MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'dump'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:38:03 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4225428&cid=t_311313_113_f&fid=39280&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FMarkHawker%2F%7E3%2FYbDB3hKs7MU%2F2073995295 In previous posts (here and here) I wrote about the sociological concepts of ontology, epistemology, and methodology: Ontology is the study of reality. Epistemology is the study of knowledge. Methodology is the study of methods. In researching a particular “problem” these three concepts could be linked. For example, you could adopt an objectivist ontology believing reality exists and can be increasingly known through the accumulation of more complete information, a positivist epistemology (putting forward the notion that the “scientific method” is the best way to generate knowledge), and a tendency towards quantitative methods such as surveys or laboratory experiments. Now, imagine a new method was discovered such as social network analysis (or something that hasn’t been disco... Mark My Words 2.1 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4225428 Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:16:00 +0100 4225428 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3592210&cid=t_311313_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fwill-large-employers-dump-healthcare-coverage%2F2010.05.24 Fortune magazine has made some news recently about the impact of healthcare reform on large employers: Internal documents recently reviewed by Fortune, originally requested by Congress, show what the bill’s critics predicted, and what its champions dreaded: many large companies are examining a course that was heretofore unthinkable, dumping the healthcare coverage they provide to their workers in exchange for paying penalty fees to the government. The only trouble? There’s no way these employers are seriously thinking about doing this. I can understand why the employers would do the math. According to healthcare reform law, penalties for failing to provide health coverage are a small fraction of the cost of that coverage. But as with most everything else in healthcare, there’s muc... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3592210 Mon, 24 May 2010 12:00:30 +0100 3592210 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3490798&cid=t_311313_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-tuesday%2F Cultural innovation, Pleistocene environments and demographic change. Gene-culture coevolution gurus Peter Richerson and Robert Boyd argue that climatic fluctuations may work to the advantage of humans because of the adaptive flexibility inherent in a cultural species. Common versus rare variants, again. Some skepticism of the new exhortation to look for rare variants of large effect instead of common variants of more modest effect. This sort of posturing by biologists strikes me as similar to what happens in social science (to a great extent all of what falls under the rubric of sociology seems to be posturing with doctorates). Does this happen in the physical sciences? Sean Carroll Talks School Science and Time Travel. I wonder when he’s going to stop being asked about how he got t... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3490798 Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:05:19 +0100 3490798 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3487286&cid=t_311313_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-monday%2F Why religion can lead to racism. I think the correlations are real, but am skeptical of the causation because I think think the correlation is cultural-specific. For example, my personal experience with Muslims is that those who espouse the most “Fundamentalist” world views are the least racist. The contrast with white American Protestants probably emerges from the fact that white American Protestants and Arab Muslims have had very different recent histories (if Arab Muslims want a racial ideology, they had a good candidate in secular Baathism. Some of the same applies to Turks and Persians, who got on the 20th century racial-nationalist bandwagon, as evident in the attempt by the Shah to emphasize Iran’s Aryan antecedents, while Ataturk funded research on the racial char... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3487286 Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:14:15 +0100 3487286 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3479837&cid=t_311313_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-10%2F Friday Weird Science: Smells Fishy? Check your semen. I’m not going to describe the post. You read it (though perhaps not on a full stomach). Freeing human eggs of mutant mitochondria. I’m pretty sure this would be banned by the Orange Catholic Bible. Scientists Devise Way to Link Complex Traits With Underlying Genes. At least for some model organisms, though the authors claim at the end of their paper that they could be transfered to humans. Mixed-Race People Perceived as ‘More Attractive,’ UK Study Finds. In general I think these sorts of studies are the inverse of the results of Charles Davenport on Jamaican mulattoes, scientists sometimes know what findings are congenial to the Zeitgeist, and will keep looking until they find them. I suspect there might be some ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3479837 Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:02:32 +0100 3479837 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2116740&cid=t_311313_134_f&fid=36985&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fsugarstats%2F%7E3%2F516795132%2F Yesterday I was able to kick back and relax a little and lo and behold….I fell asleep on the couch. After about a 2 hour deep sleep nap, I awoke with some unexplained high numbers. Am I the only one who sometimes seems to get a liver dump after a long nap?  This is not [...] (Source: SugarStats.com - Simple, Online Blood Sugar Tracking for Diabetes Management) SugarStats.com - Simple, Online Blood Sugar Tracking for Diabetes Management blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2116740 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:07:37 +0100 2116740