• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.915-921
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• 2012

Background: Previous studies investigating the association between TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism and gastric cancer (GC) risk in Asian population have reported controversial results. Thus, a meta-analysis was performed. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted and 17 case-control studies were finally included, involving a total of 5,990 GC cases and 6,812 controls. Subgroup analyses were performed by the sample size. Results: Meta-analysis of all 17 studies showed variant genotypes of TP53 Arg72Pro to be associated with an elevated GC risk in three genetic comparison models ($OR_{Pro\;vs.\;Arg}$=1.13, 95%CI 1.03-1.25, $P_{OR}$=0.01; $OR_{Homozygote\;comparison\;model}$=1.33, 95%CI 1.07-1.64, $P_{OR}$=0.009; $OR_{Dominant\;genetic\;model}$=1.13, 95%CI 1.05-1.22, $P_{OR}$=0.002). Besides, a more obvious association was observed after the heterogeneity was decreased (all P values less than 0.001). This association was further identified by both subgroup and sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: This meta-analysis suggests the Pro variant of TP53 Arg72Pro contributes to gastric cancer risk in Asians.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.149-160
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• 2018

An alternative method for team diversity studies is to examine demographic faultlines. A concept of demographic faultline enables us to better understand team dynamics with multidimensional diversity. This study suggests the demographic faultline as a new situational factorto influence the relationship between leader teamwork behaviors and a climate of support for innovation. When subgroups divided by demographic faultline are homogeneous within them and heterogeneous between them, the homogeneity may increase intimacy in each subgroup while the heterogeneity may increase exclusiveness between those subgroups. We argued that a leader could play an important role to build a cooperative relationship between faultline-based subgroups and highlight positive aspects of developing and maintaining subgroups in organizations. With a sample of 81 teams (558 employees), it was examined how leader teamwork behaviors would affect a team-level climate of support for innovation and how this relationship would be moderated by each team's demographic faultline (gender, age, and educational specialty). As predicted, it was found that there was a significant positive relationship between each leader's teamwork behaviors and each team's climate of support for innovation. In addition, this relationship was stronger for teams with strong faultline than with weak faultline. Our findings and their implications were further discussed.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.127-133
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• 2018

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one of the strategies for managing firms' business activities but may have heterogeneity depending on ownership structures. This study investigates the association between group-affiliation and CSR activities. Drawing on a theory from the prior research, this study predicts that group-affiliated firms are less likely to invest on CSR activities. For instance, prior research finds that controlling shareholders expropriate the values of minority shareholders. As one of the motivations of investing on CSR activities is the harmonization among the stakeholders, it leads to the prediction that firms controlled by large shareholders are less likely to engage in CSR activities. Second, group-affiliated firms under poor financial performance benefit from other group members through sharing their financial resources. Thus, there is less incentive for managers of group-affiliated firms to increase their financial performance by conducting CSR. By leveraging firms listed in Korean stock market and CSR score from Korea Economic Justice Institute, the result shows that the group-affiliation is negatively related to CSR activities. The result is consistent in case of applying propensity score-matched sample. Based on the findings of this study, this paper contributes to the related literature by showing the significant association between group-affiliation and CSR decisions.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.23-31
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• 2020

This paper investigates the impact of monetary policy independence shock on bond yield by allowing for heterogeneous coefficients in the model based on panel data for 19 developing countries using quarterly data from 1991 to 2016. First, we estimate the model using conventional panel VAR estimation with the assumption of homogeneous coefficients across countries. Second, by performing Chow and Roy-Zellner tests to check the homogeneity assumption, we find that the assumption does not hold in the model. Third, we apply a mean-group estimation for panel VAR as a solution for heterogeneity panel model. The results reveal that central bank independence is effective in reducing bond yield with the maximum at period 6 after the shock. Shock one standard deviation bond yield has a negative effect on consumption and investment. We determine that central bank independence has a contradictory effect on real activity; a negative effect on consumption but a positive influence on investment for the first two years after the shock. Additionally, we split our sample into three groups to make the subgroups pool. Our empirical result shows that monetary policy independence shock reduces bond yield. Meanwhile, the response of economic activity to bond yield varies for all three groups.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.451-461
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• 2022

The roadways surrounded by rock and coal will lose their stability or even collapse under rock burst. Rock burst mainly involves an evolution of dynamic loading which behaves quite differently from static or quasi-static loading. To compare the dynamic response of coal and rocks with different static strengths, three different rocks and bituminous coal were selected for testing at three different dynamic loadings. It's found that the dynamic compression strength of rocks and bituminous coal is much greater than the static compression strength. The dynamic compression strength and dynamic increase factor of the rocks both increase linearly with the increase of the strain rate, while those of the bituminous coal are irregular due to the characteristics of multi-fracture and heterogeneity. Moreover, the absorbed energy of the rocks and bituminous coal both increase linearly with an increase in the strain rate. And the ratio of absorbed energy to the total energy of bituminous coal is greater than that of rocks. With the increase of dynamic loading, the failure degree of the sample increases, with the increase of the static compressive strength, the damage degree also increases. The static compassion strength of the bituminous coal is lower than that of rocks, so the number of small-scale fragments was the largest after bituminous coal rupture.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2023

Despite recent advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer, clinical results remain dismal. Furthermore, there are no reliable biomarkers or alternatives beyond carbohydrate antigen 19-9. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may be a potential biomarker, but their therapeutic application is constrained by their rarity in peripheral venous blood. Theoretically, the portal vein can be a more appropriate location for the detection of CTCs, because the first venous drainage of pancreatic cancer is portal circulation. According to several studies, the number and detection rate of CTCs may be higher in the portal blood than in the peripheral blood. CTC counts in the portal blood are strongly correlated with several prognostic parameters such as hepatic metastasis, recurrence after surgery, and survival. The phenotypic and genotypic properties analyzed in the captured portal CTCs can assist us to comprehend tumor heterogeneity and predicting the prognosis of pancreatic cancer. The investigations to date are limited by small sample sizes and varied CTC detection techniques. Therefore, a large number of prospective studies are required to confirm portal CTCs as a valid biomarker in pancreatic cancer.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.211-224
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• 2021

Based on the perspective of international trade and cross-border e-commerce development, this paper explores the impact of cross-border e-commerce on international trade. This paper first describes the current situation of China's cross-border e-commerce and proposes a theoretical model of the influence of China's cross-border e-commerce on its international trade based on the research and summary of a large number of relevant documents. This paper establishes an extended gravity model based on the proposed theoretical model. Relevant data of 13 trading partner countries were used as sample data, and OLS regression analysis and heterogeneity analysis were conducted on gravity model by using Eviews 11.0. Then, in order to study the influence of each variable on import and export trade volume, import and export trade volume were respectively taken as explained variables and further studied by OLS regression analysis. To test the robustness of the model, the empirical analysis results show that cross-border e-commerce does promote the volume of China's international trade.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7509-7515
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• 2013

To assess the risk of cancers associated with sleep duration using meta-analysis of published cohort studies, we performed a comprehensive search using PubMed, Embase and Web of Science through October 2013. We combined hazard ratios (HRs) from individual studies using meta-analysis approaches. A random effect dose-response analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between sleep duration and cancer risk. Subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses were also performed. Publication bias was evaluated using Funnel plots and Begg's test. A total of 13 cohorts from 12 studies were included in this meta-analysis, which included 723, 337 participants with 15, 156 reported cancer outcomes during a follow-up period ranging from 7.5 to 22 years. The pooled adjusted HRs were 1.06 (95% CI: 0.92, 1.23; P for heterogeneity =0.003) for short sleep duration, 0.91 (95% CI: 0.78, 1.07; P for heterogeneity <0.0001) for long sleep duration. In subgroup analyses stratified by cancer type, long duration of sleep showed an inverse relation with hormone-related cancer (HR=0.79; 95% CI: 0.65, 0.97; P for heterogeneity =0.009) and a greater risk of colorectal cancer (HR=1.29; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.52; P for heterogeneity =0.346). Further meta-analysis on dose-response relationships showed that the relative risks of cancer were 1.00 (95% CI: 0.99, 1.01; P for linear trend=0.9151) for one hour of sleep increment per day, and 1.00 (95% CI: 0.98, 1.01; P for linear trend=0.7749) for one hour of sleep increment per night. No significant dose-response relationship between sleep duration and cancer was found on non-linearity testing (P=0.5053). Our meta-analysis suggests a positive association between long sleep duration and colorectal cancer, and an inverse association with incidence of hormone related cancers like those in the breast. Studies with larger sample size, longer follow-up times, more cancer types and detailed measure of sleep duration are warranted to confirm these results.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.1-33
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to systematically review the latest clinical trials in music medicine and medical music therapy for pediatric patients. Thirteen databases were searched to obtain randomized controlled/crossover design studies published between the year 2000 and 2012 in English language. Out of 1012 articles retrieved in the initial search, fifteen studies were identified based on an exclusion criteria. Overall, selected articles involved children 1 month to 18 years, sample size of 11 to 150, and total participants of 987. Studies were classified and compared as music medicine or music therapy studies through a systematic synthesis assessing general characteristics, methodological quality, measured outcomes, types of interventions and the study results. Seven music medicine and eight music therapy studies measured seven dependent variables using thirty-six different measurement tools with a large heterogeneity in the selection, type, and method of music interventions. Evaluation of the methodological quality revealed that many studies did not provide a full report of the research method, and did not meet some or most methodological standards, such as randomization, allocation concealment, double or partial blinding, and intention to treat analysis. Although overall research results were positive if not significant, poor methodological quality and heterogeneity in design and intervention strategies raise the question of research bias and trustworthiness issues. The systematic review concluded that music may have a valuable clinical effect in addressing the physical and psychosocial needs of hospitalized children, although more rigorous, homogeneous and replicable studies are greatly needed.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.20
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• pp.8765-8774
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• 2014

This study aimed at summarizing epidemiological research findings on associations between tobacco, alcohol and tea consumption and risk of gastric cancer (GC) in the Chinese population. The review searched PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and China Biology Medicine (CBM) databases and reference lists of review papers for all studies published in English or Chinese languages. Information extracted, via two independent researchers, from retrieved articles included first author, year of publication, study design, sample size, source of controls and adjusted odds ratio (OR) or relative risk (RR) with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each category. Statistical analyses used software STATA version 12.0. The systematic search found 89 articles containing 25,821 GC cases and 135,298 non-cases. The overall random effects in terms of pooled OR and 95%CI for tobacco, alcohol and tea consumption were 1.62 (95%CI: 1.50-1.74), 1.57 (95%CI: 1.41-1.76) and 0.67 (95%CI: 0.59-0.76) respectively; while the heterogeneity among included studies ranged from 80.1% to 87.5%. The majority of subgroup analyses revealed consistent results with the overall analyses. All three behavioral factors showed statistically significant dose-dependent effects on GC (P<0.05). The study revealed that tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking were associated with over 1/2 added risk of GC, while tea drinking conferred about 1/3 lower risk of GC in the Chinese population. However, these results should be interpreted with caution given the fact that most of the included studies were based on a retrospective design and heterogeneity among studies was relatively high.