scholarly journals The Proband-Sibling Design in Psychiatry, with Two Technical Notes

1976 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.R. Offord ◽  
Marshall B. Jones
Keyword(s):  
External Validity ◽  
Statistical Technique ◽  
Geographic Mobility ◽  
Psychiatric Research ◽  
Sibship Size ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Family Effects ◽  
Regression Effects ◽  
Sibling Design

This paper examines the strengths and limitations of the proband-sibling design. As controls, siblings have two major advantages over biologically unrelated subjects. First, they provide better matching and, second, the sibling design is free from regression effects. Only discordant identical co-twins are stronger controls. However, discordant identical twins are not as available for psychiatric research as siblings; the design is sensitive to environmental differences only; and the conclusions reached have less external validity than those reached through proband-sibling comparisons. The limitations of the sibling design include a skewing towards larger sibships and an inability to detect between-family effects. These strengths and limitations are explored and their implications for psychiatric research discussed. Two technical problems associated with this design are examined. First, a statistical technique is presented which allows it to be determined whether the proband is different from his siblings without regard to sibship size or the form of the dependent variable. Second, it is shown how the role of geographic mobility can be clarified in follow-back studies using the proband-sibling design.

scholarly journals COVID-19: systematic learning across boundaries requires a conceptual agreement

2021 ◽  
pp. 140349482110270
Author(s):  
Knut Ole Sundnes ◽  
Geir Sverre Braut
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
External Validity ◽  
Evaluation Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Early Publication ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
Short Time

The COVID-19 epidemic has revealed a shortage of basic knowledge and understanding of pandemics, especially regarding their dynamics and how to contain them. The results are a host of governments’ decrees and instructions, one replacing the other, often within the same week. It has further, in a truly short time, resulted in an overwhelming number of publications, many of them prioritising early publication over quality. This commentary addresses the concept of structured research related to disasters and how the use of endorsed guidelines will facilitate well-designed evaluation research with improved rigour and external validity, even if applied retrospectively. The outcome should be a solidified knowledge base. Further, the important role of public health efforts is to be highlighted, as their role has proved crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic.

How much would you like to pay? Trust, reciprocity and prosocial motivations in El trato

2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J León ◽  
José A Noguera ◽  
Jordi Tena-Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
External Validity ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Trust Game ◽  
Sales Strategy ◽  
Pay What You Want ◽  
Natural Settings

Prosocial motivations and reciprocity are becoming increasingly important in social-science research. While laboratory experiments have challenged the assumption of universal selfishness, the external validity of these results has not been sufficiently tested in natural settings. In this article we examine the role of prosocial motivations and reciprocity in a Pay What You Want (PWYW) sales strategy, in which consumers voluntarily decide how much to pay for a product or service. This article empirically analyses the only PWYW example in Spain to date: the El trato (‘The deal’) campaign launched by the travel company Atrápalo, which offered different holiday packages under PWYW conditions in July 2009. Our analysis shows that, although the majority of the customers did not behave in a purely self-interested manner, they nonetheless did so in a much higher proportion than observed in similar studies. We present different hypotheses about the mechanisms that may explain these findings. Specifically, we highlight the role of two plausible explanations: the framing of the campaign and the attribution of ‘hidden’ preferences to Atrápalo by its customers, which undermined the interpretation of El trato as a trust game.

scholarly journals BIOSYNTHESIS IN ISOLATED ACETABULARIA CHLOROPLASTS

1972 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Shephard ◽  
Wendy B. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Protein Synthesis ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Hydrolyzed Protein ◽  
Protein Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid Labeling ◽  
Labeling Pattern

The ability of chloroplasts isolated from Acetabulana mediterranea to synthesize the protein amino acids has been investigated. When this chloroplast isolate was presented with 14CO2 for periods of 6–8 hr, tracer was found in essentially all amino acid species of their hydrolyzed protein Phenylalanine labeling was not detected, probably due to technical problems, and hydroxyproline labeling was not tested for The incorporation of 14CO2 into the amino acids is driven by light and, as indicated by the amount of radioactivity lost during ninhydrin decarboxylation on the chromatograms, the amino acids appear to be uniformly labeled. The amino acid labeling pattern of the isolate is similar to that found in plastids labeled with 14CO2 in vivo. The chloroplast isolate did not utilize detectable amounts of externally supplied amino acids in light or, with added adenosine triphosphate (ATP), in darkness. It is concluded that these chloroplasts are a tight cytoplasmic compartment that is independent in supplying the amino acids used for its own protein synthesis. These results are discussed in terms of the role of contaminants in the observed synthesis, the "normalcy" of Acetabularia chloroplasts, the synthetic pathways for amino acids in plastids, and the implications of these observations for cell compartmentation and chloroplast autonomy.

Diffusion of Innovations

2021 ◽  
pp. 610-638
Author(s):  
James W. Dearing
Keyword(s):  
External Validity ◽  
Diffusion Of Innovations ◽  
Change Processes ◽  
Dissemination And Implementation ◽  
Rapid Rise ◽  
Diffusion Study ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Dissemination And Implementation Science ◽  
Implementation Of Innovations

The main concepts of the diffusion of innovations represent a hybrid change research and practice paradigm that blends ideas that can now be found in life cycle, evolutionary, and teleological theories of social change. This chapter discusses why the paradigm developed in the ways that it did, including the shortcomings of this approach, especially for studying the role of organizations in change processes. The chapter also examines the rapid rise of dissemination and implementation science as conducted by health services and public health researchers and how those new literatures are related to diffusion. This paradigmatic evolution from descriptive and explanatory studies to intervention research utilizing diffusion concepts is a theme of this chapter, with emphases on organizational implementation of innovations, inter-organizational diffusion, external validity of innovations and how a recognition of the agency of adopters can reshape diffusion study.

scholarly journals A Research Pathway for Experimental Psychopathology: The Role of External Validity Criteria

2017 ◽  
Vol a4 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham C L Davey
Keyword(s):  
External Validity ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Experimental Psychopathology ◽  
Clinical Disorders ◽  
Psychological Models ◽  
Validity Criteria ◽  
Psychological Knowledge ◽  
Healthy Participants

This paper outlines a putative pathway for experimental psychopathology research developing psychological models of clinical disorders. The pathway uses established external validity criteria to define the pathway and clarifies the important role that research conducted on healthy participants can play in our understanding of clinical disorders. Defining a research pathway for experimental psychopathology in this way has a number of benefits It would (1) make explicit the need to address the external validity of developed models, (2) provide a clear set of criteria that would be required to extend research on healthy individuals to diagnostic populations, and (3) recommend using general psychological knowledge when developing models of psychopathology.

Statistics and statisticians in agricultural research

1978 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 653-659
Author(s):  
D. J. Finney
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Statistical Treatment ◽  
Statistical Technique ◽  
Research Management ◽  
Scientific Content ◽  
Scientific Training ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Special Privilege ◽  
Good Research

SummaryAgricultural research now has a long tradition of being served by statisticians, both those who are professionally trained and others who (in no derogatory sense) may be described as amateurs because their primary scientific training is in some other discipline. This paper urges that, as part of good research management, more attention be given to the numbers of statisticians needed and the responsibilities they should undertake.Questions to be considered include not only ‘Who should analyse specified bodies of data?’ but also ‘Which data require full statistical treatment?’. Poor judgement here can mean that the pattern of statistical activity is governed by the forceful approaches of other scientists more than by the scientific content of a problem; moreover, statisticians may be left with no time for the vital tasks of collaborating with others in the planning of research and displaying initiative in new approaches to quantitative problems. Not all research institutes have yet made their statisticians collaborators and partners in research rather than technicians with sharply delimited duties.Agricultural statisticians today should be deeply involved in research in cooperation with other disciplines, as innovators in statistical technique, and to some extent in development of statistical theory. They must be encouraged to publish, as partners in research teams and individually, to produce and document computer programs that implement methods required in agricultural research, and to improve statistical understanding among their colleagues in other disciplines. They are scientists whose responsibilities and rights are equivalent to those of other disciplines but need to be interpreted in relation to the research role of their subject. This paper asks for their proper integration into agricultural research, and not for special privilege.

In Good Company

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Darakhshan Haroon Khan
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Geographic Mobility ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
North India ◽  
Islamic Reform ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Role Of Teachers

Women’s participation in the Tablīghī Jamā‘at, an Islamic reform movement launched in the 1920s that emphasizes personal piety, remains underexamined, impeded by the organization’s strict pardāh requirements but also by the popular perception that it is a body of male preachers. While there is no indication that its founder wanted women to play an active role in his movement, women were a part of the Jamāt a few decades later. This paper points to important twentieth-century shifts in the socio-economic configuration in north India that paved the way for women’s inclusion in the Jamāt. The mode of piety that evolved in this period was better suited to handle the stresses of the emerging salaried class, and it upheld the pious wife as an ideal companion for the pious man, underplaying the role of teachers and spiritual masters. This paper argues that the possibility of social and geographic mobility that changed the structure of the household and the texture of local communities also formulated a mode of piety that enabled women to perform da‘wā.

Introduction: Psychiatric Research and Extraordinary Science

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Research ◽  
Psychiatric Research ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Research Domain Criteria ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
The Core ◽  
Research Programs ◽  
Research Domain

This chapter introduces the core thematic ideas of the present volume: that psychiatric research is in crisis, that it has entered a period of extraordinary science, and that a fully adequate response to the crisis should be responsive to the perspectives and interests of persons. We identify various sources of the crisis, drawing special attention to controversies concerning the role of the DSM in psychiatric research. And, we identify different strategies of response to the current crisis, including approaches that emphasize the importance of personal perspectives and the needs of the clinic and those that emphasize the important role of various scientific research programs. Further, we survey various developments (e.g., debates over fundamentals and a role for philosophical analysis, probing of the problems of the DSM framework, relaxation of standard forms of research practice, the introduction of the Research Domain Criteria initiative and other novel research programs) that are jointly suggestive of Thomas Kuhn’s characterization of periods of crisis that can arise in scientific research and of the “extraordinary science” that ensues. We suggest that this Kuhnian framework is useful for understanding the state of psychiatric research and it provides a framework for thinking about responses to the current crisis. We conclude with brief overviews of the contributions to the volume, each of which provides such a response.

Blend the Lab Course, Flip the Responsibility

2015 ◽  
pp. 1483-1505
Author(s):  
Mark A. Gallo
Keyword(s):  
Technical Problems ◽  
Student Responsibility ◽  
Class Time ◽  
Current State ◽  
Real Value ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Intensive Course ◽  
First Time ◽  
Blended Course

An upper-level special topics course in Applied, Environmental, and Medical Microbiology was offered for the first time. It was decided by the author to offer it as a blended course. There were some compelling reasons to do so: first and foremost, it allowed class time to be spent doing what one should in a lab-intensive course: remark on current state of knowledge and literature, describe experimental design, discuss potential outcomes, troubleshoot technical problems as they arise, and offer suggestions regarding students' research throughout the process. The ultimate goal and real value of the blended classroom in this instance was elevating the level of student responsibility and forcing them to view a science class as something more than a collection of facts: rather as a very active class, one that requires individual action. It was also designed to allow the students to participate in fundamental scientific research with the help of a mentor in a manner that was/is still practiced and in full view of peer review. The role of the faculty member changes to one of providing guidance instead of content in the classroom, and so it gives one more individual time with the students; this time can be used for diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment.

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