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
January 24, 2011
by peter.taylor
0 comments
Idea: How people respond to treatment may vary from one subgroup to another–When is this a matter of chance or of undetected additional variables? How do we delineate the boundaries between subgroups? Lagakos provides a statistician’s cautions about the significance … Continue reading
November 5, 2010
by peter.taylor
1 Comment
Collaboratively contribute to each participant generating a practical vision for future developments based on evaluations or on statements, questions, and/or reservations concerning a certain challenge, such as learning from what has happened before (e.g., in a course, at a conference, … Continue reading
November 3, 2010
by peter.taylor
0 comments
The following discussion illustrates how socio-environmental studies, such as the case of soil erosion from the previous post and those of political ecology more generally (Peet and Watts 1996), provide rich material for exploring the problematic boundedness of ecological complexity … Continue reading
October 19, 2010
by peter.taylor
1 Comment
“Troubled by Heterogeneity? Opportunities for Fresh Views on Long-standing and Recent Issues in Biology and Biomedicine,” was a talk I gave on 13 Oct. ’10 (abstract). I sketched a number of cases to get the audience thinking about my underlying … Continue reading
October 11, 2010
by peter.taylor
0 comments
Exploring why European countries do not fluoridate water supplies led me to studies that cast doubt on the benefits and add concerns about its health costs. I have been using fluoridation as it is usually presented in the USA to … Continue reading
September 17, 2010
by peter.taylor
1 Comment
The first installment ended on the following note: Suppose you have many sets of same-sex non-identical twins raised together and many sets of same-sex identical twins raised together and find that the identical twins are on average more similar. It … Continue reading
September 16, 2010
by peter.taylor
1 Comment
Many people say Nature vs. Nurture is an ill-framed formulation, but the challenge is to explain why in a way that accounts for the persistent popularity of that formulation. We know, for example, that both genes and environment are involved … Continue reading
September 14, 2010
by peter.taylor
0 comments
The possibility of underlying heterogeneity makes heritability studies even less informative than, as prominent geneticists have noted (e.g., Rutter 2002, 4), the method of data analysis not suggesting where to look for the underlying genetic factors that contribute to heritability. … Continue reading
September 12, 2010
by peter.taylor
2 Comments
What can researchers do on the basis of knowing a trait’s heritability if the genetic and environmental factors underlying the observed trait are heterogeneous, or if the method of data analysis does not allow researchers to rule out the possibility … Continue reading