This commentary paper provides a selective overview of topics addressed at the sixth annual meeting of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA). With 31 symposiums, 42 free paper sessions and 236 poster presentations ISBNPA 2007 provided a comprehensive overview of the state of the art and of new avenues for behavioral nutrition and physical activity rese...

Background Research funds are limited and a healthcare profession that supports research activity should establish research priority areas. The study objective was to identify research priority areas for the Canadian chiropractic profession, and for stakeholders in the chiropractic profession to rank these in order of importance. Methods We conducted a modified Delphi consensus study between ...

BACKGROUND Systems to exempt the indigent from user fees have been put in place to prevent the worst-off from being excluded from health care services for lack of funds. Yet the implementation of these mechanisms is as rare as the operational research on this topic. This article analyzes an action research project aimed at finding an appropriate solution to make health care accessible to the in...

Over the past 2 decades, relationship marketing has become and increasingly important focus for research activity. However, practical knowledge of the nature and benefits of long-term relationships remains ambiguous with evidence of different findings from different sides of the dyad. This paper reports on the results of an exploratory study of hotels and their corporate clients, using data fro...

OBJECTIVE In 2001, the National Institute for Health Research Cancer Research Network (NCRN) was established, leading to a rapid increase in clinical research activity across the English NHS. Using colorectal cancer (CRC) as an example, we test the hypothesis that high, sustained hospital-level participation in interventional clinical trials improves outcomes for all patients with CRC managed i...

Caesarean section (CS) is a common surgical procedure. Although it has been performed in a modern context for about 100 years, there is no concise analysis of the international architecture of caesarean section research output available so far. Therefore, the present study characterizes the global pattern of the related publications by using the NewQIS (New Quality and Quantity Indices in Scien...

component of applying a justice principle. Conversely, most emic research activity has focused on the more concrete component of construing the deservingness of the people involved. Quite likely, these biases of etic and emic perspectives are inherent ones. The tendency of etic perspective research to omit all but the most abstract components of a cognitive process is, in fact, rooted in the ve...

BACKGROUND Team-based approaches to research capacity building (RCB) may be an efficient means to promote allied health research participation and activity. In order to tailor such interventions, a clearer understanding of current patterns of research participation within allied health teams is needed. Different self-report measures exist which evaluate a team's research capacity and participat...

BACKGROUND Facilitation of residents' scholarly activities is indispensable to the future of medical specialties. Research education initiatives and their outcomes, however, have rarely been reported. METHODS Since academic year 2006, research education initiatives, including research lectures, research problem-based learning discussions, and an elective research rotation under a new research...

Communities are fundamental entities for the characterization of the structure of real networks. The standard approach to the identification of communities in networks is based on the optimization of a quality function known as modularity. Although modularity has been at the center of an intense research activity and many methods for its maximization have been proposed, not much is yet known ab...