• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.12
• /
• pp.4765-4771
• /
• 2014

Background: Patients with chronic liver diseases (CLD) may have compromised health related quality of life (HRQoL). Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has long been the leading cause of CLD including liver cancer and cirrhosis. Knowledge on different symptom profiles of CLD should help in development of comprehensive treatment and patient care plans. Objective: To access the facets of HRQoL in chronic liver diseases throughout their spectrum of severity. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University in Yunnan Province of China. Both out- and inpatients undergoing treatment protocols for different HBV related liver disease states were consecutively collected from December 2012 to June 2013. ANOVA was used to compare the mean scores of EQ-5D and chronic liver disease questionnaire (CLDQ) among 5 disease groups. The relationship between demographic variables predicting global CLDQ scores and the domains of CLDQ was analysed. Results: A total of 1040 patients including 520 without complications, 91 with compensated cirrhosis, 198 with decompensated cirrhosis, 131 with HCC and 100 with liver failure were recruited. All domains of CLDQ, the means of EQ-5D value and EQ VAS exhibited significant decline with worsening of disease severity from uncomplicated HBV to liver failure. The multivariate regression demonstrated the reduction of mean scores of CLDQ domain at advanced stage. Patients with liver failure and HCC had more HRQoL impairment than other disease states. No effect of patient gender was found. Patient age was associated with 'fatigue' and 'worry' domains (p=0.006; p=0.004) but not with other domains and global scores of CLDQ and ED-5D. Conclusions: The HRQoL in chronic hepatitis B patients is greatly affected by disease states. Care for HBV-related diseases should consider not only the outcomes of treatment strategies but also improvement in patient wellbeing.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.12
• /
• pp.7143-7147
• /
• 2013

Background: The survival outcomes for women presenting with early breast cancer are influenced by treatment decisions. In Malaysia, survival outcome is generally poor due to late presentation. Of those who present early, many refuse treatment for complementary therapy. Objective: This study aimed to explore the decision making experiences of women with early breast cancer. Materials and Methods: A qualitative study using individual in-depth interviews was conducted to capture the decision making process of women with early breast cancer in Malaysia. We used purposive sampling to recruit women yet to undergo surgical treatment. A total of eight participants consented and were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. These women were recruited from a period of one week after they were informed of their diagnoses. A topic guide, based on the Ottawa decision support framework (ODSF), was used to facilitate the interviews, which were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed using a thematic approach. Results: We identified four phases in the decision-making process of women with early breast cancer: discovery (pre-diagnosis); confirmatory ('receiving bad news'); deliberation; and decision (making a decision). These phases ranged from when women first discovered abnormalities in their breasts to them making final surgical treatment decisions. Information was vital in guiding these women. Support from family members, friends, healthcare professionals as well as survivors also has an influencing role. However, the final say on treatment decision was from themselves. Conclusions: The treatment decision for women with early breast cancer in Malaysia is a result of information they gather on their decision making journey. This journey starts with diagnosis. The women's spouses, friends, family members and healthcare professionals play different roles as information providers and supporters at different stages of treatment decisions. However, the final treatment decision is influenced mainly by women's own experiences, knowledge and understanding.

• Journal of Korean Medical classics
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.397-416
• /
• 2013

Objective : The recently reported Wuqian edition(吳遷本) Jinguiyaolue(金匱要略) is known to be written in small letters unlike other large lettered versions of the book. The Wuqian edition(吳遷本) takes after the name of Wuqian who copied an ancient version that was found at the time(Ming dyanasty, 1395). It is known to differ in organization and contents to other versions. In this study, I would like to examine how the small-lettered version of the Jinguiyaolue had been created, through a thorough examination of the Wuqian edition, and evaluate its value as a new version of the Jinguiyaolue. Method : First, the systems of both large-lettered and small-lettered versions of the "Jinguiyaolue" were briefly examined, followed by comparison from chapter 1 to 22, of organization, contents, and formulas between the oldest version of the large-lettered versions, the Deng-zhen edition, and the newly discovered Wuqian edition of which examples of each item are listed. The original source was identified for parts that were different. Result & Conclusion : 1. The Deng-zhen edition and Wuqian edition show vast differences in the organization, table of contents, name of chapter, location of each verse or line, existence of certain verses or lines, name of formula, quantity of medicinal ingredients, processing methods and other aspects. 2. The small-lettered edition was published based on the large-lettered edition of the Jinguiyaolue published by the Jiaozheng-yishuju(校正醫書局) after a general cross-examination process followed by selection, modification and supplementation of the large-lettered edition. Reference texts used in cross-examination were Qianjinyaofang(千金要方), Waitaimiyao(外臺秘要), Maijing(脈經), and Shanghanlun(傷寒論). 3. Considering Wuqian's own annotations and preface, it is clear that he wanted to create the best version of the "Jinguiyaolue". Wuqian himself seems to have had professional knowledge of bibliography and medicine.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.147-168
• /
• 2011

As personalized recommendation of products and services is rapidly growing in importance, a number of studies provided fundamental knowledge and techniques for developing recommendation systems. Among them, the CF technique has been most widely used and has proven to be useful in many practices. However, current collaborative filtering (CF) technique has still considerable rooms for improving the effectiveness of recommendation systems: 1) a similarity function most systems use to find so-called like-minded people is not well defined in that similarity is computed from a single perspective of similarity concept; and 2) temporal information that contains the changing preference of customers needs to be taken into account when making recommendations. We hypothesize that integration of multiple aspects of similarity and utilization of temporal information will improve the accuracy of recommendations. The objective of this paper is to test the hypothesis through a series of experiments using MovieLens data. The experimental results show that the proposed recommendation system highly outperforms the conventional CF-based systems, confirming our hypothesis.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.75-94
• /
• 2011

In this paper, we explore the information diffusion mechanism under social network environments by investigating the effect of message characteristics on the volume and speed of retweeting in Twitter, a popular online social media service. To this end, we select eight main keywords (i.e., '무상급식', '반값등록금', '나가수', '평창', '김연아', '박태환', '아이폰', '갤럭시') that have been popular on online social media in recent days. Each keyword represents various social aspects of Korea that recently grab people's attention such as political issues, entertainment, sports celebrities, and the latest digital products, and eventually holds distinctive message characteristics. Analyzing the frequency and velocity of retweeting for each keyword, we find that more than half of the sample messages posted on Twitter contain personal opinions for the certain keyword, but we also find that the tweets which include objective messages with hyperlink are the fastest ones when being retweeted by other followers. In overall, when being retweeted, the group of messages related to the certain keyword present distinctive diffusion patterns and speed according to message characteristics. From academic perspective, the findings in the study broaden our theoretical knowledge of information diffusion mechanism over online social media. For practitioners, the results also provide managerial implications regarding how to strategically utilize online social media for marketing communications with customers.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.230-254
• /
• 2007

Scientometrics means the metrics of science, and it plays a role in the measurement of scientists' activities by using research results like papers. Objective numerical values or indicators obtained by scientometric analysis may make a significant contribution to correct evaluation by excluding political or relationship bias or revealing significant researchers or their research fields that have been assessed relatively lower for their performance. In the period when the scale of technology was relatively large, such as for the development of heavy chemistry, it was possible to make a not-bad selection by an assessment made only with the intuition of the assessor. However, it is nearly impossible for experts with a narrow knowledge in a field to judge the direction of change correctly as the current science technology changes rapidly and tremendously. Even in an assessment of research performance of researchers or research institutions, only some notable researchers are able to attract attention owing to the Metthew effect, and the majority who have accumulated research results in depth are not able to receive reasonable research funding. Therefore, it might be natural that there is a growing need for assessment using scientometrics. The purpose of this research is to suggest some applicable scientometric techniques for an assessment of research performance to science and technology researchers and policy planners. In order to accomplish this, we used a frequency analysis of papers and its citations to assess the research performance of researchers, institutions, and countries for OLED technology as a case study. Furthermore, we position detailed technologies for OLED technology as arriving, growing, maturing, and declining technology by utilizing several network analysis techniques, make groups with researchers and institutions of same research interest. And we review the current international joint research of Korea, China, and Japan, who are in a competitive relationship. Also, at the end of each analysis result, we describe what kind of assessment should be available to Korean policy planners and research managers for such scientometric analysis results.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.17 no.11
• /
• pp.724-731
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to determine what rules or patterns exist when people gaze at a villa savoye, which is probably Le Corbusier's best known building, using eye-movement tracking techniques. Villa savoye was designed, addressing his emblematic "Five Points", such as pilotis, functional roofs, free floor plans, long horizontal windows, and freely-designed facades. This study examined how the villa savoye's facade image is formed in an objective manner. This study selected a total of 56 test subjects, and showed them an image of a villa savoye. Using eye-movement tracking tools, this study recorded where they mostly gazed at when seeing the building. In addition, an experiment was carried out to test the different points of view, relating to visual attention, between the two groups with different levels of knowledge in architecture. To analyze the data, the Gaze Frequency was used as the key indicator. The results showed that the subjects have a higher degree of attention to either the door or window in general than in former studies. The architecture major group showed that they gazed the experiment image more evenly.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.351-360
• /
• 2011

1. Objective: This study was designed to analyze the characteristics of each Sasang constitutional type using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). 2. Methods: A total of 135 healthy subjects (age 19-30) participated in this study, consisting of 35 Soyang-type, 66 Taeeum-type, 30 Soeum-type, and 4 Taeyang-type subjects. A Sasang Constitutional Medicine specialist determined each subject's Sasang constitutional type based on the Two Step Questionnaire for Sasang Constitution Diagnosis (TS-QSCD) and comprehensive constitutional assessment. The subjects were also asked to complete the TCI. 3. Results: Among the four temperament dimensions, the Soyang- and Taeeum-type subjects showed significantly higher scores than the Soeum-type subjects in Novelty Seeking (NS). The Soeum-type subjects showed significantly higher scores than the Taeum- and Soyang-type subjects in Harm Avoidance (HA) (Soeum type > Taeeum type > Soyang type). The Soyang-type subjects showed significantly higher scores than the Soeum-type subjects in Reward Dependence (RD). The Soyang- and Taeeum-type subjects showed significantly higher scores than the Soeum-type subjects in Persistence (P). Among the three character dimensions, the Soyang-type subjects showed significantly higher score than the Taeeumand Soeum-type subjects in Self-Directedness (SD) (Soyang type > Taeeum type > Soeum type). The Soyang-type showed significantly higher scores than the Taeeum-type in Cooperativeness (C). 4. Conclusions: Differences in temperament and character were discovered across the Sasang constitutional types. The Sasang constitutional characteristics should be investigated in larger studies in the future. Similar studies could add to the growing knowledge of Sasang constitutional typology and contribute to a more accurate Sasang constitutional diagnosis.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.211-226
• /
• 2008

This thesis is to figure out the job satisfaction and aptitude/vocation recognition of the child welfare teachers dispatched to Region Children Center and provide the basic data for the better children welfare policy in future based on it. First, as for the difference of recognition in the job satisfaction of the child welfare teachers dispatched by the population-statistic property of the research objects, there appeared a meaningful difference by the gender concerning the relation with seniors(p<.01), satisfaction with the office of the child welfare teachers dispatched(p<.01) satisfaction with provided knowledge information(p<.05) and the whole job satisfaction of the child welfare teachers dispatched. As the result of the survey of the recognition on aptitude and job understanding level, there appeared some meaningful differences by the school background on whether or not currently to make efforts to get a better job. In the matter of the pride as to the child welfare teachers dispatched, 27.5% of opinion givers had a clear mission and an objective sense about a current job, and the child welfare teachers dispatched recognized that they felt pleasure and value through the education of students. They understood the difficulty of the management of the children instruction program of region children center in the biggest matters such as the insufficiency of education materials and facilities, and the insufficiency of parents' participation and understanding.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.10
• /
• pp.4203-4206
• /
• 2014

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess the predictive role of the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) for invasion of gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD). Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 127 women who were managed at our clinic for GTD. Of all patients, 8 showed invasion according to histological examination. The clinical parameters of patients with invasive GTD (Group 1; n=8) were compared with patients who showed no invasion (Group 2; n=119). All underwent a prior uterine evacuation and followed up by regular assessment of ${\beta}$-hCG titers. Results: Demographic and obstetric history and pre-evacuation hCG levels of the patients showed no statistically significantly difference between the groups (p>0.05). The mean gestational weeks (GW), size of the GTD and NLR levels were statistically significantly higher in the invasive GTD group (p<0.05). Correlations between invasion and gestational weeks, size of GTD, post-evacuation chemotherapy and NLR were evident. ROC curve analysis demonstrated that GW, size of GTD and NLR may be discriminative parameters in predicting invasion of GTD. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the predictive role of NLR in invasion of GTD. In conclusion, we think that pretreatment NLR can be used as a biomarker of invasion in GTD.