Comparisons of Modeling Approaches for Evaluating the Longitudinal Association in a Clustered Healthcare Intervention Study

This paper addresses methodology issues related to evidence-based healthcare research, specifically when evaluating and analyzing the hospital practice environments (HPE) impacts on the patient health outcomes are conducted in longitudinal intervention survey studies. HPE include the spatially clustered hospital characteristics, including practice environment scale (PES) measures, hospital facilities, nursing staffing and nursing attributes. The longitudinal associations between HPE and patient smoking cessation counseling (SCC) activities, and patient heart failure (HF) outcomes are examined. Various longitudinal and hierarchical modeling are compared including linear mixed models with restricted maximum likelihood estimation, generalized estimating equations with quasi-likelihood estimation, hierarchical linear regression models with nonparametric generalized least squares estimations, and repeated ANOVA.

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Verifying ‘Einstein’s Time’ by Using the Equation ‘Time=Distance/ Velocity

The statement ‘Every reference-body (co-ordinate system) has its own particular time’, which appears in Einstein’s book—‘Relativity: The Special and General Theory’, is widely accepted among physicists and even by the general public with the popular interpretation that a clock in a moving body and another clock at rest in the reference stationary body will indicate different values of time.

However, upon examining the grounds for this perspective by using the equation ‘time=distance/velocity’ and using ‘the principle of the constancy of the velocity of light’, we find that the above sentence should be arranged as ‘Every reference body (coordinate system) has its own particular measurement of the time interval for the propagation of light and, also it has its own particular measurement of the interval of the light path that must be used in order to calculate its time interval. The numerical value of the ratio of these two intervals is 1:1 always.’ This implies that the pace of ticking of all clocks is identical. This fact contradicts the above popular interpretation.

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