Hypothesis generation

Application of GenomicsTtechniques as Tools for Hypothesis Generation and Mechanism of Action Studies... 

Because this hypothesis generated considerable anxiety and had broad pubhc health implications, the Nutrition Foundation (formerly affiliated with the International Life Sciences Institute but now defunct) convened a committee to evaluate the scientific evidence relative to the Feingold hypothesis, and if warranted, provide guidelines for further research. The committee, known as the National Advisory Committee on Hyperkinesis and Food Additives (1975), found no conclusive link between diet and behavior, but could not rule out a possible association since no studies appropriate for testing the hypothesis had been carried out. Based on the committee s recommendations, several doubleblind crossover studies were subsequently conducted, but these produced... 

Sprague, P.W. Automated chemical hypothesis generation and database searching with CATALYST. Perspect. Drug. Disc. Des. 1995, 3, 1-20. 

Working on case studies with the objective of comprehending correlations and implementing in hypotheses (hypothesis generation) is a research strategy that is entirely appropriate for the present status of itmovation research. As such an approach to research necessarily requires a rather qualitative procedure and is based only on a few case studies, from the outset there was no claim to verification in respect of quantitative significance. 

Reported suspicions of drug related clinical concerns are mainly hypothesis generating. They cannot be used to give any realistic size of a problem without knowing the population exposed. Various methods can be used to work out an incidence/prevalence of drug related adverse effects, but each has its own strengths and weaknesses. The methods are given briefly below. 

Hypothesis-generating stndy which is not dependent on cnrrent knowledge and may identify completely novel markers non-biased global assessment of genes and polymorphisms which may uncover gene-gene interactions... 

Though randomized trial data are not available, some have suggested that in symptomatic patients stents of the closed cell design might afford superior clinical outcome (60). Clearly, such observational data must be considered hypothesis generating and further research is necessary before device design can be selected based upon clinical and/or angiographic features. 

Descriptive9 Ecologic Assessment of group exposures and health outcomes, thereby gauging impact of a particular exposure in a defined population Hypothesis generating Cannot link exposure to diseases or study outcomes among individuals Residual confounding may threaten validity... 

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