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Results of Radiation Therapy for Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Esophagus (식도 편평세포암의 방사선치료 결과)

  • Chun, Ha-Chung;Lee, Myung-Za
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.10-14
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    • 2009
  • Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness and prognostic factors for patients treated with postoperative radiation therapy following surgery or with radiation therapy alone for squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 132 esophageal cancer patients treated with postoperative radiation therapy following surgery or patients who were treated with radiation therapy alone at our institution from 1989 to 2006. Thirty-five patients had stage II disease, 88 patients had stage III disease and nine patients had stage IV disease. Tumors were located at the upper esophagus in 18 patients, the mid esophagus in 81 patients and the distal esophagus in 33 patients. Sixty patients were treated with radiation therapy alone and 72 patients were treated with postoperative radiation therapy following surgery. Eight patients received a dose less than 40 Gy and 78 patients received a dose of 40 to 50 Gy. The remaining 46 patients received a dose of 50 to 60 Gy. The majority of patients who underwent postoperative radiation therapy received a dose of 45 Gy. Results: Actuarial survival rates for all of the patients at two years and five years were 24% and 5%, respectively. The median survival time was 11 months. Survival rates for patients who underwent postoperative RT at two years and five years were 29% and 8%, respectively. The corresponding survival rates for patients who received radiation alone were 18% and 2%, respectively. Survival rates at two years and five years were 43% and 15% for stage II disease, 22% and 2% for stage III disease and 0% and 0% for stage IV disease, respectively; these findings were statistically significant. Two-year survival rates for patients with upper, middle and distal esophageal cancer were 19, 29% and 22%, respectively. Although there was a trend of slightly better survival for middle esophageal tumors, this finding was not statistically significant. Complete response to radiation was achieved in 13 patients (22%) and partial response to radiation was achieved in 40 patients (67%) who received radiation alone. No response to radiation was noted in seven patients (12%). A statistically significant difference in survival rates was seen between patients that had a complete response and patients that had a partial response. Two-year survival rates for patients that had a complete response versus patients that had a partial response were 31% and 17%, respectively. There were no survivors for patients with no response as determined at two-year follow-up. Conclusion: We conclude that radiation therapy is an effective treatment for esophageal cancer. Stage and response to radiation therapy were noted to be prognostic factors. A more effective treatment modality is needed to improve long term survival because of the relatively dismal prognosis for this tumor.

Investigating the Moderating Impact of Hedonism on Online Consumer Behavior (탐색쾌악주의대망상소비자행위적조절작용(探索快乐主义对网上消费者行为的调节作用))

  • Mazaheri, Ebrahim;Richard, Marie-Odile;Laroche, Michel
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.123-134
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    • 2010
  • Considering the benefits for both consumers and suppliers, firms are taking advantage of the Internet as a medium to communicate with and sell products to their consumers. This trend makes the online shopping environment a growing field for both researchers and practitioners. This paper contributes by testing a model of online consumer behavior with websites varying in levels of hedonism. Unlike past studies, we included all three types of emotions (arousal, pleasure, and dominance) and flow into the model. In this study, we assumed that website interfaces, such as background colors, music, and fonts impact the three types of emotions at the initial exposure to the site (Mazaheri, Richard, and Laroche, 2011). In turn, these emotions influence flow and consumers' perceptions of the site atmospherics-perception of site informativeness, effectiveness, and entertainment. This assumption is consistent with Zajonc (1980) who argued that affective reactions are independent of perceptual and cognitive operations and can influence responses. We, then, propose that the perceptions of site atmospherics along with flow, influence customers' attitudes toward the website and toward the product, site involvement, and purchase intentions. In addition, we studied the moderating impact of the level of hedonism of websites on all the relationship in the model. Thus, the path coefficients were compared between "high" and "low" hedonic websites. We used 39 real websites from 12 product categories (8 services and 4 physical goods) to test the model. Among them, 20 were perceived as high hedonic and 19 as low hedonic by the respondents. The result of EQS 6.1 support the overall model: $\chi^2$=1787 (df=504), CFI=.994; RMSEA=.031. All the hypotheses were significant. In addition, the results of multi-groups analyses reveal several non-invariant structural paths between high and low hedonic website groups. The findings supported the model regarding the influence of the three types of emotions on customers' perceptions of site atmospherics, flow, and other customer behavior variables. It was found that pleasure strongly influenced site attitudes and perceptions of site entertainment. Arousal positively impacted the other two types of emotions, perceptions of site informativeness, and site involvement. Additionally, the influence of arousal on flow was found to be highly significant. The results suggested a strong association between dominance and customers' perceptions of site effectiveness. Dominance was also found to be associated with site attitudes and flow. Moreover, the findings suggested that site involvement and attitudes toward the product are the most important antecedents of purchase intentions. Site informativeness and flow also significantly influenced purchase intentions. The results of multi-group analysis supported the moderating impacts of hedonism of the websites. Compared to low (high) hedonic sites, the impacts of utilitarian (hedonic) attributes on other variables were stronger in high (low) hedonic websites. Among the three types of emotions, dominance (controlling feelings) effects were stronger in high hedonic sites and pleasure effects were stronger in low hedonic sites. Moreover, the impact of site informativeness was stronger for high hedonic websites compared to their low-hedonic counterparts. On the other hand, the influence of effectiveness of information on perceptions of site informativeness and the impact of site involvement on product attitudes were stronger for low hedonic websites than for high hedonic ones.

COMPARATIVE STUDY UPON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WRITING BETWEEN THE PATIENTS WITH WRITING DISABILITIES AND NORMAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS (쓰기 장애 환자와 정상 초등학교 학생의 쓰기 특성 비교)

  • Cho, Soo-Churl;Shin, Sung-Woong
    • Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.51-70
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    • 2001
  • Characteristics of handwriting were investigated and compared between the patients with writing disabilities and normal elementary school pupils. Generally, the heights of the letters of the patients were significantly larger than those of normal children, and letters of the patients were more sparsely distributed than those of controls. The distance between the words were significantly reduced in the patients’ writings, which indicated that patients had much more problems of space-leaving than normal pupils. Letter heights differences were significant across all grades in the patients and normal controls. The heights of the letters decreased as they grew older, and the slope of the decrements were more steeper in normal girls(r=-0.45) than girls with writing disabilities(r=-0.16). Sex differences were found in the letter spacings in low grades(grades 1, 2), that is, the distances between the letters were significantly narrower in the male patients than normal boys in these grades, and the differences were almost indiscriminating in grades 3 through 5, and finally, in sixth grade, letter spacings were signifycantly broader in normal boys than male dysgraphics. In girls, letter spacings were significantly broader in the patients across all grades. These findings supports the hypothesis that male and female writings were qualitatively different and that distinct mechanisms served in boys and girls dysgraphics. Across all grades and sexes, spaces between the words of the patients were significantly broader than normal pupils, which suggested that space-leaving between the words was important in Korean writings. There was trend that letter spacings and word spacings decreased across grades, but in girls, no correlations between the letter spacings and grades were found. Correlation analyses revealed that letter heights and letter spacings had mild correlation(r=0.11-0.15), and that letter spacings and word spacings had robust correlation(r=0.99). Phonological errors were mostly found in last phoneme(Jong-seong), especially double-phoneme(ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅀ, ㅄ), and in the case the sound values changed due to assimilations of phonemes. Semantic errors were rare in both groups. Space-leaving errors were correlated with phonological errors, and more frequent in boys than girls. In conclusion, significant differences existed in the letter heights, letter spacings, word spacings, and frequencies of phonological errors and spaceleaving errors between the patients with writing disabilities and normal pupils. The characteristics of writings changed across grades and the developmental profiles were somewhat quantitatively different between the groups. The differences became obvious from the second-third grades.

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Drumming bioacoustics of woodpeckers in South Korea (한국에 서식하는 딱다구리목 드러밍의 생물음향학적 특성 연구)

  • Ki, Kyong-Seok;Hong, Suk-Hwan;Gim, Ji-Yeun
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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    • v.28 no.4
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    • pp.404-410
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    • 2014
  • In this study, we conducted an analysis of the drumming bioacoustics of three woodpeckers typical to South Korea. The targeted species were, from largest to smallest in size, the Black Woodpecker(Dryocopus martius), the Great Spotted Woodpecker(Dendrocopos major) and the Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker(Dendrocopos Kizuki). The drumming sounds of these three species of woodpeckers were recorded and analyzed. Sound recordings were taken in the Guryongsa Valley, Chiaksan National Park and on the campus of Sangji University, Wonju City, South Korea. Drumming recordings were obtained in the following manner. As researchers walked along trails in the investigation areas, when woodpecker drumming sounds were indicated, positive identification of the species was made using binoculars then the recording of the drumming sound was started. The average time per drumming, in seconds, was Black Woodpecker(D. martius) 1.614 seconds, Great Spotted Woodpecker(D. major) 0.683 seconds and Japanese Pygmy woodpecker(D. Kizuki) 0.200 seconds. The average number of strikes for each drumming was Black Woodpecker(D. martius) 31.2 times, Great Spotted Woodpecker(D. major) 14.9 times and Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker(D. Kizuki) 6.7 times. The strike speed, in strikes/sec, for each species was the Black Woodpecker(D. martius)19.3strikes/sec, the Great Spotted Woodpecker(D. major) 21.8strikes/sec and Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker(D. Kizuki)33.3strikes/sec. The frequency of drumming, in Hertz, was Black Woodpecker(D. martius) 776.9Hz, Great Spotted Woodpecker (D. major) 1,213.8Hz and Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker(D. Kizuki) 826.0Hz. In interpreting this data, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used and it was determined that there was a significant statistical difference between species in drumming duration, time and interval of striking. The findings support that the bigger the biomass of the woodpecker, the longer the drumming duration and striking time. However, the smaller the size of the woodpecker, the faster the strike speed. A correlation between body type size and drumming characteristics was clearly identified. As for strike frequency, measured in Hertz, the medium sized Great Spotted Woodpecker's (D. major) frequency was high whereas the Black Woodpecker(D. martius) and Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker's(D. Kizuki) frequency was similar. A clear trend in reference to body size on this measure does not exist.

Interannual Variation of the TOMS Total Ozone and Reflectivity over the Globe (전지구에 대한 TOMS 오존전량과 반사율의 경년 변화)

  • Yoo, Jung-Moon;Jeon, Won-Sun
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.21 no.6
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    • pp.703-718
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    • 2000
  • In order to investigate interannual variation of total ozone and reflectivity over the globe, Nimbus-7/TOMS data were used on the monthly mean and its anomaly for the period of 1979-92. This study also examined MSU channel 4(Ch4; lower-stratosphere) brightness temperature data and two model reanalyses of NCEP and GEOS to compare the ozone variation with atmospheric thermal condition. In addition, the MSU channel 1(Ch1 ; lower-troposphere) brightness temperature was used to compare with the reflectivity. The ozone showed strong annual cycle with downward trend(-6.3${\pm}$0.6 DU/decade) over the globe, and more distinct response to volcanic eruption than El Ni${\tilde{n}$o. The relationship between total ozone and MSU Ch4 observation, and between the ozone and model reanalyses of lower stratosphere temperature showed positive correlation(0.2-0.7) during the period of 1980-92. Reflectivity increased interannually by 0.2${\pm}$0.06%/decade over the globe during the above period and reflected El Ni${\tilde{n}$o(1982-83, 1991-92) well. Its variability in annual cycle was remarkably smaller in tropics than in higher latitudes. This is inferred due to cloud suppression and tropical upwelling regions. Reflectivity correlated negatively(-0.9) to the Ch1 temperature over the globe, but positively(0.2) over tropical ocean. The positive value over the ocean results from the effect of microwave emissivity which increases the Ch1 temperature with enhanced hydrometeor activity. Significant correlations between total ozone and the Ch4 temperature, and between reflectivity and the Ch1 Suggest that the TOMS data may use valuably to better understand the feedback mechanism of climate change.

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Generation of Pseudo Porosity Logs from Seismic Data Using a Polynomial Neural Network Method (다항식 신경망 기법을 이용한 탄성파 탐사 자료로부터의 유사공극률 검층자료 생성)

  • Choi, Jae-Won;Byun, Joong-Moo;Seol, Soon-Jee
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.32 no.6
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    • pp.665-673
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    • 2011
  • In order to estimate the hydrocarbon reserves, the porosity of the reservoir must be determined. The porosity of the area without a well is generally calculated by extrapolating the porosity logs measured at wells. However, if not only well logs but also seismic data exist on the same site, the more accurate pseudo porosity log can be obtained through artificial neural network technique by extracting the relations between the seismic data and well logs at the site. In this study, we have developed a module which creates pseudo porosity logs by using the polynomial neural network method. In order to obtain more accurate pseudo porosity logs, we selected the seismic attributes which have high correlation values in the correlation analysis between the seismic attributes and the porosity logs. Through the training procedure between selected seismic attributes and well logs, our module produces the correlation weights which can be used to generate the pseudo porosity log in the well free area. To verify the reliability and the applicability of the developed module, we have applied the module to the field data acquired from F3 Block in the North Sea and compared the results to those from the probabilistic neural network method in a commercial program. We could confirm the reliability of our module because both results showed similar trend. Moreover, since the pseudo porosity logs from polynomial neural network method are closer to the true porosity logs at the wells than those from probabilistic method, we concluded that the polynomial neural network method is effective for the data sets with insufficient wells such as F3 Block in the North Sea.

Standardization of Manufacturing Process and Storage Condition for Pre-processed Foodstuffs (Pre-processed Namul: Peeled Balloon Flower Roots and Parboiled Bracken) (전처리 나물류(깐 도라지, 데친 고사리)의 제조공정 및 유통 중 저장조건의 표준화를 위한 연구)

  • Park, Sunhyun;Noh, Boyoung;Han, Kyujai
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.41 no.11
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    • pp.1611-1618
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    • 2012
  • Peeled balloon flower roots and parboiled bracken are pre-processed foodstuffs commonly used in the institutional food service. This study was conducted to establish the suitable manufacturing process for these foodstuffs and the optimal storage condition during distribution in the market. The most suitable manufacturing process was developed by surveying the manufacturing factories that produce these foodstuffs. Samples were collected by selecting a site among the surveyed manufacturing factories and storing them at different temperatures (4, 10, $20^{\circ}C$). The resulting changes in microbiological, physicochemical, and organoleptic qualities depending on the storage period (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10 days) were investigated. The number of general bacteria in balloon flower roots at the beginning of the storage period was 5.26 log CFU/g and the number in the $4^{\circ}C$ storage group remained unchanged until the $3^{rd}$ day, but then increased to 7.63 log CFU/g at the $4^{th}$ day, and then gradually increased up to the $7^{th}$ day. However, in the 10 and $20^{\circ}C$ storage groups, the number was rapidly increased to 7.42 log CFU/g and 7.86 log CFU/g, respectively, at the $2^{nd}$ day. The parboiled bracken samples presented a similar trend. For physicochemical quality changes, the pH and hardness were rapidly decreased in the $20^{\circ}C$ storage group. The organoleptic quality was favorably evaluated (5~6 points out of 9 points) up to the $5^{th}$ day in the $4^{\circ}C$ storage group but the overall acceptability was rapidly decreased from the $2^{nd}$ day in the other storage temperature groups. These results confirmed the optimal storage condition for these pre-processed foodstuffs as being less than 3 days at $4^{\circ}C$.

The Minimal Range of a Lymphadenectomy in Gastric Cancer according to an Analysis of Sentinel Lymph Node and Solitary Lymph Node Metastasis (위암 환자에서 감시 림프절 및 고립 림프절 전이에 근거한 최소 림프절 절제에 대한 재고)

  • Hwang Ho Kyoung;Hyung Woo Jin;Choi Seung Ho;Noh Sung Hoon
    • Journal of Gastric Cancer
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    • v.4 no.4
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    • pp.272-276
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    • 2004
  • Purpose: The incidence of nodal metastases is as low as 2 to $20\%$ in early gastric cancer, so there is a trend to lessen the extent of surgery. In addition, the adequate range for a lymphadenectomy is controversial, especially in early gastric cancer. In this study, we tried to find the minimal range for a lymphadenectomy by analyzing sentinel-node and solitary lymph-node metastases in gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: The total of 78 patients who underwent a curative gastrectomy with a D2 lymphadenectomy for early gastric cancer between 2000 and 2002 in the Department of Surgery, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, were included for the evaluation of sentinel-node metastases.. After a laparotomy, 25 mg of indocyanine green was mixed in 5 ml of normal saline, and all the dye was injected into the subserosal layer around the primary tumor. All nodes stained within 5 minutes were marked. In addition, a total of 141 patients, who underwent a curative gastrectomy between 1997 and 2001 at the Department of Surgery, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, were analyzed for solitary lymph- node metastases. Results: Among the 78 patients, sentinel nodes were detected in 69 patients ($88.5\%$). The sentinel nodes in 60 cases ($87.0\%$) were located in the perigastric area. However, 9 cases ($13.0\%$) had sentinel nodes in the N2 group. In the 141 cases that had a solitary metastatic node, 125 cases ($88.6\%$) demonstrated the metastatic lymph node in the perigastric area, and 16 cases ($11.4\%$) showed that the metastatic node in the N2 group. Conclusion: Taken together, removal of a perigastric lymph node could miss early metastases in gastric cancer, so a D1 lymphadenectomy should not be the minimal range of dissection if a lymphadenectomy is necessary. (J Korean Gastric Cancer Assoc 2004;4:272-276)

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The Impacts of Smoking Bans on Smoking in Korea (금연법 강화가 흡연에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Beomsoo;Kim, Ahram
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.31 no.2
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    • pp.127-153
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    • 2009
  • There is a growing concern about potential harmful effect of second-hand or environmental tobacco smoking. As a result, smoking bans in workplace become more prevalent worldwide. In Korea, workplace smoking ban policy become more restrictive in 2003 when National health enhancing law was amended. The new law requires all office buildings larger than 3,000 square meters (multi-purpose buildings larger than 2,000 square meters) should be smoke free. Therefore, a lot of indoor office became non smoking area. Previous studies in other counties often found contradicting answers for the effects of workplace smoking ban on smoking behavior. In addition, there was no study in Korea yet that examines the causal impacts of smoking ban on smoking behavior. The situation in Korea might be different from other countries. Using 2001 and 2005 Korea National Health and Nutrition surveys which are representative for population in Korea we try to examine the impacts of law change on current smoker and cigarettes smoked per day. The amended law impacted the whole country at the same time and there was a declining trend in smoking rate even before the legislation update. So, the challenge here is to tease out the true impact only. We compare indoor working occupations which are constrained by the law change with outdoor working occupations which are less impacted. Since the data has been collected before (2001) and after (2005) the law change for treated (indoor working occupations) and control (outdoor working occupations) groups we will use difference in difference method. We restrict our sample to working age (between 20 and 65) since these are the relevant population by the workplace smoking ban policy. We also restrict the sample to indoor occupations (executive or administrative and administrative support) and outdoor occupations (sales and low skilled worker) after dropping unemployed and someone working for military since it is not clear whether these occupations are treated group or control group. This classification was supported when we examined the answers for workplace smoking ban policy existing only in 2005 survey. Sixty eight percent of indoor occupations reported having an office smoking ban policy compared to forty percent of outdoor occupation answering workplace smoking ban policy. The estimated impacts on current smoker are 4.1 percentage point decline and cigarettes per day show statistically significant decline of 2.5 cigarettes per day. Taking into account consumption of average sixteen cigarettes per day among smokers it is sixteen percent decline in smoking rate which is substantial. We tested robustness using the same sample across two surveys and also using tobit model. Our results are robust against both concerns. It is possible that our measure of treated and control group have measurement error which will lead to attenuation bias. However, we are finding statistically significant impacts which might be a lower bound of the true estimates. The magnitude of our finding is not much different from previous finding of significant impacts. For cigarettes per day previous estimates varied from 1.37 to 3.9 and for current smoker it showed between 1%p and 7.8%p.

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Radiation Exposure on Radiation Workers of Nuclear Power Plants in Korea : 2009-2013 (국내 원전 종사자의 방사선량 : 2009-2013)

  • Lim, Young-khi
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.40 no.3
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    • pp.162-167
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    • 2015
  • Although the perfomance indicators of the nuclear power plants in Korea show optimal, it requires detailed analysis and discussion centered on the radiation dose. As analysis methods, analysis on the radiation dose of nuclear power plants over the past five years was assessed by comparing the relevant radiation dose of radiation workers and per capita average annual radiation dose of the world's major nuclear power stations was also analyzed. The radiation workers over the annual radiation dose limit of 50 mSv were not. The contrast ratio of the radiation exposure according to the reactor type was the normal operation of PHWR was 6.2% higher than those of the PWR. This shows the radiation work of PHWR during normal driving operation is much more than those of PWR. According to the Performance Indicators of the World Association of Nuclear Operator, the annual radiation dose per unit in 2013 showed 527 man-mSv of Korea is the best country among the major nuclear power generating states, the world average was 725 man-mSv. The annual per capita radiation dose is about 80% less than 1 mSv of the public dose limit and also the average per capita dose showed a very low level as 0.82 mSv. Workers in related organizations showed 1.07 mSv, the non-destructive inspection agency workers showed 3.87 mSv. The remarkable results were due to radiation reduced program such as development of radiation shielding and radiation protection. In conclusion, the radiation exposured dose of nuclear power plants workers in Korea showed a trend which is ideally reduced. But more are expected to be difficul and the psychological insecurity against the operation of the nuclear power plants is existed to the residents near the nuclear power plants. So the radiation dose reduction policy and radiation dose follow up study of nuclear power plants will be continously excuted.