• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.45-50
• /
• 2016

Background: The tobacco epidemic is a heralding health menace, particularly among college students. Tobacco usage among young can have an especially devastating effect as they can be exposed for longer periods. Data to estimate the prevalence of tobacco use in young adults will be a valuable addition to the existing resources. Materials and Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was therefore carried out in Mangalore city using a pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire adapted from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) with a representative sample of 720 students aged 18-20 years selected from degree colleges by multi-stage random sampling. Results: Prevalence of 'ever users' and 'current users' of smoking were 20.4% and 11.4%, respectively. The mean age at initiation of cigarette smoking was 16 years and the majority (31 %) smoked in public places. Interestingly, 84% of them knew about the harmful effects of cigarette smoking. About one half of smokers had some or most of their friends smoking. Multivariate analysis revealed gender (OR=8.585: CI-3.26-22.5), pocket money (OR=4.165; CI=1.76-9.82) and peer's smoking habit (OR= 5.15; CI-2.21-11.9) have higher odds as correlates of tobacco usage among college students. Conclusions: It is of prime importance to highlight the role of prevention of smoking initiation rather than subsequently trying to stop the habit. Comprehensive interventions embracing family, friends and social milieu are needed to reduce tobacco use among students in India.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.sup3
• /
• pp.143-147
• /
• 2016

Breast and cervical cancers are among leading causes of morbidity and mortality in women worldwide. Regular screening is very important for early detection of these cancers, but studies indicate low rates of screening participation. In this survey we studied the rate of screening participation among women 18-64 years old referred to urban health centers in Kerman, Iran in 2015. A cross-sectional study was carried out on 240 women who were selected using a multistage sampling method. Data collected using a questionnaire covered demographics and questions about common cancer screening status in women. Analysis was by SPSS 19. The mean age of participants was $31.7{\pm}7$. Most (97.1%) were married, housewives (83.3%), had high school diploma (43.8%) and a monthly income more than ten million Rls. The frequency of the Pap test performance was higher in women who were employed and with a university degree (p<0.05). The frequency of mammography performance in women over 40 years was also higher in women with university degree (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the frequency of pelvic examination, and self and clinical breast examinations based on education, household income and employment (p>0.05). Our study found that the rate of screening participation among women is low. Investigation of the barriers, increasing the awareness of women about the importance and advantages of screening and also more incentives for health personnel especially family physicians to pay more attention to preventive programs could be effective.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.725-729
• /
• 2014

Background: Having been known as a virulent disease in 1970s, cancer is now onsidered a chronic disease and 64% of cancer patients live for five years after diagnosis. Home care has gradually gained more importance and it is a great burden on the shoulders of caregivers. Caregivers have to undertake the responsibility of the cancer patient's home management, and organize care and arrange health care services according to the ever-changing condition of patients. Caregivers should be prepared for home care so they can provide accurate and complete care to patients. This descriptive study aims to investigate challenges that caregivers encounter in the home care of patients and the reasons for these challenges. Materials and Methods: The research group consisted of caregivers of outpatients in a daily treatment center in a university hospital. The research sampling consisted of 137 voluntary caregivers of patients who attended the Daily Treatment Center for control, chemotherapy or other supportive cares services between January-June, 2011. Data were collected with face-to-face interviews in the Daily Treatment Center. Ethics Committee approval was taken university hospital; caregivers and their patients were informed about the research and their approval was taken as well. Results: It was found that 54.01% of caregivers help patient's nutrition, 50.36% help medicine use, 26.28% help oral hygiene, 26.28% help to meet urinary needs and 51.82% help to change clothes, 69.34% of caregivers help to change bed sheets, 38.69% help the patient to communicate with their environment and 71.53% help to bring the patient to hospital or outside. Conclusions: This study, it was found that caregivers experience challenges due to following factors: patient nutrition, medicine use, oral and body hygiene, colostomy maintenance and stomach tube feeding, concern of dropping the patient, feeling incompetency in body temperature and fever control, fatigue, and lack of personal time.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2009

Rapid social change affects residential environments and this in turn creates new stimuli to which people have to adapt. These stimuli have been seen to increase stress levels. Therefore, dwellers in these environments try to reduce stress through various methods. The purpose of this paper is to: 1) identify the general trends of coping styles about residential environmental stress, 2) analyze the differences in socio-demographic characteristics and how the physical characteristics of buildings affect stress, find out how personal backgrounds affect stress levels and the ability to get rid of environmental-related stress. The subjects in this study consisted of people living in multi-family housing in Gwangju. The city is divided into 5 districts and used quota sampling. 324 housewives were surveyed from the households by self-administered questionnaires. The survey was conducted in December, 2006, after the questionnaire was revised based on the results of preliminary survey. After all the questionnaires were collected, the data was coded and analyzed using the SPSS 12.0 program. This study confirmed that the manner in which those in multi-family housing coped with stress. Especially, we need a policy which seriously considers residents who are of low social-economic standing. As well as being exposed to residential environmental stress, they also have no means to deal with it. The age of a building had a strong impact on coping styles about residential environmental stress. We have to make special studies about the adaptive reuse of buildings for the reduction of residential environmental stress and to greatly improve coping styles. In conclusion, it emphasized the importance of education, information, and economic aid. Reasonable housing management would surely lead to a rise in residential satisfaction and the promotion of residential welfare.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.561-573
• /
• 2023

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) constructed the KURT (KAERI Underground Research Tunnel) to analyze the hydrogeological/geochemical characteristics of deep rock mass. Numerous boreholes have been drilled to conduct various field tests. The selection of suitable investigation intervals within a borehole is of great importance. When objectives are centered around hydraulic flow and groundwater sampling, intervals with sufficient groundwater flow are the most suitable. This study defines such points as hydraulic outliers and aimed to detect them using borehole geophysical logging data (temperature and EC) from a 1 km depth borehole. For systematic and efficient outlier detection, machine learning algorithms, such as DBSCAN, OCSVM, kNN, and isolation forest, were applied and their applicability was assessed. Following data preprocessing and algorithm optimization, the four algorithms detected 55, 12, 52, and 68 outliers, respectively. Though this study confirms applicability of the machine learning algorithms, it is suggested that further verification and supplements are desirable since the input data were relatively limited.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.60-73
• /
• 2024

Background: The available information on terrestrial pest gastropods and their impact on the environment worldwide is scarce and outdated. The present study aimed to address this gap by conducting the first comprehensive survey of pest gastropods in the Nuwara Eliya District, an important vegetable growing area in the highlands of Sri Lanka. Eighty agricultural lands were surveyed over two years by establishing ten 1 m2 sampling plots per crop type in each agricultural land. Geo-coordinates, air temperature, elevation, relative humidity, daily rainfall, soil pH, species richness and abundance were recorded for rainy and non-rainy periods. The relationship between species composition and environmental variables was analyzed using multi-regression models and distribution maps. Results: Out of the 14 species recorded in agricultural lands, nine were identified as exotic pest species. Species abundance (t = 4.69, p < 0.05) and diversity was higher in the rainy period and the dominant species during this period were Bradybaena similaris (t = 2.69, p < 0.05) and Deroceras reticulatum (t = 2. 46, p < 0.05). Eggs and estivating adults were found in soil and under decaying organic matter during the non-rainy period. The exotic species showed broader preferences for the measured environmental factors and showed a wider range in distribution compared to the native species. Variation in pest gastropod composition was significantly accounted for by elevation, relative humidity, soil pH and daily rainfall. Additionally, the species richness and abundance varied across locations due to the combined effects of elevation, crop type and stage, and field type. Conclusions: The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the biology and ecology of gastropod pests to develop effective management strategies. By considering the influence of environmental factors and implementing appropriate soil management techniques, such as targeting specific habitats and crop stages, it is possible to mitigate pest populations and minimize their impact on agricultural lands. Overall, this research contributes valuable insights into the dynamics and interactions of terrestrial gastropods in agricultural ecosystems, supporting sustainable pest management practices.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.187-198
• /
• 1995

This paper develops practical and reallstic reliabllity models and methods for the evaluation of system rehability and system rellabllity based ratlng of R.C box glrder bridge superstructures. The precise prediction of reberved carrying capacity of bridge as d system is extremely difficult especially when the brldges are highly redundant and slgnlficantly deter 1or;itcd or dainagetl. Thls papel proposes a nt2w approach for the evaluation of reseived system c,drrying capaaty of br~dges in terms ot equ~vdleiit system strength, which may b~ ddcflned as a brtdge system strength correipcmdlng tu the system rehability of the bridge. This cm be ticrAvcd from an Inverse process bami or1 the con~ept of FOSM(F1rst Order Second Moment) form of system reliabihty index. The sf rength llmt state models for K C box girder br~dges suggested In the paper dre based on the basi~ bending and shear strength And thc system reliatxllty pro,~lerri of box gritier super structure 1s formuldted as parallel serles models obtalncd f ~ o m thc FMA(Fdilure blode Rp proath) based on major failure mc>clmusrns or c~itlcal fdure ,>tatcs of each nuder .WOSM(Ad-vanced First Order Second Moment) and IST(1mportance Sampling Technique) simulation algorithm are used for the reliability analysis of the proposed models.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.397-411
• /
• 2023

The number of deteriorated bridges with a service period of more than 30 years has been rapidly increasing in Korea. Accordingly, the importance of advanced maintenance technologies through the predictions of age-induced deterioration degree, condition, and performance of bridges is more and more noticed. The prediction method of the safety grade of bridges was proposed in this study using the classification models of the Decision Tree and the Random Forest based on machine learning. As a result of analyzing these models for the 8,850 bridges located in national roads with various evaluation indexes such as confusion matrix, balanced accuracy, recall, ROC curve, and AUC, the Random Forest largely showed better predictive performance than that of the Decision Tree. In particular, random under-sampling in the Random Forest showed higher predictive performance than that of other sampling techniques for the C and D grade bridges, with the recall of 83.4%, which need more attention to maintenance because of the significant deterioration degree. The proposed model can be usefully applied to rapidly identify the safety grade and to establish an efficient and economical maintenance plan of bridges that have not recently been inspected.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.6
• /
• pp.209-220
• /
• 2020

This research examines the affect of destination image factors on revisit intention of domestic tourists at Ba Ria Vung-Tau (BRVT), by questioning directly 510 domestic tourists. The convenient sampling method is used in dividing the crowds into four groups; the four main surveyed areas in BRVT are: Vung Tau, Long Hai-Phuoc Hai, Xuyen Moc and Con Dao. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies were utilized.A focus group of 10 domestic tourists wasset up to review and explore the variousfactors as well as the conceptual model. An in-depth interview with 12 participants was developed to fine-tune measurement items. The questionnaire applied a 5-point Likert scale. Checking the reliability by Cronbach's Alpha, exploratory factor analyzing and linear multiple regression were used with the SPSS program. The results show that there are eight main destination image factors affecting domestic tourists revisit intention to BRVT using linear regression and arranged by decreasing importance: Infrastructure, Variety Seeking, Accessibility, Local food, Atmosphere, Environment, Price Value, Leisure and Entertainment. From that, the research offers some suggestions and policy recommendations for the tourism business and provincial policy-makers to identify the main issues and develop better customer services to increase domestic tourists'revisit intention.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.311-317
• /
• 2014

The Pressurized water reactor owners group (PWROG) developed and applied a risk-informed in-service inspection (RI-ISI) program, as an alternative to the existing ASME Section XI' sampling inspection method. The RI-ISI programs enhance overall safety by focusing inspections of piping at high safety significance (HSS) locations where failure mechanisms are likely to be present. Additionally, the RI-ISI program can reduce nondestructive evaluation (NDE) exams, man-rem exposure for inspectors, and inspection time, among other benefits. The RI-ISI method of in-service piping inspection was applied to 3 units (KSNPs: Korea standard nuclear power plants) and is being deployed to the other units. In this paper, the results of RI-ISI for a Framatome type (France CPI) nuclear power plant are presented. It was concluded that application of RI-ISI to the plant could enhance and maintain plant safety, as well as provide the benefits of greater reliability.