Some analysts have criticized Friedrich Hayek’s theory of cultural evolution for implying that the rules, customs, norms, and institutions that emerge from the evolutionary process are necessarily efficient or desirable in all cases. This charge is unfounded. The present article defends Hayek versus his critics in two ways: First, it restates Hayek’s own objections to the idea that cultural evo...

This paper describes a survey of normative agent-based social simulation models. These models are examined from the perspective of the foundations of social theory. Agent-based modelling contributes to the research program of methodological individualism. Norms are a central concept in the role theoretic concept of action in the tradition of Durkheim and Parsons. This paper investigates to what...

BACKGROUND Over the past decade, the World Health Organization (WHO) has implemented a standardized, evidence-informed guideline development process to assure technically sound and policy-relevant guidelines. This study is an independent evaluation of the adaptability of the guidelines produced by the Evidence and Programme Guidance unit, at the Department of Nutrition for Health and Developmen...

A variety of theories in the social science, as profound as they may seem, cannot break away from “either-or” dualism. In which, many of them assume dualistic substantialisms in terms of the dichotomies like: methodological individualism vs. methodological collectivism; positivistic sociology vs. intepretivist sociology; agency vs. structure, and so on. In addition to that, there is also anothe...

Objective: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for rotator cuff tendinopathy. Design: Systematic review. Method: A literature search was conducted in 4 databases for randomized controlled trials published until 05/2013, comparing the efficacy of oral anti-inflammatory drugs to any other intervention. Studies characterist...

i agree entirely with nir eyal’s perspective that denying treatment to obese patients is morally wrong. however, the reasons for this belief differ in some ways from eyal’s analysis. in this commentary, i will try to explain the similarities and differences in our perspectives. my primary claim is that the denial of treatment to obese patients is wrong principally because (i) it eschews a whole...

The lack of benefit from randomised controlled trials has resulted in significant controversy regarding the role of nutrition during critical illness in terms of long-term recovery and outcome. Although methodological caveats with a failure to adequately appreciate biological mechanisms may explain these disappointing results, it must be acknowledged that nutritional support during early critic...

Decisions in healthcare should be based on information obtained according to the principles of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). An increasing number of systematic reviews are published which summarize the results of prevalence studies. Interpretation of the results of these reviews should be accompanied by an appraisal of the methodological quality of the included data and studies. The critical a...

PURPOSE To evaluate methodological and reporting quality of diagnostic accuracy studies of perimetry in glaucoma and to determine whether there had been any improvement since the publication of the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy (STARD) guidelines. METHODS A systematic review of English language articles published between 1993 and 2013 reporting the diagnostic accuracy of peri...