• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.64 no.9
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• pp.489-493
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• 2021

Background: There is evidence of destructive effects of oxytocin use during labor on neurodevelopment. Purpose: This meta-analysis pooled all observational studies to determine the association between labor induction and the risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among children. Methods: All observational studies (case-control and cohort) were reviewed until September 2020 after searches of the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, the gray literature, and conference proceedings. The pooled odds ratios (ORs), relative ratios (RRs), and 95% confidence intervals (CI (swere calculated as random effect estimates of association among studies. Results: All observational studies were reviewed, including 4 cohort studies including 2,885,743 participants and 3 case-control studies including 51,135 participants (10,961 with ADHD and 40,174 in control groups) with a sample size of 2,936,878 participants. The pooled estimates of OR and RR did not indicate a significant association between labor induction and ADHD among children (OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.90-1.35) and (RR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.96-1.24). Conclusions: The findings showed that labor induction is not associated with an increased risk of ADHD among children. However, more studies are needed to investigate the relationship between labor induction and ADHD.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.239-243
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• 2008

Simmondsia chinensis (Link) Schneider, a multipurpose and monogeneric dioecious shrub from arid zones, has emerged as a cash crop all over the globe. Its seed propagation poses severe problems due to its male-biased population: the male:female ratio is 5:1. Investigations have been carried out to generate a sex-specific Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) marker for the early detection of male and female plants. Of the 42 primers analysed with a bulk sample of pooled male DNA and a bulk sample of pooled female DNA, only one primer, UBC-807, produced a unique ~1,200 base-pair fragment in the male DNA. To validate this observation, this primer was re-tested with individual male and female samples from eight cultivars. A similar unique ~1,200 bp fragment was present in the male individuals of all eight cultivars and completely absent in the female individuals tested. This is the first report of the use of ISSR markers to ascertain sex in physiologically mature S. chinensis plants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.48-55
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the analytical accuracy and precision of microwave oven digestion/atomi absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) for analyzing airborne chromium collected on mixed cellulose ester membrane (M filter from the work environment, and to compare the accuracy and the precision with those of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Method #7024 hot plate digestion/AAS method. For this study, field air sample pairs were collected from a electroplating process, and spiked samples in a laboratory were prepared and using these samples. Two digestion methods were comp; and evaluated in terms of recovery rate and bias as indices of accuracy and coefficient of variation as a index of precision. The results and conclusions are as follows. In spiked samples, the accuracies (% mean recoveries) of hot plate/AAS and microwave oven/AAS method were 97.19%, 97.1%, respectively, and the precisions (pooled respectively, and the precisions (pooled coefficient of variance, $CV_{pooled}$) 6.93% and 3.88%, respectively. The biases of hot plate ani microwave oven methods were 4.56 - 14.7% and 2.22 - 7.42% respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between hot plate and microwave oven methods recovery rates of spiked samples (p>0,05). Also, no statistically significant difference was shown among the concentrations of air samples determined by two method (p>0.05). In conclusion, microwave oven/AAS method h excellent accuracy and precision, and advantages such as time-saving and simple procedure in comparison with the classical NIOSH method. Therefore, this method can be use widely to analyze airborne chromium collected on MCE filter from the work environments.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.85 no.4
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• pp.349-357
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• 2022

Background: The most consistently identified mortality determinants for the new coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) infection are aging, male sex, cardiovascular/respiratory diseases, and cancer. They were determined from heterogeneous cohorts that included patients with different disease severity and previous conditions. The main goal of this study was to determine if activities of daily living (ADL) dependence measured by Barthel's index could be a predictor for COVID-19 mortality. Methods: A prospective cohort study was performed with a consecutive sample of 340 COVID-19 patients representing patients from all over the northern region of Portugal from October 2020 to March 2021. Mortality risk factors were determined after controlling for demographics, ADL dependence, admission time, comorbidities, clinical manifestations, and delay-time for diagnosis. Central tendency measures were used to analyze continuous variables and absolute numbers (proportions) for categorical variables. For univariable analysis, we used t test, chi-square test, or Fisher exact test as appropriate (α=0.05). Multivariable analysis was performed using logistic regression. IBM SPSS version 27 statistical software was used for data analysis. Results: The cohort included 340 patients (55.3% females) with a mean age of 80.6±11.0 years. The mortality rate was 19.7%. Univariate analysis revealed that aging, ADL dependence, pneumonia, and dementia were associated with mortality and that dyslipidemia and obesity were associated with survival. In multivariable analysis, dyslipidemia (odds ratio [OR], 0.35; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.17-0.71) was independently associated with survival. Age ≥86 years (pooled OR, 2.239; 95% CI, 1.100-4.559), pneumonia (pooled OR, 3.00; 95% CI, 1.362-6.606), and ADL dependence (pooled OR, 6.296; 95% CI, 1.795-22.088) were significantly related to mortality (receiver operating characteristic area under the curve, 82.1%; p<0.001). Conclusion: ADL dependence, aging, and pneumonia are three main predictors for COVID-19 mortality in an elderly population.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.23-31
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out the impact of financial leverage on firm's profitability in the listed textile sector of Bangladesh. Research design, data and methodology: A sample of 22 DSE listed textile firms has been used to conduct the study. In this study, firm profitability is measured by Return on Equity (ROE) and both short term debt and long term debt are used as the as proxies of financial leverage. Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fixed Effect (FE), and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) models have been used to test the relationship between financial leverage and profitability of firms. Result: This study finds a significant negative relationship between leverage and firm's profitability using the Pooled OLS method. The result is also consistent with the fixed effect and GMM method. This result implies that firm's profitability is negatively affected by the firm's capital structure. Conclusion: The study concludes that maximum textile firms use external debt as a source of finance as they don't have sufficient internally generated funds. This study recommends that firm should give more emphasize on generating fund internally to meet up their financing needs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.2033-2036
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• 2013

Many studies have suggested that the XRCC1 Arg280His gene polymorphism might be involved in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the results have been inconsistent. In this study, the authors performed a meta-analysis to assess the association between XRCC1 Arg280His and HCC susceptibility. Published literature from PubMed, EMBASE and CNKI Data was searched. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using fixed- or random-effects models when appropriate. Begg's test was used to measure publication bias. A total of 7 case-control studies covering 1,448 HCC cases and 1,544 controls were included. No significant variation in HCC risk was detected in any of the genetic models overall. In the stratified analysis, four studies with sample sizes over 300 produced similar results. The corresponding pooled ORs were not substantially altered after the exclusion of three studies deviating from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in the control group, which indicated reliability for our meta-analysis results.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.27-40
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• 2016

Purpose: Globally, falls are a major public health problem. The study aimed to evaluate the predictive validity of the Timed Up and Go test (TUGT) as a screening tool for fall risk. Methods: An electronic search was performed Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochran Library, KoreaMed and the National Digital Science Library and other databases, using the following keywords: 'fall', 'fall risk assessment', 'fall screening', 'mobility scale', and 'risk assessment tool'. The QUADAS-II was applied to assess the internal validity of the diagnostic studies. Thirteen studies were analyzed using meta-analysis with MetaDisc 1.4. Results: The selected 13 studies reporting predictive validity of TUGT of fall risks were meta-analyzed with a sample size of 1004 with high methodological quality. Overall predictive validity of TGUT was as follows. The pooled sensitivity 0.72 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.67-0.77), pooled specificity 0.58 (95% CI: 0.54-0.63) and sROC AUC was 0.75 respectively. Heterogeneity among studies was a moderate level in sensitivity. Conclusion: The TGUT's predictive validity for fall risk is at a moderate level. Although there is a limit to interpret the results for heterogeneity between the literature, TGUT is an appropriate tool to apply to all patients at a potential risk of accidental fall in a hospital or long-term care facility.

• The Journal of Information Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.35-49
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• 2005

This study examines that pricing multiple on and incremental explanatory power of equity book value(earnings) increase(decrease) as financial health decrease. Test using a sample of 75 bankrupt firms and test using a cross-sectional, pooled sample both yield inference consistent with predictions. It is thus hypothesized that the more bankrupt time we, the higher(lower) pricing multiple book value of equity(earnings) obtained. Findings are robust to inclusion of for debt/assets ratio, ROA, and ROIC. Overall, the results is the hypothesis.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.91-100
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to validate alternative method by using non-carcinogenic, and less toxic solvents than NIOSH analytical method 5524 for measuring the airborne MWFs in workplaces. In laboratory tests, the ETM solvents(mixture of same volume for ethyl ether, toluene, and ethanol) were selected. The alternative method of analyzing MWFs, referred to as the ETM solvent extraction method, showed 0.04 mg/sample as LOD, and 0.15 mg/sample as LOQ. The analytical precision (pooled CV, coefficient of variation) of the ETM solvent extraction method for analyzing the straight, soluble, semisynthetic, and synthetic metalworking fluid was 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.6%, 1.6%, respectively, which was similar to the precision (2.6%) of NIOSH analytical method (NIOSH 0500) for total dust. The analytical accuracy by recovery test, spiked mass calculated as extractable mass, was almost 100%. As the result of storage stability test, metalworking fluid samples should be stored in refrigerated condition, and be analyzed in two weeks after sampling. The 95% confidence limit of the estimated total standard error for the ETM solvent extraction method for analyzing the straight, soluble, semisynthetic, and synthetic metalworking fluid was ${\pm}12.6%$, ${\pm}12.5%$, ${\pm}14.0%$, and ${\pm}13.6%$, respectively, which satisfied the OSHA sampling and analytical criteria.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.179-188
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to examine the level of aggressive tax planning (ATP) among companies listed in the Access, Certainty, Efficiency (ACE) Market of Bursa Malaysia. On top of that, this study also investigates the relationship between company characteristics, ethnicity, and ATP. This study uses a balanced pooled sample of 105 firm years-observations for the period from 2014 to 2018. These samples were selected to provide new insight into this market and to explore the attitude of small firms toward ATP in Malaysia. The data was retrieved from DataStream and the downloaded annual reports. The finding shows that profitability and financial distress have a significant relationship with ATP. Other variables including size, capital intensity, inventory intensity, leverage, and ethnicity, were not determinants of ATP. The result in this study may assist the reader in understanding the nature of companies in the ACE market, particularly on its behavior toward tax planning. A strict requirement is needed to be adopted in the sample selection process, thus limiting the sample size. Further, since the previous study focused on large companies, the discussion of this paper will provide new insight into the nature of tax planning within the small- and medium-sized companies in Malaysia.