February 18, 2011
by peter.taylor
0 comments
Contention motivating this taxonomizing: Research as well as the application of knowledge resulting from research are untroubled by heterogeneity to the extent that populations are well controlled. Such control can only be established and maintained with considerable effort or social … Continue reading
February 17, 2011
by peter.taylor
2 Comments
Discussion on WUMB Commonwealth Journal based on new exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science exhibit, Race: Are we so different? Broadcast on Sunday February 13, 2011. Speakers: Peter Taylor, Nina Nolan, Chair, RACE Education Team, Boston Museum of Science, … Continue reading
February 16, 2011
by peter.taylor
0 comments
The history of ideas about nature can be read in terms of the social order being defended or promoted — see previous posts. This post presents a schema of Raymond Williams’s history of changing and conflicting ideas about nature and … Continue reading
January 31, 2011
by peter.taylor
0 comments
Under the life-course perspective that has developed in social and psychological epidemiology since the 1990s, researchers seek to reconstruct the complex causal processes that generate specific diseases and behavioral attributes (Kendler et al. 2005, Kuh and Ben-Shlomo 2004). However, some … Continue reading
January 30, 2011
by peter.taylor
0 comments
In studies of heritability, a field in which path analysis originated, there are no measured variables except the observed focal variable (e.g., height). Path analysis can still be used if we convert the additive model on which any given Analysis … Continue reading
January 29, 2011
by peter.taylor
0 comments
Path analysis is a data analysis technique that quantifies the relative contributions of variables (“path coefficients”) to the variation in a focal variable once a certain network of interrelated variables has been specified (Lynch & Walsh 1998, 823). Some of … Continue reading
January 28, 2011
by peter.taylor
2 Comments
Idea: The traditional subjects of epidemiology become agents when: a. they draw attention of trained epidemiologists to fine scale patterns of disease in that community and otherwise contribute to initiation and completion of studies; b. their resilience and reorganization of … Continue reading
January 27, 2011
by peter.taylor
0 comments
Idea: Genetic analysis has begun to identify genetic risk factors. We need to consider the social infrastructure needed to keep track of the genetic and environmental exposures with a view to useful epidemiological analysis and subsequent healthcare measures. Even in … Continue reading
January 26, 2011
by peter.taylor
3 Comments
Idea: As conventionally interpreted, heritability indicates the fraction of variation in a trait associated with “genetic differences.” A high value indicates a strong genetic contribution to the trait and “makes the trait a potentially worthwhile candidate for molecular research” that … Continue reading
January 25, 2011
by peter.taylor
1 Comment
Idea: How do we identify and disentangle the biological and social factors that build on each other over the life course from gestation through to old age? The references below mostly relate to “life course epidemiology,” that is, fetal and … Continue reading