• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2016

Background: The tobacco epidemic is a heralding health menace, particularly among college students. Tobacco usage among young can have an especially devastating effect as they can be exposed for longer periods. Data to estimate the prevalence of tobacco use in young adults will be a valuable addition to the existing resources. Materials and Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was therefore carried out in Mangalore city using a pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire adapted from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) with a representative sample of 720 students aged 18-20 years selected from degree colleges by multi-stage random sampling. Results: Prevalence of 'ever users' and 'current users' of smoking were 20.4% and 11.4%, respectively. The mean age at initiation of cigarette smoking was 16 years and the majority (31 %) smoked in public places. Interestingly, 84% of them knew about the harmful effects of cigarette smoking. About one half of smokers had some or most of their friends smoking. Multivariate analysis revealed gender (OR=8.585: CI-3.26-22.5), pocket money (OR=4.165; CI=1.76-9.82) and peer's smoking habit (OR= 5.15; CI-2.21-11.9) have higher odds as correlates of tobacco usage among college students. Conclusions: It is of prime importance to highlight the role of prevention of smoking initiation rather than subsequently trying to stop the habit. Comprehensive interventions embracing family, friends and social milieu are needed to reduce tobacco use among students in India.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.139-144
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• 2015

Background: The work force in industries are at risk of developing unduly high rates of health and behaviour related problems including abuse of alcohol, betel nut and cigarette (alcohol, betel nut and cigarette consumption). This study describes the relationships between alcohol, betel nut and cigarette consumption and health promoting behaviour among industrial workers. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted on workers in various industries of Ghaziabad city with concerned authority permission. A sample size of 732 workers was calculated based on pilot study. Through Simple random sampling 732 workers in 20 to 50 years age group with informed consent were interviewed through structured, pretested, validated questionnaire in vernacular language by one calibrated investigator. Data on socio demography, alcohol, betel nut and cigarette consumption pattern and health behaviour were collected. The association between health promoting behaviour and alcohol, betel nut and cigarette consumption was analysed by Logistic regression and Chi-square test through SPSS 16 at p<0.05 and 95%CI as significant. Results: Total prevalence of alcohol, betel nut and cigarette consumption in study population was 88%. The prevalence of individual alcohol, betel nut and cigarette consumption were 82%, 68% and 79% respectively. Combined alcohol, betel nut and cigarette prevalence in study population was 58%. Alcohol and cigarette users were significantly higher (p<0.001) in 30 to 40 years age group with lower level of education having poor attitude towards health promoting behaviour, poor oral hygiene practices and rare indulgence in regular physical exercise. Conclusions: This study stimulate further research on exploring methods to prevent initiation of health risk behaviour and promote healthy behaviour with cessation help for the current alcohol, betel nut and cigarette users.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.3691-3698
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• 2014

Background: Published studies on the association between the Ras Association Domain Family 1 isoform A (RASSF1A) Ala133Ser polymorphism and cancer susceptibility have yielded conflicting results. Thus, a meta-analysis was here performed to assess the possible association. Materials and Methods: All eligible case-control studies published up to November 2013 on the association between RASSF1A Ala133Ser polymorphism and cancer susceptibility were identified by searching PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct and hand search. Bothfixed-effect and random-effect models were used to calculate pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) by using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software version 2.2. Results: A total of 10 studies including 4,572 cancer cases and 4,320 controls were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, significantly increased cancer risk was associated with the variant Ser133 when all studies were pooled (Ser vs Ala: OR=1.51, 95% CI=1.08-2.12, $P_{heterogeneity}{\leq}0.001$; Ser/Ser+Ala/Ser vs Ala/Ala: OR=1.55, 95% CI=1.08-2.22, $P_{heterogeneity}{\leq}0.001$). Moreover, in subgroup analyses by cancer types, a significant association between RASSF1A Ala133Ser polymorphism and lung cancer risk was found (Ser vs Ala: OR=2.27, 95% CI=1.29-4.02, $P_{heterogeneity}$=0.61; Ser/Ser+Ala/Ser vs Ala/Ala: OR=2.42, 95% CI=1.33-4.42, $P_{heterogeneity}=0.75$). In addition, in subgroup analyses by ethnicity, it was found that the RASSF1A Ala133Ser polymorphism was associated with overall cancer risk in Asians (Ser vs Ala: OR=1.37, 95% CI=1.06-1.77, $P_{heterogeneity}=0.06$) and Caucasians (Ser/Ser+Ala/Ser vs Ala/Ala: OR=2.21, 95% CI=1.01-4.82, $P_{heterogeneity}{\leq}0.001$). Conclusions: This meta-analysis suggests, for the first time, that RASSF1A Ala133Ser polymorphism may contribute to cancer susceptibility, especially for lung cancer. Besides, additional well-designed studies with larger sample size focusing on different ethnicities and cancer types are needed to confirm these findings.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.909-913
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• 2015

Background: A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies evaluated the association of intake of vitamin B2 with the incidence of colorectal cancer. Materials and Methods: Relevant studies were identified in MEDLINE via PubMed (published up to April 2014). We extracted data from articles on vitamin B2 and used multivariable-adjusted odds ratio (OR) and a random-effects model for analysis. Results: We found 8 articles meeting the inclusion criteria (4 of cohort studies and 4 of case-control studies) and a total of 7,750 colorectal cancer cases were included in this meta-analysis. The multivariable-adjusted OR for pooled studies for the association of the highest versus lowest vitamin B2 intake and the risk of colorectal cancer was 0.83 (95% confidence interval [95%CI]:0.75,0.91). We performed a sensitivity analysis for vitamin B2. If we omitted the study by Vecchia et al., the pooled OR was 0.86 (95%CI, 0.77,0.96). Conclusions: This is the first meta-analysis to study links between vitamin B2 and colorectal cancer. We found vitamin B2 intake was inversely associated with risk of colorectal cancer. However, further research and large sample studies need to be conducted to better validate the result.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.663-669
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• 2014

Background: With recent progress in health science administration, a huge amount of data has been collected from thousands of subjects. Statistical and computational techniques are very necessary to understand such data and to make valid scientific conclusions. The purpose of this paper was to develop a statistical probability model and to predict future survival times for male breast cancer patients who were diagnosed in the USA during 1973-2009. Materials and Methods: A random sample of 500 male patients was selected from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. The survival times for the male patients were used to derive the statistical probability model. To measure the goodness of fit tests, the model building criterions: Akaike Information Criteria (AIC), Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC), and Deviance Information Criteria (DIC) were employed. A novel Bayesian method was used to derive the posterior density function for the parameters and the predictive inference for future survival times from the exponentiated Weibull model, assuming that the observed breast cancer survival data follow such type of model. The Markov chain Monte Carlo method was used to determine the inference for the parameters. Results: The summary results of certain demographic and socio-economic variables are reported. It was found that the exponentiated Weibull model fits the male survival data. Statistical inferences of the posterior parameters are presented. Mean predictive survival times, 95% predictive intervals, predictive skewness and kurtosis were obtained. Conclusions: The findings will hopefully be useful in treatment planning, healthcare resource allocation, and may motivate future research on breast cancer related survival issues.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.167-178
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• 2016

This research is to understand the causal relationship between class participation motivation, acting expressiveness and psychological happiness through the class of the college students majoring in acting. For this purpose, the simple random sampling method was used and the college students majoring play and acting in the college located in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do as a sample group and total 499 questionnaires were used. For the questions, 73 questions of which the reliability and validity is examined were used. As for a data processing method, it used the statistical package of IBM STATISTICS SPSS 22 and AMOS 22 and analyzed the results by applying the descriptive statistics analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis and structural equation model. The conclusion of this research is as follows. Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation among the class participation motivation of the college students majoring in acting have a significant effect on all sub factors of acting expressiveness and psychological happiness statically, and a motivation has no effect on it. Both personality and expressive impulse of acting expressiveness have an effect on a psychological happiness, and mobility has no effect on it.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.375-382
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• 2010

The precise effects of protein intake on fractional synthesis rate (FSR) of muscle protein are still under debate. The sample size of these studies was small and the conclusions in young and elderly subjects were inconsistent. To assess the effect of dietary protein intake on the FSR level, we conducted a meta-analysis of controlled protein intake trials. Random-effects models were used to calculate the weighted mean differences (WMDs). Ten studies were included and effects of short-term protein intake were evaluated. In an overall pooled estimate, protein intake significantly increased the FSR (20 trials, 368 participants; WMD: 0.025%/h; 95%CI: 0.019-0.031; P < 0.0001). Meta-regression analysis suggested that the protein dose was positively related to the effect size (regression coefficient = 0.108%/h; 95%CI: 0.035, 0.182; P = 0.009). A subgroup analysis indicated that protein intake significantly increased FSR when the protein dose was ${\leq}$ 0.80 g/kg BW (16 trials, 308 participants; WMD: 0.027%/h; 95%CI: 0.019-0.031; P < 0.0001), but did not affect FSR when the protein dose was > 0.80 g/kg BW (4 trials, 60 participants; WMD: 0.016%/h; 95%CI: 0.004-0.029; P = 0.98). In conclusion, this study is the first integrated results showing that a short-term protein intake is effective at improving the FSR of muscle protein in the healthy elderly as well as young subjects. This beneficial effect seems to be dose-dependent when the dose levels of protein range from 0.08 to 0.80 g/kg BW.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.412-417
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• 2013

Analytical modeling of photovoltaic power systems has been receiving significant attentions in recent years in that it is easy to apply for prediction of its dynamics and fault detection and diagnosis in advanced engineering technologies. This paper presents a novel probabilistic modeling approach for such power systems with a big data sequence. Firstly, we express input/output function of photovoltaic power systems in which solar irradiation and ambient temperature are regarded as input variable and electric power is output variable respectively. Based on this functional relationship, conditional probability for these three random variables(such as irradiation, temperature, and electric power) is mathematically defined and its estimation is accomplished from ratio of numbers of all sample data to numbers of cases related to two input variables, which is efficient in particular for a big data sequence of photovoltaic powers systems. Lastly, we predict the output values from a probabilistic model of photovoltaic power systems by using the expectation theory. Two case studies are carried out for testing reliability of the proposed modeling methodology in this paper.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.676-685
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the factors affecting eating attitude of female undergraduates according to BMI. Methods: A descriptive survey design with a convenience sampling was used and data collection was done using a self-report questionnaire answered by 406 female undergraduates from four universities located in Seoul, Kangwon, Gyeongsangbuk and Chungcheongnam Provinces. ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and hierarchial multiple regression were used the SPSS WIN 17.0 Program to analyze the data. Results: With respect to BMI, the students were found to be in 3 groups, whose differences in eating attitude were significant. Eating attitude had significant positive correlation with height (r=.118, p=.017), weight (r=.267, p<.000), BMI (r=.239, p<.001), and depression (r=.375, p<.001), and negative correlation with subjective well-being (r=-.153, p=.002) and body esteem (r=-.287, p<.001). In the hierarchial multiple regression analysis, college major, height, weight and religion, were controlled. Depression and body esteem regarding weight significantly predicted 40.7% of eating attitude for the underweight group and normal weight group, body esteem: weight and depression were significant predictors for 27.5% of eating attitude for the normal weight group. Body esteem: weight explained 32.6% of eating attitude for the overweight group. Conclusion: Findings of this study allow a comprehensive understanding of eating attitudes and related factors among female undergraduates in Korea. Further study with a larger random sample from various universities is necessary.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.298-312
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• 2020

Purpose: This study had two objectives: 1) to develop a scale for the process of exercise engagement (SPEE) for prediabetic individuals (PDIs); 2) to validate a structural model for the process of exercise engagement for PDIs. Methods: A cross-sectional survey with simple random sampling was conducted from September 2013 to December 2015 (in Taiwan). A total of 310 PDIs were enrolled for scale development and model validation via item analysis, factor analyses, and structural equation modeling. The Kuo model was used as the basis for developing the Chinese version of the SPEE for PDIs. Results: The SPEE contains five subscales with a total of twenty-one items that account for 54.9% to 65.9% of the total variance explained for assessing participants' process of engagement during exercise. For Kuo model validation, the model measures indicated goodness of fit between the Kuo model and sample data. Analysis further revealed a direct effect between the creating health blueprints (CHB) stage and the spontaneous regular exercise (SRE) stage (β=.60). Conclusion: The SPEE includes five subscales for assessing the psychological transition and behavioral expression at each stage of the process of exercise engagement for PDIs. The SPEE for people with prediabetes provides deeper insights into the factors of behavioral change stages that are required to initiate long-term health care outcomes and avoid developing diabetes. These insights are significant as they allow for patient-specific mapping and behavior modification to effect exercise.