Factors associated with Pap test screening among South Korean women aged 20 to 39 years.

The number of hospital visits with cervical cancer as the chief complaint among South Korean women aged 20 to 39 has increased by 1.2 times between 2016 and 2020, indicating a need for active screening for the disease. This study aimed to investigate the status of the Papanicolaou (Pap) test and identify factors influencing Pap test experience among South Korean women aged 20 to 39 years. An online questionnaire survey was conducted over 5 days starting from November 19, 2021. A total of 338 participants who were randomly sampled by age completed the survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t test, χ2 test, and logistic regression. The mean age of the participants was 29.9 years, and participants with and without Pap test experience accounted for 60.7% and 39.3% of the total, respectively. There were significant differences in age, marital status, employment status, smoking status, experience of coitus, awareness of the National Cancer Screening Program, and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination status according to the Pap test experience (P < .05) of the participants. Pap test attitude, Pap test self-efficacy, cervical cancer knowledge, HPV knowledge, and cancer prevention behavior scores were significantly higher in the Pap test experience group than in the no Pap test experience group (P < .05). Logistic regression analysis showed that experience of coitus (odds ratio [OR] = 10.46, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.54-24.11), marital status (OR = 5.96, 95% CI: 2.25-15.77), awareness of the National Cancer Screening Program (OR = 4.39, 95% CI: 1.66-11.58), HPV vaccination (OR = 2.62, 95% CI: 1.35-5.09), employment status (OR = 2.22, 95% CI: 1.08-4.59), and self-efficacy (OR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.01-1.19) were the influencing factors in the Pap test experience group. To improve the Pap test screening rate among South Korean women aged 20 to 39, reinforcement strategies and intervention programs that involve age-specific approaches must be established.

Predictors of Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery in South Korean Women.

BACKGROUND: Examining the characteristics of the growing cosmetic surgery (CS) consumer population could help promote safer cosmetic procedure practices. We identified the predictors of acceptance of cosmetic surgery (ACS) among South Korean women aged 20-69 years. METHODS: An online survey was administered to 291 randomly sampled participants during August 30-September 6, 2021. An equal number of participants from each age group was selected. They completed a questionnaire concerning the general and CS-related characteristics, acceptance of cosmetic surgery scale, appearance satisfaction, self-esteem, and depression. The mean participants' age and body mass index were 44.12 (± 13.79) years and 22.15 (± 3.39) kg/m2, respectively. RESULTS: Approximately 90.0% of the participants had been exposed to a CS advertisement, with 96.2% having acquired information regarding the CS side effects and 52.6% considering CS in future. Eighty-eight (30.2%) participants had undergone CS. The most common surgical and non-surgical categories were eyelid surgery and botulinum toxin injection, respectively. The ACS increased with decreasing age (ß = - 0.12, p < .05), exposure to a CS advertisement (ß = 0.10, p < .05), consideration of undergoing CS in future (ß = 0.59, p < .001), and increasing depression scores (ß = 0.29, p < .001); collectively, these factors explained 43.0% of the variance (F = 25.21, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: "Consideration of undergoing CS" was the strongest ACS predictor in the multiple regression analysis for the entire study population and according to CS history. Future studies should conduct an in-depth analysis based on the current CS trends, intention to undergo CS in future, and past CS experiences of South Korean women aged 20-69 years. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE V: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Factors Affecting Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery in Adults in Their 20s-30s.

BACKGROUND: This descriptive study investigates cosmetic surgery experience, awareness of side effects, self-esteem, and acceptance of cosmetic surgery (ACS) and aims to identify factors that affect ACS. METHODS: Data on 398 randomly selected participants from a panel of sex-stratified adults in their 20s and 30s registered online with a Korean survey company were collected in September 2019. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, crosstabs, Chi-square test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation, and multiple linear regression. RESULTS: Among the subjects, 47.2% were male and 52.8% were female. The average age of the subjects was 29.98 years. While 91.7% of the subjects previously acquired information on side effects related to cosmetic surgery, the most frequent source was from "bus stops and subway stops," reported by 83.6% of them. Blepharoplasty was the most frequently performed procedure reported by 50 of the 89 subjects (22.4%) who underwent 1 or more cosmetic surgery procedures. Among 187 subjects (47.0%) considering cosmetic surgery in the future, "botulinum toxin" was the most frequently considered procedure. ACS of the subjects was higher with employment (ß = .15, p < .001), previous experience with cosmetic surgery (ß = .22, p < .001), consideration for future cosmetic surgery (ß = .49, p < .001), and lower appearance satisfaction (AS) (ß = -.10, p = .008), and the explanatory power of these variables was 41.7% (F = 72.08, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Most of the subjects in this study were aware of the side effects of cosmetic surgery, and about half were considering cosmetic surgery in the future. Employment status, previous experience with cosmetic surgery, consideration for future cosmetic surgery, and AS were found to be factors affecting ACS. Correlations between age, BMI, ACS, AS, depression, and self-esteem were identified. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE V: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these evidence-based medicine ratings, please refer to the table of contents or the online instructions to authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Expectation-Maximization Algorithm for the Calibration of Complex Simulator Using a Gaussian Process Emulator.

The approximated non-linear least squares (ALS) tunes or calibrates the computer model by minimizing the squared error between the computer output and real observations by using an emulator such as a Gaussian process (GP) model. A potential defect of the ALS method is that the emulator is constructed once and it is no longer re-built. An iterative method is proposed in this study to address this difficulty. In the proposed method, the tuning parameters of the simulation model are calculated by the conditional expectation (E-step), whereas the GP parameters are updated by the maximum likelihood estimation (M-step). These EM-steps are alternately repeated until convergence by using both computer and experimental data. For comparative purposes, another iterative method (the max-min algorithm) and a likelihood-based method are considered. Five toy models are tested for a comparative analysis of these methods. According to the toy model study, both the variance and bias of the estimates obtained from the proposed EM algorithm are smaller than those from the existing calibration methods. Finally, the application to a nuclear fusion simulator is demonstrated.

Deep Neural Network-Based Concentration Model for Oak Pollen Allergy Warning in South Korea.

PURPOSE: Oak is the dominant tree species in Korea. Oak pollen has the highest sensitivity rate among all allergenic tree species in Korea. A deep neural network (DNN)-based estimation model was developed to determine the concentration of oak pollen and overcome the shortcomings of conventional regression models. METHODS: The DNN model proposed in this study utilized weather factors as the input and provided pollen concentrations as the output. Weather and pollen concentration data were used from 2007 to 2016 obtained from the Korea Meteorological Administration pollen observation network. Because it is difficult to prevent over-fitting and underestimation by using a DNN model alone, we developed a bootstrap aggregating-type ensemble model. Each of the 30 ensemble members was trained with random sampling at a fixed rate according to the pollen risk grade. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed model, we compared its performance with those of models of regression and support vector regression (SVR) under the same conditions, with respect to the prediction of pollen concentrations, risk levels, and season length. RESULTS: The mean absolute percentage error in the estimated pollen concentrations was 11.18%, 10.37%, and 5.04% for the regression, SVR and DNN models, respectively. The start of the pollen season was estimated to be 20, 22, and 6 days earlier than that predicted by the regression, SVR and DNN models, respectively. Similarly, the end of the pollen season was estimated to be 33, 20, and 9 days later that predicted by the regression, SVR and DNN models, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the DNN model performed better than the other models. However, the prediction of peak pollen concentrations needs improvement. Improved observation quality with optimization of the DNN model will resolve this issue.

Experience and Acceptance of Cosmetic Procedures Among South Korean Women in Their 20s.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between acceptance of cosmetic surgery (ACS) and cosmetic procedure experience in women in their 20s. METHODS: We collected 330 randomly sampled women in their 20s in November 2017. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t test, crosstabs, Chi-square test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation, and binary logistic regression. RESULTS: Almost all (97.9%) of the subjects had heard about the side effects of cosmetic surgery, and "Internet" was the most common source of information (57.3%). The number of subjects who had already undergone more than 1 cosmetic procedure was 124 women (37.6%), and the first age of cosmetic procedure was 21.81 (± 2.83) years old. ACS had a negative correlation with appearance satisfaction (r = - 0.18, p = 0.001). There was positive correlation between appearance satisfaction and self-esteem (r = 0.62, p < 0.001) and negative correlation between appearance satisfaction and body mass index (BMI) (r = - 0.28, p < 0.001). The higher the age of 1 year, the greater the probability of experience of cosmetic procedure (1.17 times) (OR 1.17, p = 0.002), and the higher the ACS score, the greater the probability of cosmetic procedure being 1.06 times (OR 1.06, p < 0.001). The higher the BMI score, the lower the probability of experiencing cosmetic procedure by 0.84 times (OR 0.84, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Age, ACS and BMI were the factors influencing the cosmetic procedure experience, and the cosmetic procedure experience led to more cosmetic procedures. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE V: Opinions of respected authorities, based on clinical experience, descriptive studies, or reports of expert committees. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Does the increase in ambient CO2 concentration elevate allergy risks posed by oak pollen?

Oak pollen is a major respiratory allergen in Korea, and the distribution of oak trees is expected to increase by ecological succession and climate change. One of the drivers of climate change is increasing CO2, which is also known to amplify the allergy risk of weed pollen by inducing elevated allergenic protein content. However, the impact of CO2 concentration on tree pollen is not clearly understood due to the experimental difficulties in carrying out extended CO2 treatment. To study the response of pollen production of sawtooth oak trees (Quercus acutissima) to elevated levels of ambient CO2, three open-top chambers at the National Institute of Forest Science in Suwon, Korea were utilized with daytime (8 am-6 pm) CO2 concentrations of ambient (× 1.0, ~ 400 ppm), × 1.4 (~ 560 ppm), and × 1.8 (~ 720 ppm) treatments. Each chamber had three sawtooth oak trees planted in September 2009. One or two trees per chamber matured to bloom in 2016. Five to six catkins were selected per tree and polyethylene bags were attached to collect pollen grains. The total number of catkins per tree was counted and the number and weight of pollen grains per catkin were measured. Oak allergen-Que a 1 (Allergon Co., Uppsala, Sweden)-was extracted and purified to make an ELISA kit by which the antigen levels in the pollen samples were quantified. Total pollen counts per tree of the × 1.4 and × 1.8 treatments showed significant increase of 353 and 1299%, respectively, from the × 1.0 treatment (p < 0.001). Allergenic protein contents at the × 1.4 and × 1.8 treatments also showed significant increase of 12 and 11%, respectively (p = 0.011). The × 1.8 treatment induced significant difference from the × 1.0 treatment in terms of pollen production and allergenic protein content, whereas the × 1.4 treatment showed mixed significance. In summary, the oak trees under the elevated CO2 levels, which are expected in the changing climate, produced significantly higher amount of pollen and allergenic protein than under the present air conditions.