When a study shows statistically significant correlation between an exposure and an outcome, the credence of a real connection between the two increases. Should that credence remain the same when it is discovered that further independent studies between the exposure and other independent outcomes were conducted? Matthew Kotzen argues that it should remain the same, even if the results of those further studies are discovered. However, we argue that it can differ dependent upon the results of the studies.

Summary The common view has been that Darwin regarded species as artificial and arbitrary constructions of taxonomists, not as distinct natural units. However, in his transmutation notebooks he clearly subscribed to the reality of species, on the basis of the criterion of non-interbreeding. A consequence of this biological species concept was his identification of the acquisition of reproductive isolation as the mark of the completion of speciation. He developed in the notebooks a theory of geographic speciation on the grounds of (...) (a) an empirical correlation between barriers and the geographical distributions of allied species, (b) the analogy of artificial isolation in the formation of new domesticated varieties, and (c) the logical consequence of blending inheritance. A brief discussion of Darwin's species concept in later writings concludes the paper. (shrink)

Hugo de Vries claimed that he had discovered Mendel's laws before he found Mendel's paper. De Vries's first ratios, published in 1897, for the second generation of hybrids were 2/3:1/3 and 80%:20%. By 1900, both of these ratios had become 3:1. These changing ratios suggest that as late as 1897 de Vries had not discovered the laws, although he asserted, from 1900 on, that he had found the laws in 1896. An Appendix details de Vries's Mendelian experiments as described in (...) the original edition of volume two of Die Mutationstheorie, but omitted entirely from the English translation. (shrink)

In 1962 I offered an analysis of the Line and Cave which maintained that the four main divisions of each are parallel and interpreted the three stages of ascent in the Cave allegory as representing the three stages in Plato's educational programme: music and gymnastic, mathematics and dialectic. At that time a major portion of my task was to counter arguments which purported to show that the Line and Cave could not be parallel. The present situation is quite different since (...) recent writers, for the most part, not only take the four main divisions of the Cave as parallel to those of the Line, but also accept the restriction of the Cave allegory to moral and mathematical education as a crucial step in the establishing of this fact. This last move, which is clearly in harmony with the form and content of the Republic, enables us to allow for the ordinary unenlightened man to be at the bottom level of the Cave without our having to suggest that he confuses the shadows of visual objects with their originals, which could well be the case if the Cave were taken to represent all sense perception as such. Despite fairly general agreement on these basic points of interpretation there remains, however, a wide divergence of opinion as to the significance of the various levels of education or moral awareness portrayed by the Cave. In keeping with several recent papers on this topic I shall focus my attention on the bottom two stages of this allegory: the state of the prisoners viewing shadows on the cave wall and that of the released prisoners, still in the cave, but turned around and looking at the puppets which cast these shadows. (shrink)

Objectives - To explore the wvay ethical principles develop during a medical education course for three groups of medical students - in their first year, at the beginning of their penultimate (fifth) year and towards the end of their final (sixth) year. Design - Survey questionnaire administered to medical students in their first, fifth and final (sixth) year. Setting - A large medical school in Queensland, Australia. Survey sample - Approximately half the students in each of three years (first, fifth (...) and sixth) provided data on a voluntary basis, a total of 385 students. Results - At the point of entry, minor differences were found between medical students and first year law and psychology students. More striking were differences between male and female medical students, suggesting early socialization had a substantial impact here. Conclusions - Results indicate that substantial changes in attitude have developed by the beginning of fifth year with little change thereafter. Gender difference persisted. Some difference in ethical attitudes were found when groups of different ethnic backgrounds were compared. The impact of a move to a graduate medical course, which gives high priority to ethics within a professional development domain, can now be evaluated. (shrink)

The issue of directed donation of organs from deceased donors for transplantation has recently risen to the fore, given greater significance by the relatively stagnant rate of deceased donor donation in the UK. Although its status and legitimacy is explicitly recognized across the USA, elsewhere a more cautious, if not entirely negative, stance has been taken. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Human Tissue Act 2004, and in Scotland the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006, are both silent in this (...) regard. Although so-called conditional donation, donation to (or perhaps withheld from) a specific class, has been outlawed as a product of guidance issued by the Secretary of State for Health issued in the wake of the controversial incident occurring in the North of England in 1998, its intended application to ‘directed’ donation is less certain. Directed and conditional donations challenge the traditional construct of altruistic donation and impartial (equitable) allocation in a very immediate and striking fashion. They implicitly raise important questions as to whether the body or parts of the body are capable of being owned, and by whom. This paper attempts to explore the notion of donor ownership of body parts and its implications for both directed and conditional donation. (shrink)

A judgement analysis of people's social inferences of attitudes and ability was conducted. University students were asked to infer the liberalness ( N = 60; Study 1) or intelligence ( N = 40; Study 2) of targets seen in pictures. Multiple regression analyses revealed that attractiveness was the most important cue for predicting inferences of liberalness, while an ethnic cue (i.e., being Asian) was the most important cue for judgements about intelligence. Results also showed that a single-cue model was less (...) susceptible to overfitting, but significantly less accurate than a multiple-cue model in predicting participant's intelligence judgements. Although the multiple regression models suffered a degree of overfitting, cross validation showed that they continued to have significant predictive value when applied to new data. Furthermore, a “random partner” method (comparing each participant's own regression equation with that of another, randomly selected, participant) provided evidence of significant idiosyncratic variation in the way intelligence judgements were made. (shrink)

A simple numerical procedure is presented for the problem of estimating the parameters of models for the distribution of eggs oviposited in a host. The modelling is extended to incorporate both host density and time dependence to produce a remarkably parsimonious structure with only seven parameters to describe a data set of over 3,000 observations. This is further refined using a mixed model to accommodate several large outliers. Both models show that the level of superparasitism declines with increasing host density, (...) and the rate declines over time. It is proposed that the differing behaviours represented by the mixed model may reflect a balance between behavioural strategies of different selective benefit. (shrink)

A simple numerical procedure is presented for the problem of estimating the parameters of models for the distribution of eggs oviposited in a host. The modelling is extended to incorporate both host density and time dependence to produce a remarkably parsimonious structure with only seven parameters to describe a data set of over 3,000 observations. This is further refined using a mixed model to accommodate several large outliers. Both models show that the level of superparasitism declines with increasing host density, (...) and the rate declines over time. It is proposed that the differing behaviours represented by the mixed model may reflect a balance between behavioural strategies of different selective benefit. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:CompassionEdward J. VolpintestaTo the Editor: In his essay, “Can We Mandate Compassion?” (March–April 2011), Ron Paterson, a former health and disability commissioner in New Zealand, discusses the decline of physicians’ compassion—an issue that is receiving more attention in the media, and in our journals, hospitals, and medical societies, as well.He decided—and I agree—that compassion should not be mandated. How could it be? After all, it’s unquantifiable; it’s not meted (...) out in milliliters or grams. Compassion is a spontaneous emotion that arises from the individual caregiver’s spiritual reservoirs. Trying to regulate or mandate it would be absurd—the ultimate attempt at dehumanizing medicine. Giving students more exposure to the humanities, however, and teaching doctors what is not acceptable in “terms of conduct, attitudes, and behavior” may increase awareness of its importance. Putting that awareness into action is another thing.Could it be that physicians are too hard-pressed for time and too overstressed with ordering and interpreting tests that they have little time and energy left for compassion? Has the threat of malpractice suits made physicians distrust patients, seeing them more as potential lawsuits than as suffering human beings, as horrible as that may sound to some? Or has the vast amount of new medical knowledge that rapidly reaches doctors given them an information overload so great that they have room only for cognition and none for emotion? When one adds the pressure physicians feel to control costs and to follow guidelines that often clash with their judgment, it becomes clear why compassion has declined.As a primary care doctor, there are days when all I have to offer some patients is compassion. A divorce, problems with personal finances, depression, a recent death, a child in trouble with the law or with drugs, an unwanted pregnancy—these are some of the problems that are the most difficult and time-consuming for me. They do not require any new scientific knowledge. Like compassion, they are not quantifiable, and there are no board exams to test how well I help my patients cope with them. There is also no code that I can send to an insurance company that will accurately convey what I have done, or its value to my patients. Only my patient and I are aware of whether I was able to use compassion in a way that helped. How could it be otherwise?It is much easier for me to treat a patient with pneumonia or conjunctivitis. I doubt that there ever will be a foolproof way to teach compassion to physicians. Perhaps performing psychological tests on incoming medical students may be the best way to determine which are most inclined to become compassionate physicians.The Flexner Report of 1910, which contained many recommendations for improving medical education, may have overstressed the importance of science while neglecting the human dimensions of medical practice. The Carnegie Foundation, which funded the original study, has undertaken a second examining any unintended consequences of the first. Unlike the first, which was dominated by one man, the second comprises a broad team of educators, doctors, philosophers, and psychologists. Perhaps this broader approach will restore compassion to its rightful place.Letters to the editor may be sent by e-mail to [email protected], or to Managing Editor, Hastings Center Report, 21 Malcolm Gordon Road, Garrison, NY 10524; (845) 424-4931 fax. Letters appearing in the Report may be edited for length and stylistic consistency.Statement of Ownership, Management, and CirculationThe Hastings Center Report is a bimonthly journal published by The Hastings Center, 21 Malcolm Gordon Road, Garrison, NY 10524. The editor is Gregory Kaebnick, at the same address. The annual subscription price is $80; contact person is Anne Marie Schoonhoven; telephone number is 845-424-4040. The tax status of the organization has not changed during the preceding twelve months.As of the filing date of September 6, 2011, the average number of copies of each issue during the preceding twelve months was 3,342; the actual number of copies of the single issue published nearest to the filing date was 3,150. The journal has a total paid and/or requested circulation... (shrink)

It has been 35 years since the publicationMelzack and Wall's Gate Control Theory whichhypothesized that nociceptive information wassubject to dynamic regulation by mechanismslocated in the spinal cord dorsal horn thatcould ultimately lead to hyperalgesic orhypoalgesic states. This paper examines GateControl Theory in light of our currentunderstanding of the neuroanatomical,neurophysiological and neurochemical substratesof nociception and antinociception. Despiteits initial controversies, no one has proposeda more comprehensive overall theory of painmodulation or has successfully refuted most ofthe basic tenets of this theory.

ABSTRACTMany anti-bullying programmes use teachers in the critical role of provider, yet few trials focus on enhancing their ability to fulfil this role. As teachers’ readiness may impact on the ef...

This book traces the intellectual revolution initiated by Thales in the sixth century BC to its culmination in the metaphysics of Parmenides.

Donald Price and James Barrell show how a science of human experience can be developed through a strategy that integrates experiential paradigms with methods from the natural sciences.