Admin Toolbox

I may work in an Immunology Lab, but when you spend your days on the paperwork, you don’t learn a terrible amount about the – you know – science. This is why I seek out anything lay-friendly I can get my hands on. Lately, I’ve been collecting notes on some of the most basic elements of immunology; in this case, it’s been all about blood.

In advance of my attempt to explain it to non-scientists, I offer a quickie introduction to the dreaded Prion. Why is it dreaded?

A prion is a misshapen protein that acts like an infectious agent (hence the name, which comes from the words protein and infection).

Prions cause a number of fatal diseases such as mad cow disease in cattle, scrapie in sheep and kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. There is no cure and potential treatments are highly speculative.

In recent years, however, biologists have discovered several animals that are immune to prion diseases. These include horses, dogs and rabbits. Nobody knows why.

That’s from a recent piece in MIT’s Technology Review.

Basically, proteins fold themselves. Sometimes, they fold themselves poorly, like when I get fancy with paper-airplanes. When this happens, they can become prions, and those things are bad news. A creature infected with such a disease experiences nervous system degeneration.

The University of Ballarat’s Jiapu Zhang thinks he’s on to something:

Zhang has simulated how these proteins change shape as their temperature and pH changes.

His conclusion is that the immune proteins are more stable than the others because of a salt bridge that connects two parts of the immune proteins “like a taught bow string”. This prevents them from misfolding into an infectious form.

So salt could be the answer? All I can say is follow the data. I’d love to learn that someone has duplicated his findings. All kinds of potential problems with our nervous system could be addressed. So, there.

Last Monday, I attended my third Tufte class. You get the whole collection of his books with each class, so I’ve accumulated a mini-library, now. Last time I attended, I put together a supergraphic, a distillation of all my notes.

This time, though, I took my new LiveScribe Echo Smartpen and recorded the whole damned thing. You can view the result below:

Don’t think for one second that this replaces the experience of personal attendance. Among the reasons:

1. The audio is of varying quality (this was my first major outing with the smartpen).
2. You can’t appreciate the visual display elements, which feature prominently in these sessions.
3. You can pose your own questions to Edward (he’s quite friendly).
4. An additional book will probably be out by the time by the next time training rolls around again, which will expand the subjects covered.

By the third class, it’s easy to appreciate how the course contents have been refined. New angles find their way into the seminar. Groups of people can have pow-wows and hammer out ideas around the day’s class. Not that I’ve, you know, done that (I always fly solo at these things), but I do have ears. Plenty of other attendees do this in the spaces outside the main hall.

Most Important Takeaways

Please take a moment to appreciate the irony of a bullet-list of cool information from a class where purveyors of bullet-lists should be hung from the rafters.

• The symmetry between producing and consuming is strong. Both should involve the same questions.
• The map is the metaphor to shoot for. They are dense with data but quite understandable.
• To clarify points, add data. Don’t dumb it down.
• Al Gore’s iPad application includes… instructions on how to use an iPad? Uh, what?
• Graphics are not for special occasions. They belong in the narrative with the words.
• Don’t re-invent things; find and copy. Find and copy.
• Keep multivariate information together in the viewing space.
• Ditch PowerPoint. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has.

That last point was the most precious moment. We are certainly computer users when the CEO of The PowerPoint Company ditches it. Good dealers never use the product. Give that moment a listen (and apologies for the quality of the audio and edit).

Fly on the Wall Moments

As with the last time, I always seem to overhear one consistent complaint: That the class isn’t hands-on. There are hundreds of us in attendance, and the point isn’t to make the programs go or to fix my particular chart.

The class is about glossing lightly over the books, highlighting the general approach, getting focused on the essentials, then leaving us to apply these ideas to our own particular circumstances. These aren’t classes about software.

The class is meant to get us to think about design one level higher than we’re accustomed. When I learn about the importance of removing excess lines, we aren’t in Excel territory. Striving to see the data and a narrative, together, and undivided by the means of production, means we won’t be covering Office, either.

If you are interested in the application of these concepts to the particular problems you face, then it’s time to get our in-house education departments involved or DIY. Hell, pay me some money. I’ll whip something up.

Seriously, though. Attend a class when it comes near your area.

Thanks to Lifehacker for making me aware of a cool tool that puts your Recycling Bin in the taskbar.

It may seem like a small tweak, but MiniBin really does make dealing with deleted files easy. Not only can you open up the recycle bin just by right clicking on it, but you can even empty on it just by double-clicking—no showing the desktop necessary.

Shouldn’t this just get rolled into the next revision of Windows?

Download: MiniBin

I spend a fair amount of time dealing with Reference Manager, so a recent XKCD really tickled me:

This about sums it up.

Those of us who work in basic science hear a lot about the pitfalls of misrepresenting data. The preceding stick-figure reminds us that that’s only one pitfall. Sometimes, the basic trappings of research can lull us into a false sense of acceptance. There’s always the risk that it’s yet another Chicken Chicken Chicken paper.

My family rents, so we have to get clearance to do anything major. However, my hope is that I’ll be able to purchase some Idea Paint because my blank walls need some love, and this stuff will change that particular game.

Basically, this is paint that you use to turn a wall into a whiteboard. If I had an office at work, I’d have already purchased some of this stuff. As it stands, my office at home will have to suffice. Anyway, check it out. If you are artistically inclined and have the wall space for some brainstorming, it’s worth your attention.

I’m always on the lookout for science education that can break through the wall of boredom that separates most technical arts from laymen. To that end, I offer the following embedded YouTube videos by ScienceGoddess. It’s immunology explained with cookies.

First, let’s begin with the basophil. Our blood contains the least of these cells (in relation to the quantity of other cells). It’s probably a good thing. When they break apart, they result in histamine responses – allergies.

Then there are eosinophils, the parasite-warriors of the immunological system. They seek out stuff that’s not “us” and eradicate them.

Lymphocytes are things that show up quite a lot in the literature I help prepare. There’s a lot of variety within this cell-group and, I won’t kid you, I don’t see how it all fits together. But, by watching, we can learn more about Natural Killer cells, and I’ve always wanted to insert the word Born in there.

Putting this – and the other videos that I’ve not linked to – into some kind of Cookie-Context™ requires a lot of baked goods, but it’s well worth it.

In addition to a kind of ad-hoc biology education, these videos illustrate a good principle of design: make it interesting. By simply including cookies and using a conversational tone, ScienceGoddess makes the subject matter just a bit more approachable.

Now, if we can mix this with video-game sprites, violent stickmans, and the LOL-cat meme, we can revolutionize education. Or wreck it.

I haven’t been posting much lately, because life has decided to be difficult. Medical stuff, moving, a parade of time-sucking commitments. Technology, take me away!

It’s a level! It’s a screwdriver! It’s a ruler! It’s a pen!

I want it. It wouldn’t be used to its optimal capacity, but it’s too cool to pass up. Geeks will need to be patient, though, because it’s sold out as of this post. But when it isn’t? Stock up. I know I will.

It was odd to encounter a visualization article at Scientific American. Still, it’s worth sharing:

Purists, such as Stephen Few (founder and principal, Perceptual Edge) and John Grimwade (graphics director, Conde Nast Traveler) are wary of the functionality of circle-based charts. Indeed, the human brain is more adept at comparing lengths than areas. For example, the largest wedge in this pie chart is clearly identifiable (figure 1). But what is the second largest category? And the third? A bar chart–even without a background grid–is easier to read.

Others, such as Alberto Cairo (director for infographics and multimedia at Época-Editora Globo), worry that bar and line charts have become too familiar, and risk being overlooked or dismissed too quickly by the reader. These standard visualization formats are indisputably elegant solutions, but information-graphics professionals should not rest on their haunches and rely too heavily on a form established in the late 1700s. Instead, we should push the boundaries and explore new ways of presenting the data in an effort to better engage the reader. Perhaps it was in this spirit that the proportional circle chart was born.

It’s quick and breezy. If you’re interested, here’s Infographics: The great circle debate by Jen Christiansen.

More than a year ago, I documented an office hack that I make use of regularly. I converted my number-pad into a greek-character pad. Well, if you have the cash, that won’t be necessary. Check out the X-Keys Desktop (via Cool Tools).

This key pad allows the user to program any number of keystrokes, computer functions, or a combination into a single button. The obvious use is to make a single button activate a tool or function in a program that can be done with a keystroke combination, ie: “ctrl+P” which in most programs will activate the Print command. However, it can be much more elaborate than that.

Looks pretty cool.

Mark Hurst kicked off the first Gel Health conference with an talk that should be interesting to anyone who’s had a frustrating experience at their doctor’s office. Within the embedded video below, the relevant span of time is between 3:00 and 7:00.

Simply put, it’s about Mark’s awful experience with a few facets of his health provider. They are, in order of gripe:

1. Called to schedule a flu shot, was told that he could not pass a note to his doctor.
2. Waited thirty minutes to see his doctor.
3. His doctor didn’t actually see him; the attending nurse handled flu shots.
4. The attending nurse is curt and impolite; tells him he can’t see the doctor.
5. Can’t even say “Please come to my conference on improving patient experience” because his soul has been crushed.
6. Has to wait an extra ten minutes to check out/pay his co-pay.

The questions that any of us would, right, have are: Do you feel listened to? Do you feel cared for? Was it efficient?

A Contrast

My primary physician is part of the Virginia Mason Medical Center, and though BRI is affiliated with VMMC, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t call them on their lousy service. But, my experience has routinely been far more pleasant. Contrast the above list with what I have experienced:

1. Am always permitted to pass notes to my doctor. In fact, I can directly email him at any time. He, or any other designated person, always get back to me in a matter of hours (at most).
2. I rarely wait more than 5 minutes for my appointment.
3. Even if a nurse were administering something as routine as a flu shot, I am always permitted to ask to see my – or any – doctor.
4. The attending nurses are very kind and pleasant, and don’t treat me like a file to be stuffed in a cabinet.
5. I would have easily been able to invite my doctor to attend something like this. In fact, I think he’d be likely to attend.
6. I never have to wait after an appointment. You pay your co-pay upon check-in (which is a blisteringly fast funnel at the entrance to the hospital).

Now, true, I’m seeing my doctor in a large campus. Also true is the fact that VMMC has spent the better part of the last decade completely reworking their administrative back-end. But, is there any reason that a smaller, more agile office couldn’t incorporate, say, basic human niceties into the equation?

There’s some data that suggests that instances of malpractice correlate with the user-experience. In this light, improving processes can be seen as a kind of insurance policy. There’s a whiff of plain-spoken wisdom that I read into all this: people are less likely to sue their doctors if they don’t come off as distant, pompous, jerks.