• 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 Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.137-148
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• 2021

The study investigates the existence of an optimal level of cash and the firm characteristics influencing the decision to hold cash, and the adjusting speed of the cash holdings to the target level. It highlights the heterogeneity of cash adjustment speed in the Vietnam market. The research employs the 417 samples of Vietnamese non - financial listed firms in the period of 2010 to 2019. The study uses the Pool OLS model, Fixed effect model (FEM), Random effect model (REM), and GMM model. According to the research findings, there is an optimal amount of cash at which the firm's value is maximized in Vietnamese listed firms, and the majority of the firms in the sample retain cash over the target level. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that firms actively modify their cash holdings to the optimal level with an adjustment speed of less than one owing to adjustment cost constraints. This speed varies between groupings of enterprises with different characteristics, underlining the heterogeneity of the adjustment speed even more. Small deviation firms adjust more rapidly than large deviation firms. Large free cash flow (FCF) firms adjust more readily than small FCF firms, and fiscal deficit firms modify more rapidly than firms with a financial surplus.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.607-618
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• 2015

Five years have passed since the first set of environmental samples was taken in 2011 to represent various ecosystems which would help future generations lead back to the past environment. Those samples have been preserved cryogenically in the National Environmental Specimen Bank(NESB) at the National Institute of Environmental Research. Even though there is a strict regulation (SOP, standard operating procedure) that rules over the whole sampling procedure to ensure each sample to represent the sampling area, it has not been put to the test for the validation. The question needs to be answered to clear any doubts on the representativeness and the quality of the samples. In order to address the question and ensure the sampling practice set in the SOP, many steps to the measurement of the sample, that is, from sampling in the field and the chemical analysis in the lab are broken down to evaluate the uncertainty at each level. Of the 8 species currently taken for the cryogenic preservation in the NESB, pine tree samples from two different sites were selected for this study. Duplicate samples were taken from each site according to the sampling protocol followed by the duplicate analyses which were carried out for each discrete sample. The uncertainties were evaluated by Robust ANOVA; two levels of uncertainty, one is the uncertainty from the sampling practice, and the other from the analytical process, were then compiled to give the measurement uncertainty on a measured concentration of the measurand. As a result, it was confirmed that it is the sampling practice not the analytical process that accounts for the most of the measurement uncertainty. Based on the top-down approach for the measurement uncertainty, the efficient way to ensure the representativeness of the sample was to increase the quantity of each discrete sample for the making of a composite sample, than to increase the number of the discrete samples across the site. Furthermore, the cost-effective approach to enhance the confidence level on the measurement can be expected from the efforts to lower the sampling uncertainty, not the analytical uncertainty. To test the representativeness of a composite sample of a sampling area, the variance within the site should be less than the difference from duplicate sampling. For that, a criterion, ${i.e.s^2}_{geochem}$(across the site variance) <${s^2}_{samp}$(variance at the sampling location) was proposed. In light of the criterion, the two representative samples for the two study areas passed the requirement. In contrast, whenever the variance of among the sampling locations (i.e. across the site) is larger than the sampling variance, more sampling increments need to be added within the sampling area until the requirement for the representativeness is achieved.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2010

Black sea bream, Acanthopagrus schlegelii, is a commercially important fish in Korea. As a preliminary investigation into the effect of hatchery rearing for stock enhancement, we examined genetic diversity between wild and farmed black sea bream populations from Jeju using six microsatellite markers. High levels of polymorphism were observed between the two populations. A total of 87 different alleles were found at the loci, with some alleles being unique. Allelic variability ranged from 8 to 22 in the wild population and from 7 to 17 in the farmed one. Average observed and expected heterozygosities were estimated at 0.87 and 0.88 in the wild sample. The corresponding estimates were 0.83 and 0.86 in the farmed sample. Although a considerable loss of rare alleles was observed in the farmed sample, no statistically significant reductions were found in heterozygosity or allelic diversity in the farmed sample, compared with the wild one. Significant genetic heterogeneity was found between the wild and farmed populations. These results suggest that more intensive breeding practices for stock enhancement may have resulted in a further decrease of genetic diversity. Thus, it is necessary to monitor genetic variation in bloodstock, progeny, and target populations and control inbreeding in a commercial breeding program for conservation. This information may be useful for fisheries management and the aquaculture industry.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.547-559
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• 2018

Consumers are becoming increasingly interested in what kind of value their food has. Many studies have focused on consumers' preferences and willingness to pay for specific food values. However, few studies have asked consumers to consider or rank the importance of different food values. This paper determined consumers' food values by implementing the best-worst scaling approach and segmented consumers based on the relative importance of general food values that consumers place on them. Among a list of eleven food values (taste, safety, origin, appearance, price, environmental impact, naturalness, convenience, nutrition, fairness, and habit) which was compiled from previous studies on food preferences, on average, safety, nutrition, taste, and price were the most important values to consumers, whereas fairness, habit, appearance, convenience, origin, and environmental impact were the least important values. However, significant variation exists among consumers in terms of the relative importance of food values. To investigate the heterogeneity among consumers, a Latent Class Analysis was performed to classify consumers into subgroups based on responses to questions. Two latent classes were found and characterized as 'safety-nutrition' and 'taste-price'. The 'safety-nutrition' cluster represents 61% of the sample and a group of people who find safety and nutrition centered values to be the most important. Another cluster represents about 39% of the sample, and relative to the first group, this group finds price and taste values to be more important.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.113-122
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of aromatherapy on anxiety, depression, and stress. Methods:Medical and nursing literature databases were searched to identify studies comparing aromatherapy with a control group. Results: Thirty-one studies published till September 2008 were included in the analysis. Twenty-two studies showed that aromatherapy generally had positive effects on the anxiety level (ES: 0.61). Thirteen studies showed that aromatherapy has significantly decreased the depression level (ES: 0.91). Seven studies showed that aromatherapy had positive effect on the stress level (ES: 0.78). Further analysis found that aromatherapy was more effective for normal population than for patients group with anxiety and stress. On the contrary, aromatherapy was more effective for patients group than for general population with depression. Conclusion: Aromatherapy had positive effect on anxiety, depression and stress level. But there was no sufficient evidence to show the two different aromatherapy methods and two different period of aromatherapy had different effects due to small sample size and heterogeneity of sample. And it was needed to perform follow-up and further comparative studies.

• Journal of the Korean Statistical Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.191-201
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• 1991

Given a set of data pxN$_{i}$, matrices X$_{i}$ observed from p-variate normal populations $\prod$$_{i}$~N($\mu$$_{I}$, $\Sigma$$_{i}$) for i=1, …, K, the test for equality form of the covariance matrices is to choose a hypothetical model which best explains the homogeneity/heterogeneity structure across the covariance matrices among the hypothesized class of models. This paper describes a test procedure for selecting the best model. The procedure is based on a synthesis of Bayesian and a cross-validation or sample reuse methodology that makes use of a one-at-a-time schema of observational omissions. Advantages of the test are argued on two grounds, and illustrative examples and simulation results are given.are given.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.327-341
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• 2011

Three-dimensional graphic objects created by MATLAB are exported to the AUTOCAD program through the MATLAB handle functions. The imported SAT format files are used to produce the finite element mesh for MSC.PATRAN. Based on the Monte-Carlo random sample principle, the material heterogeneity of cement composites with randomly distributed fibers is described by the WEIBULL distribution function. In this paper, a concept called "soft region" including micro-defects, micro-voids, etc. is put forward for the simulation of crack propagation in fiber-reinforced cement composites. The performance of the numerical model is demonstrated by several examples involving crack initiation and growth in the composites under three-dimensional stress conditions: tensile loading; compressive loading and crack growth along a bimaterial interface.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.39-70
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• 2015

This paper examines the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on South Asian economies' output growth, utilizing recent panel cointegration testing and estimation techniques. Annual panel data on eight SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) member countries' macroeconomic variables over the period 1960- 2013 are employed in empirical analysis. Using various heterogeneous panel cointegration and panel causality tests, a bi-directional relationship between FDI and growth is found. We find evidence for both FDI-led growth and growth-induced FDI hypotheses for the South Asian economies over the sample period. Individual member countries exhibit heterogeneity in terms of the direction or existence of causality subject to their idiosyncratic economic conditions. Among various regressors, FDI, financial development, human capital, and government consumption show the most significant positive effects on output growth. As determinants of FDI, GDP, financial development, human capital, and government consumption are found significant in the region. The bi-directional causality between FDI and growth is found robust to the inclusion of other control variables and using different estimation techniques.

• Carbon letters
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.141-147
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• 2005

The carbon sample "O", phosphoric acid-activated carbon "OP", zinc chloride-activated carbon "OZ", and two steam activated carbons "OS" and "OS2" with different burn-off of 25% and 58% respectively, were prepared from olive stones. The textural properties were determined from the results of nitrogen adsorption at 77 K and by analyzing these results through the application of different adsorption models. The chemistry of the carbon surfaces was determined from the base neutralization capacities, acid neutralization capacity and surface pH. The sorption of $Pb^{2+}$ ions on to the carbons prepared was followed under dynamic and equilibrium conditions. The differences between the values of the textural parameters were attributed to the inapplicability of some adsorption models and to the heterogeneity of the microporous carbons. The sorption of $Pb^{2+}$ ions is favored on carbon and activated carbons. However, chemically activated carbons are more effective compared with steam-activated ones. The sorption of $Pb^{2+}$ ions were related to the chemistry of the surface rather than to the textural properties.