| viXra.org > General Science and Philosophy > 2405 |
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| viXra.org > General Science and Philosophy > 2405 |
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[4] viXra:2405.0110 [pdf] submitted on 2024-05-21 21:12:19
Authors: Arturo Tozzi
Comments: 7 Pages.
Medical judgements require doctor’s belief based on the solid scientific evidence provided by empiric inductive experience. Yet, it is not infrequent that scientific data are unavailable, unreliable or controversial, such that the empirical evidence is not solid enough to allow doctors to build their own belief and make a final choice. Here we ask whether it is feasible to achieve a real and justified belief in medical affairs when scientific data are missing. We suggest a novel procedure to reach a quantifiable degree of belief which ultimately leads to medical judgement. To describe the state of medical affair under examination, we draw a sentence in the logical form "if x, then y" with just two possible answers: yes or no. Then, we examine five sources leading to doctor’s belief, namely 1) Evidence-Based Medicine levels, 2) individual experience, 3) collective knowledge, 4) logical reasoning and 5) confounding factors like chance, emotivity, cognitive bias. Every one of the five factors contributing to formulate a medical judgement is supplied with a given value of belief, so that negative values stand for negative answers and vice versa. A single number is accomplished, such that a total value of belief below zero is counted as negative, above zero as positive. In conclusion, we provide a quantitative approach to cope with the frequent medical cases where qualitative factors like emotional issues, personal beliefs, wisdom of the crowds, confirmation bias, narrative fallacy are more influential than scientific evidence in driving doctors to gain belief and formulate judgements.
Category: General Science and Philosophy
[3] viXra:2405.0096 [pdf] submitted on 2024-05-18 20:12:41
Authors: Donald G. Palmer
Comments: 11 Pages. (Name added to Article by viXra Admin as required)
This presentation is about new directions of study and discovery in both Mathematics and Science. Over the last several centuries, science has discovered objects in the world along a continuum of scale. In one direction, we have found planets and stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters. In the other direction we have found cells and proteins, atoms and neutrinos. In order to locate and model this world, we use the 3 traditional directions of length, width and height. However inherent in all our measurements is the scale of the objects we are measuring — a continuum we do not directly see with our eyes. A key reason we do not include this direction as part of our scientific models is that we do not have the appropriate mathematical tools to take measurements along this continuum. New mathematical tools may require a numeric representational system with more power than our traditional decimal or positional based numerals. Such a more powerful system may provide a single value for complex numbers able to measure across scale and adds to its structure the reversing operations of integration and differentiation. The ability to calculate integration and differentiation results would be a powerful mechanism for applied and for pure mathematics. The author presents some opening remarks on what is anticipated to be a much larger discussion, looking at a model of reality where objects at all levels of scale can be located and considers directions for generating more powerful mathematical tools than we have today.
Category: General Science and Philosophy
[2] viXra:2405.0095 [pdf] submitted on 2024-05-18 20:08:51
Authors: Donald G. Palmer
Comments: 8 Pages. (Correction made by viXra Admin to conform with the requirements of viXra.org - Future non-compliant submission will not be accepted)
Science is about developing theories of nature based upon evidence, in particular experimental evidence. Scientific theories use mathematical tools to measure, explain, and predict natural and human-made processes. Over the last few centuries, we have begun to perceive objects across many levels of scale. We have come to understand that we live on a spinning earth, which is circling a sun, which is moving within the Milky Way galaxy, which is moving in a cluster of galaxies. And we have come to understand that we are comprised of organs and blood vessels that continually pump blood, which moves cells made of proteins that supply oxygen and nutrients to other cells. And all these cells and proteins are made up of molecules and atoms and particles that are constantly moving on their levels. Scientific theories and disciplines tend to address one or another level of scale e.g., quantum physics, molecular chemistry, human medicine, planetary ecology, stellar systems, galaxy clusters. Some address multiple levels of scale. However, nature includes all these levels operating together, in some interconnected fashion.
Category: General Science and Philosophy
[1] viXra:2405.0036 [pdf] submitted on 2024-05-07 21:02:54
Authors: Clark M. Thomas
Comments: 4 Pages. (Note by viXra Admin: Please cite and list scientific references)
Even though people are animals, we like to think ofourselves as separate from and superior to all other animals, and to all sources of food. For millennia this separation has been the formula for human prosperity, too often against the better needs of our innocent domesticated relatives. What can wisdom add to this global dietary and behavioral monolith?
Category: General Science and Philosophy
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