• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7467-7472
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• 2015

Background: Breast cancer is known to be one of the most prevalent cancers among women in both developing and developed countries. The incidence of breast cancer in Pakistan has increased dramatically within the last few years and is the second country after Israel in Asia to have highest proportional cases of breast cancer. However, there are limited data for breast cancer available in the literature from Pakistan. Objectives: The study was conducted to bring to light the common clinical presentation of breast cancer and to evaluate the frequency of established risk factors in breast carcinoma patients and furthermore to compare the findings between premenopausal and postmenopausal women in Pakistan. Materials and Methods: A 6 months (from July 2012 to Dec 2012) cross sectional survey was conducted in Surgical and Oncology Units of Civil Hospital, Karachi. Data were collected though a well developed questionnaire from 105 female patients diagnosed with carcinoma of breast and analyzed using SPSS version 17. Institutional ethical approval was obtained prior to data collection. Results: Out of 105 patients, 43 were premenopausal and 62 were postmenopausal, 99 being married. Mean age at diagnosis was $47.8{\pm}12.4years$. A painless lump was the most frequent symptom, notived by 77.1%(n=81). Some 55.2% (n=58) patients had a lump in the right breast and 44.8%(n=47) in the left breast. In the majority of cases, the lump was present in upper outer quadrant 41.9% (n=44). Mean period of delay from appearance of symptoms to consulting a doctor was $5.13{\pm}4.8months$, from the shortest 1 month to the longest 36 months. Long delay (> 3 months) was the most frequent figure 41.9%. Considering overall risk factors most frequent were first pregnancy after 20 years of age (41%), physical breast trauma (28.6%), lack of breast feeding(21.9%), and early menarche <11 years (19%), followed by null parity (16.2%), consumption of high fat diet (15.2%), family history of breast cancer or any other cancer in first degree relatives (9.5% and 13.3%, respectively). Some of the less common factors were late menopause >54 years (8.6%), use of oral contraceptive pills (10.5%), use of hormone replacement therapy (4.7%),smoking (4.7%) and radiation (0.96%). Significant differences (p<0.005) were observed between pre and post menopausal women regarding history of physical breast trauma, practice of breast feeding and parity. Conclusions: A painless lump was the most frequent clinical presentation noted. Overall age at first child > 20 years, physical breast trauma, lack of breast feeding, early menarche <11 were the most frequent risk factors. Physical breast trauma, lower parity, a trend for less breast feeding had more significant associations with pre-menopausal than post-menopausal onset. Increase opportunity of disease prevention can be obtained through better understanding of clinical presentation and risk factors important in the etiology of breast cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3611-3615
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• 2012

Objective: The objective of this study was to establish the diagnostic accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of fine needle aspiration cytology(FNAC) for intra-oral tumors, comparing with histopathology as the gold standard. Materials and methods: Forty cases of FNA cytology from intraoral tumors was performed in AFID along with the demographic data and clinical information and then diagnosed at AFIP, Rawalpindi. Then the cytology results obtained per FNAC were compared with the histopathological biopsy results of the same lesions. The following variables were recorded for each patient: Age, gender, site of biopsy, diagnosis. The data were entered and analyzed using Open-epi version 2.0. Diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were calculated. Cohen Kappa was further applied to compare the agreement between the biopsy and FNAC diagnoses. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Among the total patients included in the study there were 24 males and 16 females, with a ratio of 1.5:1. Age of the patients ranged from 24 to 80 years with a mean of 52 years. A total of six sites were aspirated from the oral cavity with maximum (11) aspirates taken from alveolar ridge. The results of FNAC revealed that there were 32 malignant and 8 benign aspirates. Confirmation through histopathological analysis came for 31/32 malignant cases while one was falsely given positive for malignancy on FNAC. Among a total of 40 cases, 31(77%) cases diagnosed were found to be malignant and remaining 9(23%) were benign. The FNAC results revealed 32 malignant and 8 benign lesions. Histopathology of the subsequent surgically excised specimen showed malignant lesions in 31(77%) and benign in 9(23%) patients. As a whole, it was found that the absolute sensitivity for introral FNAC was 100% and specificity 89% with positive predictive value of 97% and negative predictive value of 100%. Conclusion: Cytological diagnosis was almost corroborative with final histopathological diagnosis in all cases, with very few exceptions, exhibiting high diagnostic accuracy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.206-206
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• 2017

Sorghum is a crop with a various plant height depending on the planting density. If the height exceeds 1.8m, which is the harvestable height of the combine, loss is caused by clogging of the installation, entrance of the threshing section and the threshing section. The purpose of this study is to set the planting distance and number of plants per hill suitable for combine harvesting as the plant length does not exceed 1.8m. The experimental variety was Nampungchal. The experiment design was a split-plot design with three replications. The treatments were as follow: Main-plot were 1 and 2 plants as number of plants per hill and sub-plots were $60{\times}20cm$ (practice), $70{\times}15$, 20, 25, 30 cm as planting distance. The amount of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium fertilization were 100, 70, $80kg\;ha^{-1}$. Data were collected: (1) grain yield: weight of grain in $kg\;ha^{-1}$, (2) 1000 grain weight: average weight of 1000 grain, (3) plant height: distance from soil to top of panicle, (4) ear length: distance from top of stem to top of ear in cm, (5) stem diameter: diameter of second internode, (6) tiller number per hill. Analyses of variance were performed using R version 3.3.1(https://www. r- project. org). The Duncan's multiple range test(DMR) was used to separate treatment means at P < 0.05. As number of plants per hill increased, plant height and yield increased and tiller number decreased. As planting distance increased, plant height and yield decreased and tiller number increased. At 1 plant per hill, the plant height did not exceed 1.8m at all planting distance. At 2 plants per hill, the plant height did not exceed 1.8m from the planting distance of $70{\times}25cm$. At 1 plant per hill, the tiller number increased to 0.23, 0.27, 0.60 and 0.70 as the planting distance increased to $70{\times}15$, 20, 25 and 30 cm, respectively. At 2 plants per hill, the tiller number increased to 0.03, 0.03, 0.14 and 0.40 as the planting distance increased to $70{\times}15$, 20, 25 and 30 cm, respectively. At 1 plant per hill, the yield decreased to 6030, 4280, 3400 and $3230kg\;ha^{-1}$ as the planting distance increased. At 2 plant per hill, the yield decreased to 7850, 5770, 5720 and $4960kg\;ha^{-1}$ as the planting distance increased. We recommend that the optimum number of plants per hill and planting distance is 2 and $70{\times}25cm$ suitable for combine harvesting.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.207-207
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• 2017

The proso millet is vulnerable to lodging due to high plant height and shallow root. A lodging results in a hard mechanical harvesting and yield loss. One of solutions on this problem is inhibition of internode elongation. The objective of this study was to set up use time and dose of prohexadium-calcium, is growth inhibitor. The experimental variety was Ibaekchal. The experiment design was a split-plot design with three replications. The treatments were as follow: Main-plots were 25 and 35 day after sowing(DAS) as use time and sub-plots were 0%, 50%, 100%(diluted solution of 1000 times, $1000{\ell}\;ha^{-1}$), 150% as dose. The amount of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium fertilization were 90, 70, $80kg\;ha^{-1}$, respectively. The size of high ridge and plant spacing were $90{\times}30cm$ and $60{\times}15cm$, respectively. Proso millet was sown on June 9, 2016 by hands and was adjusted at 2 plant per hill. The growth survey of vegetative growth stage was conducted at 1 day before treatment and with one week interval after treatment. Data were collected: (1) grain yield: weight of grain in $kg\;ha^{-1}$, (2) 1000 grain weight: average weight of 1000 grain, (3) plant height: distance from soil to top of panicle or leaf in cm, (4) ear length: distance from top of stem to top of ear in cm, (5) stem diameter: diameter of second internode (6) degree of lodging: percentage of lodging area, etc. Analyses of variance were performed using R version 3.3.1(https://www. r- project. org). The Duncan's multiple range test(DMR) was used to separate treatment means at P < 0.05. There was a significant difference in plant height and number of stem among the use time and dose of prohexadium-calcium during vegetative growth stage. At 25 DAS, the difference with no treatment increased until 25 day after treatment and decreased since then. The difference in number of stem increased until 18 day and decreased since 25 day. At 35 DAS, the difference with no treatment in plant height and number of stem increased until 22 day after treatment and decreased since then. We assumed that the effect of prohexadium-calcium was inhibition of internode elongation and promotion of tillering, continued untel 25day after treatment. At 25 DAS, the degree of lodging deceased to 100%, 30%, 10% and 0% as dose increased. At 35 DAS, the degree of lodging decreased to 100%, 20%, 0% and 0% as dose increased. At 25 DAS, the yield was 2910, 2710, 3190, $2310kg\;ha^{-1}$ among dose. At 35 DAS, the yield was 2750, 2630, 2220, $2050kg\;ha^{-1}$. We recommend that the optimum use time and dose of prohexadium-calcium for proso millet is 1000 times diluted solution of $1000{\ell}$ per ha at 25 day after sowing.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.75-84
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was conducted to explore predictors of health status of family caregivers of hospice patients. Methods: This study included 118 family caregivers of patients who were admitted to the hospice ward of three general hospitals in D city. The collected data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression using the SPSS WIN 18.0 program. Results: The mean score for overall health of family caregivers was 2.68 (${\pm}0.42$). Mean scores for variables related to health were 2.55 (${\pm}0.37$) for sleep quality, 1.91 (${\pm}0.41$) for anxiety and 2.78 (${\pm}0.33$) for hope. Variables such as sleep quality, gender, anxiety and hope explained 59.8% of variance among family caregivers' health conditions. Conclusion: These results suggest the need for nurses to search for ways to promote health of hospice patients' family caregivers, such as improving the quality of sleep, easing their anxiety and encouraging hope.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.9
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• pp.293-297
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of video modeling observational learning intervention on the learning and performance of a bowling skill in adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Thirty special middle school students whose ages ranged from 14 to 16 years were recruited from Daegu, Korea. Intellectual disabilities of the participants were assessed by Korean version of the Wechsler intelligence scale for adolescent and a social maturity scale. During the experiment, participants repeatedly watched the one-minute action observation film for three minutes before beginning each frame and played 60 frames. Statistical comparisons were performed using a 2 (groups) ${\times}$ 6 (trials) ANOVA, with repeated measures on the last factor of the acquisition stage (p<0.05). Factors of the retention stage scores were analyzed by one-way ANOVA. The sources of any significant main effects were tested using a Tukey's HSD (honest significant difference) approach. SPSS 21.0 was used for statistical analyses. The performance scores of the action observation group were significantly higher than those of the control group. The findings showed that observational learning in the form video modeling has the potential to enhance acquisition and learning of a bowling sport skill in intellectual disability individuals; however, these findings are limited to adolescents with moderate intellectual disabilities.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.161-171
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• 1998

The effects of computer-assisted instruction (CAl) using molecular-level animation upon students' conceptions, attitudes toward science instruction, and learning motivation were investigated. Treatment and control groups (2 classes) were selected from a girls middle school in Seoul, and taught about the motion of molecule for 5 class hours. Before instruction, the short-version Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT) and the Patterns of Adaptive Survey were administered, and the grade for the previous science course was obtained. The GALT score was used as a blocking variable, and the others as covariates. After the instructions, the researcher-made conceptions test, the test of attitudes toward science instruction, and the motivation questionnaire were administered. The perception questionnaire of CAl was also administered to the treatment group. Although more students in the CAl group had sound understanding about the motion of molecule, the scores of the conceptions test for the two groups were not significantly different at .05 level of significance. The students in the CAl group, however, were found to have more positive attitudes toward science instruction and learning motivation. In the perception questionnaire of CAl, most students in the treatment group exhibited positive attitudes toward the CAl. However, some students mentioned that they were disturbed by noisy environments, and that they could not understand some content presented. Educational implications are discussed.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.6055-6059
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• 2015

Background: Medication policy development in Thailand is continually promoting rational drug use. Letrozole, an endocrine therapy drug, is usually prescribed for post-menopausal status early and advanced stage breast cancer. After Ministry of Public Health announced Letrozole as compulsory licensed drug in 2009, more breast cancer patients can access to this drug at low cost especially those within universal coverage schemes. To ensure that Letrozole is rationally prescribed, the drug utilization study was conducted. Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the appropriate use of Letrozole in breast cancer and the relationship between appropriate use and health benefit schemes. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study to evaluate use of Letrozole in breast cancer patients was performed for six months between January - June 2010 in seven regional cancer hospitals, Thailand. All prescriptions of Letrozole were identified from pharmacy dispensing databases and prescription papers. A medical record review was also performed to evaluate appropriate use referring to the drug use evaluation criteria. The approved criterion of this study was referred from the guideline of Thai National Formulary version 2010. Results: There were 681 prescriptions of Letrozole for 254 breast cancer patients with an average age of $58.6{\pm}10.0years$. The patients in universal coverage scheme (UCS), civil servant medication benefit scheme (CSMBS) and social security scheme (SSS) were 77.7%, 18.5% and 8.7% respectively. 10.6% were prescribed Letrozole for the first time. Letrozole were prescribed by oncologists (82.8%). The average number of tablets per prescription was $58{\pm}10$. Calcium supplements were prescribed concomitant with Letrozole for 19.4%. To assess drug use evaluation criteria, 45 prescriptions were excluded because of uncompleted clinical data, 636 prescriptions were evaluated. The study showed 86 prescriptions (13.5%) with inappropriate use including 6 (0.9%) not prescribed for estrogen receptor (ER) and/or progesterone receptor (PR) positive, 31 (4.9%) not prescribed for post-menopausal and 49 (7.7%) not prescribed for an appropriate duration. Appropriate use percentages in different health benefit schemes were similar, 85.7% of CSMBS, 86.4% of SSS and 86.7% of UCS. The relationship between health benefit scheme and appropriate use of Letrozole was not significantly different, ${\chi}^2$ (2, N = 636) = 0.081, p > 0.05. Conclusions: The study showed inappropriate use in breast cancer patients because of non-compliance with duration, menopausal status and hormone receptor requirements. To prescribe appropriate indication did not referred to the appropriate practice along the treatment. Drug use evaluation proved very useful for detecting the sign of inappropriate use and allows immediate feedback to the stakeholder for developing medication policy in the future. Importantly, there was no significantly difference in appropriate use of Letrozole across health benefit schemes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.20
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• pp.8765-8774
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• 2014

This study aimed at summarizing epidemiological research findings on associations between tobacco, alcohol and tea consumption and risk of gastric cancer (GC) in the Chinese population. The review searched PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and China Biology Medicine (CBM) databases and reference lists of review papers for all studies published in English or Chinese languages. Information extracted, via two independent researchers, from retrieved articles included first author, year of publication, study design, sample size, source of controls and adjusted odds ratio (OR) or relative risk (RR) with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each category. Statistical analyses used software STATA version 12.0. The systematic search found 89 articles containing 25,821 GC cases and 135,298 non-cases. The overall random effects in terms of pooled OR and 95%CI for tobacco, alcohol and tea consumption were 1.62 (95%CI: 1.50-1.74), 1.57 (95%CI: 1.41-1.76) and 0.67 (95%CI: 0.59-0.76) respectively; while the heterogeneity among included studies ranged from 80.1% to 87.5%. The majority of subgroup analyses revealed consistent results with the overall analyses. All three behavioral factors showed statistically significant dose-dependent effects on GC (P<0.05). The study revealed that tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking were associated with over 1/2 added risk of GC, while tea drinking conferred about 1/3 lower risk of GC in the Chinese population. However, these results should be interpreted with caution given the fact that most of the included studies were based on a retrospective design and heterogeneity among studies was relatively high.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1431-1434
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• 2015

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women worldwide and the HER2 receptor plays an important role in its development and progression. This systematic review aimed to summarize the role of HER2 in brain metastasis in patients with breast cancer. Materials and Methods: We conducted a literature search by advanced search in title field using the Scopus, Pubmed, and Google scholar databases until the end of June 2014. With metastasis, metastatic, HER2, brain, and breast cancer, as terms of search we selected 31 articles, which were reviewed by two independent and blinded expert reviewers. The studies were first selected according to their titles and abstracts. Quality of the studies were then assessed using the STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) protocol for observational studies and CONSORT(Consolidation of Standards for Reporting Trials) protocol for clinical trials. For statistical analyses, we used STATA, version 11.0 software. Forest and funnel diagrams were drawn and for heterogeneity, index was also considered. Also we used meta regression analysis. Results: Finally, we reviewed 10 studies. The prevalence of brain metastasis in HER2-positive breast cancer patients was 24.9%. There was publication bias in the reviewed studies. Meta regression analysis showed that follow up time had no significant effect (p=0.396) on the prevalence of brain metastasis. Conclusions: The results showed a high prevalence of brain metastasis in HER2 positive breast cancer patients.