Commentary: VATS, RATS, stats, and some caveats

DIOCLES: Some caveats and new questions.

We have carefully read the much-anticipated publication of the findings of the DIOCLES project. 1 The results show an encouraging general improvement in the mortality rates for acute coronary syndrome in Spain, although some points require clarification. The increase in the number of patients who reach hospital via out-of-hospital emergency medical services is a positive finding and is reassuri...

Antireductionisms with regard to mental disorders: some caveats. A commentary on Marco Stier

INTRODUCTION With his article “Normative preconditions for the assessment of mental disorder” Stier (2013) is presenting a thoughtprovoking piece of work and I agree with many of his conclusions. This is certainly true of Stier’s main thesis that the demarcation line between mental health and mental disorder cannot plausibly be gained on the level of neurobiology alone, but is in need of additi...

Some Caveats about Cultural Transmission Models

The symposium papers at hand apply a population-biological modeling approach to the problems of cultural transmission and cultural evolution. The papers by Boyd and Richerson, by Chen et al., and by Pulliam are conceptually very similar, each advancing a variant on the additive transmission model of Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman (1981), in which the probability that pseudoparticulate "traits" [ess...

Modeling technological progress and investment in China : Some caveats

STATs and macrophage fusion

Macrophages play a pivotal role in host defense against multiple foreign materials such as bacteria, parasites and artificial devices. Some macrophage lineage cells, namely osteoclasts and foreign body giant cells (FBGCs), form multi-nuclear giant cells by the cell-cell fusion of mono-nuclear cells. Osteoclasts are bone-resorbing cells, and are formed in the presence of RANKL on the surface of ...