Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Fen Ren, Meng-Cheng Wang, Xiao-Min Li, Jie Luo
Summary: This study compared the scale level average scores of Dark Triad personality in China and the USA, finding significant differences in narcissism and psychopathy with higher scores among the Chinese participants. Additionally, the intercorrelations among the subscales showed significant variations between the two countries. Further research replication and exploration of the limitations and future directions are recommended.
CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Jessica M. Franklin, Elisabetta Patorno, Rishi J. Desai, Robert J. Glynn, David Martin, Kenneth Quinto, Ajinkya Pawar, Lily G. Bessette, Hemin Lee, Elizabeth M. Garry, Nileesa Gautam, Sebastian Schneeweiss
Summary: The study found differences between RCT and corresponding RWE study populations, but showed that selecting active comparator therapies with similar indications and use patterns can enhance the validity of RWE. Despite efforts to closely emulate RCT design, agreement between RCT and RWE findings varied depending on the agreement metric used, indicating the need for further research to understand the frequency and contexts in which RWE findings match RCTs.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Johanna Buchner, Van Butsic, He Yin, Tobias Kuemmerle, Matthias Baumann, Nugzar Zazanashvili, Jared Stapp, Volker C. Radeloff
Summary: This study analyzes conflict locations and land-cover data in the Caucasus region to examine the localized and wide-ranging effects of wars on agricultural abandonment. The results show that the intensity and duration of wars do not necessarily correlate with the extent of abandonment. The effects depend on the relative importance of direct and indirect mechanisms, as well as postwar events and policies.
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE-HUMAN AND POLICY DIMENSIONS
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Berend Terluin, Ewa M. Roos, Caroline B. Terwee, Jonas B. Thorlund, Lina H. Ingelsrud
Summary: Testing MIC baseline dependency by stratification on the baseline PROM score results in biased subgroup MIC estimates, and alternative methods should be used to evaluate MIC baseline dependency instead.
QUALITY OF LIFE RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yanqun Ren, Jinping Liu, Suxia Liu, Zhonggen Wang, Tie Liu, Masoud Jafari Shalamzari
Summary: The study found that vegetation growth in the Yellow River Basin is significantly affected by climate change, especially in spring. Temperature and precipitation have the most significant impact on vegetation growth in spring, while the impact is weakest in autumn. NDVI is positively correlated with precipitation in most areas, while negatively correlated with temperature in most parts of the central region.
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Carlos A. Cuello, Rebecca L. Morgan, Jan Brozek, Jos Verbeek, Kris Thayer, Mohammed T. Ansari, Gordon Guyatt, Holger J. Schunemann
Summary: This article discusses the different implications of using nonrandomized studies of interventions (NRSI) and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the certainty of evidence in systematic reviews using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. It emphasizes the importance of considering both NRSI and RCTs in evidence syntheses to maximize their value in informing health recommendations.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Junbang Wang, Yuefan Ding, Shaoqiang Wang, Alan E. Watson, Honglin He, Hui Ye, Xihuang Ouyang, Yingnian Li
Summary: This paper proposes a conceptual framework for assessing changes in ecological quality of Chinese terrestrial ecosystems. The framework utilizes remote sensing data and ecosystem process models to analyze the changes from 2000 to 2018. The results show that the ecological quality index has different spatial patterns based on vegetation distribution. Climate change and human activities are identified as the main driving factors of ecological quality changes.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Hanghang Zheng
Summary: This paper investigates the impact of shadow banking activities on carbon dioxide emissions in China and finds that shadow banking activities have a positive effect on carbon dioxide emissions, especially in the secondary industry. Additionally, the study demonstrates that shadow banking regulation policies can reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2023)
Editorial Material
Health Care Sciences & Services
Ron D. Hays, John Devin Peipert
Summary: This article reviews the estimation of minimally important change (MIC) and provides suggestions on how to assess whether individuals have improved, stayed the same, or declined. It was found that MIC thresholds often lead to overly optimistic conclusions about responders to treatment, and appropriate individual-level statistics should be utilized to evaluate individual change.
QUALITY OF LIFE RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Kristin R. Randel, Anna L. Schult, Edoardo Botteri, Geir Hoff, Michael Bretthauer, Giske Ursin, Erik Natvig, Paula Berstad, Anita Jorgensen, Per Kristian Sandvei, Marie Ek Olsen, Svein Oskar Frigstad, Ole Darre-Naess, Espen R. Norvard, Nils Bolstad, Hartwig Korner, Arne Wibe, Knut-Arne Wensaas, Thomas de Lange, Oyvind Holme
Summary: The study found that repeated FIT had higher participation rates and detected more cases of colorectal cancer and advanced adenomas compared to sigmoidoscopy. However, the risk of perforation and bleeding was similar between the two screening methods.
Article
Ecology
Livia Rasche, Jan C. Habel, Nigel Stork, Erwin Schmid, Uwe A. Schneider
Summary: This study aims to investigate whether the remaining potentially arable areas of natural intact vegetation (rNIV) in 9 out of 35 global biodiversity hotspots will be converted to agriculture by 2050, and examine the impact of a healthy diet on this threat. The results show that while a healthy diet may protect rNIV in many hotspot regions, it actually puts more pressure on rNIV in other regions.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2022)
Article
Economics
Zhaopei Tang, Liehui Wang, Wei Wu
Summary: This study examines the impacts of high-speed rail (HSR) on a city's carbon emissions using operational data, total carbon emissions data, and socio-economic statistics. The findings suggest that HSR can reduce carbon emissions through scale effects, substitution, and stimulation. The operation of HSR can statistically decrease carbon emissions in cities with HSR stations, and it also has a spillover effect on neighboring cities. The dynamic effects of HSR vary during different stages of development, and the impact on carbon emissions depends on city characteristics. These findings provide theoretical and empirical support for the carbon reduction effect of HSR and can inform decision-making for HSR construction in line with China's carbon target.
JOURNAL OF TRANSPORT GEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Jie Chen, Yujie Liu, Weimo Zhou, Jie Zhang, Tao Pan
Summary: Crop phenology in China has changed over the past 30 years, with the length of certain stages being shortened or prolonged. The relative contribution of crop management was greater than that of climate change for rice phenology, with temperature being the dominant climatic contributor. Adaptation measures such as adjusting sowing date and applying nitrogen fertilizer should be applied to offset the adverse effects of climate change on late rice phenology.
JOURNAL OF THE SCIENCE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Philip C. Stouffer, Vitek Jirinec, Cameron L. Rutt, Richard O. Bierregaard, Angelica Hernandez-Palma, Erik I. Johnson, Stephen R. Midway, Luke L. Powell, Jared D. Wolfe, Thomas E. Lovejoy
Summary: Research has shown that bird populations in the Amazon rainforest are decreasing without the presence of deforestation or other human-induced changes. Today's forest fragments and second growth are more impoverished compared to historical abundance, and goals for bird community recovery in second growth must acknowledge that modern bird communities will inevitably differ from those of over 35 years ago.
Article
Oncology
Raphael Bodensohn, Anna -Lena Kaempfel, Anne-Laure Boulesteix, Anna Maria Orzelek, Stefanie Corradini, Daniel Felix Fleischmann, Robert Forbrig, Sylvia Garny, Indrawati Hadi, Jan Hofmaier, Giuseppe Minniti, Ulrich Mansmann, Montserrat Pazos Escudero, Niklas Thon, Claus Belka, Maximilian Niyazi
Summary: This prospective nonrandomized controlled trial aimed to compare whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) in the treatment of multiple brain metastases. Propensity-score matching was performed to compare the efficacy between SRS and historical WBRT control groups. The results showed no significant differences in overall survival and intracranial progression-free survival between the two groups, and no grade III toxicities were observed in the SRS group. The trial did not meet its primary endpoint, and further prospective randomized trials are needed in the era of immunotherapy and targeted therapies.
RADIOTHERAPY AND ONCOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Rehabilitation
Stefanie Rewald, A. F. Ton Lenssen, Pieter J. Emans, Rob A. de Bie, Gerard van Breukelen, Ilse Mesters
ARCHIVES OF PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION
(2020)
Letter
Health Care Sciences & Services
Gerard J. P. van Breukelen
STATISTICAL METHODS IN MEDICAL RESEARCH
(2020)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Francesco Innocenti, Math J. J. M. Candel, Frans E. S. Tan, Gerard J. P. van Breukelen
Summary: The article discusses estimating the mean of a quantitative variable in a hierarchical population and compares three competing two-stage sampling designs. Sampling clusters with probability proportional to size is recommended as the optimal approach.
STATISTICAL METHODS IN MEDICAL RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Hilde Marijke van Keulen, Gerard van Breukelen, Hein de Vries, Johannes Brug, Ilse Mesters
Summary: This study explores the effectiveness of social-cognitive interventions on improving adherence to physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption guidelines. Self-efficacy expectations, habit strength, and stages of change were found to predict adherence behaviors, while factors like sex, awareness, and action plans also influenced adherence. The study suggests that less resource-intensive interventions may have a significant public health impact if widely implemented.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Md Abu Manju, Math J. J. M. Candel, Gerard J. P. van Breukelen
Summary: The bivariate normal multilevel model is widely used in cost-effectiveness analyses and cluster randomized trials, and is robust against non-normal cost distributions. Studies show that CEAs and sample size calculations based on this model are quite robust against highly skewed cost data, especially in terms of type I error rate and power.
COMPUTATIONAL STATISTICS & DATA ANALYSIS
(2021)
Article
Statistics & Probability
Zaheer Ahmed, Alberto Cassese, Gerard van Breukelen, Jan Schepers
Summary: REMAXINT is a novel method for capturing two-way interactions in two-mode data, estimating parameters through maximizing conditional classification likelihood, and proposing a max - F test for testing interaction effects. Through simulation studies and empirical case studies, we demonstrate the effectiveness and utility of the method.
ADVANCES IN DATA ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION
(2021)
Article
Mathematical & Computational Biology
Gerard J. P. Breukelen, Math J. J. M. Candel
Summary: Cluster randomized trials evaluate treatment effects on nested individuals within clusters, considering unknown variances and differences between treatment arms. This paper proposes a Maximin design that maximizes the minimum relative efficiency in the variance parameter space, compared with other designs.
BIOMETRICAL JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Francesco Innocenti, Frans E. S. Tan, Math J. J. M. Candel, Gerard J. P. van Breukelen
Summary: To prevent errors in psychological assessment, it is important to have precise test norms. This study proposes a method for sample size planning based on regression-based norming to improve the precision of inference on Z-scores and percentile rank scores. The study derives sampling variance formulas and uses them to determine the optimal design for the normative sample. It also provides formulas to compute the normative sample size based on desired power and precision.
PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS
(2023)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Mutamba T. Kayembe, Shahab Jolani, Frans E. S. Tan, Gerard J. P. van Breukelen
Summary: The literature suggests using sophisticated methods (such as multiple imputation and maximum likelihood) for dealing with missing covariates in nonrandomized studies, but these methods may not be optimal in randomized studies. This study extends the analysis to multiple baseline covariates with missingness and compares the performance of multiple imputation and maximum likelihood with simple alternative methods in various scenarios. The results show that all simple methods provide unbiased treatment effect estimation, but with increased mean squared residual. Mean imputation and the missing-indicator method perform best in all covariate missingness scenarios.
JOURNAL OF BIOPHARMACEUTICAL STATISTICS
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Gavin van der Nest, Valeria Lima Passos, Math J. J. M. Candel, Gerard J. P. van Breukelen
Summary: This study examines the behavior of fit criteria curves of longitudinal finite mixture models under different data conditions and covariance structures. The variability in fit statistic patterns is attributed to the level of class separation and the presence/absence of random effects. The findings support some widely held notions while debunking others, providing guidelines on using fit criteria curves as a diagnostic aid during class enumeration.
JOURNAL OF STATISTICAL COMPUTATION AND SIMULATION
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Christoph Kuemmerli, Robert S. Fichtinger, Alma Moekotte, Luca A. Aldrighetti, Somaiah Aroori, Marc G. H. Besselink, Mathieu D'Hondt, Rafael Diaz-Nieto, Bjorn Edwin, Mikhail Efanov, Giuseppe M. Ettorre, Krishna Menon, Aali J. Sheen, Zahir Soonawalla, Robert Sutcliffe, Roberto Troisi, Steven A. White, Lloyd Brandts, Gerard J. P. van Breukelen, Jasper Sijberden, Sian A. Pugh, Zina Eminton, John N. Primrose, Ronald van Dam, Mohammed Abu Hilal
Summary: The ORANGE Segments trial is the first multicentre international randomised controlled study to compare short- and long-term surgical and oncological outcomes of laparoscopic and open resections in the posterosuperior segments within an enhanced recovery programme.
Editorial Material
Nutrition & Dietetics
Math J. J. M. Candel, Gerard J. P. van Breukelen
Summary: Designing studies with high statistical power is crucial for improving the quality and reproducibility of research findings. This article presents designs that minimize the number of subjects or research budget while maintaining the desired power level. It focuses on allocation of subjects to treatments and optimal number of centers in cluster-randomized and multicenter trials. Maximin designs are introduced to address unknown parameters, ensuring a pre-specified power level and minimizing research costs.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION
(2023)
Article
Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications
Gerard J. P. Van Breukelen
Summary: Cluster randomized trials assign clusters of persons to treatments, and all persons in the same cluster receive the same treatment. This paper demonstrates the equivalence of four analysis methods for cluster randomized trials with a pretest and post-test of a quantitative outcome. It also introduces a simple method to calculate the sample size for a cluster randomized trial with baseline measurement.
MULTIVARIATE BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Dyonne M. L. Sijstermans, Marjolijn Span, Gerard J. P. Van Breukelen, Yvonne Bol, Caroline Braet, Jeffrey Roelofs
Summary: The aim of this study was to develop normative data for the five schema domains of the Dutch adolescent version of the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ-A). The study also demonstrated the process of obtaining reliable and valid normative data using advanced regression analysis, without the need for subgrouping the norm sample by sex or age but still considering these variables in obtaining norms.
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT
(2023)
Article
Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology
Thomas E. Fuller, Gerard J. P. van Breukelen, Johan W. S. Vlaeyen, Rilana F. F. Cima
Summary: This study examined the effects of stepped-care cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic tinnitus in a regional hospital. The results showed significant improvements in quality of life, tinnitus-related distress, and tinnitus severity among the participants, supporting the implementation of cognitive behavioral therapy in real-world conditions.
