The Impacts of Human Resource Management Practices on Company Labor Productivity: Empirical Evidence from Iron and Steel Company in Libya

This paper investigates the relationship between human resource management practices  and labor productivity for the iron and steel Libyan company. This paper operationally defined human resource practices as recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal, communication, compensation, teamwork and employment security. Also, productivity measured as labor productivity. The data was collected using the questionnaire that consists of questions with 5-points Likert scales distributed to our samples of 386 employees. By using a stepwise multiple regression analysis, it is found that, all practices had strong positive correlate and effect on each of labor productivity

Warfarin-Rifampin-Gene (WARIF-G) Interaction: A Retrospective, Genetic, Case–Control Study

Warfarin is extensively metabolized by cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9). Concomitant use with the potent CYP2C9 inducer, rifampin, requires close monitoring and dosage adjustments. Although, in theory, warfarin dose increase should overcome this interaction, most reported cases over the last 50 years have not responded even to high warfarin doses, but some have responded to modest doses. To investigate the genetic polymorphisms' impact on this unexplained interpatient variability, we performed genotyping of CYP2C9, VKORC1, and CYP4F2 for warfarin and rifampin concomitant receivers from 2016 to 2022 at Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar. We identified and included 36 patients: 22 responders and 14 nonresponders. Warfarin-responders were significantly more likely to have one or more warfarin-sensitizing CYP2C9/VKORC1 alleles than nonresponders (odds ratio = 23.2, 95% confidence interval = 3.2–195.6; P = 0.0001). The mean genetic-based pre-interaction calculated dose was significantly lower for responders than for nonresponders (P < 0.001); and was negatively correlated with warfarin sensitivity index (WSI) (r = −0.58; P = 0.0002). The median percentage time in therapeutic range and mean WSI were significantly higher in the warfarin-sensitizing CYP2C9/VKORC1 alleles carriers than noncarriers (P = 0.017 and 0.0004, respectively). Whereas the warfarin-sensitizing CYP2C9/VKORC1 genotypes were associated with modest on-rifampin warfarin dose requirements, the noncarriers would have required more than double these doses to respond. Warfarin-sensitizing CYP2C9/VKORC1 genotypes and low genetic-based warfarin calculated doses were associated with higher warfarin sensitivity and better anticoagulation quality in patients receiving rifampin concomitantly.The cost for the materials and the genetic testing procedures was provided by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) to Qatar University (QU) as per a reimbursement Research Collaboration Agreement. The publication of this article was funded by Qatar National Library (QNL)

Quality of flow diagram in systematic review and/or meta-analysis

<div><p>Systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses generally provide the best evidence for medical research. Authors are recommended to use flow diagrams to present the review process, allowing for better understanding among readers. However, no studies as of yet have assessed the quality of flow diagrams in systematic review/meta-analyses. Our study aims to evaluate the quality of systematic review/meta-analyses over a period of ten years, by assessing the quality of the flow diagrams, and the correlation to the methodological quality. Two hundred articles of “systematic review” and/or “meta-analysis” from January 2004 to August 2015 were randomly retrieved in Pubmed to be assessed for the flow diagram and methodological qualities. The flow diagrams were evaluated using a 16-grade scale corresponding to the four stages of PRISMA flow diagram. It composes four parts: Identification, Screening, Eligibility and Inclusion. Of the 200 articles screened, 154 articles were included and were assessed with AMSTAR checklist. Among them, 78 articles (50.6%) had the flow diagram. Over ten years, the proportion of papers with flow diagram available had been increasing significantly with regression coefficient beta = 5.649 (p = 0.002). However, the improvement in quality of the flow diagram increased slightly but not significantly (regression coefficient beta = 0.177, p = 0.133). Our analysis showed high variation in the proportion of articles that reported flow diagram components. The lowest proportions were 1% for reporting methods of duplicates removal in screening phase, followed by 6% for manual search in identification phase, 22% for number of studies for each specific/subgroup analysis, 27% for number of articles retrieved from each database, and 31% for number of studies included in qualitative analysis. The flow diagram quality was correlated with the methodological quality with the Pearson’s coefficient r = 0.32 (p = 0.0039). Therefore, this review suggests that the reporting quality of flow diagram is less satisfactory, hence not maximizing the potential benefit of the flow diagrams. A guideline with standardized flow diagram is recommended to improve the quality of systematic reviews, and to enable better reader comprehension of the review process.</p></div

Diagram of selecting systematic reviews for the study.

<p>Diagram of selecting systematic reviews for the study.</p

Trend of AMSTAR score (A) and flow diagram score (B) over ten years.

<p>Trend of AMSTAR score (A) and flow diagram score (B) over ten years.</p

Adherence to PRISMA checklist of 154 systematic reviews and/or meta-analysis in two groups: With flow diagram and without flow diagram.

<p>Adherence to PRISMA checklist of 154 systematic reviews and/or meta-analysis in two groups: With flow diagram and without flow diagram.</p

Characteristic of all items in flow diagram and the presence of each item.

<p>Characteristic of all items in flow diagram and the presence of each item.</p

Correlation of flow diagram score and impact factor of journals.

<p>Correlation of flow diagram score and impact factor of journals.</p

Scatter plot of AMSTAR total score and flow diagram score.

<p>Scatter plot of AMSTAR total score and flow diagram score.</p