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The Penguin jazz guide : the history of the music in the 1,001 best albums
Offers a chronologically arranged survey of jazz recordings, including biographical details and lineups.
Book
Mirror neurons: From origin to function
This article argues that mirror neurons originate in sensorimotor associative learning and therefore a new approach is needed to investigate their functions. Mirror neurons were discovered about 20 years ago in the monkey brain, and there is now evidence that they are also present in the human brain. The intriguing feature of many mirror neurons is that they fire not only when the animal is performing an action, such as grasping an object using a power grip, but also when the animal passively observes a similar action performed by another agent. It is widely believed that mirror neurons are a genetic adaptation for action understanding; that they were designed by evolution to fulfill a specific socio-cognitive function. In contrast, we argue that mirror neurons are forged by domain-general processes of associative learning in the course of individual development, and, although they may have psychological functions, they do not necessarily have a specific evolutionary purpose or adaptive function. The evidence supporting this view shows that (1) mirror neurons do not consistently encode action “goals”; (2) the contingency- and context-sensitive nature of associative learning explains the full range of mirror neuron properties; (3) human infants receive enough sensorimotor experience to support associative learning of mirror neurons (“wealth of the stimulus”); and (4) mirror neurons can be changed in radical ways by sensorimotor training. The associative account implies that reliable information about the function of mirror neurons can be obtained only by research based on developmental history, system-level theory, and careful experimentation.
Journal Article
استعادة التوازن : استراتيجية للشرق الأوسط برسم الرئيس الجديد
لا شك في أن الرئيس الرابع والأربعين للولايات المتحدة الأميركية سيجد في انتظاره سلسلة من التحديات الحاسمة، المعقدة والمتشابكة في الشرق الأوسط، التي تتطلب إيلاءها اهتماما عاجلا. ذلك أن النموذج الذي اعتمده جورج بدليو بوش القائم على تغيير أنظمة الحكم ونشر الديمقراطية بالقوة لم يعد يتلاءم والظروف المتغيرة التي ستواجه الإدارة الجديدة على الأرجح الحاجة ماسة إذن لأفكار جديدة، وتحليلات غير حزبية، وتوصيات حصيفة. والكتاب الذي بين أيديكم يفي بتلك الحاجة على أفضل وجه. في اتسعادة التوازن، تتضافر جهود الخبراء والمختصين بشؤون الشرق الأوسط من مجلس العلاقات الخارجية ومركز صبان لسياسة الشرق الأوسط بمعهد بروكنغز، لتطرح استراتيجية أميركية جديدة لمنظمة حيوية لكن متفجرة كالشرق الأوسط فبناء على أبحاث ميدانية معنقة، قام هؤلاء الخبراء ببلورة مجموعة من التوصيات السياسية برسم الرئيس الأميركي الجديد وقد قامت بفحصها وتمحيصها ونقدها هيئة من المختصين من كلا الحزبين يتمتعون بخبرة سياسية واسعة ومعرفة غنية بالمنطقة، هذا التمرين في تخطيط السياسات الذي استغرق سنة كاملة هو الأول من نوعه على الإطلاق، الذي يوحد جهود وقدرات العاملين في هاتين المؤسستين المحترمتين بالسياسة الخارجية لتنصب على درس وتحليل واحدة من أخطر وأهم مناطق العالم. وكل فصل من هذا الكتاب يستضيف اثنين أو أكثر من الباحثين في مجلس العلاقات الخارجية ومعهد بروكنغز لمعاينة واستعراض التحديات التي ستواجه الرئيس المقبل.
Book
Obesity is associated with a lower probability of achieving sustained minimal disease activity state among patients with psoriatic arthritis
Aim To assess whether overweight and obese patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) are less likely to achieve sustained minimal disease activity (MDA) state compared to patients with normal weight. Methods A cohort of patients was assessed at the University of Toronto PsA clinic at 6–12-month intervals according to a standard protocol from 2003 to 2012. Patients were categorised into the following groups according to their body mass index (BMI): normal (<25), overweight (25–30), and obese (>30). Sustained MDA was defined as achieving low disease activity state in five or more of the following domains for at least 1 year: skin, enthesitis, tender and swollen joint counts, pain, patient global assessment and function. Proportional odds discrete time to event analysis was used to investigate the association between BMI category and the achievement of sustained MDA. Results Of the 557 patients included in the study, 36.2% were classified as overweight and 35.4% were obese. Overall, 66.1% of the patients achieved sustained MDA during the follow-up period. A dose–response association was found between obesity and the probability of achieving sustained MDA in the multivariate regression analysis. Patients in the higher BMI categories were less likely to achieve sustained MDA compared those in the lowest BMI category (overweight: OR 0.66 p=0.003; obese: OR 0.53 p<0.0001) after adjusting for potential confounding variables. Conclusions Overweight and obese patients with PsA are less likely to achieve sustained MDA compared to those of normal weight.
Journal Article
Effect of Short-Term vs. Long-Term Blood Storage on Mortality after Transfusion
In a pragmatic trial, more than 30,000 patients requiring blood transfusion were randomly assigned to receive blood after short-term storage or long-term storage. In-hospital mortality did not differ significantly between the two groups.
Red-cell transfusion is one of the most common medical interventions.
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Blood is stored for up to 42 days before transfusion. Biochemical, structural, and functional changes during storage may reduce oxygen delivery to tissues, and the release of extracellular vesicles and cell-free DNA during storage may cause a hypercoagulable state.
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Observational studies have suggested that prolonged blood storage is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events.
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Randomized, controlled trials have not shown harm in transfusing red-cell units with a longer duration versus a shorter duration of storage. However, most of these trials have been restricted to high-risk populations and have . . .
Journal Article
Does Cox analysis of a randomized survival study yield a causal treatment effect?
Statistical methods for survival analysis play a central role in the assessment of treatment effects in randomized clinical trials in cardiovascular disease, cancer, and many other fields. The most common approach to analysis involves fitting a Cox regression model including a treatment indicator, and basing inference on the large sample properties of the regression coefficient estimator. Despite the fact that treatment assignment is randomized, the hazard ratio is not a quantity which admits a causal interpretation in the case of unmodelled heterogeneity. This problem arises because the risk sets beyond the first event time are comprised of the subset of individuals who have not previously failed. The balance in the distribution of potential confounders between treatment arms is lost by this implicit conditioning, whether or not censoring is present. Thus while the Cox model may be used as a basis for valid tests of the null hypotheses of no treatment effect if robust variance estimates are used, modeling frameworks more compatible with causal reasoning may be preferrable in general for estimation.
Journal Article
Do patients with psoriatic arthritis who present early fare better than those presenting later in the disease?
Background This investigation aimed to determine whether patients presenting to a psoriatic arthritis (PsA) clinic early in the course of the disease had less severe disease at presentation, and whether disease duration at presentation predicts progression of joint damage. Methods Patients followed prospectively in a specialised clinic were divided into those first seen within 2 years of diagnosis (group 1) and those seen with more than 2 years of disease (group 2). The groups were compared with regard to demographics and disease characteristics at presentation. A multivariate analysis using a negative binomial model was conducted to determine whether patients with early disease had less progression of joint damage. Results 436 patients were identified in group 1 and 641 patients in group 2. Patients in group 2 were older, had longer duration of psoriasis and PsA, more joint damage and were less likely to be treated with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, but had similar level of education and degree of psoriasis severity. After adjusting for age, sex, education level, clinical joint damage at first visit and treatment, group 2 had significantly greater rate of clinical damage progression compared with group 1. Conclusions Disease progression is more marked in patients presenting with established disease of more than 2 years' duration. These results suggest that patients with PsA should be treated earlier in the course of their disease.
Journal Article
Multistate models for the natural history of cancer progression
BackgroundMultistate models can be effectively used to characterise the natural history of cancer. Inference from such models has previously been useful for setting screening policies.MethodsWe introduce the basic elements of multistate models and the challenges of applying these models to cancer data. Through simulation studies, we examine (1) the impact of assuming time-homogeneous Markov transition intensities when the intensities depend on the time since entry to the current state (i.e., the process is time-inhomogenous semi-Markov) and (2) the effect on precancer risk estimation when observation times depend on an unmodelled intermediate disease state.ResultsIn the settings we examined, we found that misspecifying a time-inhomogenous semi-Markov process as a time-homogeneous Markov process resulted in biased estimates of the mean sojourn times. When screen-detection of the intermediate disease leads to more frequent future screening assessments, there was minimal bias induced compared to when screen-detection of the intermediate disease leads to less frequent screening.ConclusionsMultistate models are useful for estimating parameters governing the process dynamics in cancer such as transition rates, sojourn time distributions, and absolute and relative risks. As with most statistical models, to avoid incorrect inference, care should be given to use the appropriate specifications and assumptions.
Journal Article
Liberal or Restrictive Transfusion in High-Risk Patients after Hip Surgery
This trial compared a restrictive hemoglobin threshold with a liberal threshold for blood transfusion among hip-surgery patients with risk factors for CVD. The liberal strategy resulted in more transfusions and did not reduce death or inability to walk independently.
In the United States, more than 17 million red-cell units are collected annually, and 15 million units are transfused.
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Blood transfusions are frequently given to surgical patients and to the elderly.
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Yet, the indications for postoperative transfusion have not been adequately evaluated and remain controversial. Most clinical trials have been small.
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One adequately powered trial involving adults in intensive care units showed a nonsignificant decrease in 30-day mortality with a restrictive transfusion strategy, as compared with a liberal strategy (18.7% vs. 23.3%).
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However, the effect of a restrictive approach on functional recovery or risk of myocardial infarction in patients . . .
Journal Article