The placebo response plays a major role in psychiatry, particularly in depression. A new network meta-analysis investigates whether the effects of placebo vary in studies comparing fluoxetine and venlafaxine, two widely prescribed antidepressants. Even though data from this article indicate that the effects of placebos do not differ, publication bias cannot be ruled out. The authors use their f...

How does the dimension of time contribute to the constitution of society? This is a significant issue in the realm of social ontology. In this paper, the author attempts to engage a dialogue between Buddhist Middle Way philosophy and sociological theory in order to have a better understanding of the emptiness of time as well as society, and thereby reconsider the dependent co-arising of both ti...

Latin Americans and their descendants abroad have often thought about their identity as an ethnic group. In connection with this, a number of Latin American philosophers and social scientists working in the United States have independently questioned which term, if any, is adequate for reference (and self-reference) to that group. In their attempt to come up with correct answers, they have deve...

The theoretical virtue of parsimony values the minimizing of theoretical commitments, but theoretical commitments come in two kinds: ontological and ideological. While the ontological commitments of a theory are the entities it posits, a theory’s ideological commitments are the primitive concepts it employs. Here, I show how we can extend the distinction between quantitative and qualitative par...

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is nearly invariably lethal tumor of the pleura. Significant therapeutic nihilism exists among health professionals. Recent progress has reshaped the clinical landscape in the treatment of MPM. Two European guidelines have been published, one from the task force of the European Respiratory Society and the European Society of Thoracic Surgery, and the other f...

Despite increasing use in the literature of old age, 'frailty' remains an ill-defined term. The components of frailty have not been sufficiently defined to be used to identify a research population or a group requiring a public health intervention. It is currently too indefinite a state to be used to identify particular needs in an individual, indeed being 'too frail' may be used to justify inv...

Batman has contributed more than its fair share to the 'darkness that hangs over contemporary culture like a picturesque pall. 'Dark' designates both a highly marketable aesthetic style and an ethical, or rather anti-ethical, stance, a kind of designer nihilism whose chief theoretical proposition is the denial of the possibility of the Good. Gotham, particularly as re-invented by Frank Miller i...