• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.3051-3056
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• 2015

Background: Skin self-examination (SSE) may facilitate early diagnosis of melanoma at a potentially curable stage. Little data are available concerning the SSE frequency and knowledge about the symptoms of melanoma in non-patient populations. The aim of our study was to assess the performance of skin self-examination, recognition of potential melanoma symptoms as well as behavior related to sun exposure among web users in Poland. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among readers of a scientific portal. Invited respondents were asked to complete an online questionnaire. Finally, statistical analysis was conducted on 4,919 surveys towards potential clinical signs of melanoma and SSE performance. Results: Approximately 60% of respondents had ever performed SSE in their life. Only 18.4 % declared performance on a regular, monthly, basis. Factors promoting this activity were established to be bigger place of residence, higher education and sensitive skin phototype, higher level of knowledge concerning melanoma, safe tanning rules and, especially, past surgical excision of naevi. Declared longer use of tanning beds was linked to understanding better the importance of clinical features of melanoma. Awareness of hazardous behavior during sunbathing is associated with the attempts to change them. Conclusions: Regular SSE is not a common practice, whilst the knowledge about the clinical features of melanoma is varied. Therefore, constant pressure should be put on promotion of regular skin self-examination and teaching its proper techniques, including familiarity with the ABCD (asymmetry; border; color; diameter) rule and its extension of "EFG" (elevated, firm, progressive growth) criteria.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.46 no.12
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• pp.1141-1155
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• 2013

A number of studies have been performed to analyze climate change impacts of water resources system. In this study, a coordinated dam operation is compared with an existing operation strategy for coping with projected future runoff scenarios. GCMs (Global Circulation Models) and the LARS-WG downscaling method was used to project future climate scenarios. The water balance model called abcd was employed to estimate future runoff scenarios. The existing dam operation comes from the national dam construction guideline, which is called the "level-operation method." The alternative coordinated dam operation are constructed as a linear programming using New York City rule for refill and drawdown seasons. The results of annual total inflow in future is projected to decrease to 72.81% for Andong dam basin and 65.65% for Imha dam basin. As a result of applying future runoff scenarios into the dam operation model, the reliability of coordinated dam operation, 62.22%, is higher than the reliability of single dam operation, 46.55%. Especially, the difference gets larger as the reliability is low because of lack of water. Therefore, the coordinated operation in the Andong & Imha dams are identified as more appropriate alternative than the existing single operation to respond to water-level change caused by climate change.