• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.281-289
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the effects of individual counseling for bus-drivers on cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease prevention. Methods: The one-group pretest-posttest design was used. This study presents a secondary analysis of data collected in 'contents of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease prevention program for bus-drivers in one workplace in Seoul, Korea. The data were collected from 56 bus drivers, using questionnaires from September 10th to November 20th, 2014. The analysis was conducted with ${\chi}^2$ test and paired samples t-test using SPSS/Win 21.0. Results: After the intervention, the participants showed a significant decrease in the level of systolic blood pressure (p=.003) and a significant increase in the total cholesterol level (p=.030). The distribution of cardiovascular risk groups changed after the intervention: 5.3% decreased in the high risk group, 16.1% decreased in the medium risk group, and 3.5% decreased in the low risk group, while 25.0% increased in the normal group. Conclusion: The comprehensive individual counseling including simple screening, tailored education and counseling is effective to manage their lifestyle risk factors, resulting in better maintenance of their health as well as preventing cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.6935-6939
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• 2015

Background: Currently, a comprehensive program for screening and early detection of cervical cancer does not exist in Iran. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of abnormal Papanicolaou (Pap) smears and some related factors among women living in Zanjan, Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2012 in Zanjan on 4274 married women aged 20-65 years. The study participants were selected through two-stage cluster sampling. After obtaining written consent, demographic and fertility questionnaires were completed. Samples from cervix were obtained through a standard method using the Rover Cervex- Brush. Evaluation and interpretation of the samples were reported using the Bethesda 2001 method. Data were statistically analyzed using chi-square and logistic regression models. Results: Most inflammatory changes in the samples were mild (37.4%). Abnormal atypical changes in the epithelial cells were found in 4.04%. The highest percentage of abnormal changes in the epithelial cells was atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) (1.9%). Abnormal results of Pap smear was significantly and independently associated with age, papillomavirus infection, and lack of awareness about Pap smear tests. Conclusions: Given the high prevalence of inflammatory and precancerous changes in this study, compared to other studies in Iran and other Muslim countries, and the effect of demographic variables and individual factors on abnormal results, increasing the awareness of women and their families regarding the risk factors for cervical cancer, preventive measures such as screening, and timely treatment seem necessary.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.172-182
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• 2006

Self administered checklist is needed to be developed to evaluate ergonomic risk factors. This study was conducted to develop self administered form of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z-365 checklist which represents comprehensive ergonomic risk factors, and to evaluate validity of this checklist. This study had been conducted from May 2004 to July 2005, of which subjects were 147 workers from 4 workplaces. Response rates for every items of self administered form of ANSI Z-365 were evaluated. To estimate the validity of checklist, relationship between the checklist grade that ANSI recommended and work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) symptom were calculated with and without adjustment of related variables. To evaluate the utility of checklist, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated. Because response rates of almost items were over 90 %, item development was successful. Because the checklist was related with WMSDs symptom after adjusting related variables, the checklist might represents ergonomic risk well. Because of low sensitivity and NPV, high specificity and PPV, the checklist is not suitable for screening tool. The checklist has better relationship with more severe symptom. Because of high specificity of the checklist, using it with high sensitive tool would enhance it's utility. Further study to develop high sensitive and comprehensive self administered ergonomic checklist is needed.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.296-310
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• 2000

During the past 10 years, concern for community people's health has increased together with the changes. Public health policies and studies for community people's health, however, have influenced those in childmaternal health care to want more general coverage and studies of health and wellness. Particularly, the study of community people's health in the extent an island area is almost rare as that personal and the material benefits in this area are lacking of community people's work is large, and the basic elements of living, such as diet and elimination, are irregular due to the schedule of the tide. Thus, there are many potential health problems. In this regard, the study attempted to understand the health problems of island community people and to provide a basis for developing health promotion and health education programs. In collecting data for the study, face to face interviews were made through a structured questionnaire from October 1 to December 30, 1996. Collected data were analyzed with the SAS statistics program, descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. Subjects' health status was examined by classifying into such categories as their health perception, complaints of health problem, related lifestyle, psychosocial health staus, the result of examination is as follows; 1. For subjects' health perception, 26.9% of the subject answered not sick, but not so healthy'; 30.9% thought they were healthy, while 22.9% answered that they were not healthy. 2. For the health problem complaints many complained of pains in their muscles and skeletal system, especially knee joint pain. Women's health problems related with breast and the reproductive system included 52.3% of cases doing breast self examination, while 56.55% received the cervical cancer screening test. In men's health problems, 44.2% of subjects answered that they have moderate to severe BPH(Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy) symptom. 3. There were statistically a significant difference in the degree of physical health according to marital status(p=0.0028), occupation(p=0.0442), income(p=0.0357). 4. For stress status, 17.2% was to need the intervention, 50.2% was to need observation. 5. The mean score of self-esteem was 27.7 showing a relatively high score. 6. For the rate of smoking, 37.7% used to smoke, while 28% used to take alcohol. 7. The rate of substance abuse was 45.9% of subjects. 8. Most of subjects' health behaviors included most of the acupuncture (52%). 9. The rate of subjects receiving comprehensive medical testing was 34.36% while 34.78% did after care managing behavior. 10. For the obesity grade, 53% is normal weight, low-weight 32.8%, obesity 33%. 11. For nutrition status, 78.7% illy balanced to need intervention of nutritional education. 12. For 78.7% of subjects, muscle strength and 40.7% of stretching were not good enough to need health education on physical exercises. Therefore, based on the results, appropriate health education programs need to be developed to promote health of community people on an island.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.63 no.12
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• pp.454-462
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• 2020

The Committee on Dyslipidemia of Korean Pediatric and Adolescents of the Korean Society of Pediatric Endocrinology has newly developed evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for dyslipidemia in Korean children and adolescents. These guidelines were formulated with the Grading of Recommendations, which include both the strength of recommendations and the quality of evidence. In the absence of sufficient evidence, conclusions were based on expert opinion. These guidelines are based on the 2011 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Guidelines, which focus on the prevention of cardiovascular disease in children and draw from a comprehensive review of evidence. These guidelines contain the definition of and screening process for dyslipidemia and introduce new dietary methods: the Cardiovascular Health Integrated Lifestyle Diet (CHILD)-1, the CHILD-2-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and the CHILD-2-triglyceride. Potential drug therapies for dyslipidemia along with their main effects and doses were also included.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2577-2581
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• 2012

Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis to investigate the value of EBV DNA in diagnosis of nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) in Asian populations, and provide important evidence for screening. Methods: Prospective or respective case-control or cohort studies regarding the detection role of EBV DNA for NPC were included in our study. We conducted a comprehensive literature search in PubMed, EMBASE, and the Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM database between January 1980 and March 2012. Results: A total of 18 studies with 1492 NPC cases and 2641 health controls were included. Almost of the included studies were conducted in China, and only one other conducted in Thailand. The overall results demonstrated that the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood (+LR) and negative likelihood (-LR) were 0.73 (0.71-0.75), 0.89 (0.88-0.90), 8.84 (5.65-13.84) and 0.19(0.11-0.32), respectively. The overall EBV DNA detection showed the largest area of 0.932 under the summary receiver operator curve (SROC). The accuracy of detection by plasma for NPC (0.86) was higher than in serum (0.81), with largest areas under the SROC of 0.97 and 0.91, respectively. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated the EBV DNA detection in plasma or serum has high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosis of NPC, especially in Chinese populations with a high risk of cancer.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.251-266
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• 2022

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of critical infrastructure comprises a major pillar of maintenance management, shielding public safety and economic sustainability. Although SHM is usually associated with data-driven metrics and thresholds, expert judgement is essential, especially in cases where erroneous predictions can bear casualties or substantial economic loss. Considering that visual inspections are time consuming and potentially subjective, artificial-intelligence tools may be leveraged in order to minimize the inspection effort and provide objective outcomes. In this context, timely detection of sensor malfunctioning is crucial in preventing inaccurate assessment and false alarms. The present work introduces a sensor-fault detection and interpretation framework, based on the well-established support-vector machine scheme for anomaly detection, combined with a coalitional game-theory approach. The proposed framework is implemented in two datasets, provided along the 1st International Project Competition for Structural Health Monitoring (IPC-SHM 2020), comprising acceleration and cable-load measurements from two real cable-stayed bridges. The results demonstrate good predictive performance and highlight the potential for seamless adaption of the algorithm to intrinsically different data domains. For the first time, the term "decision trajectories", originating from the field of cognitive sciences, is introduced and applied in the context of SHM. This provides an intuitive and comprehensive illustration of the impact of individual features, along with an elaboration on feature dependencies that drive individual model predictions. Overall, the proposed framework provides an easy-to-train, application-agnostic and interpretable anomaly detector, which can be integrated into the preprocessing part of various SHM and condition-monitoring applications, offering a first screening of the sensor health prior to further analysis.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.65 no.2
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• pp.85-89
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• 2022

Background: There is evidence of a relationship between prenatal excess androgen exposure and central nervous developmental problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the offspring of mothers with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Purpose: Here we aimed to use a meta-analysis to investigate whether the offspring of mothers with PCOS are at an increased chance of developing ADHD. Methods: Three main English databases were searched for articles published through December 2020. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess study quality. Study heterogeneity was determined using I² statistics and publication bias was assessed using Begg and Egger tests. The results are presented as odds ratio (OR) and relative ratio (RR) estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using a random-effects model. Results: Six articles (3 cohort and 3 case-control studies; 401,413 total ADHD cases) met the study criteria. Maternal PCOS was associated with an increased risk of ADHD in the offspring based on OR and RR (OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.27-1.57) and (RR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.35-1.51), respectively. There was no heterogeneity among the included articles based on OR (I²=0.0%, P=0.588) and RR (I²=0.0%, P=0.878). Conclusion: Our study showed that maternal PCOS is a risk factor for ADHD. Therefore, screening their offspring for ADHD should be considered part of the comprehensive clinical care of women with PCOS.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.65.1-65.11
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• 2024

Importance: Recent developments in genetic analytical techniques have enabled the comprehensive analysis of gastrointestinal symbiotic bacteria as a screening tool for animal health conditions, especially the endangered gibbons at the National Wildlife Rescue Centre (NWRC). Objective: High-throughput sequencing based on 16S ribosomal RNA genes was used to determine the baseline gut bacterial composition and identify potential pathogenic bacteria among three endangered gibbons housed in the NWRC. Methods: Feces were collected from 14 individuals (Hylobates lar, n = 9; Hylobates agilis, n = 4; and Symphalangus syndactylus, n = 1) from March to November 2022. Amplicon sequencing were conducted by targeting V3-V4 region. Results: The fecal microbial community of the study gibbons was dominated by Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes (phylum level), Prevotellaceae and Lachnospiraceae/Muribaculaceae (family level), and Prevotella (and its subgroups) (genera level). This trend suggests that the microbial community composition of the study gibbons differed insignificantly from previously reported conspecific or closely related gibbon species. Conclusions and Relevance: This study showed no serious health problems that require immediate attention. However, relatively low alpha diversity and few potential bacteria related to gastrointestinal diseases and streptococcal infections were detected. Information on microbial composition is essential as a guideline to sustain a healthy gut condition of captive gibbons in NWRC, especially before releasing this primate back into the wild or semi-wild environment. Further enhanced husbandry environments in the NWRC are expected through continuous health monitoring and increase diversity of the gut microbiota through diet diversification.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.13
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• pp.5349-5357
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• 2015

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer mortality among women of all ethnic and age groups in Malaysia. Delay in seeking help for breast cancer symptoms is preventable and by identifying possible factors for delayed diagnosis, patient prognosis and survival rates could be improved. Objectives: This narrative review aimed to understand and evaluate the level of in-depth breast cancer knowledge in terms of clinical breast examination and breast self-examination, and other important aspects such as side-effects and risk factors in Malaysian females. Since Malaysia is multicultural, this review assessed social perceptions, cultural beliefs and help-seeking behaviour in respect to breast cancer among different ethnic groups, since these may impinge on efforts to 'avoid' the disease. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive literature search of seven databases was performed from December 2015 to January 2015. Screening of relevant published journals was also undertaken to identify available information related to the knowledge, perception and help-seeking behaviour of Malaysian women in relation to breast cancer. Results: A total of 42 articles were appraised and included in this review. Generally, women in Malaysia had good awareness of breast cancer and its screening tools, particularly breast self-examination, but only superficial in-depth knowledge about the disease. Women in rural areas had lower levels of knowledge than those in urban areas. It was also shown that books, magazines, brochures and television were among the most common sources of breast cancer information. Delay in presentation was attributed mainly to a negative social perception of the disease, poverty, cultural and religion practices, and a strong influence of complementary and alternative medicine, rather than a lack of knowledge. Conclusions: This review highlighted the need for an intensive and in-depth breast cancer education campaigns using media and community health programmes, even with the existing good awareness of breast cancer. This is essential in order to avoid misconceptions and to frame the correct mind-set about breast cancer among women in Malaysia. Socio-cultural differences and religious practices should be taken into account by health care professionals when advising on breast cancer. Women need to be aware of the risk factors and symptoms of breast cancer so that early diagnosis can take place and the chances of survival improved.