• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.158-164
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• 2012

Purpose: To evaluated the patterns of failure, survival rate, treatment-related toxicity and prognostic factors in postoperative radiotherapy of patients with ependymoma. Materials and Methods: Thirty patients who underwent surgery and postoperative radiotherapy for ependymoma between the period of June 1994 and June 2008 were reviewed retrospectively. The age of patients ranged from 21 months to 66 years (median, 19 years). Seventeen patients had grade II ependymoma, and 13 had grade III anaplastic ependymoma according to the World Health Organization grading system. The postoperative irradiation was performed with 4 or 6 MV photon beam with median dose of 52.8 Gy (range, 45 to 63 Gy), and radiation field including 2 cm beyond the preoperative tumor volume. Median follow-up period was 51 months (range, 12 to 172 months). Results: Fourteen out of 30 (46.7%) patients experienced recurrence, and 12 of those died. Among those 14 patients who experienced recurrence, 11 were in-field and 3 were out-of-field recurrence. The 5-year overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 66.7% and 56.1%, respectively. On univariate analysis, tumor grade was a statistically significant prognostic factor for OS and PFS. There were two complications after surgery and postoperative radiotherapy, including short stature and facial palsy on the left side. Conclusion: We observed good survival rates, and histologic grade was a prognostic factor affecting the OS and PFS. Almost all recurrence occurred in primary tumor site, thus we suggest further evaluation on intensity-modulated radiotherapy or stereotatic radiosurgery for high-risk patients such as who have anaplastic ependymoma.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.3253-3256
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• 2015

Background: Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major health problem in the Asia-Pacific region including Thailand. Several factors have been proposed as contributing to hepatocarcinogenesis. This study was aimed to investigate the impact of CYP2C19 genotypic polymorphism in HCC related to chronic HBV infection in Thailand. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed between April 2014 and January 2015. Chronic HBV patients with HCC (n=50) and without HCC (n=50) were included. Clinical information and blood samples of all patients were collected. The CYP2C19 genotype was determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method, and was classified as rapid metabolizer (RM), intermediate metabolizer (IM) or poor metabolizer (PM). Results: The CYP2C19 genotype frequencies of RM, IM and PM in HBV patients were found to be 19/50 (38%), 25/50 (50%) and 6/50 (12%), respectively. The CYP2C19 genotype frequencies of RM, IM and PM in HBV with HCC patients were 21/50 (42%), 25/50 (50%) and 4/50 (8%), respectively. The distribution of CYP2C19 genotype was not different between patients with and without HCC. Interestingly, among HBV with HCC patients, the RM genotype of CYP2C19 tended to increase risk of aggressive manifestation (OR=2.89, 95%CI=0.76-11.25, P-value=0.07), compared with non RM genotype carriers. Conclusions: CYP2C19 genotype IM was the most common genotype in Thai patients with chronic HBV infection. In addition, genotype RM could be an associated factor for aggressive presentation in HCC related to chronic HBV infection.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.104 no.4
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• pp.657-667
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• 2015

This study examined the effectiveness of 'Forest Therapy (FT)' from the biological, neurocognitive and psychosocial perspectives. Adolescents who were classified as potential internet addicts took part in a FT program for two (once or twice) or three days. Before and after participating the program, Serum Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), Comprehensive Attention Test (CAT), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and State Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were measured. It was found that FT led to positive consequences, indicated by increased serum BDNF, improved CAT performance, reduced internet use desire, greater resilience, and better social relationship. In addition, FT was partially effective in alleviating state anxiety level, when the participants were classified in accordance with FT exposure lengths. Overall, this study provides evidence that FT reduces symptoms related to internet addiction and promotes various qualities required for well-being.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.553-559
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• 2015

Research on micro-level assessment of the changes of socio-economic status following health interventions is very scarce. The use of household asset data to determine wealth indices is a common procedure for estimating socio-economic position in resource poor settings. In such settings information about income is usually lacking, and the collection of individual consumption or expenditure data would require in-depth interviews, posing a considerable risk of bias. In this study, we determined the socio-economic status of 213 households in a community population in an island in the north-western Tanzania before and 3 year after implementation of a participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation (PHAST) intervention to control schistosomiasis and intestinal worm infections. We constructed a household 'wealth index' based housing construction features (e.g., type of roof, walls, and floor) and durable assets ownership (e.g., bicycle, radio, etc.). We employed principal components analysis and classified households into wealth quintiles. The study revealed that asset variables with positive factor scores were associated with higher socio-economic status, whereas asset variables with negative factor scores were associated with lower socio-economic status. Overall, households which were rated as the poorest and very poor were on the decrease, whereas those rated as poor, less poor, and the least poor were on the increase after PHAST intervention. This decrease/increase was significant. The median shifted from -0.4376677 to 0.5001073, and the mean from -0.2605787 (SD; 2.005688) to 0.2605787 (SD; 1.831199). The difference in socio-economic status of the people between the 2 phases was highly statistically significant (P<0.001). We argue that finding of this study should be treated with caution as there were other interventions to control schistosomiasis and intestinal worm infections which were running concurrently on Kome Island apart from PHAST intervention.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.361-376
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• 2023

Purpose: This study evaluates the potential protective effects of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) seed oil supplementation in rats fed a high-cholesterol diet. Methods: Rats were fed a 1.25% cholesterol diet for 8 weeks, followed by oral administration of either of the two doses of hemp seed oil (HO) (0.5 mL/kg (HOL group) or 1 mL/kg (HOH group) body weight/day) or simvastatin at 10 mg/kg body weight/day. Oxidative stress, lipids, liver enzymes, and renal markers were measured in the serum. Western blot analysis was applied for evaluating the expressions of inflammatory makers. Results: Except for HDL-cholesterol, the altered levels of lipoproteins, aminotransferases, urea, and creatine kinases in hypercholesterolemic rats were significantly corrected by HO administration. Especially, compared to the HOH group, HOL treatment further reduced AST, ALT, creatinine, TC, and LDL-cholesterol levels. Moreover, both the atherogenic index and cardiac risk factor (CRF) in the HOL group were more restrained compared to the HOH group. Increased levels of p-AMPK coincided with the inhibition of SREBP-2 activation which subsequently suppressed the expression of HMGCR. Nuclear factor (NF)-κB activation coincided with the PI3K/Akt pathway activation and the increased phosphorylation of p38; these levels were significantly suppressed by HO treatment. In addition, HO treatment markedly reversed the changes in chemokines such as ICAM-1, VCAM-1, and MCP-1. Histological alterations induced by cholesterol overload in cardiac and hepatic tissues were ameliorated by HO supplementation. Conclusion: Taken together, our results indicate a low concentration of HO demonstrates improved dysfunctions caused by a high-cholesterol diet via inhibition of the PI3K/Akt/NF-κB signaling pathway.

• The Journal of Bigdata
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2023

There are various items in the safety and health standards of the manufacturing industry, but they can be divided into work-related diseases and musculoskeletal diseases according to the standards for sickness and accident victims. Musculoskeletal diseases occur frequently in manufacturing and can lead to a decrease in labor productivity and a weakening of competitiveness in manufacturing. In this paper, to detect the musculoskeletal harmful factors of manufacturing workers, we defined the musculoskeletal load work factor analysis, harmful load working postures, and key points matching, and constructed data for Artificial Intelligence(AI) learning. To check the effectiveness of the suggested dataset, AI algorithms such as YOLO, Lite-HRNet, and EfficientNet were used to train and verify. Our experimental results the human detection accuracy is 99%, the key points matching accuracy of the detected person is @AP0.5 88%, and the accuracy of working postures evaluation by integrating the inferred matching positions is LEGS 72.2%, NECT 85.7%, TRUNK 81.9%, UPPERARM 79.8%, and LOWERARM 92.7%, and considered the necessity for research that can prevent deep learning-based musculoskeletal diseases.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.487-494
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• 2017

There is little evidence on the effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) on prevalence of periodontal disease. The aims of this study were to explore the trends of prevalence of periodontal disease and types of exposure to smoke, including ETS according to the survey year, identify factors affecting periodontal disease, and compare the effect size of periodontal disease between active smokers and secondhand smokers. Data on 11,643 individuals were obtained from the fourth and fifth Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys. Information on exposure to ETS at home and work was self-reported. Severity of periodontal disease was evaluated using the community periodontal index. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to model periodontal disease using types of smoking and the survey year. Overall, the prevalence of periodontal disease was 26.0% (n=3,029) and about 9% of the study population were secondhand smokers. The prevalence of periodontal disease among smokers was significantly increased according to smoking types by year. Active smokers showed a statistically significant adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for having periodontal disease except in the year 2007, whereas secondhand smokers had significant associations only in 2010 (aOR, 1.68; 95% confidence interval, 1.05 to 2.70) compared to non-smokers. For secondhand smokers, the statistical relationship of predicting periodontal disease was weaker than that of active smokers. However, ETS should separately be considered as an important risk factor for periodontal disease. This study suggested the need for further investigation of the impact of ETS on prevalence of periodontal disease using in-depth research designs and objective measurements for assessing periodontal disease and ETS.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.480-488
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• 2002

This study was performed to document the association between obesity, a major risk factor for chronic diseases, and dietary pattern in Korean elderly. The subjects were 595 men and women aged 60-89 years. The subjects were classified into 4 groups based on BMI: under weight, BMI < 18.5, normal weight, 18.5 $\leq$ BMI 22.9; overweight, 23.0 BMI 24.9; and obese BMI $\geq$ 25.0. Dietary intakes by 24-hr recall, blood pressure, anthropometric parameters and health eating index (HEI) were measured. Underweight group was excluded for data analysis doe to small number of subjects, and age-adjusted measurements were compared among normal, overweight and obese groups. The mean anthropometric values for males and females were 23.7 and 24.8 kg/$m^2$ for BMI, 0.90 and 0.86 for WHR and 140.7 and 138.8 mmHg for SBP, respectively. The mean intakes of energy, Ca, vitamin A, vitamin B$_2$, and vitamin E did not meet Korean RDA for elderly. Intakes of fat and cholesterol were low: the percent energy from fat for male and female subjects were 19.1% and 18.1% and mean cholesterol intakes were 208 mg and 152 mg, respectively. Judging by HEI score, dietary quality was better in females than in male subjects. The mean BMI of normal, over and obese groups were 21.4, 23.9, 26.7 kg/$m^2$ in male subjects and 21.6, 23.9, 27.1 kg/$m^2$ in female subjects. WHR, SBP and TSF were increased with increasing BMI No association was found between BMI and nutrient intakes and/or food consumption pattern. However, a tendency was shown that the overweight group reported higher intakes in most nutrients compared to normal and obese groups. This study implies that with increasing BMI, anthropometric risk factors, such as WHR, TSF, and blood pressure were Increased, however, no significant differences were found in nutrient intakes and food patterns. Energy and fat intakes do not seem to be a cause for obesity in Korean elderly.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.36-46
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• 2015

Objectives: To understand the risk factors of demographic data in geriatric depression scale, and suicidality among in elderly who live alone at one urban region. Methods:In 2009, 589 elderly who live alone(age${\geq}$65) were carried out a survey about several socio-demographic data, Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale(SGDS-K) and Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (SIQ). Statistical analysis was performed for the collected data. Results: Mean age of elderly who live alone is 75.69(SD 6.17). 40.1% of participants uneducated, 31.4% graduate from elementary school, 12.9% graduate from high school, 11.7% graduate from middle school, 3.2% graduate from university. Religionless, having past history of depression or physical diseases, low subjective satisfaction of family situation, and not having any social group activity have significance to depressive symptoms of elderly who live alone. Having past history of depression, religionless, low subjective satisfaction of family situation have significance to suicidality. Especially, low subjective satisfaction of family situation and having past history of depression are powerful demographic factor both depressive symptoms and suicidality of elderly who live alone. Conclusions: When we take care elderly who live alone, we should consider many things, but especially the social support network such as family satisfaction and past history of depression for reducing or preventing their depression and suicide both elderly depression and suicide who live alone.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.31 no.1 s.60
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• pp.15-26
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• 1998

p53 is the most frequently mutated gene in female breast cancer tissues and the prognosis of breast cancer could be changed by mutation of the gene. This study was performed to examine risk factors for breast cancer subtypes classified by p53 mutation and to investigate the roles of p53 gene mutation in carcinogenesis of breast cancer. The study subjects were 81 breast cancer patients and 121 controls who were matched to cases 1:1 or 1:2 age, residence, education level and menopausal status. All the subjects were interviewed by a well-trained nurse with standardized questionnaire on reproductive factors, and wire asked to fill the self-administrative food frequency questionnaire. p53 gene mutation in the cancer tissue was screened using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-single strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) method. Mutation type was identified by direct sequencing of the exon of which mobility shift was observed in SSCP analysis. Mutations were detected in p53 gene of 25 breast cancer tissues. By direct sequencing, base substitutions were found in 20 cancer tissues (10 transition and 10 transversion), and frame shift mutations in 5 (4 insertions and 1 deletion). For the whole cases and controls, risk of breast cancer incidence decreased when the parity increased, and increased when intake amount of total calory, fat, or protein increased. Eat and protein were statistically significant risk factors for breast cancer with p53 mutation. For breast cancer without p53 mutation, protein intake was the only significant dietary factor. These results suggest that causes of p53 positive breast lancer would be different from those of p53 negative cancer, and that dietary factors or related hormonal factors induce mutation of p53, which may be the first step of breast cancer development or a promoter following some unidentified genetic mutations.