scholarly journals Think Indifferent: On the Perils Of Scientific Deliberation, Without Attention For Critical Evaluation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Hasselman ◽  
S.V. Crielaard ◽  
A.M.T. Bosman

Replication attempts of empirical psychological phenomena lack guidance by a larger effort to evaluate thepsychological theory that predicted the phenomena. In this paper we present a template for theory evaluationsuited for the class of theories produced by psychological science: Theories of construction. As a case study,we perform a rigorous post-publication peer-review of the theoretical core of Unconscious Thought Theory(UTT). We present several uncomplicated indices that quantify the quality of evaluation of the results andconclusions by experts who reviewed the article and the amount of interpretation bias on behalf of theauthors. The results reveal a failure of expert peer-review to detect empirical reports of sub-standard quality.The analyses reveal there is in fact hardly any empirical evidence for the predictions of UTT in importantpapers that claim its support. Our advice is to evaluate before you replicate.NOTE: This manuscript is presented here for reference only see e.g.Nieuwenstein, M. R., Wierenga, T., Morey, R. D., Wicherts, J. M., Blom, T. N., Wagenmakers, E. J., & van Rijn, H. (2015). On making the right choice: a meta-analysis and large-scale replication attempt of the unconscious thought advantage. Judgment and Decision Making, 10(1), 1. http://journal.sjdm.org/14/14321/jdm14321.html. It will not be submitted for publication in its present form.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaping Wang ◽  
Bin Liu ◽  
Xiuqiong Fu ◽  
Tiejun Tong ◽  
Zhiling Yu

Abstract Background The traditional Chinese medicine formula Si-Jun-Zi-Tang (SJZT) has a long history of application in the treatment of functional dyspepsia (non-ulcer dyspepsia, FD)-like symptoms. SJZT-based therapies have been claimed to be beneficial in managing FD. This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of SJZT-based therapies in treating FD by meta-analysis. Methods Systematic searches for RCTs were conducted in seven databases (up to February 2019) without language restrictions. Data were analyzed using Cochrane RevMan software version 5.3.0 and Stata software version 13.1, and reported as relative risk (RR) or odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The primary outcome was response rate and the secondary outcomes were gastric emptying, quality of life, adverse effects and relapse rate. The quality of evidence was evaluated according to criteria from the Cochrane risk of bias. Results A total of 341 potentially relevant publications were identified, and 12 RCTs were eligible for inclusion. For the response rate, there was a statically significant benefit in favor of SJZT-based therapies (RR = 1.23; 95% CI 1.17 to 1.30). However, the benefit was limited to modified SJZT (MSJZT). The relapse rate of FD patients received SJZT-based therapies was lower than that of patients who received conventional medicines (OR = 0.23; 95% CI 0.10 to 0.51). No SJZT-based therapies-related adverse effect was reported. Conclusion SJZT-based prescriptions may be effective in treating FD and no serious side-effects were identified, but the effect on response rate appeared to be limited to MSJZT. The results should be interpreted with caution as all the included studies were considered at a high risk of bias. Standardized, large-scale and strictly designed RCTs are needed to further validate the benefits of SJZT-based therapies for FD management. Trial registration Systematic review registration: [PROSPERO registration: CRD42019139136].


2021 ◽  
Vol 92 (8) ◽  
pp. A18-A18
Author(s):  
Maria Teixeira-Dias ◽  
Amber Kaur Dadwal ◽  
Graham Blackman

Objectives/AimsFregoli syndrome is a rare delusion characterised by the misidentification of an individual, typically of someone who the patient has an emotional link towards. The pathoaetiology of Fregoli syndrome remains largely a mystery, however, it has been described in patients experiencing either a primary or secondary (organic) psychosis. We sought to compare the neuropsychiatric features of Fregoli syndrome in primary and secondary psychosis.MethodsA patient-level meta-analysis was conducted. Five databases were searched for any descriptions of Fregoli syndrome. The patients and the psychotic episodes details alongside the co-occurring neuropsychiatric features and treatment responses were extracted. A risk of bias assessment was carried by scoring the methodological quality of all case studies. Random-effects models were used to pool the data and odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated for each of the neuropsychiatric features extracted between primary and secondary psychoses groups.ResultsA total of 119 patients (62 with primary psychosis, 50 with secondary psychosis and 7 with mixed or unknown aetiology) with Fregoli syndrome were identified in the English literature. Persecutory features were more likely to occur in patients with primary Fregoli syndrome (OR = 0.26, 95% CI[0.10;0.67], p < 0.01). In addition, Fregoli syndrome in the context of a first-episode psychosis (OR = 11.00, 95% CI [2.45;49.39], p < 0.01) and in the presence of neuroimaging abnormalities (OR = 20.19, 95% CI [4.36; 93.47], p < 0.01) was significantly associated with secondary aetiology. Patients in the secondary psychosis group (n=14) showed more right hemisphere lesions than patients in the primary psychosis group (n=1), however this trend was not significant (p = 0.10). Furthermore, no statistical differences between psychoses groups were found for the demographic, clinical and neurophysiological features analysed.ConclusionsThis is the first meta-analysis investigating the features of Fregoli syndrome in primary and secondary psychosis.Findings suggest that secondary causes of Fregoli syndrome are associated with a first-episode of psychosis and that neuroimaging abnormalities, particularly in the right hemisphere, are associated with a secondary organic cause.


BMC Medicine ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Bruce ◽  
Anthony Chauvin ◽  
Ludovic Trinquart ◽  
Philippe Ravaud ◽  
Isabelle Boutron

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (247) ◽  
pp. 811-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEFAN LIPPL ◽  
SAURABH VIJAY ◽  
MATTHIAS BRAUN

ABSTRACTDespite their importance for mass-balance estimates and the progress in techniques based on optical and thermal satellite imagery, the mapping of debris-covered glacier boundaries remains a challenging task. Manual corrections hamper regular updates. In this study, we present an automatic approach to delineate glacier outlines using interferometrically derived synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) coherence, slope and morphological operations. InSAR coherence detects the temporally decorrelated surface (e.g. glacial extent) irrespective of its surface type and separates it from the highly coherent surrounding areas. We tested the impact of different processing settings, for example resolution, coherence window size and topographic phase removal, on the quality of the generated outlines. We found minor influence of the topographic phase, but a combination of strong multi-looking during interferogram generation and additional averaging during coherence estimation strongly deteriorated the coherence at the glacier edges. We analysed the performance of X-, C- and L- band radar data. The C-band Sentinel-1 data outlined the glacier boundary with the least misclassifications and a type II error of 0.47% compared with Global Land Ice Measurements from Space inventory data. Our study shows the potential of the Sentinel-1 mission together with our automatic processing chain to provide regular updates for land-terminating glaciers on a large scale.


2014 ◽  
pp. 324-352
Author(s):  
Rick Malleus

This chapter proposes a framework for analyzing the credibility of online news sites, allowing diaspora populations to evaluate the credibility of online news about their home countries. A definition of credibility is established as a theoretical framework for analysis, and a framework of seven elements is developed based on the following elements: accuracy, authority, believability, quality of message construction, peer review, comparison, and corroboration. Later, those elements are applied to a variety of online news sources available to the Zimbabwean diaspora that serves as a case study for explaining the framework. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the framework in relation to some contextual circumstances of diaspora populations and presents some limitations of the framework as diaspora populations might actually apply the different elements.


Author(s):  
Salman Ahmed ◽  
H. Onan Demirel

Abstract Current prototyping frameworks are often prompt-based and heavily rely on designers’ experience. The lack of systematic guidelines in prototyping activities causes unwanted variation in the quality of the prototype. Notably, there is limited, or no prototyping framework exists that enables human factors engineering (HFE) guidelines be part of the early product development process. In this paper, a pre-prototyping framework is proposed to render human-centered design strategies to guide designers before the hands-on prototyping activity starts. The methodology consists of extracting key factors related to prototyping and human factors engineering principles based on an extensive literature review. The key elements are then combined to form the prototyping categories, dimensions (theory), and tools (practice). The resulting prototyping framework can be used to develop prototyping strategies consist of theoretical guidelines and practical tools that are needed during the prototyping of human-centered products. The framework provides systematic guidance to designers in the early stages of the design process so that designers, in particular novices in ergonomics and human factors, can have a head start in building the prototypes in the right direction. Finally, a case study is presented to demonstrate a walk-through and efficacy of the proposed pre-prototyping framework.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Jin-xiao Li ◽  
Qian Yan ◽  
Na Liu ◽  
Wen-jiang Zheng ◽  
Man Hu ◽  
...  

Objective. At present, the relationship between autophagosomes and the prognosis of various cancers has become a subject of active investigation. A series of studies have demonstrated the correlation between autophagy microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC-3), Beclin-1, and colorectal cancer (CRC). Since autophagy has dual regulatory roles in tumors, the results of this correlation are also uncertain. Hence, we summarized the relationship between Beclin-1, LC-3, and CRC using systematic reviews and meta-analysis to clarify their prognostic significance in it. Methods. PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases were searched online up to April 1, 2019. The quality of the involving studies was assessed against the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Pooled hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) in a fixed or random effects model were used to assess the strength of correlation between Beclin-1, LC-3, and CRC. Results. A total of 9 articles were collected, involving 2,297 patients. Most literatures scored more than 6 points, suggesting that the quality of our including research was acceptable. Our finding suggested that the expression of Beclin-1 was not associated with overall survival (HR = 0.68, 95% CI (0.31–1.52), P=0.351). Nonetheless, LC-3 expression exerted significant impact on OS (HR = 0.51, 95% CI (0.35–0.74), P<0.05). Subgroup analysis exhibited that Beclin-1 expression was associated with OS at TNM stage III (HR = 0.04, 95% CI = 0.02–0.08, P<0.05), surgical treatment (HR = 1.53, 95% CI (1.15–2.02), P=0.003), and comprehensive treatment (HR = 0.27 95% CI (0.08–0.92), P=0.036), respectively. Similarly, the results showed the increased LC-3 expression in CRC was related to OS in multivariate analyses (HR = 0.44, 95% CI (0.34–0.57), P<0.05), stages (HR = 0.51, 95% CI (0.35–0.74), P<0.05), and comprehensive treatment (HR = 0.44, 95% CI (0.34–0.57), P<0.05). Conclusions. Autophagy-related proteins of LC-3 might be an important marker of CRC progression. However, since the number of the original studies was limited, more well-designed, large-scale, high-quality studies are warranted to provide more convincing and reliable information.


2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 1045-1069 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Malka ◽  
Yphtach Lelkes ◽  
Christopher J. Soto

The right–left dimension is ubiquitous in politics, but prior perspectives provide conflicting accounts of whether cultural and economic attitudes are typically aligned on this dimension within mass publics around the world. Using survey data from ninety-nine nations, this study finds not only that right–left attitude organization is uncommon, but that it is more common for culturally and economically right-wing attitudes to correlate negatively with each other, an attitude structure reflecting a contrast between desires for cultural and economic protection vs. freedom. This article examines where, among whom and why protection–freedom attitude organization outweighs right–left attitude organization, and discusses the implications for the psychological bases of ideology, quality of democratic representation and the rise of extreme right politics in the West.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Papawadee Tanodomdej

The Tallinn Manuals (the Manuals) attempted to clarify how to apply existing international law to cyber operations. Though the Manuals are non-binding instruments, the Group of International Experts claimed that they reflected the lex lata applicable to cyber operations. However, this claim is questionable due to the dominating role of a few Western states in the drafting process and the linked neglect of the practice of “affected states” in cyber operations. This article examines the quality of the Manuals’ drafting process and the composition and impartiality of the experts involved. It focuses on the issue of the prohibition of the use of force. The aim of this examination is not to discuss whether the Manuals provided the right answer to the question of how international law applies to cyber operations. Rather, they function as a case study of how legal scholarship may affect the making of international law. The article concludes that certain rules in the Manuals are marked by NATO influence and overlook the practice of other states engaged in cyber operations. Therefore, the Manuals disregard the generality of state practice, which should be the decisive factor in the formation of customary international law. As far as “political activism” may be involved, the article argues that the role of legal scholars as assistants to the cognition of international law could be compromised.


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