigation should be cautious for evaluating because data mining just offer a clue instead of conclusion. The legal regulation is needed to control the abuse of law enforcement agencies and to protect personal privacy or human rights.

• 대한공업교육학회지
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.192-217
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• 2008

This paper investigated the perceived criticalities and patterns of Korean Professional Engineer's competency regarding the working activities of automative product development, manufacturing, etc by using questionnaires responded to the survey which were applied to the automotive professors, experts and professional engineers (vocational parties) by e/mail, etc. This research investigated the following questions: First, what are the characteristic patterns, relevancy and perceived criticalities of Korean Professional Engineer's competencies? Second, What are the ranked priority of the Korean Professional Engineers' competencies? Are there any differency for each item, sub group of job, intelectual criterior of the competencies between relevancy and perceived criticalities according to the types of vocational parties, etc.? Accoring to the results; first, Professor group showed highest points among 3 groups per each item of the competencies by vocational parties Second, Chassis design group ranked top position among the 8 sub groups by vocational parties and, third, Problem Solving Knowledge ranked highest points than any others. Korean Professional Engineers are found to be positioned as key members, leaders and managers on surveying market, product planning, designing product & components, developing component parts, establishing shop with production equipment, managing quality control & material handling, organizing relevant meetings, developing human resources by training and learning, to back up finance with law matters, cooperating with concerned parties to achieve organizational goals, and to coordinate projects. etc, identifying ethical issues and business skills in order to survive and win to be competitive in various kinds of the automotive industry battle fields.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.411-422
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is twofold : (i) to investigate how much effort the married couples are making for the good health of both the pregnant woman and her unborn child from the time of their marriage to and during the period of conception : and (ii) to comprehensive investigate socio-cultural back-grounds which affect prenatal effort. Result of this study provide a basis for the prenatal care program which will be appropriate to our culture. This study has been done by the ethnographic research method. The subjects of this study are 53 people in all consisting of 33 pregnant women and 20 husbands. In order to investigate socio-cultural factors which influence Taegyo, producers of Taegyo music were interviewed. In addition the researcher surveyed the markets of Taegyo music, participated in special courses of prenatal education, analyzed the content of the books and periodicals dealing with Taegyo, and collected the concept of Taegyo distributed by the mass media. The full-fledged study continued for eight months from February to August.1996. The data were analyzed as soon as they were collected. Spradly's(1979, 1980) developmental, sequential method of domain analysis. taxonomic analysis, componential analysis, and theme analysis in this order was adopted as the procedure of analyzing the data. To obtain the exactness of study, Sandelowski's (1986) four criteria, that is, Credibility, Fittingness, Auditability, and Confirmability were applied to all stages of data collection, data analysis, the interpretation of the result, and the description of the result. The following are the result : 1. The couples' Taegyo at the stage of preconception was related to their physical, psychological, spiritual conditions under which a healthy baby will be born. Specific methods they prefer are : "the choice of one's spouse." "physical check-up," "physical good health, " "praying, " and so on. 2. When the marriod couple have sex in order to conceive, their Taegyo was related to the imposition of their physical, psychological, and environmental conditions. Specific methods they prefer are : "having sex at specific time, " "having sex in nice place." "to purify their minds while having sex," and so on. 3. The married couples' Taegyo while they are in pregnancy was related to the imposition of their physical. psychological, emotionmental. environmental, social and spiritual conditions. Specific methods they prefer are : "listening to music. " "reading," "looking at beautiful things only," "to avoid looking at or listening to bad things." "to eat food in good shape, " "to avoid drugs," "eating Korean herbal medicine." "sexual abstinence," "to avoid dangerous places," "to keep emotional tranquility," "moderate exercises and rest." "leading a pure life." "praying." "being aware of their words and behavior." "for the couple to keep a good relationship." "interaction with their unborn child," "to support Taegyo for pregnant women," and so on. 4. The married couple put Taegyo into practice on the basis of the following principles : the principle of respecting an unborn child, the principle of forming a good disposition. the principle of top-down parental love, the principle of synergy between a pregnant woman and her unborn child, the principle of expecting a good child, the principle of forming a good habit, and the principle of acquiring a parental role. 5. The practice of Taegyo is influenced by such factors as the married couple, the supporting system, and the mass media. As the husband -and-wife factor, their information of Taegyo, the degree of importance is assigned to their characters, their time to spare, their healthiness, the age of pregnant woman, their conception plan, their religion, their belief of the Taegyo effects, and the birth of a baby in this order. The factor of the supporting system consists of her husband's support, her family support, and her neighbor's support. The mass media factors include the broadcasting media, books specialized in Taegyo, periodicals for pregnant women, booklets for advertizing powdered milk, Taegyo music of record manufacturing companies, and the teaching materials for gifted children. Among these the mass media is especially taking advantage of Taegyo as its main source of economic profits are leading the public behavior pattern to a prodigal one. Taegyo is a self-control behavior which requires practice for the following : the physical and psychological good health of the pregnant woman and her unborn child, the development of the unborn child's good character, the development of the unborn child's intelligence and talents, the expectation of the unborn child's good features. shape a good habit, the expectation of the unborn child's bright future, and the learning of a parental role, the expectation of male birth. Above all it is a type of our good cultural tradition which pursues a value higher than the one that the prenatal care does. The principles of pregnancy care inherent in the habit of Taegyo will provide us a guideline for the development of the prenatal care.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.76 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 1987

With the purpose of pursuing the increase and decrease of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b caused by application of the simulated acid rain treatment on Pinus koraiensis seedlings and Ligustrum obtusifolium cuttings, the experimental design of randomized block arrangement with three replications was implemented in the experimental field of Yesan National Agricultural Junior College, during the growing season of 1985. Pinus koraiensis seeds stratified in cool and moist condition were sown on pots, and in case of Ligustrum obtusifolium, C1/1 cuttings were potted for experimental use in the early spring. The regime of artificial acid rain, based upon precipitation frequency and density, was simulated from the learning of climatological data averaged from 30 years records. The spray of acid water containing pH values of 4.0 and 2.0 was initiated from the 1st of May and ended on the 31st of August. As control, ground water was also treated at the same time. To analyse the chlorophyll content, those leaves looking representative and unaffected by other harmful agents were sampled on the 18th of September, and UV-visible spectrophotometer was used. With decrease in pH values of acid rain, the content of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b decreased in both species. The decrease in chlorophyll a could be confirmed through statistical significance, but not in chlorophyll b. And when we discussed the chlorophyll decrease index which was explained in detail in the paper, an attention might be given to similarly decreasing values in both chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, according as pH levels of acid rain decreased. The ratios of chlorophyll a to chlorophyll b in both species were not affected by different pH leaves of acid rain.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.40 no.9
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• pp.1208-1214
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• 2011

Caffeine, a psychoactive stimulant, has been implicated in the modulation of learning and memory functions due to its action as a non-selective adenosine receptors antagonist. On the contrary, some side effects of caffeine have been reported, such as an increased energy loss and metabolic rate, decrease DNA synthesis in the spleen, and increased oxidative damage to exerted on LDL particles. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a safe stimulant from natural plants mixture (Aralia elata, Acori graminei Rhizoma, Chrysanthemum, Dandleion, Guarana, Shepherd's purse) that can be used as a substitute for caffeine. Thirty SD rats were divided into three groups; control group, caffeine group (15.0 mg/kg, i.p.), and natural plants mixture group (NP, 1 mL/kg, p.o.). The effect of NP extract on stimulant activity was evaluated with open-field test (OFT) and plus maze test for measurement of behavioral profiles. Plasma lipid profiles, lipid peroxidation in LDL (conjugated dienes), total antioxidant capacity (TRAP) and DNA damage in white blood, liver, and brain cells were measured. In the OFT, immobility time was increased significantly by acute (once) and chronic (3 weeks) supplementation of NP and showed a similar effect to caffeine treatment. Three weeks of caffeine treatment caused plasma lipid peroxidation and DNA damage in liver cells, whereas there were no changes in the NP group. NP group showed a higher plasma HDL cholesterol concentration compared to the caffeine group. The results indicate that the natural plants mixture had a stimulant effect without inducing oxidative stress.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Health Promotion Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1-16
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• 2004

This paper considers the possibilities of health promotion from the following perspectives; (1) IUHPE, (2) socio-cultural similarities, (3) action research, and (4) learning from our past. 1. The IUHPE values decentralized activities through regions, and countries such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China belong to NPWP region. Since IUHPE World Conference was held in Japan in 1995, Japan used to occupy more than 60% of NPWP membership. After 2001, membership is increasing rapidly in Chinese speaking sub-region. The transnational collaboration is still in its beginning phase. 2. Confucianism is one of key points. Confucian tradition should not be seen only as obstacles but as advantages to seek a form of health promotion more acceptable in East Asia. 3. Within the new public health framework, people are expected to create and live their health. However, especially in Japan, the tendency of 'lacking of face-to-face explicit interactions' is still common at health-promotion settings as well as academic settings. Therefore, the author tried participatory approaches such as asking WlFY (interactive questions designed for subjects to review their daily life and environment) and as introducing round table interactions. So far, majority of participants welcome new trials. 4. The following social phenomena are comparatively discussed after Japanese invasion and occupation of Korea ended in 1945; ·status of oriental medicine, ·separation of dispensary services, and ·health promotion specialist as a national license. In contrast to Japanese' tendency of maintaining the status quo and postponing of substantial social change, trend toward rapid and dynamic social changes are more commonly observed in Korea. Although all of above possibilities are still in their beginning stages, they are going to offer interesting directions waiting for further challenges and accompanying researches.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.11-24
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• 1976

This study was a part of large scale of a prospective study on attitudes of professional students in medicine, nursing and teaching toward population related issues in Korea. The study was first conducted in May 1974 and then in May 1975 for the 1974 class cohot using a questionaire consisted of attitude scales and other items developed by Lee. The purpose of stuay was twohold, namely, to determine the difference in students among specializations on one hand and between the first and second years in the 1974 class cohot regarding tile subject matter. A one-way analysis of variance was used for attitude scale, and absolute and relative frequency were computed for the analysis of non-attitude scale items by employing Fishers' Ratio and Duncan's multiple range test at 5% level and chi square test at 5% level as significance tests. The hypothesis 'students in health profession are more likely to have positive attitudes toward population related issues progressively as class year advances than students in teaching profession' was tested and the following results were obtained: 1) Nursing students were more likely to display favarable attitudes toward family planning than medical or teaching students although the class cohot showed slightly negative improvement in the second year. Medical and teaching students apperaed to have slightly improved attitudes in the second year. 2) Respondents in general perceived national family planning program as a means of population control and this tendency was more true among nursing students as the class year advances than two other professional groups of students. Students in teaching profession appeared to perceive it more as a means to improve individual family welfare while health students were likely to see as to improve maternal and child health. This tendency was progressively improved as the class year advanced. 3) The majority of students regardless of their respective specializations believed that family planning program should be directed toward the improvement of individual family welfare. No progressive changes in the class cohot were observed. 4) About the plan to use contraceptives in future, no singnificant differences were observes among different specializations nor in different class years. However, the majority was confirmed to have a plan to use contracepives in future. An increasing proportion of the undecided category was observed, as class year advanced among health students. 5) Students in health profession were found to be more favorable about 'more leisure opportunities' as motive for limiting number of children whereas education students indicated the reasons as 'facilitate ambitions' and 'economic base' The progressive changes toward positive direction in both groups were observed as the class years advanced. 6) Attitudes toward induced abortions of the health students were observed to be positively related to class years while an inverse relationship was found in teaching students who showed much less favor in the subject matter than health students. This phenomenon may be due to the different exposure to learning environments unique to respective specializations. 7) Health students were found to have more favorable attitudes toward population education in general than the teaching students. The teaching students appeared to have changed more to the negative direction when they became the second year while no such development was observed in health students. The teaching students seemed to hold a very conservative position with regard to sex education in schools. 8) About the equality of sexes, the nursing group was found to be most favorable while the reverse was true in the teaching group. A change in the negative direction as the class year advanced was found in the teaching group. 9) About questions related to fertility values-the 10 percent of respondents regardless of specialization indicated that they would maintain their single status in future, however no change was observed in the second year. The desired number of children was found to be two by the majority of students in nursing, medicine and teaching in order of high proportion. No changes in a different class year were observed. The childless marriage was seen by nursing students as a problem more than other students, but a slight change in positive direction was found when the nursing students became the second year. In summing, as data supported in the above, students in health profession demonstrated more favorable attitudes toward population related issues than the teaching students and this tendency became more apparent in the second year. It was noticed that health students were more conscious about the health aspect of population and family planning program while the teaching students gave more attention to the socioeconomic aspect. The sex variable seemed to have operated in the item related to the equality of sexes. In conclusion, as data presented in the above, the hypothesis of this study was accepted except in the few items. It should be noted that the limitation of this study is the short duration of the observation in measuring the possible attitude changes. It should include curriculum analysis for the respective specializations in order to indentify the area of curriculum impact on students in future study.