Tag Archives: david orenstein

Questions for Brandon Marshall: Predicting outcomes of HIV efforts in NYC

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2014Healthaffordable care act, brandon marshall, brown university, columbia university, david orenstein, drug user, high impact, hiv care, hiv efforts, hiv epidemic, hiv incidence, hiv treatment, hiv-positive, new york city, nyc, outcome, predictive computer model

New York City continues to battle an HIV epidemic, including among drug users. There are many possible interventions. Researchers have developed a sophisticated predictive computer model to help policymakers figure out which interventions, or combinations of interventions, would have the most meaningful impact.

Brandon Marshall, assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown University, has led the simulation effort ever since he was a postdoctoral scholar at Columbia University. In a new paper in the March edition of the journal Health Affairs a team from Brown and Columbia published the results of the simulation, which projects that New York can significantly reduce new infections among drug users by 2040 by implementing certain combinations of interventions. Marshall spoke with David Orenstein about what the predictive computer model shows. (more…)

Analysis: 32 years of U.S. filicide arrests

By Guest PostMarch 13, 2014Generalalpert medical school, analysis, biological children, brown university, child, data, david orenstein, depression, filicide, filicide arrests, heng choon chan, hypothesis, killing, lifetime risk, parents kill children, personal weapons, schizophrenia, serotonin related illness, sex hormone, shr, timothy mariano, united states, US, wade myers

Over the last three decades U.S. parents have committed filicide — the killing of one’s child — about 3,000 times every year. The horrifying instances are often poorly understood, but a recent study provides the first comprehensive statistical overview of the tragic phenomenon. The authors also suggest underlying hypotheses of motives with the hope of spurring research on filicide prevention.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Instances in which parents kill their children may seem so horrifying and tragic that they defy explanation. Published scientific and medical research, meanwhile, doesn’t offer much epidemiological context to help people understand patterns among such heinous crimes. A paper in the March edition of the journal Forensic Science International provides the first comprehensive statistical analysis of filicide in the United States, drawing on 32 years of data on more than 94,000 arrests. The study also explores possible underlying psychiatric and biological underpinnings of filicide. (more…)

Society for Neuroscience 2013: How sleep aids visual task learning

By Guest PostNovember 22, 2013Health, Sciencebrainwaves, brown university, david orenstein, decline of function, due to aging, electronic encephalography, ji won bang, magnetic resonance imaging, measure the brainwaves, neural mechanism, neural oscillations, playing the piano, polysomnography, psychological sciences, san diego, sigma brainwave, sigma frequency, sleep, sleeping brain, society for neuroscience, supplementary motor area, Takeo Watanabe, visual cortical area, visual task learning, yuka sasaki

At the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego Nov. 10, 2013, Brown University scientists presented research showing what happens in the brain during sleep to lock in learning of a visually oriented “Where’s Waldo”-like task.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — As any indignant teacher would scold, students must be awake to learn. But what science is showing with increasing sophistication is how the brain uses sleep for learning as well. At the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego Nov. 10, 2013, Brown University researchers discussed new research describing the neural mechanism by which the sleeping brain locks in learning of a visual task. (more…)

Questions for Robert Miranda Jr.: Parenting Cuts Genetic Risk of Teen Drinking

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2012Healtha118g snp, addiction researcher, adolescents, alcohol, alcohol use, alcohol use disorder, alcoholism, alcoholism risk, aud, aud diagnosis, behavior, brown university, child, david orenstein, disorder, environmental factor, european american, g allele, genetic predisposition, genetic risk factor, genomic dna, non aud youth, oprm1 gene, parenting, relationship, robert miranda, teens

In a new study, addiction researchers found that attentive parenting can overcome a genetic predisposition to alcohol use disorder among teens. Although further research is needed, says lead author Robert Miranda Jr., parents can have an impact if they “closely monitor their child’s behavior and peer group.”

In 2010 a team led by Robert Miranda Jr., associate professor (research) of psychiatry and human behavior in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, found that teens with a single difference in their genes were more predisposed to alcohol use disorder. In a new study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research he found that the risk was largely overcome in teens whose parents are attentive to their behavior and peer group. Miranda, a researcher at Brown’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, answered questions from science writer David Orenstein about the new study.

What did we know about genetic risk associated with A118G and teenage alcohol use going into this study?

In 2010, we reported in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research the first evidence that the A118G SNP of the OPRM1 gene is associated with a greater number of alcohol-related problems as well as the development of an alcohol use disorder (AUD) among adolescents. Specifically, adolescents who met criteria for an AUD diagnosis had a higher prevalence of the G allele (51.9 percent) than non-AUD youth(16.3 percent), and the G allele accounted for 9 percent of the variance in alcohol-related problems experienced by youth in the past three months, with a moderate effect size. Although these findings are consistent with some adult studies in terms of the nature and magnitude of this association, other adult studies did not find this relationship. (more…)

Heather Leslie: Measuring ocean health

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Environmentaaas, artisanal fishing, biodiversity, carbon storage, clean waters, coastal livelihoods, coastal place, coastal protection, coral reefs, david orenstein, ecosystem, gulf of california, gulf region, habitat, heather leslie, index rate, mangroves, Mexico, ocean, ocean condition, ocean health index, ocean species, salt marshes, sea ice, seagrasses, sustainable management

Sustainable management of a huge, complex and valuable resource such as the ocean requires a comprehensive metric that did not exist until now. In the Aug. 16 edition of Nature a broad group of scientists including Heather Leslie, the Sharpe Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, describes the Ocean Health Index. The index rates coastal places, from regions to nations, on 10 goals: artisanal fishing opportunity, biodiversity, carbon storage, clean waters, coastal livelihoods and economies, coastal protection, food provision, natural products, sense of place, and tourism and recreation. Leslie recently answered questions posed by David Orenstein.

How does the Ocean Health Index’s focus on integrating human factors make it different and valuable?

Recognizing people’s integral roles in ocean ecosystems, this index evaluates how well the ocean provides 10 key benefits to people and how well we are protecting its ability to do so in the future. (more…)

More Seniors Being Held for Observation

By Guest PostJune 10, 2012General, Healthaffordable care act, brad wright, brown university, david orenstein, elderly patients, emergency departments, gerontologists, health affairs, hospitals, medicare, vincent mor, zhanlian feng

A new study finds that more elderly patients in the emergency departments of hospitals are being held for observation rather than admitted as inpatients. Pressure from Medicare to reduce unnecessary hospitalization may be driving the trend. But being classified as an outpatient, rather than being admitted, can increase out-of-pocket costs for patients. The study is reported in the June edition of Health Affairs.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Nobody wins when patients stay in the hospital unnecessarily, so the federal government in recent years has pushed hospitals to be careful about admitting Medicare recipients as inpatients. The apparent result is that more patients are being “held for observation” instead, according to a new study by Brown University gerontologists. While the shift in how hospitals care for elderly patients in the emergency department may reduce costs to Medicare, it can also increase out-of-pocket expenditures for patients. (more…)

Brian Reggiannini Figures out Who’s Talking

By Guest PostMay 19, 2012Sciencealgorithms, analog devices, brian reggiannini, brown university, commercial success, computer, conventional wisdom, david orenstein, harvey silverman, industry, microphone, microphone arrays, modeling talkers, norwood, speaker, speaker recognition, who is talking

If computers could become ‘smart’ enough to recognize who is talking, that could allow them to produce real-time transcripts of meetings, courtroom proceedings, debates, and other important events. In the dissertation that will allow him to receive his Ph.D. at Commencement this year, Brian Reggiannini found a way to advance the state of the art for voice- and speaker-recognition.

Everyone does signal processing every day, even if we don’t call it that. With friends at a sports bar, we peer up at the TV to see the score, we turn our head toward the crashing sound when a waitress drops a glass, and perhaps most remarkably, we can track the fast-paced banter of all the people in our booth, even if we’ve never met some of the friends-of-friends who have insinuated themselves into the scene.

Very few of us, however, could ever get a computer to do anything like that. That’s why doing it well has earned Brian Reggiannini a Ph.D. at Brown and a career in the industry.

In his dissertation, Reggiannini managed to raise the bar for how well a computer connected to a roomful of microphones can keep track of who among a small group of speakers is talking. Further refined and combined with speech recognition, such a system could lead to instantaneous transcriptions of meetings, courtroom proceedings, or debates among, say, several rude political candidates who are prone to interrupt. It could help the deaf follow conversations in real-time. (more…)

Five-Limbed Brittle Stars Move Bilaterally, Like People

By Guest PostMay 14, 2012Natureanimals, belize, bilateral symmetry, bilaterally symmetrical, brain, brittle stars, brown university, bushnell foundation, david orenstein, direction, five limbed, henry astley, humans, locomotion, mark bertness, move bilaterally, ophiocoma echinata, pentaradially symmetrical, radial symmetrical

Brittle stars and people have something in common: They move in fundamentally similar ways. Though not bilaterally symmetrical like humans and many other animals, brittle stars have come up with a mechanism to choose any of its five limbs to direct its movement on the seabed. It’s as if each arm can be the creature’s front, capable of locomotion and charting direction. Results appear in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — It appears that the brittle star, the humble, five-limbed dragnet of the seabed, moves very similarly to us.

In a series of first-time experiments, Brown University evolutionary biologist Henry Astley discovered that brittle stars, despite having no brain, move in a very coordinated fashion, choosing a central arm to chart direction and then designating other limbs to propel it along. Yet when the brittle star wants to change direction, it designates a new front, meaning that it chooses a new center arm and two other limbs to move. Brittle stars have come up with a mechanism to choose any of its five limbs to be central control, each capable of determining direction or pitching in to help it move. (more…)