• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.472-485
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• 2019

Purpose: This study aimed to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of an adapted health literacy self-management intervention for elderly cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Methods: The intervention in this study was systematically developed through the six stages of Intervention Mapping Protocol and was based on Fransen et al's causal pathway model. A quasi-experimental trial was conducted on a total of 52 elderly patients (26 in an experimental group and 26 in a control group) undergoing chemotherapy in Korea. The intervention consisted of seven sessions over 5 weeks. The experimental tool for this study was an adapted health literacy self-management intervention, which was designed to promote a reduction in the symptom experience and distress of elderly cancer patients through the promotion of self-management behavior. To develop efficient educational materials, the participants' health literacy was measured. To educate participants, clear communication and the teach-back method were used. In addition, for the improvement of self-efficacy, four sources were utilized. For the promotion of self-management behavior, five self-management skills were strengthened. Data were collected before and after the intervention from June 4 to September 14, 2018. The data were analyzed with SPSS/WIN 21.0. Results: Following the intervention, self-management knowledge and behavior and, self-efficacy significantly improved in experimental group. Symptom experience and distress decreased in the experimental group compared to the control group. Conclusion: The self-management intervention presented in this study was found to be effective in increasing self-management knowledge and behavior and, self-efficacy, and ultimately in reducing symptom experience and distress for elderly patients undergoing chemotherapy.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.1573-1582
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• 2011

Risk of lung cancer among lung-related diseases has gradually increased during last decades. The chest digital radiography is the primary diagnosis method for lung cancer. Diagnosing lung cancer using this method requires doctors of ripe experience. Despite their experience there are often wrong diagnoses, which decrease early diagnosis and survival rates of patients. The aim of this study was intended to establish the base on the Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) by analyzing Image Recognition Algorithm using Principle component Analysis (PCA) and diagnosing patient's chest X-ray image. The database obtained through this approach enables a doctor to significantly reduce misdiagnosis during the early diagnosis stage, if he or she utilizes it as the preliminary reading step. Case studies were carried out using normal organ, and organs suffering from bronchogenic carcinoma and granuloma. A normal image and unique disease images were extracted after PCA analysis, and their cross-recognition efficiency were compared each other. The result revealed that the recognition rate was much high between normal and disease images, but relatively low between two disease images. In order to increase the recognition efficiency among chest diseases the related algorithms have to be developed continuously in the future study, and such effort will establish the resolute base for CAD.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.99-105
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• 2008

Purpose: In terminally ill cancer patients, accurate prediction of survival is necessary for clinical and ethical reasons, especially in helping to avoid harm, discomfort and inappropriate therapies and in planning specific care strategies. The aim of the study was to investigate prognostic factor of dying patients. Methods: We enrolled the terminal cancer patients from Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital from 2004 until their death. We observed symptoms shown in dying patients and assess 17 common symptoms shown in terminally ill cancer patients, performance status, pain and analgesic use. Results: Average period from hospitalization to death was 11.7 days. The most important prognostic factor is performance status (KPS), average KPS at enrollment is 48% and at last 48 hours is 25%. Physical symptoms that have significant prognostic importance are poor oral intake, weakness, constipation, decreased Karnofsky performance status, bed sore, edema, jaundice, dry mouth, dyspnea. Dying patients showed markedly decreased systolic blood pressure, cyanosis, drowsiness, abnormal respiration, death rattle frequently at 48 hours before death. Conclusion: If we assess the symptoms more carefully, we can predict the more accurate prognosis. The communication about the prognostic information will influence the personal therapeutic decision and specific care planning.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.21-33
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• 2016

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is still used in certain areas of tropics and subtropics to control malaria and other insect-transmitted diseases. DDT and its metabolites have been extensively studied for their toxicity and carcinogenicity in animals and humans and shown to have an endocrine disrupting potential affecting reproductive system although the effects may vary among animal species in correlation with exposure levels. Epidemiologic studies revealed either positive or negative associations between exposure to DDT and tumor development, but there has been no clear evidence that DDT causes cancer in humans. In experimental animals, tumor induction by DDT has been shown in the liver, lung, and adrenals. The mechanisms of hepatic tumor development by DDT have been studied in rats and mice. DDT is known as a non-genotoxic hepatocarcinogen and has been shown to induce microsomal enzymes through activation of constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) and to inhibit gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) in the rodent liver. The results from our previously conducted 4-week and 2-year feeding studies of p,p'-DDT in F344 rats indicate that DDT may induce hepatocellular eosinophilic foci as a result of oxidative DNA damage and leads them to hepatic neoplasia in combination with its mitogenic activity and inhibitory effect on GJIC. Oxidative stress could be a key factor in hepatocarcinogenesis by DDT.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.67-73
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• 2007

To make ones life meaningful is one of human's most valuable goal. Nevertheless, for cancer patients who are in the last phase of their lives obtaining this goal may be threatened by physical, psychological, and social difficulties. Music therapy ran be utilized to effectively fill in these physical, psychological, and social needs. In the form of a creative art, music therapy can be effective in easing the pain and tension as well as assisting the patient to discover meanings of life through psychological comfort. Further, music is itself a verbal/non-verbal communication tool and thus connects the patients with their families with understanding and sympathy. This study aims to examine the need and role of music therapy in hospice.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.143-150
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• 2006

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to identify the actual conditions and needs of the health care utilization and health information in deafs. Methods: Forty-one deaf volunteers were interviewed by suwha nursing students. The semi-structured interviews were conducted in sign language at homes and community centers. The instrument developed by researchers consisted of 22 items including demographic information, health care utilization, and open-ended questions. Data were analyzed using content analysis, frequency and percentage. Results: The most discomfort problems were communication difficulty and expression of symptom. The deaf people wanted to learn about diseases and symptoms. The deaf wanted to get information about cancer. Conclusions: Further studies focusing on educational intervention are needed to increase the knowledge level on disease of deaf. The sign language translators are needed to help communication for deaf in health care facilities.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.733-738
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• 2020

In the recent years, the development of coastal zone has been advancing, and the chance of leisure activity has increased near the sea. However, the destruction of ozone layer has resulted in an increase in the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth surface. The human body is harmfully influenced as skin cancer and eye damage by ultraviolet radiation. Especially, the effect of ultraviolet radiation on beach is higher than that inland area due to the reflection from the sand. This study is expected to use basic data on the method of measuring ultraviolet reflections on east coast beaches using remote sensing.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.130-134
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• 2018

Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) is considered as recent technology for the detection cancer cells in the human digestive system. WCE sends the captured information from inside the body to a sensor on the skin surface through a wireless medium. In WCE, the design of low-power consumption devices is a challenging topic. In the Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem, the number of samples should be at least twice the highest transmission frequency to reconstruct precise signals. The number of samples is proportional to the power consumption in wireless communication. This paper proposes compressive sensing as a method to reduce power consumption in WCE, by means of a trade-off between samples and reconstruction accuracy. The proposed scheme is validated under channel constraints, expressed as the realistic human body path loss. The results show that the proposed scheme achieves a significant reduction in WCE power consumption and achieves a faster computation time with low signal error reconstruction.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.135-143
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• 2021

End-of-life patients experience physical, mental, social, and existential distress. While medical personnel provide medication and care to alleviate patients' distress, listening to and interacting with patients remains essential for understanding their psychological condition. The most important tool, though difficult to implement in practice, is end-of-life discussion (EOLD). EOLD has been shown to have positive effects on end-of-life treatment choices, achievement of patients' life goals, improvements in the quality of life of patients and their families, and the prevention of depression and complicated grief among bereaved family members. EOLD is not often undertaken in clinical practice, however, due to hesitancy among medical personnel and patients for various reasons. In order to conduct an EOLD, the patient's judgment, psychiatric illnesses such as delirium and depression, and psychological issues such as the side effects of psychotropic drugs, denial, and collusion must be evaluated. Open and honest conversation, treatment goal setting, the doctor's familiarity with the patient's background, and attentiveness when providing information are important elements for any dialogue. Meaning-centered psychotherapy was developed to alleviate the existential distress of cancer patients, and its application may promote EOLD. The future development of meaning-centered psychotherapy in practice and in research is expected to further promote EOLD.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.297-305
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• 1997

A new serum-free defined medium was developed that supports the growth of normal rat mammary epithelial cells. Mammary organoids from the glands of female F344 rats were cultured in a serum-free medium. Monolayer culture colonies developed within a week and remained viable for months in culture. Upon subculture of one-week-old primary colonies, almost the same morphology of colonies was developed. The scrape loading/dye transfer technique showed that most of colonies that developed in a serum-free medium containing EGF, human transferrin, insulin, and hydrocortisone (basal serum-free medium, BSFM) failed to show cell-cell communication. However, colonies cultured in BSFM supplemented with prolactin, $E_2$, and progesterone (complete hormone serum-free medium, CHSFM) showed cell-cell communication at 14 days of primary culture or of subculture. By flow cytometry with FITCPNA and PE-anti-Thy-1.1 monoclonal antibody, we distinguished four RMEC subpopulations in cultures in both media: Thy-1.1+ cells, PNA+ cells, cells negative to both reagents and cells positive to both reagents. It is likely that combined prolactin, cortisol, and insulin in CHSFM stimulate terminal differentiation of clonogenic cells.