Standing in a Garden of Forking Paths

According to the Path Principle, it is permissible to expand your set of beliefs iff (and because) the evidence you possess provides adequate support for such beliefs. If there is no path from here to there, you cannot add a belief to your belief set. If some thinker with the same type of evidential support has a path that they can take, so do you. The paths exist because of the evidence you possess and the support it provides. Evidential support grounds propositional justification. The principle is mistaken. There are permissible steps you may take that others may not even if you have the very same evidence. There are permissible steps that you cannot take that others can even if your beliefs receive the same type of evidential support. Because we have to assume almost nothing about the nature of evidential support to establish these results, we should reject evidentialism

Central nervous system demyelination associated with etanercept in a 51 years old woman

There are few case reports documenting a new onset of demyelinating processes in patients receiving anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha therapy (anti-TNF alpha) for chronic inflammatory arthropathies. Whether anti-TNF alpha therapy induces new onset demyelination or just exacerbates pre-existing latent multiple sclerosis is not fully understood. We are reporting a 51-year-old woman without a prior history of multiple sclerosis, who developed demyelinating brain lesions three months after starting Etanercept. Her symptoms partially resolved on cessation of the drug. Our case was unusual compared to some previous case reports, as the patient's age at presentation was beyond that for idiopathic multiple sclerosis. This may strengthen the hypothesis of a causal relationship between new onset demyelination and Etanercept; however, exacerbation of pre-existing demyelinating process by Etanercept in this patient still cannot be totally excluded. We recommend doing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain before starting patients on anti-TNF alpha therapy to exclude latent demyelination. In addition, new onset demyelination following anti-TNF alpha therapy should be reported and studied thoroughly as this may yield a significant advancement in our understanding of the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. Long-term follow-up of these cases is also important to determine the long-term prognosis and the rate of relapse of demyelinating process in this group of patients

Whither Evidentialist Reliabilism?

Evidentialism and Reliabilism are two of the main contemporary theories of epistemic justification. Some authors have thought that the theories are not incompatible with each other, and that a hybrid theory which incorporates elements of both should be taken into account. More recently, other authors have argued that the resulting theory is well- placed to deal with fine-grained doxastic attitudes (credences). In this paper I review the reasons for adopting this kind of hybrid theory, paying attention to the case of credences and the notion of probability involved in their treatment. I argue that the notion of probability in question can only be an epistemic (or evidential) kind of probability. I conclude that the resulting theory will be incompatible with Reliabilism in one important respect: it cannot deliver on the reductivist promise of Reliabilism. I also argue that attention to the justification of basic beliefs reveals limitations in the Evidentialist framework as well. The theory that results from the right combination of Evidentialism and Reliabilism, therefore, is neither Evidentialist nor Reliabilist

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in bone turnover-related genes in Koreans: ethnic differences in linkage disequilibrium and haplotype

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Osteoporosis is defined as the loss of bone mineral density that leads to bone fragility with aging. Population-based case-control studies have identified polymorphisms in many candidate genes that have been associated with bone mass maintenance or osteoporotic fracture. To investigate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with osteoporosis, we examined the genetic variation among Koreans by analyzing 81 genes according to their function in bone formation and resorption during bone remodeling.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We resequenced all the exons, splice junctions and promoter regions of candidate osteoporosis genes using 24 unrelated Korean individuals. Using the common SNPs from our study and the HapMap database, a statistical analysis of deviation in heterozygosity depicted.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified 942 variants, including 888 SNPs, 43 insertion/deletion polymorphisms, and 11 microsatellite markers. Of the SNPs, 557 (63%) had been previously identified and 331 (37%) were newly discovered in the Korean population. When compared SNPs in the Korean population with those in HapMap database, 1% (or less) of SNPs in the Japanese and Chinese subpopulations and 20% of those in Caucasian and African subpopulations were significantly differentiated from the Hardy-Weinberg expectations. In addition, an analysis of the genetic diversity showed that there were no significant differences among Korean, Han Chinese and Japanese populations, but African and Caucasian populations were significantly differentiated in selected genes. Nevertheless, in the detailed analysis of genetic properties, the LD and Haplotype block patterns among the five sub-populations were substantially different from one another.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Through the resequencing of 81 osteoporosis candidate genes, 118 unknown SNPs with a minor allele frequency (MAF) > 0.05 were discovered in the Korean population. In addition, using the common SNPs between our study and HapMap, an analysis of genetic diversity and deviation in heterozygosity was performed and the polymorphisms of the above genes among the five populations were substantially differentiated from one another. Further studies of osteoporosis could utilize the polymorphisms identified in our data since they may have important implications for the selection of highly informative SNPs for future association studies.</p

Adolescents and nuclear arms issues

Concerned about adolescents' reaction to the ever present nuclear threat, we surveyed 10,720 high school students in New Jersey, U.S.A. Half felt anxious about an accidental war and expected a major nuclear blast. One-quarter expected a nuclear war involving the United States, and one-fifth expected to die in a nuclear blast. Most expected the United States to be destroyed if a major nuclear war occured, did not believe that long term survival after the initial exchanges is possible, or that civil defense preparations can be effective. Responses were similar across economic background, time period and type of high school.adolescents' concerns adolescents' mental health impact of nuclear threat

Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma: MR appearance.

We report two cases of fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, each of which had lower signal intensity than normal liver on short repetition time (TR), short echo time (TE) spin-echo (SE) images and demonstrated a central scar-like area of low signal intensity which did not become hyperintense on long time TR/TE SE images

The fibrolamellar variant of hepatocellular carcinoma. Its association with focal nodular hyperplasia.

A case of fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FL-HCC) associated with adjacent focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) is described. These two regions were adjacent but distinct, both on gross and microscopic examination. Currently, it is unclear whether FL-HCC rarely arises in preexisting FNH, or whether FNH is a typical response to this vascular variant of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The FNH region, which is peripheral, may be biopsied to exclude the underlying carcinoma, and thus lead to inadequate therapy. Previous reports of this association are reviewed