https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/books/review/open-space-david-ariosto.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VlA.HACP.bzbyut-McnKU a rare book review that’s fairly critical – not positive
Posts Tagged ‘to’
EXTRASTAMINA on X: “Relax https://t.co/JAYyvOOHWc” / X
May 2, 2026https://x.com/videothread3/status/2049865903819358324
Wonder if it’d be good to do one for slitting
4 Drugs That May Increase Your Dementia Risk
April 28, 2026QT:{{”
Antihistamines
The class of medications with perhaps the most evidence of raising dementia risk are called anticholinergics. ….
“That once-in-a-while use of Benadryl is unlikely to increase risk for dementia,” Dr. Gray said. …
So-called second generation antihistamines, like Claritin and Zyrtec, don’t have anticholinergic activity, so they can be a safer option for seasonal allergies,
Antipsychotic Drugs
With mental health medications and dementia, there is a chicken-or-egg question: Do the drugs themselves increase the risk of dementia, or is it the conditions the drugs are prescribed for, such as depression or psychosis, that increase it? ….
Benzodiazepines
These mental health medications, which work on a specific
neurotransmitter to suppress brain activity, have also been linked to dementia…..
Proton Pump Inhibitors
Conflicting evidence has also been reported about proton pump inhibitors, which are often used to treat acid reflux. … Some proton pump inhibitors, like Prilosec, are purchased over the counter, so their use can be more difficult to track and analyze than prescription medications.
“}}
The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/well/mind/medications-dementia-risk-increase.html
A mechanism for adaptive genome regulation in cancer | Nature
April 25, 2026https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10269-1
Nice discussion of discrete cell types v cont. cell states
QT:{{”
Although the transcriptomic classification of cell types and states into discrete hierarchical entities is useful for standardizing and recogniz- ing functional units8, this framework could risk the reinforcement of a Platonic view, in which observed states are viewed as approximations to idealized configurations underpinned by strict gene programs (Fig. 1a). The advent of single-cell RNA sequencing has provided evidence for the notion that cells often traverse continuous and multidimensional landscapes of gene expression, shaped by varying degrees of constraint and plasticity. Such dynamics are an inherent cellular attribute that also occurs in seemingly stable physiological states, and processes in normal physiology once thought to involve binary choices are now recognized as continuous (Fig. 1b). For example, haematopoiesis reflects gradual acquisition of lineage biases rather than transitions between discrete progenitor states9. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) proceeds through multiple intermediate hybrid states with context-specific tran- scriptional profiles10. Waddington’s well-known epigenetic landscape metaphor, where cells roll down a fixed, branching landscape during cell-fate decisions and settle at valleys corresponding to stable inter- mediate or terminally differentiated states, may not fully capture the continuity of cellular-state transitions11. Instead, the landscape itself appears to be flexible, especially in disease contexts, with environmental and genetic changes reshaping the accessibility of states, thus changing the barriers that govern cell-state transitions (Fig. 1c). “}}
França, G. S., & Yanai, I. (2026). A mechanism for adaptive genome regulation in cancer. Nature, 652(8110), 581–590.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10269-1
Zebrafish reveal new insights into the biology of autism | Yale News
April 20, 2026https://news.yale.edu/2026/04/02/zebrafish-reveal-new-insights-biology-autism?utm_source=YaleToday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=YT_YaleToday-Faculty_4-7-2026 QT{{” Here, we leverage the strengths of zebrafish as a scalable in vivo system to screen 520 US FDA-approved drugs and establish a database of their effects on sensory processing and arousal behaviors. Using this database, we nominate pharmacological candidates relevant to specific ASD genes or gene subgroups. “}}
Jamadagni, P., Dai, Y., Liu, Y., Mendes, H. W., Pruitt, A., Khan, S., Yang, L., Huang, T., Huang, X., Deans, P. J. M., Balafkan, N., Zhao, D., Xu, G., Liu, Y., Li, N., Wu, W., Fitzpatrick, S. E., Neelakantan, U., Chen, T., . . . Hoffman, E. J. (2026). Pharmaco-behavioral profiling identifies suppressors of autism gene–associated phenotypes in zebrafish. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123(12), e2518846123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2518846123
Critics are getting less cruel. Alas
April 19, 2026LDA resources
April 12, 2026https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/latent-dirichlet-allocation What is Latent Dirichlet allocation | IBM
Blei, D. M., Ng, A. Y., & Jordan, M., I. (2003). Latent dirichlet allocation. https://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/papers/v3/blei03a.html https://www.jmlr.org/papers/volume3/blei03a/blei03a.pdf
GeeksforGeeks. (2025, July 23). Topic modeling using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). GeeksforGeeks.
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/nlp/topic-modeling-using-latent-dirichlet-allocation-lda/
Ganegedara, T. (2025, February 2). Intuitive Guide to Latent Dirichlet Allocation. Towards Data Science.
https://towardsdatascience.com/light-on-math-machine-learning-intuitive-guide-to-latent-dirichlet-allocation-437c81220158/
some blogs
https://johaupt.github.io/blog/Topic_modeling_with_Gibbs_sampling_in_R.html https://agustinus.kristia.de/blog/lda-gibbs/
AI tools are being prepared for the physical world
April 8, 2026QT:{{”
PROJECT GENIE, an experimental artificial-intelligence model released by Google in January, is a jaw-dropping technical achievement. Give the tool a prompt—an image, say, or a brief snippet of text—and it will generate an interactive world for the user to explore. Type in a straightforward request, and the result is a realistic simulation. Start with a painting by Georges Seurat, by contrast, and you can wander through a Sunday in the park in perfect pointillist style. “}}
Psychiatry has finally found an objective way to spot mental illness | New Scientist
April 1, 2026Robson, D. (2026, January 16). Psychiatry has finally found an objective way to spot mental illness. New Scientist.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2509966-psychiatry-has-finally-found-an-objective-way-to-spot-mental-illness/
QT:{{”
“It is the fusion of these features that allows us to reach high levels of accuracy and reliability,” says Aafjes. “In cases of severe depression, non-verbal behaviours are often the most informative signals – aspects one might miss by analysing voice and speech alone.” Working with scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, Deliberate Al is investigating how biomarkers change during recovery. “We’ve shown high concurrent validity with existing measures, which is very important for acceptability by regulators and clinicians,” says Aafjes. “}}
Newsci-article-in-labdropbox–2026-04-01 22.53.35.jpg
Newsci-article-in-labdropbox–2026-04-01 22.53.50.jpg
Human hippocampal neurogenesis in adulthood, ageing and Alzheimer’s disease
March 1, 2026Interesting paper on the Aging Brain. Featured in NY Times.
Nature https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10169-4
Disouky, A., Sanborn, M. A., Sabitha, K. R., Mostafa, M. M., Ayala, I. A., Bennett, D. A., Lu, Y., Zhou, Y., Keene, C. D., Weintraub, S., Gefen, T., Mesulam, M., Geula, C., Maienschein-Cline, M., Rehman, J., & Lazarov, O. (2026). Human hippocampal neurogenesis in adulthood, ageing and Alzheimer’s disease. Nature.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10169-4
linkstream2 microblog 