Category: Misc.

Fish oil prevents onset of schizophrenia: treatment breakthrough

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Research starting in the early 90’s has suggested a neurodevelopmental basis for schizophrenia. Other studies suggest a biochemical basis for this abnormal development in schizophrenics related to insufficient fatty acids – fatty acids that contribute to the phospholipids which are the building blocks of neuronal membranes. Growth of axons and dendrites, making new synaptic connections and pruning of old ones, involves the synthesis and breakdown of phospholipids.

Based on findings of reduced fatty acids in people with schizophrenia, researchers have been studying whether giving Long-chane omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) to patients at high risk for developing psychotic disorder would prevent them from developing psychotic disorder.

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Infectious cancer in Tasmanian Devils

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Around 15 years ago, Tasmanian Devils, those cute little bad-tempered creatures from Down Under, began vanishing as a consequence of a new disease spreading rapidly among the population. Around 1996, a photographer documented severe facial tumors in the Devils in the northeast of Tasmania. By 1999, similar tumors appeared in Devils on the east coast. By 2003 it was clear that the entire population was in decline because of the disease. At first, it was assumed a virus or retrovirus was the cause.

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Folic acid supplements in late pregnancy increase risk of asthma

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According to CDC statistics, U.S. childhood asthma prevalence more than doubled between 1980 to the mid-1990s and has since plateaued at those historically high levels. Although many triggers and risk factors for asthma have been identified, the reasons behind this increase are not yet understood.

A recent study by University of Adelaide researchers Whitrow, Moore, Rumbold, and Davies may shed some light on the rise in asthma in young children. The study appears to show that the use of folic acid supplements in late pregnancy can lead to increased allergic asthma in children of 3.5 years of age. This human study corroborates earlier studies in mice which indicated that supplementation with folate in pregnancy leads to an allergic asthma phenotype in mice via epigenetic mechanisms (changes in gene expression).

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Breakthrough in Down Syndrome – Cognitive dysfunction reversed in mice

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Back in the 90’s, a woman named Dixie Lawrence made a splash on the internet by describing how her daughter with Down Syndrome experienced improved growth, health and cognition after starting a regimen of nutritional supplements and piracetam. I recall reading that she noticed that her infant daughter was not actually retarded – at least not yet.

Dixie’s routine for changing diapers always ended with a playful rub of Madison’s stomach. One morning, when Madison was eight months old, a fatigued Dixie said to her, “Well, honey, I’m tired, you’re going to have to rub your stomach yourself.” And Madison did just that.

It hit Dixie like a ton of bricks. She realized that her daughter was not retarded, and that if she wasn’t retarded, she would develop retardation. If this was the case, there had to be something that could slow it down or stop it! In a modest bedroom in rural Louisiana, Dixie Tafoya “looked through the telescope,” and in spite of what everyone “knew,” she saw perfectly round planets. With that insight, she jumped light years ahead of all the “experts.”

from Looking Through A Telescope, by Julian Whitaker M.D., Whitaker Wellness Institute

In other words, this was a view of Down Syndrome as a developmental problem, where the cognitive deficits increase with age.

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My Creative Commons Images

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All my public images on Flickr are licensed under the Creative Commons. You are free to share and remix them as long as you attribute them to me by including a link back to the original flickr page or by including the following link code back to this page:

<a href="http:thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000704.html" target="_blank">Photo by ellenm1</a>

View the pictures that have been used so far

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Decision support tools, performance support systems and just-in-time learning

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Where is the best spot for an educational (or other) intervention?

When there is a workforce performance or knowledge gap to fill, trainers understandably think first of using training to fill it. But is more training really always the best answer? Depending on the skills involved and the characteristics of the audience, process improvement, usability improvement, training or performance support may all be worth considering.

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Advanced interfaces, “Smart Ecosystems” and performance support systems in the workplace

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“A civilization without instrumentalities? Incredible.” –Forbidden Planet

Although it often seems that computers and communication devices have been growing smaller and smaller with no end in sight, for some purposes, they are still far too intrusive and unintuitive. There are many workplace scenarios where data and communication services would be very beneficial as performance support systems, but the constraints and awkwardness of existing computer interfaces would interfere with the task at hand.

Fortunately, researchers have been working steadily for decades to make computers and communication devices nearly vanish by embedding them into our surroundings and networking them so they can sense the environment and interact with us in a manner that would integrate better with our living and working situations. 

Early research groups developed scenarios to demonstrate the utility of these systems, which included independence support for the elderly, meeting facilitation, augmented driving and enhanced social interaction.

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