• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1293-1297
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• 2016

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a serious problem in Thailand, particularly in the northeastern and northern regions. Database of population at risk are need required for monitoring, surveillance, home health care, and home visit. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a geographic information system (GIS) database and Google map of the population at risk of CCA in Mueang Yang district, Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeastern Thailand during June to October 2015. Populations at risk were screened using the Korat CCA verbal screening test (KCVST). Software included Microsoft Excel, ArcGIS, and Google Maps. The secondary data included the point of villages, sub-district boundaries, district boundaries, point of hospital in Mueang Yang district, used for created the spatial databese. The populations at risk for CCA and opisthorchiasis were used to create an arttribute database. Data were tranfered to WGS84 UTM ZONE 48. After the conversion, all of the data were imported into Google Earth using online web pages www.earthpoint.us. Some 222 from a 4,800 population at risk for CCA constituted a high risk group. Geo-visual display available at following www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=zPxtcHv_iDLo.kvPpxl5mAs90&hl=th. Geo-visual display 5 layers including: layer 1, village location and number of the population at risk for CCA; layer 2, sub-district health promotion hospital in Mueang Yang district and number of opisthorchiasis; layer 3, sub-district district and the number of population at risk for CCA; layer 4, district hospital and the number of population at risk for CCA and number of opisthorchiasis; and layer 5, district and the number of population at risk for CCA and number of opisthorchiasis. This GIS database and Google map production process is suitable for further monitoring, surveillance, and home health care for CCA sufferers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.149-159
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• 2017

It is considered necessary to renewal a considerable number of water supply facilities in Korea because they began to be intensively buried in the period of rapid economic growth. Accordingly, local water providers are required to take measures against this situation, but they have currently been caught in a vicious circle of the lack of budget spent in renewing water supply facilities because county-based small-scale local water supply cannot afford to cover annual expenditures with their revenues from water rates. Therefore, this study developed an optimal renewal planning model capable of achieving a balance of financial revenue and expenditure in local water supply using nonlinear programming and furthermore of minimizing the total cost incurred during the analysis. To this end, this study selected the water supply area located in County Y as a research area to build the financial revenue and expenditure and used Solver function provided by Microsoft Excel to use nonlinear programming. As a result, this study developed an optimal renewal planning model minimizing incurred costs in consideration of 6 items in the financial revenue and expenditure. The optimal renewal plan was modeled according to the available annual budget. As a result, this study proposed SICD, a scenario to minimize total costs from the perspective of water suppliers, and SITS, a scenario to minimize the increase in water rates from the perspective of consumers. It can be said that the method proposed in this study is the core of the optimal financial and renewal plans as a final stage of asset management for water supply facilities. Therefore, it is considered possible for local water providers to use the method proposed in this study according to circumstances for the asset management of water supply facilities.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.13-25
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• 2009

Objective : The purpose of the study is to find out how group sensory integrative (SI) intervention enhances play skill and social interaction of the children with sensory integration disorders. Method : Three children who were showing problems related in sensory integration received 12 SI intervention sessions. The Sensory Profile (SP) and The Social Maturity Scale (SMS) were accomplished by the subject's primary caregiver. Test of Playfulness (ToP) and Peer Social Interactions Rating Scale (PSIRS) were utilized to investigate the children's play skills and social interactions with their friends. Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) is applied to assess the children's play skill, social interactions with peer, and sensory processing at each session. Data was collected before- and after the intervention and analyzed by the Wilcoxon matched-pair signed rank test with SPSS/WIN version 10.0 and Microsoft Excel. Results : The average scores of ToP, PSIRS, and SMS were increased after the sensory integrative intervention. However, there is no significant difference in the play skills and social interactions between data of pre-intervention and the one of post-intervention. The score of the GAS was frequently increased in terms of the play skills and sensory processing throughout the whole sessions. Conclusions : This study reveals a possibility of that the group sensory integrative intervention may affect not only sensory processing ability, but also play skills and social interactions of children experiencing difficulties of sensory processing. Future research should supplement limitations of this study regarding insufficient number of the subject and the short period of the experiment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.3629-3633
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• 2014

Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) is an immunosuppressive tumor whose median survival time is only 12-15 months, and patients with GBM have a uniformly poor prognosis. It is known that heredity contributes to formation of glioma, but there are few genetic studies concerning GBM. Materials and Methods: We genotyped six tagging SNPs (tSNP) in Han Chinese GBM and control patients. We used Microsoft Excel and SPSS 16.0 statistical package for statistical analysis and SNP Stats to test for associations between certain tSNPs and risk of GBM in five different models. ORs and 95%CIs were calculated for unconditional logistic-regression analysis with adjustment for age and gender. The SHEsis software platform was applied for analysis of linkage disequilibrium, haplotype construction, and genetic associations at polymorphism loci. Results: We found rs891835 in CCDC26 to be associated with GBM susceptibility at a level of p=0.009. The following genotypes of rs891835 were found to be associated with GBM risk in four different models of gene action: i) genotype GT (OR=2.26; 95%CI, 1.29-3.97; p=0.019) or GG (OR=1.33; 95%CI, 0.23-7.81; p=0.019) in the codominant model; ii) genotypes GT and GG (OR=2.18; 95%CI, 1.26-3.78; p=0.0061) in the dominant model; iii) GT (OR=2.24; 95%CI, 1.28-3.92; p=0.0053) in the overdominant model; iv) the allele G of rs891835 (OR=1.85; 95%CI, 1.14-3.00; p=0.015) in the additive model. In addition, "CG" and "CGGAG" were found by haplotype analysis to be associated with increased GBM risk. In contrast, genotype GG of CCDC26 rs6470745 was associated with decreased GBM risk (OR=0.34; 95%CI, 0.12-1.01; p=0.029) in the recessive model. Conclusions: Our results, combined with those from previous studies, suggest a potential genetic contribution of CCDC26 to GBM progression among Han Chinese.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3117-3122
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• 2016

Background: Health-care research is a neglected discipline in Pakistan and research related to esophageal cancer (ranks 9th in Pakistani males and 5th in females) is no exception in this regard. Particularly, there are no data available to delineate the overall status of esophageal cancer epidemiological studies in Pakistan. This study describes the first ever effort to make a systematic quantification, in an attempt to provide a road-map to all stakeholders for designing appropriate epidemiological, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Materials and Methods: International (PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge) and local (PakMedinet) scientific databases as well as Google search engine were searched using specified keywords to extract relevant publication. Well-defined inclusion criteria were implemented to select publications for final analyses. All data were recorded by at least 3 authors and consensus data were entered into and analyzed for descriptive statistics (such as frequencies, percentages and annual growth rates) using Microsoft Excel and SPSS software. Results: A total of 79 publications fulfilled the inclusion criteria including 20 publications for which full texts were not available. Of the 79 publications, 59 (74.6%) were original/research publications, 5 (6.3%) were case reports, 4 (5.1%) were research communications, 2 (2.5%) were review articles, 1 was (1.2%) correspondence and 8 (10.1%) were undefined categories. Only 13 (<20%) cities of Pakistan contributed towards the 79 publications. On average, only 1.9 relevant publications/year were published from 1976 (year of first publication) to the present. Alarmingly, a decline in the annual growth at -4.1% was recorded in the last six years. Conclusions: Esophageal cancer research is largely unfathomed in Pakistan. Urgent/dramatic steps are required by all concerned to address this common (and under reported) cancer of Pakistan.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.5-11
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• 2012

The core objective of this research article is to investigate different challenges and opportunities in management as well as start-ups of small businesses in India. The prudence behind this research is to examine various problems in front of the small businesses and to offer vital support and cooperation to overcome those with the support of concerned institutions through consultancy and training programs. The researchers have an intention to make available the research results to the governmental agencies, concerned small business institutions and also to the educational institutions which are continually design plans, programs, policies and strategies to upgrade the managerial and technical dexterities of the small business Indian operators. After thorough revision of relevant literature on small businesses and its management, the researchers used a well structured questionnaire and in-depth personal interviews with 586small business operators selected from manufacturing, trading (retailing and wholesaling), finance, servicing/repair businesses which are located in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh in India. The researchers have used convenience sampling and collected data was analyzed with the support of Microsoft Excel and frequency distribution. Noticeably, majority of the small businessmen in India are facing myriad number of challenges both in management and at the time of establishment of their business operations. In particular, 72.47 percent of small businesses operators' have substantiated their strong opinion towards the challenges they are facing particularly finance, marketing and other problems while managing their businesses. The researchers also attempted to get the opinions on problems of the various categories of small businesses while starting their operations. A staggering 68percent of respondents identified the problems related to preparation of business plan, location selection, marketing and other problems like lack of proper credit facilities, skilled manpower, and other infra related problems while setting up of their businesses. On an average, 64.62 and 63.51 percent of small businesses are facing various kinds of problems both at the time of day-to-day management as well as start-up of their businesses respectively. The present research confined with the opinions of only four categories of small business operators particularly from the manufacturing, finance, trading (retailing and wholesaling), and servicing/repair which are continuing their business operations from the nine coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh in India. The present study emphatically provides concrete information required to the business community for identifying an assortment of challenges faced by different small business operators in managing and at the time of their inception. This research paper is first of its kind from this part of the world by offering extensive and credible information required for prospective entrepreneurs in facing the dynamic challenges in managing their business. Furthermore, this research presents invaluable inputs to the stakeholders like all types of governments, policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and educators' about the various impediments faced by the small business community in India.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.420-427
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• 2019

Scrub typhus is a fever-related disease that is commonly diagnosed during the autumn season. The number of patients affected by this disease continues to increase every year. However, the cause of the disease and the regional differences of its incidence are poorly understood. This study examined the epidemiological features and regional differences in the incidence of scrub typhus. The monthly incidence of cases from all reports rose to more than 90% during the fall season (October~December). Based on the analysis of the 18,851 cases in the epidemiological investigation, 14,777 (78.4%) and 4,074 (21.6%) cases occurred in high and low occurrence areas, respectively. Moreover, there were more female cases than male cases (males: 7,233 [38.4%]; females: 11,618 [61.6%]; P< 0.001). The clinical symptoms, including fever, chills, myalgia, and eschar of the body, were noted in 16,688 (89.1%), 11,533 (61.2%),11,439 (60.7%), and 6,005 (45.4%) cases, respectively. The incidence rates were higher for Gyeongnam, Jeonam, Jeonbuk, and Chungnam provinces. The areas with a high occurrence of scrub typhus were consistent with the areas experiencing a high distribution of Leptotrombidium scutellare. The incidence of scrub typhus has been rising owing to the increasing population of ticks due to global warming and increased agricultural and outdoor activities. Thus, continuous management of patients and preventive environmental measures are needed to control this disease.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.79-101
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• 2023

The current status of local road pavement management in Jeollabuk-do only relies on the accomplishments of the site construction company's pavement repair and is only managed through Microsoft Excel and word documents. Furthermore, the budget is irregular each year. Accordingly, a systematic maintenance plan for local roads is necessary. In this paper, data related to road damage and road environment were collected and processed to derive possible areas which could suffer from road damage. The effectiveness of the methodology was reviewed through the on-site inspection of the area. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, in 2018, the number of damages on general national roads were about 47,000. In 2019, it reached around 38,000. Furthermore, the number of lawsuits regarding the road damages were about 93 in 2018 and it increased to 119 in 2019. In the case of national roads, the number of damages decreased compared to 2018 due to pavement repairs. To measure the priorities in maintenance of local roads at Jeollabuk-do, data on maintenance history, local port hole occurrence site, overlapping business section, and emergency maintenance section were transformed into data. Eventually, it led to improvements in maintenance of local roads. Furthermore, spatial data were constructed using various current status data related to roads, and finally the data was processed into a new form that could be utilized in machine learning and predictions. Using the spatial data, areas requiring maintenance on pavement were predicted and the results were used to establish new budgets and policies on road management.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.349-364
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• 2024

Purpose: This study used the Analytic Hierarchy Process to evaluate the relative importance of the factors that school nutrition teachers and dietitians consider during menu planning for school foodservices across various educational levels. Methods: An online survey was conducted from December 2023 to January 2024. The hierarchical structure for school foodservice menu management was developed through content analysis, consisting of five high-level categories and 3-4 low-level factors. Questionnaires were distributed to 395 nutrition teachers and dietitians from kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide. One hundred and sixty-six responses were received, resulting in a 42.0% return rate. These responses were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS Statistics. Results: The most commonly referenced sources for school foodservice menu planning were 'menus obtained from websites' (19.4%). The most significant challenge encountered was 'incorporating students' preferences' (18.6%). In the hierarchy of categories considered for school foodservice menu management, 'employees and facilities' ranked highest (0.2347), followed by 'preference' (0.2312), 'nutrition balance' (0.2027), 'cooking process' (0.1726), and 'food materials' (0.1588). Within each category, the top-ranked factors were 'employees' cooking skills' (0.3759), 'students' preferences' (0.4310), 'dietary reference intakes' (0.4968), 'foodservice hygiene' (0.4374), and 'food costs' (0.4213). The study also compared the relative importance of factors according to the educational levels, and the top-ranked factors were the same across all educational levels. In particular, 'students' preferences', 'dietary reference intake', and 'food costs' aligned with the top three challenges in school foodservice menu planning. Conclusion: Enhancing working conditions for school foodservice employees and developing menu planning methods that accommodate students' preferences are necessary. These findings will provide foundational data for future school foodservice menu management strategies.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.75-84
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• 2014

Objective : This study intends to suggest an effective clinical intervention method for stroke patients by applying a trunk stabilization training program to a single stroke patient and investigating and analyzing the effects of the program on postural control and activities of daily living. Methods : The subject of this study was a 75 year-old female stroke patient hospitalized in C Hospital located in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do. As for the research design, A-B-A reversal design was used with a single subject design; and the research period was a total of five weeks from April 21, 2014 to May 23, 2014. As for the research process, a total of 15 sessions were carried out including three sessions of baseline(A), nine sessions of an intervention period(B), and three sessions of maintenance(A'); and the trunk stabilization program was applied during the intervention period. To evaluate the participant's postural control and activities of living life, the Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke(PASS) and the modified Barthel Index(MBI) were used. Visual analysis was used in which collected data were plotted on a graph, using Microsoft Office Excel 2013. Results : In the postural control test, the mean scores improved from 11.7 in the baseline phase to 14.8 in the intervention phase and 15.3 in the maintenance phase. In the evaluation of activities of daily living, the score improved from 66(medium dependence) during the baseline period to 80(low dependence) after intervention and at the maintenance phase. Conclusion : It was found that the trunk stabilization training program showed effects on the stroke patient's postural control or alignment, and furthermore a beneficial improvement in the patient's performing the activities of daily living, as well.