Monthly Archives: February 2011

Health, News, Science

Infant Brain Activity May Offer Much Earlier Autism Diagnosis

This WebMD story tipped me off to a new study published in BMC Medicine: “EEG complexity as a biomarker for autism spectrum disorder risk.” If the results hold up in further experimentation, it’ll mean a great deal to parents of children with ASD.

While intervention techniques can do a lot of remedy the effects of ASD, the most important element in successful intervention is getting to work on it early as possible, while the brain is still organizing itself. With diagnoses that rely purely on behavioral indicators, the correct diagnosis can come fairly far along in early childhood, at 2 or 3 years of age.

Mean differences between control and risk-of-ASD groups

In contrast, this study collected data from infants at 6 to 24 months of age. 46 were at high risk for ASD because they had older siblings with ASD, and 33 were controls. Analysis of EEG data revealed a significant difference in brain activity patterns at just 9 months of age. Researchers were able to sort the high-risk group from the controls with up to 80 percent accuracy.

And, EEG offers a reasonably noninvasive way to test babies. “Infants were seated on their mothers’ laps in a dimly lit room while a research assistant engaged the infants’ attention by blowing bubbles,” report the study authors. The infants wore the 64-channel Sensor Net System (made by EGI, Inc., down in Eugene), making them look like they were enduring a barnacle infestation.

Since the mid-2000s, researchers have been exploring the uses of modified multiscale entropy on physiological signals to determine things like cardiac health. If it sounds complicated, it is, and my having researched the topic for an hour on Google has not left me with confidence that I can explain it for you. Suffice to say that the analysis involves using “computers” to run “algorithms” that look for fairly minute differences in the signals being recorded, looking to measure what’s known as signal complexity. This is all fairly meta, but the upshot (learned from studying patients admitted with heart problems) is that a lack of randomness in the data indicates deterioration of a physiological system.

Now, explains researcher William Bosl, PhD, of Children’s Hospital Boston, they’re using the same technique to look at electrical activity in the brain, via EEG. Surprisingly, the study also uncovered a sex-based difference: “Classification accuracy for boys was close to 100 percent at age 9 months and remains high (70 to 90 percent) at ages 12 and 18 months. For girls, classification accuracy was highest at age 6 months, but declines thereafter.” That earlier classification accuracy may turn out to be very good news for girls with ASD, as they can compensate and remain undiagnosed for longer than boys.

Arts & Entertainment, Dance

Dance as Pure Motion, From Zoe|Juniper (VIDEO)

End of January, On the Boards hosted The A.W.A.R.D. Show!, and zoe|juniper appeared, winning their night despite Zoe Scofield having broken a toe. They’d incorporated a projected video into the work that was fascinating. I tried to describe it, but since they’ve since posted the segment to YouTube, let’s let a thousand images be a million words. Here’s the context for the projection, as I saw it:

Kelly took a seat in a chair across from Scofield, while a video avatar of his dancing continued on the blackboard–interestingly, his avatar only appeared while moving, at rest, he vanished. The contrast between the dynamic lines that kept him visible and the static, chalk remnants from Scofield was stark. 

And here’s more about the video technique, and what the intent is:

This video is a solo performed by Raja Kelly and then treated an editing technique that cancels out the video so that all we see is when something is in motion. […] We are interested in how the brain fills in the negative space to create a full image. In a line drawing emptiness and what is left not drawn is as important as what lines are drawn. The viewers mind is asked to fill in details when they disappear. In this case the cause of that disappearance is lack of movement. So the dance is created in the mind as it fills in the details left out and in what is seen.

News, Real Estate

Finding Seattle Foreclosures Just Got a Lot Easier

Screenshot from Redfin. They apologize for the “tidal wave of purple.”

Redfin just added a lot more foreclosures to your online house-hunting. They’re now mapping what’s known as the “shadow inventory” of foreclosures–homes that have been reclaimed by banks but not listed for sale. “The change we made yesterday increased our coverage of these pre-listed foreclosed homes from under 10,000 properties to more than 80,000,” says Redfin on their blog. That’s 1,292 foreclosures in the greater Seattle area, currently.

As Seattle Bubble explains, this shadow inventory was available before, you just had to pay for it on other sites. Redfin is showing you street locations for free, along with any other history available, such as any previous failed auctions. To get the view of the shadow homes, start a search like you would normally, and then click on More Options, at the top of the map. There you can choose to view the foreclosures, and if you add any to your Favorites, you’ll be notified when they officially list for sale.

It’s also a barometric view of local (and hyperlocal) markets–distressed homes drag values on the block down, so it helps inform your offer on a home that’s not in foreclosure either.

Health, News, Politics

Ways & Means Votes on Medical Marijuana Bill This Afternoon

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Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles‘ proposed legislation to better regulate medical marijuana is scheduled for executive session in the Senate Committee on Ways & Means at 1:30 p.m. today. UPDATE: Progress! “Feb 24: Executive action taken in the Senate Committee on Ways & Means at 1:30 p.m.”

Here is the latest summary of the bill’s intent:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 101. (1) The legislature intends to amend and clarify the law on the medical use of cannabis so that:

(a) Qualifying patients and designated providers complying with the terms of this act will no longer be subject to arrest or prosecution, other criminal sanctions, or civil consequences based solely on their medical use of cannabis;

(b) Qualifying patients will have access to an adequate, safe, consistent, and secure source of medical quality cannabis; and

(c) Health care professionals may authorize the medical use of cannabis in the manner provided by this act without fear of state criminal or civil sanctions.

(2) This act is not intended to amend or supersede Washington state law prohibiting the acquisition, possession, manufacture, sale, or use of cannabis for non-medical purposes.

Following the failure of Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson’s bill, HB 1550, to make it out of committee (even with a Seattle Times endorsement), SB 5073 (and its companion bill, HB 1100) is the last major legislative hope for this session.

Sensible Washington is still gearing up to put a legalization initiative on the ballot. Named I-1135, the initiative will need some 241,000 signatures by end of June to make the ballot. Distribution of petitions should begin today.

This measure would remove state civil and criminal penalties for the cultivation, possession, transportation, sale, or use of marijuana. Marijuana would no longer be defined as a “controlled substance,” and civil and criminal penalties relating to drug paraphernalia would not apply to marijuana-related offenses. The criminal offense of possession of forty grams or less of marijuana would be amended to apply only to persons under eighteen years old. 

Crime, News, Politics

Mayor McGinn’s (Wife’s) Bike Stolen! Will Brute Squad Hit Thieves Forest?

It is a sweet ride.

“I know I’ve been encouraging people to ride bikes more, but I didn’t mean u could ‘borrow’ my wife’s bike without asking,” tweeted Mayor McGinn earlier this evening, shamefacedly (I would think) admitting later that the bike was stolen “[a]fter I rode it to work today. Peg is pissed.” 

Unfortunately for the Mayor, the theft comes on the heels of his alienating some 82 percent of the Seattle police force, when he seemed to suggest in his State of the City address that only officers who live in Seattle really share the values of city residents: “It’s hard to have a good local police force if the police aren’t local.”

“Has he invited the police union to sit down for talks? Frankly, I was hoping for more specifics,” City Council member Tim Burgess told the Seattle Times. It seems fate has just handed the Mayor a chance to work more closely with the police department.