University of Southern Denmark

About: University of Southern Denmark is a education organization based out in Odense, Syddanmark, Denmark. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Randomized controlled trial. The organization has 11928 authors who have published 37918 publications receiving 1258559 citations. The organization is also known as: SDU.

Epigenetic variation during the adult lifespan: cross‐sectional and longitudinal data on monozygotic twin pairs

Abstract: Summary The accumulation of epigenetic changes was proposed to contribute to the age-related increase in the risk of most common diseases. In this study on 230 monozygotic twin pairs (MZ pairs), aged 18–89 years, we investigated the occurrence of epigenetic changes over the adult lifespan. Using mass spectrometry, we investigated variation in global (LINE1) DNA methylation and in DNA methylation at INS, KCNQ1OT1, IGF2, GNASAS, ABCA1, LEP, and CRH, candidate loci for common diseases. Except for KCNQ1OT1, interindividual variation in locus-specific DNA methylation was larger in old individuals than in young individuals, ranging from 1.2-fold larger at ABCA1 (P = 0.010) to 1.6-fold larger at INS (P = 3.7 · 10 )07 ). Similarly, there was more within-MZ-pair discordance in old as compared with young MZ pairs, except for GNASAS, ranging from an 8% increase in discordance each decade at CRH (P = 8.9 · 10 )06 ) to a 16% increase each decade at LEP (P = 2.0 · 10 )08 ). Still, old MZ pairs with strikingly similar DNA

On the misuses of artificial neural networks for prognostic and diagnostic classification in oncology.

Abstract: The application of artificial neural networks (ANNs) for prognostic and diagnostic classification in clinical medicine has become very popular. In particular, feed-forward neural networks have been used extensively, often accompanied by exaggerated statements of their potential. In this paper, the essentials of feed-forward neural networks and their statistical counterparts (that is, logistic regression models) are reviewed. We point out that the uncritical use of ANNs may lead to serious problems, such as the fitting of implausible functions to describe the probability of class membership and the underestimation of misclassification probabilities. In applications of ANNs to survival data, further difficulties arise. Finally, the results of a search in the medical literature from 1991 to 1995 on applications of ANNs in oncology and some important common mistakes are reported. It is concluded that there is no evidence so far that application of ANNs represents real progress in the field of diagnosis and prognosis in oncology.

Nudge and the Manipulation of Choice: A Framework for the Responsible Use of the Nudge Approach to Behaviour Change in Public Policy

Abstract: In Nudge (2008) Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein suggested that public policy–makers arrange decision–making contexts in ways to promote behaviour change in the interest of individual citizens as well as that of society. However, in the public sphere and Academia alike widespread discussions have appeared concerning the public acceptability of nudgebased behavioural policy. Thaler and Sunstein's own position is that the anti–nudge position is a literal non–starter, because citizens are always influenced by the decision making context anyway, and nudging is liberty preserving and acceptable if guided by Libertarian Paternalism and Rawls’ publicity principle. A persistent and central tenet in the criticism disputing the acceptability of the approach is that nudging works by manipulating citizens’ choices. In this paper, we argue that both lines of argumentation are seriously flawed. We show how the anti–nudge position is not a literal non–starter due to the responsibilities that accrue on policy–makers by the intentional intervention in citizens’ life, how nudging is not essentially liberty preserving and why the approach is not necessarily acceptable even if satisfying Rawls’ publicity principle. We then use the psychological dual process theory underlying the approach as well as an epistemic transparency criterion identified by Thaler and Sunstein themselves to show that nudging is not necessarily about “manipulation”, nor necessarily about influencing “choice”. The result is a framework identifying four types of nudges that may be used to provide a central component for more nuanced normative considerations as well as a basis for policy recommendations.