• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.815-828
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was to develop and evaluate the clinical utility of the breast and ovarian cancer genetic counselling program specific for 20 Korean women(KBOCGP). Methods: The KBOCGP was developed using three types of approaches: an ethnography among Korean women who underwent BRCA1/2 test, designing and implementing one week clinical genetic educational course for clinical cancer nurses, educational observation visits to three American cancer genetic counselling programs. And then pre-experimental design was implicated to evaluate the change of the women's knowledge about the hereditary breast and ovarian cancer and the level of the satisfaction with genetic counselling. Results: The mean score of the knowledge has significantly increased from $7.45{\pm}3.86$ to $11.55{\pm}2.21$ (t = 5.63, p < .001). The level of the satisfaction with the counselling was very high ($27.47{\pm}1.35$). Because most of the subjects have young kids, they showed strong concerns about their kids' getting cancer. Conclusion: This new KBOCGP is the satisfactory program for the education and communication of the genetic information to the Korean women with HBOC. But it is needed more to strengthen the cultural sensitivity especially to Korean family relationships. Authors recommend that this program be provided by other nurses who are counselling women at high risk of breast cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.6121-6125
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• 2013

Background: Endometrial cancers are the most common gynecologic cancers. Endometrial sampling is a preferred procedure for diagnosis of the endometrial pathology. It is performed routinely in many clinics prior to surgery in order to exclude an endometrial malignancy. We aimed to investigate the accuracy of endometrial sampling in the diagnosis of endometrial pathologies and which findings need intra-operative frozen sections. Materials and Methods: Three hundred nine women applying to a university hospital and undergoing endometrial sampling and hysterectomy between 2010 and 2012 were included to this retrospective study. Data were retrieved from patient files and pathology archives. Results: There was 17 patients with malignancy but endometrial sampling could detect this in only 10 of them. The endometrial sampling sensitivity and specificity of detecting cancer were 58.8% and 100%, with negative and positive predictive values of 97.6%, and 100%, respectively. In 7 patients, the endometrial sampling failed to detect malignancy; 4 of these patients had a preoperative diagnosis of complex atypical endometrial hyperplasia and 2 patients had a post-menopausal endometrial polyps and 1 with simple endometrial hyperplasia. Conclusions: There is an increased risk of malignancy in post-menopausal women especially with endometrial polyps and complex atypia hyperplasia. Endometrial sampling is a good choice for the diagnosis of endometrial pathologies. However, the diagnosis should be confirmed by frozen section in patients with post-menopausal endometrial polyps and complex atypia hyperplasia.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.4847-4851
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• 2013

Objectives: To evaluate accuracy of FDG-PET CT in prediction of persistent disease in head and neck cancer cases and to determine prognostic value of metabolic tumor response. Materials and Methods: Between 2009 and 2011, 46 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck receiving PET-CT were treated with definitive radiotherapy, with or without chemotherapy. There were 29 nasopharyngeal, 11 hypopharyngeal, 3 oropharyngeal and 3 laryngeal cancer patients, with a median age of 50.5 years (range 16-84), 32 males and 14 females. All patients were evaluated with PET-CT median 3-5 months (2.4-9.4) after completion of radiotherapy. Results: After a median 20 months of follow up, complete metabolic response was observed in 63% of patients. Suspicious residual uptake was present in 10.9% and residual metabolic uptake in 26.0% of patients. The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of FDG-PET-CT for detection of residual disease was 91% and 81%, 64% and 96% respectively. Two year LRC was 95% in complete responders while it was 34% in non-complete responders. Conclusions: FDG PET CT is a valuable tool for assessment of treatment response, especially in patients at high risk of local recurrence, and also as an indicator of prognosis. Definitely more precise criteria are required for assessment of response, there being no clear cut uptake value indicating residual disease. Futhermore, repair processes of normal tissue may consume glucose which appear as increased uptake in control FDG PET CT.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.59-67
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• 1993

The variations of the natural frequencies and the peak response acceleration at the top of prestressed concrete reactor building due to random variability and/or model uncertainty of structural parameters are studied. The results may be used as essential input parameters in seismic probabilistic risk assessment or seismic margin assessment of the reactor building. The sensitivity test of each structural parameter is first performed to determine the most influential parameter upon the natural frequency of structure model. Then Monte Carlo simulation technique is applied to evaluate the effect of parameter variation on the natural frequencies and the peak response acceleration. The acceleration time history is obtained by direct integration scheme. As the study results, it is found that the fundamental natural frequency and the peak response acceleration at the top of the building are most strongly affected by Young's modulus among the structural parameters, in which the value of mean plus one standard deviation obtained by probabilistic approach deviates up to about (+)12% from the result of deterministic method. Considering the uncertainty of flexural rigidity, the structural responses vary in range of (-)4%~(+)14%.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1053-1065
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate radiation safety education, knowledge and practice of dental hygienists in using handheld portable intraoral X-ray equipment and to suggest the need for radiation safety education in using handheld portable intraoral X-ray equipment. Methods: We surveyed 223 dental hygienists from July, 2017 to August in the dental clinics of Daejeon, Seoul and Gyeonggi area. Results: Radiation safety educational experience was higher in a year's career (72.9%), than 3 years experience (32.5%) (p<0.05). 82.7% of dental clinic workers took university education for radiation safety education while 55.6% of dental hospital workers took company training (p<0.05). More than 70% of the subjects did not have experience of radiation safety education about using portable intraoral X-ray. Radiation safety knowledge was highest in a year's career (p<0.05). The cumulative dose, radiation sensitivity, and lead defense knowledge were high in all subjects, but knowledge related to scattering radiation and scattering radiation sources was low. Practice of portable intraoral X-ray safety was significantly lower than knowledge. Conclusions: Knowledge of portable intraoral radiography safety is available, but performance is poor. Even with the small amount of radiation exposure, the risk is perceivable. There is a need to actively utilize the provided radiation protection products. In order to do this, efforts should be made to improve knowledge and performance of radiation safety through not only college education but also postemployment training.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.266-275
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• 2020

Purpose: The outcome predictors of Kasai portoenterostomy (KPE) for biliary atresia (BA) are controversial. This study aimed to identify possible short-term outcome predictors of KPE for BA in infants. Methods: This retrospective study included infants with BA who underwent KPE between January 2015 and December 2017 and were followed up for at least 6 months after surgery at the Pediatric Hepatology Unit, Cairo University Pediatric Hospital, Egypt. The short-term outcome was jaundice clearance within 6 months following surgery. All data were compared between the jaundice free group and those with persistent jaundice to identify the predictors of jaundice clearance. Results: The study included 75 infants. The mean age at the time of surgery was 82.43±22.77 days (range, 37-150 days), and 28 (37.3%) infants cleared their jaundice within 6 months postoperative. Age at surgery did not significantly affect the outcome (p=0.518). Infants with persistent jaundice had significantly higher pre-operative levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) than those who were jaundice free (p=0.041). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that preoperative AST ≤180 IU/L was predictive of a successful KPE, with sensitivity 74.5% and specificity 60.7%. Infants with bile plugs in liver biopsy had a 6-fold higher risk of persistent jaundice than those without bile plugs (95% confidence interval: 1.59-20.75, p=0.008). Conclusion: Jaundice clearance after KPE for BA can be predicted using preoperative AST and presence of bile plugs in liver biopsy.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.413-418
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• 2008

Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the associations between the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and inflammatory markers. Methods: This cross-sectional analysis was performed using data from 1578 Koreans aged 40-69 years residing in a rural area. We investigated associations between MetS and circulating high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), white blood cells (WBC) and adiponectin. MetS was defined using the criteria proposed by the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP-III). Results: Increased WBC counts and hs-CRP levels and decreased adiponectin levels were observed in subjects with MetS. WBC, hs-CRP and adiponectin levels linearly deteriorated with an increase in the number of MetS components (all ptrend <0.005). Finally, adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for the risk of MetS by increase/decrease in 3 inflammatory markers were calculated by multivariate logistic regression analyses. In terms of changes in inflammation markers, in men, the adjusted ORs (95% confidence interval) were 1.15 (1.01-1.31) for WBC, 1.64 (1.02-2.64) for hs-CRP, and 0.19(0.08-0.45) for adiponectin, whereas corresponding adjusted ORs (95% Cls) in women were 1.27 (1.15-1.40), 0.98 (0.67-1.42), 0.09 (0.04-0.18), respectively. Conclusions: Serum adiponectin levels and WBC counts were found to be strongly associated with MetS in both sexes. However, hs-CRP lost its significance after adjusting for BMI and other inflammatory markers in women. This study shows that inflammatory response is associated with MetS in the Korean population. Further prospective studies are necessary to confirm the contribution made by inflammatory markers to the development of MetS.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.681-690
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• 2013

Watershed models have been increasingly used to support an integrated management of land and water, non-point source pollutants, and implement total daily maximum load policy. However, these models demand a great amount of input data, process parameters, a proper calibration, and sometimes result in significant uncertainty in the simulation results. For this reason, uncertainty analysis is necessary to minimize the risk in the use of the models for an important decision making. The objectives of this study were to evaluate three different uncertainty analysis algorithms (SUFI-2: Sequential Uncertainty Fitting-Ver.2, GLUE: Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation, ParaSol: Parameter Solution) that used to analyze the sensitivity of the SWAT(Soil and Water Assessment Tool) parameters and auto-calibration in a watershed, evaluate the uncertainties on the simulations of runoff and sediment load, and suggest alternatives to reduce the uncertainty. The results confirmed that the parameters which are most sensitive to runoff and sediment simulations were consistent in three algorithms although the order of importance is slightly different. In addition, there was no significant difference in the performance of auto-calibration results for runoff simulations. On the other hand, sediment calibration results showed less modeling efficiency compared to runoff simulations, which is probably due to the lack of measurement data. It is obvious that the parameter uncertainty in the sediment simulation is much grater than that in the runoff simulation. To decrease the uncertainty of SWAT simulations, it is recommended to estimate feasible ranges of model parameters, and obtain sufficient and reliable measurement data for the study site.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.179-183
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• 2009

Prevalence rates reported for malaria in pregnancy in Nigeria vary considerably. The accuracy of results of malaria diagnosis is dependent on training, experience, and motivation of the microscopist as well as the laboratory facility available. Results of training programmes on malaria microscopy have shown low levels of sensitivity and specificity of those involved in malaria diagnosis routinely and for research. This study was done to ascertain the true prevalence of malaria in pregnancy in Lagos, South-West Nigeria. A total of 1,084 pregnant women were recruited into this study. Blood smears stained with Giemsa were used for malaria diagnosis by light microscopy. Malaria infection during pregnancy presents mostly as asymptomatic infection. The prevalence of malaria in this population was 7.7% (95% confidence interval; 6.2-9.4%). Factors identified to increase the risk of malaria infection include young maternal age (<20 years), and gravidity (primigravida). In conclusion, this study exposes the over-diagnosis of malaria in pregnancy and the need for training and retraining of laboratory staffs as well as establishing the malaria diagnosis quality assurance programme to ensure the accuracy of malaria microscopy results at all levels.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.306-312
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• 2016

Microalgae are the potential bioindicators of environmental changes, for the environmental risk assessment as well as to set limits for toxic chemical release in the aquatic environment. Here, we evaluated the effects of two endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), namely bisphenol A (BPA) and Aroclor 1016, on the green algae Tetraselmis suecica, diatom Ditylum brightwellii, and dinoflagellate Prorocentrum minimum. Each species showed wide different sensitivity ranges when exposed to these two EDCs; the 72 h effective concentration ($EC_{50}$) for these test species showed that Aroclor 1016 was more toxic than BPA. $EC_{50}$ values for the diatom D. birghtwellii were calculated at 0.037 mg/L for BPA and 0.002 mg/L for Aroclor 1016, representing it was the most sensitive when compared to the other species. In addition, these results suggest that these EDC discharge beyond these concentrations into the aquatic environments may cause harmful effect to these marine species.