• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1449-1453
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• 2015

Background: Oral capecitabine is increasingly replacing intravenous 5-fluorouracil in many chemotherapy regimens. However, data on the risk of febrile neutropaenia (FN) and treatment related death (TRD) with the drug remain sparse outside of clinical trial settings despite its widespread usage. This study aimed to determine these rates in a large cohort of patients treated in the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC). Materials and Methods: We reviewed the clinical notes of all patients prescribed with oral capecitabine chemotherapy for any tumour sites in University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) from $1^{st}$ January 2009 till $31^{st}$ June 2010. Information collected included patient demographics, histopathological features, treatment received including the different chemotherapy regimens and intent of treatment whether the chemotherapy was given for neoadjuvant, concurrent with radiation, adjuvant or palliative intent. The aim of this study is to establish the pattern of usage, FN and TRD rates with capecitabine in clinical practice outside of clinical trial setting. FN is defined as an oral temperature > $38.5^{\circ}C$ or two consecutive readings of > $38.0^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours and an absolute neutrophil count < $0.5{\times}10^9/L$, or expected to fall below $0.5{\times}10^9/L$ (de Naurois et al., 2010). Treatment related death was defined as death occurring during or within 30 days of last chemotherapy treatment. Results: Between $1^{st}$ January 2009 and $30^{th}$ June 2010, 274 patients were treated with capecitabine chemotherapy in UMMC. The mean age was 58 years (range 22 to 82 years). Capecitabine was used in 14 different tumour sites with the colorectal site predominating with a total of 128 cases (46.7%), followed by breast cancer (35.8%). Capecitabine was most commonly used in the palliative setting accounting for 63.9% of the cases, followed by the adjuvant setting (19.7%). The most common regimen was single agent capecitabine with 129 cases (47.1%). The other common regimens were XELOX (21.5%) and ECX (10.2%). The main result of this study showed an overall FN rate of 2.2% (6/274). The overall TRD rate was 5.1% (14/274). The FN rate for the single agent capecitabine regimen was 1.6% (2/129) and the TRD rate was 5.4% (7/129). All the TRDs were with single agent capecitabine regimen were used for palliative intent. Conclusions: Oral capecitabine is used widely in clinical practice in a myriad of tumour sites and bears a low risk of febrile neutropaenia. However, capecitabine like any other intravenous chemotherapeutic agent carries a significant risk of treatment related death.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.76-77
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• 2018

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.743-745
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• 2013

We compared the efficacy and applicability of a modified formalin-ether concentration technique (M-FECT) to the conventional FECT (C-FECT) and the agar plate culture (APC) method for the detection of Strongyloides stercoralis larvae. For this purpose, we used 600 human fecal specimens collected in an endemic area of southern Thailand. In the M-FECT, we used 2 layers of wire meshes, instead of gauze, to avoid the loss by absorption/adhesion of larvae to the gauze during filtration, and we reduced the exposure time of S. stercoralis larvae in stool samples to formalin. By such simple modifications, the efficacy of M-FECT has become comparable to APC and was much better than that of C-FECT for the diagnosis of strongyloidiasis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1969-1974
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge and associated factors regarding colorectal cancer screening among university students in Malaysia. The questionnaire consisted of three parts: socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle practice and knowledge of colorectal screening. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 students ($21.3{\pm}1.4$ years old). The majority of the participants were Malay with a monthly family income of less than 5,000 Ringgit Malaysia (equal to 1,700 USD) (67.0% and 76.0%, respectively). Regarding their lifestyle practices, the majority were non-smokers and had never consumed alcohol (83.7%, and 88.0%, respectively). The majority of the participants had no knowledge of digital rectal examination, colonoscopy, barium enema and fecal occult blood screening (63.3%, 60.7%, 74.0% and 62.3%, respectively). Univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that their age and the discipline which the students were studying significantly influenced their level of knowledge about colorectal screening. The present study results indicate that education campaigns about colorectal cancer should be promoted.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.90-94
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• 2007

Purpose: Since the 1990s, there has been an increasing interest in patient safety and quality of care. As a result, undergraduate nursing students have difficulties in clinical nursing practice such as health assessment or providing nursing skills. The purpose of this paper was to review current issues related to use of simulations in nursing education. Method: We conducted a thorough literature review including related proceedings to identify present issues in use of simulation education in nursing. Result/Conclusion: Simulation education in nursing differs from that in medical science. In nursing education, we need to focus on developing competencies for nursing students, for example, nursing process, nursing skills, and therapeutic communication skills With an increasing number of human patient simulators, we suggest a more careful approach including faculty development, curriculum development, and cost effective strategic planning. We propose a reliable and valid scenario development among nursing faculty as a consortium in the future.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.304-311
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• 2014

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between household food insecurity and nutritional status of children in low-income households. A cross sectional study involved a survey of households (n = 223) receiving the financial assistance. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Eligible mothers that fulfilled the inclusion criteria such as non-pregnant, non-lactating mothers, aged 18 to 55 years with their youngest children aged 2 to 12 years, were purposively selected. The Radimer/Cornell hunger and food-insecurity instrument was administered and children's height and weight were measured. RESULTS: About 16.1% of the households were food secure, while 83.9% experienced some kind of food insecurity. Out of food insecure category, 29.6% households were food insecure, 19.3% women were individual food insecure and 35.0% fell into the child hunger category. Education of the mother (P = 0.047), household size (P = 0.024), number of children (P = 0.024), number of children going to school (P = 0.048), total monthly income (P < 0.001), income per capital (P < 0.001), number of household members contributing to the income (P = 0.018) and food expenditure (P = 0.006) were significant risk factors for household food insecurity. The prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting in children were 61.0%, 61.4% and 30.6% respectively. Based on multinomial logistic regression, children in food-insecure households were 2.15 times more likely to be underweight and three times to be stunted than children in the food-secure households. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that household food insecurity is associated with the nutritional status of the children in the rural area of Northeastern Peninsular Malaysia.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8553-8557
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• 2016

Background: Accurate dose assessment and correct identification of irradiated from non-irradiated people are goals of biological dosimetry in radiation accidents. Objectives: Changes in the FDXR and the RAD51 gene expression (GE) levels were here analyzed in response to total body exposure (TBE) to a 6 MV x-ray beam in rats. We determined the accuracy for absolute quantification of GE to predict the dose at 24 hours. Materials and Methods: For this in vivo experimental study, using simple randomized sampling, peripheral blood samples were collected from a total of 20 Wistar rats at 24 hours following exposure of total body to 6 MV X-ray beam energy with doses (0.2, 0.5, 2 and 4 Gy) for TBE in Linac Varian 2100C/D (Varian, USA) in Golestan Hospital, in Ahvaz, Iran. Also, 9 rats was irradiated with a 6MV X-ray beam at doses of 1, 2, 3 Gy in 6MV energy as a validation group. A sham group was also included. After RNA extraction and DNA synthesis, GE changes were measured by the QRT-PCR technique and an absolute quantification strategy by taqman methodology in peripheral blood from rats. ROC analysis was used to distinguish irradiated from non-irradiated samples (qualitative dose assessment) at a dose of 2 Gy. Results: The best fits for mean of responses were polynomial equations with a R2 of 0.98 and 0.90 (for FDXR and RAD51 dose response curves, respectively). Dose response of the FDXR gene produced a better mean dose estimation of irradiated "validation" samples compared to the RAD51 gene at doses of 1, 2 and 3 Gy. FDXR gene expression separated the irradiated rats from controls with a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 87.5%, 83.5% and 81.3%, respectively, 24 hours after dose of 2 Gy. These values were significantly (p<0.05) higher than the 75%, 75% and 75%, respectively, obtained using gene expression of RAD51 analysis at a dose of 2 Gy. Conclusions: Collectively, these data suggest that absolute quantification by gel purified quantitative RT-PCR can be used to measure the mRNA copies for GE biodosimetry studies at comparable accuracy to similar methods. In the case of TBE with 6MV energy, FDXR gene expression analysis is more precise than that with RAD51 for quantitative and qualitative dose assessment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.4275-4279
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• 2016

Background: Cancer is a major health problem due to the aging population with increasing deaths. Family functioning is affected by cancer diagnosis and treatment. The aim of this study was to comparative analysis of the perception of family functioning by heads of families with and without cancer members during illness, focusing on changes or probable changes. Materials and Methods: This comparative study was conducted on two groups (families with a member of the cancer and controls without a family member with cancer). The families were of patients referred to the clinics and hospitals of Imam Khomeini, Taleghani and Omid of Urmia city, the number of samples being 148 for cases and 176for the control group. To collect the data, valid and reliable family functioning (FAD) was applied, a 60-item questionnaire with seven dimensions, with heads of families. To analyze the data SPSS- 23 Software was used for descriptive and analytical statistics. Significance level was defined p <0.05. Results: Among the seven items : problem solving, communication, roles, emotional response, emotional involvement, behavior control and overall functioning, only differences for average scores of problem-solving were statistically significant. Discussion: Contrary to common perception of severe damage for family functioning in families with cancer members, results of this study indicate that functioning in terms of family caregivers is more or less similar to that of the families with other diseases. Only in problem-solving item do these families experience more difficulty. Conclusion: According to the research findings, in nursing from families with cancer patient, it is recommended to focus more on the problem-solving item of the families.

• Journal of Information Management
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.23-37
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• 2011

This study has surveyed the professors and graduate students of school of medicine at K university, to analyze the medical library users' service quality perceptions on electronic journals and their effects on the customer satisfaction. Two groups of faculty members and graduate students has statistically significant different perceptions on the service quality of electronic journals. Among four sub-dimensions of service quality, there are no statistically significant differences in the perceptions between two groups in convenience of use, accessability, and content resources, but there is significant differences in supportiveness between two groups. In the perceptions on the satisfaction and value, faculty group has significantly higher perceptions on both of them. The most influential dimension of the service quality of the electronic journal for the perception on the satisfaction is supportiveness followed by convenience of use and content resources. Moderating effect of value on service quality, its sub-dimensions, and satisfaction is not proved statistically.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.207-212
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• 2017

Objectives: Study of the mechanisms involved in cancer progression suggests that cyclooxygenase enzymes play an important role in the induction of inflammation, tumor formation, and metastasis of cancer cells. Thus, cyclooxygenase enzymes could be considered for cancer chemotherapy. Among these enzymes, cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) is associated with liver carcinogenesis. Various COX-2 inhibitors cause growth inhibition of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells, but many of them act in the COX-2 independent mechanism. Thus, the introduction of selective COX-2 inhibitors is necessary to achieve a clear result. The present study was aimed to determine the growth-inhibitory effects of new analogues of chalcone epoxide as selective COX-2 inhibitors on the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell line. Methods: Estimation of both cell growth and the amount of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production were used to study the effect of selective COX-2 inhibitors on the hepatocellular carcinoma cell. Cell growth determination has done by MTT assay in 24 h, 48 h and 72 h, and PGE2 production has estimated by using ELYSA kit in 48 h and 72 h. Results: The results showed growth inhibition of the HepG2 cell line in a concentration and time-dependent manner, as well as a reduction in the formation of PGE2 as a product of COX-2 activity. Among the compounds those analogues with methoxy and hydrogen group showed more inhibitory effect than others. Conclusion: The current in-vitro study indicates that the observed significant growth-inhibitory effect of chalcone-epoxide analogues on the HepG2 cell line may involve COX-dependent mechanisms and the PGE2 pathway parallel to the effect of celecoxib. It can be said that these analogues might be efficient compounds in chemotherapy of COX-2 dependent carcinoma specially preventing and treatment of hepatocellular carcinomas.