Epidemiological studies or how we have to design our research

How to assess epidemiological studies.

Assessing the quality of an epidemiological study equates to assessing whether the inferences drawn from it are warranted when account is taken of the methods, the representativeness of the study sample, and the nature of the population from which it is drawn. Bias, confounding, and chance can threaten the quality of an epidemiological study at all its phases. Nevertheless, their presence does ...

How do we know the value of our research?

R esearch is vital to the progress of medicine. Patients depend on it to generate new knowledge that may improve their lives. Clinicians yearn for more effective tools and better guidance for themselves and their patients. Funders seek a substantial return on their investment, often in the form of a contribution to society. Researchers want their work to result in meaningful benefits for others...

How We Know Our Senses

I propose a new criterion by which, I hold, subjects recognize and distinguish their sensory modalities. I argue that, rather than appealing to one of the standard criteria (sense organ, proximal stimulus, phenomenal character, or representational content (Grice 1962, Macpherson 2011a)) or to O’Dea’s (2011) proprioceptive content, we need to introduce the criterion of location in the functional...

How Safe is Our Product – Beef ? Do We Have a Story to Tell?

How have we evaluated software pattern application? A systematic mapping study of research design practices

Context: Software patterns encapsulate expert knowledge for constructing successful solutions to recurring problems. Although a large collection of software patterns is available in literature, empirical evidence on how well various patterns help in problem solving is limited and inconclusive. The context of these empirical findings is also not well understood, limiting applicability and genera...