A 1985 report by the OECD Development Center surveyed a broad sample of development projects aimed at women.

Starting with a broad sample of humanity could teach an important lesson: Genetically, human beings have much, much more in common than not.

Since its establishment in 1965, the Museum has built up a collection of nearly 500,000 objects, representing a broad sample of world material culture.

And the experience of the women in the broad sample used by Ms. Geronimus and Mr. Korenman is no different.

More recent studies, with broader samples and more rigorous methodology, have found that, at least in the first years after a suicide, many children show surprising resilience.

This effort involved face-to-face interviews with 347 chronically poor people in eight major cities, in addition to the 3,123 questioned in the broader sample.

The chief problem with all statistically derived formulas is that in order to be widely applicable, they must be based on a broad sample of individuals.

First, whether the findings from this small exploratory study are transferable to a broader sample of interns and residents is unknown.

The researchers drew on a broad and various sample of the student population at Willard, an elite school with a substantial number of pupils on scholarship.

But the schools had all volunteered to participate in the survey, making them somewhat less representative than a broader nationwide sample would have been.