Large-scale Comparative Studies Research Articles

Top-rated British business research: has the emperor got any clothes?

Business schools have great prestige and charge large amounts of money for their courses. But how good is the science on which they base their prescriptions for action? To find out we examined the published output from the only three British business schools with the highest (5*) research assessment ranking at the time the articles were published. We conclude that theory development and model construction are often elegant. However, the methods used to obtain primary empirical information to confirm or refute the theories or populate models are poor, at least from a positivist or pragmatic ontological perspective. Large scale comparative studies made up only a small proportion of research output from the business schools. Literature reviews were not systematic. The sampling frame and rationale for selection of cases for study are inadequately described. The methods of data collection were frequently not given in sufficient detail to enable the study to be replicated and the conclusions tended to go far beyond what the data by themselves could support. However, this does not have to be the case-there are excellent examples of research in social sciences. We conclude, therefore, that top-rated British business research is a scantily clad emperor.

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We previously reported that we should first induce a prolonged cytostatic (dormant) phase rather than strive to shrink tumors, because the survival time of most patients with solid tumors depends on the length of the induced cytostatic (dormant) phase rather than on induced tumor reduction. To confirm this concept, we examined whether the survival of SD with a prolonged dormant phase is equal or superior to that of an “effective” (CR and PR) case in three late phase II clinical studies of patients with gastric cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. These results led to the conclusion that we can achieve survival without tumor shrinkage, and we call it “tumor dormancy therapy.”.In order to apply our strategy in chemotherapy, we developed and established a new dose finding system “individualized maximum repeatable dose (iMRD) ” instead of the present only dose finding system, maximum tolerated dose (MTD) . Our results showed that chemotherapy by iMRD for pancreatic cancer using gemcitabine induced longer median survival without severe toxicities and may expect a tailor made dose treatment. A large-scale comparative clinical study is starting to verify such a potential. [Skin Cancer (Japan) 2003; 18: 7-12]

Performance Competitions as Research Infrastructure: Large Scale Comparative Studies of Multi-Agent Teams

Performance competitions (events that pit many different programs against each other on a standardized task) provide a way for a research community to promote research progress towards challenging goals. In this paper, we argue that for maximum research benefit, any such competition must involve comparative studies under closely controlled, varying conditions. We demonstrate the critical role of comparative studies in the context of one well-known and growing performance competition: the annual Robotic Soccer World Cup (RoboCup) Championship. Specifically, over the past three years, we have carried out annual large-scale comparative evaluations—distinct from the competition itself—of the multi-agent teams taking part in the largest RoboCup league. Our study, which involved 30 different teams of agents produced by dozens of different research groups, focused on robustness. We show that (i) multi-agent teams exhibit a clear performance-robustness tradeoff; (ii) teams tend to over-specialize, so that they cannot handle beneficial changes we make to their operating environment; and (iii) teams improve in performance more than in robustness from one year to the next, despite the emphasis by RoboCup organizers on robustness as a key challenge. These results demonstrate the potential of large-scale comparative studies for producing important results otherwise difficult to discover, and are significant both in the lessons they raise for designers of multi-agent teams, and in understanding the place of performance competitions within the multi-agent research infrastructure.

Chirurgie parathyroïdienne dirigée : une série de 100 patients consécutifs

Introduction: The treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism has long required a bilateral neck exploration to localize all parathyroid glands. New techniques in pre-operative imaging (technetium-99m-sestamibi scanning, high resolution ultrasonography) have allowed an accurate localization of pathological glands. Moreover, the intraoperative intact parathyroid hormone assay (iPTH) now permits to confirm the resection of all hyper-secreting glands. Material and methods: Two hundred and twenty patients underwent parathyroid operations during the last 3 years, by different minimally invasive techniques. Pre- and intra-operative data, as well as the follow-up were recorded prospectively. The results of the last 100 unilateral approaches, performed for primary hyperparathyroidism, were analyzed. Results: There were 78 women and 22 men, with a mean age of 57 ± 15 years (25 to 92 years). Mean operative time was 44 ± 25 min. Ninety-three solitary adenomas, three double adenomas, three carcinomas and one hyperplasia were resected. Two patients required a bilateral exploration. There was one intra-operative complication (pneumothorax) during the resection of a mediastinal gland. Three post-operative complications occurred, with 2 hematomas and one transient recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis. Median hospital stay was 2 ± 7,5 hours (1–72 hours). All patients were cured following the operation, as predicted by the intra-operative iPTH assays. Conclusion: These results suggest that unilateral, targeted, neck explorations offer a cure rate similar to those obtained by bilateral neck explorations. Moreover, this operation can be performed under local anesthesia, with a short hospital stay and recovery time. The morbidity rate is low but should be addressed by large-scale comparative studies.

Tiotropium bromide: a novel once-daily anticholinergic bronchodilator for the treatment of COPD.

Tiotropium bromide (Spiriva, BA679BR, Boehringer Ingelheim) is a novel inhaled, long-acting anticholinergic bronchodilator that is employed as a once-daily maintenance treatment for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Like ipratropium bromide, tiotropium bromide is a quaternary ammonium derivative that binds to muscarinic receptors. However, although tiotropium binds with high affinity to muscarinic receptors of M1-, M2- and M3-subtypes, it dissociates very slowly from M1- and M3-receptors but more rapidly from M2-receptors, thereby giving it a unique kinetic selectivity. To date, the short-acting anticholinergic agents ipratropium and oxitropium bromide have been extensively employed as bronchodilator therapy for patients with COPD. Indeed, the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) strategy emphasises the role of bronchodilators in symptomatic management of all stages of COPD. It is encouraging that tiotropium given once daily from a dry powder inhaler at 18 g has been shown to cause greater improvement in lung function and reduction in symptoms than ipratropium bromide given four times daily. Furthermore, clinical studies over a 1-year period have demonstrated that tiotropium has impressive and maintained effects on lung function, symptoms and health-related quality of life, and may also reduce exacerbations. In a recent large scale comparative study over 6 months, tiotropium has been shown to cause superior bronchodilation and symptomatic improvement when compared to twice daily salmeterol in COPD. The only significant reported adverse event is dry mouth, which is found in approximately 10%-15% of subjects, but this is reversible and rarely causes discontinuation of therapy. Based on these promising features, it is likely that tiotropium used alone or in combination with other bronchodilators will emerge as first-line maintenance treatment for patients with airway obstruction due to COPD.

Developing tests of successional hypotheses with size-structured populations, and an assessment using long-term data from a Ugandan rain forest

In 1947, W. J. Eggeling published an account of forest succession at Budongo, Uganda. This interpretation was based on a large-scale comparative plot study, performed in the 1930s and 1940s. This account, with its implication that species richness declines in late succession, endures as a controversial corner-stone in theories and disputes about community diversity. Data have now been collected over six decades from five of Eggeling’s original plots. This paper evaluates Eggeling’s successional interpretation of the Budongo vegetation. The first set of analyses assesses the consistency of the original data with the predictions of compositional progression and convergence implicit in Eggeling’s model. The second analyses do the same for the time-series observations. A logical approach shows how temporal information may be derived from both between plot, and within plot, evaluations using sizestructured data. A Detrended-Correspondence-Analysis (DCA) of canopy-tree composition, from the original data, ranks the plots in perfect correspondence to Eggeling’s successional sequence. A ‘development-scoring’ procedure is developed using passive-ordination against this sequence; this is then applied to composition by plot and stemsize class. Eggeling’s original data are consistent with each prediction assessed. The analyses show compositional progression and apparent convergence across the plot series, and also progression and convergence within each plot. A monodominant-Cynometraforest is the natural end-point of this progression. The time-series results, though in apparent agreement for one early successional plot, do not generally accord with Eggeling’s ideas. The analyses illustrate a general means for evaluating explicit and implicit compositional trends in communities with structured

How Comparative Is Comparative Research?

Social scientists tend to accept lower standards of rigor in cross-national surveys than in national surveys, leading to heroic conclusions about differences between nations on the basis of obviously faulty data. Arising perhaps from a commendable wish to respect different cultural norms, even some of the most conscientious cross-national studies make the mistake of permitting considerable variations by country in the type and quality of the methods they deploy. Meanwhile, analysts of cross-national data frequently abandon offering explanations and interpretations in favor of league tables of distributions showing merely “gee whiz” national differences. This article acknowledges the formidable obstacles in the way of achieving rigor in large-scale comparative studies and offers 10 possible rules to mitigate the difficulties. It suggests that bigger is usually worse and recommends routine cross-national collaboration in analysis and interpretation—not just in design, development, and execution—among scholars in each of the nations under the microscope.

Body size effects and rates of cytochrome b evolution in tube-nosed seabirds.

Variation in rates of molecular evolution now appears to be widespread. The demonstration that body size is correlated with rates of molecular evolution suggests that physiological and ecological factors may be involved in molecular rate variation, but large-scale comparative studies are still lacking. Here, we use complete cytochrome b sequences from 85 species of tube-nosed seabirds (order Procellariiformes) and 5 outgroup species of penguins (order Sphenisciformes) to test for an association between body mass and rates of molecular evolution within the former avian order. Cladistic analysis of the 90 sequences estimates a phylogeny largely consistent with the traditional taxonomy of the Procellariiformes. The Diomedeidae, Procellariidae, and Pelecanoididae are monophyletic, while the Hydrobatidae are basal and paraphyletic. However, the two subfamilies within the Hydrobatidae (Hydrobatinae and Oceanitinae) are monophyletic. A likelihood ratio test detects significant deviation from clocklike evolution in our data. Using a sign test for an association between body mass and branch length in the seabird phylogeny, we find that larger taxa tend to have shorter terminal branch lengths than smaller taxa. This observation suggests that rates of mitochondrial DNA evolution are slower for larger taxa. Rate calibrations based on the fossil record reveal concordant body size effects. We interpret these results as evidence for a metabolic rate effect, as the species in this order exhibit large differences in metabolic rates, which are known to be highly correlated with body mass in this group. Our results support previous findings of body size effects and show that this effect can be significant even within a single avian order. This suggests that even lineage-specific molecular clocks may not be tenable if calibrations involve taxa with different metabolic rates.

Curriculum sensitive assessment: Content does make a difference

This chapter explores the use of rankings and total test scores in large-scale international comparative studies and some of the issues related to them. It examines their value as a basis for policy decisions and educational research. Country ranks on total test scores have been seen to be relatively robust to changes in test content, even changes directed at greater curriculum relevance. Unfortunately, other analyses suggest this robustness is likely a consequence of high levels of aggregation and broad, shallow domain sampling. Student achievement in mathematics and science is inherently multi dimensional. Highly aggregated scores of broadly sampled domains are inherently misleading and mask fundamental, educationally relevant diversities at more specific levels of the curriculum.

Treatment of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

Although the overall survival rates for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer have not changed in the past two decades, meta-analytic studies have confirmed that a modest increase in mean survival time can be gained with platinum-based combination chemotherapy. With appropriate selection of patients, chemotherapy will have symptomatic benefits in more than 60% of patients, and concerns regarding the costs of chemotherapy will be lessened by the observation that in some instances chemotherapy is less costly than best supportive care. Until the end of the 1980s, apart from the few active agents and their analogues no new drugs became available, but in the past 5 years several new agents have shown promising results and are now being included in combination programs. Large-scale comparative studies, looking for the combination with the best therapeutic index, are awaited with great interest. The number of patients with non-small cell lung cancer is so great that even modest improvements in therapy will have a great impact on survival rates.

Puerto Rican and Irish American Alcohol Consumption: A Comparative Study

This article presents data from a large-scale comparative study of mainland Puerto Rican and Irish American drinking behavior. In general Irish Americans had higher rates of alcohol consumption than Puerto Rican. More specifically, Irish Americans were less likely than Puerto Ricans to be designated either as lifetime or current abstainers. Irish American also reported that they drank more frequently and had been intoxicated more often than Puerto Ricans in the past year. Irish Americans also reported having their initial experience with alcohol at an earlier age than their Puerto Rican counterparts.

Comparative and experimental approaches to top-down and bottom-up regulation of bacteria

The regulation of bacterial community biomass and productivity by resources and predators is a central concern in the study of microbial food webs. Resource or bottom-up regulation refers to the limitation of bacteria by carbon and nutrients derived from allocthonous inputs, primary production, and heterotrophic production. Predatory or top-down regulation refers to the limitation of bacteria below levels supportable by resources alone. Large scale comparative studies demonstrate strong correlations between bacterial productivity and biomass, suggesting significant resource regulation. Comparisons of the abundances of heterotrophic flagellates and bacteria, however, imply that in some cases there may be top-down regulation of bacteria in eutrophic environments. Experimental studies in lakes support the importance of resource regulation and reveal little top-down control from protozoans. Increases in bacterial abundance and production with nutrient enrichment were limited in enclosure experiments with high abundances of the cladoceran, Daphnia. Regulation of bacteria by Daphnia may occur in many lakes seasonally and prevail in some lakes throughout the year where these animals sustain dense populations. In most situations, however, bacteria appear to be limited primarily by resources.

Biotic interactions and global change

Part 1 Patterns and determinants of climate and landscape change: scenarios of global warming, Stephen H. Schneider evaluating landscape change - patterns of worldwide deforestation and local fragmentation, Martha J. Groom and Nathan Schumaker population and community processes in the response of terrestrial ecosystems to global change, David S. Schimel. Part 2 Physiology and population responses to environmental change: terrestrial vegetation and climate change - integrating models and experiments, Stephen W. Pacala and George C. Hurtt plant defense, herbivory, and climate change, Matthew P. Ayres population responses to environmental change - operative environments, physiologically structured models, and population dynamics, Arthur E. Dunham climate change and ecological interactions, Anthony R. Ives and George Gilchrist individual-based models for predicting effects of global change, William W. Murdoch. Part 3 Evolutionary responses to environmental change: evolutionary genetics and climatic change - will animals adapt to global warming?, Ary A. Hoffmann and Mark W. Blows evolutionary responses of plants to global change, Monica A. Gever and Todd E. Dawson the evolutionary dynamics of fragmented plant populations, Kent S. Holsinger genetic consequences of extinction and recolonization in fragmented habitats, David E. McCauley evolution and extinction in response to environmental change, Michael Lynch and Russell Lande global change - lessons from and for evolutionary biology, Joseph Travis and Douglas J. Futuyma. Part 4 Community responses to environmental change: species dynamics and global environmental change - a perspective from ecosystem experiments, Stephen R. Carpenter, et al effects of global climate change on North American birds and their communities, Terry L. Root implications of climate change for stream communities, Nancy B. Grimm paleoecological perspectives on modeling broad-scale responses to global change, James S. Clark carbon dioxide limitation and potential direct effects of its accumulation on plant communities, David Tilman a salty and salutary perspective on global change, Robert T. Paine forecasting ecological responses to global change - the need for large-scale comparative studies, Michael L. Pace. Part 5 Landscape change and habitat fragmentation: species invasions and deletions - community effects and responses to climate and habitat change, David M. Lodge species diversity, spatial scale, and global change, Susan Harrison effects of global change on the dynamics of insect host-parasitoid interactions, M.P. Hassell, et al conservation planning for species occupying fragmented landscapes - the case of the Northern Spotted Owl, Kevin McKelvey, et al part contents.

Performance evaluation for four classes of textural features

Textural features for pattern recognition are compared. The problem addressed is to determine which features optimize classification rate. Such features may be used in image segmentation, compression, inspection, and other problems in computer vision. Many textural features have been proposed in the literature. No large-scale objective comparative study has appeared. The goal is comparing and evaluating in a quantitative manner four types of features, namely Markov Random Field parameters, multi-channel filtering features, fractal based features, and co-occurrence features. Performance is assessed by the criterion of classification error rate with a Nearest Neighbor classifier and the Leave-One-Out estimation method using forward selection. Four types of texture are studied, two synthetic (fractal and Gaussian Markov Random Fields) and two natural (leather and painted surfaces). The results show that co-occurrence features perform best followed by the fractal features. However, there is no universally best subset of features. The feature selection task has to be performed for each specific problem to decide which feature of which type one should use.

A large scale comparative study in general practice with nitroglycerin spray and tablet formulations in elderly patients with angina pectoris

In an 8-week comparative study, 410 patients were treated with nitroglycerin spray and 387 with conventional 500 mcg sublingual tablets. Data were analysed to compare the two treatments and to compare the results in older patients (greater than or equal to 65 y) with younger patients (less than 65 y). Spray was significantly superior to tablets in terms of number of patients helped, speed of pain relief and reduction in the number of attacks from pre-study levels. The occurrence of headache was significantly less in the spray group. There was no significant difference in the number or nature of adverse events but more spray patients reported taste disturbance. The clinical advantages seen in the entire population were maintained when the two age categories were considered separately. Further, 95% of patients found the spray convenient. The authors conclude that improved efficacy together with improved stability of the spray without loss of convenience makes Nitrolingual spray an acceptable alternative to tablets irrespective of patients' age.

On concepts and classifications of musical instruments

Kartomi first moves through a culture-specific inspection of several societies in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and then, synthesizing current ethnomusicological trends, proceeds to make a large-scale comparative study of classification schemes and the concepts which govern them.

Relative Abundance of Littoral Zone Fishes: Biotic Interactions, Abiotic Factors, and Postglacial Colonization

We used multivariate ordination techniques to establish relationships among the abundances of the most frequently occurring littoral zone fishes (fishes that occurred in ≥60% of the lakes) in 25 central Ontario lakes. Previously, most large—scale comparative studies of freshwater fish communities only measured species presence/absence. Abundance estimates provide an alternative, and perhaps more sensitive, means of assessing the relative importance of biotic processes, geological/chemical factors, and historical determinants of present—day community structure. Seventy percent of the variation in abundances was described by the first two axes from a correspondence analysis. Abundances of white sucker (Catostomus commersoni) and rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris), and abundances of brown bullhead (Ictalurus nebulosus) and smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui) were negatively related. However, abundances of these species pairs were not related where the species occurred in sympatry, suggesting that species presence/absence strongly influenced these patterns of abundance. Most of the variation in species abundance and distribution was attributed to physical factors associated with species colonization processes (i.e., differences in postglacial colonization rates may have caused negative association between white sucker and rock bass). An independent 45—lake data set was used to confirm these zoogeographic patterns. Predation by northern pike (Esox lucius) may be partly responsible for variation in abundance and distribution of white sucker. Where pike and sucker co—exist, sucker abundance is lower than where sucker exist without pike. Habitat differences between lakes provided the best explanation for the variation in abundance of smallmouth bass and brown bullhead. Biogeographic processes, physical environmental factors, and predatory processes have been very influential in shaping abundances and distributions of ubiquitous littoral zone fishes in Ontario.

Social and Economic Consequences of Large-Scale Development Projects

Research Article| August 01 1988 Social and Economic Consequences of Large-Scale Development Projects Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (1988) 8 (1_and_2): 106–115. https://doi.org/10.1215/07323867-8-1-2-106 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Social and Economic Consequences of Large-Scale Development Projects. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 1 August 1988; 8 (1_and_2): 106–115. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/07323867-8-1-2-106 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsComparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 1988: South Asia Bulletin1988 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Crisis and Mobilization in South Asia (Part Ii): Documents You do not currently have access to this content.

The Evolution of Sexual Patterns in the Seabasses

he variety of sexual patterns exhibited by animals and plants includes almost every possible combination of sex change, hermaphroditism, self-fertilization, and parthenogenesis. However, the distribution of these patterns is far from uniform. For example, consider cosexuality, where each individual has active male and female reproductive organs. This reproductive pattern is very common in plants, fairly common in invertebrates, but rare among vertebrates. It occurs as a normal mode of reproduction only in eleven out of several hundred fish families (Smith 1975, Warner 1978). A major task of evolutionary biologists is to account for the distribution of patterns of sex allocation. Largescale comparative studies (Ghiselin 1969, 1974, Maynard Smith 1978, Policansky 1982) have not been altogether successful, largely because of two problems inherent in the method (Clutton-Brock and Harvey 1984). First, it is difficult to separate the influence of environmental factors

Intralaboratory comparison of drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by BACTEC and conventional methodology

The BACTEC radiometric method of drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a reliable and rapid diagnostic tool in clinical mycobacteriology. However, large scale comparative studies have also shown that the level of agreement with standard methodology was less satisfactory with strains resistant to ethambutol and streptomycin than with strains resistant to rifampin and to isoniazid. Since disagreement with drug resistance strains is far more frequent than with drug susceptible strains, it was felt that only the comparison of a large number of resistant strains would be needed to further refine this new technique. The analysis of BACTEC-derived data for isoniazid and rifampin shows that the level of agreement with conventional methodology falls well within accepted limits. Statistical analysis of the radiometric versus conventional comparisons shows no significant differences between the two methods in the case of isoniazid, rifampin, and ethambutol (3 mg/L). Streptomycin and two other ethambutol concentrations tested showed lower levels of agreement and significant statistical differences with conventional methodology.