February 1, 2010
Category: Neuroscience • Psychiatry
Objective diagnosis is in some
ways the holy grail of medicine. It has been maddeningly elusive
in psychiatry. Now comes a paper in which the authors suggest
that they may have found this treasure.
The paper details a method of using magnetoencephalography to assess
human brain function. They claim that, in a select population, it
can correctly identify patients with PTSD with 90% accuracy.
The
synchronous neural interactions test as a functional neuromarker for
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): a robust classification
method based on the bootstrap
A P Georgopoulos et
al 2010 J. Neural Eng. 7 016011
Abstract. Traumatic experiences can produce
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which is a debilitating condition
and for which no biomarker currently exists (Institute of Medicine (US)
2006 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Diagnosis and Assessment
(Washington, DC: National Academies)). Here we show that the
synchronous neural interactions (SNI) test which assesses the
functional interactions among neural populations derived from
magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings (Georgopoulos A P et al 2007
J. Neural Eng. 4 349-55) can successfully differentiate PTSD patients
from healthy control subjects. Externally cross-validated,
bootstrap-based analyses yielded >90% overall accuracy of
classification. In addition, all but one of 18 patients who were not
receiving medications for their disease were correctly classified.
Altogether, these findings document robust differences in brain
function between the PTSD and control groups that can be used for
differential diagnosis and which possess the potential for assessing
and monitoring disease progression and effects of therapy.
The synchronous neural interactions test is a test that is done by
having persons perform a simple task, while the magnetic signals from
their brain are being measured. The process is called
magnetoencephalography.
The resulting record is called a magnetoencephalogram (MEG). It
is similar to an electroencephalogram (EEG). The difference is
that the EEG measures small electric currents. The MEG measures
magnetic impulses. These impulses are only slightly affected by
the intervening tissue (skull, skin, etc). Therefore, it is
possible to get readings that are more precise. The downside is
that it requires a more elaborate device, and a special,
magnetically-shielded, room. Very few of these devices exist.
Read on »
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:08 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 30, 2010
Category: Computing
I decided to try using Google Chrome as a web browser. The reason is that it is supposed to be faster, particularly for sites that make heavy use of Flash. It turns out that installing it is a hassle if you do it the obvious way, because Flash does not work without fiddling around. That sort of defeats the purpose.
The easier way is to use the one-click install at:
http://software.opensuse.org/ymp/ope...2/chromium.ymp.
This adds the necessary repositories, downloads the application, and configures it so that flash works right away.
It seems to work pretty well. It remains to be seen, however, if Chrome has any chance of becoming my main browser. After all, the first browser I used was
NCSA Mosaic, which morphed into Netscape Navigator, which went through several iterations, then became the basis for Firefox. I just followed along. After 17 years, it might be hard to change.
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:31 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 25, 2010
Category: Medicine • Social Issues
I saw this headline on Google Fast Flip, and had to read it. I'm
always game for an anti-big-pharma story: even though I appreciate
their efforts to relieve suffering, I do like to take notice of their
shadier practices.
Is
Glaxo's Charity Really Theft?
Jan 20 2010, 5:30 pm
by Daniel Indiviglio
Is there a fine line? Corporations have a duty to shareholders to
maximize profits. But when they donate to charity -- which is regularly
done these days, often through foundations -- this takes money out of
shareholders' hands or stifles future growth. It instead provides that
money to some cause that management deems appropriate. But Glaxo-SmithKline's
recent decision to put thousands of chemical compounds which may cure
malaria into the public domain gives this question a new dimension,
adding additional complexity...
The story does not go where I expected. It is not talking about
some kind of charity scam, in which they get PR karma for doing
something that really only benefits themselves. Rather, the story
is about the fact that Glaxo is releasing some of the compounds it has
developed, into the public domain.
Indiviglio's story is posted on the
Atlantic business
blog. It is based upon an article in the (UK)
Guardian.
The
Guardian version is reasonably thoughtful, whereas the
Atlantic
version is frankly offensive.
Read on »
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:23 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 19, 2010
Category: Armchair Musings • Environment • economy
Susanne Sternthal, a writer based in Moscow, has published an article
about the ecology of stray dogs. The article is in
Financial
Times, of all places. Why is that?
Moscow's
stray dogs
By Susanne Sternthal
January 16 2010 00:04
Read on »
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:17 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 18, 2010
Category: Neuroscience • Psychiatry • Science in the Media
I've been mulling this over for a few days, finally deciding to write
about it. There was an article in the NYT on 13 January 2010
about an NEJM article:
Morphine
May Help Traumatic Stress
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: January 13, 2010
Read on »
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:39 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 15, 2010
Category: Politics • Social Commentary
The earthquake in Haiti is only the most recent in a series of
catastrophes stretching back over two centuries. It was not
always like this. Haiti, in fact, was once the most prosperous
colony in the New World. When it was a French colony, known as
St. Domingue (
also called The Pearl of the Antilles), it generated
more wealth that the 13 British colonies that were to become the
United States.
Foreign Policy magazine has a timeline of the modern-day disasters that
set the stage for the
current
humanitarian disaster.
The
Unluckiest Country
The second-oldest republic in the Western Hemisphere has been
wracked by coups, dictators, and foreign interventions throughout
nearly its entire history. But you don't have to agree with Pat
Robertson to agree that even by Haitian standards, the last few decades
have been particularly tragic.
BY JOSHUA KEATING | JANUARY 14, 2010
The FP chronology describes: the Duvalier dictatorship, which was
backed by the USA because of Duvalier's staunch anti-communist stance;
the Aristide fiasco, also orchestrated by the USA; the 2004 floods,
which the USA had no role in causing; the food riots of 2008, which
arguably were partly due to USA policies; and the 2008
hurricanes.
What they do not mention, however, is the deeper background. How
did Haiti get to be so poor, so lacking in wealth and resilience?
Anthropology Works
gives an introduction:
Read on »
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:53 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 11, 2010
Category: Medicine • Neuroscience • Psychiatry
Those of us who watch the drug development pipeline have been pining
for a nonaddictive anti-anxiety drug. Occasionally there are
glimmers of hope. One candidate is
emapunil, aka XBD-173
or AC-5216. In 2004, there was an article in the
British
Journal of Pharmacology about this. That article described
promising findings, in rats and mice. Now, there is an article in
Science that finally show some findings in humans.
Read on »
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:41 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 1, 2010
Category: Politics • Propaganda • Social Issues
...for canceling the showing of a creationist film,
Darwin's
Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record. The
background is on Greg Laden's Blog,
Los
Angeles Venue Cancels Intelligent Design Film:
You'll recall that it was recently reported that the
California Science Center, which is loosely affiliated with the
Smithsonian Institution, had planned a screening of "Darwin's Dilemma:
The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record" which is apparently a
creationist documentary.
Well, now, the venue has cancelled the showing and the ID people are
all lathered up about it.
There is some dispute about the reason for the cancellation.
Whatever the reason, the cancellation has spurred a lawsuit by the
American
Freedom Alliance against the California Science
Center. The AFA issued a press release lauding themselves for
their action. It's available in a PDF here.
As far as I can tell, the press release was not picked up by any
serious news organizations, but it is out there on the Internet and on
a few religious sites.
Read on »
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:12 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 28, 2009
Category: Chatter
Today is the
birthday of Linus Torvalds. That is all.
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 11:44 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
