A new abstract at the recent ATS congress now clears the 2007 controversy between the Camargo and Gale studies on the effect of vitamin D: Wheezing is not asthma (as the atopy component is missing?). Continue reading Not all that wheezes is asthma
Enough for today, some more relevant now
CF and PHP at the same time
For a clinical research project I need a fast webserver that understands both COLD FUSION (for the existing database stuff) and PHP (for dokuwiki). As this is a non-commercial project, I decided for the RAILO 2.0 community version that works right out of the box as it includes the Resin webserver and the H2 database as well. Following some recommendations found on the net, php is running now with with the fastcgi option showing good acceptable performance with eAccelerator.
php.cmd
|wj_php.cmd|
German Science blogging
The German blogosphere is now being mapped but with a few exceptions German science blogging doesn’ play a major role (in contrast to knitting that shows a large cluster Continue reading German Science blogging
CD 14 now also on the vitamin+allergy list
Just for curiosity I am collecting a list of allergy genes that are vitamin D dependent. The list is already rather long but now there is a prominent addition: CD14. Known as asthma gene for many years the vitamin D dependency isn’t such clear. A clever analysis, however, now shows that there is an intermediate step involved Continue reading CD 14 now also on the vitamin+allergy list
Placebo for placebo
or “Do placebo responders exist?” is a remarkable new review by researcher from the Harvard Medical School. I always wondered about the sheer size of the placebo effect (and its perception as nuisance parameter). The authors simply ask the question
… this paper also examines the evidence for the existence of a consistent placebo responder, i.e. a person who responds to placebo in one situation will respond in another condition or using a different type of placebo ritual….
Suggestibility is a human trait, yea, yea.
Vitamin D as an adjuvans to specific immunotherapy
Despite the known allergy promoting effect of vitamin D in early childhood, there is mounting evidence that it may have beneficial effects during specific immunotherapy. A paper on “IL-10-inducing adjuvants enhance sublingual immunotherapy efficacy in a murine asthma model” by researchers from a French allergen company Continue reading Vitamin D as an adjuvans to specific immunotherapy
Genome Browser now with GADview track
Just reveived an email from the creators of the Genetic Association Database (GAD)
… Your published genetic association study has been included in the recent update of the NIH based, Genetic Association Database (GAD), the database of human genetic association studies. Continue reading Genome Browser now with GADview track
Orientation of genomic sequence and SNP allele designation
… permanently leading to errors – the plus / minus strand orientation and the consecutive sequence / allele designation of SNPs. Only recently I came across a fancy way how to define strand direction – from a tech note Continue reading Orientation of genomic sequence and SNP allele designation
Better suited to a more specialist journal
How many times did you hear that from an editor? At least I hear it 5 times every year … But have you ever heard of journal saying this is paper better suited to a more general journal? Never! So, this is a never ending loop, yea, yea.
Trans-border LD?
Occasionally I see high R^2 values even between linkage disequilibrium blocks. The following plot was obtained from the German asthma family study; basically a haploview screenshot rescaled and inverted before using the Photoshop polar filter. Continue reading Trans-border LD?
A catholic view of science
Following the protestantic view of science here are some thoughts that I found in the new book by Benedetto XVI aka Joseph Ratzinger “Jesus von Nazareth”. Rationality as divine gift? Yes, Benedict follows the Historical Critical Method but wants to reconcile it with revelation that is not accessible to logical arguments. While it is not a book on science Continue reading A catholic view of science
Allergy School
Here is the announcement of an allergy meeting in London (where I will be too :-). Continue reading Allergy School
Women explained
I am not sure if my count of sequenced individuals is correct. While the Human Genome Project and Celera used a DNA mix for their draft version of the human genome, the next genomes were provided by Watson and Venter. Numer 4 to 12 were Continue reading Women explained
Open peer review – publish first, review later
c’t 10.2008:82-89 has a nice article about open peer review “Die Weisheit der Massen” summarizing the current peer review process – the top line of the cartoon below. Following submission of a paper, it is initially screened for some formal requirements before being submitted to anonymous peer review and finally being published. Anonymous peer review lasts between 2 months and 2 years (!) and is abbreviated so far only by one biomedical journal Continue reading Open peer review – publish first, review later