• Title/Summary/Keyword: Risk of bias

Search Result 811, Processing Time 0.034 seconds

Electromechanically assisted walking in patients with cerebral palsy: A meta-analysis

  • Kim, Kwonhoi;Lee, Sukmin
    • Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
    • /
    • v.10 no.1
    • /
    • pp.22-31
    • /
    • 2021
  • Objective: This review aims to analyze the effects of electromechanically assisted walking in patients with cerebral palsy(CP). Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: We reviewed systematically using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) checklist guidelines. The inclusion criteria for this study were all CP patients. The intervention was electromechanically assisted walking. The outcome measures included gait parameters, function, spasticity. Studies excluded from this review were excluded from the review if they were non-English languages and if the study was not published as a full report, and if they were not randomized controlled trials (RCTs) designs. The RevMan 5.4 program was used to evaluate and explain the results. The risk of bias was evaluated independently by two reviewers. The quantitative meta-analysis, including mean differences (MD) and associated standard deviations (SD) from baseline and follow-up assessments, were recorded. Results: A total of 634 articles were searched. Two hundred eighty-nine duplicate articles were excluded, and 345 of 634 originals were left for selection. Of these 74 papers, 44 were out of topic, and 19 reported no mean or standard deviation values. And one was a non-experimental study. Finally, ten studies were included. All 10 RCTs of electromechanically assisted walking were analyzed. The meta-analysis showed a significant improvement in gait cycle (95% CI (confidence intervals), 0.09 to 0.19, I2=0%), Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM) D (95% CI, 3.27 to 13.17, I2=0%) and GMFM E (95% CI, 0.22 to 6.41, I2=0%). Conclusions: Electromechanically assisted training helps in walking in patients with CP.

Healthy lifestyle interventions for childhood and adolescent cancer survivors: a systematic review and meta-analysis

  • Kyung-Ah Kang;Suk Jung Han;Jiyoung Chun;Hyun-Yong Kim;Yerin Oh;Heejin Yoon
    • Child Health Nursing Research
    • /
    • v.29 no.2
    • /
    • pp.111-127
    • /
    • 2023
  • Purpose: This study investigated the effects of healthy lifestyle interventions (HLSIs) on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in childhood and adolescent cancer survivors (CACS). Methods: Major databases were searched for English-language original articles published between January 1, 2000 and May 2, 2021. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and non-RCTs were included. Quality was assessed using the revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool, and a meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3 software. Results: Nineteen studies were included. Significant effects on HR-QoL were found for interventions using a multi-modal approach (exercise and education) (d=-0.46; 95% confidence interval [CI]=-0.84 to -0.07, p=.02), lasting not less than 6 months (d=-0.72; 95% CI=-1.15 to -0.29, p=.0010), and using a group approach (d=-0.46; 95% CI=-0.85 to -0.06, p=.02). Self-efficacy showed significant effects when HLSIs provided health education only (d=-0.55; 95% CI=-0.92 to -0.18; p=.003), lasted for less than 6 months (d=-0.40; 95% CI=-0.69 to -0.11, p=.006), and were conducted individually (d=-0.55; 95% CI=-0.92 to -0.18, p=.003). The physical outcomes (physical activity, fatigue, exercise capacity-VO2, exercise capacity-upper body, body mass index) revealed no statistical significance. Conclusion: Areas of HLSIs for CACS requiring further study were identified, and needs and directions of research for holistic health management were suggested.

Trends and Meta-Analysis of Research on the Operation of Programs for Bereaved Families in South Korea

  • Myung-Nam Lee;Jung Won Suk;Hyunsook Zin Lee
    • Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
    • /
    • v.26 no.3
    • /
    • pp.126-139
    • /
    • 2023
  • Purpose: This study aimed to analyze interventions for bereaved families and evaluate their effectiveness, with the ultimate goal of supporting evidence-based nursing for bereaved families. Methods: Research trends were identified based on a search of domestic databases from January 2000 to December 2022, and a meta-analysis was conducted on interventions for bereaved families. Forty-five papers were selected, and information was extracted on participants, research design, and interventions. A meta-analysis of seven papers was performed, and the effect size was calculated. Results: Fourteen papers dealt with interventions for middle-aged women who had lost their spouses, 20 used qualitative research methods, and 20 were on art therapy programs. Thirty studies had fewer than 10 participants, and most interventions had 60~120 minutes per session and 9~16 sessions in total. There were seven randomized controlled trials, and all studies included in the quality evaluation showed a low risk of bias. Four papers measured grief as an outcome, and the effect size was -1.9577 (95% CI: -2.9206 to -0.9947), indicating that the treatment significantly decreased grief (P<0.001). Six papers measured depression as an outcome, and the effect size was -1.6775 (95% CI: -2.1835 to -1.1716), showing that the treatment significantly decreased depression (P<0.001). Conclusion: Intervention programs for bereaved families were shown to be effective in relieving grief and depression. However, programs should be developed that target middle-aged men who have lost their spouses and children who have lost their parents. Randomized controlled trials should also be conducted on interventions to reduce grief and depression.

A Study on the Fair Returns of Private Participants' Investments on BTO PPI Projects (BTO 민간투자사업 적정수익률에 관한 연구)

  • Shin, Sung-Hwan
    • Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
    • /
    • v.10 no.2
    • /
    • pp.121-131
    • /
    • 2009
  • This study will estimate the fair return on private participants' investments on BTO type PPI (Private Public Infrastructure) projects using the data from past BTO projects in Korea. In the past, the real returns of $6%\sim9%$ were provided to private participants. The results of this study show that those returns were too high compared with the estimated fair returns, especially for projects with the minimum revenue guarantee (MRG) by the government. Moreover, the excess portion of the return over the fair return becomes even larger when there is a demand forecast bias. In reality, most of the BTO projects have far lower actual revenues than the initial forecasted revenue in concession agreements. This phenomenon implies that BTO projects have a tendency of overly forecasting revenues. If so, the value of the minimum revenue guarantee becomes larger, and therefore, the fair return to private participants should decrease. It is hoped that this study helps future BTO projects' concession agreements between the government and private participants to become more fair from the perspectives of risk and return profiles.

Realization of a 7.7~8.5GHz 10 W Solid-State Power Amplifier (7.7~8.5 GHz 10 W 반도체 전력 증폭기의 구현에 관한 연구)

  • 박효달;김용구
    • The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
    • /
    • v.19 no.12
    • /
    • pp.2489-2497
    • /
    • 1994
  • This paper presents the development of a 10 W solid-state hybrid power amplifier(SSPA). operating over $7.7\sim8.5GHz$. The fabrication and measurement of this amplifier are performed with 3 sections, such as the front one for high gain, the middle one for driving, and high power one, to minimize the risk of failure and to increase the easiness of development. and then the final amplifier is realized by connecting 3 sections above mentioned, DC bias circuit, and temperature compensation circuit on one housing. Total small signal gain obtained is about $45\pm1dB$, the input and output return losses are 25 and 27 dB respectively. The output power measured at 1 dB gain compression point for 3 frequencies at 7.7, 8.1, and 8.5 GHz are $39.8\sim40.4dBm$, which is about 10 W. and the 3rd-order harmonic powers of 2 tones test are 13.34 dBc at output power 37.5 dBm. These obtained results satisfies the initially required specification. and the realized SSPA can be installed as a subsystem of the microwave transponder for telecommunication.

  • PDF

A Meta-analysis for the Effects of Exercise on Pulmonary Function in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (강직성 척추염 환자의 폐기능에 미치는 운동효과에 대한 메타분석)

  • Kim, Eun-Jeong;Lee, Eun-Nam;Yu, Eun-Jeong
    • Journal of muscle and joint health
    • /
    • v.26 no.2
    • /
    • pp.141-154
    • /
    • 2019
  • Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the effects of exercise on pulmonary function in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, and CINAHL (through Jan 2019). Three reviewers independently retrieved articles, extracted data, and assessed methodological quality using the Cochrane's Risk of Bias for randomized studies. Results: Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria with a total of 729 participants. CE (SMD 0.58, 95% CI 0.41~0.75, p<.001) and $VO_2peak$ (SMD 0.56, 95% CI 0.24~0.88, p=.001) had a significant effect on the most exercise interventions. As a secondary variable, BASFI (SMD -0.53, 95% CI -0.70~-0.37, p<.001), BASMI (SMD -0.75, 95% CI -0.92~-0.58, p<.001) showed an effect size of more than medium. However, PFT and QoL did not produce a significant results. Conclusion: Pulmonary involvement is common in patients with AS and might have disturbed functionality and exercise modality. Exercise can be an effective intervention to improve pulmonary function in patients with AS. More attention is needed to improve the chest and spinal mobility to maintain the appropriate pulmonary function. It is also necessary to consider how to construct a patient-tailored exercise program to increase performance, accuracy and safety of exercise.

A Systematic Review of Meaning-Centered Therapy's Effect on Stress Reduction: Focusing on Korean Studies (의미요법의 스트레스 감소 효과에 관한 체계적 문헌고찰: 국내 연구를 중심으로)

  • Do, Eunna;Cho, Sunhee
    • Journal of Industrial Convergence
    • /
    • v.19 no.1
    • /
    • pp.87-97
    • /
    • 2021
  • This study aimed to systematically review the literature on the stress reduction of meaning-centered therapy (MCT) studies in Korea and to identify the characteristics of MCT for stress reduction. MCT studies aimed at reducing stress symptoms were searched among peer reviewed journal articles and unpublished dissertations until April, 2020. Two independent researchers assessed the risk of bias and the quality of the report using Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network criteria. As a result of searching with 7 databases, 7 studies were finally selected. Seven MCTs were for all age groups, and 5 studies reported MCT was effective in reducing stress symptoms. Both single and combined type interventions were effective in reducing stress symptom, Researchers used the combined MCT more than single MCT program. The study with no significant effect was related to school test stress. There is a need to develop MCTs suitable for school-age youth with test stress in the future.

Masking Exponential-Based Neural Network via Approximated Activation Function (활성화 함수 근사를 통한 지수함수 기반 신경망 마스킹 기법)

  • Joonsup Kim;GyuSang Kim;Dongjun Park;Sujin Park;HeeSeok Kim;Seokhie Hong
    • Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
    • /
    • v.33 no.5
    • /
    • pp.761-773
    • /
    • 2023
  • This paper proposes a method to increase the power-analysis resistance of the neural network model's feedforward process by replacing the exponential-based activation function, used in the deep-learning field, with an approximated function especially at the multi-layer perceptron model. Due to its nature, the feedforward process of neural networks calculates secret weight and bias, which already trained, so it has risk of exposure of internal information by side-channel attacks. However, various functions are used as the activation function in neural network, so it's difficult to apply conventional side-channel countermeasure techniques, such as masking, to activation function(especially, to exponential-based activation functions). Therefore, this paper shows that even if an exponential-based activation function is replaced with approximated function of simple form, there is no fatal performance degradation of the model, and than suggests a power-analysis resistant feedforward neural network with exponential-based activation function, by masking approximated function and whole network.

Missing Value Imputation Technique for Water Quality Dataset

  • Jin-Young Jun;Youn-A Min
    • Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
    • /
    • v.29 no.4
    • /
    • pp.39-46
    • /
    • 2024
  • Many researchers make efforts to evaluate water quality using various models. Such models require a dataset without missing values, but in real world, most datasets include missing values for various reasons. Simple deletion of samples having missing value(s) could distort distribution of the underlying data and pose a significant risk of biasing the model's inference when the missing mechanism is not MCAR. In this study, to explore the most appropriate technique for handing missing values in water quality data, several imputation techniques were experimented based on existing KNN and MICE imputation with/without the generative neural network model, Autoencoder(AE) and Denoising Autoencoder(DAE). The results shows that KNN and MICE combined imputation without generative networks provides the closest estimated values to the true values. When evaluating binary classification models based on support vector machine and ensemble algorithms after applying the combined imputation technique to the observed water quality dataset with missing values, it shows better performance in terms of Accuracy, F1 score, RoC-AuC score and MCC compared to those evaluated after deleting samples having missing values.

Meta-analysis of Six Randomized Control Trials of Chemotherapy Plus Anti-HER Monoclonal Antibody for Advanced Gastric and Gastroesophageal Cancer

  • Luo, Huai-Qing;Han, Li;Jiang, Yan
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
    • /
    • v.15 no.13
    • /
    • pp.5343-5348
    • /
    • 2014
  • Background: A meta-analysis was performed to examine the benefit/risk ratio for the addition of anti- HER MoAbs to chemotherapy in patients with advanced gastric and gastroesophageal cancer from six randomized phase II/III trials. Materials and Methods: We searched relative trials from Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane library databases, China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases, Google Scholar and the NIH ClinicalTrials. Primary outcomes were overall response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS). Secondary outcomes were toxicities. All analyses were performed using STATA 12.0. Results: This meta-analysis included six randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with 2, 297 patients and we demonstrated that the anti-HER MoAbs arm did have a positive effect on ORR in the anti-HER MoAbs arm (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.00-1.64, p=0.01). There was an increasing benefit regarding OS (HR 0.74, 95% CI 0.60-0.88, p<0.05) and PFS (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.60-0.84, p<0.05) in the anti-HER2 subgroup, but a reduction of OS (HR 1.11, 95% CI 0.87-1.36, p<0.05) and PFS (HR 1.13, 95% CI 0.98 -1.28, P<0.05) in anti-EGFR subgroup. Some grade 3-4 toxicity had a significantly higher incidence in the anti-HER MoAbs arm. There was no significant publication bias for all endpoints. Conclusions: The addition of trstuzumab MoAb to chemotherapy for gastric and gastroesophageal cancer significantly improved outcome of OS and PFS endpoints, while other MoAbs led to no improvement in results. Some adverse events were increased in anti-HER MoAbs arm compared with the control.