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Edinburgh Napier University

EducationEdinburgh, United Kingdom
About: Edinburgh Napier University is a education organization based out in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 2665 authors who have published 6859 publications receiving 175272 citations.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The role of balancing covariates between treatment groups in the design of cluster randomized trials is explored and methods of obtaining balanced designs from covariates which are available at the start of a study are proposed.
Abstract: This paper explores the role of balancing covariates between treatment groups in the design of cluster randomized trials. General expressions are obtained for two criteria to evaluate designs for parallel group studies with two treatments. The first is the variance of the estimated treatment effect and the second is the extent to which the estimated treatment effect is changed by adjusting for covariates. It is argued that the second of these is more important for cluster randomized trials. Methods of obtaining balanced designs from covariates which are available at the start of a study are proposed. An imbalance measure is used to compare the extent to which designs balance important covariates between the arms of a trial. Several approaches to selecting a well balanced design are possible. A method that randomly selects one member from the class of designs with acceptable bias will allow randomization inference as well as model-based inference. The methods are illustrated with data from a trial of school-based sex education.

163 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest that diversity/biomass/ecosystem function relationships in the soft sediment benthos are likely to be very complex and may depend more on functional groups than species richness.
Abstract: Recent studies in terrestrial, plant-dominated systems have shown that reductions in diversity can affect essential ecosystem processes, especially productivity. However, the exact form of the relationship between diversity and ecosystem functions remains unknown, as does the relevance of these studies to other systems. We studied the relationships between macroinvertebrate species richness and ecosystem functions in a soft-bottom, intertidal system. We also considered, as a separate variable, the effects of macroinvertebrate biomass on ecosystem functions. A field experiment was conducted at Blackness, a mudflat in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, United Kingdom, using cages with different mesh sizes (195, 300, and 3000 μm) to establish low, medium, and high species richness treatments through differential colonization of defaunated sediments. Low, medium, and high biomass treatments were established by enclosing differing amounts of ambient sediment in defaunated plots. Other treatments controlled for the effects of defaunation and caging. The experiment ran for six weeks in the summer of 1999. All treatments contained species within the same five main functional groups of macroinvertebrate, but species' identity varied both within and between treatments (thus species richness was considered a random, rather than fixed, variable). A total of 27 macroinvertebrate species were sampled across all treatments; 37% of these occurred in the low, 52% in the medium, and 74% in the high diversity treatments. At the end of the experiment, the following physical variables were measured as indicators of ecosystem functions such as sediment stabilization and nutrient fluxes: sediment shear strength (a measure of sediment cohesiveness), water content, silt/clay content, organic content, redox potential (a measure of anoxia), nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and ammonium fluxes, and community respiration. Changes in biomass and species richness were found to have significant effects on oxygen consumption; these relationships were driven in particular by the presence of the largest species in our study, Nephtys hombergii. All other variables were not significantly affected by the treatments. These results support the null hypotheses of no relationship between ecosystem functions and diversity and biomass. However, our experiment was necessarily limited in both spatial and temporal scale; the implications of this when scaling up to larger scale generalizations are discussed. Our results suggest that diversity/biomass/ecosystem function relationships in the soft sediment benthos are likely to be very complex and may depend more on functional groups than species richness.

162 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The BNP’s website is explored as a form of alternative media, focusing on how it involves members and supporters in its discursive construction of racism, and finds that the discourses and identities produced are played out through a radical reformation of the concepts of power, culture and oppression.
Abstract: This study examines the discourse of the British National Party’s (BNP) website. It explores the site as a form of alternative media, focusing on how it involves members and supporters in its discursive construction of racism. It finds that the discourses and identities produced are played out through a radical reformation of the concepts of power, culture and oppression. Drawing on the post-colonial notion of the Other, the BNP seeks to present itself, its activities and its members as responses to racism and oppression that, it argues, are practised by the Other. While this discourse is constructed through the everyday experiences and attitudes of its members, the hierarchically-determined nature of the site prevents those members from sustained, active involvement in the construction of their own identities. For this reason, the study concludes, the BNP’s site is far from the more open, non-hierarchical practices of ‘progressive’ alternative media.

162 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: There is a significant positive relationship between loneliness and psychosis in people with psychosis, and this robust finding should be considered in clinical practice and treatment provision for those with psychotic disorders.
Abstract: Loneliness may be related to psychotic symptoms but a comprehensive synthesis of the literature in this area is lacking. The primary aim of the current study is to provide a systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between loneliness and psychotic symptoms in people with psychosis. A search of electronic databases was conducted (PsychINFO, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science). A random effects meta-analysis was used to compute a pooled estimate of the correlation between loneliness and psychotic symptoms. Study and outcome quality were assessed using adapted versions of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) tool and GRADE approach, respectively. Thirteen studies were included, providing data from 15 647 participants. A moderate association between psychosis and loneliness was observed (k = 13, N = 15 647, r = .32, 95% CI 0.20, 0.44; I2 = 97.56%; moderate quality evidence). Whether loneliness was assessed by a single-item or a more comprehensive measure had no moderating effect on the estimate. Results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between loneliness and psychosis. Further studies are needed to determine the causal status of this relationship, but this robust finding should be considered in clinical practice and treatment provision for those with psychotic disorders.

162 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess Porter's contribution to the development of the discipline in the context of the advances that have taken place since the publication of his seminal work Competitive Strategy in 1980.
Abstract: Strategic management is constantly evolving as both an academic discipline and as a reflection of management practice. This article, based on a recent interview with Michael Porter, assesses his contribution to the development of the discipline in the context of the advances that have taken place since the publication of his seminal work Competitive Strategy in 1980. The authors conclude that Porter has made major lasting contributions to strategy, increasing both its academic rigor and its accessibility to managers. The article and interview place Porter's work at the center of the development of strategic management in terms of the provision of practical analytical frameworks, transforming it into a recognized and recognizable field of academic study and management practice. This feat of transformation has not been equaled before or since, so that 25 years after his first seminal contribution, Porter's work continues to provide remarkable insights into the nature of competition and strategy.

161 citations


Authors

Showing all 2727 results

NameH-indexPapersCitations
William MacNee12347258989
Richard J. Simpson11385059378
Ken Donaldson10938547072
John Campbell107115056067
Muhammad Imran94305351728
Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser7033917348
Vicki Stone6920425002
Sharon K. Parker6823821089
Matt Nicholl6622415208
John H. Adams6635416169
Darren J. Kelly6525213007
Neil B. McKeown6528119371
Jane K. Hill6214720733
Min Du6132611328
Xiaodong Liu6047414980
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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Institution in previous years
YearPapers
202328
202299
2021687
2020591
2019552
2018393