@UNTsocial One O'Clock Lab Band: Harlem Nocturne (1939)

UNT One O'Clock Lab Band: Harlem Nocturne (1939)

What You Won't Do For Love. Bobby Caldwell vs. Go West

What You Won't Do For Love

Bobby Caldwell vs. Go West

"We tend to fixate on the measure of lifespan, but overlook morbidity." #PumpIron

Raising the American Weakling

There are two very different interpretations of our dwindling grip strength.

We tend to fixate on the measure of lifespan, but overlook morbidity. Here, Lieberman says, the data are unequivocal. “As we are living longer,” he says, people “are also suffering from much longer periods of chronical illness as they age.” People may be living longer, due to advances in pharmaceuticals or medical care, but as he asks, “is she/he healthy?” Health, he says, “is not just life expectancy.”

Our weakening grips are, if nothing else, a corollary of an increasingly sick population. So, by all means, go to the gym, not to turn back the evolutionary tide, but for your own well-being. Evolution, as Lieberman reminds us in The Story of the Human Body, is just about passing your genes, not ensuring a long and healthy life.  “From an evolutionary perspective, there is no such thing as optimal health.”  Creating that definition is up to you.

Washington State Supreme Court Rules That Obesity Is A Disability

Whether obesity should be considered a disability still remains an unanswered question in many legal systems but the recent Washington ruling is a step in the right direction. If a potential employee can perform job requirements, with or without reasonable accommodations, then the employer must not disqualify the candidate based merely on their physical appearances. It is inherently wrong to “fat shame” someone out of a job or promotion.

"...although AI’s use will fundamentally alter pathology practice, it is perhaps pathologists’ greatest opportunity to invest themselves more fully in their patients’ care."

Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2019 Jul 3. doi: 10.5858/arpa.2019-0229-ED. [Epub ahead of print]

Regulating Artificial Intelligence for a Successful Pathology Future.

Allen TC1.

Author information

1

From the Department of Pathology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson.

"Artificial intelligence (AI), a set of techniques aimed at approximating some aspect of human cognition using machines,1 promises to provide pathologists a tool to improve inefficiencies and inaccuracies in diagnosis and laboratory testing, and to facilitate an anticipated smaller number of pathologists’ ability to serve an increasing number of patients with timely diagnoses, even as those diagnoses exhibit an increasingly complicated molecular complexity.2–4 Pathology has long examined the use of AI in

pathologic diagnosis5 and is already using AI. Papanicolaou test imaging, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for screening purposes, is now fully, if not widely, used.6,7 Other areas of cytopathology are investigating the use of AI for diagnosis,8 and AI will undoubtedly play a strong and central role in its continuing progress toward becoming fully automated.9–11 Artificial intelligence in pathology promises to outperform human beings in their assessment of the specific characteristics

necessary for pathologic and radiologic diagnosis.9,12 Despite the initial hysteria,13–16 it is now clear that AI will be, at least for the foreseeable future, a tool for pathologists, not a replacement for  pathologists, and it is evident that although AI’s use will fundamentally alter pathology practice, it is

perhaps pathologists’ greatest opportunity to invest themselves more fully in their patients’ care.3,7 Pathologists’ success with AI, however, will depend to a large degree on the successful implementation of efficient AI governance and regulation."

"Classifying obesity as a disease is neither essential nor beneficial. It’s much more complicated than that."

Should obesity be recognised as a disease?

"Classifying obesity as a disease is neither essential nor beneficial. It’s much more complicated than that."

US blood donation crisis: Millennials not keen on 'anonymous' act, 'want to know the impact they have on others', say experts

The fundamental reason for the crisis is not just a decline in the frequency of donors. There has been a decline in the number of donors too. What started off as a civic duty-driven phenomenon, she says, has changed into more of an "individual transformational impact". 

HT:DA

Doctors Are Turning to Artificial Intelligence to Diagnose Cancer Patients

"Now we can look at the individual genetic pathways of a patient's tumor, and in the lab we can measure the different unique features of a cancer, so that we can often specify drugs that target that cancer's individual mechanisms. Twenty-five years from now we'll be at a whole new, deeper level of diagnostics that goes beyond genetics with new pathology tests that point to new types of drugs we can't imagine yet."

HT:MM

Obesity linked more to diet than genes: Study #EatRighWorkOut

Obesity linked more to diet than genes: Study

"A study suggests that obesity is more linked to lack of exercise and considerable shift in diet to unhealthy pattern and not just genes.

The study says genes do play a role but the excess kilos don’t just depend on them. Food habits and exercise also do play a part in getting obese."

Expert Opin Investig Drugs. 2019 Jul 1:1-14. doi: 10.1080/13543784.2019.1638363. [Epub ahead of print]

What can independent research for mesothelioma achieve to treat this orphan disease?

Guazzelli A1, Meysami P1, Bakker E2, Bonanni E3, Demonacos C4, Krstic-Demonacos M1, Mutti L5.

Author information

1

a School of Environment and Life Sciences , University of Salford , Salford , UK.

2

b School of Medicine , University of Central Lancashire , Preston , UK.

3

c National Asbestos Observatory , Rome , Italy.

4

d Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, School of Health Sciences , University of Manchester , Manchester , UK.

5

e Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Center for Biotechnology, College of Science and Technology , Temple University , Philadelphia , PA , USA.

Abstract

Introduction: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare neoplasm with a poor prognosis, as current therapies are ineffective. Despite the increased understanding of the molecular biology of mesothelioma, there is still a lack of drugs that dramatically enhance patient survival. 

Area Covered: This review discusses recent and complete clinical trials supported by the NIH, other U.S. Federal agencies, universities and organizations found on clinicaltrials.gov. Firstly, chemotherapy-based trials are described, followed by immunotherapy and multitargeted therapy. Then we introduce drug repositioning and the use of drug docking as tools to find new interesting molecules. Finally, we highlight potential molecular pathways that may play a role in mesothelioma biology and therapy. 

Expert Opinion: Numerous biases are present in the clinical trials due to a restricted number of cases, inappropriate endpoints and inaccurate stratification of patients which delay the finding of a treatment for MPM. The most crucial issue of independent research for MPM is the lack of more substantive funding to translate these findings to the clinical setting. However, this approach is not necessarily scientific given the low mutational load of mesothelioma relative to other cancers, and therefore patients need a more solid rationale to have a good chance of successful treatment.

ELO - Telephone Line (Live) #BeforeCellPhones

ELO - Telephone Line (Live)

I am a Candidate for College of American Pathologists' President-Elect, 2019-2021 term. My vision is here.

I am a Candidate for College of American Pathologists' President-Elect, 2019-2021 term.  My vision is here.

Membership Growth. Pathologist Payment.

"...obese and inactive people prefer empowering campaigns, find them more motivating and less stigmatising."

Obesity has become the new normal but it’s still a health risk

"There has, to my knowledge, been no high-quality research comparing the actual effectiveness of shaming versus empowering anti-obesity, or pro-physical activity, campaigns.

However a number of studies show, unsurprisingly, that obese and inactive people prefer empowering campaigns, find them more motivating and less stigmatising."

"Those born after 1970 were far more likely to have a substantially higher BMI as young adults than earlier generations."

Genes, yes, but obesity pandemic mostly down to diet: study

Those born after 1970 were far more likely to have a substantially higher BMI as young adults than earlier generations.

Vehicle - The Ides Of March

"To grasp the affinities between administrative governance and algorithmic governance, one must first get over that intellectually debilitating article of libertarian faith, namely that 'the government' poses the only real threat to liberty."

Algorithmic Governance and Political Legitimacy

by Matthew B. Crawford

To grasp the affinities between administrative governance and algorithmic governance, one must first get over that intellectually debilitating article of libertarian faith, namely that “the government” poses the only real threat to liberty. For what does Silicon Valley represent, if not a locus of quasi-governmental power untouched by either the democratic process or by those hard-won procedural liberties that are meant to secure us against abuses by the (actual, elected) government? If the governmental quality of rule by algo­rithms remains obscure to us, that is because we actively welcome it into our own lives under the rubric of convenience, the myth of free services, and ersatz forms of human connection—the new opiates of the masses.

To characterize this as the operation of “the free market” (as its spokespersons do) requires a display of intellectual agility that might be admirable if otherwise employed. The reality is that what has emerged is a new form of monopoly power made possible by the “network effect” of those platforms through which everyone must pass to conduct the business of life. These firms sit at informational bottlenecks, collecting data and then renting it out, whether for the purpose of targeted ads or for modeling the electoral success of a political platform. Mark Zuckerberg has said frankly that “In a lot of ways Facebook is more like a government than a traditional company. . . . We have this large community of people, and more than other technology companies we’re really setting policies.”

"...the term 'health care provider' is a generic term that does not communicate the emphasis on education and concern for patients embodied by the traditional term 'physician' or 'doctor.'"

245.002 Health Care Provider

245.002

Health Care Provider: The Texas Medical Association recognizes that the term "health care provider" is a generic term that does not communicate the emphasis on education and concern for patients embodied by the traditional term "physician" or "doctor." Similarly, the term "covered lives" is a dehumanizing phrase that often is used instead of "patients." Therefore, TMA should refrain whenever possible from the use of such terms as "provider," "covered lives," and similar terms in all communications with members, the public, and the media, and "patient" and "physician" should be used in place of these terms (Council on Communication, p 49, I-91; amended CC Rep. 5-A-02; reaffirmed BOT Rep. 12-A-12; reaffirmed BOT Rep. 12-A-12).

Red Skelton - Explains "The Pledge of Allegiance"

Obesity overtakes smoking as the leading cause of cancer

Now, latest figures from a charity showed that excess body weight has overtaken smoking as the main cause of four different types of cancer - bowel, kidney, ovarian and liver cancer. The charity warned that millions of people are at risk of cancer because of their excess weight, adding that obese people now outnumber smokers by two to one in the UK.

Our obsession with paternalism has turned obesity into a disease from which there can be no escape

Where is the personal responsibility, where are the attempts to empower people?

Boris Johnson’s pledge to review the “sin taxes” that have spread across the statute book with the inevitability of holiday weight gain has certainly divided opinion. Some have branded the move irresponsible and even dangerous, highlighting new Cancer Research UK findingslinking obesity to more cases of common cancers in the UK than smoking. Steve Brine, the minister responsible for implementing the tax on sugary drinks, described the move as “transparent dog whistle politics” (whistling to whom? People who enjoy a full-fat Coke?)

Timothy Craig Allen (2019) Regulating Artificial Intelligence for a Successful Pathology Future. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine In-Press.

Early Online Release

Regulating Artificial Intelligence for a Successful Pathology Future

Timothy Craig Allen, MD, JD
"Physicians, including pathologists, must now rethink what it means to be caring, and how to preserve and foster social interaction with patients while using AI efficiently. It will be especially important that physicians use AI in a manner that respects physician and patient heterogeneity and supports equity. It is physicians, with pathologists at the head of the table, who must lead and forever maintain this conversation with policymakers, providing regulatory guidance that ensures empathy is always considered and respected throughout the complicated discussion around AI regulation and governance."