• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• 제23권1호
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• pp.11-16
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• 2020

Purpose: D-dimer levels are known to be associated with poor outcomes in patients with various cancers, but their significance at the end of life remains unclear. This study investigated D-dimer levels as a prognostic indicator for terminal cancer patients in the last hours of life. Methods: The retrospective study was conducted at a palliative care unit of a tertiary cancer center, using a database to analyze the records of patients treated from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2018. In total, 67 terminal cancer patients with available data on D-dimer levels were included. Patients' demographic data, clinical information, and laboratory values, including D-dimer levels, were collected. Survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. A Cox proportional-hazards model was used to identify prognostic factors of poor survival. Results: The most common site of cancer was the lung (32.8%) and the median survival time was 5 days. Most laboratory results, particularly D-dimer levels, deviated from the normal range. Patients with high D-dimer levels had a significantly shorter survival time than those with low D-dimer levels (4 days vs. 7 days; P=0.012). In the Cox regression analysis, only a high D-dimer level was identified as a predictor of a poor prognosis (hazard ratio, 1.83; 95% confidence interval, 1.09~3.07). Conclusion: Our results suggest that at the very end of life, D-dimer levels may serve as a prognostic factor for survival in cancer patients.

• 한국식생활문화학회지
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.323-329
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• 2007

The objective of this study was to compare the healthy dining out attitude of restaurant diners by self-rated health status. Using healthy dining attitude and behavior questionnaire and a single question describing self-rated health status, the needs and importance of healthy dining out was detected. Mean age of the 182 respondents was 38.9${\pm}$11.37 years old and 37.4% of the respondents answered their mean monthly income was over 6,000,000won showing the subjects belonged in high income diners. The needs of healthy dining measured by five scales and offering healthy menus(3.80), labeling foods about original country(3.79), using environmentally friendly foodstuffs(3.71) and labeling nutrients on menu board(3.62) show higher score than others. A total of 76.4% of the respondents assessed their health status as 'good-rated Health' and 23.6% was 'poor-rated health'. There was no difference in frequency of eating out by self-perception of health status but, the 'poor-rated health' group need more nutrition information in restaurant specially for calorie(p<0.05), cholesterol(p<0.05), fiber(p<0.05), functional nutrients(p<0.001) showing significant differences comparing to 'good-rated health' group. In good-rated health group, selection of Korean cuisine for eating out was more frequent than the poor. The results shows the needs of healthy dining can be varied by diner's health status and therefore restaurateur should focus on understanding of the needs of diners with various health status.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.483-494
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• 2012

Many recent events, such as terrorist attacks, exposed defects in most sophisticated security systems. Therefore, it is necessary to improve security data systems based on the body or behavioral characteristics, often called biometrics. Together with the growing interest in the development of human and computer interface and biometric identification, human face recognition has become an active research area. Face recognition appears to offer several advantages over other biometric methods. Nowadays, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been widely adopted for the face recognition algorithm. Yet still, PCA has limitations such as poor discriminatory power and large computational load. This paper proposes a novel algorithm for face recognition using a mid band frequency component of partial information which is used for PCA representation. Because the human face has even symmetry, half of a face is sufficient for face recognition. This partial information saves storage and computation time. In comparison with the traditional use of PCA, the proposed method gives better recognition accuracy and discriminatory power. Furthermore, the proposed method reduces the computational load and storage significantly.

• 한국정보처리학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정보처리학회 2010년도 춘계학술발표대회
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• pp.352-352
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• 2010

It is difficult to settle the well-designed local terminology for imaging report in the hospital information system (HIS). One of the major reasons is the local terminology with poor contents have been used in the hospital. Thus, we mapped the locally used terms in nuclear medicine imaging report to the SNOMED-CT, which had been widely used in the electronic medical record system, for implementation of hospital information system. Preliminary construction of terminology dictionary was done by mapping of local terms to SNOMED-CT and LexCare Suite. Further study may be warranted.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.621-626
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• 2015

Background: Smokefree laws aim to protect employees and the public from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Waterpipe premises have significantly increased in number in the last decade, with anecdotal reports of poor compliance with the smokefree law. The literature is bereft of information pertaining to waterpipe premise employees. This study aimed to opportunistically gather knowledge about the occupational health hazards associated with working in waterpipe premises in London, England. Materials and Methods: Employees from seven convenience-sampled, smokefree-compliant waterpipe premises in London were observed for occupational activities. Opportunistic carbon monoxide (CO) measurements were made among those with whom a rapport had developed. Observations were thematically coded and analysed. Results: Occupational hazards mainly included environmental smoke exposure. Waterpipe-serving employees were required to draw several puffs soon after igniting the coals, thereby providing quality assurance of the product. Median CO levels were 27.5ppm (range 21-55ppm) among these employees. Self-reported employee health was poor, with some suggestion that working patterns and smoke exposure was a contributory factor. Conclusions: The smokefree law in England does not appear to protect waterpipe premise employees from high levels of CO. Continued concerns surrounding chronic smoke exposure may contribute to poor self-reported physical and mental wellbeing.

• 대한전자공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한전자공학회 2004년도 하계종합학술대회 논문집(1)
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• pp.55-58
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• 2004

This this paper, we propose vertical Bell laboratories layered space time (V-BLAST) system based on variable rate Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes to improve performance of receiver when QR decomposition interference suppression combined with interference cancellation is used over independent Rayleigh fading channel. The different rate LDPC codes can be made by puncturing some rows of a given parity check matrix. This allows to implement a single encoder and decoder for different rate LDPC codes. The performance can be improved by assigning stronger LDPC codes in lower layer than upper layer because the poor SNR of first detected data streams makes error propagation. Keeping the same overall code rates, the V-BLAST system with different rate LDPC codes has the better performance (in terms of Bit Error Rate) than with constant rate LDPC code in fast fading channel.

• 대한전자공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한전자공학회 2004년도 ICEIC The International Conference on Electronics Informations and Communications
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• pp.438-441
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• 2004

Image binarization using a global threshold value [3] performs at high speed, but usually results in undesired binary images when the source images are of poor quality. In such cases, adaptive local thresholding algorithms [1][2][3] are used to obtain better results, and the algorithm proposed by A.E.Savekis which chooses local threshold using fore­ground and background clustering [1] is one of the best thresholding algorithms. However, this algorithm runs slowly due to its re-computing threshold value of each central pixel in a local window MxM. In this paper, we present a dynamic programming approach for the step of calculating local threshold value that reduces many redundant computations and improves the execution speed significantly. Experiments show that our proposal improvement runs more ten times faster than the original algorithm.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국태양에너지학회 2009년도 추계학술발표대회 논문집
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• pp.259-264
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• 2009

Most of the fossil power plants firing lower grade coals are challenged with maintaining good combustion conditions while maximizing generation and minimizing emissions. In many cases significant derate, availability losses and increase in unburned carbon levels can be attributed to poor combustion conditions as a result of poorly controlled local fuel and air distribution within the boiler furnace. The poor combustion conditions are directly related to the gas flow deviation in upper furnace and convection tube-bank but a less reported issue related to in large-scale oppose wall fired boilers. In order to develop a on-line combustion monitoring system and suggest an alternative heat flux estimation method at tube bank, which is very useful information for boiler design tool and blower optimizing system, field test was conducted at operating power boiler. During the field test the exhaust gases' temperature and tube metal temperature were monitored by using a spatially distributed sensors grid which located in the boiler's high temperature vestibule region. At these locations. the flue gas flow is still significantly stratified, and air in-leakage is minimal which enables tracing of poor combustion zones to specific burners and over-fire air ports. Test results showed that the flue gas monitoring method is more proper than metal temperature distribution monitoring for real time combustion monitoring because tube metal temp. distribution monitoring method is related to so many variables such as flue gas, internal flow unbalance, spray etc., Heat flux estimation at the tube bank with flue gas temp. and metal temp. data can be alternative method when tube drilling type sensor can't able to use.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.431-436
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• 2009

Gains promised by the introduction of e-commerce back-office systems are not easily realized due to poor technology acceptance, especially in developing countries. This study aims to analyze factors which affect information technology acceptance in developing countries. A research model based on TAM is proposed, and it is empirically tested for the hypotheses of factors which affect the acceptance behavior. The result shows that antecedents such as user training influence the technology acceptance in different ways. This study may help accelerate the adoption of back-office systems in developing countries.

• 보건교육건강증진학회지
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.59-75
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• 2008

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify the stages of change distributions for nine major health behaviors among poor children in underserved area, and to provide basic information for developing specific objectives and strategies for health education program. Methods: The health behavior data were obtained with a self-administered questionnaire and analysed for 3,081 poor children in 106 local children's centers nationwide. Stages of change classification were based on self-reported responses to five statements. The health behaviors included were balanced diet, safety behavior (helmet and protective device use while riding), regular exercise, smoking, alcohol use, drug use, sleep pattern, weight management and stress management. Results: Poor children were more likely in precontemplation and less frequently in action and maintenance stages for a safety behavior. 33.1% of respondents were precontemplators, 29.9% contemplators, and 6.5% in preparation stage. Only 4.3% and 9.6% were in action and maintenance stages, respectively. Gender differences were apparent. Boys were more likely to be precontemplators for nine health behaviors. Children from the lowest socioeconomic status and disrupted family were more likely to be in precontemplation for weight management and exercise behaviors. Children living with both parents were more likely to be in the action and maintenance stages for nine health behaviors. Stages of change for balanced diet and smoking were significantly related with those for other eight health behaviors. And the stage of exercise adoption was found to be significantly related with those for other seven health behaviors. Conclusion: Safety education must receive high priority in health education program for low income children. Balanced diet smoking cessation and regular exercise could be a possible gateway behavior toward healthier lifestyle practices.