• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.357-375
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• 2015

In our daily life, the probability of target prevalence in visual search varies from very low to high. However, most laboratory studies of visual search used a fixed probability of target prevalence at 50%. The present study examined the properties of information processing during visual search where the probability of target prevalence was manipulated to vary from low (20%), medium (50%), to high (80%). The search items were made of simple shape stimuli, and search accuracy, signal detection measures, and reaction times (RTs) were analyzed for characterizing the effect of target prevalence on the information processing strategies for visual search. The analyses showed that the rates of misses increased whereas those of false alarms decreased in the search condition of low target prevalence, whereas the pattern was reversed in the high prevalence condition. Signal detection measures revealed that the target prevalence shifted response criterion (c) without affecting sensitivity (d'). In addition, RTs for correct rejection responses in the target-absent trials became delayed as the prevalence increased, whereas those for hits in the target-present trials were relatively constant regardless of the prevalence. The RT delay in the target-absent trials indicates that increased target prevalence made the 'quitting threshold' for search termination more conservative. These results support an account that the target prevalence effect in visual search arises from a shift of decision criteria and the subsequent changes in search information processing, while rejecting the account of a speed-accuracy tradeoff.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.117-139
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• 2021

The way of change detection in which presence of a different item is determined between memory and test arrays with a brief in-between time interval resembles how visual search is done considering that the different item is searched upon the onset of a test array being compared against the items in memory. According to the resemblance, the present study examined whether varying the probability of change occurrence in a visual short-term memory-based change detection task can influence the aspect of response-decision making (i.e., change prevalence effect). The simple-feature change detection task in the study consisted of a set of four colored boxes followed by another set of four colored boxes between which the participants determined presence or absence of a color change from one box to the other. The change prevalence was varied to 20, 50, or 80% in terms of change occurrences in total trials, and their change detection errors, detection sensitivity, and their subsequent RTs were analyzed. The analyses revealed that as the change prevalence increased, false alarms became more frequent while misses became less frequent, along with delayed correct-rejection responses. The observed change prevalence effect looks very similar to the target prevalence effect varying according to probability of target occurrence in visual search tasks, indicating that the background principles deriving these two effects may resemble each other.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.16
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• pp.6609-6612
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• 2014

Opisthorchis viverrini is an ongoing public health problem in Northeast Thailand. Despite continuous efforts for decades by healthcare organizations to overcome this problem, infection rates remain high. To enable related personnel to identify and address the various issues effectively, a cross-sectional study was performed to investigate prevalence and risk factors for opisthorchiasis. The target group was 3,916 Thai residents of Northeast Thailand who were 15 or over. Participants were recruited using the 30 clusters sampling technique. The data were gathered through questionnaires, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and stool examinations for parasite eggs (using the Modified Kato Katz method). The data were analyzed using descriptive and inference statistics; in order to ascertain the risk factors and test them using the odds ratio and multiple logistic regressions. The prevalence of opisthorchiasis was 22.7% (95%CI: 0.26 to 0.24). The province with the highest prevalence was Nakhorn Phanom (40.9%; female to male ratio =1:1.2). The age group with the highest prevalence was 40-49 year olds. All age groups had a prevalence >20%. Four of seven provinces had a prevalence >20%. The factors related to opisthorchiasis were (a) sex, (b) age (especially > 50), (c) proximity and duration living near a water body, and (d) eating raw and/or fermented fish. In order to reduce the prevalence of opisthorchiasis, the focus in populations living in upper Northeast Thailand should be changing their eating behaviors as appropriate to their tradition and context.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6357-6362
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• 2012

Background: To determine the prevalence of mammalian target of rapamycin phosphorylation (p-mTOR) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and any correlation with clinical characteristics and prognosis in ovarian clear cell carcinoma patients. Materials and Method: Seventy four paraffin-embedded specimens of such carcinomas frompatients who underwent surgery, received adjuvant chemotherapy and were followed up at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital during January 2002 to December 2008 were stained with rabbit monoclonal IgG p-mTOR and rabbit polyclonal IgG VEGF using immunohistochemical methods. Medical records were reviewed and clinical variables were analysed. Results: The prevalence of positive p-mTOR in ovarian clear cell carcinoma was 87.9% and significantly higher in advance-stage than early-stage patients (100% versus 83.6%, P<0.05). Two-year disease free survival and 2-year overall survival in patients with positive p-mTOR expression were 60% and 69.2% with no differences from patients with negative p-mTOR expression (p>0.05). The prevalence of VEGF expression was 63.5% and significantly higher in chemo-sensitive than chemo-resistant patients (70.7% versus 37.5%, P<0.05). Two-year disease free survival and 2-year overall survival in patients with VEGF expression were 72.3% and 83% respectively which were significantly different from patients with negative VEGF expression (p<0.05). Conclusions: p-mTOR expression in ovarian clear cell carcinoma was significantly correlated with the stage of disease. VEGF expression was significantly correlated with chemosensitivity, and survival. Further studies of related targeted therapy might be promising.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.204-213
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• 2015

Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between working conditions and smoking among Korean employees using nationally representative data. Methods: We analyzed data from the Third Korean Working Conditions Survey to identify associations between various working conditions and smoking. We calculated the smoking prevalence depending on individual characteristics and working conditions. Also, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between working conditions and smoking. Results: Company size, occupation type, employment type, working hours, working-time flexibility, and smoking-area policy were related to smoking among male employees, while company size, occupation type, employment type, and smoking-area policy were associated with smoking prevalence among females. Conclusion: Our results indicate that working conditions influence smoking prevalence, and the implementation of smoke-free policies is needed to target specific working conditions, including a strict no-smoking-area policy.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.346-357
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• 2016

Purpose: This study attempted to investigate the prevalence and related factors of Clonorchiasis among five major riverside residents in South Korea. Methods: This study is descriptive research, nationwide survey, and the subjects are 23,492 residents selected by convenience sampling. Data collection was conducted between March 1 and June 30, 2011, and stool collection and questionnaire survey were conducted by affiliated public health centers in 38 cities and Gun's. Results: The prevalence rates of Clonorchiasis in the five major riversides were as follows: the Guem River 15.2%; the Nakdong River 11.9%; the Seomjin River 10.9%; the Han River 5.7%; and the Yeongsan River 3.9%. The prevalence rates were shown to be significantly high among people who had highly frequent experiences of eating and cooking freshwater raw fish, were diagnosed with liver and/or biliary tract diseases, and drank less than once a month. Conclusion: These results suggest that it is necessary to improve awareness of Clonorchiasis and provide intensive public health education for the riverside residents. And the target groups should be set up by reflecting the characteristics of at-risk groups, and it is necessary to prepare customized strategies for prevention and management of Clonorchiasis.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2010

Animal disease surveillance system, defined as the continuous investigation of a given population to detect the occurrence of disease or infection for control purposes, has been key roles to assess the health status of an animal population and, more recently, in international trade of animal and animal products with regard to risk assessment. Especially, for a system aiming to determine whether or not a disease is present in a population sensitivity of the system should be maintained high enough not to miss an infected animal. Therefore, when planning the implementation of surveillance system a number of factors that affecting surveillance sensitivity should be taken into account. Of these parameters sample size is of important, and different approaches are used to calculate sample size, usually depending on the objective of surveillance systems. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of the current national serological surveillance programs for four selected bovine diseases assuming a specified sampling plan, to examine factors affecting the probability of detection, and to provide sample sizes required for achieving surveillance goal of detecting at least an infection in a given population. Our results showed that, for example, detecting low level of prevalence (0.2% for bovine tuberculosis) requires selection of all animals per typical Korean cattle farm (n = 17), and thus risk-based target surveillance for high risk groups can be an alternative strategy to increase sensitivity while not increasing overall sampling efforts. The minimum sample size required for detecting at least one positive animal was sharply increased as the disease prevalence is low. More importantly, high reliability of prevalence estimation was expected with increased sampling fraction even when zero-infected animal was identified. The effect of sample size is also discussed in terms of the maximum prevalence when zero-infected animals were identified and on the probability of failure to detect an infection. We suggest that for many serological surveillance systems, diagnostic performance of the testing method, sample size, prevalence, population size, and statistical confidence need to be considered to correctly interpret results of the system.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.332-338
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• 2021

Background: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is one of the most painful disorder in the orofacial region, and many patients have suffered from this disease. For the effective management of TN, fundamental epidemiologic data related to the target population group are essential. Thus, this study was performed to clarify the epidemiological characteristics of TN in the Korean population. This is the first national study to investigate the prevalence of TN in Korean patients. Methods: From 2014 to 2018, population-based medical data for 51,276,314 subscribers to the National Health Insurance Service of Korea were used for this study. Results: The incidence of TN was 100.21 per 100,000 person-years in the year of 2018 in Korea, and the male to female ratio was 1:2.14. The age group of 51-59 years had the highest prevalence of TN. Constant increases in medical cost, regional imbalance, and differences in prescription patterns by the medical specialties were showed in the management of TN. Conclusions: The results in this study will not only help to study the characteristics of TN, but also serve as an important basis for the effective management of TN in Korea.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.842-843
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• 2007

In this paper, the proper rebate level can be decided in programs of energy savings by solving an optimization problem with an objective function, which satisfies a maximum value of total energy savings. And then, each prevalence amount is estimated by using virtual Bass model which is a function of rebate level, instead of the conventional Bass model. Finally, by cost/benefit analysis of the estimated prevalence amounts, the priority order is obtained for the investment of each program. The priority order obtained in this way may result the improvement of investment efficiency for DSM(Demand-Side Management) programs and the reasonable plan decision for supply and demand in power system.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4073-4081
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• 2012

This study was designed to estimate the prevalence of arthritis and to identify subgroups with high prevalence rates of arthritis. Study subjects were 18,406 Korean adults aged 19 and more from the 4th (2007-2009) Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys data. Annual self-reported prevalence and its rate ratios by demographic and behavioral factors were calculated using SAS 9.2 with survey procedure. The result was as follows. The crude prevalence of arthritis was 11.7% (osteoarthritis 10.2% and rheumatoid arthritis 1.7%). The prevalence was increased by age strata (2.4% in 19-44 aged, 16.4% in 45-64, 38.3% in 65 and more). After adjusting for age, we found the subgroups with high prevalence: older people, women, residents in non-apartment area, separated and divorced people, people with low education, people with several occupations (agricultural and fishery workers, elementary occupations, and unemployed), people with low household incomes, people with medical aid, and people with higher BMI. Those subgroups may be target populations in community health programs to control the disability from arthritis.