Interesting article. Behind paywall:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/traffic-engineers-say-slowing...
^Link is full article.
771 karma · joined March 1, 2012
http://online.wsj.com/articles/traffic-engineers-say-slowing...
^Link is full article.
Some of the symptoms you name sound like they're picked up from a list of symptoms for diagnosing children with ADHD:
Dash around, touching or playing with anything and everything in sight, Have trouble sitting still during school and homework.
As a 20-something, relatively successful (founded and sold a company, work as an engineering consult for various companies, back in school getting my prereqs for medicine) male, I certainly am not playing with anything and everything in sight, nor do I dash around.
However, I do have a tendency to carry around something for my hands to play with -- a pen, squishy ball, my own fingers -- because they get restless. I also sometimes feel like I have a huge amount of excited energy balled up inside of me which I need to get out. I normally remedy this by exercising or running up and down a set of stairs a few times. One might say that my symptoms are adult versions of the childhood symptoms you point out.
As other people have mentioned, depression something that is often comorbid with ADHD. I personally have been severely depressed -- so much so that it caused "distress" (real-life problems) for an extended period of time. I became so tense, bored, disheartened, stressed-out by doing something I really loved. Depression followed. I won't say much else; if you'd like to understand this a bit more, let me know, and I'll spend some more time with a reply.
Right now, it's a really niche product, but I'm looking forwards to see if this is improved and adopted more widely.
Also, the main video doesn't show much. This is much better:
However, patient's don't become infectious until they start showing visible symptoms. Not only that, the symptoms are pretty obvious. Compounding all of that, the vector by which the virus travels is one of the "slowest" routes available.
What I think this outbreak does show however, is that we as a global peoples, need to really rethink how we treat and handle the spread of disease.
According to several sources, it may take up to an hour for the virus to be invalidated by UV light. That makes it not really practical for the patient or the HCP involved.
Not only that, but I suspect at the energies required, the amount of UV radiation would be quite harmful to the patient as well.
"Inactivation of virus stocks.Virus stocks were inactivated by exposure to UV light for 1 h. Proper inactivation was controlled by the incubation of Vero E6 cells with the inactivated virus particles and subsequent screening for the presence of viral proteins (immunofluorescence) and viral RNA (reverse transcription [RT]-PCR targeting virus-specific transcripts). The UV-inactivated stocks were used at the same dilutions as the noninactivated stocks."
http://jvi.asm.org/content/75/22/11025.full http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00705-010-0847-1
However, note in the paper I cited:
"However, the isolation of EBOV from only 1 saliva specimen, in contrast to the 8 that were RT-PCR positive, could suggest that the virus is rapidly inactivated by salivary enzymes or other factors in the oral cavity that are unfavorable to virus persistence and replication."
That plus the fact that standard precaution PPE for diseases with high rates of transmission (at least in CA) calls for goggles and a mask makes this story all the more interesting.
@kenjackson: "Is skin a barrier for Ebola?"
Yes. According to Bausch et al.
"Taken together, our results support the conventional assumptions and field observations that most EBOV transmission comes from direct contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected patient during the acute phase of illness. The risk of casual contacts with the skin, such as shaking hands, is likely to be low."
In the same paper, they note that:
"We found [Ebola] to be shed in a wide variety of bodily fluids during the acute phase of illness, including saliva, breast milk, stool, and tears. In most cases, the infected bodily fluid was not visibly contaminated by blood."
This lends credence to Kyro and JshWright's assertions that hospital and PPE protocol are hard to exactly follow, every time (I'm certainly guilty sometimes). Even if the equipment or chucks aren't stained with blood, there is a possibility that the patient's tears have leaked onto the material and remain unseen.
http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/196/Supplement_2/S142....
I was just attempting to keep it simple.
Bond breakage is ALWAYS endothermic. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZOm8L9oCwLMC&pg=PA202&lpg=P...
Edit: Sorry, I hate leaving one-sentence rebuttals.
The energy required to break the bonds are so low that in comparison, the energy released when the products of the reaction are formed is very high. This giant disparity in energy released at the same time creates a sharp increase of heat and light (boom).
Also, your company is pretty neat. Any way for me to directly contact you?
Atoms are composed to two sections:
A positively charged center -- the nucleus.
A negatively charged outside -- the electron cloud.
When several atoms get together, they do so because their electron clouds start intermingling. This sharing of their electrons is fundamentally what a bond is.
A bond is strong when both of the atoms really want their electrons to intermingle. Conversely, a weak bond is when the atoms are "forced" to be next to each other and intermingle. Strong bond = opposite poles of a magnet next to each other. Weak bond = similar poles of a magnet next to each other.
Somewhat counterintuitively, it's not the fact that the bond's want to separate from each other that makes something really explosive/reactive.
To really understand what's going on, you have to take a look at the energetics (thermodynamics) of how a reaction proceeds. The tendency of the physical world is always towards disorder (entropy). Rather than becoming more ordered, every single atom in the universe wants to be more comfortable.
Think back to our magnet analogy. Magnets with the same pole facing each other really don't want to be next to each other. In fact, they'd LOVE to find another magnet with the opposite pole facing them. The magnets which have a weak bond find it really, really easy to separate. In fact, almost anything will split the connection. However, those magnets, once separated, must find another (opposite) partner for them to pair up with. The amount of energy that they release when they find their perfect mate is evidenced by the fact that the magnets will literally hop across short distances and smack together in a satisfying *crack.
What we also know in thermodynamics is that energy cannot be created, nor destroyed. Thus the net energy in any reaction must be equal on both sides. We know a couple of things:
The energy required to split the weak bond is really, really little.
The energy released when a strong bond is formed is a lot (in fact, you hear the release of energy in the form of heat and sound!).
Atoms prefer strong bonds to weak ones (entropy).
Putting everything together, when you have an molecule with extremely weak bonds (HOOOH), it takes almost no effort for those bonds to come apart. However, when those oxygens go find other molecules to bond with, that releases some energy. Thus NET ENERGY is heavily favored in the exothermic (release of energy) direction. When enough of those super weak bonds are broken, and when enough of the strong bonds are formed rapidly, you have a simultaneous release of a huge amount of heat --- an explosion.
Sorry if that's a little long, but I tried to explain your questions. (Which was a fundamentally very interesting question!)
> Ebola is just not a very scary disease.
Ebola is a frightening disease. On a psychological point, I feel like the shock of the symptoms itself is lessened due to the fact that most of the infected have dark skin. End-stage Ebola leads to the patient bleeding everywhere. Not only is the patient bleeding from obvious places like the eyes, nose, mouth, ears, penis, vagina, rectum, the whole body becomes covered with bloody petechiae (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasculitis#mediaviewer/File:Vas...). On lighter skin, the patient's agony is really apparent. Their bedsheets will be dripping with blood and their eyes swell up and turn a deep maroon color.
> Its incubation period is short and reliable, it doesn't become infectious until symptoms display,
Yep.
> it's not particularly infectious in the first place
I feel like that's a point that doesn't have nearly enough information. Previous outbreaks have generally been limited the virus burning its way through a small population before it can hit a major population center. Healthcare workers who are currently treating Ebola patients (who should know proper protocol), are being infected at a rate far higher than expected. (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/ebola/25-august-2014/en/)
> its transmission mechanisms are downright pedestrian
I'll grant you that transmission by fluid is generally fairly easy to contain. However, when the patient is draining all of their bodily fluids out onto the floor, cleaning and containment becomes far harder. Not only that, there have been several incidents (at least before this current Mar 2014 outbreak) of patients infecting health workers by coughing and aerosolizing blood droplets into the mouth, nose, and eyes of their caregivers.
> 90% of the first world can make themselves completely safe by googling "Ebola Safety"
I don't think it's that simple. Currently, the CDC holds training sessions for:
"Currently licensed by a recognized professional agency to provide clinical care in some jurisdiction (e.g., hold a medical license to provide care in a state in the United States) and have recent (current or within the past 2 years) relevant experience providing direct care to patients. Participants should be licensed medical doctors (MD, DO, MBBS degrees), licensed nurses (RN, BSN, LPN, etc.), or other licensed clinical care providers (e.g., paramedics, physician assistants, and other clinical providers)."
These training sessions solely concern biohazard safety and last for three full days. Given that the target audience has already has extensive medical training, three full days of lecture, procedure, equipment, and technical training seems far above and beyond what we should expect from a normal citizen. Let me also point out that even with training and equipment, healthcare providers are still getting sick. (http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/safety-training-course/inde...)
> The other 10% are homeless or hippies and will either get similarly informative pamphlets or are living in communes and won't infect the rest of us.
I don't even know where you get that 10% from. It's also facetious to state that people "living in communes" "won't infect the rest of us"...do people in communes live in outer space?
> And even if all of that fails, we have the industry to literally give every American a hazmat suit.
I'd like to see how you arrived at that conclusion.
> Ebola may become a crisis, but it will not become a pandemic.
I agree. Ebola may not become a pandemic, but it will still cause great suffering to a large amount of people. I'll also grant that until it becomes a real problem in western countries, no one will really make a move as generally, western pharma ignore diseases which don't hold the promise of profit (see schisto). However, there is a very real chance that we can help and reduce the spread of the suffering by taking violent action _now_.
This goes without saying, but the one thing that anybody can do is to donate to Doctors Without Borders or any other institution trying to quell the crisis.
1. Check for signs of life. Vigorously tap (hit) your patient a few times. Generally, we like tapping their upper chest, right below the shoulders when we do this. Yell, "Are you OK?" a few times. If the patient does not react at all, it's time for you to become a hero.
2. Call for help. In training, this is normally emphasized by having the student point at someone and yelling "Call 911!". If you know that there is a defibrillator in the vicinity, this is also the perfect time to yell, "Grab the defibrillator!".
3. Begin chest compressions. Take one hand, splay your fingers out (so it looks like you're making a "five" symbol). Take your other hand, fit each finger between the other finger; your thumbs should be at the very end and your fingers should interleave. You want to begin compressions about the middle (or slightly higher) of the patient's sternum - that's the central bone where your ribs connect to. Try to get about 100 compressions per minute. It's the tempo of a fast, upbeat song.
4. IF YOU ARE TRAINED: You may begin to perform head-tilt chin-lift, 2 rescue breaths every 30 compressions.
5. Continue compressions until better trained rescuers arrive.
Let me implore you. If the area isn't safe, do not even attempt to enter the scene. Fires can instantly flare up and engulf a room in seconds. Rivers can be so cold they cause shock upon entering the water and, in some cases, they cause cardiac arrest. Tiny pieces of broken glass can cause deep, sometimes life-threatening lacerations. An accident on the side of the road can immediately escalate into a multi-vehicle incident if another driver doesn't pay attention.
What we don't want to happen is for you, the hero, to become another patient. Not only are you putting your life in danger, you're also increasing the risk for your rescuers as well.
What you can do is this:
1. Secure the scene. If the accident occurred at the side of the road, park behind the accident and turn your hazards on. Wave at traffic to slow down and be cautious around the accident. If there is a house fire, try to find the gas shut-off valve and turn it off.
2. Assist the location of the scene. It's often difficult for EMS to locate the scene of the emergency. Standing near the front of the building or the entrance to the parking lot and flagging the ambulance/PD/fire down helps a ton. Leading them directly to the scene is just as important.
3. Use your common sense. Don't let the panic take hold of you. Be rational, reasonable. I'm not saying you should never try to help someone, just make sure that YOU are safe FIRST before heading in to assist.
I hold EMT/Paramedic certs and volunteer in my spare time.
Thanks.
Edit: I also want to point out that there is generally very little anyone can do aside from basic management of the ABC's (airway, breathing and circulation) without equipment. Some of that equipment is located onboard a fire truck or an ambulance. Most of that equipment is usually found inside the operating room of your local hospital. The faster the patient is moved safely to the local ED, the better it is.
I think we can all agree that cabs in the Bay Area are terrible. Uber and its kin have certainly changed the market.
Uber however, seem to be resorting to immoral and rather ruthless tactics to serve themselves.
Perhaps the most significant problem associated with aging is centered around our body's replication system. The way that cells duplicate and grow is not perfect. Hosts of environmental, biological, and "pure luck" factors all combine against us in a slow, but inevitable warping of our genetics.
In addition to genetic decay, our biological parts get "worn out" over time. Valves close with less force and vessels become inelastic. Our stretchy bits - tendons, ligaments - become scarred with micro-tears over time causing decreased flexibility. Our squishier bits - our inner organs and muscle - tend to become less efficient over time and decay sets in (a rule of thumb is past the age of 30, the average human loses 1% of muscle mass per year). Our squishy-stretchy bits - fascia - tend to lose the fight to gravity as the cells become less and less "sticky" and the skin on our faces droop.
As one ages, the mistakes in replication, the decay of our organic bodies begin to add up. As they pile on year after year, the likelihood of getting "sick" increases. Alzheimer's - thought to be brought about by tissue decay and subsequent scarring in the brain. Infarctions (a loss of blood supply, thus a loss of nutrients and oxygen) to a certain part of the body (heart attacks are a common result of cardiac-related infarctions) - can be caused by a stiffening of the walls of blood vessels which lets plaque build up and eventually, when some plaque is dislodged, that plaque might get trapped in a smaller vessel and cause a lethal blockage. Edema (excess fluid building up in tissue) - generally as a result of the weakening of the heart (the heart is a muscle which gets weaker over time) and the decay of the vessels and the muscles surrounding the vessels. And so on and so forth.
Fighting old age tends to be thought of as fighting the underlying physical and genetic decay the geriatric (or just aging in general) undergo. Reversing old age, in a similar manner, tends to focus around the prevention or the reversal of that decay. Fighting diseases associated with old age thus is far more limited in scope. While the end result of "fighting old age" might eliminate certain diseases, "fighting diseases associated with old age" will never prevent people from getting old.
The diagram-heavy slides could certainly use some context.
At one point, there was some n amount of CO2 in the air.
A tree was planted. Through a few biological cycles, CO2 is exchanged and stored as various sugars within the wood.
Burning the wood releases the CO2 back into the air.
This is a net zero process.
In the district of Wan Chai (a fairly touristy area of Hong Kong), there's a fairly well known place known simply as the "Computer Centre". In it, you'll find two floors of a giant warehouse packed floor to ceiling with shops selling everything from a refurbished matte black MacBook from 2006 to an "iPhone 7". I do have to say that the vast majority of the products are legitimate, but there are booths which cater to the less-discerning customers. The great benefit of buying in Hong Kong is that you'll often find products from the mainland side and from the factories in Taiwan.
It's whichever local stores agree to partner with Google. As far as I know, the process works like this:
1. Google partners with a store. They place some subset of the inventory of that store online.
2. As a user, you browse that inventory and buy.
3. The store receives the order, places the item into a storage bin in the back and waits for a GSX van to come pick it up.
4. Every so often, a GSX van will swing by, pick up the goods, then deliver.
Yes, you can get books. As far as I know, the only real product you can't get is fresh produce. I think produce has far too low of a volume-profit ratio (and of course, produce spoils if left sitting inside of a hot van for hours on end).
Apparently, cinnamon can be used as a vehicle for moving sodium benzoate to wherever it needs to be.
I assume that the CDC/FDA/NIH have more stringent protocol in place.
If for example, some cloud cover shifts and we lose connection with our copter for just a few seconds, a lot can happen. Even though we built redundancies into our software (if no connection, hold position), those few seconds of lost control could cause some catastrophic problems. I think this is really the biggest issue surrounding drone flight; it's not the question of "Can we build autonomous drones?", and more of "Can we constantly guarantee control over our drones?"