#viability scan

[drtejas1]

https://preciousfetalmedicine.com/viability-and-dating-scan/

Read Full Article: Viability and Dating Scan Doctor in Pune

[lilleluv]

What Is Viable/ Non-Viable Pregnancy?

Pregnancy is a beautiful phase in a woman’s life. However, not all pregnancies progress to a full-term healthy delivery. In some cases, a pregnancy may not develop normally or may cease to grow, leading to what is known as a non-viable pregnancy. In this article, we will explore what viable and non-viable pregnancies are, what causes them, and how they can be diagnosed and managed. What Is…

[carionto]

How to beat Deathworlders

I don't know what I want to write and it's a little frustrating. So, to fix that, I'm just gonna throw this at me - Giant Ant Planet

The first call to arms Humanity has declared. They mobilize with unseen speed and precision seven of their mightiest Dreadnoughts, hundreds of transports, and amass fifty thousand soldiers, fully armed and trained on the target.

They are headed to a world Humans scouted as having great potential for life to flourish. How correct they were.

In orbit above the planet Chromathium-2-4, the station Truncated Crescent Ellipses was tasked with conducting experiments to test the viability of Human-digestible flora and fauna living on Chromatoff (as the scientists began to call it for short).

When the fleet arrived, the final message from the station turned out to be true - it had crash landed on the surface. From the chaos of the recordings they received, there was a containment breach and the systems were under attack by some unknown electronic waves and incomprehensible code. A hostile act, but by who?

This was two weeks ago. Whoever it was, they would know the wrath of Humanity. Once we find your traces, there will be no hiding for long.

Preliminary scans show the station was dead and only local creatures and plants appeared, in greater density than elsewhere, but no matter. Just some animals.

The first unmanned craft landed and began exploring the wreckage. All of the digital systems were fried, not a hint of power remained anywhere. Attempts to manually power anything up proved fruitless - the data had been replaced with pure garbage code. Then, the drone vanished underground and went silent. Connection failure.

Orbital sights showed nothing, all frequencies were monitored and were free of unaccounted signals. The next group of drones descended and shortly after touchdown they too were seemingly devoured by the ground, all power and electronic signals cut.

A deep scan showed the same dense biological activity, but looking closer at the data it was like a carpet just below the actual surface layer. And for whatever reason the pulse couldn't penetrate below a few meters. Scanning areas further from the crash revealed a much more detailed and sparsely populated map going down the expected three kilometers.

For the third attempt they kept several drones above the landed ones at different altitudes. The moment the drones on the ground were vanished again, a sudden signal struck the ones floating up to seventy meters above and cut them off as well, but didn't seem to reach any beyond that. The visual was not as detailed as they'd like, but it was enough - the tips of large pincers and antennae and beady eyes. Ants.

The fleet maintained a perimeter around the entire system just in case, and spent half a day consulting professionals and former colleagues of the deceased scientists to get a better understanding of the current situation.

Two experiments the team had worked on before and supposedly continued when relocated to the new station stood out - metabolic acceleration, and unassisted neural interfacing via modified brain waves. Far from the wildest here, such as the self-relocating giant sequoia, but ones that offered a plausible explanation.

Ants serve a variety of critical functions in the maintenance of an ecosystem, so naturally they are a part of most late stage terraforming efforts.

Here, however, something went wrong and they evolved alongside technology at an intimate level. Perhaps deliberately made to do so.

They are spreading fast too. Twelve hours ago the "carpet" of underground ants was roughly two square kilometers. Now it was close to three and a half. In mere weeks they may spread across the entire continent, perhaps make it across (or below?) the seas somehow and ravenously consume all life on this planet before succumbing to extinction themselves.

This world is bountiful. Also, we're here already. Hmm...

Eh, may as well. Plenty of us have seen Starship Troopers and only joined to hopefully one day shoot at alien bugs. Guess these are more like home grown critters, but whatever.

With that brazen attitude (and a quick orbital bombardment) the troop ships landed, well, were forced to crash land the final few meters, but whatever electromagnetic warfare these ants were throwing our way didn't account for reinforced alloy armor and hand-held rail guns. Their sharp pincers, acid throwers, and thick carapaces did however.

Actually, fucking hell, they move real fast underground. Uhh...

This isn't looking so good in retrospect. Did they add cockroach DNA in these bastards too? Some of them literally don't care about losing their head, what the fuck!?

Okay, holy shit, abort mission! Good thing we still install regular ignition engines as an added redundancy to the military ships. Not very fast or efficient, but screw you, burn beneath the thrusters. BURN!

*deep breath*

Okay. So. We lost 831 soldiers, and 4625 are injured. And the ant casualties don't matter cuz they're ants. Super mutant ants. Who are going to take over the world if we don't nuke them. Which might not work anyway because HUMAN scientists made them.

Hoisted by our own petard or something.

Right, let's just chalk it up as a... military exercise gone wrong and quarantine the planet. Wait, make that the whole system.

...so this is what it must've felt like to lose the Emu War...

[junemondegreen]

Master post of all the fan made gem types I’ve created:

Boulders, smash big rocks into smaller rocks and clear debris with their strength and endurance. Strong but slow in combat. Varieties include: Adensite, Diorite, Felsite, Granite, etc.,

Coal, melt rock and explode/burst into flame as well as breathe fire. Like ants they are small but big in strength. Think of pikmin, loads of them are thrown at a single job and work in unison to complete it. They use their intense temperature to melt down materials that are mined and melt/smooth stone

-Hematites, miners of ore veins and mineral deposits that are later put into injectors

Sphalerites, mechanics for mining equipment, their fingers shapeshift and have extra joints to serve as wrenches, screwdrivers and other tools. Swiss army hands basically

Gahnite, entertainers for low-level gems to keep their spirits up while doing their duties.They can rotate their articulated body at points like their heads and waists, as well as stretch their rubbery arms and legs

The Cymophanes (or cats eyes); a team of planet surveyors under the guidance of their manager that go out and assess the viability of potential colonies. This particular team had a mission go terribly wrong, resulting in the loss of one of their members on a distant and wild planet. She was eventually replaced with an era 2 gem who’s serious nature made her the team captain. The lost gem found an alien species on the planet that she eventually integrated into.

Cymophanes in general tend to be very playful and free spirited gems, so they need managers that watch them closely and make sure they stay on task. Powers include agility and stealth, super hearing and smell, night vision, their claws and fangs, and their prolonged shape shifting ability that allows them to blend into alien species and observe them

Chrysoberyl, the manager of the Cymophanes. A chrysoberyl is generally judged by how well-disciplined and effective the Cymophane teams they are in charge of are. They all have special ray gun weapons with different settings to allow them to carry out scouting missions: attack mode, shield mode, scan mode, bubble mode

[windslar]

That's right. I'm back.

Explanation under the cut (TW: pregnancy, abortion, loss)

I know I dropped off the face of simblr without explanation, and for that, I'm sorry. A lot of things happened in March -- around the time of the Growing Together release. I remember thinking how timely is it for infants to come to the game just as I learned we were going to be a family of three.

Long story short, I found out I was pregnant in February, which was a very exciting time as my husband and I felt it was the right time. Truthfully, I became less interested in the game and so much more absorbed in reading and learning all about pregnancy and motherhood. Sims just kind of faded (as it does for many people) as my life began to change.

Many times I felt compelled to come back to explain the situation but as more time passed, the more I felt like it was unnecessary. I didn't think anyone was really going to care, despite the fact that a small number of people did reach out in my inbox (thank you). I figured one day, I'd come back and be like, "surprise! I had a baby!"

But that won't be happening. At least not any time soon.

At my 20-week scan, there were concerning findings. Multiple ultrasounds and procedures later, we had a few reassuring results only to be hit with a rare diagnosis that had severe impacts on the baby's viability at birth.

We chose to terminate the pregnancy. It was the most difficult decision despite knowing it was the right decision for my family. I had grown to love our baby and pictured our lives together. We had told close friends and family. We bought a stroller and a baby carrier. We got gifted some hand-me-down clothes for our baby girl. I had never imagined something so devastating and traumatic could happen to us especially so late into the pregnancy. It felt so unfair. So cruel.

It's been a rough couple of months. The anxiety and depression were at an all-time high. I have been off work for a little bit so I've had more free time, which is not ideal in terms of my mind constantly thinking about our loss, but the time is also kind of necessary for me to heal. In the last two weeks, I revisited the game and started playing casually again, but also lurking more and more here on tumblr. I do miss it. And I think part of the fun of playing the game is sharing my gameplay and interacting with the people in this community. It's one of the few things right now that's keeping my mind from falling into the deep pits of depression.

So yes. I'm depressed and I play the sims to escape the depressing reality of my life (right now). Don't worry, I have other supports elsewhere to help me cope; but in the ~alone times~ this game is keeping me from crying in bed all day so I count that as a win.

Now that that's out there. Please don't ask me any further questions or details about the whole thing, partly because I don't need to relive the sadness any more than I do, and partly to avoid providing any more (potentially) identifying information. I just want to move on and enjoy this safe-ish space the way I used to, and I hope that you can welcome me back with open arms.

[st-just]

A huge share of the value proposition of the analog newspaper consisted of stuff that is barely considered journalistic or media content today: the previous night’s sports scores, the weather forecast, yesterday’s Dow Jones movement, movie listings, and other commodity information. There were also, of course, the classified ads. You didn’t need to care very much about the news to want a subscription to the newspaper — it contained lots of useful information. That included meta-information about whether there was even any interesting news in the newspaper. You could scan the front page and see most days there was nothing much happening. Every once in a while there’d be a big headline that said “HEY THIS IS A BIG DEAL,” and you could read that. Or you could read the rest of the paper if you happened to be extremely bored. The world in general was less entertaining with no smartphones and no streaming video, and the newspaper was both portable and disposable, which made it a good way to kill time. “Is the journalism good?” was a sort of secondary or tertiary consideration in terms of the viability of the enterprise.

-Matthew Yglesias, "Objective" journalism was a business model

[thesquidkid]

Who says science isn't exciting?

4x08 Missing my baby

I know that it has been a while since I last updated my science meta, life happened and I wasn't really in the mood to write. I also did a thesis in between, so I suppose I now have proper experience in writing a scientific paper.

Disclaimer: I am still not a biologist and it's been quite some time since I last watched the show, so please feel free to correct me if you see anything inaccurate. I also really like talking about science so if anything is unclear I will happily explain it in more details.

The first mention of science is Liz talking to Maria in the Wild Pony:

Liz: "There has to be a scientific explanation for how Alex is reaching out to you."

She then proceeds to explain her scientific theory:

"At first, I thought this was a resurgence of your powers, like a vision of Alex manifesting itself. But your brain scans match up with your last checkup, post-cure, which means this is not a vision. Alex is alive. And he's figuring out a way to communicate with you. We've seen versions of this before. You did it in the coma. Max talked to Rosa in the pod."

I should probably go ahead and say that this falls in the realm of science-fiction. Well, mostly. In reality, people in a coma can `communicate' with the outside world. More or less. Studies have shown that when talking to people in a vegetative state, asking them to perform certain tasks, the brain reacts in the same way it would for someone that is not in vegetative state. For example, when doctors asked a few yes-no questions to a patient in vegetative state, they found out that he knew where he was, what kind of program he enjoyed on TV, etc [x]. This was done by monitoring the brain activity of the patient and looking at the pattern in his brain activity.

This kind of research [x] allowed scientists to conclude that some comatose patients were conscious.

Going back to our lovely little alien show, we can argue that Maria communicating with Liz while in her coma is scientifically possible. However, Alex being in another dimension and communicating through with Maria is fiction.

(As a side note, Liz mentions a few time in that scene that it's all science, except it's not.)

Next, Liz and Shivani are doing science in Shivani's lab:

Liz: "The regenerative enzymes in the blood sample we brought back from New York... Isn't healing the diseased cells in our subject." Liz: "The fluid stimulates the proteins momentarily, but it isn't potent enough to sustain their viability."

As defined in my meta for 1x08 [x, x], an enzyme is a protein that accelerates a chemical reaction. Here, regenerative enzymes refers to enzymes that have the ability to regenerate their cofactors.

A cofactor (in biology) is a non-proteinic chemical compound that is required for enzymes to act as catalyst (i.e. to accelerate a chemical reaction) [x].

Now, from what I read on the internet, enzymes are used in cellular apoptosis, which is a programmed cell death (happening naturally in our body, I talked about it more in my meta for 2x02 [x]), and the regenerative aspect of enzymes comes into play with regards to their cofactors. Furthermore, I have found a few sources about regenerating dead cells (namely after injuries) that mention enzymes as `executioner' rather than reconstructive. In other words, it appears that enzymes (regenerative or not) are present when it comes to killing cells, but not resuscitating them [x, x].

So, really, it's not that surprising that Liz's enzymes aren't healing the deceased cells...

The next bit of science happening in Shivani's lab is purely fictive as it revolves around the cracked pod that Shivani has:

Shivani: "The viscous liquid we developed was formulated using the fluid from within [the pod]. It contains restorative properties identical to the ones that you've been researching." Liz: "In gene-sequencing your work, I found micromolecular inconsistencies, and this crack explains why. Oxygen is changing the fluid's chemical composition. In order to continue testing, we need a pod that's in working condition."

As Michael points out in 2x03, the pods keep the person inside in stasis by regenerating the cells at the rate they decay. He also says "this current will speed up the regeneration". So, by regenerating the cells at the rate they decay, the pod would also (slowly) regenerate the cells that are already dead. Namely, it would regenerate the dead cells at the rate that the alive cells are decaying, since the pod wouldn't select which cells to regenerate, and which to not.

Personally, I am not a big fan of the pods being the answer the everything, namely here providing a regenerative cure, especially when we saw Liz figure it all out using science before, and since her research is about vascular regeneration.

The part on oxygen altering the fluid's chemical composition is accurate to what we saw before, with Noah's pod. Hence, this would fall into the realm of science within the fiction, since at least the results are consistent.

We then see Rosa and Maria trying to communicate with Alex at the Wild Pony. This is once again clearly fiction, but they use science words that I thus will look into. We start with (another) mention of frequencies:

Rosa: "I can hear the frequency of Alex's DNA in the hair, but... nowhere else."

At first, the mention of frequencies in the show was very nice and (mostly) accurate. Then, it became too much (as @angrycowboy pointed out about 4x13)

DNA does have frequency, and it particular it generates a wave that propagates in the direction of the magnetic field vector [x]. Magnetic field vector refers to the direction and the dimension of the magnetic field. These magnetic waves are what allow the cells to communicate with each other.

It is also possible to detect the frequency of DNA, namely it is around 20 GHz. Note that 20 GHz falls into the domain of super high electromagnetic frequency, which is the same frequency range as satellite communication and microwave ovens. Suppose Rosa can hear the frequency of Alex's DNA in his hair. This would mean that she is able to hear satellite communication happening nearby, and considering there is a military base not too far away (I don't know anything about actual Roswell geography, but the show does mention the base a few times), she would be able to pick up on those conversations. Useful espionnage tool.

Rosa does mention something about Isobel teaching her how to listen:

Rosa: "Isobel taught me that in order to silence all the noise, you have to find a place inside yourself where you feel safe and calm."

And in real life, radios can tune to a particular frequency (hence how you only hear a single radio channel and not everything at once). However, a radio is also able to detect other frequencies, hence how you can switch channel. The reason why you do not hear the other radio channels when you switch on your radio is that radio emitters in a region have an agreement to distinguish each frequency. This means that the frequency of each channel has to be sufficiently distinct.

DNA is different for everyone, hence it's frequency differs. Since Alex, Maria, Rosa, and any one else who came to the Wild Pony are not twins, Rosa would be able to distinguish Alex from the other DNA frequencies.

However, there are three things I find strange. First, I am assuming Alex was at the Pony before disappearing, so there should be traces of his DNA left, hence Rosa would hear somewhere else. Secondly, the choice of detecting DNA at the Wild Pony is weird, in my opinion, since there are many more frequencies that Rosa has to tune out, as it is presented to be a popular bar.

Thirdly, as much as DNA can be extracted from hair, there is no guarantee that DNA is always available in a hair sample. Namely, the DNA is present at the root of the hair [x]. Without the root of the hair, the procedure to get DNA is much more complex. So, for the sake of the argument, I am assuming that Rosa has the root of Alex's hair.

But, even having the root of the hair, typical DNA testing that is done in forensics requires an electron microscope (which uses a beam of electron as a light source, and thus has a better resolution than a typical light microscope [x]), since it is the only way to visualise the small bits of DNA. The second test is through mitochondrial DNA, but such a test will not distinguish between siblings, as they share the same mitochondrial DNA profile [x]. DNA testing from hair also requires more than 1 hair to have an accurate test [x].

To conclude on the topic of hair DNA and frequency, despite DNA having a frequency, and hair having DNA, I doubt the accuracy of Rosa's test, since too little DNA is present in a single strand of hair.

The next bit of science is also said by Rosa:

Rosa: "Energy rises from the ground into your feet, and since consciousness is a tangible form of energy connecting us to all matter, astrophysicists believe that... meditation could open you up to speaking over universes, even dimensions."

I am not going to touch on this topic, other than say that Rosa probably meant astrologists and not astrophysicists. Astrology is the field of divinatory practices, recognised as a pseudo-science (it used to be a science until a more scientific theory came along), while astrophysics is the study of astronomical objects using physics and chemistry. Meditation falls into the category of astrology, not astronomy.

The next two pieces of science (the last ones for this episode) are all between Liz and Shivani, during different scenes.

Shivani: "Why atomize the fluid into a mist?" Liz: "I made slight genetic modifications to accelerate enzyme inhibitors for swift cell regeneration. Molecules, they travel faster in a gaseous state than in liquid form." Shivani: "If this cure eradicates the alien virus, could it be repurposed to fight off human illness?" Liz: "Like a universal vaccine? Interspecies scaling at this level would be a huge leap."

So. Liz's first sentence is already hurting my brain.

An enzyme inhibitor is a molecule that attaches itself to an enzyme and stops its activity [x].

Since enzymes are used in process of cell death, inhibiting its activity would then slow this process. In fact, inhibitors can be used to start the process of cell regeneration (in some circumstances, although I am not sure I understood what those circumstances were precisely) [x]. So, if Liz accelerates the inhibitors, it could lead to an acceleration of the regeneration process (or at least, make it begin faster).

It is true that molecules travel faster as gas than liquid. In fact, molecules are always moving, but in a solid they are moving so slow that it can be considered static. In a liquid, the molecules glide past each other, and hence are faster in movement than in a sold. In a gas the molecules are further apart from each other, and move faster [x].

Shivani then asks if a vaccine to cure all human illnesses is possible. Liz is right with her response, that interspecies vaccines are tricky to work with.

We first need to note that interspecies contamination is possible (coronaviruses are example of this). However, interspecies vaccination is not as simple; consider the infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) in poultry, for which different vaccines have to be created for the different species of poultry. Even species which are similar (poultry for instance) would reach very differently to the same vaccine, and would not be offered the same protection [x]. So, despite humans and oasians being similar, a vaccine that would protect both is also unlikely.

Furthermore, a universal vaccine in the sense of a single vaccine that would protect against everything in scientifically improbably. The point of a vaccine is to inject into the human body a small dose of a virus to teach the body how to defend itself against it. Therefore, a universal vaccine would have to consist of a small dose of every virus known to mankind, which would very likely kill the patient. Imagine having your body fight against all the viruses ever.

So what Shivani is suggesting is rather improbable.

The final bit of science is later in the episode, still in Shivani's lab:

Shivani: "What if we altered the protein receptors to perform some, not all, of their functions? If we folded the principle alpha helices and stabilized the covalent bonds between the amino acids..."

(I won't go into the rest of that scene, since it's mostly about ethics)

If I am being honest, the sentence "altered the protein receptors to perform some, not all, of their functions" confuses me. So I am ignoring it for the sake of my mental health (also because I don't understand what the `their' is referring to).

The next bit of science that Shivani mentions is "principle alpha helices".

An alpha helix is a sequence of amino acids in a protein that are twisted in a helix shape [x]. This structure is the most common type of secondary structure in proteins.

In everything that I've read online about alpha helices, there isn't really a notion of principle alpha helix. So, I don't really know why this is specified by Shivani here (probably to make the sentence sound science-y...).

Folding in chemistry is the process by which a molecule assumes its shape. Protein folding refers to the shape that is assumed by a specific sequence of amino acids in a protein [x].

So, from what I understand, folding the protein would give it its alpha helix structure, but folding the alpha helix structure doesn't really mean anything...

A covalent bond is a chemical bond that involved sharing electrons to form electron pairs between atoms [x].

The different structures in a protein are attached via covalent bonds [x], so indeed, there are covalent bonds between some amino acids (the ones that are found in two different structures). Alpha helices are considered to be the stabler structure of a protein, but their stability, from what I've read, is not quite due to the covalent bonds. So, again, despite the different elements of the sentence making sense, they are quite confusing and lack proper meaning when being put together.

Liz and Shivani share another scene together in Shivani's lab, at the end of the episode where Liz breathes the mist. However, this scene does not contain much science in it, so I'm stopping my analysis here.

[surreality51]

My little boy turns 1 years old this week. He is a real miracle. I know people talk about the miracle of life etc etc. In his case, it really is a miracle that he is here, because we weren't at all sure he was going to make it.

(Long ass post under the cut. Warnings for discussions of pregnancy and pregnancy complications, consideration of abortion, infant medical conditions, childbirth, medical procedures/surgery, and religion)

When we went in for our 20-week anatomy scan, the maternal-fetal specialist delivered devastating news: our baby had severe heart abnormalities. There were parts of his heart she simply couldn't find on the scan, and parts that appeared to be on the wrong side. Her best guess: DiGeorge Syndrome. She recommended genetic testing and a referral to a regional specialist for high-risk pregnancies. She also gently offered to refer us to a clinic if we decided to end the pregnancy.

We took the sheet with the clinic phone numbers and walked out of the doctor's office stunned.

The next few days were the worst days of my life.

There were so many unanswered questions. Was it DiGeorge? If so, how severe would it be? Would he be able to walk? Would he be able to eat? Would he even make it to term?

On top of all these questions, there was that list of clinics sitting on our dresser and a ticking clock in our minds. Our US state allows abortions up to viability, which was generally 22-24 weeks. We were at 22 weeks. My husband and I stayed up for three nights debating what to do. We wanted this baby, but we didn't want him to live a life of suffering.

That Sunday, we went to mass as a family--us and our two girls. It was the first time we had gone since the pandemic started, our first time in three years. The girls talked about how excited they were to have a baby brother. My husband and I pasted smiles on our faces and said nothing about what we were considering.

At the end of mass, after the priest had given his final blessing and people were gathering up their things, a woman came up to us. We had seen her before at church, but we had never spoken.

"Congratulations!” she said, pointing at my round belly.

“Thanks,” I replied automatically.

“You don’t know me,” she continued, “but I remember you guys from before the pandemic. Your younger daughter was just a baby then. She’s a big kid now!”

We smiled and introduced ourselves and our daughters.

“Are you having a boy or a girl?” the lady asked.

“A boy,” my husband replied.

“How nice! I have three boys. This is my youngest,” she gestured to the young man beside her. He was taller than her, but they shared the same dark hair, mocha-toned skin, and broad smile. She patted him on the arm. “He’s home visiting during spring break from college. They grow up so fast.”

He waved hello.

Then she turned toward us, smiling kindly, and said, “You’re going to have so much fun."

We thanked her and said we hoped to see her again next time.

I didn’t think much about the exchange, as we had to get the girls some lunch and then go grocery shopping, but later at night after the kids were asleep and my husband and I were getting ready for bed, he turned to me and said, “I think we’re going to be okay.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. It had only been four days since the diagnosis, but those four days had felt like four years. I was still feeling like our whole future as a family was teetering on the edge of a great unknown.

“I think everything is going to be alright,” he said, “because of what that woman said. Did you hear? I was praying last night for God to send us a sign, show us the right path, whether it’s to continue on or to abort. Just show us which way to go. And then today a lady who has never spoken to us before, and hasn’t seen us for years, suddenly feels compelled to come up to us in church with her third son and tell us that we’re going to have so much fun with our baby, who is our third kid and is a son. She didn’t have to do that. There was no reason for her to approach us, she's never come up to us before, she doesn't even know our names. But something pushed her to speak up in that moment.”

I stared back at him, dumbfounded. I don’t know much about God or fate (he's the one who is religious, not me), but sometimes things are just a bit too on the nose to be a coincidence.

Ten days later, we got the first part of our genetic testing results: no major chromosomal abnormalities. A week after that, detailed scans with a specialist confirmed the severe heart defects, but no other visible defects.

Two weeks later, the rest of the test results came back: no DiGeorge Syndrome.

Our baby was going to make it.

-----------------

It wasn't all smooth sailing after that. There were still a lot of questions about his heart defects and how they would affect him. In all, the fetal cardiologists identified 10 things wrong with his heart. Usually they can show a standard anatomical drawing of a heart and point to what was wrong; with our baby's heart, they had to hand-draw what his heart looked like, because there were just too many abnormalities. It was that far off from a normal heart.

The craziest part was that he was still alive and growing. It took the fetal cardiologists--specialists who are part of a nationally ranked children's hospital and who see complex cases every day--nearly two hours to figure out how our baby was still getting oxygen circulated when his heart was so fucked up. (Usually a diagnosis takes 45 minutes.)

It turns out that his defects are a case of "two wrongs make a right." For example, he is missing his pulmonary valve (pulmonary atresia). This is Bad, because the pulmonary valve and pulmonary artery are part of what connects the heart to the lungs. No pulmonary valve or artery means the heart can't pump blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen. It can also lead to a weakened, underdeveloped right ventricle because no oxygen is going to that side of the heart (Very Bad). BUT, if you happen to have a hole in your heart wall (ventricular septal defect), then that hole acts like a back door for the blood to flow from the left ventricle to the side that's not getting any oxygen (right ventricle).

In other words, usually having a hole in your heart is Bad and can require open heart surgery to fix, but in this case is Good because it is a workaround for the missing pulmonary valve.

Of the 10 things wrong with his heart, about half of them are workarounds that happen mitigate the other, more serious defects. The surgeon said that his heart is messed up in exactly the right way for him to survive.

It's amazing--miraculous, even--how the human body can adapt to survive.

-----------------

Despite reassurances from the doctors that our baby would most likely make it to term, I was incredibly nervous that he would be born premature or stillborn. At the same time, I didn't want to induce labor early because my husband and I believe that babies will be born when they're ready and it's generally not a good idea to induce labor unless you have to. But the doctors wanted to schedule an induction because they didn't know what our baby's condition would be at birth--would he be able to breathe on his own? would his circulation adapt to being outside the womb? They usually schedule an induction so they can ensure the whole medical team is available when the baby arrives. (i.e. so the baby doesn't come on a Tuesday and require emergency surgery but the head surgeon works at a different hospital on Tuesdays)

We didn't even have the option to pick the date, it was just whatever day during week 39 when the whole medical team--my OBGYN, the neonatologists, the respiratory specialist, the cardiac interventionist, and the cardiac surgeon--were available. Our case manager told us that we would be notified when a date was selected.

Funny enough, the one date where all the schedules aligned was August 8. (Federer's birthday)

Still, as the induction date approached, my husband and I felt conflicted about essentially evicting our baby from the womb. But we understood that it was about logistics and we didn't really have a choice, so we mentally prepared ourselves to show up at the hospital at 10am on August 8 for the induction.

The night before we were supposed to go in for the induction, I started feeling some tightness in my lower back.

"Haha, wouldn't it be funny if he decided to come on his own on August 8 anyway?" I said.

"'You can't evict me if I come out first,'" agreed my husband.

Two hours later, the tightness in my lower back hadn't gone away and in fact had started to spread to my lower abdomen.

"Hmm...maybe I should go shower right now," I said, remembering that I was too tired to shower for 48 hours after my second kid was born.

The first contractions started at 1am on August 8.

We headed to the hospital around 4am. He arrived on his own at 12:10pm.

————————————-

[My father told me a few weeks afterward that someone must have been watching over my baby, because we almost didn’t get ahold of my mom when I went into labor.

The plan was that I would call her when I went into labor so she could come watch my two girls while my husband took me to the hospital. (Just my mom; my dad was useless with me as a child and I wouldn’t trust him to watch my plants, much less my children.) But sometimes her cell phone reception at home doesn’t work and her phone goes straight to voicemail without ringing. It happened again when I called at 3am on August 8. I tried three times, getting more frantic with each call. Finally I called my dad’s cell phone.

He picked up on the first ring.

He later told me that he had woken up for no apparent reason and had picked up his phone to check the time. It was 3am so he was about to go back to sleep when he saw my call. His phone was on silent and he’s a deep sleeper, so if he hadn’t randomly woken up at that exact moment, he wouldn’t have seen my call nor gone to get my mom.

My dad is not religious, but he told me that someone must’ve been looking out for me and my son that night.]

—————————————-

The delivery was the smoothest delivery of my three children, and I take that as another sign that someone was watching over him and me. As soon as he was born, the medical team was all over him. I got to hold him for a single minute before they took him, because given his heart anatomy, there was a small but real chance that he might not get enough oxygen to his brain or body and turn blue, in which case they would need to start emergency measures immediately. My husband and I knew this going in, and my only hope was that he would be alright and I could hold him, if just for a minute.

He came out beautifully, and my OB placed him in my arms and I got to hold him, touch his little hand, and tell him I loved him before they took him to the ICU. My husband went with him, as was the plan. I was wheeled into the recovery room alone.

With my first baby, I had a level 3 tear and could barely walk for a week after delivery. With my second, I had minor tearing but the anesthesiologist messed up the epidural and so I was laid low with an epidural headache for a week. This time, the delivery was so smooth that I had no tearing at all. I was up on my feet within 24 hours and discharged.

It was a lucky thing too, because I wanted to be with my baby. Most hospitals are not equipped to handle babies with such complex heart defects, so the plan was to transfer our baby to the children’s hospital within a few hours of birth, as soon as he was stable enough to be transported. By the time I was discharged, he was already there. My husband stayed with him the whole time and only left to pick me up and drive me over.

I feel like whatever higher being was watching over us knew that I needed to be there with him too, so they gave me the smoothest delivery possible so I could be on my feet and get over to the children’s hospital as soon as possible.

(I’m sure it being my third baby and not my first probably helped too.)

—————————————-

Being a parent is scary enough, because you hold this little being’s life in your hand and all you can do is hope you don’t fuck them up too badly.

Being the parent of a baby with complex congenital heart defects is fucking terrifying.

On day three, our son had the first of his three planned open heart surgeries. I will never forget the helpless terror of knowing that doctors were going to cut my baby open and do heart surgery on him at three days old. They tell you about the risks and potential side effects or complications before asking you to sign the consent form. The risk of death was low for the procedure, with a 98% survival rate, but 1) we already knew that percentages suck because the chances of having a baby with congenital heart defects in the first place is about 1% and pulmonary atresia occurs in about 1% of that 1%, so we were already screwed by percentages, and 2) the bigger risk is that he would get a stroke or brain bleed or something from being put on the heart-lung bypass machine. They tell you not to Google the chances of complications from the bypass machine, but of course you do, and then you can’t unsee that the risk is somewhere between 40% and 70%.

FUCK.

But you have to sign the forms and let the doctors do their job, because if you don’t do the surgery and risk the bypass machine, the risk of your baby dying from their heart defect is probably 100%.

The hardest thing is knowing that everything is out of your hands, and you just have to pray or hope that your baby comes back to you alive and whole.

I remember seeing him afterwards, with all of the tubes and lines coming out of him and machines beeping everywhere and a gigantic ugly cut running down his chest with stitches holding it closed, and just bursting into tears, because he was so tiny and had to go through all that, and if I could have taken his place, I would have. But this was the hand he was dealt.

I cried again when he opened his eyes and saw us two days later, but this time it was tears of relief, because I could see in his eyes that he still recognized me. He was still in there. He was still whole.

——————————————-

We were discharged from the hospital in mid September, just before my husband’s birthday. It was the best birthday gift ever, and a cause for celebration. But the months following were not easy. Besides the normal challenges of juggling three kids and surviving newborn boot camp, there were the additional challenges from his medical needs:

He was on oxygen support 24/7 because his oxygen saturation levels would drop without oxygen support. He had to wear a nasal cannula all the time, and if he pulled it off, we basically had a few minutes to get it back on him before he started turning a little blue (spoiler alert: babies are very grabby, especially when they have something taped to their face)

If we wanted to go anywhere with him, we had to bring his portable oxygen tank too. The oxygen tank has about 3 hours of oxygen, so we always had to bring a backup too. We were always on a timer for when we had to switch him to the backup tank or make it home in time to hook him up to the oxygen concentrator. My recurring nightmare was that we got stuck in traffic or caught out somewhere and his oxygen ran out and I would have to watch him die before the ambulance arrives. He was on 7 different medications, including 2 breathing treatments that had to be administered twice a day with special equipment. Some medications were twice a day, some were three times a day, some were every 8 hours around the clock, and you cannot forget or mess up the medication schedule. This was on top of feeding him every few hours and doing all the other things for our older kids so they don’t feel neglected. My husband and I joke that we must’ve had it too easy with our first two kids so this time we had to play on hard mode.

————————————-

In February of this year, we got the call we had been waiting for: our son’s second surgery was scheduled for the 12th.

We knew that his second surgery would be somewhere when he was 6-9 months old. The first surgery at 3 days old was to install a shunt, which is basically a connection that allowed him to get blood where it needed to go despite having no pulmonary valve. It was a workaround that would allow him to leave the hospital and grow until he got big enough for the doctors to do the actual repair of his heart. It was never meant as a fix for his conditions, and he would outgrow the artificial shunt somewhere at 6-9 months.

In December, we started noticing his oxygen levels dropping. In January, they were sometimes as low as the 60s. (Normal people are at 95-100% oxygen saturation. His normal target was 75-85%. Anything below 70 was bad.) I wasn’t sure if he was going to make it to his surgery. We watched him anxiously as the day approached, fingers crossed.

The second time is not any easier than the first. This was a complex surgery that would be done by the head surgeon; the first surgery was more routine and was done by one of the other surgeons on the team. Our surgeon was renowned in his field; he even had a procedure named after him. It heartened us to know that we had the best surgeon on our case; it also meant that our case was so complex that only the head surgeon could do the fix. When we asked him how many cases like ours he saw, he said “two or three per year.”

This is a surgeon who does multiple surgeries a day in one of the busiest hospitals in the country.

At least he had seen cases like this before.

The game plan going in was to either do a full fix (anatomical repair) or a workaround (physiological repair). The surgeon said he wouldn’t know which option to do until he got in there and saw with his own eyes what the situation required. Basically our baby’s heart chambers formed correctly (4 chambers in the right place and good size) but all of the major and veins are connected on the wrong side. Veins that are supposed to be on the right side are instead on the left. The aorta comes out of the right ventricle instead of the left as normal. The pulmonary artery, which is supposed to come out of the right ventricle, is straight up missing. So the surgeon could either make the connections go the right way, or make the heart go completely the wrong way. Either option was better than the current half right (chambers are correct) and half wrong (connections are on opposite side). We needed either all right or all wrong.

The risks with the surgery were also greater, because it would be a longer procedure and that meant more time on the bypass machine. The longer you’re on the bypass, the higher the chance of complications like stroke or brain bleed. This was a very long procedure.

The wait in the waiting room is a special kind of hell, because there is nothing to do but wait and think about all the things that could go wrong. When we asked about the risk of our baby dying during the procedure, the surgeon said 15%. When it’s your baby’s life on the line, 15% seems very far from 1% or 0%.

We were told that the surgery would be done around 11am and the surgeon would come to the waiting room to tell us how it went. By noon, he still hadn’t come, and I was trying not to panic that something had gone wrong. Finally he comes at nearly 1pm, almost two hours late, and tells us that our baby’s surgery was successful but they couldn’t do an anatomical repair. They had to do plan B, physiological repair, and make his half-wrong heart all the way wrong. Doing so was actually easier because the heart kinda wanted to go that way anyway, so apparently he got done early and jumped to another surgery. That’s why he was nearly two hours late coming out.

🤦‍♀️

Anyway, so my son has a backwards heart. His aorta is connected to his right ventricle instead of his left, and his pulmonary artery is connected to his left ventricle. The veins connected to his right and left atria were already switched at birth. Most people collect deoxygenated blood in their right atrium and pump blood to their lungs from their right ventricle, then the oxygenated blood comes back from the lungs into the left atrium, and the left ventricle pumps it out to the body thru the aorta. My son’s heart goes the other way: the left ventricle pumps to the lungs and the right ventricle pumps to the body.

You wouldn’t know it by looking at him now. He looks like a normal, happy baby. He loves to eat strawberries and watermelon, loves when his dad reads to him, and loves watching his older sisters. He turns one years old this week, on August 8. We weren’t sure when he was born if he had 6 days, 6 months, 6 years or 60 to live. He’s made it past the first two milestones; chances are pretty good that he’ll make it to 6 years. (Because of his backwards anatomy and the fact that the right ventricle is not designed to pump blood out to the body, there is a 15% chance that he’ll have heart failure and need a heart transplant at some point.)

I don’t know how long we have with him, but I’m grateful for the time we’ve been given so far and will take it one day at a time. He is a true miracle, my baby with the backwards heart.

[biscuityskies]

3 4 7 :)

tyvm for the ask <33 sorry it took a bit for me to get back to you (tysm for asking when i requested!!!!) but i am here now!!! (also. also while i've got you. i love your handle. it brings me joy every time i see it.)

3. do you share fic ideas or keep them to yourself?

I am apparently physically incapable of keeping things to myself and i have to immediately share ideas with other people - both to gauge if it's a viable idea to write (i.e. if there are any holes in my plan) and to see if it's something that people would actually read. (the kicker is... i don't really write plot?? so i have a couple of fics that are directed by plot that have yet to be written. they're still outlined, but i'm sort of saving them until i become a better writer lmao.) the frustrating second part of it is that if i share with too many people, then i'll be like "well the idea is already in the world, no need for me to write it" so if it's something that i REAAAAALLY want to write then i try to share as few details as possible while still maintaining the writing viability and the reading interest. (this doesn't always work.)

4. how do you choose which fics to write?

the fics that i write - especially of late - are generally prompted by either events hosted on tumblr.com in which case i try to do my 45-hour-a-week job and instead come up with ideas, or they're canon fix-it or additions. mostly it's stuff that haunts me, that sticks around in my head even after i, say, sort of attend a beach boys concert, or total my car (two events mostly unrelated).

7. post a snippet from a wip.

behold! a wippet! this is from chapter 2 of admiring from afar! (proof that i'm working on it i AM i PROMISE)

And Cody - sweet, kind Cody - knows him so well, can probably hear him overthinking, even over the waterfall. “How are you doing?” is his first question.  Obi-Wan nods slowly, his brow furrowing with it. “I’m okay,” he replies.  Cody just levels a look at him. “And how are you, really?”  Damn it all to hell, they’ve been working together for too long. Cody knows all of his tells at this point, clearly. It may be a boon on the field of battle, but it’s not great for Obi-Wan presently. Cody’s lovely warm eyes search his, scanning for any hints that Obi-Wan may give.  “I’m fine, my dear, honestly,” he says, a little dishonestly. “In the span of two days I got married and moved to a new home with my new husband, so I’m a little disoriented, but otherwise genuinely fine.” He takes up Cody’s hand. “And how are you?”  Cody snorts and breaks eye contact, instead watching the water cascade down the precipice. “Same as you, sir, disoriented as all hell. I’m living a life no vod can have without deserting.”  “Oh, Cody,” he muses. He brushes his thumbs along the back of Cody’s hand. “I am sorry, darling. I have no basis of knowledge for married couples, and I still genuinely believe that you and I are the best set for the job.”  Cody’s brow furrows, and he looks back at him with an expression Obi-Wan can’t quite describe. “You do know about… Skywalker? And his senator?”  “Allow me to rephrase: I have no basis of knowledge for normal married couples who aren’t trying - and spectacularly failing - to keep things secret.”  Cody’s responding grin cuts through whatever farce he’s put on. There he is.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Record-breaking laser demonstration completes mission

NASA's TBIRD (TeraByte InfraRed Delivery) demonstration and its host spacecraft—the PTD-3 (Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-3)—have completed their technology demonstration. The TBIRD payload spent the past two years breaking world records for the fastest satellite downlink from space using laser communications.

NASA's PTD series leverages a common commercial spacecraft to provide a robust platform for effective testing of technologies with minimal redesign in between launches. After launch in May 2022 on the SpaceX Transporter 5 mission, the PTD-3 spacecraft entered low-Earth orbit, and shortly after, TBIRD began sending laser communications signals to an optical ground station in Table Mountain, California.

TBIRD's two-year demonstration showcased the viability of laser communications. Most NASA missions rely on radio frequency communication systems. However, laser communications use infrared light and can pack significantly more data in a single communications link. This technology is ideal for science and exploration missions that need large data transmissions.

In 2023, TBIRD continuously broke its own records, reaching its peak in June when it transmitted 4.8 terabytes of error-free data—equivalent to about 2,400 hours of high-definition video—in five minutes at 200 gigabits per second in a single pass.

The TBIRD payload was one of many laser communications demonstrations. NASA's SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program is maturing this technology to demonstrate the impact laser communications can have on bringing more science and exploration data home. The next demonstration will be on the Artemis II mission.

In addition to breaking a world record, this mission demonstrated cost-effective design and extremely low size, weight, and power requirements—both on the PTD-3 spacecraft and within the TBIRD payload. The tissue-box-sized payload contained two commercial telecommunication modems that the TBIRD team modified for the extreme environment of space.

The PTD-3/TBIRD system also overcame one of the major challenges associated with laser communications: making the narrow beam laser link connection while moving at orbital speeds while being buffeted by atmospheric drag. The PTD-3 spacecraft's precision "body pointing" and stability enabled the TBIRD payload to make its record-breaking achievement while moving as fast as 17,000 mph through space. The spacecraft set a record for the highest accuracy pointing ever achieved by a NASA CubeSat without any moving mechanisms or propulsion systems.

The end of PTD-3 and TBIRD's mission was expected. The system did not contain a propulsion system, meaning once it was deployed into its low Earth orbit, the mission could only last until its orbit naturally decayed.

While only planned to operate for six months, TBIRD carried out its demonstration for well over two years, enabling NASA to learn more about laser communications operations in low Earth orbit.

The lessons learned during TBIRD will be applied to future implementations of laser communications and minimize downlink constraints for mission designs, enabling future exploration and discoveries.

TOP IMAGE: The benefits of laser communications: more efficient, lighter systems, increased security, and more flexible ground systems. Credit: NASA/Dave Ryan

LOWER IMAGE: An artist’s concept of the Pathfinder Technology Demonstration -3 carrying the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery payload. Credit: NASA/Dave Ryan

[tagrasso-art]

Day 1: Genesis

----

This is the personal log of Sc.D. A. Harlow, Xenobiochemist.

My colleagues and I have finally entered orbit around the target of our journey.

Exoplanet 82 Hevron d is marked to have possible viability for human settlement. Remote samples and scans report earth-like conditions. There is plenty of water and the soil composition matches ours approximately, though it has been found to have disproportionately large quantities of copper in both geo- and biosphere.

Gravity is low, tectonic activity high. Add the two moons to that and we are told to expect high tides, craggy terrain and large fauna. The planet's axial tilt is at merely 2.1°, so no significant seasons to speak of. If it is not viable for settlement, then I expect our employees to purge the biosphere from orbit and turn it into a mining outpost. Let's hope that won't be necessary.

Orbital scans to find a landing site have concluded an hour ago, we are landing in t-6h. Further reports will follow.

[sparrowsgarden]

As someone with a passing knowledge of how AI/computer image generation works, I really wouldn't have minded my stuff being plugged into an engine before a handful of months ago.

That isn't to say that artists shouldn't have control over whether their content is used as training data (the general lack of discretion in the data sets is a whole issue of its own), but up until recently these programs were a lot more of a novelty, and also commonly acknowledged to be very bad at what they were trying to do. While stable diffusion has made the outputs scan better, they're clearly still lacking a lot. Of course, I've never been personally at risk, because I don't have a singular distinctive visual art style - I have a good handful which I apply depending on my mood or what the project demands. My writing, also, is geared toward clear and concise communication, and that simply can't be imitated if the engine doesn't understand the concept behind what it's trying to communicate.

But moreso, it seemed absurd to me that image generation in its current state could compete with actual artists, and I still don't really see that as being as much of a concern as some people think. The people who understand the value of human-made art will still want it regardless of replicability. Anyone willing to substitute it for something that gives them much less flexibility with the final output probably either wasn't compensating artists fairly before, or wasn't buying art at all. I'm not really convinced this hypothetical guy exists who previously would have paid full price for a work by a popular digital artist, but won't anymore because they can generate a facsimile of the artist's style. I think the problem is way more with the general devaluation of art and design work.

There certainly may be less commercial work, but the survival of artists shouldn't depend on their commercial viability. In our capitalist hellscape those corners are liable to be cut when any substitute is available. That could be computer image generation, or it could be a guy who can whip out a barely-passable Photoshop job in 20 minutes where an artist (or a designer who cared and was paid enough to make it more than barely-passable) would spend hours.

Anyone who's argued for modern art before - or on the other end of the spectrum, for photorealism - knows that art shouldn't be valued only by how easy the image is to replicate, and I feel like the emphasis on commercial viability really flattens the discussion on how this technology actually has the capability for harm.

My concern is not about the artists not getting paid for jobs in industries they were already being cut out of. My concern is about how our world might get measurably worse because some people have decided that "actively garbage but scans ok at a first glance" is good enough. Or they don't know enough about what they're doing to discern whether the output is good quality, which is uh, horrifying in some of these contexts. But again, those people were already cutting those corners - it's just gotten way easier to point and laugh at them.

So really, if we want to protect ourselves, I think the main thing that we can do is point and laugh. This won't guarantee that they'll change anything meaningfully, but it'll at least show them they can't get away with making these changes without anyone noticing. It'll hopefully teach people who have not figured it out that these tools are not smart and essays are not an appropriate use for them. And it'll give us some pretty guilt-free schadenfreude to tide us over.

[lilyblackdrawside]

I thought I’d end up using Fiammetta’s Skill 2 the most, but I tend to find spots for Fia with Skill 3. It’s a bit similar to how you’d scan maps for Fartooth viability, they occupcy similar ranges.

[assaultmystic]

When "brain scan reading" hits the market they're going to sell it to the affluent as a way to see patterns in the sentential language in your thought. Maximise positive words and minimise negative ones to keep your brain tidy! Do our 15 minute mindfulness session now. Track your progress. On the coercive edge, psychiatric institutions are going to use it as a metric for how well people are taking to therapy. Police will look into its viability for extracting confessions. Naturally, of course, the endpoint is to attempt to forcibly effect general shift in the vocabulary of a subject's mind.

[sprigofacacia]

6 Tips To Choose The Best Document Scanner

With the majority of consumers making transactions online document scanning has become an integral component of any business. Scanning is the process of converting of paper documents to digital. It can be accomplished by using a scanner for documents. There are a lot of options available that are available today. Which one should I buy? This article will give you some tips to help you select the best document scanner.

1. Take into account the dimensions

Document scanners come in various sizes, so the size you choose is based on how frequently you use them. There are two main types of scanners: portable and desktop. The portable scanners are available in a variety of sizes and are able to be used wirelessly. This option is suitable when using the scanner on the go and maybe to attend meetings, since you can easily carry it in your purse.

If you will only use it in your office it is recommended to use a desktop scanner. the best option. Also, consider the desktop scanner if space allotment isn't a problem in your workplace, as it will take up quite a lot of room.

2. Make it easy to make use of

When investing in any equipment, it is important to ensure that your team is able to use it. The same applies to a document scanner. It should be easy to set up, so your team doesn't spend countless hours trying to comprehend how it works. To get the desired result it is essential to be simple. The most effective document scanner software should be easy to use and integrate with your current systems.

The use of complex tools could waste time and cause problems. Document scanners aren't a good investment if it isn't used properly. There is no profit from the investment.

3. Factor In Speed

The speed of your chosen document scanner is important since it determines the speed at which you scan your documents. Speed is measured by how many documents you scan each day, or by how many images you take per minute.

It is best to base your decision on the number of documents you'll print on a particular day and also the length of time you want for your business.

To manage your daily workload, choose an image scanner that can scan faster if you have to scan numerous documents each day. The reverse also applies in the event that you do not scan a lot of documents per day.

4. Check Out Costs

The cost of the scanner you choose can also impact your capacity to pay for it. The price of the scanner can determine the worth and viability of the investment.

Also, you should think about long-term expenses. They include maintenance, running, as well as labor costs. On the running costs, you need to consider the accessories you'll need to purchase to suit your requirements, the price of these accessories, and how often they get depleted.

If you're in the market for maintenance, be sure to request spare parts and scheduled maintenance. If repair and maintenance costs are expensive it's important to ask the manufacturer for a guarantee that meets these requirements.

Once you have determined the price of your document scanner, compare that figure to the actual needs it meets. Are you getting value for your money? Take a look at this figure in relation to your budget. Do you think it is in your budget? It's best to settle for an item that falls within your budget.

5. Consider Resolution

Resolution refers to the resolution of the documents you have scanned. Different scanners offer different resolutions, which is why you should take this into consideration when weighing your choices.

It is essential to think about the document's quality before deciding the resolution. A scanner with a high resolution is the best option.

It is also important to scrutinize the documents you have in your possession. Are they colored, or are they black and white? Therefore, you should choose an scanner that has the features you need.

In the event that you'll be using the scanner to take pictures to market the photography business you run. To ensure that the images are as original as you can it is recommended to choose scanning with advanced imaging processing.

6. Inquire About Capacity

Capacity refers to the scanner's capability to manage your company's documents. Does the scanner work with A4 and A3 sizes of paper? In addition to the size of your paper, think about the thickness of your paper. Make sure your scanner can take on thick documents, such as credit cards and business cards. So, pick an image scanner that is able to manage both large and small documents without having to change settings every time.

The scanner's capacity to function without being damaged is another aspect of its capability. This is important since you would like the scanner you use to serve for a long time. The length of time you spend scanning documents will determine the kind of scanner that you choose. If you're handling a large number of documents frequently, get one that can work for long durations without overheating or breaking down.

Conclusion

With the right guidance, choosing a document scanner is easy. These tips can help you select the right document scanner for your needs.

[mentalisttraceur-reactions]

Yes @ much of that, but that's not the point.

I'm not even convinced this was a false positive in measurement or BOLD imagining. A dead salmon will absolutely have oxygen changes as its cells finish dying and aerobic bacteria do their thing.

(Especially if the salmon was very fresh, or cooled soon after death and then allowed to reach ambient temperature before/during the experiment.)

So maybe that particular voxel wasn't noise, maybe it was actually measuring a spot where that one (1) salmon had oxygen still going down at that time. Then the only issue is the inevitable result of wrongly trying to fit a real measured change to an independent variable.

So then beyond that, the point is that for any possible method designed to find

differences in raw MRI readings

from living human brains

across situations rightly expected/known to cause a difference

(including, crucially, any conceivable/hypothetical methods that actually reliably produce correct results, including accounting for noise in individual measurements), if you give that method MRI readings from a dead fish, you might get an output which finds some difference to point at.

So that is not sufficient, in itself, to show that those methods are always producing garbage results when given MRI readings from something that behaves in the ways the relevant algorithms were designed to handle.

You could have a method with a stellar track record at reliably producing true results, very few false positives when used as intended - and it would still produce false positives when given input it wasn't designed to handle.

Just one thing to consider: live human brains have a whole lot going on, in different areas, at different levels of intensity, so it would be eminently reasonable for an fMRI implementation to only show differences relative to some average noise floor. Of course, since each brain is different, it would have to figure out the noise floor anew for each pair/series of scans being diffed. So somewhere in the software stack of your MRI machine or your fMRI algorithms, some piece of code is probably automatically adjusting sensitivity or what's considered "significant", for each thing being measured - like a camera adjusting the brightness automatically. But a dead brain is probably a lot less active, and thus has a much lower noise floor, and thus small random variations would be enough for statistical significance. So we can easily imagine a method that would be really good at avoiding false positives in a highly active brain, yet predictably tend to produce false positives with a dead/low-activity brain. Now, maybe the paper itself addresses this. But like I said, what's described above doesn't. And this is just one of several necessary components for this to cast doubt on the overall viability of fMRI to infer changes in live human brain activity.

Another quick elaboration: fMRI trying to find diffs between two or more scans strikes me as an expectation maximization problem, where we assume that there's one latent boolean variable which has changed: that the subject has begun or stopped doing a specific task with their brain. So if you expect one boolean latent variable and try to maximize that expectation over a dataset where there's zero latent variables (because the brain is dead and isn't doing shit), what happens? It produces a false positive, and yet expectation maximization works correctly when the assumptions are correct.

So if application to brain activity inference is truly beyond the scope of the paper, then the paper says next to nothing, To discredit any work claiming to use fMRI for brain activity inference, to show any brain activity studies as shoddy, it absolutely has to show that the dead fish result is somehow representative of a false result when trying to infer brain activity. In itself, the dead fish is just a smaller, reproducible test case of how you can get false positives, but that alone doesn't tell you if those same false positives would've made it through to the final result given a live human brain, or when analyzing findings from multiple brains (vs, say, being under the noise floor, or failing to dominate expectation maximization, or [...]).

Finally, the most important part:

Sample size is approximately always one of the most relevant things in the picture. But I would say it is especially relevant here - even the most relevant thing, precisely because of possible noise in individual readings!

A false positive from one dead salmon doesn't really matter if your methods would rule it out as noise as soon you have two or more salmon. That's why it's standard good study of almost anything is to look for commonalities and differences between the different samples. That's literally the most significant part of separating real trends from noise. That's how you start to figure out which of the differences you picked up are actually related to what you're testing vs coincidence. For fMRI, oxygen depletion differences only matter if they are consistent across multiple brains doing the same task.

You know, I literally assumed in good faith that this dead fish study was done with multiple dead salmon. Like, at least a dozen. Because that's what it would've taken for it to say something actually interesting. And then while writing this post I find out it was done with one salmon!? One!?

The way @derinthescarletpescatarian was talking this study up, I thought it must've used enough dead fish to at least make a strong case for sample sizes larger than typical, leaving only the relatively subtler matter of whether dead fish was sufficiently different to bypass methods that might already be in use to reduce false positives with live humans.

(And when I originally reblogged in agreement, iirc I was even imagining it as a gigachad steelman paper with some robust logical proof showing how in fact they weren't sufficiently different, like "first we show that currently popular methods would produce false results like this for any set of fMRI scans which satisfies the following properties: [...]", "next we show that fMRI scans of live human brains satisfy these properties ", etc.)

But now it sounds like we were just a second dead salmon short of this study clarifying itself as an extremely boring nothingburger: the same voxels just wouldn't have shown up as changing in both fish, and the standard methods of looking for consistencies across multiple fMRI diffs would've filtered out the one voxel that lit up in the first salmon.

(Maybe I'm being too harsh though. I find it really hard to believe that circa this paper, people really were publishing peer-reviewed papers on brain activity with sample size =1; that any serious scientist in the field believed that looking at just one brain was enough for any novel conclusion. But if they were, then clearly an fMRI study with precisely one dead salmon was exactly what we needed.)

one of the best academic paper titles