• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.9
• /
• pp.4459-4464
• /
• 2012

Background: Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death among cancer patients in Saudi Arabia. It is known that nurses play a key role in promoting breast cancer awareness among women in any society. Nurses in primary health care centres (PHCC) have more direct contact with general population. This study aimed to investigate nurse knowledge of breast cancer and practice of early screening in PHCC in Jeddah city. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire to assess the general knowledge of breast cancer, risk factors, and practice of 210 PHCC nurses. Data were analysed using SPSS v.16. Results: The mean age of the PHCC Nurses was 36.9 (SD ${\pm}8.6$). Only 11% percent scored <50% of the total score for general epidemiological knowledge on breast cancer, about 35% scored <50% of the total score for breast cancer risk factors. Sixty seven percent scored >75% of the total score on breast cancer signs. Majority of nurses 62.8% practiced BSE, but only 4% practiced regularly every month. Some 28% practiced once per year. About 81% of the nurses had not had a clinical breast examination and only 14% had had a mammography. The results of the study failed to show any correlation between the knowledge scores with age, education, year of experience, family history of BC and marital status of the nurses. Conclusion:The results from the study reflect that there is a need to provide continuing nursing education programmes for PHCC nurses to improve their breast cancer knowledge and practice.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.9
• /
• pp.4577-4580
• /
• 2012

Diagnostic and therapeutic strategies of prostate cancer may largely influenced by patients' age at presentation. This study is aimed to evaluate the characteristics, diagnostic and treatment strategies in prostate cancer patients in our centres. A cross-sectional analytic study of prostate cancer data in two main referral cancer centres, Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital and Dharmais National Cancer Centre from 1995-2010, was therefore performed. Patients were divided into 2 sub-populations; below 60 years (younger patients) and 75 years old and above (older patients). PSA levels, diagnostic modalities, Gleason score and therapeutic options were analysed for both and compared using bivariate analysis. 152 patients were <60 years and 210 were ${\geq}75$ years. There was no statistical difference in mean PSA level (797.9ng/mL vs 345.3 ng/mL, respectively; p>0.05) and diagnosis was made by biopsy in majority of patients in both groups (68.2% and 71.6% in younger and older groups respectively). Most presented with an advanced disease stage (65.1% and 66.0%, respectively) and there was no statistically significant difference in mean Gleason scores f (8.1 vs 7.7; p>0.05). Primary androgen deprivation therapy (PADT) was the main treatment for overall patients (48.0% and 50.7%, respectively). Radiotherapy and radical prostatectomy are the main therapeutic modalities for younger patients with local and locally advanced disease (39.6% and 35.4% respectively), while the majority of older patients with the same disease stage were treated with radiotherapy and PADT (45.8% and 39.0% respectively). Differences observed in treatment modalities were statistically significant (p<0.0003). We conclude that there is no difference in disease clinical aggressiveness of the two groups but significant differences were observed in therapeutic strategies utilised with younger and older patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.11
• /
• pp.6845-6850
• /
• 2013

Background: This study was performed to gather data on second-hand smoke (SHS) concentrations in a range of public venues following the implementation of partial Smoke-Free Legislation in Malaysia in 2004. Materials and Methods: $PM_{2.5}$ was measured as a marker of SHS levels in a total of 61 restaurants, entertainment centres, internet caf$\acute{e}$s and pubs in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Results: Under the current smoke-free laws smoking was prohibited in 42 of the 61 premises. Active smoking was observed in nearly one-third (n=12) of these. For premises where smoking was prohibited and no active smoking observed, the mean (standard deviation) indoor $PM_{2.5}$ concentration was 33.4 (23.8) ${\mu}g/m^3$ compared to 187.1 (135.1) ${\mu}g/m^3$ in premises where smoking was observed The highest mean $PM_{2.5}$ was observed in pubs [361.5 (199.3) ${\mu}g/m^3$]. Conclusions: This study provides evidence of high levels of SHS across a range of hospitality venues, including about one-third of those where smoking is prohibited, despite 8 years of smoke-free legislation. Compliance with the legislation appeared to be particularly poor in entertainment centres and internet caf$\acute{e}$s. Workers and non-smoking patrons continue to be exposed to high concentrations of SHS within the hospitality industry in Malaysia and there is an urgent need for increased enforcement of existing legislation and consideration of more comprehensive laws to protect health.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.2465-2472
• /
• 2015

Background: The Quality Audit (BQA) program of the Breast Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand (NZ) collects data on early female breast cancer and its treatment. BQA data covered approximately half all early breast cancers diagnosed in NZ during roll-out of the BQA program in 1998-2010. Coverage increased progressively to about 80% by 2008. This is the biggest NZ breast cancer database outside the NZ Cancer Registry and it includes cancer and clinical management data not collected by the Registry. We used these BQA data to compare socio-demographic and cancer characteristics and survivals by ethnicity. Materials and Methods: BQA data for 1998-2010 diagnoses were linked to NZ death records using the National Health Index (NHI) for linking. Live cases were followed up to December $31^{st}$ 2010. Socio-demographic and invasive cancer characteristics and disease-specific survivals were compared by ethnicity. Results: Five-year survivals were 87% for Maori, 84% for Pacific, 91% for other NZ cases and 90% overall. This compared with the 86% survival reported for all female breast cases covered by the NZ Cancer Registry which also included more advanced stages. Patterns of survival by clinical risk factors accorded with patterns expected from the scientific literature. Compared with Other cases, Maori and Pacific women were younger, came from more deprived areas, and had larger cancers with more ductal and fewer lobular histology types. Their cancers were also less likely to have a triple negative phenotype. More of the Pacific women had vascular invasion. Maori women were more likely to reside in areas more remote from regional cancer centres, whereas Pacific women generally lived closer to these centres than Other NZ cases. Conclusions: NZ BQA data indicate previously unreported differences in breast cancer biology by ethnicity. Maori and Pacific women had reduced breast cancer survival compared with Other NZ women, after adjusting for socio-demographic and cancer characteristics. The potential contributions to survival differences of variations in service access, timeliness and quality of care, need to be examined, along with effects of comorbidity and biological factors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.207-212
• /
• 2007

This paper aims to measure and evaluate the technical efficiency with two inputs and four outputs with the use of fuzzy DEA in Korean RCC/RSC. Especially, this paper included not only the marine accident data which occurred for the analysis in particular but also the possibility data of a potential marine accident by an Environmental Stress value and analyzed the technical efficiency. And in this paper, asymmetrical triangular fuzzy number is presented about inputs/ outputs data and a procedure is suggested for it's solution. The basic idea is to transform the fuzzy CCR model into a crisp linear programming problem by applying an alternative ${\alpha}$-cut approach. Also this paper propose a ranking method for fuzzy RCC/RSC using presented fuzzy DEA approach. The result, when ${\alpha}$-cut is 0.5, efficiency priority is found in the order of YS, BS, MP, TY, JJ, PH, US, IC, SC, DH, GS, TA, WD RCC/RSC. Finally, Inefficiency TA, WD RCC/RSC have to benchmarking with reference sets.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.83-93
• /
• 2021

COVID-19 poses a major risk to global health, highlighting the importance of faster and proper diagnosis. To handle the rise in the number of patients and eliminate redundant tests, healthcare information exchange and medical data are transmitted between healthcare centres. Medical data sharing helps speed up patient treatment; consequently, exchanging healthcare data is the requirement of the present era. Since healthcare professionals share data through the internet, security remains a critical challenge, which needs to be addressed. During the COVID-19 pandemic, computed tomography (CT) and X-ray images play a vital part in the diagnosis process, constituting information that needs to be shared among hospitals. Encryption and image steganography techniques can be employed to achieve secure data transmission of COVID-19 images. This study presents a new encryption with the image steganography model for secure data transmission (EIS-SDT) for COVID-19 diagnosis. The EIS-SDT model uses a multilevel discrete wavelet transform for image decomposition and Manta Ray Foraging Optimization algorithm for optimal pixel selection. The EIS-SDT method uses a double logistic chaotic map (DLCM) is employed for secret image encryption. The application of the DLCM-based encryption procedure provides an additional level of security to the image steganography technique. An extensive simulation results analysis ensures the effective performance of the EIS-SDT model and the results are investigated under several evaluation parameters. The outcome indicates that the EIS-SDT model has outperformed the existing methods considerably.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.12 no.5
• /
• pp.921-932
• /
• 2012

Objectives : The purpose of the this study was to obtain necessary source data for development of oral health improvement and promotion programs for the elderly by investigating the actual situations of oral health education related experience and needs that senior citizens had in Korea. Methods : In this study, convenience sampling was conducted in 430 senior citizens aged 65 years who lived in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do in Korea, for about six months from December 2011 to May 2012. For data collection, the structured questionnaire was used. Community-based senior citizens' welfare facilities and centres, as well as nearby churches were visited to inform them of the information on this study. Then, the senior citizens who agreed to participate in this study were given the questionnaire sheets. Excluding 33 copies of inadequately completed questionnaire sheets, 397 copies (92.3% of the entire collected data) were analyzed. Results : 1. In terms of the experience with oral health education, the number of elderly respondents who have not received oral health education was 202 (50.9%), whereas the number of those who have received oral health education was 195 (49.1%), which indicates that the latter shows a slightly higher proportion. 2. Examining the necessity for oral health education, the overall mean was 3.67 points based on 5 points as full marks, which suggests that senior citizens have high awareness of the necessity for oral health education. 3. Regarding the willingness to participate in oral health education, the number of those who answered that if any opportunity to receive oral health education is given, they would be willing to receive such the education was 211 (53.1%). Conclusions : Based upon the results mentioned above, we conclude that it is required to develop more systematic and sustained, life-long oral health education programs at the levels of senior citizen's welfare facilities and centres, in order to guide senior citizens to desirable oral health care practice.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.11
• /
• pp.5497-5500
• /
• 2012

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the level of cancer awareness after delivering educational programs by assessing the awareness in regard to the role of microbial infectious agents in the etiology of some cancers. Methodology: Data were collected during Cancer Awareness and Educational Programs which were conducted at various places such as schools, clubs, mosques and Government health centres. This survey included 200 participants. Results: Of the persons who responded to the question, whether some viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi, can cause cancer, 111/134 (82.8%), 105/129 (81.4%), 102/124 (82.8%) and 95/122 (77.8%), respectively, answered yes. Conclusion: The level of cancer awareness is low amongst Sudanese northern state inhabitants even after delivering an educational program.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.53 no.4
• /
• pp.233-235
• /
• 2020

Since its early stages, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed immense challenges in meeting the public health and healthcare and social care needs of migrants. In line with other reports from United Kingdom and United States, data from Sweden's health authority show that migrants have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Following the World Health Organization's statements, as well as the European Public Health Association's call for action, several centres in Sweden's most populated areas have activated tools to implement national plans for community outreach through initiatives targeting migrants and ethnic minority groups. Unconventional means should be promoted to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on migrants and the health of the public at large.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.84.2-84.2
• /
• 2010

Radial changes of stellar population within the Galactic globular clusters have been reported in many spectroscopic and photometric studies. We present new integrated spectroscopic data for 24 Galactic globular clusters and have measured line indices within various aperture sizes. Radial gradients have been investigated for the Balmer lines and metal lines (Mgb). Our results show an increase in the strength of the Balmer lines toward the centres in some clusters including NGC7078, NGC7089, and NGC6934, in which colour gradients also have been detected previously. However, some other clusters show little trend or even an increase toward the outskirt in the Balmer lines. Metal sensitive lines generally have an anti-correlation with the Balmer lines. We discuss possible stellar populations being responsible for the radial change in line indices.