http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/when-it-comes-to-tardiness-shouldnt-the-punishment-fit-the-crime/2012/02/06/gIQAC4VUuQ_story.html?hpid=z3
I don't get the author's ultimate point, but this is the main thing that she's talking about:
If kids are late to school, their parents get hauled off to court! Apparently, this is the norm in this country! Can you get any more ridiculous than this???
This prompts such a visceral reaction in me because I am always late for everything. And what's more, I'm pretty damn proud of some of the excuses I have thought up of.
This is such a totally wrong approach to deal with tardiness. Instead of punishing the people who are late, they should reward the people who are on time.
From the article, it seems like the reason the parents get hauled off to court is because the deal is that each and every kid in school will spend the same amount of time in school. What about the kids who go early to school or who stay back in school for a bit longer, then? Shouldn't they be punished for spending too much time there? Why focus so shortsightedly on quantity instead of quality?
This stupid custom is going to go right down there with whipping kids on their butts or hitting them on the head. Just like we are appalled today that kids were made to undergo such punishments, sometime in the future (hopefully soon) we will be appalled that parents of kids were subjected to such trials and tribulations.
But... *deep breath*.. good thing is, I don't think Pittsburgh is on board with this stuff yet. For one thing, I don't think the courts here have the money to go around holding ridiculous trials like this.
People of whichever idiotic state goes about criminalizing its hapless, tardy parents: go spend that money on capturing some real criminals, okay? By hauling these parents off to court, you are losing money not only on the trials that you conduct, but also on all the time that those hardworking parents have lost at their places of work.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Fighting for a Feeling of Self Worth
One of those weeks which leave me battered and bruised.
My ego's taken a severe beating this fortnight: a series of failed experiments in lab, failed because of my carelessness, a so-so presentation by me about my work at lab meeting, halfway through which I realize the lack of multiple important controls in the experiment and have to come up with mediocre explanations for the same, someone at home admitting that he didn't feel comfortable there because it was too disorganized and untidy for him, and so on and so forth.
Ouch.
I have become expert at shoving unpleasant thoughts to the back of my mind and forcing them there till I can forget about them. Until they come crowding in all at once and catch me unawares.
It's 20F outside and I need to leave soon to pick up Ani from the day care and carry him back home. Haven't given the poor kid a bath in two days (though, hey, he did get his teeth brushed everyday. That's gotta count for something).
Okay, let's focus on the positives:
a) Ani's smile at he waved goodbye to me in the morning at daycare
b) I taught someone how to think through the preparation for a PhD Comprehensive Exam and I think she was pretty inspired and impressed.
c) My friendship with my labmates- in this lab and in my previous one. So see? SOMEbody likes me, I'm not all terrible.
d) Hmm... positive stuff in the sphere of scientific research that I have done... aaaarrgghh nothing that I have done recently, but my journal club presentation was pretty good.
e) Something positive in the home front... let's forget about tidiness and laundry and clutter now... Oh, hey, you know what? I have been cooking great, healthy, reasonably tasty food at home every single day (and many times, more than once a day) for 4 straight months now. I have made sure that everybody who is at home gets something decent to eat. There. Okay, so that's my answer to whoever sticks their nose up about the state of the house. Which actually, by the way, is pretty damn good. If you're going to be hyper-sensitive, and want everything to be spic and span, don't come home.
So...I think I do a darn fine job of holding everything together...for now... somehow...
My ego's taken a severe beating this fortnight: a series of failed experiments in lab, failed because of my carelessness, a so-so presentation by me about my work at lab meeting, halfway through which I realize the lack of multiple important controls in the experiment and have to come up with mediocre explanations for the same, someone at home admitting that he didn't feel comfortable there because it was too disorganized and untidy for him, and so on and so forth.
Ouch.
I have become expert at shoving unpleasant thoughts to the back of my mind and forcing them there till I can forget about them. Until they come crowding in all at once and catch me unawares.
It's 20F outside and I need to leave soon to pick up Ani from the day care and carry him back home. Haven't given the poor kid a bath in two days (though, hey, he did get his teeth brushed everyday. That's gotta count for something).
Okay, let's focus on the positives:
a) Ani's smile at he waved goodbye to me in the morning at daycare
b) I taught someone how to think through the preparation for a PhD Comprehensive Exam and I think she was pretty inspired and impressed.
c) My friendship with my labmates- in this lab and in my previous one. So see? SOMEbody likes me, I'm not all terrible.
d) Hmm... positive stuff in the sphere of scientific research that I have done... aaaarrgghh nothing that I have done recently, but my journal club presentation was pretty good.
e) Something positive in the home front... let's forget about tidiness and laundry and clutter now... Oh, hey, you know what? I have been cooking great, healthy, reasonably tasty food at home every single day (and many times, more than once a day) for 4 straight months now. I have made sure that everybody who is at home gets something decent to eat. There. Okay, so that's my answer to whoever sticks their nose up about the state of the house. Which actually, by the way, is pretty damn good. If you're going to be hyper-sensitive, and want everything to be spic and span, don't come home.
So...I think I do a darn fine job of holding everything together...for now... somehow...
Friday, January 13, 2012
The ACCORD study
Am attempting to increase my knowledge about the field of diabetes research by scanning the top journals for all their articles on beta cells and diabetes. Came across the ACCORD study (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes), which concluded prematurely in 2008 because the treatment arm of the clinical trial ended up with greater numbers of deaths than the control arm.
The writeup in Science is found here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/319/5865/884.full.pdf?sid=2b4ab30f-345c-4a91-8c91-537ac10f410b
This is the gist of it:
People with diabetes are at an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and can die of heart attacks.
The hypothesis was: if you control diabetes, you should be able to reduce the number of fatalities due to heart attacks or other cardiovascular diseases (CVD for short).
Therefore, aggressive lowering of blood glucose levels should protect against CVD.
So to test this hypothesis out, they got about 5000 people in the treatment arm (so these guys were diabetics who were considered high risk for dying of CVD and who had their blood glucose lowered by aggressive treatment with a variety of drugs) and another 5000 people in the control arm (also diabetic, but no treatment, other than their usual regimen)
Then they found that there were greater numbers of people dying of heart attacks in the treatment group, compared to the control.
Uh oh.
Questions to be asked:
a) What was the blood glucose lowered to? How was this being measured? - They measured something called hemoglobin Ac, or HbAc, as a surrogate marker for glucose in the red blood cells
b) Is the HbAc measure a suitable surrogate to monitor blood glucose?
-Apparently so. Lots of people use it in clinics and hospitals.
c) Is there a relationship between HbAc levels and risk of cardiovascular disease?
- Very important point. And tellingly, NO! Nobody has shown that HbAc levels correlate with risk of CVD. Also, one may not have diabetes, but have an HbAc value of greater than 6.
So, it seems to me that firstly (and frankly, this is probably the most minor point) the wrong surrogate marker was used.
Secondly, what about the drugs used to lower the HbAc? Assuming that phamacologists went through the drug list and found that these drugs did not interact adversely with each other, might they not have side-effects that would increase CVD risk?
Thirdly, and this is a great point made by one of the researchers who was arguing against this hypothesis from the beginning: the population under trial have had diabetes for a long time, and are considered high risk for CVD. This means they probably already have plaques in their blood vessels. Lowering the blood glucose may loosen these plaques: apparently, plaques contain sugar and it is the sugar that thickens and strengthens the plaques. If you were to lower blood sugar drastically, these plaques may not stick around on the walls of the blood vessels anymore, but begin to float around and eventually get stuck in the heart, causing a massive heart attack.
Very interesting, no?
There is a possibility that things become worse before they come better. That is to say, that perhaps if they had continued the study for a few more years, and continued monitoring the people who got the aggressive treatment (and survived it), they would have seen better prognostic markers, (and indeed this has been shown in smaller studies), but who knows? For the safety of the people involved, the trial was stopped 18 months before it should have.
Perhaps a gradual decrease of blood glucose, instead of a drastic one, might have less numbers of fatalities?
More relevantly, how sustainable is this approach? I mean, assume that this trial really had showed that aggressive treatment lowers risk of CVD. So what? Wouldn't this person have to take those medicines for the rest of his life anyway? And who is to say that those drugs in turn do not cause some other kind of damage- liver failure or renal issues? What then?
From the little I know about this issue, it seems to be that the long term risks outweigh the benefits.
So I would have to say that it's a good thing that trial showed what it did and forced everybody to think a lot harder about what that glucose in the blood is really doing.
The writeup in Science is found here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/319/5865/884.full.pdf?sid=2b4ab30f-345c-4a91-8c91-537ac10f410b
This is the gist of it:
People with diabetes are at an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and can die of heart attacks.
The hypothesis was: if you control diabetes, you should be able to reduce the number of fatalities due to heart attacks or other cardiovascular diseases (CVD for short).
Therefore, aggressive lowering of blood glucose levels should protect against CVD.
So to test this hypothesis out, they got about 5000 people in the treatment arm (so these guys were diabetics who were considered high risk for dying of CVD and who had their blood glucose lowered by aggressive treatment with a variety of drugs) and another 5000 people in the control arm (also diabetic, but no treatment, other than their usual regimen)
Then they found that there were greater numbers of people dying of heart attacks in the treatment group, compared to the control.
Uh oh.
Questions to be asked:
a) What was the blood glucose lowered to? How was this being measured? - They measured something called hemoglobin Ac, or HbAc, as a surrogate marker for glucose in the red blood cells
b) Is the HbAc measure a suitable surrogate to monitor blood glucose?
-Apparently so. Lots of people use it in clinics and hospitals.
c) Is there a relationship between HbAc levels and risk of cardiovascular disease?
- Very important point. And tellingly, NO! Nobody has shown that HbAc levels correlate with risk of CVD. Also, one may not have diabetes, but have an HbAc value of greater than 6.
So, it seems to me that firstly (and frankly, this is probably the most minor point) the wrong surrogate marker was used.
Secondly, what about the drugs used to lower the HbAc? Assuming that phamacologists went through the drug list and found that these drugs did not interact adversely with each other, might they not have side-effects that would increase CVD risk?
Thirdly, and this is a great point made by one of the researchers who was arguing against this hypothesis from the beginning: the population under trial have had diabetes for a long time, and are considered high risk for CVD. This means they probably already have plaques in their blood vessels. Lowering the blood glucose may loosen these plaques: apparently, plaques contain sugar and it is the sugar that thickens and strengthens the plaques. If you were to lower blood sugar drastically, these plaques may not stick around on the walls of the blood vessels anymore, but begin to float around and eventually get stuck in the heart, causing a massive heart attack.
Very interesting, no?
There is a possibility that things become worse before they come better. That is to say, that perhaps if they had continued the study for a few more years, and continued monitoring the people who got the aggressive treatment (and survived it), they would have seen better prognostic markers, (and indeed this has been shown in smaller studies), but who knows? For the safety of the people involved, the trial was stopped 18 months before it should have.
Perhaps a gradual decrease of blood glucose, instead of a drastic one, might have less numbers of fatalities?
More relevantly, how sustainable is this approach? I mean, assume that this trial really had showed that aggressive treatment lowers risk of CVD. So what? Wouldn't this person have to take those medicines for the rest of his life anyway? And who is to say that those drugs in turn do not cause some other kind of damage- liver failure or renal issues? What then?
From the little I know about this issue, it seems to be that the long term risks outweigh the benefits.
So I would have to say that it's a good thing that trial showed what it did and forced everybody to think a lot harder about what that glucose in the blood is really doing.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
My book
I am going to write a book. I am fairly sure it is NOT going to get published in Mills and Boon, which is where I will first send it to because they have some kind of audition going on to find India's next great Mills and Boon writer (did you even know India had a Mills and Boon-India edition? I didn't. Checked out the books that have been published under its aegis- exactly the same story lines as the British/Aussie ones, except with Indian names... and maybe with brown skin. I say maybe, because that really is not a sure deal with these things- for all you know, the heroine will be described as being "tall, fair with green eyes", with a name like Ashtanga, so that non-Indian readers will be familiar with it).
My mother-in-law and I had a conversation about this some time back when she was here in the US. We share a deep love of romance novels. I had mentioned to her that I wished there were at least one book with an Indian hero. The only romance stories with Indian heroes in them are the truly ghastly ones in Women's Era and frankly, I get completely sidetracked with the spelling and grammatical mistakes and can't pay attention to the story, which is probably pedantic and pedestrian anyway. That's one thing my story will not have: spelling and grammatical mistakes. I might throw in a few split-infinitives here and there (because I don't know what they are, but believe that they are not in vogue), but I make a solemn promise here and now: my book won't make any self-respecting person who likes words and grammar cringe or wince. Of course, it may make its readers cringe or wince for other reasons, but that's something I do not promise not to do. See? I keep achievable goals for myself.
So where was I? Oh right, I was whinging about the lack of truly great Indian romantic heroes and my mother in law said, "Well. What do you expect? Your hero will probably want curd rice and pickle for dinner, and he'll keep shedding hair all over the place and burp and fart and expect his wife to do pretty much everything around the house" (she didn't say those exact words, but you get the picture). Hmm... she had a good point. But then again, novels are fiction, not fact. And in my novel, I can pretty much make my guy into whatever I want. He will be the epitome of a romantic hero- courteous, considerate, courageous, compassionate, funny and handsome... hey, kind of like my husband, without the burps and the farts and the shed hair!
Actually, our great classical books and stories have some pretty damn good heroes, except they are not in the modern mold. I just have to pick up a convenient one and tweak him here and there. Let's see: I don't think I would pick Arjuna or Bhima, for obvious reasons. Maybe Yudhistira, but he's a gambler and those guys are always a bad bet. Maybe Nakula or Sahadeva, about whom I know nothing except they were good with animals (... not bad... maybe I'll make my guy a veterinarian). Or how about Harishchandra- the king who valued truth above everything else... maybe after his stint as a grave digger? Or maybe Chandra Gupta, with his daring and cunning and political machinations... or am I thinking of Chandragupta Maurya? Who was the king who was made king with the help of Chanakya? Can't remember whether he was a Gupta or a Maurya. Or... a truly radical thought... I could just go right up to the heavens and pick Krishna... all the elements of the great romantic hero are in Krishna: he's handsome, affectionate, funny, wily, enigmatic, loves everybody and everybody loves him. Too much of a playboy, perhaps? There's good potential there.
Anyway, lots of decisions to be made and lots of writing to be done. I love being busy with such projects!
My mother-in-law and I had a conversation about this some time back when she was here in the US. We share a deep love of romance novels. I had mentioned to her that I wished there were at least one book with an Indian hero. The only romance stories with Indian heroes in them are the truly ghastly ones in Women's Era and frankly, I get completely sidetracked with the spelling and grammatical mistakes and can't pay attention to the story, which is probably pedantic and pedestrian anyway. That's one thing my story will not have: spelling and grammatical mistakes. I might throw in a few split-infinitives here and there (because I don't know what they are, but believe that they are not in vogue), but I make a solemn promise here and now: my book won't make any self-respecting person who likes words and grammar cringe or wince. Of course, it may make its readers cringe or wince for other reasons, but that's something I do not promise not to do. See? I keep achievable goals for myself.
So where was I? Oh right, I was whinging about the lack of truly great Indian romantic heroes and my mother in law said, "Well. What do you expect? Your hero will probably want curd rice and pickle for dinner, and he'll keep shedding hair all over the place and burp and fart and expect his wife to do pretty much everything around the house" (she didn't say those exact words, but you get the picture). Hmm... she had a good point. But then again, novels are fiction, not fact. And in my novel, I can pretty much make my guy into whatever I want. He will be the epitome of a romantic hero- courteous, considerate, courageous, compassionate, funny and handsome... hey, kind of like my husband, without the burps and the farts and the shed hair!
Actually, our great classical books and stories have some pretty damn good heroes, except they are not in the modern mold. I just have to pick up a convenient one and tweak him here and there. Let's see: I don't think I would pick Arjuna or Bhima, for obvious reasons. Maybe Yudhistira, but he's a gambler and those guys are always a bad bet. Maybe Nakula or Sahadeva, about whom I know nothing except they were good with animals (... not bad... maybe I'll make my guy a veterinarian). Or how about Harishchandra- the king who valued truth above everything else... maybe after his stint as a grave digger? Or maybe Chandra Gupta, with his daring and cunning and political machinations... or am I thinking of Chandragupta Maurya? Who was the king who was made king with the help of Chanakya? Can't remember whether he was a Gupta or a Maurya. Or... a truly radical thought... I could just go right up to the heavens and pick Krishna... all the elements of the great romantic hero are in Krishna: he's handsome, affectionate, funny, wily, enigmatic, loves everybody and everybody loves him. Too much of a playboy, perhaps? There's good potential there.
Anyway, lots of decisions to be made and lots of writing to be done. I love being busy with such projects!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
A Pat on the Back
It's been 1 month and 1 week since my parents left for India. And I think I can at last say, at the risk of drawing the attention of some mischeivous imp of Fate, that I am beginning to better juggle the different roles I play.
Evidence: I am actually on time (in fact, well before time) for the 9am lab meeting. This is the first time I have managed that in many, many weeks. And I did this and managed to pack lunch for Ani, get a decent breakfast into him, give him a bath, get myself ready and didn't forget to pay his daycare expenses. Hurray!
Now, to repeat this ad infinitum.
Evidence: I am actually on time (in fact, well before time) for the 9am lab meeting. This is the first time I have managed that in many, many weeks. And I did this and managed to pack lunch for Ani, get a decent breakfast into him, give him a bath, get myself ready and didn't forget to pay his daycare expenses. Hurray!
Now, to repeat this ad infinitum.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Inspiration at last!
I had been feeling, for close to a year now, the lack of any reading material that could inspire, advise and entertain me. I had written in this blog some time ago about how the only books I seemed to have consumed gluttonously in my time in Pittsburgh were useless, forgetable and senseless romances. Yet, the books I had on hand which were not romances were hardly the inspirational, philosophically deep books that I felt the need for.
I am happy to report, at last, that I have found a book that suits my purposes completely: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
This is a book that is wise, humorous, tolerant and lays out a beautiful framework for living life without being pedagogical or preachy. There is such energy in the writing, it draws you in as soon as you read the first few words. This is a book that can be savored all life long, with deeper shades of meaning becoming apparent with growing experience.
Through Franklin's eyes, I can see America as it once was, a colony of England, and then as a new country. There is a quaintness in the idea of a journey from Boston to New York taking 3 days by boat, or with Philadelphia and Boston being considered two separate countries (Boston still, even in those days, being more expensive than Philadelphia), of having to row a boat from New York to Philadelphia because there was no wind for the sails. But what is also apparent is the drive, the hope and the determination of the people of the day to take things into their hands and make their lives better. Franklin's depiction of America reminds one of all that America stands for in the minds of people all over the world- a place where one can wrest control of one's fate and succeed. This is not the America of greed or obesity or parochialistic bickering that we see on TV. This is the very philosophy, the foundation of the IDEA of America- not the country, but the way of life.
It's funny how true Confucious's saying "When the student is ready, the teacher appears" is. Were I to have come across this book even 2 months ago when I was still finishing up my thesis, I would have raced through it and not really spent the time pondering it. Postdoctoral fellowship, while being more demanding, is also giving me the time and the space to think about life and how it ought to be lived.
I am happy to report, at last, that I have found a book that suits my purposes completely: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
This is a book that is wise, humorous, tolerant and lays out a beautiful framework for living life without being pedagogical or preachy. There is such energy in the writing, it draws you in as soon as you read the first few words. This is a book that can be savored all life long, with deeper shades of meaning becoming apparent with growing experience.
Through Franklin's eyes, I can see America as it once was, a colony of England, and then as a new country. There is a quaintness in the idea of a journey from Boston to New York taking 3 days by boat, or with Philadelphia and Boston being considered two separate countries (Boston still, even in those days, being more expensive than Philadelphia), of having to row a boat from New York to Philadelphia because there was no wind for the sails. But what is also apparent is the drive, the hope and the determination of the people of the day to take things into their hands and make their lives better. Franklin's depiction of America reminds one of all that America stands for in the minds of people all over the world- a place where one can wrest control of one's fate and succeed. This is not the America of greed or obesity or parochialistic bickering that we see on TV. This is the very philosophy, the foundation of the IDEA of America- not the country, but the way of life.
It's funny how true Confucious's saying "When the student is ready, the teacher appears" is. Were I to have come across this book even 2 months ago when I was still finishing up my thesis, I would have raced through it and not really spent the time pondering it. Postdoctoral fellowship, while being more demanding, is also giving me the time and the space to think about life and how it ought to be lived.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Perspective
After one month in my new postdoctoral place of work, I went back to my old lab today to backup some data.
3pm on a Friday afternoon. Not too many people around. Firstly, PG himself was off on vacation, then Deena, our supervisor had her usual annual bout of pneumonia. Lori, my ex-lab roommate and good friend, was also off on vacation (why in the world are so many people taking vacation in the beginning of November?). Importantly, Anwesha, the new graduate student, was off at classes. Which meant I had full freedom to sit at her desk and pull out my data from the deep depths of her computer. I suppose I no longer felt any sense of possession of that computer and desk, which had been mine for 5 years. But as soon as I entered the room, the sheer neatness of it made me lose any sense of nostalgia or ownership of that room or desk or computer- it looked nothing like the way it used to.
Copying my files, I came across many presentations which I hadn't opened or seen in years. Here are some titles of some of my presentations at lab meeting: "The Science of Language: A Primer", "Food, Sex and Fruit flies", "Jeopardy!", "Anxiety in Pregnant Rats" and so on. PG would gently remind me, at the end of these talks, that perhaps I should concentrate on something related to my thesis project, or at least that was pertinent to the vast field of Microbiology, if not infectious diseases. But he never stopped me from giving these HOUR-long presentations on completely irrelevant topics, nor did he make me feel like I was wasting his time or the lab's. These presentations reminded me forcefully about what a truly great place I trained at. I couldn't have asked for a better mentor to do my PhD with.
What a wise mentor PG is!
Nonetheless, I am SO happy I am no longer working on the project that I was! No project dealing with disease pathogenesis is easy, but seriously, noncytolytic CD8 antiviral mechanisms are, to me, the most frustrating. And after 5 years of working on that stuff, I still don't have enough data to publish a complete story. It's enough to make a sane person completely sick with rage and impotence. *Deep breath* it's okay. It's okay. It's all over now.... more or less.
3pm on a Friday afternoon. Not too many people around. Firstly, PG himself was off on vacation, then Deena, our supervisor had her usual annual bout of pneumonia. Lori, my ex-lab roommate and good friend, was also off on vacation (why in the world are so many people taking vacation in the beginning of November?). Importantly, Anwesha, the new graduate student, was off at classes. Which meant I had full freedom to sit at her desk and pull out my data from the deep depths of her computer. I suppose I no longer felt any sense of possession of that computer and desk, which had been mine for 5 years. But as soon as I entered the room, the sheer neatness of it made me lose any sense of nostalgia or ownership of that room or desk or computer- it looked nothing like the way it used to.
Copying my files, I came across many presentations which I hadn't opened or seen in years. Here are some titles of some of my presentations at lab meeting: "The Science of Language: A Primer", "Food, Sex and Fruit flies", "Jeopardy!", "Anxiety in Pregnant Rats" and so on. PG would gently remind me, at the end of these talks, that perhaps I should concentrate on something related to my thesis project, or at least that was pertinent to the vast field of Microbiology, if not infectious diseases. But he never stopped me from giving these HOUR-long presentations on completely irrelevant topics, nor did he make me feel like I was wasting his time or the lab's. These presentations reminded me forcefully about what a truly great place I trained at. I couldn't have asked for a better mentor to do my PhD with.
What a wise mentor PG is!
Nonetheless, I am SO happy I am no longer working on the project that I was! No project dealing with disease pathogenesis is easy, but seriously, noncytolytic CD8 antiviral mechanisms are, to me, the most frustrating. And after 5 years of working on that stuff, I still don't have enough data to publish a complete story. It's enough to make a sane person completely sick with rage and impotence. *Deep breath* it's okay. It's okay. It's all over now.... more or less.
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