This study uses the data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess the progress/regression of decision-making units (DMUs) having a two-stage structure‎. ‎The progress/regression of these DMU can be assessed in the first stage‎, ‎the second stage‎, ‎and the whole system‎. ‎In the first stage‎, ‎the progress/regression of bank branches in collecting resources and in the second stage their progress/re...

AIMS The benefits of off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) continue to be debated, in part due to the fact that pooled effects fail to consider differences in trial and patient characteristics. We sought to analyse the contemporary evidence for OPCAB vs. conventional coronary artery bypass (CCAB), incorporating recent larger trials, and adjusting for differences in trials using a technique kn...

MOTIVATION Meta-analysis of summary statistics is an essential approach to guarantee the success of genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Application of the fixed or random effects model to single-marker association tests is a standard practice. More complex methods of meta-analysis involving multiple parameters have not been used frequently, a gap that could be explained by the lack of a res...

Stock price crash risk is a phenomenon in which stock prices are subject to severe negative and sudden adjustments. So far, different approaches have been proposed to model and predict  the  stock price crash risk, which in most cases have been the main emphasis on the factors affecting it, and often traditional methods have been used for prediction. On the other hand, using  Meta Heuristic Alg...

BACKGROUND Because cerebral morphological abnormalities in major depressive disorder (MDD) may be modulated by antidepressant treatment, inclusion of medicated patients may have biased previous meta-analyses of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) studies. A meta-analysis of VBM studies on medication-free MDD patients should be able to distinguish the morphological features of the disease itself from ...

Meta-analysis of case studies has become an important tool for synthesizing case study findings in land change. Meta-analyses of deforestation, urbanization, desertification and change in shifting cultivation systems have been published. This present study adds to this literature, with an analysis of the proximate causes and underlying forces of wetland conversion at a global scale using two co...

OBJECTIVES we used a quantitative method to systematically synthesize the emerging literature and critically evaluate the effects of Baduanjin on depression and anxiety in people with physical or mental illnesses. Additionally, we determined if the number of total Baduanjin training sessions is associated with decreased anxiety and depression levels. METHODS both English and Chinese databases...

In any scientific discipline, the ability to portray research patterns graphically often aids greatly in interpreting a phenomenon. In part to depict phenomena, the statistics and capabilities of meta-analytic models have grown increasingly sophisticated. Accordingly, this article details how to move the constant in weighted meta-analysis regression models (viz. "meta-regression") to illuminate...

BACKGROUND In meta-analysis, the presence of funnel plot asymmetry is attributed to publication or other small-study effects, which causes larger effects to be observed in the smaller studies. This issue potentially mean inappropriate conclusions are drawn from a meta-analysis. If meta-analysis is to be used to inform decision-making, a reliable way to adjust pooled estimates for potential funn...

OBJECTIVE To conduct a meta-analysis to estimate the relationship between primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and mortality. METHODS A systematic search of the PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases yielded 9 cohort studies with relative risk (RR) estimates for all-cause mortality. The studies were critically reviewed by an expert in the field. The data were extracted and analyzed in a p...