This analysis can be relevant to both batch and continuous processes; indeed, the use of small batch experiments can be a means to derive empirical control functions and scale-up relations for larger batch and continuous processes.
We must, she says, "reconsider the assumption that political beliefs and theories, and values, are not subject to empirical control, that there is no way to judge between them" (1990, 297).
The statistical significance of each re-sequenced segment was then assessed by a direct rank-ordering technique compared with the empirical control data.
We compared FST in the re-sequenced segments using the entire HapMap Phase II data set (41) as an empirical control.
In absence of the intervention, as no empirical control groups were available, two plausible control groups (i.e. counterfactuals) were defined for trends in CCU covering the period following Avahan initiation.
We considered each SNP inside the re-sequenced regions as a 'core' for carrying out the LRH test, and compared with random loci as an empirical control data set.
However, comparing a candidate gene to a large empirical control data set collected in the same way can provide evidence for selection that is more reliable than these comparisons with theoretical expectations (22, 54, 55).
We designed a SNP ascertainment and genotyping strategy that closely matched what was used by the ENCODE Project, allowing us to use ∼2.5 Mb of the ENCODE data that had also been genotyped at the Broad Institute as a large-scale empirical control data set (Supplementary Material, Fig. S1).
Empirical randomised controlled trial evidence suggests that the offering of repeated (annual or biennial) FOBT screening to the at-risk population is effective in reducing mortality and incidence associated with CRC [ 3, 6, 66, 67].
Although some attempts have been made to determine the relationship between breeding population size and genetic diversity (e.g., Maruyama and Fuerst 1985; Danusevicius and Lindgren 2005), empirical studies controlling the size of the breeding populations and documenting the selection intensity are still largely needed to confirm the nature of the occurring changes.
