Phlebotomy is often addressed as a crucial process in the pre-analytical phase, in which a large part of laboratory errors take place, but to date there is not yet a consolidated methodological paradigm. Seeking literature, we found 36 suitable investigations issued between 1996 and 2016 (April) dealing with the investigation of pre-analytical factors related to phlebotomy. We found that the la...

As the length scale of sample dimensions is reduced to the micron and sub-micron scales, the strength of various materials has been observed to increase with decreasing size, a fact commonly referred to as the 'sample size effect'. In this work, the influence of temperature on the sample size effect in copper is investigated using in situ microcompression testing at 25, 200 and 400 °C in the SE...

Early or voluntary retirement (ER) can be defined as the full exit from an organizational job or career path of long duration, decided by individuals of a certain age at the mid or late career before mandatory retirement age, with the aim of reducing their attachment to work and closing a process of gradual psychological disengagement from working life. Given the swinging movements that charact...

Underpowered studies remain ubiquitous (Maxwell, 2004; Bakker et al., 2012; Button et al., 2013; Turner et al., 2013; Szucs and Ioannidis, 2017) despite strong pleas to change this practice (Cohen, 1988, 1990, 1992). As with any complex problem, multiple factors contribute to the ubiquity of conducting underpowered studies, and a wide range of efforts is needed to solve it. Most efforts to impr...

BACKGROUND Responsiveness refers to a measurement tool's ability to detect change in performance over time. The aim of the review was to summarise studies of responsiveness of lower limb physical performance measures during inpatient care after stroke. METHODS A systematic literature review was conducted. Prospective studies that included participants with a diagnosis of stroke, were commence...

Determining the appropriate sample size for a study, whatever be its type, is a fundamental aspect of biomedical research. An adequate sample ensures that the study will yield reliable information, regardless of whether the data ultimately suggests a clinically important difference between the interventions or elements being studied. The probability of Type 1 and Type 2 errors, the expected var...

Statistical power depends on the size of the effect of interest. However, effect sizes are rarely fixed in psychological research: Study design choices, such as the operationalization of the dependent variable or the treatment manipulation, the social context, the subject pool, or the time of day, typically cause systematic variation in the effect size. Ignoring this between-study variation, as...