Useful research questions

In Section 2.1 we cited Norgrady and Weaver s (2005) definition of a useful drug in the context of drug development. That definition is a good Illustration of how the term useful is used in scientific research. A precise, operational definition is needed, rather than a vague statement such as it looks pretty useful to me.  

Turner (2007) provided an operational definition of a useful research question  

If a candidate drug successfully makes it through the nonclinical development program, the safety and efficacy of the investigational drug will be tested in humans in a series of clinical trials that comprise the clinical development program. Each study that is conducted will test a particular aspect or facet of the drug, and the overall 

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It needs to be specific (this is the same as the first characteristic of a useful research question - see Section 3.3). 

A useful research question suggests how a study needs to be designed to provide the appropriate information to answer the question. Choosing the best study design to answer the research question is therefore critical. The word... 

The above six teaching activities, used in an ordinary educational context, were investigated in order to probe the influence of the modelhng activities on students learning (Ferreira, 2006). Two research questions guide the cmrent discussion ... 

Data gathered in the lessons were used to produce case studies for each of the groups of students because such case studies yield rich descriptions of events that are presented in a chronological narrative that incorporates the researcher s observations. Due to the possible inclusion of such an interpretation of the data, case studies go beyond simple descriptions of the situation and support the analysis of the phenomenon being studied (Cohen, Manion, Morrison, 2000). In order to discuss the research questions, we browsed the original case studies to identify evidence of how the students dealt with the levels of representation. Whenever it is appropriate, such evidence is included in the later sections of this chapter. 

To obtain an answer to the research questions posed, pro-active safety indicators used in today s chemical process industry were analysed and the deviations upon which they are based were compared with deviations present in the accident trajectories of 70 recent accidents. By comparing these two sets of deviations, it was observed that although re-occurring deviations with no direct perceived safety related consequences were present in the majority of accident trajectories they were nevertheless not addressed by the commonly used pro-active safety indicators. These so-called indirect perceived safety related deviations may therefore be more important indications of a possible accident than was thought previously. 

If it is assumed that precursors can be identified in a scientific way, the next research question can be formulated. By using only precursors the elimination of all possible accidents is extremely unlikely. Retrieving precursors and acting upon them can be seen as a sort of fire fighting approach. It is more important to devise pro-active measures to discover the underlying factors, causing the possible accidents. Subsequently companies can direct resources at these identified causal factors and possible accidents can actually be prevented. The next research question is therefore formulated as ... 

In Chapter 5 the conceptual approach from the previous Chapter will be tested and evaluated and finally applied to a single case study in the Dutch chemical process industry. This exercise is performed to test the conceptual approach in practice. The findings of the case study will be evaluated and will lead to refinements in the conceptual approach. Finally a structured protocol will be derived and applied to the same case study to ascertain if the structured protocol is effective and suitable for practical use and leads to answering the research questions posed in Chapter 1. 

The following Chapter will use the results and conclusions from the analysis performed in this Chapter, to derive some final conclusions and recommendations. Moreover, the posed research questions from Chapter 1 will be addressed and some open problems will be stated, to improve the current way in which companies manage safety. 

In this concluding Chapter the problems identified from practice and literature and the research questions derived from these observations will be reviewed. Subsequently, the results from the previous Chapters will be used to obtain the answers to these research questions. Moreover, a reflection on the results and answers will be stated. Finally, some opportunities for future research will be presented. 

In the next sub-Sections these research questions will be answered, using the results and conclusions from previous Chapters. 

Loss of belief in science is the result of media reports of contradictory research by scientists on a wide range of (mainly health) issues and a belief that science was often used for questionable ends (cloning, developing drugs for profit, and others). Trust in medicine is diminishing following media coverage of mistakes and bad practice by doctors. These concerns influence perceptions of food and food safety if scientists and medical researchers cannot all be trusted, this undermines the information and opinions they provide about food. 

Developed frameworks are applied to the specific industry problem to monthly plan a global chemical commodity value chain by volumes and values. Sub-objectives are to elaborate characteristics and planning requirements for a global commodity value chain in the chemical industry and to develop, implement and evaluate the respective model. Research question 2 is directed to a real industry case study demonstrating the real existence of formulated requirements, showing the applicability of the developed model in reality and evaluating the model using industry data. 

In summary, there are five types of analysis that can be used to assess the incremental cost-effectiveness of a drug or service. The type performed is generally predicated by the therapeutic area being evaluated, the research question being addressed and the clinical data available. For example, whereas a CBA (which converts clinical effect into monetary terms) may not be considered (for ethical reasons) to be the best choice for oncology or HIV-related evaluations, a CUA (which takes into account both quality of life and survival duration) may be considered appropriate. 

These checklists are useful tools that prompt the reader systematically to pose simple questions which aid in the critical assessment of the study. The first question prompts the reader to consider the overall validity of the research question. Did the investigators explain the problem... 

WitUn, Gordon. Should You Own a Gun U.S. News World Report, vol. 117, August 15, 1994, pp. 24ff. Uses the question of gun ownership to introduce the overall debate about gun control. The article features a debate between Gary Kleck, whose research shows that gun owners use their guns for defense up to 2.5 million times a year (seldom shooting them) and that criminals are deterred by their fear of armed citizens, and Arthur Kellermann, whose equally provocative study found that guns in the home were 43 times more likely to kill a resident or friend than an armed intruder. 

In principle, it is not fair, or course, to approach a problem of prebiotic chemistry by using sophisticated techniques of present-day molecular biology, such as phage display. However in this case the particular research question was not the origin of life, but rather the question given a vast library of random polypeptide chains, what is the folding frequency The criterion utilized for determining whether a protein is folded or not was based on resistance to the hydrolytic power of proteases, with... 

LOOK FOR SOURCES YOU CAN USE TO ANSWER YOUR RESEARCH QUESTIONS... 

These systems provide a useful example because the calculations often work, but occasionally fail, either by distortion from planarity or by failure to locate a stable minimum for one of the tautomers. Thus, the students learn to consider their results critically with a healthy dose of skepticism, to analyze the success or failure of the calculation, to consider the influence of the choice of method (semi-empirical or ab initio), to consider the influence of the choice of basis set, and to determine the answer to the research question posed. 

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