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The overarching goal of this dissertation is to inform evidence-based supports for diverse parents. Past meta-analyses (e.g., Dimitrova, Chasiotis, & van de Vijver, 2016; Porter & Haslam, 2005) have examined adjustment in migrant children, adolescents, and adults. To date, reviews have often examined only immigrants or refugees, with few quantitative comparisons between groups. Further, few include information on parenting or parental adjustment (e.g., van Os, Kalverboer, Zijlstra, Post, & Knorth, 2016). To fill this gap, I conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies that used psychometrically strong measures of adjustment and parenting with newcomer immigrant and refugee families to update the literature and to provide a quantitative comparison between migrant groups. Database searches yielded 18,139 abstracts for screening; 4,626 full text articles were reviewed; 31 independent samples 25 of which have not been included in previous reviews met inclusion criteria. Results highlight important differences between migrant groups and informants: parent reports of youth adjustment generally reported greater problems among both immigrant and refugee youth compared to normative samples, whereas youth self-reports varied by migrant group (with refugee youth reporting greater problems than immigrant youth) and adjustment construct. In my second study, I developed and evaluated a self-report measure of adherence to an evidence-based parenting program that is used with diverse families. This tool, the Practitioner Session Reflection Tool (PSRT; Sheshko, Lee, & Gagné, 2015), was designed to support practitioners’ adherence to both the session content and to the primary process of self-regulation theorized to underpin the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program (Sanders, 1999, 2012). Fifty-two practitioners from 12 community agencies submitted 361 self-reports; a subset of 23 practitioners submitted 63 audio-recordings to permit additional ratings by a coding team providing a multi-informant and multimethod evaluation of adherence. Results provided preliminary evidence of good levels of reliability and validity for scores on the adherence measures. Consistent with previous research there were low correlations between informants: practitioners reported both higher content (84.6% compared to 49.9%) and process (80.0 – 95.0% compared to 30 – 55%) adherence than that rated by coders. Possible explanations for this discrepancy are discussed. Taken together, the results of these two studies highlight both the importance of offering supports that can be delivered flexibly to suit the needs of diverse families, and the need to support practitioners’ self-reflection on adherence to program content and underlying processes in delivering those supports.

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Performance monitoring is a crucial metacognitive function that allows for adaptive behaviour. Electrophysiological studies on error monitoring specifically, have shown how error trials in different tasks elicit two distinct signatures, the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe). While studies find a robust relation between error awareness and the Pe, results regarding error awareness and the ERN are more divergent. Also, no agreement has been reached on the mechanisms that elicit these signals. This meta-analysis aims to explore the relation between these electrophysiological signatures and error awareness and how disparities in study design might explain divergent study results. Two meta-analyses were conducted and found a significant effect-size for error awareness on both the ERN and the Pe. Subgroup analyses were conducted to explore how different study-characteristics can influence these outcomes. Although no effects were found, these results remain mainly inconclusive since the number of included studies was very low, and their study designs quite similar.

Aim To assess the clinical outcomes of zirconia implants, namely survival rate and the prevalence of fracture, based on a systematic review of the literature. Material and method An electronic search was conducted in three databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct), last updated in October 2022. Inclusion criteria were clinical human studies providing information on implant failure rates in any group of patients receiving zirconia dental implants. Log-rank test was used to compare the survival distributions of implants between some groups of variables. Interval survival rate (ISR) and cumulative survival rate (CSR) were calculated. Results Thirty-seven publications were included in the review, with 2941 zirconia implants in 1766 patients, with a mean follow-up of 36.3 ± 22.7 months. There were 182 implant failures, with the great majority of them occurring within the first year after implant installation. Twenty-four implant fractures were reported, most of them in implants of narrow diameter. There was no statistically significant difference of implant failure between the anterior and posterior regions (p = 0.798), nor between maxilla and mandible (p = 0.341), nor between one- and two-piece implants (p = 0.787). The CSR after 10 years was 88.1 %. Conclusion Clinical studies assessing clinical outcomes of zirconia implants in humans have a relatively short mean follow-up time. Zirconia implants present a CSR of 88.1% after 10 years, with most failures happening within the first year after implant installation. Implants of narrow diameter present higher risk of fractures than implants of wider diameter. / Syfte Att bedöma de kliniska resultaten av zirkonia implantat, överlevnadsgrad och förekomst av frakturer, baserat på en systematisk översikt av litteraturen. Material och metod En elektronisk sökning gjordes i tre olika databaser (PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct), senast uppdaterad i oktober 2022. Inklusions kriterier var kliniska humanstudier som gav information om frekvensen av implantatfel hos vilken grupp patienter som helst som fick zirkonia tandimplantat. Log-rank test användes för att jämföra överlevnadsfördelningen av implantat mellan vissa grupper av variabler. Intervallöverlevnadsfrekvens (ISR) och kumulativ överlevnadsfrekvens (CSR) beräknades. Resultat Trettio-sju publikationer inkluderades i granskningen, med 2941 zirkonia implantat hos 1766 patienter, med en genomsnittlig uppföljning på 36,3 ± 22,7 månader. Det förekom 182 implantatfel, varav den stora majoriteten inträffades under det första året efter implantatinstallationen. Tjugo-fyra implantatfrakturer rapporterades, de flesta i implantat med smal diameter. Det fanns ingen statistiskt signifikant skillnad av implantatfel mellan de främre och bakre områdena (p = 0,798), inte heller mellan maxilla och underkäken (p = 0,341), inte heller mellan implantat i ett och två delar (p = 0,787). CSR efter 10 år var 88,1 %. Slutsats Kliniska studier som bedömer kliniska resultat av zirkonia implantat hos människor har en relativt kort genomsnittlig uppföljningstid. Zirkonia implantat uppvisar en CSR på 88,1 % efter 10 år, med de flesta fel som inträffar inom det första året efter implantatinstallationen. Implantat med smal diameter ger högre risk för frakturer än implantat med bredare diameter.

Testing the equality between two high-dimensional covariance matrices is challenging. As the most efficient way to measure evidential discrepancies in observed data, the likelihood ratio test is expected to be powerful when the null hypothesis is violated. However, when the data dimensionality becomes large and potentially exceeds the sample size by a substantial margin, likelihood ratio based approaches face practical and theoretical challenges. To solve this problem, this study proposes a method by which we first randomly project the original high-dimensional data into lower-dimensional space, and then apply the corrected likelihood ratio tests developed with random matrix theory. We show that testing with a single random projection is consistent under the null hypothesis. Through evaluating the power function, which is challenging in this context, we provide evidence that the test with a single random projection based on a random projection matrix with reasonable column sizes is more powerful when the two covariance matrices are unequal but component-wise discrepancy could be small -- a weak and dense signal setting. To more efficiently utilize this data information, we propose combined tests from multiple random projections from the class of meta-analyses. We establish the foundation of the combined tests from our theoretical analysis that the p-values from multiple random projections are asymptotically independent in the high-dimensional covariance matrices testing problem. Then, we show that combined tests from multiple random projections are consistent under the null hypothesis. In addition, our theory presents the merit of certain meta-analysis approaches over testing with a single random projection. Numerical evaluation of the power function of the combined tests from multiple random projections is also provided based on numerical evaluation of power function of testing with a single random projection. Extensive simulations and two real genetic data analyses confirm the merits and potential applications of our test. / Statistics

Introduction: Cognitive complaints are often reported by patients who also describe chronic pain. Reviews suggest chronic pain is likely to be associated with weaknesses, relative to control groups, in at least some cognitive functions including processing speed, attention, and possibly working memory, but differences between studies obscure the size of effects. Objective: This study provided a quantitative analysis of the magnitude of the association between chronic pain and neurocognitive test performances. Brief literature review is also done to focus on the functional brain changes associated with the chronic pain. Methods: Meta-analysis was performed using the Cochrane, PRISMA guidelines. The analysis included published experimental design and the tests were studied at least 3 times, by different researchers, and the outcomes were combined within the same cognitive test. Tests were excluded when heterogeneity of variance exceeded I2 = 0.60. Pain subgroups were combined. Results: 23 studies met criteria and involved heterogeneous pain populations, or subgroups including back pain, whiplash, and fibromyalgia. Seven tests had sufficient variance homogeneity. Effects sizes (- ve = chronic pain relative weakness) were: Tests measuring the attention such as PASAT and TEA, working memory (WAIS- digit span), executive functions such as Stroop test, TMT showed significant weaker performance on the tests performance, whereas performance on the test of visuospatial abilities such as ROCF and Corsi block test and WCST test, did not showed significant association. Conclusions: Chronic pain was associated with statistically significant performance reductions. The pattern suggests that chronic pain is associated with poorer performance in at least some tasks requiring processing speed, attention, working memory and learning. Differences between pain and control groups ranged from about 1/3 standard deviation to just under a full standard deviation. Too little research is available on non-verbal memory and executive functions in chronic pain. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Chronic kidney disease greatly raises cardiovascular disease risk. Heart disease and death risk grow proportionately with renal disease progression. Investigate the link between cardiovascular disease prevalence and chronic renal disease severity and mortality using meta-analysis. In this study, 155 publications were found after searching several databases (including PubMed and Google Scholar). 48 studies that matched the inclusion criteria were included in the literature review, however, only 20 were included in the meta-analysis. 17101 people had CKD, while 8883 had CVD or non-CVD. Using the R programming language, a meta-analysis was performed to get a pooled impact of the influence of CVD on the severity of CKD (odds ratio OR), and a funnel plot was also generated to check for publication bias. The outcomes of the meta-analysis indicate that cardiovascular disease has a moderate impact on the severity of chronic kidney disease (OR=2.28, 95% CI, 1.90-2.73). All data will give essential insights into the epidemiology of the cardiovascular disease in chronic kidney disease (CKD), disclose the influence of individual risk variables on bad outcomes, and serve as the platform for future interventional research. Further investigation of the particular (non-traditional) risk factors associated with the renal illness that contribute to accelerated atherosclerosis in this population is necessary to improve the efficacy of cardiovascular treatments for patients with CKD. The purpose of this research is to determine whether and how these variables affect the development of CKD. / <p>Utbytesstudent.</p>