Monday, November 28, 2011

MD Whistleblower: Fecal DNA for Colon Cancer Screening and ...

It?s Saturday morning, and I?m in an undisclosed location drinking a fabulous cup of coffee while turning the pages of The New York Times, knowing that ink and newsprint will be vanishing too soon. Yes, I do have an iPad now, but I haven?t figured out how to blog on it. Any suggestions?

Buried in the first section of the paper is an article on stool, which in my view as a gastro specialist, should have merited front page placement. Yes, we all know the adage, ?one?s man?s trash is another man?s treasure?, but stool - as in excrement - should be prized by everyone. Perhaps, as a gastroenterologist, I have a jaundiced view on this issue, which explains my dyspeptic reaction.

All Whistleblower posts have an accompanying image, and I wonder what visual would be appropriate here.? I opted against my first choice, and chose instead?a photo of our beloved Labrador Retriever, Shoshie, of blessed memory.

The Times reported a new program to trace canine unscooped poop back to Spot?s owner. Several apartment complexes around the country are now participating. All dogs residing there will submit a DNA sample that will be forwarded to data base. Hopefully, the mailing containers will be secure. It is not clear if a fecal sample can be acquired without obtaining canine informed consent, documented with a paw print, but until the courts rule on this issue, doggie cheek swabbing will continue.

Here?s how it works. If a pedestrian steps in the wrong place, as in ?glitch?, then a sample from the bottom of the soiled shoe can be mailed to the Turd Squad to determine if there is a DNA match in the data base. If a connection is made, then the pet?s owner will be properly shamed and sanctioned.

Of course, howls of protest will erupt from barking pet owners who will challenge the company?s scientific credentials, or will claim that they were set up by landlords who were seeking back rent. Hey, Dick Wolf, is there a new version of Law and Order Here? How ?bout, Law and Order: Excremental Intent?

I love seeing gastroenterology making an important difference in people?s lives.

Fecal DNA, I anticipate, will be doing much more for us than keeping our sidewalks a little cleaner. This technology may be the force that transforms colonoscopy from its position as the premier instrument to investigate the colon and to prevent colon cancer into a museum piece. I suspect that that this transformation will occur sooner than we all think.

While the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has not approved fecal DNA testing for colon cancer screening, professional societies including The American Cancer Society, the U.S. Multi-Society Task Force on Colon Cancer and The American College of Radiology all endorse stool DNA testing as a screening alternative.

In the coming years, there will be a parking lot rumble among?competitors who will argue that their colon cancer screening is best. I think screening colonoscopy has some good years left, but this is not the future. Fecal DNA promises to be one mean screening machine.

Source: http://mdwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2011/11/fecal-dna-for-colon-cancer-screening.html

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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Five Best Recipe Organization Tools [Hive Five]

Five Best Recipe Organization Tools Keeping digital copies of all of your hand-written recipes, favorite recipes from cookbooks, and other dishes you find on the web can be a difficult task, and there are plenty of tools to help you do it. We asked you which tools you used to manage your collection of hand-me-down recipes and favorite recent finds. Here's a look at the top five, based on your nominations.

Photo by Robert Couse-Baker.

Earlier in the week, we asked you which recipe organization tools you used to keep your collection in check but still get quick access to it when you're in the kitchen and need to know what to do next. You responded, and despite there being an entire industry of apps and services that get the job done, many of your favorites are multi-taskers.

Five Best Recipe Organization Tools

Springpad

Springpad doesn't just clip items from the web, it also lets you quickly and easily add almost anything to your Springpad account, including hand-written notes, scanned documents, photos, entire web sites, and more. Plus, it organizes all of your items for you, and lets you quickly save a web site with a recipe on it and automatically add it to a collection of recipes you already have, complete with useful links and reference information that can help you when it comes time to start cooking. Plus, Springpad is available via webapp or mobile app on iOS and Android.


Five Best Recipe Organization Tools

Google Docs

Google Docs isn't really built to organize anything, but for many of you, it gets the job done when it comes to keeping your recipes together. Entering new recipes is as easy as starting a new document and typing it in, and saving recipes from the web is a copy/paste operation. Save them all in Collections based on dish, ingredient, source, or any other criteria you choose, and since Google Docs is a webapp, you can get to it anywhere, on any device, whether you're in the kitchen with your tablet or sitting at your desktop computer. Plus, it's completely free.


Five Best Recipe Organization Tools

Paprika

The only actual recipe management app in the top five, Paprika is available for Mac OS, iPad, and iPhone, and will set you back $19.99 for the Mac app, and $4.99 for the iOS app. Paprika is built to handle recipes, so the application has multiple views to help you see all of the recipes at once while you scroll through the steps, view large photos of the dish you're making, and a built-in web browser to scrub recipes from your favorite cooking and food sites. The app also helps you manage your grocery list, and can turn your recipes into a shopping list so you can pick up what you need to cook the meal you're planning. Plus, the app makes it easy to add and edit recipes, and will sync your recipes to the cloud so you can access them on other devices.


Five Best Recipe Organization Tools

Evernote

Evernote is the quintessential "save it from the web for easy reference" utility, and a number of you mentioned you also use Evernote for recipes. It makes sense: Evernote is easy to use, available for free on almost every platform including Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, and the Evernote webapp, in case you don't want to install anything. All of your devices are kept in sync, and while Evernote doesn't have any tools specifically to help you organize recipes, it does let you create notebooks based on categories you choose, makes it easy to clip and save anything from the web, including recipes, and can share those items with friends easily.


Five Best Recipe Organization Tools

Dropbox

Dropbox is a great file syncing and storage solution, but a few of you said that it's great for managing and sharing recipes as well. All you have to do is create a directory in your Dropbox public folder and create as many documents in that folder as you choose. Copy/paste any recipes you find on the web to documents and store them there, Create new documents with recipes you want access to in multiple places, and as long as they're all in your public folder, you can access them anywhere, whether you log in to Dropbox or not. Otherwise, you can just leave them all in a folder and get at them from any internet connected device, or your smartphone or tablet with the Dropbox app installed. Plus, it's free, and you likely already have an account.


Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to put them to an all out vote.

Honorable mentions this week go out to YummySoup, a feature-rich and customizable recipe manager for Mac that lets you organize your recipes, add them easily and import them from the web, share them with friends, and create categories and lists to organize them. Also worth mentioning is the previously mentioned KeepRecipes, a great webapp that makes it easy to import recipes from other web sites, connect with other food lovers who are busy posting and sharing their own recipes, and even offers an iOS app so you can access them on the go or in the kitchen.

It's interesting that with so many recipe apps and utilities on the market that the top five are tools that do more than just manage recipes. Have another you'd like to mention, or something about one of the contenders you want to say? Let's hear it in the comments below.


You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ZSeZFNQKSPc/five-best-recipe-organization-tools

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