• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5791-5797
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• 2012

Introduction: Return-to-work (RTW) can be a problematic occupational issue with detrimental impact on the quality of life of previously-employed breast cancer survivors. This study explored barriers and facilitators encountered during the RTW process in the area of cancer survivorship. Materials and Methods: Six focus groups were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide on 40 informants (employed multiethnic survivors). Survivors were stratified into three groups for successfully RTW, and another three groups of survivors who were unable to return to work. Each of the three groups was ethnically homogeneous. Thematic analysis using a constant comparative approach was aided by in vivo software. Results: Participants shared numerous barriers and facilitators which directly or interactively affect RTW. Key barriers were physical-psychological after-effects of treatment, fear of potential environment hazards, high physical job demand, intrusive negative thoughts and overprotective family. Key facilitators were social support, employer support, and regard for financial independence. Across ethnic groups, the main facilitators were financial-independence (for Chinese), and socialisation opportunity (for Malay). A key barrier was after-effects of treatment, expressed across all ethnic groups. Conclusions: Numerous barriers were identified in the non-RTW survivors. Health professionals and especially occupational therapists should be consulted to assist the increasing survivors by providing occupational rehabilitation to enhance RTW amongst employed survivors. Future research to identify prognostic factors can guide clinical efforts to restore cancer survivors to their desired level/type of occupational functioning for productivity and wellbeing.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4321-4326
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• 2012

The current study aimed at exploring the knowledge and beliefs of men aged forty years and over towards prostate cancer screening and early detection in three Arab countries. The field work was conducted in three countries; Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, during the period February through December 2011. Our target population were men aged 40 years and over. It was a population-based cross sectional study comprising 400 subjects at each site. In addition to socio-demographic data, history of the present and past medical illness, practice history of prostatic cancer examination, family history of cancer prostate; participants were inquired about their knowledge and attitude towards prostate cancer and screening behavior using two different likert scales. The percentage of participants who practiced regular prostate check up ranged from 8-30%. They had poor knowledge and fair attitude towards prostate cancer screening behavior, where the mean total knowledge score was $10.25{\pm}2.5$, $10.76{\pm}3.39$ and $11.24{\pm}3.39$ whereas the mean total attitude score was $18.3{\pm}4.08$, $20.68{\pm}6.4$ and $17.96{\pm}5.3$ for Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan respectively. The respondents identified the physicians as the main sources of this information (62.4%), though they were not the main motives for regular checkup. Knowledge was the only significant predictor for participants' attitude in the multiple regression models. Participants' attitudes depends mainly on level of knowledge and quantity of information provided to the patients and their families. Such attitudes should rely on a solid background of proper information and motivation from physicians to enhance and empower behaviors towards prostate cancer screening practices.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.3799-3804
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• 2013

Background: Colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer in Malaysia. The prognosis of the disease is excellent if detected at an early stage, but the majority of Malaysian patients present at late stages. We aimed to assess the awareness of cancer warning signs and anticipated delay in help-seeking as possible contributors to this phenomenon. Materials and Methods: A population-based cross-sectional survey using the Colorectal Cancer Awareness Measure was initiated in Perak, Malaysia. A total of 2,379 respondents aged 18 years and above were recruited using a multi-stage sampling in five locations. Analysis of covariance was used to examine independent sociodemographic predictors of scores for symptom awareness. Results: Younger age, being female, a higher education, and higher income were significantly associated with better scores for both recall and recognition of warning symptoms. Among the ethnic groups, Malays had better recognition of symptoms whereas Chinese recalled the most symptoms. Passing bloody stool was associated with the least anticipated delay and unexplained anal pain had the highest anticipated delay. Conclusions: The level of awareness across all ethnicities in Malaysia is generally low, especially among minorities. Targeted public education, which is culturally and linguistically appropriate, should be developed to encourage early help-seeking and improve clinical outcomes.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.16
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• pp.7-40
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• 2013

Historian Eric J. Hobsbawm once said "the task that historians have is to analyze the meanings of the past within the context of society and to track the changes and implementation." It would not be too far of a stretch to apply Hobsbawm's quote to art historian since art history, although quite specific, is still history. In addition, Hobsbaum also asserted that, "a mold called the past continuously forms the present or at least thought to be." It is my recognition that the major westernization of the last century took place under the Japanese colonization which served as the channel to usher in western art; however, the current 20thcentury Korean art history fails to recognize that the mold of the past, namely western art in this case, has formed the modern art of the present. Based on this recognition, attention was given to what lacked in the analysis of the current 20th-century Korean art history in terms of "Informel" which was identified as the turning point towards "modern art" in the Korean art history as well as the following "experimental art." My belief is that the art history of Korea has to be reassessed from, a socio-cultural perspective as well as adopting multi-level and diachronic understanding. However, the existing Korean art, especially the one between the end of 1950s to the 1970s was based on the perspective of "severance"; thus, raising the needs for the starting point of a new perspective. It is my conviction that meta perspective on writing is most essential in order to lay a solid basis for the Korean art scene to have a productive discussion. I feel the utmost necessity to reinterpret the typified history analysis and criticism which stemmed from the trauma under the Japanese colonization. The most urgent task is to avoid academic closeness and to share the research. Painting is an individual expression of the artist, but the act of expression is not free from the cultural and societal influence to which the artist belongs.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.341-350
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• 2014

In this paper, an energy efficient clustering scheme using self organization method is proposed. The proposed scheme selects a cluster head considering not only the number of neighbor nodes but also the residual battery amount. In addition, the network life time is extended by re-selecting the cluster heads only in case the current cluster head's residual energy falls down below a certain threshold level. Accordingly, the energy consumption is evenly distributed over the entire network nodes. The cluster head delivers the collected data from member nodes to a Sink node in a way of multi-hop relaying. In order to evaluate the proposed scheme, we run computer simulation in terms of the total residual amount of battery, the number of alive nodes after a certain amount of time, the accumulated energy cost for network configuration, and the deviation of energy consumption of all nodes, comparing with LEACH which is one of the most popular network clustering schemes. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme has twice network life-time of LEACH scheme and has much more evenly distributed energy consumption over the entire network.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.73-80
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• 2016

Multiplayer Online Games(MOG) using the Internet are typically organized based on a CS(client-server) or P2P(peer-to-peer) architecture. We then propose a method that combines a P2P architecture with a CS architecture in order to utilize their advantages. Most MOGs use a primary-copy replication approach that provides strong consistency control over an object. For each object and character there exists an authoritative copy, called primary copy and all other copies are secondary copies or replicas. Any update to the object has to be first performed on the primary copy. In the proposed hybrid architecture, primary copies may reside on the server or be held by clients. In this architecture, load balancing between a server and clients can be achieved by reducing the number of objects maintained by the server. Games consist of various types of actions with different consistency requirements. A multi-level approach to game consistency is sensible as it provides the best trade-off between consistency and performance. The performance for the hybrid game architecture with the primary-copy model is evaluated through simulation experiments and analysis in this paper.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.523-532
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• 2015

Purpose: The usability, user satisfaction, and impact of electronic nursing record (ENR) systems were investigated. Methods: This mixed-method research was performed as a time-motion (TM) study and a survey which were carried out at six hospitals between August and November 2013. The TM study involved 108 nurses from medical, surgical, and intensive care units at each hospital, plus an additional 48 nurses who served as nonparticipating observers. In the survey, 1879 volunteer nurses completed the Impact of ENR Systems Scale, the System Usability Scale, and a global satisfaction scale. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed. Results: The mean scores for the ENR impact, system usability, and satisfaction were 4.28 (out of 6), 58.62 (out of 100), and 74.31 (out of 100), respectively, and they differed significantly between hospitals (F=43.43, p<.001, F=53.08 and p<.001, and F=29.13 and p<.001, respectively). A workflow fragmentation assessment revealed different patterns of ENR system use among the included hospitals. Three user characteristics-educational background, practice period, and experience of using paper records-significantly affected the system usability and satisfaction scores. Conclusion: The system quality varied widely among the ENR systems. The generally low-to-moderate levels of system usability and user satisfaction suggest many opportunities for improvement.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.333-342
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• 2013

Soil compaction is affected by soil texture, organic matter (OM), strength (ST) and soil moisture, which is difficult to understand the degree and effects of related factors. The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of them on the compaction with bulk density (BD). The analysis was conducted with data collected from national-wide monitoring sites including 105 upland soils, 246 orchard soils, and 408 paddy soils between 2009 and 2012. The distributions of soil physical properties were measured. The correlation and multi linear regression analysis were performed between soil physical properties using SAS. The regression equation of BD(y) includes ST, gravitational water contents (GWC), and OM as variables commonly, having additional factors, clay content and sand content in paddy soil and upland soil for only subsoil (p<0.001). Our results show that the BD could be explained about 40~50% by various physical properties. The regression was mainly determined by ST in orchard and upland soil and by the GWC in paddy soil. To mitigate soil compaction, it is important to maintain the proper level of OM in upland soil and to consider the moisture condition with soil texture in paddy soil when making work plan. Furthermore, it would be recommended the management criteria classified by soil texture for the paddy soils.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.65-70
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• 2018

The objective of this study was to describe a radiofrequency (RF) coil design for in vivo sodium magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for use in small animals. Accumulating evidence has indicated the importance and potential of sodium imaging with improved magnet strength (> 7T), faster gradient, better hardware, multi-nucleus imaging methods, and optimal coil design for patient and animal studies. Thus, we developed a saddle-shaped sodium volume coil with a diameter/length of 30/30 mm. To evaluate the efficiency of this coil, bench-level measurement was performed. Unloaded Q value, loaded Q value, and ratio of these two values were estimated to be 352.8, 211.18, and 1.67, respectively. Thereafter, in vivo acquisition of sodium images was performed using normal mice (12 weeks old; n = 5) with a two-dimensional gradient echo sequence and minimized echo time to increase spatial resolution of images. Sodium signal-to-noise ratio in mouse kidneys (renal cortex, medulla, and pelvis) was measured. We successfully acquired sodium MR images of the mouse kidney with high spatial resolution (approximately 0.625 mm) through a combination of sodium-proton coils.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.1730-1747
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• 2018

Multi-view video plus depth (MVD) is a mainstream format of 3D scene representation in free viewpoint video systems. The advanced 3D extension of the high efficiency video coding (3D-HEVC) standard introduces new prediction tools to improve the coding performance of depth video. However, the depth video in 3D-HEVC is time consuming. To reduce the complexity of the depth video inter coding, we propose a fast coding unit (CU) size and mode decision algorithm. First, an off-line trained Bayesian model is built which the feature vector contains the depth levels of the corresponding spatial, temporal, and inter-component (texture-depth) neighboring largest CUs (LCUs). Then, the model is used to predict the depth level of the current LCU, and terminate the CU recursive splitting process. Finally, the CU mode search process is early terminated by making use of the mode correlation of spatial, inter-component (texture-depth), and inter-view neighboring CUs. Compared to the 3D-HEVC reference software HTM-10.0, the proposed algorithm reduces the encoding time of depth video and the total encoding time by 65.03% and 41.04% on average, respectively, with negligible quality degradation of the synthesized virtual view.