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Background: Regarding the analysis of RCT data there is a debate going on whether an adjustment for the baseline value of the outcome variable should be made. When an adjustment is made, there is a lot of misunderstanding regarding the way this should be done. Therefore, the aims of this educational paper are: 1) to explain different methods used to estimate treatment effects in RCTs, 2) to illustrate the different methods with a real life example and 3) to give an advise on how to analyse RCT data. Methods: Longitudinal analysis of covariance, repeated measures analysis in which also the baseline value is used as outcome and the analysis of changes were theoretically explained and applied to an example dataset investigating a systolic blood pressure lowering treatment. Results: It was shown that differences at baseline should be taken into account and that regular repeated measures analysis and regular analysis of changes did not adjust for the baseline differences between the groups and therefore lead to biased estimates of the treatment effect. In the real life example, due to the differences at baseline between the treatment and control group, the different methods lead to different estimates of the treatment effect. Conclusion: Regarding the analysis of RCT data, it is advised to use longitudinal analysis of covariance or a repeated measures analysis without the treatment variable, but with the interaction between treatment and time in the model. Keywords: Randomised controlled trials, Longitudinal of covariance, Repeated measures, Analysis of changes, Regression to the mean more...

Contribution: This article highlights one approach to fostering the entrepreneurial mindset in the engineering classroom. Background: Entrepreneurship and innovation are currently trending topics in engineering education and will continue developing for the foreseeable future. Intended Outcomes: The guiding research question is: how can an entrepreneurial mindset focused learning experience improve student self-regulation, seeing value, and lifelong learning through metacognitive reflections? Application Design: The study is implemented within a five-week module focused on developing the entrepreneurial mindset as part of a required course on supply chain management technology. The supporting pedagogical interventions include authentic learning, information literacy, a mix of low stakes and high stakes assessment, and parallel scaffold and collaborative learning. The module is assessed through a metacognitive reflection centered around self-regulated learning, seeing value, and lifelong learning. Findings: First, the metacognitive reflections showed [approximately]50% of participants would approach their work differently (e.g., make changes to management and scheduling, using credible sources, obtaining writing assistance through the university writing lab). Second, participants were able to articulate soft skill development and/or subject matter expertise as benefits as it relates to entering the workforce. Third, participants were able to express opportunities for extending their knowledge in the future. more...

This article endeavours to present an overview of communal discernment processes developed in the Dutch Reformed Church over the span of two decades. The focus falls on the use of empirical data in these processes. The DRC research team, under the leadership of Prof. Kobus Schoeman, amassed a rich repository of data on the church and its congregations. This data, when used within a framework of discernment, can play an invaluable role in the development of a theology from below, where the theological foundations and concrete reality of the church's context are taken into account. Discernment processes then provide frameworks wherein God's call and preferred future for the church as well as its identity can be discovered. The processes that are developed are becoming increasingly more precise and user friendly. This is important because discernment processes can be dauntingly complex and protracted. By paying attention to discernment processes developed in the ecumenical world, the self-developed processes can be enriched and corrected where necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

In a recent publication, N. DeRoo expressed the view that Dooyeweerd is best understood as a phenomenologist, not a neo-Kantian. He avers that if we view the “Amsterdam School” as being closer to Freiburg than to Marburg, we can re-examine two central tenets of Dooyeweerd’s work ‒ meaning and temporality ‒ in light of their phenomenological heritage and implications. DeRoo concludes that Dooyeweerd offers us a new stream in the history of phenomenology, and more importantly offers a new wave for the future of phenomenology. In this article the author considers the transcendental approach of Husserl and in particular Dooyeweerd’s criticism of the phenomenological method. Dooyeweerd says that in theoretical thought, the aspects of reality are unarticulated in everyday experience. In theoretical thought these aspects are abstracted from the unity of cosmic time and are set over against each other as the fields of investigation for the special sciences, such as biology, physics, and psychology. In the theoretical thought, therefore, there is an abstraction from full, concrete reality. In the antithetic relation the nonlogical aspect stands over against thought and offers resistance to it as its Gegenstand. To Dooyeweerd, there is room for a true transcendental critique only when in a radical-critical attitude we can fix our theoretical thought itself on its necessary presupposita, which are postulated by this structure. Dooyeweerd holds that the theoretical attitude of thought is an intentional relatedness, a mental directedness to a Gegenstand. Like phenomenology, Dooyeweerd is opposed to phenomenalism, which distinguishes between appearance and a thing-in-itself behind appearance. Although there are many points of similarity between Dooyeweerd’s philosophical methods and those of the phenomenological school, Dooyeweerd avers that the phenomenological movement is a most dangerous adversary of a truly Christian philosophy. According to Dooyeweerd, the phenomenologists miss the truly transcendental direction of thought. A proper view of the human subject is also gained only by way of a truly transcendental reflection, which, while remaining within the confines of theoretical thought, points beyond it to the deeper unity of all experiencing. In this article Dooyeweerd’s objections to the phenomenological movement are considered, his rejection of a broadly phenomenological method investigated, and the implications of Dooyeweerd’s dialectical method approach for his philosophical position critically considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Central to John Calvin’s theology is the notion that God is a self-existent being: God is not dependant upon any other being for His existence; rather He exists independently of everything else in creation. Even if everything would diasappear, God would still exist. God’s property of self-existence is an incommunicable attribute of God’s being. God’s aseity implies that God does not exist through another or from another. He exists in and of Himself, independent of everything else and is known from Scripture as a self-existent being. The theological statement of the aseity of God has vast implications for philosophical endeavour and for all the particular scientific disciplines. The doctrine that God alone is self-existent and that everything else is dependent for its existence on God is closely related to the theological doctrine of creation, the doctrine of God’s sovereign governance of the world and that the knowledge of God’s aseity and sovereignty is only possible in and through Christ (the Word or Logos). According to the doctrine of creation, everything that exists (other than God) has been created by God, and everything that exists other than God is a created thing. The doctrine of God’s sovereignty flows from His incommunicable aseity: God is the supreme creator and lawgiver of reality. Not only did God create the whole of reality but he also maintains and governs the world through his wisdom, power and grace. Knowledge of God as the supreme self-existent being, the whole of creation being totally dependent upon God, the sovereign governance of God’s creation in his omnipotence and wisdom is revealed to man through God’s Word. Calvin’s references to Christian philosophy appeals to his view that reason is auxiliary to faith and that philosophy drawing its foundational ground ideas from theology stands juxtaposed to non-Christian philosophical thought. In this article the authors firstly investigates the theological ground ideas underlying his views on philosophy and the particular scientific disciplines. Secondly, the authors investigate Calvin’s theological grounding of philosophy for materialistic and idealistic philosophical views respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Summary: Background: The Clinicopathological and Gene Expression Profile (CP‐GEP) model was developed to accurately identify patients with T1–T3 primary cutaneous melanoma at low risk for nodal metastasis. Objectives: To validate the CP‐GEP model in an independent Dutch cohort of patients with melanoma. Methods: Patients (aged ≥ 18 years) with primary cutaneous melanoma who underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) between 2007 and 2017 at the Erasmus Medical Centre Cancer Institute were eligible. The CP‐GEP model combines clinicopathological features (age and Breslow thickness) with the expression of eight target genes involved in melanoma metastasis (ITGB3, PLAT, SERPINE2, GDF15, TGFBR1, LOXL4, CXCL8 and MLANA). Using the pathology result of SLNB as the gold standard, performance measures of the CP‐GEP model were calculated, resulting in CP‐GEP high risk or low risk for nodal metastasis. Results: In total, 210 patients were included in the study. Most patients presented with T2 (n = 94, 45%) or T3 (n = 70, 33%) melanoma. Of all patients, 27% (n = 56) had a positive SLNB, with nodal metastasis in 0%, 30%, 54% and 16% of patients with T1, T2, T3 and T4 melanoma, respectively. Overall, the CP‐GEP model had a negative predictive value (NPV) of 90·5% [95% confidence interval (CI) 77·9–96.2], with an NPV of 100% (95% CI 72·2–100) in T1, 89·3% (95% CI 72·8–96·3) in T2 and 75·0% (95% CI 30·1–95·4) in T3 melanomas. The CP‐GEP indicated high risk in all T4 melanomas. Conclusions: The CP‐GEP model is a noninvasive and validated tool that accurately identified patients with primary cutaneous melanoma at low risk for nodal metastasis. In this validation cohort, the CP‐GEP model has shown the potential to reduce SLNB procedures in patients with melanoma. What is already known about this topic?The majority (70–85%) of patients with cutaneous melanoma who undergo a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) procedure have no metastasis in the SLN.To identify patients at low risk for nodal metastasis, the Clinicopathological and Gene Expression Profile (CP‐GEP) model was developed (n = 754 patients, US cohort).The CP‐GEP model combines age, Breslow thickness and the expression of eight target genes involved in melanoma metastasis, and has the potential to reduce SLNB procedures in patients with T1–T3 cutaneous melanoma. What does this study add?This is the first independent validation of the CP‐GEP model in European patients with primary cutaneous melanoma.The CP‐GEP model can be applied to full‐excision tumour tissue and does not require macrodissection of tumour tissue.The CP‐GEP model has a negative predictive value of 90·5% (95% confidence interval 77·9–96·2) in T1–T3 melanomas.The CP‐GEP model is a promising tool in patient care. In this validation cohort, the CP‐GEP model has shown the potential to reduce SLNB procedures in patients with primary cutaneous melanoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...