Saturday News

Contents of This Week Saturday News:

• Headline - Google Search & Knowledge Graph/Vault
• Eclectic - Many articles from many Guest Bloggers about Stroke
• Another Hole-in-the-Heart Resource
• Chiropractors and Strokes: A Sometimes Twosome, aka It All Started with a Grocer
• And Now I am a Criminal!
• Survivor Guilt
• Google As a Medical Diagnostic Tool
• Google to Apply Expertise to Health and Aging Project
• Typing Practice
• Surgery - Gall bladder
• Kinesio Taping Reviewed
• Gluteus Maximus
• New Years Resolutions
• How Therapists and Caregivers Become Experts in Aphasia and Dysarthria Therapy
• #strokerecovery tweetchats 4pm London Time 13th January 2015 – Here’s why…
• "Instant Gratification and How It May Hurt You” OR "It Works Great (and That's the Problem)”
• Weekly Columnists
• Sunday Stroke Survival: Search Engines
• Jackie The Jester: A New Store That Sells Husbands
• TED Talks - Jeremy Howard: The Wonderful and Terrifying Implications of Computers That Can Learn
• Rick Mercer Report: Rick and Face-First Rappelling
• Laid-Back Administration: With Google Search
• Daily Comics: FB Or FW, Dilbert, Mayes, Doonesbury

Definition: Google Search & Knowledge Graph/Vault

SSTattler: 

1. Google Search based in ALL THE WORDS of  ALL THE DOCUMENT(S) of THE (PUBLIC) EARTH and approximate 200+ parameters. "Google has repeatedly gone on record saying that they want to evolve from a search engine to a knowledge engine, where they can rank content according to intent rather than straight keyword matching.” See Return On Now and The Knowledge Graph.
2. Look at the sample SSTattler Guest Bloggers said:
1. My trusty Google alert flagged another information resource...
2. Just Google "neck adjustment stroke" for the hell of it...
3. We got home was google "Fentanyl drug screen" and...
4. But a quick google search on survivor guilt turns up...
5. However, it appears that Google Search is playing an important role...
6. Google has already had an immeasurable effect on our home lives...
7. A quick Google search on typing programs will yield plenty...
8. I should search Deans blog for more current research...
9. All sorts of search engines from the low end like Google to the high end...
10. From e-mail: Now health professionals and patients refer to Google Searches
    as “Consulting Dr. Google”.

 

Google Search From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Google Search, commonly referred to as Google Web Search or just Google, is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. It is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, handling more than three billion searches each day.

The order of search on Google's search-results pages is based, in part, on a priority rank called a "PageRank". Google Search provides many different options for customized search, using Boolean operators such as: exclusion ("-xx"), alternatives ("xx OR yy OR zz"), and wildcards ("Winston * Churchill" returns "Winston Churchill", "Winston Spencer Churchill", etc.) The same and other options can be specified in a different way on an Advanced Search page.

The main purpose of Google Search is to hunt for text in publicly accessible documents offered by web servers, as opposed to other data, such as image or database search. It was originally developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997. Google Search provides several features beyond searching for words. These include synonyms, weather forecasts, time zones, stock quotes, maps, earthquake data, movie showtimes, airports, home listings, and sports scores. There are special features for numbers, dates, and some specific forms, including ranges, prices, temperatures, money and measurement unit conversions, calculations, package tracking, patents, area codes, and language translation. In June 2011 Google introduced "Google Voice Search" to search for a spoken, rather than typed, word. In May 2012 Google introduced a Knowledge Graph semantic search feature in the U.S.

Analysis of the frequency of search terms may indicate economic, social and health trends. Data about the frequency of use of search terms on Google have been shown to correlate with flu outbreaks and unemployment levels, and provide the information faster than traditional reporting methods and surveys.

Video: Google Search & Knowledge Graph/Vault

How Google Makes Improvements to its Search Algorithm

Uploaded on Aug 24, 2011

Here's a short video we put together that gives you a sense of the work that goes into the changes and improvements we make to Google almost every day. While an improvement to the algorithm may start with a creative idea, it always goes through a process of rigorous scientific testing.

http://www.google.com/insidesearch

Standard YouTube License @ Google

Eclectic Stuff

Definition: Eclectic(noun) a person who derives ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.

Another Hole-in-the-Heart Resource

Jeff Porter
Stroke of Faith

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

My trusty Google alert flagged another information resource about a common heart defect that is suspected to lead to strokes under certain conditions.

The defect -- called a patent foramen ovale -- is a hole between the upper chambers of the heart. Everybody is born with the hole, which normally is closed shortly after birth. For previous entries on my own experience, you can click here, here or here.

The latest one is from iVillage Total Health (click here to read the article) and covers the basic facts about the defect, symptoms (which are usually nonexistent) and diagnosis, treatment and good questions for your doctor.

The site is limited but has some video and other explanatory content that might help in your search for information.

See the original article:

Another Hole-in-the-Heart Resource

in

Stroke of Faith

Chiropractors and Strokes: A Sometimes Twosome, aka It All Started with a Grocer

Joyce Hoffman
The Tales of a Stroke Patient

Jan 7, 2014

I once went to a chiropractor. I thought he was nuts, and I thought I was nuts to let him manipulate my neck. So it didn't happen. He charged me 95 bucks for an evaluation because only in certain limited circumstances is chiropractic covered by insurance. Before I reveal the relationship between chiropractors and strokes, it's background time, to put chiropractors, bless their crazy, little hearts, in proper perspective.

D.D. Palmer, a teacher, grocery man, and magnetic healer who once said that manipulation is the cure for all diseases for the human race, founded chiropractic medicine in 1895, attempting to merge science and metaphysics, i.e., an offshoot of philosophy that studies the bottom-line structure of reality, or from Merriam Webster's dictionary, "of that which is real, insofar as it is real," and based on its tenets of naturalism, magnetism, spiritualism, voo-doo (just kidding about the voo-doo), and other things that couldn't be proved by scientific methodology. Palmer's chiropractic treatise on spinal manipulation likened the body to a machine whose disguishable parts could be aligned and ultimately fixed, using no drugs.

Calling himself a self-proclaimed doctor, "Dr." D.D. Palmer built a magnetic healing facility in Davenport, Iowa, upsetting a writer at a local paper who said, "His victims are the weak-minded, ignorant and superstitious, those foolish people who have been sick for years and have become tired of the regular physician and want health by the short-cut method…he has certainly profited by the ignorance of his victims…. His increase in business shows what can be done in Davenport, even by a quack."

And Now I am a Criminal!

Diane
The Pink House On The Corner

Sunday, June 16, 2013

So we went to see the Pain Management doctor last week. Well, not the doctor--we never see the doctor--we pay $35.00 which is the co-pay for a doctor/specialist, but we always see the Physician's Assistant instead. I tell you, Pain Management is a racket.

Anyway, we are waiting for the PA to come in and it seems to be taking longer than usual for her to show up. Finally, she comes in and I can tell something is wrong. Because usually she is a pretty cheerful gal. That day, she has this look on her face which was anything but pleasant.

Then she says, "We have a problem with Robert's urine screen. And the doctor is VERY UPSET!"

OK, about then, I am just pretty shocked.

And she goes on, "There is no Fentanyl in his urine screen." Then she sort of glares at me....

And I'm thinking, huh? And then, I think, oh Ha ha! because I'm thinking she said "Phenergan" which is another drug Bob was taking at one time, but I took him off it. The reason I took him off of it is because I had read somewhere that Phenergan can cause/contribute to cervical dystonia. And I thought maybe being off that drug would help his neck. It didn't, but, by the same token, I didn't see any difference between Bob on Phenergan than Bob off Phenergan, so I figured why take a drug that's not doing anything?

So, I start to tell her this, I say, "That's because I took him off--" and she interrupts me.

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!! NOT WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!!"

Survivor Guilt

Robin
Rocky Mountain Stroke Survivor

May 6, 2013

Sounds odd to have survivor guilt over something as personal as a stroke.  But a quick google search on survivor guilt turns up an article from The Brain Tumor Society on survivor guilt, so I must not be alone.  By definition, survivor guilt is experienced by those in life threatening situations who have survived.  There is an implied comparison.

It is because of this implied comparison that I experience survivor guilt at least three times a week.  On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, I do various therapies with a group of stroke survivors, all of whom are worse off than me.  Some have aphasia so severe that they have difficulty carrying on a simple conversation.  Many have one limb that they can’t move.  Some have difficulty walking.  Only a few are able to drive.  I see them and feel guilty for coming through my strokes as well as I have.  I can drive…though not on the freeway.  I can work…even if it’s only for a couple hours at a time.  I can appear totally normal, function as a physician, and am even taking dance classes for part of my PT.  How can I possibly complain or grieve my situation when a slightly different location for my ischemia could have resulted in their lives instead of mine?

I know they are comparing too.  They ask questions about how long it’s been since my stroke, why I can use both arms, what I can and can’t do.  I’ve learned to answer with some variation on, “I’m very blessed, the stroke was posterior, in my cerebellum, so I can do things, just not in a coordinated way.  It makes it hard for me to live a normal life but I’m still blessed.”

Google As a Medical Diagnostic Tool

Bill Yates
Brain Posts

20th October 2010

My Google Reader accidentally picked up an intriguing abstract that examined a research study of resources that medical students use in solving diagnostic cases.  The abstract was picked up because it contained the word “exercise” that is one of my PubMed filter queries.  Although we often think that most diagnostic decision-making occurs from learned information stored in physician’s brains, information resources can be very helpful.  What information resources are medical students using to help them with the diagnostic process?

Graber and colleagues asked this question and designed a learning experiment.  One hundred and seventeen medical students were presented a challenging case and asked to provide their top three diagnoses as well as listing all the resources they used and the helpfulness of each resource.  This experiment occurred as part of a examination of the web-based decision support system known as Isabel.  The top six most used resources (and the percent of medical students who used the resource in the experiment) were:

• Medical books (73%)
• Google (70%)
• Other students (69%)
• Journals (49%)
• Residents and attending (29%)
• Isabel (28%)

Google to Apply Expertise to Health and Aging Project

Dean Reinke
Deans’ Stroke Musing

Monday, September 23, 2013

I have to figure out how to contact them to see if they might take on some of the functions one would expect a stroke association to do - Google to Apply Expertise to Health and Aging Project.

Google has already had an immeasurable effect on our home lives and work, with its big data work and technological development. Their products may have an indirect effect on the health and well-being of the working population, but now the company is planning a new venture that will tackle health-related issues directly.

A new company founded by Google, called Calico, will investigate new health technologies and approach the issue of aging, and it's been driven by one of Google's founders own health problems.

Larry Page has spoken publically about how much health and aging affect family life - and it's the drive from senior levels of the organisation which has brought their new venture to life.

Google Inc., operator of the world’s most-popular search engine, is investing in a new company focused on health and well-being. 

The business, called Calico, will address the challenge of aging and related diseases, Google said in a blog posting. The venture will be led by Arthur Levinson, chairman of Roche Holding AG Genentech unit and a former Google director. 

The focus on health, which Google Chief Executive Officer Larry Page acknowledged was a “lot different from what Google does today,” comes as the co-founder himself battles with personal ailments. Earlier this year, he disclosed he was diagnosed with left vocal-cord paralysis, a condition that restricts vocal-cord movement, and is also experiencing impairment on the right side. 

“Illness and aging affect all our families,” Page said in the posting. “With some longer term, moonshot thinking around health care and biotechnology, I believe we can improve millions of lives.” 

Google is stepping up investments in areas outside its core online-advertising and consumer-services business. The search provider has already put money into health-related companies through its venture arm, called Google Ventures, among other sectors. The Mountain View, California-based company has also worked on longer-term bets through a research unit that’s unveiled plans for computerized eyeglasses and driverless cars.

See the original article:

Google to Apply Expertise to Health and Aging Project

in

Deans' Stroke Musing

Typing Practice

Pamela Hsieh
Rehab Revolution

22 April 2010

For those of you like me who struggle with returning to two-handed typing, a good idea apart from simply typing with both hands whenever you use the computer is to find a good program for the computer made for training people to type in general. I use a program called aTypeTrainer4Mac, which is obviously only for Mac users, but a quick Google search on typing programs will yield plenty of results. I just tested myself on my typing speed, which single-handedly without looking is apparently 77 wpm (words per minute), and bimanually is 24 wpm with looking. Quite a significant difference! I'll have to retest myself in a week or so and track improvements.

I believe with aTypeTrainer4Mac you can set "level" priorities to emphasize your quality and quantity, and you may also copy texts or just type the random series of letters they choose for you. Another nice feature is that it automatically records logs of your sessions.

Mine for today looks like this:

Round & CPM/WPM
  1. 103/20
  2. 116/23
  3. 109/21
  4. 108/21
  5. 122/22
  6. 133/26
  7. 96/19
  8. 109/21
  9. 120/24
10. 129/25

So, a little all over the place. But the nice thing about the randomly generated letters/characters is that they tend to alternate hands, something I've been told is neurologically stimulating (bilateral alternation).

Going to do this once a day for a week to see if it yields results. I'll keep you posted. Good luck to you, too!

To our healing,
Pamela

See the original article:

Typing Practice

in

Rehab Revolution

Surgery - Gall bladder

Andrea
A Year of Living In My Head

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

I need my gall bladder removed.  Since the stroke I have dozens of little stones that have formed in it, and cannot be on any statins because they give me an attack.  (Doctor point of contention "There are no studies that show statins cause gall stones").  Well, doctors. When you put me on statins they give me an attack. When I don't take statins, the attacks stop unless I do something like, say, for instance, eat a brownie. A big one. Or down something cooked with lots of dairy.

Since I am "getting" the importance of being on a statin as a preventative, it is better for me to do this surgery when I am still relatively young with minimal health issues at this point.  (Do I really get to say that with a stroke and deadish head tumor floating around in my head -- I am saying it anyway). The stones may have been caused by my sudden diet change or weight loss (35 pounds over a year, no more any fried foods or burgers...75% less meat consumption) and in some ways it does not matter. A gall bladder attack is something I am getting very tired of.  Hours on the bathroom floor worshipping the white ceramic toilet.  Absolutely hands-down an unthrilling stomach venture.  And they always happen at night, so it pretty much wipes out the next day.

My Mom's Day present from the kids this year.

Unrelated milestone I passed... the two year mark since the stroke.  It is true, the first year was the sketchiest.  I went to the hospital for more weird episodic head stuff than I have in the last 9 months.  It seems like things have stabilized. For my age and demographic, three years is the mark of going back down to only having a 3%  risk of recurrent stroke (10 times greater than the non-stroked general population), rather than 30%.  I should search Deans blog for more current research than 20+ year old stuff out of England but I liked what this one said.  I am a person that likes to know things, but truly the data on strokes is heavy, depressing, and hopeless sounding.  I went to a very dark place post-stroke because of how it was presented (and having many in the health care industry visibly give up on preventative health care for me) like I had one foot in the grave. Technically, we all are going to the same place, so that is a ridiculous attitude to have.  I am glad (?) maybe not the right word, to know what my body has a propensity for so I can manage my life better.  And, I get to say that, because, really, what choice do I have?

See the original article:

Surgery - Gall bladder

in

A Year of Living In My Head

Kinesio Taping Reviewed

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

January 4, 2015

A subluxed shoulder is painful because the upper arm (humerus) has slipped out of the shoulder socket.  Subluxation is rated by how many fingers you can fit in the space created by this abnormal shoulder separation.  I had a one finger subluxation so the hospital staff put a small lap tray that slid over one armrest of my wheelchair.  I made sure the staff put the tray on every day because I knew nerve damage can occur if nerves in the shoulder are stretched too much.

The lap tray could not support my shoulder when I walked and did exercises while sitting on a mat table.  My shoulder ached constantly during these times until my OT bound it up with Kinesio tape. This wide tape provides support but is stretchy enough to allow movement.  I wore the tape 24 hours a day - even in the shower.  It eventually came lose and had to be replaced every third day.

Hanger and associates found stroke survivors who had their hemiplegic shoulder Kinesio taped had less shoulder pain (1).  The improvement got very close to statistical significance (p = 0.11 instead of the required 0.10) because some people were helped while others were not.  I am glad Kinesio tape worked for me because having a subluxed shoulder felt like someone had punched my arm very hard. The only thing that made that constant ache go away was Kinesio tape.

1.  Hanger H, Whitewood P, Brown G, Ball M, Harper J, Cox R, Sainsbury R. A randomized controlled trial of strapping to prevent post-stroke shoulder pain. Clinical Rehabilitation. 2000;14(4):370-380.

See the original article:

Kinesio Taping Reviewed

in

Home After a Stroke

Gluteus Maximus

Amy Shissler
My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

January 1, 2015

Happy New year.  Since 2014 has been called “the year of the rear,” I thought this was appropriate.  I think I’ve written about something like this before but here goes again….Yesterday I had a yoga lesson and was in the cobra position that looks like this(this is called a prone press up in the physical therapy world)….

http://sharingdisana.com/2013/03/01/7-pose-terbaik-yoga-yang-memperkecil-perut/(this site is in a different language and I have no idea what language it is)

So I was in the position and noticed that my butt was clenched.  So I internally rotated my hips.  Ok, here’s what that means and why I did that.  Part of the job of the gluteus maximus, the main butt muscle, is to externally(laterally) rotate the hips.  That means rotating your thigh outward which will point your toes outward.

http://www.mendmeshop.co.uk/muscle/groin-anatomy.php

If you do the opposite, the muscle will be shut off.  If a muscle can’t do all of its actions, it does none of its actions.  So internal(medial) rotation of the hips shuts off the gluteus maximus and since I purposely did the opposite action of what the gluteus maximus is supposed to do, my butt unclenched.  Muscles are very passive aggressive that way.

See the original article:

Gluteus Maximus

in

My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

New Years Resolutions

Sas Freeman

January 5, 2015

We find ourselves a couple of days into a new year, Christmas already a distant past and people talking of new year’s resolutions, some feeling guilty for over indulging over the festive period.

It is a time when people everywhere ask what New Year’s resolutions each of us have made and either we have made the same old ones promised each January 1st forgotten by about the 5th, or we have to suddenly try and pluck an idea from thin air as the only way, to move the conversation onto something else.

As stroke survivors why don’t we instead, decide to reflect on everything we have achieved in the past year, on each small achievement and create a list of our recovery progress.

Keep this list somewhere so we can often glance at it and at times we forget our achievements take it out again, so we can begin the year in a personal positive frame of mind.

Achievement Box

Then this year, start a progress or achievement box by wrapping a shoebox in a pretty paper and fix the lid so that it cannot be opened. If you are not able to manage yourself ask someone else to do it for you. In the top cut out a tiny opening to allow little pieces of paper to be posted inside.

Call it your ‘goals reached’ or ‘achievement box’, whatever means something to you. Every time you achieve a task you are aiming towards this year, write it on a slip of paper and posts it into your pretty goals box. For example if you manage to make a drink on your own for the first time without help, simply write ‘made first drink’, if you like you can even date it. Do this throughout the whole year.

On New Year ’s Day 2016 have a glass of your favourite drink open your personal achievement box and celebrate YOU – your achievements through this year.

Happy Healthy 2015 fellow survivors

See the original article:

New Years Resolutions

in

Sas Freeman

How Therapists and Caregivers Become Experts in Aphasia and Dysarthria Therapy

Mark Ittleman
Teaching of Talking

Jan 8th / 2015

“And then I watched her perform the speech and language stimulation and it looked like I was doing it, and noticing she had a certain confidence and was doing really good work!   Then I realized it wasn’t me, it was the person I mentored.”
-Ittleman 2005-

The other day I was working with a caregiver whose son had been in a motor vehicle accident.  He was left with an apraxia, dysarthria, and an expressive aphasia.  For the layperson or student, he had difficulty articulating accurately, even with intensive articulation stimulation.  The words he was having difficulty with had to be broken down into individual syllables, and articulator placement stimulation had to be done before the actual attempt at speaking.

When I was a speech pathology student it was always a cardinal rule that placement of the articulators was a prerequisite prior to verbal production of the target sound or the phoneme.  Correct articulation of a sound is often rather simple to stimulate with many clients if they have a good “eye” and “ear,” but with this young man the speech model a.k.a. therapist had to break a complex word down into syllables and assure the sounds within those syllables were said accurately.   Even though this young adult had a moderate to severe apraxia, he was stimulable to produce words accurately if the correct principles of articulation therapy were followed.

But that’s not the point of this article.  This young man also had a severe expressive aphasia and receptive language component.  That means he had severe trouble finding the words he wanted to express in addition to severe difficulty comprehending spoken language when it was directed to him in rapid succession; typical of the way normal speakers communicate with machine gun-like speech rate.

#strokerecovery tweetchats 4pm London Time 13th January 2015 – Here’s why…

Kate Allatt
Stroke Recovery Tips

January 2, 2015

Stroke is global healthcare problem. In developed countries, it is the third or fourth most common cause of death.  However as 80% or more people now survive the initial stroke, the largest effect of stroke is through the long-term residual difficulties, daily living activity limitations and reduced social participation/interactivity.  Stroke is the main cause of adult disability.  Physical and emotional  impairments from stroke affect the whole family, not just the person with stroke.

Most stroke survivors and their families want get on with the rest of their lives after stroke —in other words their goal is #strokerecovery. This doesn’t not mean the stroke survivor or family will fully recover like they were pre-stroke. Rather, our #strokerecovery tweetchat aims to practically advise, help and inspire people to make progress in the daily living activities, socially and professionally.   This includes motor, communicative, cognitive and emotional recovery. In other words, it is possible for  stroke survivors and their families can live satisfying lives with impairments.

What is #strokerecovery ?

#strokerecovery is a vibrant community of people interested in exploring stroke recovery in for themselves and in stroke recovery. Sharing, learning & improving from each other.

Our first chat is held on 13th January 2015 at 4pm London time.

Why #strokerecovery ?

"Instant Gratification and How It May Hurt You” OR"It Works Great (and That's the Problem)"

Peter G. Levine
Stronger After Stroke

Monday, December 29, 2014

You want to eliminate drop foot?
Use an AFO, done!

You want the elbow to straighten?
Tap the triceps, done!

You want the hand to stay open?
Put a splint on, done!

You want to improve balance?
Give 'em a walker, done!

You want to have them talk better?
Give them a language aid, done!

You them to swallow better?
Feed them thickened liquids, done!

In every case, and many more, short-term "instant gratification" often gets in the way of a more complete recovery.

Why and How?

Weekly Columnists

Sunday Stroke Survival: Search Engines

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Sunday, January 4, 2015

But how can I find it?

Your brain is the vault of all knowledge. Everything you've experienced, seen, done, read, smelled, and touched is in there somewhere. Similar to computers, the brain has both Random Access Memory and long term data storage. So what can be done when the brain is damaged by a stroke or other mechanism of injury to the brain? How do you recall or search for data that you know is in there?

For the computer, there are all sorts of search engines from the low end like Google to the high end like Knowledge Vault or Knowledge Graph. Each has similar features but the high end is what you want for the ultimate data searches. All you need to do is plug into the internet.

Would it be so easy for the brain to do the same thing. Unfortunately, there is no such thing. People use many different things to jog their memory. In therapy, it's repetition to maybe wake up pathways in the brain to circumnavigate the damaged areas. Forgetful people leave Post-It notes for themselves or tie a string to their finger. That's all well and good, if it works for you, but that's the problem. What if it doesn't? What do you do then?

My youngest daughter is a TBI (traumatic brain injury) survivor. Similar to me with my stroke, we have no short term memory but have to store all things that we want to remember in long term storage. We also are aphasic which means we have issues with recalling data. Things like words get lost in the shuffle. We can substitute words (although they are not always right) and describe what word we are looking for in detail and let someone else tell us the word (guess, like the game 20 questions), or recall it later and often much later. You can imagine how frustrating this can be.