What's the difference between confound and difference?

Confound


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To mingle and blend, so that different elements can not be distinguished; to confuse.
  • (v. t.) To mistake for another; to identify falsely.
  • (v. t.) To throw into confusion or disorder; to perplex; to strike with amazement; to dismay.
  • (v. t.) To destroy; to ruin; to waste.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Previous studies have not always controlled for socioeconomic status (SES) of mothers or other potential confounders such as gestational age or birthweight of infants.
  • (2) Displacing potencies for dopamine in the nanomolar range are associated with agonist-specific D-3 receptor binding and it is predicted that the component of D-2 binding with high agonist affinity may play a confounding role in many D-3 receptor studies.
  • (3) Frequently, however, only incomplete data on confounders can be obtained from sources such as next-of-kin or co-workers.
  • (4) Among all subgroups, the odds ratios adjusted for pertinent confounders and interactions fluctuated randomly by about 0.9 and showed no consistent trend with increased alcohol consumption.
  • (5) The possibility of applying Signal Detection Theory (SDT) to gustation was investigated by testing the effect of three variables--smoking, signal probability, and food intake (confounded with time of day)--on the taste sensitivity to sucrose of 24 male and 24 female Ss.
  • (6) They also include difficulties peculiar to the condition of mild mental retardation, including the choice of method of classification whether by IQ testing or administratively; the heterogeneous nature of the individuals so characterised; and the confounding effects of social and biological factors and the changes in the implications for the affected individual of the condition, depending on age, sex and environment.
  • (7) Practitioners must be aware of the potential for interactions between (and confounding by) commercially used feed components.
  • (8) A weakness was in not including confounding factors such as social class and the lack of detailed questions on topics.
  • (9) In practice, confounding by factors related to exposure opportunity is common.
  • (10) By using a national sample we ensured that the influence of regional variations in the configuration of long-term care services would not confound estimates of the relative effect of client-related factors.
  • (11) The independent effects of separation and display size, which were confounded in the Sagi and Julesz experiments, were examined.
  • (12) In particular, it is shown that adjustment for a misclassified confounding variable can be greatly improved by using the methods presented.
  • (13) Possible confounding effects of missing data, institutionalization prior to adoption, information given to adoptive parents by the adoption agencies about the child's biological background, historical period, perinatal factors, and selective placement were considered.
  • (14) I argue that (a) the procedures they used to study confounding were suboptimal because multiple measures of depression and catastrophizing were not employed and (b) the distinctiveness of constructs might better be regarded as a continuous rather than all-or-none (having adequate discriminant validity versus being confounded) concept.
  • (15) The observed relation between physical activity and colon cancer was not confounded by dietary intake of calories, fat, or protein, nor was the diet and colon cancer relation confounded by physical activity (odds ratios for calories, protein, and fat in males were 2.40, 2.57, and 2.18, respectively).
  • (16) It is this "multiple system failure" that compounds the effects of large scale events and confounds emergency response.
  • (17) To control for possible confounding variables, the authors repeated the analyses after stratifying by demographic and diagnostic variables that were distributed differently among men and women.
  • (18) Some recent reports implicate marijuana smoking as a cause of cancer of the upper aerodigestive tract, though most of the subjects were exposed to other, possibly confounding, etiologic factors, namely tobacco and alcohol.
  • (19) With the use of the logistic regression method, an adjusted OR was obtained after controlling various confounders.
  • (20) The purpose of this study was to examine the association between maternal caffeine consumption and low birthweight, intrauterine growth retardation, and prematurity, adjusting for multiple confounders.

Difference


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of differing; the state or measure of being different or unlike; distinction; dissimilarity; unlikeness; variation; as, a difference of quality in paper; a difference in degrees of heat, or of light; what is the difference between the innocent and the guilty?
  • (n.) Disagreement in opinion; dissension; controversy; quarrel; hence, cause of dissension; matter in controversy.
  • (n.) That by which one thing differs from another; that which distinguishes or causes to differ; mark of distinction; characteristic quality; specific attribute.
  • (n.) Choice; preference.
  • (n.) An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish the bearings of two persons, which would otherwise be the same. See Augmentation, and Marks of cadency, under Cadency.
  • (n.) The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.
  • (n.) The quantity by which one quantity differs from another, or the remainder left after subtracting the one from the other.
  • (v. t.) To cause to differ; to make different; to mark as different; to distinguish.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) All transplants were performed using standard techniques, the operation for the two groups differing only as described above.
  • (2) This study was undertaken to determine whether the survival of Hispanic patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck was different from that of Anglo-American patients.
  • (3) Patients with papillary carcinoma with a good cell-mediated immune response occurred with much lower infiltration of the tumor boundary with lymphocyte whereas the follicular carcinoma less cell-mediated immunity was associated with dense lymphocytic infiltration, suggesting the biological relevance of lymphocytic infiltration may be different for the two histologic variants.
  • (4) Spectral analysis of spontaneous heart rate fluctuations, a powerful noninvasive tool for quantifying autonomic nervous system activity, was assessed in Xenopus Laevis, intact or spinalized, at different temperatures and by use of pharmacological tools.
  • (5) Age difference did not affect the mean dose-effect response.
  • (6) The prenatal risk determined by smoking pregnant woman was studied by a fetal electrocardiogram at different gestational ages.
  • (7) Although the mean values for all hemodynamic variables between the two placebo periods were minimally changed, the differences in individual patients were striking.
  • (8) Phospholipid methylation in human EGMs is distinctly different from that in rat EGMs (Hirata and Axelrod 1980) in that the human activity is not Mg++-dependent, and apparent methyltransferase I activity is located in the external membrane surface.
  • (9) The high amino acid levels in the cells suggest that these cells act as inter-organ transporters and reservoirs of amino acids, they have a different role in their handling and metabolism from those of mammals.
  • (10) The outward currents are sensitive to TEA and their reversal potentials differ.
  • (11) During control, no significant difference between systolic fluctuation (delta Pa) and pleural swings (delta Ppl) was found.
  • (12) This difference was not due to ATPase activity in the assay.
  • (13) No differences between the two substances were observed with respect to side effects and general tolerability.
  • (14) Five probes of high specificity to individual chromosomes (chromosomes 3, 11, 17, 18 and X) were hybridized in situ to metaphase chromosomes of different individuals.
  • (15) The cross sectional area of the aortic lumen was gradually decreased while the length of the stenotic lesion gradually increased by using strips with different width.
  • (16) For male schizophrenics, all symptom differences disappeared except one; blacks were more frequently asocial.
  • (17) Between 22 HLA-identical siblings and 16 two-haplotype different siblings, a significant difference in concordance of reactions for the B-cell groups was noted.
  • (18) It would be fascinating to see if greater local government involvement in running the NHS in places such as Manchester leads over the longer term to a noticeable difference in the financial outlook.
  • (19) Snooker, which became and remains a fixture in the BBC2 schedules, was chosen for showing because it is the sport in which different shades are most significant.
  • (20) Would people feel differently about it if, for instance, it happened on Boxing Day or Christmas Eve?