Constrains the cut line to certain degree increments.The increment can be specified in the Tool Settings (see above), or can be typedwhen angle constraining is active.The default angles are in the plane of the screen, but typing A againmakes it relative to the last cut edge.If the last cut edge is ambiguous (because the cut was on a vertex),typing R cycles through the possible reference edges.
make the cut 3.2.1
When a continuous value is mapped to shape, it gives an error.Though we could split a continuous variable into discrete categories and use a shape aesthetic, this would conceptually not make sense.A numeric variable has an order, but shapes do not.It is clear that smaller points correspond to smaller values, or once the color scale is given, which colors correspond to larger or smaller values. But it is not clear whether a square is greater or less than a circle.
Given human visual perception, the max number of colors to use when encodingunordered categorical (qualitative) data is nine, and in practice, often much less than that.Displaying observations from different categories on different scales makes it difficult to directly compare values of observations across categories.However, it can make it easier to compare the shape of the relationship between the x and y variables across categories.
Disadvantages of encoding the class variable with facets instead of the color aesthetic include the difficulty of comparing the values of observations between categories since the observations for each category are on different plots.Using the same x- and y-scales for all facets makes it easier to compare values of observations across categories, but it is still more difficult than if they had been displayed on the same plot.Since encoding class within color also places all points on the same plot,it visualizes the unconditional relationship between the x and y variables;with facets, the unconditional relationship is no longer visualized since thepoints are spread across multiple plots.
na.rm: If FALSE, missing values are removed with a warning, if TRUE the are silently removed.The default is FALSE in order to make debugging easier.If missing values are known to be in the data, then can be ignored, but if missing values are not anticipated this warning can help catch errors.
The function coord_fixed() ensures that the line produced by geom_abline() is at a 45-degree angle.A 45-degree line makes it easy to compare the highway and city mileage to the case in which city and highway MPG were equal.
Following pre-specified eligibility criteria is a fundamental attribute of a systematic review. However, unanticipated issues may arise. Review authors should make sensible post-hoc decisions about exclusion of studies, and these should be documented in the review, possibly accompanied by sensitivity analyses. Changes to the protocol must not be made on the basis of the findings of the studies or the synthesis, as this can introduce bias.
Restricting the review with respect to specific population characteristics or settings should be based on a sound rationale. It is important that Cochrane Reviews are globally relevant, so the rationale for the exclusion of studies based on population characteristics should be justified. For example, focusing a review of the effectiveness of mammographic screening on women between 40 and 50 years old may be justified based on biological plausibility, previously published systematic reviews and existing controversy. On the other hand, focusing a review on a particular subgroup of people on the basis of their age, sex or ethnicity simply because of personal interests, when there is no underlying biologic or sociological justification for doing so, should be avoided, as these reviews will be less useful to decision makers and readers of the review.
Once interventions eligible for the review have been broadly defined, decisions should be made about how variants of the intervention will be handled in the synthesis. Differences in intervention characteristics across studies occur in all reviews. If these reflect minor differences in the form of the intervention used in practice (such as small differences in the duration or content of brief alcohol counselling interventions), then an overall synthesis can provide useful information for decision makers. Where differences in intervention characteristics are more substantial (such as delivery of brief alcohol counselling by nurses versus doctors), and are expected to have a substantial impact on the size of intervention effects, these differences should be examined in the synthesis. What constitutes an important difference requires judgement, but in general differences that alter decisions about how an intervention is implemented or whether the intervention is used or not are likely to be important. In such circumstances, review authors should consider specifying separate groups (or subgroups) to examine in their synthesis.
Clearly defined intervention groups serve two main purposes in the synthesis. First, the way in which interventions are grouped for synthesis (meta-analysis or other synthesis) is likely to influence review findings. Careful planning of intervention groups makes best use of the available data, avoids decisions that are influenced by study findings (which may introduce bias), and produces a review focused on questions relevant to decision makers. Second, the intervention groups specified in a protocol provide a standardized terminology for describing the interventions throughout the review, overcoming the varied descriptions used by study authors (e.g. where different labels are used for the same intervention, or similar labels used for different techniques) (Michie et al 2013). This standardization enables comparison and synthesis of information about intervention characteristics across studies (common characteristics and differences) and provides a consistent language for reporting that supports interpretation of review findings.
In some fields, intervention taxonomies and frameworks have been developed for labelling and describing interventions, and these can make it easier for those using a review to interpret and apply findings.
Cochrane Reviews are intended to support clinical practice and policy, and should address outcomes that are critical or important to consumers. These should be specified at protocol stage. Where available, established sets of core outcomes should be used. Patient-reported outcomes should be included where possible. It is also important to judge whether evidence of resource use and costs might be an important component of decisions to adopt the intervention or alternative management strategies around the world. Large numbers of outcomes, while sometimes necessary, can make reviews unfocused, unmanageable for the user, and prone to selective outcome reporting bias. Biochemical, interim and process outcomes should be considered where they are important to decision makers. Any outcomes that would not be described as critical or important can be left out of the review.
In general, systematic reviews should aim to include outcomes that are likely to be meaningful to the intended users and recipients of the reviewed evidence. This may include clinicians, patients (consumers), the general public, administrators and policy makers. Outcomes may include survival (mortality), clinical events (e.g. strokes or myocardial infarction), behavioural outcomes (e.g. changes in diet, use of services), patient-reported outcomes (e.g. symptoms, quality of life), adverse events, burdens (e.g. demands on caregivers, frequency of tests, restrictions on lifestyle) and economic outcomes (e.g. cost and resource use). It is critical that outcomes used to assess adverse effects as well as outcomes used to assess beneficial effects are among those addressed by a review (see Chapter 19).
Outcomes that are trivial or meaningless to decision makers should not be included in Cochrane Reviews. Inclusion of outcomes that are of little or no importance risks overwhelming and potentially misleading readers. Interim or surrogate outcomes measures, such as laboratory results or radiologic results (e.g. loss of bone mineral content as a surrogate for fractures in hormone replacement therapy), while potentially helpful in explaining effects or determining intervention integrity (see Chapter 5, Section 5.3.4.1), can also be misleading since they may not predict clinically important outcomes accurately. Many interventions reduce the risk for a surrogate outcome but have no effect or have harmful effects on clinically relevant outcomes, and some interventions have no effect on surrogate measures but improve clinical outcomes.
Systems for categorizing outcomes include core outcome sets including the COMET and ICHOM initiatives, and outcome taxonomies (Dodd et al 2018). These systems define agreed outcomes that should be measured for specific conditions (Williamson et al 2017).These systems can be used to standardize the varied outcome labels used across studies and enable grouping and comparison (Kirkham et al 2013). Agreed terminology may help decision makers interpret review findings.
Specific aspects of study design and conduct should be considered when defining eligibility criteria, even if the review is restricted to randomized trials. For example, whether cluster-randomized trials (Chapter 23, Section 23.1) and crossover trials (Chapter 23, Section 23.2) are eligible, as well as other criteria for eligibility such as use of a placebo comparison group, evaluation of outcomes blinded to allocation sequence, or a minimum period of follow-up. There will always be a trade-off between restrictive study design criteria (which might result in the inclusion of studies that are at low risk of bias, but very few in number) and more liberal design criteria (which might result in the inclusion of more studies, but at a higher risk of bias). Furthermore, excessively broad criteria might result in the inclusion of misleading evidence. If, for example, interest focuses on whether a therapy improves survival in patients with a chronic condition, it might be inappropriate to look at studies of very short duration, except to make explicit the point that they cannot address the question of interest. 2ff7e9595c
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