monday's should always start off with something pretty....these pretty much fit the bill. *images courtesy of zinke design, la dolce v...

Saturated Fat, Glycemic Index and Insulin Sensitivity: More Evidence

Insulin is a hormone that drives glucose and other nutrients from the bloodstream into cells, among other things. A loss of sensitivity to the insulin signal, called insulin resistance, is a core feature of modern metabolic dysfunction and can lead to type II diabetes and other health problems. Insulin resistance affects a large percentage of people in affluent nations, in fact the majority of people in some places. What causes insulin resistance?...

Comic strip: 10%

Last summer, during my internship at CMP in Prague I drew some xkcd-style comic strips, and I want to share some of them here. I considered starting a different blog for that, but there are too few of them, and they do suck (at least in comparison to Randall's work). However, most of them are programming/research related, so they are appropriate here.I planned to use them when I would have nothing...

Happy Friday.

*images courtesy of happnstance, fiddlesticks and funny gi...

2nd visioning session a success!

The second visioning session was a great success. 20 community members turned out to revise the draft statement created by the individual adult and youth visions from the August 3rd event.Community members worked in small groups to ensure that the shared vision incorporated everyone's ideas and priorities - while remaining true to the HKHC goals.As we move forward, we will begin planning for the...

my daughter's favorite song isn't old mcdonald had a farm or twinkle twinkle little star...it's not hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog from the mickey mouse clubhouse or ring around the rosie. nope, not my 3 yr old. when we get into the car, she strictly wants me to play eminem (or rather M&M) and rihanna love the way you lie.....i am sure her teachers will really appreciate that when she sings...

First HKHC Report - Check it out!

As a part of the HKHC program, we are conducting an ongoing assessment of the healthy eating and active living environment in Buffalo. As a part of this assessment, Kailee Neuner - the research coordinator from the University at Buffalo for HKHC - produced a policy brief that outlines the current conditions. Please take a few minutes to read this very important document - and get involved. You...

Why men still get more promotions than women

Very interesting article in The Harvard Business Review on male vs. female mentoring, and the difference it can make in business contexts.All mentoring is not created equal, we discovered. There is a special kind of relationship—called sponsorship—in which the mentor goes beyond giving feedback and advice and uses his or her influence with senior executives to advocate for the mentee. Our interviews and surveys alike suggest that high-potential...

2nd Visioning Session Tonight!

After a very successful first session, the HKHC community will meet again tonight to work on the draft community vision for a healthy Buffalo. Adults and youth came together on August 3rd to provide their personal visions for a healthy Buffalo, and these prioritized themes and ideas have been compiled into a draft vision.Please come out tonight and help us finalize our vision! Everyone is welcome...

coming soon...

these pics serve as a reminder that fall is right around the corner.....on another note, jazzercise was a success. i actually really enjoyed it. i think it would do the company some good to "reinvent" themselves/aka change the name from jazzercise. it's just a dance workout class that last an hour and it works your butt off! and for the record, there were no sweatbands or leg warmers in the room...

If horses were wishes

Photo by Stuck in CustomsSometimes I wish I had a cadre of graduate students to help me out with my research. The irony is that in order to prove to future employers that I am able to supervise graduate students, I need to prove that I am capable of "independent research". But the grim reality of independent research in my subfield means sitting in the lab all day and all night alone, toiling away....

i'm wishing....

for a happy monday.....and that i don't fall on my face tonight at jazzercise b/c my neighbor is making me go (yep, i said it- jazzercise...i bet you thought it ended in the 80's...i'm practicing my jazz hands as we speak).*images courtesy of unknown, suzie beezie, amelia hande...

Tropical Plant Fats: Coconut Oil, Part II

Heart Disease: Animal StudiesAlthough humans aren't rats, animal studies are useful because they can be tightly controlled and experiments can last for a significant portion of an animal's lifespan. It's essentially impossible to do a tightly controlled 20-year feeding study in humans.The first paper I'd like to discuss come from the lab of Dr. Thankappan Rajamohan at the university of Kerala (1). Investigators fed three groups of rats different...

cooking part II

or rather take two!! good thing i have another year to perfect my skills....see i'm all smiles in the pic b/c i think i have mastered the empanada (which is seriously a fancy word for hot pocket)...until my husband reads the recipe and says we're suppose to have 12 and we only have 6. whoops! reading the instructions correctly is always a plus when cooking. they had twice as much dough as they were...

cooking...

i'm 31 and i want to cook. i mean, i can cook; warren and i enjoy doing it but i want to learn to really cook. according to julia, i have one year left before i really have to get down to business. i'm making homemade empanadas (thanks sis-in-law) for supper tonight....i figure i need the practice :)*images courtesy of high street market, the city sage, apartment #34, urban electric, southern l...

Tropical Plant Fats: Coconut Oil, Part I

Traditional Uses for CoconutCoconut palms are used for a variety of purposes throughout the tropics. Here are a few quotes from the book Polynesia in Early Historic Times:Most palms begin to produce nuts about five years after germination and continue to yield them for forty to sixty years at a continuous (i.e., nonseasonal) rate, producing about fifty nuts a year. The immature nut contains a tangy liquid that in time transforms into a layer of...

Theorem 8.10. P ≠ NP.

Nearly two weeks ago Indian-American mathematician Vinay Deolalikar, the employee of HP Labs, sent a letter to a group of mathematicians asking them to proof-read his attempt to prove P ≠ NP. The pre-print was eventually distributed over the Internet, so a lot of people became aware. Later two major flaws were found in the proof, so it is now considered wrong. Nevertheless, Vinay has removed the paper...

Regarding Quotas

In my post on nurture vs. nature, thehackerfairy asked about my thoughts on some comments left after a recent Guardian article on this topic. The article helps support my claim that really it's a social problem we're facing in CS, not some difference due to biology. And the article cites my favorite developmental neuroscientist, Lise Eliot, as support.I couldn't find the particular comment HF was alluding to, but I think the basic idea...

Khasiat Pegagan untuk Tumpas TBC (Tuberkulosis)

Testimoni PegaganSeorang teman bercerita, betapa frustrasinya ia menumpas tuberkulosis (TB) paru-paru. Digempur pakai obat-obatan medis, si penyakit tetap saja eksis. Ia juga panik, karena katanya, bakteri TB bisa kebal terhadap gempuran obat yang diracik apotik. Untunglah, saat nyaris frustrasi, ia “menemukan” pegagan.Menjalani “takdir” sebagai penderita TB paru-paru memang tak gampang. Jika tidak ulet, alih-alih sembuh, pasien bisa mati bosan....

white wash....

loving these white wash spaces.....they feel so clean and crisp. if only i didn't have sippy cups, crayons, and grape jelly to deal with :)*images courtesy of donna griffith, unknown, the city sage, unkn...

hello everyone!! i have lots of stuff to do today since i have been away for a week but i love this quote and thought it would be a great way to start off monday!! and i couldn't help throwing in a pic of walker on vacay!! his dad, uncle, and grandfather caught some crab and so he thought he would show them off :) *images courtesy of forever love stoned,...

Image Parsing: Unifying Segmentation, Detection, and Recognition

Recently I have posted about the connection between object category detection and semantic image segmentation. While delving into this problem more deeply, I have found the paper denoted in the title of this post.The ICCV 2003 paper by Tu et al. was among the three Marr prize winners. And it is really a prominent piece of work! In the introduction to the special Marr prize IJCV issue, Bill Triggs featured the paper as one that "would have been particularly...

Can a Statin Neutralize the Cardiovascular Risk of Unhealthy Dietary Choices?

The title of this post is the exact title of a recent editorial in the American Journal of Cardiology (1). Investigators calculated the "risk for cardiovascular disease associated with the total fat and trans fat content of fast foods", and compared it to the "risk decrease provided by daily statin consumption". Here's what they found:The risk reduction associated with the daily consumption of most statins, with the exception of pravastatin,...

Open peer review done right

There's been a lot of talk recently on the idea of open peer review, open source science, and so on. arXiv was sort of intended to serve this role, but at least in my subfield it's uncommon to put papers on there before they've been accepted by a "proper" conference/journal. In general we use it for open archival purposes, but not for initial peer review.Image by Network OsakaHowever,...

ALTERNATIF HERBAL UNTUK ATASI LIMFOMA....Limfoma atau kelenjar getah bening dicirikan adanya benjolan yg biasa terdapat di bagian leher atau bagian-bagian tubuh lainnya terutama di bagian lipatan seperti ketiak, kaki dll. Penyakit ini biasanya pada tahap awal berupa tumor dan bila tidak cepat diatasi akan berkembang ke stadium lanjut berupa kanker.. dan kanker juga berkembang cepat ke stadium yang makin lama makin tinggi.Limfoma ini sebenarnya bisa...