Emphasis has shifted from purely descriptive procedures to analyses of relationships by using the methods of cladistics, which dispenses with the traditional taxonomic hierarchy in favour of "phylogenetic trees" that are more explicit about evolutionary relationships.
There is, of course, no observable universal language over and above the various languages that have been or are spoken or written, but one may choose to concentrate on the general and even the universal features, characteristics, and components of different languages and on the ways in which the same sets of descriptive procedures and explanatory theories may be applied to different languages.
Descriptive procedures (means, standard deviation, frequencies) were used to describe patient characteristics.
The responses to the questionnaire were entered and analysed using SPSS 18® software and descriptive procedures.
Calculations of mean values, standard deviations and coefficients of linear regression were done as standard descriptive procedures.
Descriptive procedures documented overall rates, demographic characteristics, comorbid conditions of patients (Charlson index [ 29]), length of stay, APDRG cost-weights, and inpatient mortality of all AH in Switzerland.
Average reimbursements per patient were calculated based on total yearly costs generated by each physician and compared between groups using descriptive procedures in a first step.
Analyses were undertaken using descriptive statistical procedures and data summarized using medians to determine central tendency, while dispersion was expressed by 10th and 90th percentile estimation.
