• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.199-218
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• 2002

This study was conducted to examine obese children's self-efficiency feeling and health promotion behavior in order to provide basic information on prevention of children obesity. Data were collected in June, 2001 from 349 normal weight children and 351 obese children, who were fifth or sixth graders at 14 primary schools located in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Ansan, chungju, and Gumi. The data were analyzed through using Chronbach's $\alpha$, frequency analysis, $X^2-test$, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation. The results of this study can be summarized as follow. 1. The factor of children obesity was significantly different in the variables of sex, parents obesity, brother or sister obesity, father's occupation, level of living, health condition, and satisfaction level with their bodies. On the other hand, it was not significantly different in the variables of father's education level, mother's education level, mother's occupation, level of father's concern about health, and level of the children's concern about health. 2. In the case of normal weight children, dietary efficiency feeling was significantly different in the variables of level of father's concern about health and level of children's concern about health. In th case of obese children, the dietary efficiency feeling was significantly different in the variables of mother obesity, parents' education level, father's occupation, and the children's satisfaction level with their bodies. In the case of normal weight children, exercise efficiency feeling was significantly different in the variables of sex, level of parents's concern about health, and level of the children's concern about health. In the case of obese children, the exercise efficiency feeling was significantly different in the variables of grade, brother and sister obesity, parents' education level, father's occupation, and the children's satisfaction level with their bodies. In the case of normal weight children, social efficiency feeling was significantly different in the variables of brother and sister obesity, parents' education level, level of parents' concern about health, and level of the children's concern about health. In the case of obese children, the social efficiency feeling was significantly different in the variables of parents' education level, father's occupation, level of living, the children's health condition, and the children's satisfaction level with their bodies. 3. In the case of normal weight children, personal hygiene was significantly different in the variables of sex, level of parents's concern about health, and level of the children's concern about health. In the case of obese children, the personal hygiene was significantly different in the variables of parents' education level, father's occupation, mother's occupation, level of living, and level of parents' concern about health. In the case of normal weight children, dietary habit was significantly different in the variables of sex, level of parents's concern about health, and level of the children's concern about health. In the case of obese children, the dietary habit was significantly different in the variables of father's education level, mother's education level, level of living, and the children's satisfaction level with their bodies. In the case of normal weight children, exercise habit was significantly different in the variables of grade, sex, father's education level, mother's education level, and level of children's concern about health. In the case of obese children, the exercise habit was significantly different in the variables of grade, mother obesity, parents' education level, father's occupation, level of parent' concern about health, the children's health condition, and the children's satisfaction level with their bodies. In the case of normal weight children, prevention of infectious diseases was significantly different in the variables of sex, father's occupation, level of parents' concern about health, and level of the children's concern about health. In the case of obese children, the prevention of infectious diseases was significantly different in the variables of mother's education level and father's occupation. In the case of normal weight children, prevention of accident was significantly different in the variables of mother's education level, level of parents' concern about health, and level of the children's concern about health. In the case of obese children, the prevention of accident was significantly different in the variables of brother and sister obesity and mother's occupation. In the case of normal weight children, mental health was significantly different in the variables of father obesity, brother and sister obesity, parents' education level, and level of the children's concern about health. In the case of obese children, the mental health was significantly different in the variables of parents' educational level, father's occupation, mother's occupation, level of living, and the children's health condition. 4. According to the correlation between self-efficiency feeling and health promotion behavior, the higher the self-efficiency feeling was, the higher the level of health promotion behavior was. 5. The children obesity was influenced by the factors of level of living, level of parents' concern about health, the children's health condition, level of the children's concern about health, the children's satisfaction level with their bodies, dietary efficiency feeling, exercise efficiency feeling, social efficiency feeling, personal hygiene, dietary habit, exercise habit, prevention of infectious diseases, prevention of accident, and mental health. From the results of this study, it is clear that obese children's self-efficiency feeling is closely related with health promotion behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen children's self-efficiency feeling in order to make children control efficiently obesity for themselves.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.33-41
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyse the state of the energy industry and to determine the efficiency of its functioning on the basis of energy conservation principle and application of innovative technologies aimed at improving the ecological modernisation of agricultural sectors of Kazakhstan. The research methodology is based on an integrated approach of financial and economic evaluation of the effectiveness of the investment project, based on calculation of elasticity, total costs and profitability, as well as on comparative, graphical and system analysis. The current stage is characterised by widely spread restructuring processes of electric power industry in many countries through introduction of new technical installations of energy facilities and increased government regulation in order to enhance the competitive advantage of electricity market. Electric power industry features a considerable value of creating areas. For example, by providing scientific and technical progress, it crucially affects not only the development but also the territorial organisation of productive forces, first of all the industry. In modern life, more than 90% of electricity and heat is obtained by Kazakhstan's economy by consuming non-renewable energy resources: different types of coal, oil shale, oil, natural gas and peat. Therefore, it is significant to ensure energy security, as the country faces a rapid fall back to mono-gas structure of fuel and energy balance. However, energy resources in Kazakhstan are spread very unevenly. Its main supplies are concentrated in northern and central parts of the republic, and the majority of consumers of electrical power live in the southern and western areas of the country. However, energy plays an important role in the economy of industrial production and to a large extent determines the level of competitive advantage, which is a promising condition for implementation of energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies. In these circumstances, issues of modernisation and reforms of this sector in Kazakhstan gain more and more importance, which can be seen in the example of economically sustainable solutions of a large local monopoly company, significant savings in capital investment and efficiency of implementation of an investment project. A major disadvantage of development of electricity distribution companies is the prevalence of very high moral and physical amortisation of equipment, reaching almost 70-80%, which significantly increases the operating costs. For example, while an investment of 12 billion tenge was planned in 2009 in this branch, in 2012 it is planned to invest more than 17 billion. Obviously, despite the absolute increase, the rate of investment is still quite low, as the total demand in this area is at least more than 250 billion tenge. In addition, industrial infrastructure, including the objects of Kazakhstan electric power industry, have a tangible adverse impact on the environment. Thus, since there is a large number of various power projects that are sources of electromagnetic radiation, the environment is deteriorated. Hence, there is a need to optimise the efficiency of the organisation and management of production activities of energy companies, to create and implement new technologies, to ensure safe production and provide solutions to various environmental aspects. These are key strategic factors to ensure success of the modern energy sector of Kazakhstan. The contribution of authors in developing the scope of this subject is explained by the fact that there was not enough research in the energy sector, especially in the view of ecological modernisation. This work differs from similar works in Kazakhstan in the way that the proposed method of investment project calculation takes into account the time factor, which compares the current and future value of profit from the implementation of innovative equipment that helps to bring it to actual practise. The feasibility of writing this article lies in the need of forming a public policy in the industrial sector, including optimising the structure of energy disbursing rate, which complies with the terms of future modernised development of the domestic energy sector.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.3769-3776
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• 2016

Background: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide. High breast cancer mortality has been attributed to lack of public awareness of the disease. Little is known about the level of knowledge of breast cancer in Central African Republic. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge of health professionals on breast cancer. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 158 health professionals (27 medical; 131 paramedical) in 17 hospitals in Bangui using a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistical analysis, Person's ${\chi}^2$ test and ANOVA were applied to examine associations between variables with p < 0.05 being considered significant. Results: Data analyzed using SPSS version 20 indicates that average knowledge about breast cancer perception of the entire population was 47.6%, diagnosis method 45.5%, treatment 34.3% and risk factors 23.8%. Most respondents (65.8%) agreed that breast cancer is important in Central African Republic and that family history is a risk factor (44.3%). Clinical assessments and mammography were considered most suitable diagnostic methods, and surgery as the best treatment. The knowledge level was significantly higher among medical than paramedical staff with regard to risk factors, diagnosis and treatment. However the trainee group had very high significant differences of knowledge compared with all other groups. Conclusions: There is a very urgent need to update the various training programs for these professionals, with recommendations of retraining. Health authorities must create suitable structures for the overall management of cancer observed as a serious public health problem.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2005

Purpose : The objective of this study was to determine whether the expressions of the two components of DNA-dependent protein kinase, Ku70 and DNA-PKcs, influence the response to radiotherapy (RT) and outcome of treatment of non-disseminated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in patients who received definitive RT. Materials and Methods : Sixty-six patients with NPC who were treated with radiotherapy alone or with concurrent chemotherapy between June 1995 and December 2001 were divided into groups based on the levels of immunoreactivity for Ku70 and DNA-PKcs in pretreatment biopsy specimens. The over-expression of Ku70 or DNA-PKcs groups Included patients whose biopsy specimens showed at least 50% immunopositive tumor cells; patients in which less than 50% of the tumor cells in the biopsy tissues were immunopositive were placed in the low Ku70 and DNA-PKcs groups. The immunoreactivities for Ku70 and DNA-PKcs were retrospectively compared with the sensitivity of the tumor to radiation and the patterns of therapy failure. Univariate analyses were peformed to determine the prognostic factors that influenced locoregional control of NPC. Results : The five-year locoregional control rate was significantly higher in the low Ku70 group (Ku(-)) (85%) than in the high Ku70 group (Ku(+)) (42%) (p=0.0042). However, there were no differences in the metastases-free survival rates between the two groups (Ku70 (+), 82%; Ku70 (-), 78%; p=0.8672). Univariate analysis indicated that the over-expression of Ku70 surpassed other well-known predictive clinocopathologic parameters as an Independent prognostic factor for locoregionai control. Eighteen of 22 patients who had locoregional recurrences of the tumor displayed an over-expression of Ku70. No significant association was found between the level of DNA-PKcs expression and the clinical outcome. Conclusion : Our data suggest that the level of Ku70 expression can be used as a molecular marker to predict the response to RT and the locoregional control after RT and concurrent chemotherapy in patients with non-disseminated NPC.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.22-39
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• 1997

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of rehabilitation education on the reduction of the stress of family members who have patients suffering from stroke and to find a new way to nurse the patients and their family. Subjects & Methods: The subjects were sixty-one family members with the patients who had been hospotalized in K hospital of oriental medicine from september the 9th, 1996 to september the fourteen, 1996. This study was performed by simulated control group pretest-posttest design; pretest was done on the control group through a questionnaire, counselling and observation while posttest was done on the experimental group 1-2 days after systemic rehabilitation education. To teach the patients and their family, the amended version of a book written by Lee Hae-jin was used as a tool for systemic rehabilitation education. As a method to estimate ADL score, modified Kang's method was applied and ADL score was measured by well-trained technician. As for the tool to estimate the degree of family stress, Choi's method adjusted to this study was applied. In the analysis of the data, social property of the patient and the characteristic of the disease were surveyed in $X^2$ examination to confirm the consistency between the experimental group and the control group. The diffrence in the degree of the stress, which is a dependent factor, was examined by t-test. The difference in ADL score between the experimental group and the control group was examined by t-test. The difference in the degree of the stress according to the general feature of the family with stroke patient, social property of the patients and the characteristic of the disease were surveyed by F examination. The difference in family stress according to the degree of ADL was surveyed by F examination. RESULTS: 1. After hypothetically-examined systemic rehabilitation education, the total of the score of family stress surveyed in 34 items of three domains was compared between the experimental group and the control group. There was no statistically significant difference between two groups; mean score of experimental group=2.28, that of control group=2.93(t=.17, df=59, p=. 66). 2. In the survey on family stress in 34 items, the items over mean score 3.0 were firstly the anxiety of possible disability and relapse of the disease and secondly to watch the patient's suffering without doing anything in the domain of the change of the disease and the difficulty in caring. And the items of the lowest stress with less than mean 2.0 score were little chance to meet the relative and friends, inconsistent treatment and attitude of the medical workers and the change of the attitude of the relative due to the patient orderly in the domain of social and personal relation and the responsibility as the family. The items which showed the difference between two groups were aggravation of neighboring patient(t=3.36, df= 59, p=.001) and the possibility of patient's death(t=2.19, df=58.38, p=.033) in the domain of the change of the disease and the difficulty in caring. 3. In the study on the stress difference according to general features of the family with the stroke patient, the score of family stress with the occupation was higher with mean 2.49 than that of the family stress without occupation with mean 2.16, but there was no significant difference. (F=5.21, df=1/59, p=.026). 4. In the study on the stress difference according to social property of the patient and the characteristic of the disease, there was significant difference in the age of the patients (F=2.98, df=3/57, p=.039). These results show that even if there is no statistically significant difference between two groups, sixteen of the experimental group are less than 3.0 in ADL score(standard 6 score)while eight of the control group are less than 3.0 and that ten of the experimental group are in the year range of 39-49 while four of the control group are in the year range of 39-49 which showed significant difference in family stress. These imply that there is a possibility that the experimental group have serious and fundamental stress resulting in high pretest stress compared with the control group. It might be due to the characteristic of simulated control group pretest-posttest design that the psychologic-supportive effect by the education was not observed. On the basis of these results, the followings are suggested. 1) A study on the nursing-mediated method to reduce the stress in the items which are not resolved by rehabilitation education, a study on nursing according to the patient's age and a study on the supportive nursing toward the family with occupation are required. 2) More than two times consecutive nursing-mediated rehabilitation education to measure the family stress is required. 3) Comprehensive and multilateral systemic education program including the instruction on western-eastern medicine, physical therapy, exercise and diet through collaboration of the experts in each field is required. 4) Family stress at home as well as in the hospital needs to be estimated and home rehabilitation and home-nursing needs to be continued.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.122-136
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• 2000

Chronic illness requiring attention and management during a long period of time puts great burden onto patients, their family and society. For patients with chronic illnesses, providing social support is the most important, and the fundamental support comes from their spouses. Amount and quality of support from spouses seems to differentiated according to the sex of patients. Female patients tend to believe that their spouses are not very supportive. Therefore, the researchers assessed the burden of husbands of female arthritis patients to discover the factors that result in greater burden. Also, they developed a theoretical model of husbands′ care for their wives through a qualitative research into husbands′ experience. Method 1: The study material was 650 female arthritis patients registered in an arthritis clinic. The questionnaire about the disease experience of female arthritis patients and the burden of husbands were sent. Returned questionnaires numbered 210(32.3%) and 27 were excluded because of inadequate answers. The remaining 183 questionnaires were analyzed. The mean age of the patients was 51 years and the mean age of spouses was 55 years. The mean marital period was 28 years. The average duration since diagnosis was 9.1 years. Education level was varied from primary school to graduate school, and average income/month was 1,517,300 won. Method 2: Initial questionnaire studies on the burden of husbands were performed. Among 183 responding husbands, 23 consented to participate for a qualitative research. Data was obtained by direct and telephone interviews. The mean age of participants was 58 years, and the educational level and socioeconomic status also varied. Result: 1. Husbands′ burden: The average burden was 57.68 with a range of 6-96. 2. Burden and general characteristics: The husband′s burden correlated with the age of the patients, numbers in the family, therapy methods, patient′s level of discomfort, patient′s disease severity, patient′s level of dependence and the husband′s understanding of the level of severity. 3. Linear correlation analysis on burden: The husbands′ burden is explained in 22.5% by husband′s recognition of level of severity and husbands′ age. 4. There were four patterns of the burden on husbands: both objectve burden and subjective burden were high(pattern I), both of objectve burden and subjective burden were low(pattern II), objective burden was high but subjective burden was low(pattern III), objective burden was low but subjective burden was high(pattern IV). The pattern was correlated with the family income, educational level of the patients and their husbands, therapy methods, patient′s level of discomfort, patient′s disease severity, patient′s level of dependence and husband′s understanding of level of severity. 5. The core category of the caring experience of the husbands with arthritis patients was "companionship". The causal factor was the patients′ experience due to symptoms : physical disfigurement, pain, immobility, limitation of house chores, and limitation of social activities. Contextural factors are husbands′ identification of housework and husbands′ concern about the disease. The mediating factors are economic problems, fear of aging, feeling of limitation and family support. The strategy for interaction is mind control and how to solve emotional stress. The "companionship" resulted from caring activities, participation of household activities, helping patients′ to coping with emotional experience. 6. Companionship is established through the process of entering intervention, and caring state of mind. Entering intervention is the phase of participation of therapy and involvement of houseworks. The caring phase consists of decision on therapy, providing therapy, providing direct care, and taking over the household role of wife. Through caring phase, the changing phase set a stage in which husbands consolidate the relationship with their wives, and are reminded of the meaning of marriage. As a result, in changing phase, husbands′ companionship is enhanced. In conclusion, nursing care of chronic illnesses should include a family member especially the spouse. All information on disease shoud be provided to patients and whole family member. Strong support should also be provided to overcome difficulties in taking over role of other sex. Then the quality of life of patients and families will be much improved.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.292-300
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• 2008

Background: Respiratory failure is a common condition that requires intensive care, and has a high mortality rate despite the recent improvements in respiratory care. Previous reports of patients with respiratory failure focused on the specific disease or included a large proportion of surgical patients. This study evaluated the clinical characteristics, outcomes and prognostic factors of adult patients receiving mechanical ventilation in a medical intensive care unit. Methods: Retrospective chart review was performed on 479 adult patients, who received mechanical ventilation for more than 48 hours in the medical ICU of one tertiary referral hospital. Results: The mean age of the patients was $60.3{\pm}15.6$ years and 34.0% were female. The initial mean APACHE III score was $72.3{\pm}25$. The cause of MV included acute respiratory failure (71.8%), acute exacerbation of chronic pulmonary disease (20.9%), coma (5.6%), and neuromuscular disorders (1.7%). Pressure controlled ventilation was used as the initial ventilator mode in 67.8% of patients, and pressure support ventilation was used as the initial weaning mode in 83.6% of the patients. The overall mortality rate in the ICU and hospital was 49.3% and 55.4%, respectively. The main cause of death in hospital was septic shock (32.5%), respiratory failure (11.7%), and multiorgan failure (10.2%). Males, an APACHE III score >70, the cause of respiratory failure (interstitial lung disease, coma, aspiration, pneumonia, sepsis and hemoptysis), the total ventilation time, and length of stay in hospital were independently associated with mortality. Conclusion: The cause of respiratory failure, severity of the patients, and gender appears to be significantly associated with the outcome of mechanical ventilatory support in patients with respiratory failure.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.257-270
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• 1996

Studies on menstruation have focused only on menstruation itself and menstrual disorders. The menstruating girls or women have been neglected. So, the purpose of this study was to understand menstrual experience of adolescent girls in their perspective and build a theory on it, The specific purpose of this study were to find initial reaction of the girls, their strategies to adapt to menstruation. consequences of their efforts, influencing factor, and patterns of experience. The subjects of this study were eleven adolescent girls who experienced menarche three months to twenty-six months before the interview time. They were selected purposively. Their ages were in range of twelve and sixteen. One of them was a elementary school girl, three high school girls, and seven middle school girls. Two girls were handicapped because of cerebral palsy. All of them had some knowledge about menstrual physiology and hygiene during menstruation. Data were collected from September, 1994 to July, 1995. Data collection ＆ analysis were done according to the grounded theory methodology by Strauss ＆ Corbin(1990). Data collecting method was the long interviews and observation. Each interview took from 1 hour to 2 hours. Interview were tape-recorded and transcribed later by author. Data were analyzed immediately after interviews. Based on the results of previous interview, next interview were planned until gathered data reached the saturation point. Results were as follows. One hundred and six concepts were found. Those concepts were grouped into twenty eight categories and then fourteen higher categories. Twenty eight categories were as follows. “want to hide”, “bewildered”, “sense of burden”, “sense of heterogeneity”. “gladness”. “sense of superiority”, “negative empathy”, “positive empathy”, “limited hygenic control”, “sense of timing”, “lack of knowledge”, “lack of support”, “advance knowledge”, “informational support”, “emotional support”, “endurance”, “prayer”, “disclosing”, “avoidance”, “diversion”, “sense of powerlessness”, “discovery of sex identity”, “sense of maturation”, “sense of stability”, “acceptance of menstruation ”. fourteen higher categories were as follows. “negative feeling”, “posive feeling”, “exchange of feeling”, “limited hygenic control”, “sense of timing”, “accumulated experience”, “dysmenorrhea”, “level of knowledge”, “need for support”, “perceived support”, “sharing of feeling”, “self-control”, “passive acceptance”, “active acceptance”. The core category was “emotional shaking”, which consisted of “positive feeling” and “negative feeling”. “Emotional shaking”comes up to every adolescent girls experiencing menarche, independently of any contextual conditions, and its dimension has two directions : positive one and negative one. Its influencing factors were time of menarche, advance knowledge, support from the significant persons, expression and self-regulation. Even if they showed different process of adaptation to menstruation, general process of adaptation were as follows : 1. stage of emotional shaking 2. stage of acceptance 3. stage of internalization of the menstrual experience. Seven patterns existed on the process of adaptation to menstruation after menarche. Those are as follows. 1. If girls thought their menarche came too early and they had not much knowledge on menstruation, they had a kind of negative feeling. If they did not get enough support and dysmenorrhea superimposed, they came to accept menstruation passively. 2. If girls had menarche too early. they had negative feeling, even though they had enough advance knowledge. But support helped them accept menstruation easily. 3. If girls had menarche too early, they had negative feeling, even though they had enough advance knowledge on menstruation. But by experiencing subsequent menstruations and disclosing feeling, they began to accept menstruation. 4. If girls had menarche too lately and they had enough advance knowledge on menstruation. they had positive feeling. If dysmenorrhea superimposed later, their feeling turned in to negative one. But they came to accept menstruation positively by disclosing feeling and getting support. 5. If girls had menarche too early, they had negative feeling, even though they had enough advance knowledge on menstruation. In addition to this. if dysmenorrhes superimposed while they did not get enough support, they felt powerless and came to accept menstruation passively. 6. If girls had menarche too early and did not get enough advance knowledge, they had negative feeling. But disclosing feeling and support made them get sense of homogeneity and began to accept menstruation. 7. If girls had handicap, they had negative feeling, even though they had enough advance knowledge and menarche was late. But Menarche made them get feel sexual identity. Their limited hygenic control and negative empathy from their mothers made them accept menstruation passively. To let adolescent girls take their menstrual experience as a part of their lives forming a positive sense of feminine identity, it needs qualified teaching and, support and deep concern of the significant others. Nurses including school nurses should try to develop an educational program, which include menstrual physiology. hygiene during menstrual period, meaning of menstruation and impact of menstruation on the development of female sexual identity.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.1 s.56
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• pp.77-101
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• 1997

In September 1994, residents of Gozan-dong, Incheon City, made a petition to the government about their health problems which might be caused by previous glass fibre landfill nearby 'H' company. In february 1995, at regular academic meeting of occupational and environmental medicine, a research team of 'D' University presented that they had found glass fibres in groundwater of the area through their survey. They were suspicious of probable association between ingestion of groundwater contaminated with glass fibres and skin tumors among residents. A joint research team was formed and carried out the survey of environment concerning groundwater and its glass fibre existence, and health assessment of residents in the area and industrial workers of 'H' company during May to November, 1995. Analysis of groundwater flow system indicates that the flow lines from the glass fibre landfill pass through or terminate at the 6 houses around the landfill. This means that the groundwater of the 6 houses around the glass fibre landfill could be affected by some possible contaminants from the landfill, but the groundwater quality of the other houses was irrelevant to the landfill. The qualitative and qualitative analyses for glass fibres in 54 groundwater samples including those from the nearby 6 houses, were carried out using SEM equipped with EDS, resulting in no evidence for the presence of glass fibres in the waters. Major precipitates, formed in waters while boiling, were identified as calcium carbonates, in particulary, aragonites in needle form. The results of health assessments of 889 residents in Gozan-dong, participated in this study, showed statistically significant differences in past medical histories of skin tumor and respiratory disease between the exposed group (31 persons who inhabited in 6 houses around the landfill) and the control group, but no significant differences in past medical histories of other diseases, such as cancer mortality, current gastroscopic findings, current skin diseases and respiratory diseases, etc. Also, we could not prove any glass fibres in excised specimens of 9 skin tumors in both groups and there were no health problems possibly associated with glass fibres in employees of the 'H' company. After all, we could not authenticate the association, raised by prior investigators, between groundwater streams, assumedly contaminated with glass fibres or not, and specific disease morbidities or common disease/symptom prevalences. That is, we could not find any glass fibres in groundwater as the only exposure factor of this study hypothesis, and there were not enough certain evidences such as increasing disease prevalences, for examples, skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases etc, possibly related to glass fibre exposure, in exposed group. As a matter of course, the conditions for confirming causal association, for example, strength of the association, consistency of the association, specificity of the association, temporality of the association and dose-response relationship etc, have not been satisfied. In conclusion, we were not able to certify the hypothesis that contamination of groundwater with glass fibres might cause any hazardous health effects in residents who used it for drinking.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.47-67
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• 2007

Objectives : This study was aimed to investigated the warning signs and its relationship with the other characteristics in acute stroke patients. Methods : 225 acute stroke patients were recruited at the Department of Cardiovascular and Neurologic Diseases (Stroke Center) of Kyung Hee University Oriental Hospital from October 2005 to September 2006. We evaluated their stroke type with brain MRI, their warning signs, and general characteristics such as age, sex, past history, risk factors, etc. Results : 225 subjects were included in the final analysis. In the subjects' general characteristics, the most common etiology of stroke was small vessel occlusion. In the assessment of the subjects' warning signs, the frequency of tension felt at the cervical area was highest followed by blepharospasm, sensory dysfunction (one side of numbness, tingling sensation, dead sensation), one side paralysis or weakness, etc. After analyzing etiology, cerebral hemorrhage had more facial spasm sign and hypertension than cerebral infarction. On the other hand, cerebral infarction had more diabetes and sensory dysfunction (one side of numbness, tingling sensation, dead sensation) than cerebral hemorrhage. Among stroke locations, subjects with their brain lesion in the cortex had more warning sings of motor dysfunction such as one side paralysis, or weakness. Multiple lesions showed a close relationship with smoking habit and were more common in males than in females. The under 65 years old group were more commonly associated with alcohol consumption, accidental mental stress and blepharospam than the over 65 years old group. In the group of under 65 years old, males more commonly had lesions in occipital lobe, alcohol consumption and smoking habit than females. Otherwise, females more commonly had vision dysfunction and blepharospasm than males. In the group of over 65 years old, males more commonly had cortex lesion than females. On the other hand, Females more commonly had accidental mental stress than males. Conclusions : We observed various warning signs and their distribution in acute stroke patients. The subjects' brainlesions and their etiology seemed to affect the features of the warning signs. Hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia were also related to etiology of stroke and some habitual problems such as smoking and drinking seemed to reduce the age of stroke ictus. Although a concrete conclusion can hardly be drawn from this study, it reminds physicians of the importance of warning signs which appear among their patients.