This study used Grounded Theory – an established qualitative method of categorizing empirically collected data, building a general theory to fit the data, and guiding data collection and analysis [ 12, 13].
To this end, any predictive variable has to be categorized by empirically identifying cut-off values which define a risk jump.
These variables were empirically categorized into three groups, i.e. geographic distance, biotic factor (i.e., grazing rate) and abiotic seawater parameters.
All continuous variables were categorized by clinical judgement or empirically (i.e. according to calculated regression coefficients).
This routine misapprehension of the discrete phenomena of experience as a self leads to a dualistic perspective: things appear and are categorized as either objective (thus external, but empirically accessible) or as subjective (thus internal, and immediately accessible to consciousness).
More people were categorized as having metabolic syndrome using the empirically derived definitions (48.3% for uniform cut points and 51.0% for subgroup-specific cut points) compared with the ATP III (38.4%), IDF (35.6%), or Harmonized (46.0%) definitions.
Samples were categorized as uniformly collected or variable based on empirically derived SMV cutoffs, as described in the Methods section.
Patients with suspected MDR-TB but without DST results were categorized according to clinical and bacteriological criteria, and high-risk patients were started empirically on second-line TB drugs.
The date of birth is known precisely for nearly every individual in modern societies, its normative distributions are empirically available wherever births have been widely registered, and it can be categorized in conventional calendar units such as season, month, or week.
