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By Michael P. Haydock
In this era of Big Data, facts and opinions are flying fast and furiously. Unfortunately, too much of this outpouring is of little consequence. So it's incumbent on marketers and other business leaders to figure out how to turn raw data into insights that they can act upon.
Consider the type of info that streamed out in the past couple of weeks concerning the holiday movie and shopping frenzy.
News reports told us, for instance, that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 ranked #1 in Thanksgiving weekend domestic box office movie receipts with a whopping $227 million in ticket sales. Meanwhile, the French art film Rust and Bone took in just $30,196 in limited release in two theaters.
Amid a blizzard of dispatches concerning holiday shopping, we heard that during Black Weekend, the stretch between Thanksgiving Thursday and Sunday, the average American consumer spent $423 — roughly $25 more than they did last year.
These "factoids" may trigger a momentary flutter of mental excitement, but what do they actually mean? Rarely are we provided with the knowledge behind the data that makes it useful. Regrettably, this substitution of facts for insights is a fact of life these days–whether you're a consumer planning a purchase or a marketer trying to make the most of a business opportunity.
At IBM, we interact with some of the most sophisticated companies in the world. We have learned from working with them that in order to get the most out of Big Data, organizations need to craft comprehensive data strategies and to use a variety of tools and information sources that provide both depth and context. But technology alone isn't enough: They need to assemble interdisciplinary teams of people with deep expertise in technology, statistics, social networking, specific industries and human behavior.
Coincidentally, three initiatives that IBM engaged in over the past couple of weeks show how this approach can produce a sizable payoff from Big Data. We conducted deep analysis of holiday shoppers' behavior, analyzed social sentiment concerning holiday movie releases, and announced a new analytics center in Columbus, Ohio, that will eventually employ 500 people.
Our retail analytics team peeled back the onion on the rapidly-changing holiday retailing environment. Their research showed, for instance, that on Cyber Monday the number of consumers using mobile devices to visit online retailers increased by 22.4% over last year, while those using mobile devices to actually make a purchase rose 12%. That's a clear trend that will prompt many retailers to rethink their mobile strategies.
But the team dug deeper and discovered that mobile shopping habits vary greatly depending on the device people own. They found that iPads and iPhones accounted for nearly 20% of Black Friday online sales, compared to just 5.5% for devices running Google's Android operating system. What does this mean? Prompted by intriguing data points like these, smart marketers search for additional clues and create a complete story that helps them understand what's really going on–so they can craft more effective marketing campaigns.
Our social sentiment analytics team is doing the same kind of deep analysis concerning the movie business. They hooked up with the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab to sniff out useful insights from millions of public Twitter musings about the most popular movies playing in U.S. theaters. One surprise they uncovered concerned the vampire flick Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2. Before its mid-November release, our index showed positive sentiment toward the movie of 90%. Yet on Saturday, Nov. 24, in the midst of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the positive sentiment dipped to 75%.
Did that mean consumers were disappointed with the film? Nope. We discovered that many of the people who used words in their Tweets signaling sadness or disappointment were reacting to the emotional moments in the film or to the fact that their beloved series is ending with this installment. The lesson: It's vitally important to do the extra work of not only measuring the quantity of chatter via social networks but also understanding how people from particular demographic and psychographic groups use language in social media.
Bottom line, you've got to see the big picture–especially when you're mapping out a data strategy. Separate from our holiday retailing project, we're helping a major retailer develop a strategy aimed at understanding an important demographic group, people from ages 18 to 24. Many of these youngsters are in school or working at their first full-time jobs. The idea is that if the retailer can cement relationships with them at this stage in their lives, it might be able to secure them as loyal customers for life. But, to achieve this level of trust and intimacy, they've got to know these people really well. And that takes a lot of work and a lot of expertise drawn from fields outside the scope of traditional market research.
To master the art of data analysis, businesses are going to need lots of people with new skills. That's one of the reasons IBM is working with mroe than 200 academic institutions to help traditional students and mid-career professionals expand their understanding of analytics and Big Data. The latest such collaboration is with Ohio State University, and is an element of our plan to set up a new analytics center in Columbus.
IBM employs a lot of statisticians and data scientists. In Columbus, our people will work closely with clients from the upper mid-west, including leaders in the retailing and healthcare industries. The focus there will be on Big Data and on applying cognitive computing technology, including IBM's Watson, to complex problems our clients encounter as they gather and process ever large volumes of information.
Some people say the essence of analytics is finding a needle in a haystack of data. There's something to that, but we see things a bit differently. Think of the haystack as the context that surrounds any particular piece of information, and that makes it decipherable, meaningful and useful. We want businesses to take all the hay and spin it into gold.
So, bring on the data! It's up to smart organizations to transform it into insights.
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Buck Pays a Christmas Visit to a Salt Lake City Family
On Christmas Eve one Salt Lake City family was hoping for Santa and his reindeer, but instead got a buck that had crashed into their home. The Kellers believe that the deer tripped on a window well and fell into their home through a window. While waiting for wildlife officers, they captured several photos and videos. It will be a Christmas they won't soon forget.
"When you're waiting for Santa and his sleigh and his reindeer to come and land on your roof, and he comes through your basement window, we're not gonna forget it," said Casey Keller.
Officers with the Division of Wildlife Resources eventually came to help. They did have to put the deer down to get him out. Coincidentally, Casey said that later on that night he was driving just down the street from his house when another deer jumped in front of him, colliding with his car. From KSL.com.
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Iowa Governor Terry Branstad has new competition if he decided to run for governor again.
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This past weekend, the ESPN sideline reporter and the Minnesota Vikings QB held a wedding reception/party in front of friends and family — among the guests were some professional athletes and former ESPN reporter Michelle Beadle was also in attendance. The two previously were married in a court house so this was sort of a necessary follow up — To See More Pics continue reading. ...
Samantha Steele and Christian Ponder Wedding Party
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Putting GPS data on maps
Perl hackers take to the hills with a navigation system that provides a graphical rendering of a hiking tour.
Hiking with a navigation system is much more fun. A portable GPS device not only gives you your current position, but it can also tell you your altitude or the distance to a waypoint. Based on this data, the GPS device can also tell you your walking speed, the distance you have covered, and an estimated time of arrival. What's more, once you get back home you can attach your GPS device to your PC, download the data you collected en route, and map the hike. Although the "eTrex" GPS receiver by Garmin is a low-budget device for beginners, it is perfect for the occasional hiker. The eTrex, which costs about 120 Euros (US$ 99 in the US), is handy, waterproof, and so robust that it will survive knocks and bumps without damage. To hitch up the eTrex GPS to your PC back home, you need a special interface cable that connects the eTrex to your computer's serial port. The official cable for the eTrex is quite expensive (at about 25 Euros, US$ 32, GBP 17), and this explains the project at [3], which helps you do it yourself. I must confess that I was lazy this time: I just bought it.
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Linux Voice Joins the Linux New Media Family
Linux Magazine will include the best of both magazines.
Critical Flaws Found in VeraCrypt
Popular open source encryption tool is vulnerable to attack
Ubuntu 16.10 Released
New "Yakkety Yak" edition emphasizes cloud and servers
Linus Announces Linux 4.8
Google Announces Its Own Pixel Phones
Google finally enters the phone hardware business.
Nextcloud Announces Raspberry Pi-Powered Home Cloud Box
Innovative system adds a hard drive and Ubuntu Core to the RPi for an IoT hub.
Linus Torvalds Confirms the Date of the First Linux Release
Linux is two weeks younger than we thought!
End of OpenOffice?
The Apache Software Foundation considers retiring OpenOffice
Adobe Gives New Life to NPAPI Plugin for Linux
Adobe won't kill the plugin in 2017
LinuxCon North America Convenes in Toronto, Canada
Linux Foundation's big event celebrates the 25th anniversary of Linux


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Most Cited NeuroImage Articles
The most cited articles published since 2011, extracted from Scopus.
Spurious but systematic correlations in functional connectivity MRI networks arise from subject motionJonathan D. Power | Kelly A. Barnes | Abraham Z. Snyder | Bradley L. Schlaggar | Steven E. Petersen
Volume 59, Issue 3, February 2012, Pages 2142-2154
Here, we demonstrate that subject motion produces substantial changes in the timecourses of resting state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) data despite compensatory spatial registration and regression of motion estimates from the data. These changes cause systematic but spurious correlation structures throughout the brain. Specifically, many long-distance correlations are decreased by subject motion, whereas many short-distance correlations are increased. These changes in rs-fcMRI correlations do not arise from, nor are they adequately countered by, some common functional connectivity processing steps. Two indices of data quality are proposed, and a simple method to reduce motion-related effects in rs-fcMRI analyses is demonstrated that should be flexibly implementable across a variety of software platforms. We demonstrate how application of this technique impacts our own data, modifying previous conclusions about brain development. These results suggest the need for greater care in dealing with subject motion, and the need to critically revisit previous rs-fcMRI work that may not have adequately controlled for effects of transient subject movements. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.
FSLMark Jenkinson | Christian F. Beckmann | Timothy E J Behrens | Mark W. Woolrich | Stephen M. Smith
Volume 62, Issue 2, August 2012, Pages 782-790
FSL (the FMRIB Software Library) is a comprehensive library of analysis tools for functional, structural and diffusion MRI brain imaging data, written mainly by members of the Analysis Group, FMRIB, Oxford. For this NeuroImage special issue on "20 years of fMRI" we have been asked to write about the history, developments and current status of FSL. We also include some descriptions of parts of FSL that are not well covered in the existing literature. We hope that some of this content might be of interest to users of FSL, and also maybe to new research groups considering creating, releasing and supporting new software packages for brain image analysis. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.
The influence of head motion on intrinsic functional connectivity MRIKoene R A van Dijk | Mert R. Sabuncu | Randy L. Buckner
Volume 59, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 431-438
Functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) has been widely applied to explore group and individual differences. A confounding factor is head motion. Children move more than adults, older adults more than younger adults, and patients more than controls. Head motion varies considerably among individuals within the same population. Here we explored the influence of head motion on fcMRI estimates. Mean head displacement, maximum head displacement, the number of micro movements (> 0.1 mm), and head rotation were estimated in 1000 healthy, young adult subjects each scanned for two resting-state runs on matched 3T scanners. The majority of fcMRI variation across subjects was not linked to head motion. However, head motion had significant, systematic effects on fcMRI network measures. Head motion was associated with decreased functional coupling in the default and frontoparietal control networks - two networks characterized by coupling among distributed regions of association cortex. Other network measures increased with motion including estimates of local functional coupling and coupling between left and right motor regions - a region pair sometimes used as a control in studies to establish specificity. Comparisons between groups of individuals with subtly different levels of head motion yielded difference maps that could be mistaken for neuronal effects in other contexts. These effects are important to consider when interpreting variation between groups and across individuals. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.
A Bayesian model of shape and appearance for subcortical brain segmentationBrian Patenaude | Stephen M. Smith | David N. Kennedy | Mark Jenkinson
Volume 56, Issue 3, June 2011, Pages 907-922
Automatic segmentation of subcortical structures in human brain MR images is an important but difficult task due to poor and variable intensity contrast. Clear, well-defined intensity features are absent in many places along typical structure boundaries and so extra information is required to achieve successful segmentation. A method is proposed here that uses manually labelled image data to provide anatomical training information. It utilises the principles of the Active Shape and Appearance Models but places them within a Bayesian framework, allowing probabilistic relationships between shape and intensity to be fully exploited. The model is trained for 15 different subcortical structures using 336 manually-labelled T1-weighted MR images. Using the Bayesian approach, conditional probabilities can be calculated easily and efficiently, avoiding technical problems of ill-conditioned covariance matrices, even with weak priors, and eliminating the need for fitting extra empirical scaling parameters, as is required in standard Active Appearance Models. Furthermore, differences in boundary vertex locations provide a direct, purely local measure of geometric change in structure between groups that, unlike voxel-based morphometry, is not dependent on tissue classification methods or arbitrary smoothing. In this paper the fully-automated segmentation method is presented and assessed both quantitatively, using Leave-One-Out testing on the 336 training images, and qualitatively, using an independent clinical dataset involving Alzheimer's disease. Median Dice overlaps between 0.7 and 0.9 are obtained with this method, which is comparable or better than other automated methods. An implementation of this method, called FIRST, is currently distributed with the freely-available FSL package. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.
Network modelling methods for FMRIStephen M. Smith | Karla L. Miller | Gholamreza Salimi-Khorshidi | Matthew Webster | Christian F. Beckmann | Thomas E. Nichols | Joseph D. Ramsey | Mark W. Woolrich
Volume 54, Issue 2, January 2011, Pages 875-891
There is great interest in estimating brain "networks" from FMRI data. This is often attempted by identifying a set of functional "nodes" (e.g., spatial ROIs or ICA maps) and then conducting a connectivity analysis between the nodes, based on the FMRI timeseries associated with the nodes. Analysis methods range from very simple measures that consider just two nodes at a time (e.g., correlation between two nodes' timeseries) to sophisticated approaches that consider all nodes simultaneously and estimate one global network model (e.g., Bayes net models). Many different methods are being used in the literature, but almost none has been carefully validated or compared for use on FMRI timeseries data. In this work we generate rich, realistic simulated FMRI data for a wide range of underlying networks, experimental protocols and problematic confounds in the data, in order to compare different connectivity estimation approaches. Our results show that in general correlation-based approaches can be quite successful, methods based on higher-order statistics are less sensitive, and lag-based approaches perform very poorly. More specifically: there are several methods that can give high sensitivity to network connection detection on good quality FMRI data, in particular, partial correlation, regularised inverse covariance estimation and several Bayes net methods; however, accurate estimation of connection directionality is more difficult to achieve, though Patel's τcan be reasonably successful. With respect to the various confounds added to the data, the most striking result was that the use of functionally inaccurate ROIs (when defining the network nodes and extracting their associated timeseries) is extremely damaging to network estimation; hence, results derived from inappropriate ROI definition (such as via structural atlases) should be regarded with great caution. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
FreeSurferBruce Fischl
Volume 62, Issue 2, August 2012, Pages 774-781
FreeSurfer is a suite of tools for the analysis of neuroimaging data that provides an array of algorithms to quantify the functional, connectional and structural properties of the human brain. It has evolved from a package primarily aimed at generating surface representations of the cerebral cortex into one that automatically creates models of most macroscopically visible structures in the human brain given any reasonable T1-weighted input image. It is freely available, runs on a wide variety of hardware and software platforms, and is open source. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
Meta-analytic evidence for common and distinct neural networks associated with directly experienced pain and empathy for painClaus Lamm | Jean Decety | Tania Singer
Volume 54, Issue 3, February 2011, Pages 2492-2502
A growing body of evidence suggests that empathy for pain is underpinned by neural structures that are also involved in the direct experience of pain. In order to assess the consistency of this finding, an image-based meta-analysis of nine independent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigations and a coordinate-based meta-analysis of 32 studies that had investigated empathy for pain using fMRI were conducted. The results indicate that a core network consisting of bilateral anterior insular cortex and medial/anterior cingulate cortex is associated with empathy for pain. Activation in these areas overlaps with activation during directly experienced pain, and we link their involvement to representing global feeling states and the guidance of adaptive behavior for both self- and other-related experiences. Moreover, the image-based analysis demonstrates that depending on the type of experimental paradigm this core network was co-activated with distinct brain regions: While viewing pictures of body parts in painful situations recruited areas underpinning action understanding (inferior parietal/ventral premotor cortices) to a stronger extent, eliciting empathy by means of abstract visual information about the other's affective state more strongly engaged areas associated with inferring and representing mental states of self and other (precuneus, ventral medial prefrontal cortex, superior temporal cortex, and temporo-parietal junction). In addition, only the picture-based paradigms activated somatosensory areas, indicating that previous discrepancies concerning somatosensory activity during empathy for pain might have resulted from differences in experimental paradigms. We conclude that social neuroscience paradigms provide reliable and accurate insights into complex social phenomena such as empathy and that meta-analyses of previous studies are a valuable tool in this endeavor. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
A review and synthesis of the first 20years of PET and fMRI studies of heard speech, spoken language and readingCathy J. Price
Volume 62, Issue 2, August 2012, Pages 816-847
The anatomy of language has been investigated with PET or fMRI for more than 20. years. Here I attempt to provide an overview of the brain areas associated with heard speech, speech production and reading. The conclusions of many hundreds of studies were considered, grouped according to the type of processing, and reported in the order that they were published. Many findings have been replicated time and time again leading to some consistent and undisputable conclusions. These are summarised in an anatomical model that indicates the location of the language areas and the most consistent functions that have been assigned to them. The implications for cognitive models of language processing are also considered. In particular, a distinction can be made between processes that are localized to specific structures (e.g. sensory and motor processing) and processes where specialisation arises in the distributed pattern of activation over many different areas that each participate in multiple functions. For example, phonological processing of heard speech is supported by the functional integration of auditory processing and articulation; and orthographic processing is supported by the functional integration of visual processing, articulation and semantics. Future studies will undoubtedly be able to improve the spatial precision with which functional regions can be dissociated but the greatest challenge will be to understand how different brain regions interact with one another in their attempts to comprehend and produce language. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
White matter integrity, fiber count, and other fallacies: The do's and don'ts of diffusion MRIDerek K. Jones | Thomas R. Knösche | Robert Turner
Volume 73, Issue , June 2013, Pages 239-254
Diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) has been increasingly used in imaging neuroscience over the last decade. An early form of this technique, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was rapidly implemented by major MRI scanner companies as a scanner selling point. Due to the ease of use of such implementations, and the plausibility of some of their results, DTI was leapt on by imaging neuroscientists who saw it as a powerful and unique new tool for exploring the structural connectivity of human brain. However, DTI is a rather approximate technique, and its results have frequently been given implausible interpretations that have escaped proper critique and have appeared misleadingly in journals of high reputation. In order to encourage the use of improved DW-MRI methods, which have a better chance of characterizing the actual fiber structure of white matter, and to warn against the misuse and misinterpretation of DTI, we review the physics of DW-MRI, indicate currently preferred methodology, and explain the limits of interpretation of its results. We conclude with a list of 'Do's and Don'ts' which define good practice in this expanding area of imaging neuroscience. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
A reproducible evaluation of ANTs similarity metric performance in brain image registrationBrian B. Avants | Nicholas J. Tustison | Gang Song | Philip A. Cook | Arno Klein | James C. Gee
Volume 54, Issue 3, February 2011, Pages 2033-2044
The United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) commit significant support to open-source data and software resources in order to foment reproducibility in the biomedical imaging sciences. Here, we report and evaluate a recent product of this commitment: Advanced Neuroimaging Tools (ANTs), which is approaching its 2.0 release. The ANTs open source software library consists of a suite of state-of-the-art image registration, segmentation and template building tools for quantitative morphometric analysis. In this work, we use ANTs to quantify, for the first time, the impact of similarity metrics on the affine and deformable components of a template-based normalization study. We detail the ANTs implementation of three similarity metrics: squared intensity difference, a new and faster cross-correlation, and voxel-wise mutual information. We then use two-fold cross-validation to compare their performance on openly available, manually labeled, T1-weighted MRI brain image data of 40 subjects (UCLA's LPBA40 dataset). We report evaluation results on cortical and whole brain labels for both the affine and deformable components of the registration. Results indicate that the best ANTs methods are competitive with existing brain extraction results (Jaccard = 0.958) and cortical labeling approaches. Mutual information affine mapping combined with cross-correlation diffeomorphic mapping gave the best cortical labeling results (Jaccard = 0.669. ±. 0.022). Furthermore, our two-fold cross-validation allows us to quantify the similarity of templates derived from different subgroups. Our open code, data and evaluation scripts set performance benchmark parameters for this state-of-the-art toolkit. This is the first study to use a consistent transformation framework to provide a reproducible evaluation of the isolated effect of the similarity metric on optimal template construction and brain labeling. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
Multimodal classification of Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairmentDaoqiang Zhang | Yaping Wang | Luping Zhou | Hong Yuan | Dinggang Shen
Volume 55, Issue 3, April 2011, Pages 856-867
Effective and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), as well as its prodromal stage (i.e., mild cognitive impairment (MCI)), has attracted more and more attention recently. So far, multiple biomarkers have been shown to be sensitive to the diagnosis of AD and MCI, i.e., structural MR imaging (MRI) for brain atrophy measurement, functional imaging (e.g., FDG-PET) for hypometabolism quantification, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for quantification of specific proteins. However, most existing research focuses on only a single modality of biomarkers for diagnosis of AD and MCI, although recent studies have shown that different biomarkers may provide complementary information for the diagnosis of AD and MCI. In this paper, we propose to combine three modalities of biomarkers, i.e., MRI, FDG-PET, and CSF biomarkers, to discriminate between AD (or MCI) and healthy controls, using a kernel combination method. Specifically, ADNI baseline MRI, FDG-PET, and CSF data from 51. AD patients, 99 MCI patients (including 43 MCI converters who had converted to AD within 18. months and 56 MCI non-converters who had not converted to AD within 18. months), and 52 healthy controls are used for development and validation of our proposed multimodal classification method. In particular, for each MR or FDG-PET image, 93 volumetric features are extracted from the 93 regions of interest (ROIs), automatically labeled by an atlas warping algorithm. For CSF biomarkers, their original values are directly used as features. Then, a linear support vector machine (SVM) is adopted to evaluate the classification accuracy, using a 10-fold cross-validation. As a result, for classifying AD from healthy controls, we achieve a classification accuracy of 93.2% (with a sensitivity of 93% and a specificity of 93.3%) when combining all three modalities of biomarkers, and only 86.5% when using even the best individual modality of biomarkers. Similarly, for classifying MCI from healthy controls, we achieve a classification accuracy of 76.4% (with a sensitivity of 81.8% and a specificity of 66%) for our combined method, and only 72% even using the best individual modality of biomarkers. Further analysis on MCI sensitivity of our combined method indicates that 91.5% of MCI converters and 73.4% of MCI non-converters are correctly classified. Moreover, we also evaluate the classification performance when employing a feature selection method to select the most discriminative MR and FDG-PET features. Again, our combined method shows considerably better performance, compared to the case of using an individual modality of biomarkers. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.
A brief review on the history of human functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) development and fields of applicationMarco Ferrari | Valentina Quaresima
Volume 63, Issue 2, November 2012, Pages 921-935
This review is aimed at celebrating the upcoming 20th anniversary of the birth of human functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). After the discovery in 1992 that the functional activation of the human cerebral cortex (due to oxygenation and hemodynamic changes) can be explored by NIRS, human functional brain mapping research has gained a new dimension. fNIRS or optical topography, or near-infrared imaging or diffuse optical imaging is used mainly to detect simultaneous changes in optical properties of the human cortex from multiple measurement sites and displays the results in the form of a map or image over a specific area. In order to place current fNIRS research in its proper context, this paper presents a brief historical overview of the events that have shaped the present status of fNIRS. In particular, technological progresses of fNIRS are highlighted (i.e. from single-site to multi-site functional cortical measurements (images)), introduction of the commercial multi-channel systems, recent commercial wireless instrumentation and more advanced prototypes. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
Within-subject template estimation for unbiased longitudinal image analysisMartin Reuter | Nicholas J. Schmansky | H. Diana Rosas | Bruce Fischl
Volume 61, Issue 4, July 2012, Pages 1402-1418
Longitudinal image analysis has become increasingly important in clinical studies of normal aging and neurodegenerative disorders. Furthermore, there is a growing appreciation of the potential utility of longitudinally acquired structural images and reliable image processing to evaluate disease modifying therapies. Challenges have been related to the variability that is inherent in the available cross-sectional processing tools, to the introduction of bias in longitudinal processing and to potential over-regularization. In this paper we introduce a novel longitudinal image processing framework, based on unbiased, robust, within-subject template creation, for automatic surface reconstruction and segmentation of brain MRI of arbitrarily many time points. We demonstrate that it is essential to treat all input images exactly the same as removing only interpolation asymmetries is not sufficient to remove processing bias. We successfully reduce variability and avoid over-regularization by initializing the processing in each time point with common information from the subject template. The presented results show a significant increase in precision and discrimination power while preserving the ability to detect large anatomical deviations; as such they hold great potential in clinical applications, e.g. allowing for smaller sample sizes or shorter trials to establish disease specific biomarkers or to quantify drug effects. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
Single-trial analysis and classification of ERP components - A tutorialBenjamin Blankertz | Steven Lemm | Matthias Treder | Stefan Haufe | Klaus Robert Müller
Volume 56, Issue 2, May 2011, Pages 814-825
Analyzing brain states that correspond to event related potentials (ERPs) on a single trial basis is a hard problem due to the high trial-to-trial variability and the unfavorable ratio between signal (ERP) and noise (artifacts and neural background activity). In this tutorial, we provide a comprehensive framework for decoding ERPs, elaborating on linear concepts, namely spatio-temporal patterns and filters as well as linear ERP classification. However, the bottleneck of these techniques is that they require an accurate covariance matrix estimation in high dimensional sensor spaces which is a highly intricate problem. As a remedy, we propose to use shrinkage estimators and show that appropriate regularization of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) by shrinkage yields excellent results for single-trial ERP classification that are far superior to classical LDA classification. Furthermore, we give practical hints on the interpretation of what classifiers learned from the data and demonstrate in particular that the trade-off between goodness-of-fit and model complexity in regularized LDA relates to a morphing between a difference pattern of ERPs and a spatial filter which cancels non task-related brain activity. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
Unbiased average age-appropriate atlases for pediatric studiesVladimir Fonov | Alan C. Evans | Kelly Botteron | C. Robert Almli | Robert C. McKinstry | D. Louis Collins
Volume 54, Issue 1, January 2011, Pages 313-327
Spatial normalization, registration, and segmentation techniques for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) often use a target or template volume to facilitate processing, take advantage of prior information, and define a common coordinate system for analysis. In the neuroimaging literature, the MNI305 Talairach-like coordinate system is often used as a standard template. However, when studying pediatric populations, variation from the adult brain makes the MNI305 suboptimal for processing brain images of children. Morphological changes occurring during development render the use of age-appropriate templates desirable to reduce potential errors and minimize bias during processing of pediatric data. This paper presents the methods used to create unbiased, age-appropriate MRI atlas templates for pediatric studies that represent the average anatomy for the age range of 4.5-18.5. years, while maintaining a high level of anatomical detail and contrast. The creation of anatomical T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and proton density-weighted templates for specific developmentally important age-ranges, used data derived from the largest epidemiological, representative (healthy and normal) sample of the U.S. population, where each subject was carefully screened for medical and psychiatric factors and characterized using established neuropsychological and behavioral assessments. Use of these age-specific templates was evaluated by computing average tissue maps for gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid for each specific age range, and by conducting an exemplar voxel-wise deformation-based morphometry study using 66 young (4.5-6.9. years) participants to demonstrate the benefits of using the age-appropriate templates. The public availability of these atlases/templates will facilitate analysis of pediatric MRI data and enable comparison of results between studies in a common standardized space specific to pediatric research. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
Impact of in-scanner head motion on multiple measures of functional connectivity: Relevance for studies of neurodevelopment in youthTheodore D. Satterthwaite | Daniel H. Wolf | James Loughead | Kosha Ruparel | Mark A. Elliott | Hakon Hakonarson | Ruben C. Gur | Raquel E. Gur
Volume 60, Issue 1, March 2012, Pages 623-632
It has recently been reported (Van Dijk et al., 2011) that in-scanner head motion can have a substantial impact on MRI measurements of resting-state functional connectivity. This finding may be of particular relevance for studies of neurodevelopment in youth, confounding analyses to the extent that motion and subject age are related. Furthermore, while Van Dijk et al. demonstrated the effect of motion on seed-based connectivity analyses, it is not known how motion impacts other common measures of connectivity. Here we expand on the findings of Van Dijk et al. by examining the effect of motion on multiple types of resting-state connectivity analyses in a large sample of children and adolescents (n = 456). Following replication of the effect of motion on seed-based analyses, we examine the influence of motion on graphical measures of network modularity, dual-regression of independent component analysis, as well as the amplitude and fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuation. In the entire sample, subject age was highly related to motion. Using a subsample where age and motion were unrelated, we demonstrate that motion has marked effects on connectivity in every analysis examined. While subject age was associated with increased within-network connectivity even when motion was accounted for, controlling for motion substantially attenuated the strength of this relationship. The results demonstrate the pervasive influence of motion on multiple types functional connectivity analysis, and underline the importance of accounting for motion in studies of neurodevelopment. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
Automatic classification of patients with Alzheimer's disease from structural MRI: A comparison of ten methods using the ADNI databaseRémi Cuingnet | Emilie Gerardin | Jérôme Tessieras | Guillaume Auzias | Stéphane Lehéricy | Marie Odile Habert | Marie Chupin | Habib Benali | Olivier Colliot
Volume 56, Issue 2, May 2011, Pages 766-781
Recently, several high dimensional classification methods have been proposed to automatically discriminate between patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and elderly controls (CN) based on T1-weighted MRI. However, these methods were assessed on different populations, making it difficult to compare their performance. In this paper, we evaluated the performance of ten approaches (five voxel-based methods, three methods based on cortical thickness and two methods based on the hippocampus) using 509 subjects from the ADNI database. Three classification experiments were performed: CN vs AD, CN vs MCIc (MCI who had converted to AD within 18. months, MCI converters - MCIc) and MCIc vs MCInc (MCI who had not converted to AD within 18. months, MCI non-converters - MCInc). Data from 81 CN, 67 MCInc, 39 MCIc and 69 AD were used for training and hyperparameters optimization. The remaining independent samples of 81 CN, 67 MCInc, 37 MCIc and 68 AD were used to obtain an unbiased estimate of the performance of the methods. For AD vs CN, whole-brain methods (voxel-based or cortical thickness-based) achieved high accuracies (up to 81% sensitivity and 95% specificity). For the detection of prodromal AD (CN vs MCIc), the sensitivity was substantially lower. For the prediction of conversion, no classifier obtained significantly better results than chance. We also compared the results obtained using the DARTEL registration to that using SPM5 unified segmentation. DARTEL significantly improved six out of 20 classification experiments and led to lower results in only two cases. Overall, the use of feature selection did not improve the performance but substantially increased the computation times. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
The WU-Minn Human Connectome Project: An overviewDavid C. Van Essen | Stephen M. Smith | Deanna M. Barch | Timothy E J Behrens | Essa Yacoub | Kamil Ugurbil
Volume 80, Issue , October 2013, Pages 62-79
The Human Connectome Project consortium led by Washington University, University of Minnesota, and Oxford University is undertaking a systematic effort to map macroscopic human brain circuits and their relationship to behavior in a large population of healthy adults. This overview article focuses on progress made during the first half of the 5-year project in refining the methods for data acquisition and analysis. Preliminary analyses based on a finalized set of acquisition and preprocessing protocols demonstrate the exceptionally high quality of the data from each modality. The first quarterly release of imaging and behavioral data via the ConnectomeDB database demonstrates the commitment to making HCP datasets freely accessible. Altogether, the progress to date provides grounds for optimism that the HCP datasets and associated methods and software will become increasingly valuable resources for characterizing human brain connectivity and function, their relationship to behavior, and their heritability and genetic underpinnings. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.
Dynamic functional connectivity: Promise, issues, and interpretationsR. Matthew Hutchison | Thilo Womelsdorf | Elena A. Allen | Peter A. Bandettini | Vince D. Calhoun | Maurizio Corbetta | Stefania Della Penna | Jeff H. Duyn | Gary H. Glover | Javier Gonzalez-Castillo | Daniel A. Handwerker | Shella Keilholz | Vesa Kiviniemi | David A. Leopold | Francesco de Pasquale | Olaf Sporns | Martin Walter | Catie Chang
Volume 80, Issue , October 2013, Pages 360-378
The brain must dynamically integrate, coordinate, and respond to internal and external stimuli across multiple time scales. Non-invasive measurements of brain activity with fMRI have greatly advanced our understanding of the large-scale functional organization supporting these fundamental features of brain function. Conclusions from previous resting-state fMRI investigations were based upon static descriptions of functional connectivity (FC), and only recently studies have begun to capitalize on the wealth of information contained within the temporal features of spontaneous BOLD FC. Emerging evidence suggests that dynamic FC metrics may index changes in macroscopic neural activity patterns underlying critical aspects of cognition and behavior, though limitations with regard to analysis and interpretation remain. Here, we review recent findings, methodological considerations, neural and behavioral correlates, and future directions in the emerging field of dynamic FC investigations. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.
A comprehensive assessment of regional variation in the impact of head micromovements on functional connectomicsChao Gan Yan | Brian Cheung | Clare Kelly | Stan Colcombe | R. Cameron Craddock | Adriana Di Martino | Qingyang Li | Xi Nian Zuo | F. Xavier Castellanos | Michael P. Milham
Volume 76, Issue , August 2013, Pages 183-201
Functional connectomics is one of the most rapidly expanding areas of neuroimaging research. Yet, concerns remain regarding the use of resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI) to characterize inter-individual variation in the functional connectome. In particular, recent findings that "micro" head movements can introduce artifactual inter-individual and group-related differences in R-fMRI metrics have raised concerns. Here, we first build on prior demonstrations of regional variation in the magnitude of framewise displacements associated with a given head movement, by providing a comprehensive voxel-based examination of the impact of motion on the BOLD signal (i.e., motion-BOLD relationships). Positive motion-BOLD relationships were detected in primary and supplementary motor areas, particularly in low motion datasets. Negative motion-BOLD relationships were most prominent in prefrontal regions, and expanded throughout the brain in high motion datasets (e.g., children). Scrubbing of volumes with FD. >0.2 effectively removed negative but not positive correlations; these findings suggest that positive relationships may reflect neural origins of motion while negative relationships are likely to originate from motion artifact. We also examined the ability of motion correction strategies to eliminate artifactual differences related to motion among individuals and between groups for a broad array of voxel-wise R-fMRI metrics. Residual relationships between motion and the examined R-fMRI metrics remained for all correction approaches, underscoring the need to covary motion effects at the group-level. Notably, global signal regression reduced relationships between motion and inter-individual differences in correlation-based R-fMRI metrics; Z-standardization (mean-centering and variance normalization) of subject-level maps for R-fMRI metrics prior to group-level analyses demonstrated similar advantages. Finally, our test-retest (TRT) analyses revealed significant motion effects on TRT reliability for R-fMRI metrics. Generally, motion compromised reliability of R-fMRI metrics, with the exception of those based on frequency characteristics - particularly, amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF). The implications of our findings for decision-making regarding the assessment and correction of motion are discussed, as are insights into potential differences among volume-based metrics of motion. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.
NODDI: Practical in vivo neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging of the human brainHui Zhang | Torben Schneider | Claudia A. Wheeler-Kingshott | Daniel C. Alexander
Volume 61, Issue 4, July 2012, Pages 1000-1016
This paper introduces neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI), a practical diffusion MRI technique for estimating the microstructural complexity of dendrites and axons in vivo on clinical MRI scanners. Such indices of neurites relate more directly to and provide more specific markers of brain tissue microstructure than standard indices from diffusion tensor imaging, such as fractional anisotropy (FA). Mapping these indices over the whole brain on clinical scanners presents new opportunities for understanding brain development and disorders. The proposed technique enables such mapping by combining a three-compartment tissue model with a two-shell high-angular-resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) protocol optimized for clinical feasibility. An index of orientation dispersion is defined to characterize angular variation of neurites. We evaluate the method both in simulation and on a live human brain using a clinical 3T scanner. Results demonstrate that NODDI provides sensible neurite density and orientation dispersion estimates, thereby disentangling two key contributing factors to FA and enabling the analysis of each factor individually. We additionally show that while orientation dispersion can be estimated with just a single HARDI shell, neurite density requires at least two shells and can be estimated more accurately with the optimized two-shell protocol than with alternative two-shell protocols. The optimized protocol takes about 30. min to acquire, making it feasible for inclusion in a typical clinical setting. We further show that sampling fewer orientations in each shell can reduce the acquisition time to just 10. min with minimal impact on the accuracy of the estimates. This demonstrates the feasibility of NODDI even for the most time-sensitive clinical applications, such as neonatal and dementia imaging. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
An improved framework for confound regression and filtering for control of motion artifact in the preprocessing of resting-state functional connectivity dataTheodore D. Satterthwaite | Mark A. Elliott | Raphael T. Gerraty | Kosha Ruparel | James Loughead | Monica E. Calkins | Simon B. Eickhoff | Hakon Hakonarson | Ruben C. Gur | Raquel E. Gur | Daniel H. Wolf
Volume 64, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 240-256
Several recent reports in large, independent samples have demonstrated the influence of motion artifact on resting-state functional connectivity MRI (rsfc-MRI). Standard rsfc-MRI preprocessing typically includes regression of confounding signals and band-pass filtering. However, substantial heterogeneity exists in how these techniques are implemented across studies, and no prior study has examined the effect of differing approaches for the control of motion-induced artifacts. To better understand how in-scanner head motion affects rsfc-MRI data, we describe the spatial, temporal, and spectral characteristics of motion artifacts in a sample of 348 adolescents. Analyses utilize a novel approach for describing head motion on a voxelwise basis. Next, we systematically evaluate the efficacy of a range of confound regression and filtering techniques for the control of motion-induced artifacts. Results reveal that the effectiveness of preprocessing procedures on the control of motion is heterogeneous, and that improved preprocessing provides a substantial benefit beyond typical procedures. These results demonstrate that the effect of motion on rsfc-MRI can be substantially attenuated through improved preprocessing procedures, but not completely removed. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
Functional connectivity of the insula in the resting brainFranco Cauda | Federico D'Agata | Katiuscia Sacco | Sergio Duca | Giuliano Geminiani | Alessandro Vercelli
Volume 55, Issue 1, March 2011, Pages 8-23
The human insula is hidden in the depth of the cerebral hemisphere by the overlying frontal and temporal opercula, and consists of three cytoarchitectonically distinct regions: the anterior agranular area, posterior granular area, and the transitional dysgranular zone; each has distinct histochemical staining patterns and specific connectivity. Even though there are several studies reporting the functional connectivity of the insula with the cingulated cortex, its relationships with other brain areas remain elusive in humans. Therefore, we decided to use resting state functional connectivity to elucidate in details its connectivity, in terms of cortical and subcortical areas, and also of lateralization. We investigated correlations in BOLD fluctuations between specific regions of interest of the insula and other brain areas of right-handed healthy volunteers, on both sides of the brain. Our findings document two major complementary networks involving the ventral-anterior and dorsal-posterior insula: one network links the anterior insula to the middle and inferior temporal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, and is primarily related to limbic regions which play a role in emotional aspects; the second links the middle-posterior insula to premotor, sensorimotor, supplementary motor and middle-posterior cingulate cortices, indicating a role for the insula in sensorimotor integration. The clear bipartition of the insula was confirmed by negative correlation analysis. Correlation maps are partially lateralized: the salience network, related to the ventral anterior insula, displays stronger connections with the anterior cingulate cortex on the right side, and with the frontal cortex on the left side; the posterior network has stronger connections with the superior temporal cortex and the occipital cortex on the right side. These results are in agreement with connectivity studies in primates, and support the use of resting state functional analysis to investigate connectivity in the living human brain. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
Activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis revisitedSimon B. Eickhoff | Danilo Bzdok | Angela R. Laird | Florian Kurth | Peter T. Fox
Volume 59, Issue 3, February 2012, Pages 2349-2361
A widely used technique for coordinate-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging data is activation likelihood estimation (ALE), which determines the convergence of foci reported from different experiments. ALE analysis involves modelling these foci as probability distributions whose width is based on empirical estimates of the spatial uncertainty due to the between-subject and between-template variability of neuroimaging data. ALE results are assessed against a null-distribution of random spatial association between experiments, resulting in random-effects inference. In the present revision of this algorithm, we address two remaining drawbacks of the previous algorithm. First, the assessment of spatial association between experiments was based on a highly time-consuming permutation test, which nevertheless entailed the danger of underestimating the right tail of the null-distribution. In this report, we outline how this previous approach may be replaced by a faster and more precise analytical method. Second, the previously applied correction procedure, i.e. controlling the false discovery rate (FDR), is supplemented by new approaches for correcting the family-wise error rate and the cluster-level significance. The different alternatives for drawing inference on meta-analytic results are evaluated on an exemplary dataset on face perception as well as discussed with respect to their methodological limitations and advantages. In summary, we thus replaced the previous permutation algorithm with a faster and more rigorous analytical solution for the null-distribution and comprehensively address the issue of multiple-comparison corrections. The proposed revision of the ALE-algorithm should provide an improved tool for conducting coordinate-based meta-analyses on functional imaging data. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.
The Human Connectome Project: A data acquisition perspectiveD. C. Van Essen | K. Ugurbil | E. Auerbach | D. Barch | T. E J Behrens | R. Bucholz | A. Chang | L. Chen | M. Corbetta | S. W. Curtiss | S. Della Penna | D. Feinberg | M. F. Glasser | N. Harel | A. C. Heath | L. Larson-Prior | D. Marcus | G. Michalareas | S. Moeller | R. Oostenveld | S. E. Petersen | F. Prior | B. L. Schlaggar | S. M. Smith | A. Z. Snyder | J. Xu | E. Yacoub
Volume 62, Issue 4, October 2012, Pages 2222-2231
The Human Connectome Project (HCP) is an ambitious 5-year effort to characterize brain connectivity and function and their variability in healthy adults. This review summarizes the data acquisition plans being implemented by a consortium of HCP investigators who will study a population of 1200 subjects (twins and their non-twin siblings) using multiple imaging modalities along with extensive behavioral and genetic data. The imaging modalities will include diffusion imaging (dMRI), resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI), task-evoked fMRI (T-fMRI), T1- and T2-weighted MRI for structural and myelin mapping, plus combined magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography (MEG/EEG). Given the importance of obtaining the best possible data quality, we discuss the efforts underway during the first two years of the grant (Phase I) to refine and optimize many aspects of HCP data acquisition, including a new 7T scanner, a customized 3T scanner, and improved MR pulse sequences. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.


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You might develop an allergy to egg whites. Minor concern but I eat tons of eggs (so cheap) and just eat the egg yolks on about half of the ones I consume.
There have been similar topics in the past, but I haven't seen anyone give a concrete answer. Can eating too many eggs a day become detrimental to health? From what I understand dietary cholesterol has little or no impact on blood cholesterol, but perhaps there are other things to consider? I plan to eat 6-7 eggs a day.
You might develop an allergy to egg whites. Minor concern but I eat tons of eggs (so cheap) and just eat the egg yolks on about half of the ones I consume.
HCLF: lean red meat, eggs, low-fat dairy, bone broth/gelatin, fruits, seafood, liver, small amount of starch (oatmeal, white rice, potatoes, carrots), small amount of saturated fat (butter/ghee/coconut/dark chocolate/cheese).
My Journal: gelatin experiments, vanity pictures, law school rants, recipe links
Food blog: GELATIN and BONE BROTH recipes
" The best things in life are free and the 2nd best are expensive!" - Coco Chanel
I've been eating 5 per day lately with no problem. Cheap and tasty!
No problem with whole eggs. Large quantities of egg whites only can cause biotin deficiency.
In God we trust; all others must bring data. W. Edwards Deming
Blogging at http://loafingcactus.com
Eggs arent cheap around me 7-8$ a dozen for pastured... I eat 3 every day fyi as long as your body can handle it eat as many as you want
6-8 a day, awesome high protein snack!
I average 8 or so a day. My egg guy stopped selling to anyone else and bought more chickens. No issues.
Sent via F-22 Raptor
Try the primal egg coffee. Even if all you do is the 3 yolks and the coffee and none of the other ingredients, it's great! No lost yolk, either.
(Just drop 3 yolks in a blender. Add your coffee. Blend.)
Female, 5'3", 50, Max squat: 202.5lbs. Max deadlift: 225 x 3.
If they're constantly pushing you over your calorie targets, then not a good idea. But if not, they're great.
My nutrition/fitness/critical thinking blog:


text: Design Sleepy Cologne offers accommodation in Cologne. Volksgarten Park is 2,625 feet away. All units have a seating and dining area. There is also a kitchenette, fitted with a refrigerator. A stovetop and coffee machine are also provided. There is a private bathroom with free toiletries and a hair dryer in every unit. Towels and bed linen are available. Design Sleepy Cologne also includes a fitness centre and terrace. The property also offers grocery delivery. On the ground floor guests will find a bakery, an Italian and Asian restaurant, a pharmacy, a hairdresser, laundry facilities, etc. Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne is 0.9 miles from Design Sleepy Cologne, while Cologne Chocolate Museum is 1.5 miles from the property. The nearest airport is Köln/Bonn Airport, 8.7 miles from the property.


text:
notice of delisting now what? any intelligent insight on this issue?
it will start clime from here, the note is a matter of formality, all priced in. people just waiting for the thud of s**t hitting the fan, once this happened, it's over..
the CHTP worth a buck as is..
can you explain why?
Just wait they still have several months and when they announce there meeting with the FDA this quarter the stock will come up and the problem is gone.
Sentiment: Strong Buy
If you don't believe in this stock then why are you here? Just sell, it is a simple as hitting a few buttons. The first time management speaks the stock will go over $1.00.
Hardly,,,, I guarantee you it will be the announcement of a Reverse Split.


text:
Sebastian Larue doesn't necessarily know what it would take to change his current status.
Larue targets Notre Dame visit
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text:
Neoseeker.com Forum Thread: What's the best CFW for MHP3rd?? - page 1
reprinted from
original thread:
Author: titus1104
Date: Apr 26, 12 at 2:59am (PST)
Subject: What's the best CFW for MHP3rd??
hi peeps, not sure if this part of the forum is still kicking coz the last touched thread was still in april but anyways...
i have a psp 2000 with cfw of 5.00 m33 i want to play mhp3rd but it wont run, and connot start the game, i have tried to download new files from different links and compressed the file just to test if it work. so.. the last resort would be to upgrade my firmware, is 5.50 enough? or i would need others? if so can you post me the link where i can get the firmware? imma really itching to kill some of them monsters again! hehe thanks much!
Author: Warzone900
Date: Apr 26, 12 at 9:33am (PST)
Subject: re: What's the best CFW for MHP3rd??
I'm running PRO-B10 with MPH3rd English patched ISO.
Probably shouldn't be talking about it in a public forum, but it works for me.
All links are in the description, the tutorial is actually for PRO-B9, but its the same process and the link in the description has been updated to PRO-B10.
For the ISO just search it on the PSP ISO website.
^ How to play ISO and CSO files.
Copyright Neo Era Media, Inc. 1999-2016.
All Rights Reserved.


text:
So the time has come.
The time when I start to begin again and stand up. The time when I realize that I, in the end, am somebody's half and so do him. The time when I reinstall the trust I've put before and long gone. The time when I smile and ask myself why. The time when I realize that love might be the answer of the 'why's.
Am I too blind to fall in love again?
Is he really the right person to fall in love with?
Or is it just a game of The Cupid, before he turn the arrow to the other direction?
For a moment, I barely don't care.


text:
Title: "Don't Worry; Be Happy"
Post by: Rod Knoll, blogger on February 28, 2010, 09:31:26 PM
There is a new and very comprehensive article from the Perth Group (http://www.theperthgroup.com) which ties together many issues, including an approach for treatment for those who register "positive" and those who've been diagnosed with so-called "AIDS". Sadly, in addition to being ignored by most orthodox "AIDS" researchers and clinicians, this approach also is being ignored by many leading dissidents who seem to espouse a "Don't Worry; Be Happy" approach to "positivity".
The article is a response by the Perth Group to this open letter (http://www.tig.org.za/Franchi_to_PG.htm) sent to them by Italian clinician Dr. Fabio Franchi. It is at:
and it can also be downloaded from the original at:
It's interesting that the head of the Perth Group (http://www.theperthgroup.com) "has been officially instructed not to come into any contact with any AIDS patient, including any who may approach" them.
The following is from two Italian activists-one male and one female-who are aligned with the Perth Group:
A 29 year old Italian homosexual with a steady relationship with another homosexual who had been previously married and had never had any another homosexual relationship was diagnosed HIV positive. He and his mother, an obstetrician, read Heinrich Kremer's book, and even though he had been in hospital with PCP for some months, he refused to take either antiretrovirals or antibiotics.
His mother travelled to Florence to ask the two Italian activists for advice. The female activist sent the mother an email advising that her son should be treated for his PCP in an orthodox way.
The mother never told either activist that she and her son had seen Dr. Fabio Franchi.
After some months, she emailed the male activist telling him that her son had decided to take antiretrovirals and that he was fine and had put on 9 kilos. Some months later, she emailed the same activist again telling him that her son's partner had also been diagnosed HIV positive and that this also confirmed to her a virus had to be involved.
According to Fabio, this example shows very well what is going on: patients go where they believe they can have better results in terms of health outcomes, and they then compare their experiences with the rival theories, and they reach the same conclusions as the 29 year old homosexual and his mother.
Fabio says the mistake many dissidents make, especially the Duesbergians (but also Kremer and Stefan Lanka, etc) is that if it were up to them, those patients should be left to die untreated, and this has happened many times. Fabio thinks this is why the dissident movement hasn't been very successful.
Franchi says that the above case is a perfect example, and that he mentioned similar cases about twelve years ago to Duesberg, Kremer, Lanka, Joan Shenton, Hector Gildemeister and other people. But he was ignored or told they suspected he had been bought by a pharmaceutical company.
Keeping in mind the ideas discussed in the articles linked above, I feel compelled to repeat the warning that is on our home page and note that we do NOT endorse or advocate any "advice", information or content that is found on any other web sites or internet venues-including all other sites that are "dissident" in origin- that are not a part of the "theperthgroup.com" or "tig.org.za" domain names.
In addition, it is clear that, when left to their own devices, many dissidents are just not bright enough to grasp this information, much of which is very technical. Instead, confusion seems rampant among dissidents (see this message: http://www.tig.org.za/index.php?topic=3.0 for an example).
Lastly, those who feel that they possess a deeper than average interest in all of these differences among the various dissident scientists should also take the time to review THIS ARTICLE (http://tig.org.za/EPE_SEP14.pdf) as well as all of the supporting documents that are linked in it.
For important companion pieces to this message, we recommend that you read this message (http://www.tig.org.za/index.php?topic=32.0) and this message (http://www.tig.org.za/index.php?topic=53.0).
1. http://www.tig.org.za/index.php?topic=25.0
2. http://www.tig.org.za/index.php?topic=4.0
3. http://www.tig.org.za/index.php?topic=46.0
(click here for previous discussion (http://www.tig.org.za/index.php?topic=29.0))
(click here for next discussion (http://www.tig.org.za/index.php?topic=25.0))
(click here to view a list of all discussions (http://www.tig.org.za/index.php?board=1.0))