Retraction: Glyphosate Use Predicts ADHD Hospital Discharges in the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Net (HCUPnet): A Two-Way Fixed-Effects Analysis
The publisher wishes to retract this paper because it was published in error. This paper was editorially rejected following peer review and consultation with the Editorial Board. Unfortunately , the production process was erroneously completed on this paper resulting in publication , and the publisher apologizes for this mistake. open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Glyphosate Use Predicts Healthcare Utilizationfor ADHD in the Healthcare Cost and UtilizationProject net (HCUPnet):A Two-Way Fixed-Effects Analysis
There has been considerable international study on the etiology of rising mental disorders, such as ADHD, in human populations. As glyphosate is the most commonly used herbicide in the world, we sought to test the hypothesis that glyphosate use in agriculture may be a contributing environmental factor to the increase in healthcare utilization among individuals with diagnosed ADHD. State estimates for glyphosate use and nitrogen fertilizer use were obtained from the USGS. We queried the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project net (HCUPNET) for state-level hospitalization discharge diagnosis data on all patients for all-listed ADHD cases from 2007 to 2010. The least squares dummy variable (LSDV) method and within the method using two-way fixed effects was used to elucidate the relationship between glyphosate use and all-listed ADHD hospital discharge diagnoses. A 1-kg increase in glyphosate use in one year positively predicts state-level all-listed ADHD discharge diagnoses the following year (coefficient = 5.54E-08, p<.01). A study of the effects of urbanization on the relationship between glyphosate use and ADHD indicates that the relationship is marginally significantly positive in urban U.S. counties (p<.025). Furthermore, total glyphosate use is strongly associated with total farm use of nitrogen fertilizers from 1992 to 2006 (p<.001). Glyphosate use is a significant predictor of state healthcare utilization for ADHD, with the effect concentrated in urban U.S. counties. We draw upon the econometric results to propose unique and exploratory mechanisms, borrowing principles from soil and atmospheric sciences, for how glyphosate-based herbicides may be contributing to the rise of ADHD in all populations.
Resource Allocation In R&D Departments
AbstractThis paper examines the problem of allocating funds within research and development organizations, where several departments and multiple research areas must be considered. Furthermore, impacts arising from budget shifts must be measured in terms of various factors or criteria that may be qualitative or quantitative. Using a particular research and development organization, Ontario Hydro, as a backdrop, we develop a framework for evaluating budget changes when (a) multiple criteria, (b) multiple opinions, and (c) qualitative factors are involved. A three stage procedure for budget allocation is proposed. In the first stage, management responses regarding the perceived impacts of budget changes are combined to arrive at a consensus. In stage two, the multiple criteria consensus values are used to derive an overall impact rating for each proposed budget shift pertaining to each of a set of research areas. Finally, in stage three an optimal subset of budget shifts is chosen from the set of all possib...