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4 Germs Cause Most of Infants’ Severe Diarrhea
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times, May 20, 2013
Just four germs are responsible for most of the severe and fatal diarrhea among the world’s infants, according to a large new study.
Diarrhea is a major killer of children, with an estimated 800,000 deaths each year; it has many causes, and doctors want to focus on the most common ones to bring death rates down.
The study, financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and published by The Lancet, found that the most common causes were rotavirus; a protozoan called Cryptosporidium; and two bacteria, Shigella and a toxin-producing strain of E. coli. In some areas, other pathogens, including the bacteria that causes cholera, were also important.
( Read more... )
From Neanderthal Molar, Scientists Infer Early Weaning
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, May 22, 2013
Modern mothers love to debate how long to breast-feed, a topic that stirs both guilt and pride. Now — in a very preliminary finding — the Neanderthals are weighing in.
By looking at barium levels in the fossilized molar of a Neanderthal child, researchers concluded that the child had been breast-fed exclusively for the first seven months, followed by seven months of mother’s milk supplemented by other food. Then the barium pattern in the tooth enamel “returned to baseline prenatal levels, indicating an abrupt cessation of breast-feeding at 1.2 years of age,” the scientists reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
( Read more... )
No Easy Choices on Breast Reconstruction
By RONI CARYN RABIN, The New York Times, MAY 20, 2013
By almost any measure, Roseann Valletti’s reconstructive breast surgery was a success. Although it was a protracted process, involving some pain and a nightmarish nipple replacement, she is pleased with how she looks.
But she is uncomfortable. All the time. “It feels like I’m wrapped up in duct tape,” said Mrs. Valletti, 54, of the persistent tightness in her chest that many women describe after breast reconstruction.
“They look terrific, to the eye,” added Mrs. Valletti, a teacher who lives Valley Stream, N.Y., and who learned she had early-stage cancer in both breasts five years ago. “But it’s never going to feel like it’s not pulling or it’s not tight. It took me a while to accept that. This is the new normal.”
Last week the actress Angelina Jolie announced in The New York Times that she had had a double mastectomy in February after testing positive for a genetic mutation that put her at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer. She also had reconstructive surgery.
Her disclosure was lauded by some advocates as a bold move that will inspire women to be proactive, learn about their family histories and risks, and consider genetic testing.
At the same time, some breast surgeons are discomfited that some might infer from the article that reconstructive surgery is a quick and easy procedure, and worry that Ms. Jolie inadvertently may have understated the risks and potential complications.
( Read more... )
New Research Tools Kick Up Dust in Archives
By JOHN MARKOFF, The New York Times, May 20, 2013
Seated recently in the special collections room at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology library, Anders Fernstedt raced through an imposing set of yellowing articles and correspondence.
Several years ago Mr. Fernstedt, an independent Swedish scholar who is studying the work of the 20th-century philosopher Karl Popper and several of his colleagues, would have scratched out notes and set aside documents for photocopying.
Now, however, his tool of choice is the high-resolution camera on his iPhone. When he found a document of interest, he quickly snapped a photo and instantly shared his discovery with a colleague working hundreds of miles away. Indeed, Mr. Fernstedt, who conducts his research on several continents, now packs his own substantial digital Popper library on the disk of his MacBook Air laptop computer — more than 50,000 PDF files that he can browse through in a flash.
In just a few years, advances in technology have transformed the methods of historians and other archival researchers. Productivity has improved dramatically, costs have dropped and a world distinguished by solo practitioners has become collaborative. In response, developers are producing an array of computerized methods of analysis, creating a new quantitative science.
However, the transformation has also disrupted many of the world’s historical archives, long known as sleepy places distinguished by vast and often musty collections of documents that only rarely saw the light of day. It has also created new challenges for protecting intellectual property and threatened revenue streams from document copying, creating financial challenges for some institutions.
“It gives me a bit of a chill,” said Henry Lowood, curator for History of Science and Technology Collections and Film and Media Collections in the Stanford University Libraries. “It’s not so much that we try to control things, it’s that we have agreements with people who give us their papers, and in order for us to monitor those agreements we need to monitor things at some level.”
The shift in archival research was documented in a report in December, “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Historians,” financed by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
( Read more... )
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times, May 20, 2013
Just four germs are responsible for most of the severe and fatal diarrhea among the world’s infants, according to a large new study.
Diarrhea is a major killer of children, with an estimated 800,000 deaths each year; it has many causes, and doctors want to focus on the most common ones to bring death rates down.
The study, financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and published by The Lancet, found that the most common causes were rotavirus; a protozoan called Cryptosporidium; and two bacteria, Shigella and a toxin-producing strain of E. coli. In some areas, other pathogens, including the bacteria that causes cholera, were also important.
( Read more... )
From Neanderthal Molar, Scientists Infer Early Weaning
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, May 22, 2013
Modern mothers love to debate how long to breast-feed, a topic that stirs both guilt and pride. Now — in a very preliminary finding — the Neanderthals are weighing in.
By looking at barium levels in the fossilized molar of a Neanderthal child, researchers concluded that the child had been breast-fed exclusively for the first seven months, followed by seven months of mother’s milk supplemented by other food. Then the barium pattern in the tooth enamel “returned to baseline prenatal levels, indicating an abrupt cessation of breast-feeding at 1.2 years of age,” the scientists reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
( Read more... )
No Easy Choices on Breast Reconstruction
By RONI CARYN RABIN, The New York Times, MAY 20, 2013
By almost any measure, Roseann Valletti’s reconstructive breast surgery was a success. Although it was a protracted process, involving some pain and a nightmarish nipple replacement, she is pleased with how she looks.
But she is uncomfortable. All the time. “It feels like I’m wrapped up in duct tape,” said Mrs. Valletti, 54, of the persistent tightness in her chest that many women describe after breast reconstruction.
“They look terrific, to the eye,” added Mrs. Valletti, a teacher who lives Valley Stream, N.Y., and who learned she had early-stage cancer in both breasts five years ago. “But it’s never going to feel like it’s not pulling or it’s not tight. It took me a while to accept that. This is the new normal.”
Last week the actress Angelina Jolie announced in The New York Times that she had had a double mastectomy in February after testing positive for a genetic mutation that put her at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer. She also had reconstructive surgery.
Her disclosure was lauded by some advocates as a bold move that will inspire women to be proactive, learn about their family histories and risks, and consider genetic testing.
At the same time, some breast surgeons are discomfited that some might infer from the article that reconstructive surgery is a quick and easy procedure, and worry that Ms. Jolie inadvertently may have understated the risks and potential complications.
( Read more... )
New Research Tools Kick Up Dust in Archives
By JOHN MARKOFF, The New York Times, May 20, 2013
Seated recently in the special collections room at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology library, Anders Fernstedt raced through an imposing set of yellowing articles and correspondence.
Several years ago Mr. Fernstedt, an independent Swedish scholar who is studying the work of the 20th-century philosopher Karl Popper and several of his colleagues, would have scratched out notes and set aside documents for photocopying.
Now, however, his tool of choice is the high-resolution camera on his iPhone. When he found a document of interest, he quickly snapped a photo and instantly shared his discovery with a colleague working hundreds of miles away. Indeed, Mr. Fernstedt, who conducts his research on several continents, now packs his own substantial digital Popper library on the disk of his MacBook Air laptop computer — more than 50,000 PDF files that he can browse through in a flash.
In just a few years, advances in technology have transformed the methods of historians and other archival researchers. Productivity has improved dramatically, costs have dropped and a world distinguished by solo practitioners has become collaborative. In response, developers are producing an array of computerized methods of analysis, creating a new quantitative science.
However, the transformation has also disrupted many of the world’s historical archives, long known as sleepy places distinguished by vast and often musty collections of documents that only rarely saw the light of day. It has also created new challenges for protecting intellectual property and threatened revenue streams from document copying, creating financial challenges for some institutions.
“It gives me a bit of a chill,” said Henry Lowood, curator for History of Science and Technology Collections and Film and Media Collections in the Stanford University Libraries. “It’s not so much that we try to control things, it’s that we have agreements with people who give us their papers, and in order for us to monitor those agreements we need to monitor things at some level.”
The shift in archival research was documented in a report in December, “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Historians,” financed by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
( Read more... )
