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Can Reproductive Characteristics Predict Bladder Cancer in Women with Haematuria?

  • Yavuzcan, Ali;Caglar, Mete;Kayikci, Muhammet Ali;Basaran, Ekrem;Tekin, Ali;Ozdemir, Enver;Dilbaz, Serdar;Ustun, Yusuf;Cam, Haydar Kamil
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.14 no.9
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    • pp.5107-5110
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    • 2013
  • Background: Among women with haematuria, defining individuals under high risk for bladder cancer based on reproductive factors prior to cystoscopy would be of great benefit in the management of this condition. The aim of this study was to compare age and reproductive factors such as menopausal status, parity, age at first delivery and age at the last delivery between women who have haematuria with or without bladder cancer. Materials and Methods: A total of 463 patients underwent diagnostic cystoscopy in D$\ddot{u}$zce University Faculty of Medicine between 1 June 2008 and 1 June 2013. Female patients who presented with persistent microscopic or macroscopic haematuria and underwent standard evaluation for haematuria including urinalysis, urine culture, urine cytology, urinary tract imaging with excretory urography or computerized tomography with contrast enhancement and endoscopic evaluation of the urethra and bladder were included in this study. Exclusion criteria were tobacco use and high risk occupations for bladder cancer such as textile, dry cleaning, painting and etc. Forteen women had hematuria due to benign conditions, and 18 due to bladder cancer. Data were retrospectively retrieved from the medical records of Duzce University Hospital. Results: Patients with haematuria due to benign reasons did not significantly differ from patients who were found to have bladder cancer in terms of age (p=0.28), menopausal status (p=0.29), mean parity (p=0.38), being nulliparous (p=0.57), parity ${\geq}3$ (p=0.22), age ${\leq}18$ years at first delivery (p=1.00), age ${\geq}30$ years at last delivery (p=0.26), age ${\geq}35$ years at last delivery (p=0.23) and percentage of the patients with advanced age (${\geq}65$ years) (p=0.18). Conclusions: It is difficult to predict a high risk for developing bladder cancer in women with haematuria based solely on reproductive factors.

Assessment of the proximity between the mandibular third molar and inferior alveolar canal using preoperative 3D-CT to prevent inferior alveolar nerve damage

  • Lee, Byeongmin;Park, Youngju;Ahn, Janghoon;Chun, Jihyun;Park, Suhyun;Kim, Minjin;Jo, Youngserk;Ahn, Somi;Kim, Beulha;Choi, Sungbae
    • Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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    • v.37
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    • pp.30.1-30.7
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    • 2015
  • Background: The inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) may be injured during extraction of the mandibular third molar, causing severe postoperative complications. Many methods have been described for evaluating the relative position between the mandibular third molar and the inferior alveolar canal (IAC) on panoramic radiography and computed tomography, but conventional radiography provides limited information on the proximity of these two structures. The present study assessed the benefits of three-dimensional computed tomography (3D-CT) prior to surgical extraction of the mandibular third molar, to prevent IAN damage. Methods: This retrospective study included 4917 extractions in 3555 patients who presented for extraction of the mandibular third molars. The cases were classified into three groups, according to anatomical relationship between the mandibular third molars and the IAC on panoramic radiography and whether 3D-CT was performed. Symptoms of IAN damage were assessed using the touch-recognition test. Data were compared using the chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. Results: Among the 32 cases of IAN damage, 6 cases were included in group I (0.35 %, n = 1735 cases), 23 cases in group II (1.1 %, n = 2063 cases), and 3 cases in group III (0.27 %, n = 1119 cases). The chi-square test showed a significant difference in the incidence of IAN damage between groups I and II. No significant difference was observed between groups I and III using Fisher's exact test. In the 6 cases of IAN damage in group I, the mandibular third molar roots were located lingual relative to the IAC in 3 cases and middle relative to the IAC in 3 cases. The overlap was ${\geq}2mm$ in 3 of 6 cases and 0-2 mm in the remaining 3 cases. The mean distance between the mandibular third molar and IAC was 2.2 mm, the maximum distance 12 mm, and the minimum distance 0.5 mm. Greater than 80 % recovery was observed in 15 of 32 (46.8 %) cases of IAN damage. Conclusions: 3D-CT may be a useful tool for assessing the three-dimensional anatomical relationship and proximity between the mandibular third molar and IAC in order to prevent IAN damage during extraction of mandibular third molars.

The Effect of Smart Work Quality on Collective Intelligence and Job Satisfaction (스마트워크 품질이 집단지성 및 직무만족에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Hyun-Chul;Kim, Oh-Woo
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.13 no.5
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    • pp.113-120
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    • 2015
  • Purpose - As the rapid development of ICT has been made recently, many domestic companies are trying to introduce smart work infrastructure. The purpose of institution of smart work is to enhance their performance. To this end, it is necessary to advance the way of working. Developing employees' collective intelligence should be regarded as a prerequisite for advancing the way of working. Job satisfaction of the employees is another important factor to enhance organizational performance. So this study aims to provide the theoretical background of systematic approach to smart work quality by empirically analyzing the effect of smart work quality on collective intelligence and job satisfaction. Research design, data, and methodology - A structural equation model was designed to examine cause-and-effect relationships among three latent variables(smart work quality, collective intelligence, job satisfaction). Three hypotheses were formulated. The first hypothesis is that the effect of smart work quality on collective intelligence will be positively and statistically significant. Likewise, the second hypothesis is that the effect of smart work quality on job satisfaction will be positively and statistically significant. Finally, the third hypothesis is that the effect of collective intelligence on job satisfaction will be positively and statistically significant. Based on the previous researches, 34 questionnaire items were developed to measure the effect of the three variables. The survey was conducted on 162 employees who are working under smart work environment. The number of the effective questionnaires for the analysis was 154. PASW Statistics 18 and AMOS 18 were used for the statistical analysis. Results - The validity and reliability test for questionnaire items have been carried out. From the factor analysis, 1 out of 34 items was eliminated. As a result, 33 out of 34 items were used for analyzing. The values of Cronbach's α ranged from 0.701 to 0.910, indicating the acceptable reliability of the questionnaire items. The values of χ2, df, CFI, TLI, RMSEA of the model are 102.838, 51, 0.949, 0.935, 0.082, respectively. So the structural equation model was statistically significant. The first and third hypotheses were supported. But the second hypothesis was rejected. Conclusions - An analysis using structural equation model showed meaningful implications about the effect of smart work quality on collective intelligence and job satisfaction. First, as the five quality elements of the smart work improved, the level of collective intelligence increased. Second, the statistical analysis showed smart work didn't have a direct effect on job satisfaction, which is inconsistent with the prior findings. The main purpose of smart work is to help achieve greater performance. The companies also need to make efforts to improve job satisfaction of their employees along with achieving greater performance. Third, an organization with higher level of collective intelligence showed greater job satisfaction. The companies under smart work environment need to develop functions to encourage participation, sharing, openness, and collaboration. This research will provide useful information for the companies which want to introduce smart work, distribution information system, management information system, etc.

In-field evaluation of clinoptilolite feeding efficacy on the reduction of milk aflatoxin M1 concentration in dairy cattle

  • Katsoulos, Panagiotis D.;Karatzia, Maria A.;Boscos, Constantinos;Wolf, Petra;Karatzias, Harilaos
    • Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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    • v.58 no.7
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    • pp.24.1-24.7
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    • 2016
  • Background: Clinoptilolite is a natural zeolite with high adsorption capacity for polar mycotoxins such as aflatoxins. The efficacy of clinoptilolite in ameliorating the toxic effects of aflatoxicosis has been proven in monogastric animals, but there is no such evidence for ruminants. The aim of this study was to evaluate, under field conditions, whether the dietary administration of clinoptilolite in dairy cows could reduce the concentration of aflatoxin M1 ($AFM_1$) in bulk-tank milk, in farms with higher than or close to $0.05{\mu}g/kg$ of milk (European maximum allowed residual level). An objective of the present study was also to investigate the effect of particle size of clinoptilolite on aflatoxin binding. Methods: Fifteen commercial Greek dairy herds with AFM1 concentrations in bulk tank milk ${\geq}0.05{\mu}g/kg$ were selected. Bulk tank milk AFM1 was determined prior to the onset and on day 7 of the experiment. Clinoptilolite was added in the total mixed rations of all farms at the rate of 200 g per animal per day, throughout this period. Two different particle sizes of clinoptilolite were used; less than 0.15 mm in 9 farms (LC group) and less than 0.8 mm in 6 farms (HC group). Results: Clinoptilolite administration significantly reduced $AFM_1$ concentrations in milk in all farms tested at an average rate of 56.2 % (SD: 15.11). The mean milk $AFM_1$ concentration recorded on Day 7 was significantly (P < 0.001) lower compared to that of Day 0 ($0.036{\pm}0.0061$ vs. $0.078{\pm}0.0074{\mu}g/kg$). In LC group farms the reduction of milk $AFM_1$ concentration was significantly higher than HC group farms ($0.046{\pm}0.0074$ vs. $0.036{\pm}0.0061{\mu}g/kg$, P = 0.002). As indicated by the Pearson correlation, there was a significant and strong linear correlation among the milk $AFM_1$ concentrations on Days 0 and 7 (R = 0.95, P < 0.001). Conclusions: Dietary administration of clinoptilolite, especially of smallest particle size, at the rate of 200 g per cow per day can effectively reduce milk $AFM_1$ concentration in dairy cattle and can be used as a preventive measure for the amelioration of the risks associated with the presence of aflatoxins in the milk of dairy cows.

Residue Dissipation Patterns of Indoxacarb and Pymetrozine in Broccoli under Greenhouse Conditions (시설재배 브로콜리 중 Indoxacarb 및 Pymetrozine의 잔류 소실특성)

  • Yang, Seung-Hyun;Lee, Jae-In;Choi, Hoon
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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    • v.39 no.1
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    • pp.75-82
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    • 2020
  • BACKGROUND: This study was carried out to establish pre-harvest residue limits (PHRLs) of indoxacarb and pymetrozine in broccoli under greenhouse conditions, based on dissipation patterns and biological half-lives of pesticides during 10 days after application. METHODS AND RESULTS: The field studies were conducted in two different greenhouse, located in Chungju-si (Field 1) and Gunsan-si (Field 2). Samples were collected at 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 days after spraying pesticide suspension. The analytical methods for indoxacarb and pymetrozine using HPLC-DAD were validated by recoveries ranging of 94.3-105.4% and 81.8-96.0%, respectively, and MLOQ (Method Limit of Quantification) of 0.05 mg/kg. Biological half-lives of indoxacarb and pymetrozine were 2.9 and 3.2-3.8 days in broccoli, respectively. The lower 95% confidence intervals of dissipation rate constant of indoxacarb were determined as 0.1508 (Field 1) and 0.2017 (Field 2), whereas those of pymetrozine were calculated as 0.1489 (Field 1) and 0.1577 (Field 2). CONCLUSION: The significant differences were not observed between the dissipation rates of indoxacarb and pymetrozine in broccoli. The major factor affecting residue dissipation was the dilution effect by fast growth. The PHRLs for 10 days prior to harvest were recommended as 30.06 (Field 1) and 18.07 (Field 2) mg/kg for indoxacarb, and 4.84 (Field 1) and 4.43 (Field 2) mg/kg for pymetrozine, respectively.

The Development of Image Processing System Using Area Camera for Feeding Lumber (영역카메라를 이용한 이송중인 제재목의 화상처리시스템 개발)

  • Kim, Byung Nam;Lee, Hyoung Woo;Kim, Kwang Mo
    • Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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    • v.37 no.1
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    • pp.37-47
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    • 2009
  • For the inspection of wood, machine vision is the most common automated inspection method used at present. It is required to sort wood products by grade and to locate surface defects prior to cut-up. Many different sensing methods have been applied to inspection of wood including optical, ultrasonic, X-ray sensing in the wood industry. Nowadays the scanning system mainly employs CCD line-scan camera to meet the needs of accurate detection of lumber defects and real-time image processing. But this system needs exact feeding system and low deviation of lumber thickness. In this study low cost CCD area sensor was used for the development of image processing system for lumber being fed. When domestic red pine being fed on the conveyer belt, lumber images of irregular term of captured area were acquired because belt conveyor slipped between belt and roller. To overcome incorrect image merging by the unstable feeding speed of belt conveyor, it was applied template matching algorithm which was a measure of the similarity between the pattern of current image and the next one. Feeding the lumber over 13.8 m/min, general area sensor generates unreadable image pattern by the motion blur. The red channel of RGB filter showed a good performance for removing background of the green conveyor belt from merged image. Threshold value reduction method that was a image-based thresholding algorithm performed well for knot detection.

A Method for Reconstructing Original Images for Captions Areas in Videos Using Block Matching Algorithm (블록 정합을 이용한 비디오 자막 영역의 원 영상 복원 방법)

  • 전병태;이재연;배영래
    • Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.113-122
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    • 2000
  • It is sometimes necessary to remove the captions and recover original images from video images already broadcast, When the number of images requiring such recovery is small, manual processing is possible, but as the number grows it would be very difficult to do it manually. Therefore, a method for recovering original image for the caption areas in needed. Traditional research on image restoration has focused on restoring blurred images to sharp images using frequency filtering or video coding for transferring video images. This paper proposes a method for automatically recovering original image using BMA(Block Matching Algorithm). We extract information on caption regions and scene change that is used as a prior-knowledge for recovering original image. From the result of caption information detection, we know the start and end frames of captions in video and the character areas in the caption regions. The direction for the recovery is decided using information on the scene change and caption region(the start and end frame for captions). According to the direction, we recover the original image by performing block matching for character components in extracted caption region. Experimental results show that the case of stationary images with little camera or object motion is well recovered. We see that the case of images with motion in complex background is also recovered.

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A Comparison of Acoustic Parameters between Vocal Fold Bowing and Vocal Fold Polyp (궁형성대와 성대폴립 간의 음성 비교)

  • Kang, Young-Ae;Yoon, Yeo-Hoon;Yoon, Kyu-Chul;Seong, Cheol-Jae
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.40-46
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    • 2011
  • Background and Objectives : Vocal fold bowing is an organic voice disorder that is associated with an abnormal structure of the vocal folds whereas vocal fold polyp is a functional voice disorder caused by an abnormal use of the vocal folds. Both types of vocal folds share a common property in that they make one's voice breathy or strained. The purpose of this study is to compare voice from two types of vocal folds and to offer information of clinical importance. Materials and Method: Vocal fold bowing and vocal fold polyp groups consisted of 7 male subjects, respectively. All subjects recorded /a/ in the state of measuring MPT (maximum phonation time), repeating 3 times, by a voice recorder (48 kHz sampling rate; 24 bit quantization). They answered the questions of K-VHI. Time domain parameters (such as perturbation parameters including HNR, Jitter, etc.) were calculated for the whole duration of /a/ and those of the frequency domain were measured in initial 40 ms and stable 40 ms of /a/, respectively. Mann-Whitney V-test was used for the time domain parameters and K-VHI survey, and Wilcoxon signed rank test was applied to the frequency domain parameters (H1, H2, H1-H2). Results: For K-VHI survey and the time domain analysis, there was no significant difference between bowing and polyp group. For frequency domain analysis, H1 and H2 showed a significantly different result between two groups. Vocal fold bowing group has longer duration and lower intensity than that of vocal fold polyp group in the 'aspirated interval', which could be observable prior to ordinary vowel oscillation. Conclusion: Both groups seem to show breathy voice. This could be referred on the basis of the value of H1-H2. The K-VHI survey says that subjects with vocal fold bowing feel more uncomfortable than subjects with vocal fold polyp.

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The Impact of Environmental CSR on Trust and Corporate Reputation : The Moderating Effect of Authenticity (기업의 환경적 사회적책임 활동이 신뢰와 기업평판에 미치는 영향: 진정성의 조절효과를 중심으로)

  • Bae, JeongHo
    • Journal of Service Research and Studies
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.17-29
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    • 2019
  • So far, there has been a lot of research on CSR, however, not much on the relationship between environmental CSR and corporate reputation and authenticity, The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the relation between Environmental CSR, Trust and Corporate Reputation as well as a moderating role of Authenticity between Environmental CSR and Trust. To achieve the purpose of the study, the hypothesis was established based on prior research and theoretical background regarding environmental CSR, trust, corporate reputation, and authenticity. Samples of this study were collected from 479 general consumers respondents across the country and analyzed based on quantative datas using the SPSS and AMOS statistical models. We find that First, Environmental CSR is positively related with both corporate reputation and trust. Secondly, we find that trust play a mediating role in the relationship between environmental CSR and Corporate Reputation, Thirdly, we also find that Authenticity does not moderate the enfluence relationship between environmental CSR and trust. The study will contribute to both CSR research and marketing strategy.

Evaluation of the Efficacy of Methylprednisolone, Etoricoxib and a Combination of the Two Substances to Attenuate Postoperative Pain and PONV in Patients Undergoing Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: A Prospective, Randomized, Placebo-controlled Trial

  • Gautam, Sujeet;Agarwal, Amita;Das, Pravin Kumar;Agarwal, Anil;Kumar, Sanjay;Khuba, Sandeep
    • The Korean Journal of Pain
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    • v.27 no.3
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    • pp.278-284
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    • 2014
  • Background: Establishment of laparoscopic cholecystectomy as an outpatient procedure has accentuated the clinical importance of reducing early postoperative pain, as well as postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). We therefore planned to evaluate the role of a multimodal approach in attenuating these problems. Methods: One hundred and twenty adult patients of ASA physical status I and II and undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy were included in this prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Patients were divided into four groups of 30 each to receive methylprednisolone 125 mg intravenously or etoricoxib 120 mg orally or a combination of methylprednisolone 125 mg intravenously and etoricoxib 120 mg orally or a placebo 1 hr prior to surgery. Patients were observed for postoperative pain, fentanyl consumption, PONV, fatigue and sedation, and respiratory depression. Results were analyzed by the ANOVA, a Chi square test, the Mann Whitney U test and by Fisher's exact test. P values of less than 0.05 were considered to be significant. Results: Postoperative pain and fentanyl consumption were significantly reduced by methylprednisolone, etoricoxib and their combination when compared with placebo (P<0.05). The methylprednisolone + etoricoxib combination caused a significant reduction in postoperative pain and fentanyl consumption as compared to methylprednisolone or etoricoxib alone (P<0.05); however, there was no significant difference between the methylprednisolone and etoricoxib groups (P>0.05). The methylprednisolone and methylprednisolone + etoricoxib combination significantly reduced the incidence and severity of PONV and fatigue as well as the total number of patients requiring an antiemetic treatment compared to the placebo and etoricoxib (P<0.05). Conclusions: A preoperative single-dose administration of a combination of methylprednisolone and etoricoxib reduces postoperative pain along with fentanyl consumption, PONV, antiemetic requirements and fatigue more effectively than methylprednisolone or etoricoxib alone or a placebo.