• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.15
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• pp.6121-6125
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• 2014

Background: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a potential biomarker for early detection of prostate cancer (PCa) but its level is known to be affected by many background factors and roles of ubiquitous toxicants have not been determined. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are ubiquitous reproductive toxicants used in consumer products, which promote tumor formation in some reproductive model systems by binding to AhR, but human data on its expression in prostate cancer as well as its association with PSA levels are not clear. This study aimed to evaluate the expression levels of AhR and its association with serological levels of PSA and to detect possible effects of background factors and EDC exposure history on PSA levels in PCa cases. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on the tissue levels of AhR and serum levels of PSA in 53 PCa cases from 2008-2011 and associations between each and background and lifestyle related factors were determined. Results: Although the AhR was overexpressed in PCa and correlated with the age of patients, it did not correlate with PSA levels.Of nutritional factors, increased intake of polysaturated fats and fish in the routine regimen of PCa cases increased the PSA levels significantly. Conclusions: AhR overexpression in PCa pontws to roles of EDCs in PCa but without any direct association with PSA levels. However, PSA levels are affected by exposure to possible toxicants in foods whichneed to be assessed as possible risk factors of PCa in future studies.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.15-22
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to define the effects of noise and background music on the trunk muscle fatigue during dynamic lifting and lowering tasks. Six healthy male subjects with no prior history of low back disorders participated in this study. The participants were exposed to two levels of background noise such as 40dB noise and 90dB noise and three levels of background music such as no music, slow music, and fast music. Six different combinations of background noise and background music were played while the participants were performing the lifting task at 15% level of Maximum Voluntary Contraction. Electromyography signals from six muscles were collected and fatigue levels were analyzed quantitatively. In results, the 90dB noise increased trunk muscle fatigue and slowed down the recovery. The trunk muscle fatigue was the lowest when the fast music was played for as background. After recovery, the 90dB noise increased trunk muscle fatigue. The trunk muscle fatigue was the lowest when the slow music was played for as background. The results can be useful to manage the cumulative fatigue of trunk muscles due to background noise and music during repetitive lifting and lowering tasks in industry.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1991 no.05
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• pp.18-21
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• 1991

In this paper, the effect of background grey levels on the visual perception of target image displayed on CRT monitor has been investigated. The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of CRT monitor as a display medium of image information especially in medical imaging field. Three sets of experiments have been performed in this study; the first was to measure the luminance response of CRT monitor and to find the best fitting equation, and the second was the psychophysical experiment measuring the threshold grey level difference between the target image and the background required for visual discrimination for various background grey levels, and the third was to develop a visual model that is predictable of the threshold grey level difference measured in the psychophysical experiment. The result of psycophysical experiment shows that the visual perception performance is significantly degraded in the range of grey levels lower than 50, which is turned out due to the low luminance change of CRT monitor in this range while human eye has been adapted to relatively bright ambient illumination.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 1993

In this paper, the effect of background grey levels on the visual perception of target image displayed on CRT monitor has been investigated. The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of CRT monitor as a display medium of image Information especially in medical imaging field. Tllree sets of experiments have been performed in this study : the first was to measure the luminance response of CRT monitor and to find the best fitting equation, and the second was the psychophysical experiment measuring the threshold grey level differences between the target image and the background required for visual discrimination (or various background grey levels, and the third was to develop a visual model that is predictable of the threshold grey level difference measured in the psychophysical experiment. The result of psycophysical experiment shows that the visual perception performance is significantly degraded in the range of grey levels lower than 50, which is turned out due to she low luminance change of CRT monitor in this range while human eye has been adapted lo relatively bright ambient illumination. And it Is also shown in the simulation study using the developed visual model that the dominant factor degrading the visual performance is the reflected light from the monitor surface by ambient light in general illumination condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2004.05b
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• pp.591-594
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• 2004

In this paper, The identity distinction of the moving objects using distance among hue normalization levels was proposed. Moving objects are detected by using difference image method and integral projection method to background image and objects image only with hue area. Hue information of the detected moving area are normalized by 24 levels from 0$^{\circ}$ to 360$^{\circ}$. A distance in between normalized levels with a hue distribution chart of the normalized moving objects is used for the identity distinction feature parameters of the moving objects. To examine proposed method in this paper, image of moving cars are obtained by setting up three cameras at different places every 1 km on outer motorway. The simulation results of identity distinction show that it is possible to distinct the identity a distance in between normalization levels of a hue distribution chart without background.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.38-47
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• 1989

Calculated results for subband structures of electrons in GaInAs/InP hegerojunctions are presented, and their sensitivity to two parameters background impurity concentrations in the GaInAs, heterojunction barrier height-is examined. Energy levels, Fermi level and population of the ground energy level are increased with background impurity concentrations. The difference of the ground and first-excited energy levels is also increased with the increase of barrier height. However, the difference of the energy levels is almost invariable with barier height. But, population of the ground energy level decreases, but that of the first-excited energy level shows a slight increase.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 2010

Romania aims to adopt and implement the European Union's legislation, also including that for the field of water management. Like other countries, groundwater in Romania is locally polluted from point sources, such as leaking landfills, as well as from diffuse pollution sources, include fertilizers, pesticides and leakages from sewers, in urbanized areas. Diffuse pollution can also occur indirectly, by over-exploitation of groundwater wells, resulting in salt water intrusion, as well as from mining and exploitation of mineral aggregates. Romania has quite an intensive monitoring scheme to measure groundwater quality in phreatic and confined aquifers. The purpose of the work resumed in this paper was to derive natural background levels (NBL) for groundwater in order to distinguish the natural elevated concentrations of some substances (natural phenomena) from point and diffuse pollution (anthropogenic phenomena). Based on these NBLs, threshold values (TV) for groundwater will be set according to the requirements of the European Water Framework Directive and the related Groundwater Directive. This paper describes the results of a study for the derivation of NBL and TV in a pilot Groundwater Body. Also, the process and draft results for extrapolating this work for all Romanian groundwater bodies is explained, as well as points for future consideration with respect to monitoring and management.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2010

Two elements of paisley textile design (color and size of motif) were manipulated to investigate their effects on people's perception. Korean and Caucasian American women were selected to represent Asian and Western countries to compare the differences in image perceptions of paisley patterns between two cultures. The participants were 168 female university students composed of 84 Caucasian Americans and 84 Koreans. The experimental design was a $2{\times}2{\times}7$ factorial design: two levels of perceiver's culture, two levels of motif size, and seven levels of the motif color. The four factors used to account for image perception were an elegance factor, individuality factor, maturity factor, and femininity factor. The results of the present study confirm that image perception can be different according to the color and size of a motif and the perceiver's culture. In the results, Americans perceived the paisley pattern as more preferable than Koreans did. Red background + Orange motif was perceived as the most feminine and Dark blue background + Sky blue motif and Dark gray background + Gray motif was perceived as the most masculine in both cultures. Compared to the big motif, the small motif was perceived as more elegant in both cultures.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.47-59
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• 2002

Three experiments were conducted to investigate whether different types (common vs. uncommon) of prior-examples entail different effects in creative problem solving, and whether types/levels (rich or lean. common or uncommon) of background knowledge interact with types of prior-examples. It was found that the example types and the types/levels of background knowledge do interact and have some differential effects on generating novel and useful ideas. In Experiment 1 and 2. uncommon examples had a positive effect - generating many novel and useful ideas. regardless of background knowledge types. while common examples had positive effects, only when the background knowledge was somewhat uncommon In Experiment 3 it was also found that types (irrelevant,. single common. single uncommon, or multiple common + uncommon) of background knowledge seemed to influence differently on the ease of finding solutions: when background knowledge is diverse or not directly related to the task problem, uncommon prior examples produced much greater number of novel ideas than it was with single common or sin91e uncommon background knowledge. Implications of the present study were discussed. in relation to mental sets and fixation.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.81-88
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• 1986

The main purpose of this study was to clarify the validity with patient's general background of Korean Pain Measurement tool. The subjects of this study were 195 patient from the 8 Med-Surgical wards in H. University Hospital in Seoul. The study was conducted over a 40 day period from Oct. 5, 1985 to Nov. 15, 1985. All patients had pain. Korean Pain Measurement tool and simple discriptive pain scale as Graphic Rating Scale were used to measure the pain, The Pearson Correlation Coefficient test was exercised to measure the correlation between the two kinds of pain tools. To clarify the Sensitivity of Korean Pain tool was used frequency with patient's response. To compare the difference in Pain levels with patient's general background, ANOVA and t-test was employed. To compare the difference in pain levels existed due to pain area of the body used mean numbers. The outcome of the study was as follows : 1. A positive correlation did exist between two pain measurement tools. (r=.2028∼.7768, p ＜0.002) 2. The sensitive subclass in Korean Pain Measurement tools was 7 subclass. The 7 subclass are inflammatory repeated pain, simple stimulating, traction pressure, dull pain, cavity pain, digestion related pain, suffering. related pain. 3. The existence of levels of pain in accordance with patient's general background, the department of hospital, pain area of the body and school age was supported. Age, sex, religion, marrital status, economic status, acute or chronic status was not supported. 4. The existence of higher pain levels of the body area was anus, chest, and lower pain levels of the body area was eye, ear, nose and throat. Based on the above results, it was found that sensitive subclasses of the Korean Pain Measurement tool was 7 subclass among all of 20 subclass. Thus it can be concluded that Korean Pain Mea-surement tool when partialy used and supplemented, can be an effective tool of pain measurement for the patient in Korea.