a b s t r a c tPurpose: This study explored the factors influencing disaster response competency, that is, demographic and disaster-related characteristics, personal disaster (household and workplace) preparedness, disaster risk perception, and self-efficacy in handling disasters among emergency medical technicians in South Korea. Methods: The study follows a descriptive, cross-sectional design and uses a self-reported questionnaire. Emergency medical technicians, amounting to 1,020 in all, currently working in firefighting organizations from four South Korean cities (Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, and Ulsan) participated in the study. Results: Disaster risk perception, self-efficacy for disaster, participation experience in disaster education/ training, and personal disaster (household and workplace) preparedness predicted the disaster response competency of emergency medical technicians in South Korea. Conclusion: There is a need for an antidisaster program to enhance the disaster risk perception, selfefficacy, personal disaster (household and workplace) preparedness, and the disaster education/ training participation rate toward enhancing disaster response competency of emergency medical technicians in South Korea.

Population-based studies of the incidence of tuberculosis in cancer patients according to the type of cancer are limited. We investigated the cancer-specific incidence of tuberculosis in a nationwide population-based cohort in a country with an intermediate burden of tuberculosis.We used mandatory National Health Insurance claims data to construct a cancer cohort of adults (aged 20–99 years) with newly diagnosed malignancies other than lung cancer, from January 2008 to December 2012. Patients who developed tuberculosis in this period were identified in the cancer cohort and the general population. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of tuberculosis in the cancer cohort according to type of cancer and time after cancer diagnosis were calculated by comparing the observed incidence rates with those inferred from the age- and gender-specific incidence rates in the general population.A total of 855,382 cancer patients and 1589,876 person-years (py) were observed. A total of 5745 patients developed tuberculosis; the mean incidence rate was 361.3 per 100,000 py, and the SIR was 2.22 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.17–2.27). The incidence rate was highest for hematologic malignancy and lowest for thyroid cancer. It was also highest as 650.1 per 100,000 py, with SIR of 3.70 (CI, 3.57–3.83) for the first 6 months after diagnosis of malignancy and then declined. However, it still remained higher than that of the general population after 24 months (SIR = 1.43, CI, 1.36–1.51).The incidence of tuberculosis increases after diagnosis in patients with malignancies. The risk of tuberculosis differs according to the type of cancer and remains elevated even 24 months after cancer diagnosis. Tuberculosis should be considered an important comorbidity in patients with malignancies.

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Abstract. A multidirectional edge-directed interpolation algorithm that features a region division method is proposed. In the proposed method, an interpolation pixel is newly modeled as a weighted sum of 12 neighboring pixels representing 12 different directions. Each weight is estimated by Wiener filter theory using geometric duality. The proposed method for dividing the interpolation region reduces the heavy computational complexity of the proposed model. Analyzing edge continuities, the model divides an image into three regions, and only strong edge regions are interpolated. Simulation results show that several directional edges are restored clearly in a subjective test, with fair performance in an objective test.