• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2015

Purpose: Predicting life expectancy of terminally ill cancer patients is very important. In many studies, ferritin is detected at higher levels in the sera of cancer patients, and higher ferritin level correlates with aggressiveness of disease and poor outcomes of patients. This study evaluated a prognostic role of serum ferritin levels in terminally ill cancer patients. Methods: This study enrolled 65 terminally ill cancer patients from March through June 2012. We assessed routine laboratory findings including serum ferritin levels as well as demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients. To examine the association between serum ferritin levels and patient's characteristics, we used Spearman's correlation analysis, Wilcoxon's rank sum test or Kruskal-Wallis test, as appropriately. For multivariate analysis, Cox's proportional hazard regression model was used to evaluate significance of serum ferritin levels as a prognostic factor. Results: A negative correlation between serum ferritin levels and survival time was found. After adjusting for sex, age, performance status, creatinine levels and white blood cell counts, serum ferritin levels were significantly associated with survival time. Conclusion: Even at the very end of life of terminal cancer patients, serum ferritin levels were an independent prognostic factor for survival.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.310-319
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• 2001

To compare skin irritation and cytotoxicity of anti-wrinkle agents, we examined skin irritation of six anti-wrinkle agents (ascorbic acid, glycolic acid, all trans-retinoic acid, ginseng extract, retinol, EB) in New Zealand white rabbit. Cytotoxicity of these agents was determined by MTT [tetrazolium salt 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide] at multi-time points in cultured HaCaT cell, a human immortalized keratinocyte cell. We then analyzed correlation between skin irritation and cytotoxicity by spearman's rank correlation analysis. All trans-retinoic acid showed the highest primary irritation index (0.92) in skin irritation test. Being all the six agents not irritant, retinal showed the most cytotoxic agents. The correlation between skin irritation and cytotoxicity ($IC_{50}$/ at different time point was 0.814, 0.757, 0.814 and 0.7 at 3, 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively. We also fecund that IC$_{20}$ and IC$_{80}$ of these agents showed similar correlation with skin irritation. These results therefore demonstrated that there is close correlation between skin irritation and cytotoxicity $IC_{50}$/ value by MTT in HaCaT cell at early time points by anti-wrinkle agents or IC$_{20}$ value. $IC_{50}$/ at earily time point or IC$_{20}$ values may be reliable alternative determinant of skin irritation.n.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2020

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the soil chemical properties and soil bacterial community of the cropping system for Cnidium officinale Makino. METHODS AND RESULTS: The bacterial community was analyzed for the relative abundance and principal coordinated analysis (PCoA analysis) by using by Illumina Miseq sequencing. The correlation analysis between soil chemical properties and soil bacterial community were analyzed by Spearman's rank correlation and DISTLM analysis. Soil bacterial community (phylum and class) showed two distinct clusters consisting of cluster 1 (first cropping) and cluster 2 (continuous cropping) from 2 different cultivation methods of Cnidium officinale Makino. PCoA and DISTLM analyses showed that soil pH and Ca significantly affected soil bacterial community in cultivation area of Cnidium officinale Makino. In addition, Spearman's rank correlation showed significant correlation between relative abundance (Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria) and soil factors (soil pH and Ca). CONCLUSION: The results of this study were considered to be important for determining the correlation between soil properties and soil bacterial community of the cropping method for Cnidium officinale Makino. Furthermore, the results will be helpful to investigate the cause of continuous cropping injury of the Cnidium officinale Makino by examining the changes of soil properties and soil bacterial communities.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.2305-2312
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• 2012

Rapid evolutions in recent years related to IT (information technology) which has been exceedingly developed make it possible to utilize its application in broad fields as providing a convenient way to gather and to reuse information. As smart phones have been sporadic nowadays which boost increase of SNS in real-time making more dynamic, it is becoming more worthful as a marketing tool in the field of fashion area. In this study, we have explored some case studies in which they are actively using Facebook. We have selected 10 fashion brands to compare their activities in boards containing 'notice', 'like this', 'people talking about this' and 'event'. We also conduct the correlation analysis between the indicators above, using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. As a consequence, we can confirm that 'notice' highly correlates with 'like this', but we cannot find any other correlations between the other factors. As a reasult, marketing in Facebook is more efficient communication way between the companies and customers than using other current mass media, it shows that SNS in fashion marketing could be an innovative solution to overcome current limitations caused probably by lack of communications.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.155-164
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• 2006

Objectives : The aim of this study is to validate the correlation between Assessment Instruments of Knee OA and digital infrared thermographic imaging(DITI) and to find out the methods to assess knee OA by DITI. Methods : 60 subjects were evaluated. They were asked to answer VAS pain scale, WOMAC, KHAQ and LFI. Correlation was assessed by examining the spearman's rank correlation coefficients. Results : VAS, WOMAC and LFI was correlated with not only the thermal difference between Ant. knee and Post. knee, but also the lowest temperature of Ant. knee. Conclusion: DITI value was useful for evaluating the degree of OA. And we should find out that decrease of pain is correlated with change of DITI value.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.485-493
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• 2017

Rearing knowledge is a significant factor of relevance for rearing practice, and assessment of rearing knowledge and practice is important for infant parents. The author adopted the Child Rearing Knowledge Scale (CRKS) and Child Rearing Practice Scale (CRPS) that were developed and validated by Saramma & Thomas. According to the international linguistic validation process, pilot testing was done based on 20 infant's mothers in one Oketani massage center and one public health center. Descriptive statistic methods and Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test were employed to evaluate the level and compare the mean score according to general characteristics of subjects of the tools. Reliability and validity were tested by Cronbach's alpha and Spearman Correlations. The mean age of the subjects was 33.94 (${\pm}2.99$) years and the mean age of babies was 3.35 (${\pm}0.58$) months. The understanding level of the Korean version of the CRKS and CRPS was 1.80 (${\pm}0.65$) and 1.33 (${\pm}0.54$), respectively. In addition, the CRKS and CRPS were relatively easy to use. The mean score of the CRKS was 22.50 (${\pm}4.89$), which was a moderate score, while the mean score of the CRPS was 30.75 (${\pm}2.04$), which was high. The Cronbach's alpha values of the CRPS were as follows: feeding, 0.71; growth and development, 0.64; cleaning and protection 0.68; infant stimulation, 0.77. There was a significant correlation between infant stimulation of the CRPS and growth and development of the CRKS (r=0.530, p=0.016). The CRKS score of medical staff was significantly higher than that of non-medical staff (p=0.04). The CRKS and CRPS are expected to be used in clinical or community care practice as easy-to-use tools that are easy to respond to.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.31-42
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• 2012

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine the psychological fatigue and analyze muscle activity of production workers who are performing processes jobs while standing for prolonged time periods. Methods: The psychological fatigue experienced by the workers was obtained through questionnaire surveys. Meanwhile, muscle activity has been analyzed using surface electromyography (sEMG) measurement. Lower extremities muscles include: erector spinae, tibialis anterior, and gastrocnemius were concurrently measured for more than five hours of standing. Twenty male production workers in a metal stamping company participated as subjects in this study. The subjects were required to undergo questionnaire surveys and sEMG measurement. Results: Results of the questionnaire surveys found that all subjects experienced psychological fatigue due to prolonged standing jobs. Similarly, muscle fatigue has been identified through sEMG measurement. Based on the non-parametric statistical test using the Spearman's rank order correlation, the left erector spinae obtained a moderate positive correlation and statistically significant ($r_s$ = 0.552, p < 0.05) between the results of questionnaire surveys and sEMG measurement. Conclusion: Based on this study, the authors concluded that prolonged standing was contributed to psychological fatigue and to muscle fatigue among the production workers.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.3284-3292
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to translate QUEST 2.0 in Korean with valid translation process and to measure psychometric characteristics. Translation process was consist of six steps. Internal consistency was analyzed by Cronbach's ${\alpha}$. Test-Retest reliability was analyzed by Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient. Internal consistency of 'Assistive device' was .88, 'Services' .92. There was no statistically significant difference according to repetitive measure. The spearman correlation coefficient was .64 for "Assistive Device" and .66 for "Services". This result reflects K-QUEST 2.0's (Korean-Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction Assistive Technology 2.0) safety, consistency, and predictability in aspect of measure. In this study, the K-QUEST 2.0 was translated into Korean and the reliability of K-QUEST 2.0 was tested. Decisively, the K-QUEST 2.0 can be applied to evaluate user satisfaction of assistive technology.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.545-552
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• 2012

This study evaluated the validity and reliability of applying a newly developed dish-based, semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for Korean diet and cancer research. The subjects in the present study were 288 Korean adults over 30 years of age who had completed two FFQs and four 3-day diet records (DRs) from May 2008 to February 2009. Student's t-tests, Chi-square tests, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were used to estimate and compare intakes from different dietary assessment tools. Agreement in quintiles was calculated to validate agreement between the results of the second FFQ (FFQ-2) conducted in February 2009 and the DRs. Median Spearman's correlation coefficients between the intake of nutrients and foods assessed by the FFQ-1 and FFQ-2 were 0.59 and 0.57, respectively, and the coefficients between the intake of nutrients and foods assessed by the FFQ-2 and the DRs were 0.31 and 0.29, respectively. The quintile classifications of same or adjacent quintile for intake of nutrients and foods were 64% and 65%, respectively. Misclassification into opposite quintiles occurred in less than 5% for all dietary factors. Thus this newly-developed, Korean dish-based FFQ demonstrated moderate correspondence with the four 3-day DRs. Its reliability and validity are comparable to those reported in other studies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.135-141
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• 2009

A variety of statistical methods are applied to model and optimize responses, related to product or system's quality, in terms of control and noise factors at design and manufacturing stages. Most of them assume continuous response variables but, assessing the performance of a product or system often involves categorical observations, such as ratings and scores. Although most previous works to deal with the categorical data provide sorhisticated response models and ensure unbiased outcomes, they require heavy computation to estimate the model parameters, as well as enough replications. In this study, we present some practical approaches for optimal parameter design with ordered categorical response when only a few or no replication is available. Two real-life examples are given to illustrate the presented methods.