• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7143-7147
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• 2013

Background: The survival outcomes for women presenting with early breast cancer are influenced by treatment decisions. In Malaysia, survival outcome is generally poor due to late presentation. Of those who present early, many refuse treatment for complementary therapy. Objective: This study aimed to explore the decision making experiences of women with early breast cancer. Materials and Methods: A qualitative study using individual in-depth interviews was conducted to capture the decision making process of women with early breast cancer in Malaysia. We used purposive sampling to recruit women yet to undergo surgical treatment. A total of eight participants consented and were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. These women were recruited from a period of one week after they were informed of their diagnoses. A topic guide, based on the Ottawa decision support framework (ODSF), was used to facilitate the interviews, which were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed using a thematic approach. Results: We identified four phases in the decision-making process of women with early breast cancer: discovery (pre-diagnosis); confirmatory ('receiving bad news'); deliberation; and decision (making a decision). These phases ranged from when women first discovered abnormalities in their breasts to them making final surgical treatment decisions. Information was vital in guiding these women. Support from family members, friends, healthcare professionals as well as survivors also has an influencing role. However, the final say on treatment decision was from themselves. Conclusions: The treatment decision for women with early breast cancer in Malaysia is a result of information they gather on their decision making journey. This journey starts with diagnosis. The women's spouses, friends, family members and healthcare professionals play different roles as information providers and supporters at different stages of treatment decisions. However, the final treatment decision is influenced mainly by women's own experiences, knowledge and understanding.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.107-133
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• 2010

This research identified the normal structures of separated families, "wild-geese families"(husbands living in Korea apart from their wives and children who are studying abroad) as we called, in Korea. In particular, this study conducted in-depth interview, using qualitative research method, with 7 wild-geese fathers (fathers who are in order to understand their experiences of separated families. The research findings classified the wild-geese father's experiences into three phases which as "decision-making," "initial," and "maintenance." These phases can be described by five higher factors. First of all, in the phase of decision-making "internal or external needs of children studying abroad at early age" was found to be a crucial factor. Liberation and deficiency as results of separation" mainly described the initial phase. In the phase of maintenance, families experience "exhausted solitary lives," "filling up the families' empty space," and "double jeopardy-worry about both reunifying the family or separating the family, as the longer they are separated."

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.295-298
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• 2007

Recently, various problems have been occurred in Apartment reconstruction process. Such as, delaying schedule, additional cost increasing, etc. Those were caused by decision making which is lack of professionality in early phase of reconstruction process. Therefore, in this study proposed improvement plan by application of project management and construction management process in Apartment reconstruction project.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.730-731
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• 2015

This study aims at giving the framework to estimate the environmental load at planning and schematic phase. With increasing awareness of environmental issues, the effort to reduce the environmental impacts caused by human activity has been increasingly enlarged. So far most of researches estimating CO₂ emissions have analyzed energy consumption based on BOQ (Bills of Quantity) acquired after detailed design. There is also lack of reliability in the estimated environmental impact using the basic unit of a facility at the planning stage, because it uses a limited specific section of historical data. Thus, this study is targeted at developing framework to assess reliable environmental loads based on information available at project early phases by making case-bases from historical design information on PSC Beam Bridge. Historical database is built on the basis of the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and in order to set input information for estimating model, the literature about information in an early project phase are reviewed. Using the information available in the planning and schematic design stage, the Framework is presented to estimate the environmental load in an early stage in the project. Developing an environmental load estimation model in accordance with the Framework presented in this study, it is expected that the environmental load in the initial project phase can be estimated more quickly and accurately.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.578-582
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• 2015

Lack of client involvement in construction of public projects has been identified as the main cause of many operational problems. Clients need to perform their roles and responsibilities effectively and efficiently at the right time and through the use of correct methods in order to have the optimum involvement required during all the construction project phases, namely, the planning, design, construction, handover, and operation and maintenance phase. This paper investigates the influence of clients' individual factors on their involvement in construction project delivery. A questionnaire survey was distributed to various government agencies of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Explanatory Factory Analysis was performed to group nineteen individual factors. The factor analysis result suggests that the individual factors that can involve clients' involvement in construction projects can be grouped into five, which are: adequacy of knowledge and experience for decision making in the early stage of design; ability to communicate clearly; job satisfaction; personal skills; and expertise in design and construction.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 1999

There have always been dilemmas between development and environmental conservation throughout the world. Gradually environmental contamination threatens sustainable development and conservation. we try to study on the sustainable development with environmental conservation. One of the instruments to get this goal is Environmental Impact Statement. Environmental Impact Statement has now become a standard tool of decision making in Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Development. The objectives of this study is to explore and suggest some suggestions for improvements of EIA. 1. Identify all criteria and standards that apply to physical and social environmental components and dynamics. 2. Giving attention to the purpose of the criterion and standard, with respect to resource use and quality. 3. Demonstrate the relevance legal, technical, and scientific authority by early planning through construction, operation and maintenance phases. 4. Implement rationales and protocols for the documentation of standard analytical methods, location of sampling points and statistical analysis of data. 5. Establish precise protocols by predictions of environmental impact relevant for established criteria and standards. Reviewing these protocols with relevant legal authorities prior to their implementation is important.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.1969-1976
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• 2003

In the early phases of the product life cycle, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is recently used to support the decision-making for the product concepts, and the best alternative can be selected based on its estimated LCA and benefits. Both the lack of detailed information and time for a full LCA for a various range of design concepts need a new approach for the environmental analysis. This paper explores a new approximate LCA methodology for the product concepts by grouping products according to their environmental characteristics and by mapping product attributes into environmental impact driver (EID) index. The relationship is statistically verified by exploring the correlation between total impact indicator and energy impact category. Then, a neural network approach is developed to predict an approximate LCA of grouping products in conceptual design. Trained learning algorithms for the known characteristics of existing products will quickly give the result of LCA for newly designed products. The training is generalized by using product attributes for an EID in a group as well as another product attributes for the other EIDs in other groups. The neural network model with back propagation algorithm is used, and the results are compared with those of multiple regression analysis. The proposed approach does not replace the full LCA but it would give some useful guidelines for the design of environmentally conscious products in conceptual design phase.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.221-229
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• 2003

In the early phases of the product life cycle, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is recently used to support the decision-making fer the conceptual product design and the best alternative can be selected based on its estimated LCA and its benefits. Both the lack of detailed information and time for a full LCA fur a various range of design concepts need the new approach fer the environmental analysis. This paper suggests a novel approximate LCA methodology for the conceptual design stage by grouping products according to their environmental characteristics and by mapping product attributes into impact driver index. The relationship is statistically verified by exploring the correlation between total impact indicator and energy impact category. Then a neural network approach is developed to predict an approximate LCA of grouping products in conceptual design. Trained learning algorithms for the known characteristics of existing products will quickly give the result of LCA for new design products. The training is generalized by using product attributes for an ID in a group as well as another product attributes for another IDs in other groups. The neural network model with back propagation algorithm is used and the results are compared with those of multiple regression analysis. The proposed approach does not replace the full LCA but it would give some useful guidelines fer the design of environmentally conscious products in conceptual design phase.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 2013

RADCONS Ver. 1.0 (RADiological CONSequence Assessment Program) was developed for radiological risk assessment in this study. A Gaussian plume model was used to analyze the fate and transport of radionuclides released into the air in case of accidents. Both single meterological data and time series meterological data can be used in RADCONS. To assess the radiological risk of the early phase after an accident, ED (Effective Dose) estimated by both deterministic and probabilistic approaches are presented. These EDs by deterministic and probabilistic will be helpful to efficient decision making for decision makers. External doses from deposited materials by time are presented for quantifying the effects of mid and late phases of an accident. A radiological risk assessment was conducted using RADCONS for an accident scenario of 1 Ci of Cs-137. The maximum of ED for radii of 1,000 meters from the accident point was 8.51E-4 mSv. After Monte-Carlo simulation, considering the uncertainty of the breathing rate and dispersion parameters, the average ED was 8.49E-4, and the 95 percentile was 1.10E-3. A data base of the dose coefficients and a sampling module of the meteorological data will be modified to improve the user's convenience in the next version.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.9-24
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• 2010

This study investigates how students perceive landscape design studio classes and provides basic data to set guidelines for future student-oriented pedagogical strategies in landscape architectural design education. This study is based on the premise that the current dominant educational method, which is based on positivism, should shift to a constructivist approach, which allows students to question objective and absolute truths and restructure knowledge based on their own experiences. Unlike lecture-oriented classes, studio education relies heavily on the perceptions, attitudes, and capabilities of individual students because the nature of the class asks each student to find solutions to given project problems in creative and visual ways. Therefore, it is important to understand the psychological state of students during these classes in order to set alternative criteria for design studio education. This study contains three parts. The first part reviews theoretical discourses to understand the demands for a student-oriented educational paradigm shift and the nature of the design studio at many levels. The second part analyzes how students perceive design studio classes in terms of their satisfaction and stress levels and how studio classes affect their decision making regarding future careers. The stress levels accompanying the design process are also investigated, based on a survey of undergraduate students who are enrolled in the landscape architecture programs of four universities in Korea. According to the findings, design studio classes play a specific role in students' decision making about their future careers. Almost half of students turn out to be dissatisfied with their design education, and half of students suffer from high stress levels caused by studio classes, especially in the early phases of the design process. The findings suggest that instructors should give more attention to discovering ways to help students initiate the design process and bridge ideas and forms, provide clear guidelines for evaluation of students' abilities, and develop a more holistic approach in design studio classes that is based on individual problem-solving processes.