• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.243-248
• /
• 2013

Background: Associations between elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) and cancer risk have been reported for many years, but the results from prospective cohort studies remains controversial. A meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies was therefore conducted to address this issue. Methods: Eligible studies were identified by searching the PubMed and EMBASE up to October 2012. Pooled hazard ratios (HR) was calculated by using random effects model. Results: Eleven prospective cohort studies involving a total of 194,796 participants and 11,459 cancer cases were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled HR per natural log unit change in CRP was 1.105 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.033-1.178) for all-cancer, 1.308 (95% CI: 1.097-1.519) for lung cancer, 1.040 (95% CI: 0.910-1.170) for breast cancer, 1.063 (95% CI: 0.965-1.161) for prostate cancer, and 1.055 (95% CI: 0.925-1.184) for colorectal cancer. Dose-response analysis showed that the exponentiated linear trend for a change of one natural log unit in CRP was 1.012 (95% CI: 1.006-1.018) for all-cancer. No evidence of publication bias was observed. Conclusions: The results of this meta-analysis showed that the elevated levels of CRP are associated with an increased risk of all-cancer, lung cancer, and possibly breast, prostate and colorectal cancer. The result supports a role of chronic inflammation in carcinogenesis. Further research effort should be performed to identify whether CRP, as a marker of inflammation, has a direct role in carcinogenesis.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.489-498
• /
• 2008

This study is on the image evaluation of the hair up-style and the wedding dress styles of prospective brides. Based on some prior theoretical studies, and information obtained from wedding magazines and interviews conducted at the beauty business places, four kinds of the hair up-style were selected, namely, top-point, golden-point, back-point, and nape point. Three styles of necklines were selected: boat necklines, V-necklines, and off-shoulder necklines. The surveyor herself did the hair styling for models, and dressed up the models, to produce the stimuli. And the stimuli were presented to percipients along with questionnaires for measuring the image evaluations. Prepared were total 12 different kinds of stimuli, in which four hair up-styles and three dress styles were combined into 12 combinations ($3^*4$), and, with respect to these 12 stimuli, 26 itemized questions were included in the questionnaire. From the factor analysis on the image evaluation of the hair up- style and wedding dresses, five factors were derived as fallowing: attractiveness, boldness, purity, cuteness, feminity. This study revealed that wedding dress styles are more sensitive to the contemporary trend, compared to the hair styles; and the selection in the wedding style is quite influenced by the dress style, but not by the hair up-style. Also, prospective brides evaluated the hair up-styles and the wedding dress styles separately without recognizing their mutual relationship, and thus did not recognize the two as the mutually coordinated relationship, but rather recognize the two as two separate elements.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.535-555
• /
• 2012

The aim of this study is to analyze how the context problems by prospective teachers are solved. In order to achieve this aim, this study examined the conceptual nature of context based on previous studies. I developed context problems about linear programming with reference to the results of the examination about the natural characterization of context. These problems were given to 44 prospective teachers and qualitative methods were used to analyze the data obtained from the written solutions by the participants. This study also developed the framework descriptors for this analysis in the light of the Mathematics Scoring Rubric from Illinois Department of Education(2005). The data was analyzed and interpreted in terms of this framework and the specific characteristics shown in the process of problem solving by the teachers were categorized into four types as a result.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.849-854
• /
• 2012

In this research, the status of prospective clinical researches related to Korean Oriental Medicine was identified from the papers published in domestic Korean medicine journals for the past 10 years, and the ethical validity of them were evaluated. Selection of researches and assessment on the ethical validity were made from the evaluation of two independent persons and the adjustment of the third party, and the collected data was analyzed using SPSS 17.0 software. The yearly status of prospective clinical researches related to Korean oriental medicine showed that the average number of them, which was six before 2005, was decreased to only one in 2006, and it started to recover gradually after 2007. The result of ethical validity test of prospective clinical researches related to oriental medicine showed that 5 researches (12.2%) in "unbiased selection of subjects and recruitment", 15 researches (36.6%) in "informed consent", 10 researches (24.4%) in "ethical considerations for vulnerable subjects", and 8 researches (19.5%) in "pre-deliberation and ethical oversight of the IRB" were appropriate to the ethical standards. The interest for clinical researches has been increased, and the ethical aspect of the clinical researches has been emphasized in oriental medicine. The results reported here are expected to provide a help to perform an ethical oriental medicine related clinical researches.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.14-22
• /
• 2010

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate any clinical research regarding asthma published by the Korean Oriental Medical Society and its sub-societies for future rigorous clinical research. Methods: Every article relevant to asthma was initially obtained from journals in the Korean Oriental Medical Society and its sub-societies by electronic search at journal web sites or manual search. Journals were limited to those registered by the Korea Research Foundation. From initial findings, two independent reviewers selected clinical articles and these articles were further analyzed separately into predefined criteria according to prospective and retrospective studies. For prospective studies, quality assessment was also conducted. Results: From 99 articles initially obtained, 19 were finally analyzed. 14 were prospective whereas 5 were retrospective. Among the prospective articles, there were no randomized controlled trials and the non-randomized studies had no control groups, with several problems of quality regarding pre-calculated study size and unbiased assessment. None of the retrospective studies described asthma diagnosis objectively and outcome measures were either non-relevant to asthma or non-validated. Conclusions: Well-designed randomized controlled studies for asthma are needed and more rigorous non-randomized controlled studies should be conducted.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.151-161
• /
• 2010

Objectives : This study aimed to evaluate any clinical studies regarding the herbal medicine for dementia focusing on Korean literature for future rigorous clinical research. Methods: Every article relevant to dementia was initially obtained from oriental medical related journals by electronic search at journal web sites or manual searches. Journals were limited to those registered with the Korea Research Foundation. From initial findings. two independent reviewers selected clinical articles and these articles were further analyzed separately by predefined criteria according to prospective and retrospective studies. For randomized controlled trial and non randomized controlled trial. quality assessment was also conducted. Results: From ninety seven patients initially obtained articles. twenty three patients were finally analyzed. One article was randomized controlled study. Four articles were prospective whereas eighteen patients were retrospective. In the qualitative evaluation of prospective articles. there was deduction regarding pre-calculated study size and prospective data collecting. Assessment measurement most frequently used was Mini Mental State Examination. The order of frequency of use herbs were identified. Conclusions : According to our study. the herbal medicine for dementia in general showed a positive effect in the cognitive aspects of dementia patients. Further well-designed randomized controlled studies should be conducted.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.279-296
• /
• 2008

This research aims to compare and identify the prospective elementary teachers' perspectives on mathematics class. In this aim, we analyzed the comments on the mathematics class by the prospective elementary teachers (senior students and junior students) who are differ in the time of study in the University of Education. As the results of this research, the senior students commented the mathematics class by applying the theories in mathematics education, but the junior students did not. Furthermore, the senior students had the more rigid perspectives on mathematics class and commented in more depth on mathematics class in comparison with the junior students. While, the senior students showed a weak point that they overextended and over-applied the some mathematics education theories in the comments on mathematics class.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.315-321
• /
• 2011

The goal of this study is to reduce patient exposure dose by providing image quality and radiation dose according to inspection methods. Volume Computed Tomography Dose Index(CTDIvol) and Dose Length Product(DLP) of prospective and retrospective ECG gating snapshot segment of Coronary CT angiography(CTA) were measured each snapshot segment methods. CT number, noise, uniformity, and resolution were also measured using phantom under the same condition of coronary CTA. The results showed that CT number, noise, uniformity and resolution are similar to each other. In terms of CTDIvol and DLP, however, measurement dose of prospective ECG gating snapshot segment was lower than the retrospective case by 37.5% and 40.3%. Therefore, it is highly recommended that in the coronary CTA, prospective ECG gating scan mode should be chosen to reduce patient dose.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.643-649
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study was to assess the prospective teachers' perception of food risk with the goal of providing the ways to improve their knowledge and perception of food risk. A self-administered questionnaire was developed and offered to 307 freshman and sophomore in an elementary teacher-cultivating university located in Seoul. The collected data were analyzed in terms of frequencies, cross tabulation analysis, t-test and ANONA with a deviation level of 5% using SPSS 15.0. The results of this research were as follows: 'Taste' was identified as an important factor for purchasing food (54.4%), and 'Manufacture date/expiration date' (67.0%) was checked first before food was purchased. The respondants viewed food additives (66.8%) followed by environmental contaminants (17.6%) as the most dangerous factors for food consumption. Even though they did not know the actual level of risk these factors posed to food, they still perceived them as dangerous. Most of them did not have any educational experiences on food risk, and if any, their sources of information were TV (46.6%) and the internet (19.5%). And, they did want to have information on food risk through TV, radio (41.1%) and the internet(16.4%). Based on the above results, the subjects who have great potential to influence children appeared not to have sound knowledge or a balanced perception of food risks. Therefore, systematic educational opportunities for prospective teachers should be provided to promote food risk communication.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.354-362
• /
• 2017

Purpose: Laparoscopic gastrectomy is accepted as a standard treatment for patients with early gastric cancer in Korea, Japan, and China. However, duodenal stump leakage remains a fatal complication after gastrectomy. We conducted a prospective phase II study to evaluate the safety of the new technique of laparoscopic reinforcement suture (LARS) on the duodenal stump. Materials and Methods: The estimated number of patients required for this study was 100 for a period of 18 months. Inclusion criteria were histologically proven gastric adenocarcinoma treated with laparoscopic distal or total gastrectomy and Billroth II or Roux-en-Y reconstruction. The primary endpoint was the incidence of duodenal stump leakage within the first 30 postoperative days. The secondary endpoints were early postoperative outcomes until discharge. Results: One hundred patients were enrolled between February 2016 and March 2017. The study groups consisted of 65 male and 35 female patients with a mean age (years) of 62.3. Of these, 63 (63%) patients had comorbidities. The mean number of retrieved lymph nodes was 38. The mean operation time was 145 minutes including 7.8 minutes of mean LARS time. There was no occurrence of duodenal stump leakage. Thirteen complications occurred, with one case of reoperation for splenic artery rupture and one case of mortality. Conclusions: Based on the results of this prospective phase II study, LARS can be safely performed in a short operation period without development of duodenal stump leakage. A future randomized prospective controlled trial is required to confirm the surgical benefit of LARS compared to non-LARS.