A commentary on a flawed public health investigation

The possibility of hepatitis C being transmitted between dental patients was the genesis of an extensive and expensive look-back investigation conducted by an Ontario Public Health Unit. This investigation was performed with a minimal knowledge of nosocomial infections of dental origin, an enthusiastic reliance on untested checklist indicators and an absence of any of the criteria justifying such an investigation. As a consequence, the entire exercise was based on the false premise that an infection control lapse had occurred. This commentary will address these flaws, and other aspects of the Public Health Unit’s response that detracted from its credibility. The provision of a realistic assessment of disease transmission in dentistry should result in Public Health Units conducting informed and mutually beneficial inspections of dental practices.

From the “Paris Agreement” to the “London Pact”: Political Aspects of the Democratisation of Poland’s April Constitution of 1935

In the history of Poland’s April Constitution of 1935, there were two attempts to democratise it, the first one in November 1939 referred to as the “Paris agreement” and the other one in September 1950 included in the formula of the “London pact”, both of which concerned the ways of implementing Article 13 defining the scope of the President’s personal powers. The “Paris agreement” introduced into political life the practice of consultation between the President and the Prime Minister; the “London pact” provided for a thorough change in the nature of the President’s relations with the Government and the planned Parliament-in-exile called the Council of National Unity, as well as strengthened the role of the political parties in political decision-making. Motivated by the notion of the modernisation of the Constitution and its adjustment to the democratic standards of Western states, the postulate to democratise it was put forward by established political actors, the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) and the National Party (SN), supported by the Independence and Democracy (NiD) party founded in exile. Appearing together as the Political Council, they took part in negotiations on the formation of a government of national unity after the death of Prime Minister T. Tomaszewski. Representatives of the Polish People’s Party did not take part in the talks; its leader, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, rejected the April Constitution “in its entirety”. The “pact” did not gain the approval of the “Castle”: the President defended the Constitution and did not accept concessions as regards Article 13. Nevertheless, the postulates of the “pact” were not nullified as they were used to build a new political construction – the National Unity – from 1954 functioning in parallel to the presidential centre. Due to the importance of the issue, the negotiations can be regarded as a breakthrough event in the political life of the émigré community. It is no exaggeration to say that the roots of the most important political events in the life of the émigré milieu go back to the “London pact”. The research goal of this article is to bring to light the political aspects of the initiative motivated by the idea of democratising the April Constitution, expressed in the formula of the “London pact”, against the background of the hypothesis that the leaders of the Political Council, behind the screen of their demand for the modernisation of the political system, aimed at weakening the position of the President as an obstacle on the way to building a new political centre – the Unity camp. They used the stage of negotiations based on the demands of the “pact” to orchestrate an anti-presidential propaganda campaign and to portray Zaleski as an opponent of the notion of unity. At the same time, they promoted the false premise that the democratisation of political life would help unblock the channels of émigré diplomacy and change the position of the Polish cause in the international arena. In this way, taking advantage of the atmosphere of distrust towards the President, they were able to launch their own political project: the National Unity, planned for as early as in 1949. For them, their participation in the Unity’s bodies opened the possibility of realising their own political ambitions reserved for politicians from President Zaleski’s closest milieu referred to as the ‘Castle entourage’.

Deflating Byrne’s “Are Women Adult Human Females?”

The primary aim of this paper is to show that Alex Byrne’s arguments in “Are Women Adult Human Females?” provide no reason to doubt the truth of the proposition that trans women are women. Byrne’s conclusion is that women are adult human females. However, it is safe to say that much of the interest in his article is driven by the assumption that it is a short step from that conclusion to the further conclusion that trans women are not women. If Byrne is understood to be defending that further conclusion, however, then some of his arguments are dialectically ineffective. The others commit an evidential fallacy or rest on a false premise.

Nielsen v. Preap / 5th grade grammar v. linguistics / Mass imprisonment v. human rights

In the Supreme Court case Nielsen v. Preap, ignorance about syntax and semantics led to tragic consequences. The ACLU lawyer defending thousands of non-citizens from being rounded up and put into prison indefinitely by ICE let it come across that her argument rested on the false premise that adverbs can modify nouns. The textualists claimed victory, even though the humane reading of the text was the literal one in this case. The final decision rested crucially on this error on her part, and was buffered by a misunderstanding about how definite descriptions work. The dissent failed to articulate a convincing rebuttal, making spurious reference to passive voice. This case clearly shows how staggeringly consequential linguistic knowledge can be.

Gastronomía en el proceso social – histórico de Tacna: “Picante a la Tacneña, sincretismo ibero-puquina”. * Gastronomy at historical and social process: “Picante a la Tacneña, ibero-puquina syncretism”

The present article, have proposed the analytics approach on history and archeology about “Picante a la Tacneña”, a fundamental cuisine at cultural identity from Tacna. The culinary syncretism it’s a reflection about multifarious participation on the agent at process sociocultural and historical at adoption, mixed-race, and develop on a culinary dish. Understanding the sociocultural process to this dish will permitting make major and better information about the origin, generate deny at myths about the origin between at period realize on Chilenian occupation at Tacna y Arica (1880-1929). Version what is this a false premise, and continually bruit and misunderstood. However, the gastronomy base, the base concept about “Picante a la Tacneña” originates in the 16th and 17th centuries. The discussion if to know how the singular is and the structure about of that dish, understanding the diversity on geography, socio structure, and dispose of resources how is the characterize a Tacna region. Resumen El presente artículo promueve el análisis histórico y arqueológico del “Picante a la Tacneña”, comida fundamental de la identidad cultural de Tacna. El sincretismo culinario refleja la participación de múltiples agentes y procesos socio – históricos en la adopción, mestizaje y desarrollo de este plato. El entendimiento socio cultural de este plato, permitirá brindar mayores luces sobre su origen, desmontando los mitos de su “Origen” en el periodo de la ocupación de Tacna y Arica por parte de Chile (1880 – 1929). Versión la cual ha sido largamente difundida y mal interpretada. Sin embargo, la base gastronómica, se remonta entre los Siglos XVI al XVII, con lo cual, la discusión a plantear es la singularidad y composición única del plato, en un entorno de diversidad geográfica, social y de disponibilidad de recursos como es la característica de la Región de Tacna.

Revisiting Bias in Odds Ratios

Ratio measures of effect, such as the odds ratio (OR), are consistent, but the presumption of their unbiasedness is founded on a false premise: The equality of the expected value of a ratio and the ratio of expected values. We show that the invalidity of this assumptions is an important source of empirical bias in ratio measures of effect, which is due to properties of the expectation of ratios of count random variables. We investigate ORs (unconfounded, no effect modification), proposing a correction that leads to “almost unbiased” estimates. We also explore ORs with covariates. We find substantial bias in OR estimates for smaller sample sizes, which can be corrected by the proposed method. Bias correction is more elusive for adjusted analyses. The notion of unbiasedness of OR for the effect of interest for smaller sample sizes is challenged.