Purely qualitative studies, reviews, study protocols without results, and studies that included supply-side interventions were also excluded.
Trials will be excluded if they are non-randomised controlled trials, non-randomised cross-over trials, retrospective studies, before-and-after studies or studies that are purely research studies into the mechanisms of acupuncture.
We excluded commentaries, purely descriptive studies, genetic association studies, and meta-analyses.
The majority of studies continue to be limited in duration and spatial scale with much of the observed recent increase in impact studies attributable to purely observational studies.
This work of Jónsson and Tarski evolved from Tarski's purely mathematical study of the algebra of relations and includes no reference to modal logic or even logic in general.
An English team recently published the most thorough work to date (Oliver et al, 2001), consisting of a purely descriptive study limited to two hospitals.
It is no tourist guide, nor is it subject-specific enough to be a purely academic study.
No purely military study of the major aspects of the war could do justice to the skill and the heroism of the evacuation from Dunkirk.
Several colleagues and I recently conducted a purely observational study to determine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in chimpanzees previously used in experimental research and now living in a sanctuary in Louisiana.
Professor Stephen O'Rahilly, from the University of Cambridge, said: "This is a purely theoretical study and there are many assumptions made which reduce confidence in the statements regarding the precise extent of the health benefit".
