• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7547-7554
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• 2015

Background: The use of smokeless tobacco (SLT) among women is increasing in India, especially among those with limited education and resources. Preventing the initiation of SLT among women is critical since it has known negative consequences for oral and reproductive health. Most research on tobacco initiation in India focuses on adolescents. This paper addresses the unrecognized issues of post marital initiation among women of reproductive age, highlighting the importance of reproductive stages in women's tobacco initiation. The objective is to examine the correlates of SLT initiation among low income women in Mumbai from pre-marriage through early marriage, first pregnancy and beyond, using case examples to illustrate initiation during each of these stages. Materials and Methods: In 2011-2012, cross-sectional community level survey data were collected from a representative sample of 409 daily SLT-using married women aged 18-40 years in a low income community in Mumbai. Information on socio-demographics, initiation by reproductive stage, types of tobacco use, childhood exposure to tobacco, learning to use, and initiation influences and reasons were collected through a researcher-administered survey. Univariate and bivariate analysis assessed factors influencing initiation of SLT use by reproductive stage. In addition 42 narratives of tobacco use were collected from a purposive sample of pregnant and non-pregnant married women addressing the same questions in detail. Narratives were transcribed, translated, and coded for key concepts including initiation of tobacco use. Results: Thirty-two percent of women initiated SLT use before marriage, 44% initiated after marriage but before pregnancy, 18.1% initiated during their first pregnancy and the remainder started after their first pregnancy. Mean age of marriage among women in this study was 16 years. Younger women (i.e. age at time of the interview of less than 30 years) were 0.47 [95% CI (0.32, 0.87)] percent less likely to initiate after marriage than women aged more than 30 years. Women who got married before 18 years of age were 2.34 [95% CI (1.40, 3.93)] times more likely to initiate after marriage than their counterparts. Childhood exposure was a predictor for initiating SLT use prior to marriage but not after. Women reporting tooth and gum pain were 1.85 times more likely to initiate after marriage than their counterparts. Husband and neighbours were the most significant influences on post-marital initiation. Narratives highlighted differences in processes of initiation pre and post marriage and during pregnancy. Conclusions: Most tobacco prevention interventions are directed to adolescents in school. This study suggests that especially for low literate or illiterate women, school based interventions are ineffective. To be effective strategies to prevent SLT initiation must reach women in urban areas at or immediately after marriage and during their first pregnancy. Messages must negate culturally rooted beliefs about the health benefits of SLT in order to prevent initiation and onset of daily use.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.591-600
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• 2006

Purpose: This study assessed the impact of self-reported periodontal health on the oral health-related quality of life among elderly Koreans. Methods: Four hundred twenty one elderly Koreans in Seoul and suburban areas were selected with a cluster (institution) sampling method, and were requested to take oral examinations and finish questionnaires on the Oral Health Impact Profile-14(OHIP-14). and self-reported periodontal health status, such as periodontal symptoms, self-rated periodontal health and periodontal treatment need. As the dependent variable, OHIP-14 showed a positive skewed distribution (skewness: 1.17), we transformed to square-root form to apply parametric analyses. Bivariate analysis by t-test and ANOVA, and multivariate analysis with the two-level regression model accounting clusters were implemented. Results: Mean age of the subjects was 74.6 years and 66.5% were women. Fourteen items of OHIP-14 were summarized to one factor explaining 78.6% of total variance and produced the Chronbach alpha coefficient of 0.92. Results from the multivariate model, adjusting for age, sex, type of institutions, ability to pay, and number of teeth present, showed significantly lower OHIP-14 with reporting less than 3 periodontal symptoms (p(O.OOO1), rating their own periodontal health as above average level (p=O.0144), and thinking they don't need any periodontal treatments in the near future (p=O.0148), than their counterparts. The intraclass-corrrelation estimated by the final model was 0.028. Conclusion: This study demonstrates a significant association between self-reported periodontal health status and the oral health-related quality of life.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.353-366
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• 2022

Spatial estimation of geoscience data (geo-data) is challenging due to spatial heterogeneity, data scarcity, and high dimensionality. A novel spatial estimation method is needed to consider the characteristics of geo-data. In this study, we proposed the application of Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) among machine learning algorithms with multivariate data for robust spatial predictions. The performance of the proposed approach was tested through soil chemical concentration data from a former smelting area. The concentrations of As and Pb determined by ex-situ ICP-AES were the primary variables to be interpolated, while the other metal concentrations by ICP-AES and all data determined by in-situ portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) were used as auxiliary variables in GMM and ordinary cokriging (OCK). Among the multidimensional auxiliary variables, important variables were selected using a variable selection method based on the random forest. The results of GMM with important multivariate auxiliary data decreased the root mean-squared error (RMSE) down to 0.11 for As and 0.33 for Pb and increased the correlations (r) up to 0.31 for As and 0.46 for Pb compared to those from ordinary kriging and OCK using univariate or bivariate data. The use of GMM improved the performance of spatial interpretation of anthropogenic metals in soil. The multivariate spatial approach can be applied to understand complex and heterogeneous geological and geochemical features.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.157-175
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• 2021

This study categorized 3,214 companies out of the tech firms supported by the Korea Technology Finance Corporation's "technology guarantee scheme" through technology assessment from 2017 to 2019 into Fourth Industrial Revolution-related companies and general SMEs. The impact of the management characteristics of these 1,752 tech firms on the determination of high-growth firms was then empirically analyzed. This study used the OECD(2007) definition to define a "high-growth firm" as "an enterprise with average revenue growth greater than 20% per annum, over a two-year period." As the two sample groups showed non-normal distribution, this study conducted the Mann-Whitney U test, a nonparametric test, to analyze the mean differences and bivariate logistic regression in which the normality assumption is less stringent. The independent variables include fundamental characteristics; a regional dummy; a technological level dummy; and the capabilities of company representatives, human capital, and technological innovation. The corresponding sub-variables are representatives' level of education and experience in the same industry, full-time workers, research personnel, the extent of intellectual property rights, investment in research and development, firm age, total assets, region_metropolitan area, region_central region, technological level_high technology, and technological level_medium technology. As a result, the research hypothesis about representatives' level of experience in the same industry, full-time workers, total assets, and technological level_high technology was supported for the Fourth Industrial Revolution-related companies. For the general SMEs, the research hypothesis about representatives' level of experience in the same industry, research personnel, total assets, and region_metropolitan area was supported.