Can Precision Medicine Do Better Than Precision Weather?

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Looking out of my New York Citywindow this morning at the meager 6 inches of snow on the ground I cant help wondering if precision medicine in the foreseeable futurewill be able todo a better job than precision weather forecasting today.

Weather forecasters, using all the tools of modern science, blew it big time. Meteorologists thought they had enough data and sufficiently sophisticated models to accurately predict a huge snowstorm. Using this knowledge politicians and other experts thought they could prevent a major disaster from taking place. Instead they created their own disaster. Here in NYC the entire city was shut down overfears ofthe dangers of a once in a century blizzard.

Is the human body simpler than the weather? Will we be able to accurately predict, prevent, and treat serious diseases in the future? What arethe consequences when precision medicine blows a major forecast?

Dont get me wrong: precision medicinehas a great future and is not going to disappear. But we need to think about the unintended consequences and harms it can cause. We need to be optimistic but our optimism should not be unbridled. Wemust try tokeep in mind all the things that can go wrong.

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Can Precision Medicine Do Better Than Precision Weather?

Is the medical match fair?

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Study finds the demand for positions strongly influences medical residents' salaries.

When medical-school graduates apply for their residencies, they use a centralized clearinghouse that matches applicants with jobs. This system has sometimes been challenged, such as in a lawsuit several years ago that claimed salaries of residents were reduced by this centralized matching method.

But a forthcoming study by an MIT economist indicates that demand for a limited number of desirable residency positions can keep salaries low -- and introduces a new way of assessing that demand despite incomplete data that has previously restricted analysis of the issue.

"Salaries will likely remain low unless residency programs can increase the number of positions," says Nikhil Agarwal, an assistant professor of economics at MIT, and author of the paper on the subject.

On average, Agarwal's study finds, salaries of medical residents are lowered by an average of $23,000 due to the demand for slots. As the study puts it, residents are willing to accept an "implicit tuition" in their wages in return for experience and prestige. In the long run, residencies may be a worthwhile tradeoff for doctors establishing themselves in the profession, even with seemingly reduced wages.

Determining demand

Agarwal's paper, to be published in the American Economic Review, is based on data from 2003 to 2011 gathered by the National Graduate Medical Education census.

The central clearinghouse -- the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) -- matches about 25,000 medical residents annually. Incoming residents rank the positions they would most like to have, and an algorithm matches these choices with the ranked preferences of the medical programs.

A 2002 lawsuit asserted that the residents have limited bargaining power because they are assigned to positions and cannot receive multiple job offers, unfairly lowering their compensation. That suit was eventually dismissed in 2004, a few months after Congress passed an antitrust exemption for the NRMP system.

But that resolution of the lawsuit did not resolve the question of whether or not the clearinghouse does affect residency salaries. As of 2010, residents had a mean salary of about $47,000, compared to $86,000 for physician assistants, who do comparable work. Medical residents also have notably long workweeks and shifts, which themselves are the subject of intermittent public debate.

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Is the medical match fair?

Study finds the demand for positions strongly influences medical residents' salaries

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3 hours ago by Peter Dizikes Credit: iStock

When medical-school graduates apply for their residencies, they use a centralized clearinghouse that matches applicants with jobs. This system has sometimes been challenged, such as in a lawsuit several years ago that claimed salaries of residents were reduced by this centralized matching method.

But a forthcoming study by an MIT economist indicates that demand for a limited number of desirable residency positions can keep salaries lowand introduces a new way of assessing that demand despite incomplete data that has previously restricted analysis of the issue.

"Salaries will likely remain low unless residency programs can increase the number of positions," says Nikhil Agarwal, an assistant professor of economics at MIT, and author of the paper on the subject.

On average, Agarwal's study finds, salaries of medical residents are lowered by an average of $23,000 due to the demand for slots. As the study puts it, residents are willing to accept an "implicit tuition" in their wages in return for experience and prestige. In the long run, residencies may be a worthwhile tradeoff for doctors establishing themselves in the profession, even with seemingly reduced wages.

Determining demand

Agarwal's paper, to be published in the American Economic Review, is based on data from 2003 to 2011 gathered by the National Graduate Medical Education census.

The central clearinghousethe National Residency Matching Program (NRMP)matches about 25,000 medical residents annually. Incoming residents rank the positions they would most like to have, and an algorithm matches these choices with the ranked preferences of the medical programs.

A 2002 lawsuit asserted that the residents have limited bargaining power because they are assigned to positions and cannot receive multiple job offers, unfairly lowering their compensation. That suit was eventually dismissed in 2004, a few months after Congress passed an antitrust exemption for the NRMP system.

But that resolution of the lawsuit did not resolve the question of whether or not the clearinghouse does affect residency salaries. As of 2010, residents had a mean salary of about $47,000, compared to $86,000 for physician assistants, who do comparable work. Medical residents also have notably long workweeks and shifts, which themselves are the subject of intermittent public debate.

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Study finds the demand for positions strongly influences medical residents' salaries

Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty | La excavacin – Misin 15 | "DIFCIL" – Video

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Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty | La excavacin - Misin 15 | "DIFCIL"
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Statue Of Liberty Revealed In Massive Lightning Bolt Montage.. Stock Footage – Video

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Sons Of Liberty Review Roundup: A Hit Or Historic Bore?

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History Channel

Despite its crucial contentthe formation of the United States critics were divided as to whether the first of the three-night Sons of Libertyevent was as interesting as the actual content of the miniseries. While some are praising its importanceand entertainment worth, others have rendered it dull or too inaccurate. Check out some of the reviews to see if you should tune into the remaining episodes!

In case you werent aware, its winter out there which probably means youre spending more time than usual inside. So, is the History Channels Revolutionary War miniseries worth spending your indoor hours upon?

TV Line

The opening installment of the cable channels scripted miniseries, which premiered Sunday and continues through Tuesday, covers one of the most exciting epochs in American history: the years right before the colonies turned against British rule and decided to go to war for independence.

It was a time of great unrest, violence and intrigue so why does Sons of Libertys first few hours feel so slow?

TheNew York Times

There is no shame in not knowing why Boston boasts a beer called Samuel Adams, or why its the New England Patriots, not the New England Panthers or the New England Pistols.

But there probably should be some. And that makes Sons of Liberty, a History mini-series that begins Sunday, useful as well as entertaining.

Los Angeles Times

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Sons Of Liberty Review Roundup: A Hit Or Historic Bore?

Liberty Coach Breaks 100-unit Sale Barrier, Smashes Yearly Sales Record

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North Chicago, IL and Stuart, FL (PRWEB) January 27, 2015

After Liberty Coach managed to sell every one of its 2014 coaches during the 2013 calendar year, many wondered what the longtime luxury motorcoach leader would do for an encore.

The answer came last week, when the company announced final 2014 sales of an astounding 109 Prevost motorcoaches or a little better than 2 per week.

The total shattered Libertys previous annual record of 98 units, which was set in 2006, and continues a long string of dominant sales years for the oldest and most successful company in the field.

It also reflects the firms growing leadership in pre-owned coach sales, which was bolstered by a breakthrough year from The Motorhome Exchange, Libertys wholly-owned subsidiary that specializes in pre-owned Prevost coaches and elite Class A motorhomes.

The Exchange, which shares its Stuart, Florida location with Liberty Coach of Florida, accounted for over half of the total pre-owned sales, including 49 Prevost coaches built by third-party non-Liberty conversion companies. Equally important, the subsidiary was (and continues to be) exceptionally successful at attracting private coach sellers with its top dollar prices and unrivaled dealership services. As a result, the Florida dealership has been able to maintain the nations top inventory of pre-owned Prevost coaches, in terms of both quantity and quality.

Of course, the biggest reason for Liberty Coachs ongoing success is the coach itself. Since my parents started the company in 1968, our goal has always been the same, says managing partner Frank Konigseder Jr., which is to build the finest motorcoach in the world.

Few would argue that a Liberty Coach is anything less.

Thanks to Franks engineering and the extraordinary floorplans developed by his brother and co-managing partner Kurt Konigseder, todays Elegant Lady designs boast more living and storage space and more advanced onboard systems and electronics yet are significantly lighter and more roadworthy than any other Prevost coach on the market. And each coach is finished and furnished to 5-star perfection under the direction of Kurts wife and longtime Liberty Interior Designer Kim Konigseder.

The coaches are also long on innovations, as you might expect. Among the many industry-firsts Liberty introduced in its 2015 model year: the state-of-the-art STRUT Launchport iPad charging system; the first-ever remote monitoring link for lithium-ion battery systems; and a newly configured lower bay entertainment center featuring an enormous 65-inch UHD TV set, by far the largest lower bay screen ever installed.

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Liberty Coach Breaks 100-unit Sale Barrier, Smashes Yearly Sales Record

Modern languages show no trace of our African origins

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The evolution of human culture is often compared to biological evolution, and its easy to see why: both involve variation across a population, transmission of units from one generation to the next, and factors that ensure the survival of some variants and the death of others. However, sometimes this comparison fails. Culture, for instance, can be transmitted horizontally between members of the same generation, but genes cant.

Little is known about whether human demographic history generates patterns in linguistic data that are similar to those found in genetic data, write the authors of a recent paper in PNAS. Both linguistic and geneticdata can be used to draw conclusions about human history, but it's vital to understand how the forces affecting them differ in order to be sure that the conclusions we're drawing are accurate.

By conducting a large-scale analysis on global genetic and linguistic data, the researchers found that languages sometimes behave in ways very unlike genetics. For instance, isolated languages have more, not less, diversity, and languages don't retain the echo of a migration out of Africaunlike our genomes.

To conduct the analysis, the researchers focused on phonemes, which are the smallest linguistic units of sound that can distinguish meaning. For instance, English uses p and b to distinguish between the words pat and bat, which meansp and b act as phonemes. Other languages may not use these particular sounds to distinguish wordsor they may make finer distinctions, basing meaning differences on subtle changes like whether or not a puff of air follows the p.

Every language has a certain number of phonemes, and these phoneme inventories differ in size from language to language. The researchers compared information on global phoneme inventories with data on global genetics and geographic location in order to isolate how phonemic and genetic units track each other.

Some of their results were intuitive. They found that populations with greater geographical distance between them also had larger genetic and phonemic differences. Languages that come from the same family (like French and Italian) could be expected to have similar phoneme inventories, but the finding held true even for geographically close but historically unrelated languages.

However, some of their results were not quite as intuitive. When populations migrate, genetic diversity goes down, because thegroup thatmoves takes alongonly a portion of the gene pool of their originalpopulation. Isolated groups of people, who have no opportunity to mingle with other groups, therefore have limited genetic diversity. Language, on the other hand, shows the opposite pattern: languages with lots of close neighbors seem to be influenced by these neighbors, leading to less phonemic diversity over time. Isolated languages, on the other hand, change over the generations to become more diverse.

The most surprising finding was that, unlike genetic data, the human migration out of Africa has not left traces on modern linguistic data. This contradicts previous work in the field suggesting that, as with genetics, language diversity declines with distance from Africa, as a result of populations breaking off and moving farther away. The authors of the newpaper suggest that language changes faster than genetics, and it's less determined by the size and characteristics of a migrating population, leading to markedly different patterns in phonemic and genetic data.

This is a very interesting and important addition to the field, not only because it uses such a large database and introduces (relatively) new methods to the field, but also because of its findings, says Dr. Dan Dediu, who researches linguistics and genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.If its main finding survives replication with other databases and methods, then its a very powerful confirmation of the idea that demographic processes are one of the main driving forces behind both linguistic and genetic diversity."

It also highlights the fact that language and genes have different properties, especially when it comes to small, isolated communities and contact between populations, he adds.

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Modern languages show no trace of our African origins

Cheat Meals, Cravings, Food Addiction, and Disordered Eating – Women, Food, and Desire – BEXLIFE – Video

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Cheat Meals, Cravings, Food Addiction, and Disordered Eating - Women, Food, and Desire - BEXLIFE - Video