spickmich.de (for high school) and meinprof.de (for universities) are two large German portal sites that allow a rating of teachers and university professors.
Finally, now several German courts decided that online voting is legal – I wouldn´t believe that 20 years ago but think it will improve teacher student relationship if done in a responsible way.
Galaxy – a must have
Manipulating large SNP datasets has always been a hassle, a lot of cut & paste, quick & dirty database resorts and no documentation after all. Only by the last week, I learned form the ENCODE papers that there is now a web service that helps with all kind of these tasks. Check out Galaxy — a “must have”.
Design flaws plus delivery flaws equal faux conclusions
— the title of a letter in the most recent Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. So there is no need to comment further studies in the same issue. Continue reading Design flaws plus delivery flaws equal faux conclusions
Food for thought
“Wer einmal aus dem Blechnapf frißt” (Fallada) – following my linux box post yesterday here is my lunch box for today. I think it is as good as the Japanese BentÅ box, isn´t it?
My linux box
When starting again analysis of pooled DNA samples – this time on the Affymetrix platform – I discovered not only the much improved “Genotyping Console” but also that my earlier Genepool binaries do not work anymore under VMWARE/Ubuntu. I therefore tried Continue reading My linux box
New DNA sequencing technologies
New DNA sequencing technologies & human genome variation, San Diego, HGVS Meeting (ASHG satellite). From the program
On the road to the € 1,000 human genome sequence, DNA sequencing technology is currently developing at an incredible speed. Although we are still far from the ultimate goal, DNA sequencing cost has already dropped close to the range of € 1,000 per 1 million nucleotides. These developments have tremendous consequences for the number of DNA variants that we will discover, both pathogenic and harmless. To get an up-to-date overview of the technologies behind this revolution, the HGVS has selected DNA sequencing technologies as this year’s special topic for its annual meeting. Speakers from the major players in the field have been invited to explain in detail the different technologies, their strong and weak points and to show some first innovative applications and results using the new sequencing power.
I do not wish to donate organs after death
True or not, there are reports about sale of human organs from prisoners in China (link1, link2) and India (link3). I do not want to be involved in a business where life is being prolonged until multi organ explanation and death being defined by ever changing arbitrary criteria.
I have also a deeply rooted belief about the integrity of the human body – there is natural barrier against organ transplantation both from an immunological and psychological side (cannibalism is a taboo in every human culture). So, I would like to ask doctors in the emergency room to work hard to save my life (as I did also for many years rescuing other lifes).
In case, you want to read more on that topic, please go to an excellent essay in the TAZ. Many other physicians will share my belief, that donation of organs should remain an individual decision.
News about vitamin D’ficiency
“Normal vitamin D status despite of abundant sun exposure” would have been my title for a study in the JCEM this month. The authors, however, have choosen a different title: Continue reading News about vitamin D’ficiency
QQ plot
Do you wonder what QQ means? These are quantile – quantile plots that rank observed test statistics against expected test statistics. They allow a visual inspection of overdispersion due to population substructure or other sources of biases.
QQ plots have been recommended earlier, are now frequently used and available in the snpMatrix R package. Yea, yea.
Protected: ORMDL3 – what?
Can we meet on next Tuesday at 2 pm?
Answering this question always takes me 30 seconds – looking for my mobile and doing some pen strokes OR starting Outlook on the laptop and clicking to the desired week (BTW Sunbird is still in version 0.5). Finally I found a solution that gives me a chance for a response within 3 seconds. Continue reading Can we meet on next Tuesday at 2 pm?
Allergy – everything from fullerenes to cannabis
Allergy research continues to be one of the most active research fields. New studies show that that fullerenes may inhibit the allergic response
Human MC and peripheral blood basophils exhibited a significant inhibition of IgE dependent mediator release when preincubated with C60 fullerenes.
Continue reading Allergy – everything from fullerenes to cannabis
Wer heilt hat recht
This is a German quote – frequently used in the context of alternative medicine – “who heals is right”.
The history of the qutotation is unclear; maybe it is a modification of the Latin “extra ecclesiam salus non est” .
In todays English “the doctor’s always right” (or “might is right”?)
Anyway it is utter nonsense as (1) a healer wants to be successful and not rightful (2) healing (at least on a few occasions) is no proof for the right treatment only fo the good outcome.
Reset temporary system date
To evaluate software that is depends on an expired system date, you may want to use this batch that wraps around calling a program.
rundate.cmd.
|wj_rundate.cmd|
When controls are no controls
So far in epidemiology case – control studies are defined by an approach where
… the past histories of patients (the cases) suffering from the condition of interest are compared to the past histories of persons (the controls) who do not have the condition of interest, but who otherwise resemble the cases in such particulars as age and sex ….
I usually explain controls as non-cases in the same overall environment Continue reading When controls are no controls