SphynxCatVP's News

2009 H1N1 Influenza A ("swine flu") clinical information

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:52:59 GMT

Be warned, these are LONG once you click in through the LJ cuts. Saw this on Medscape and figure I'd pass along for anyone who wants the nitty gritty of this nasty thing that's going around. The Medscape article is dated September 25, 2009, so it's fairly current as of this writing.

[My explanations of lesser-known medical terms are in these square brackets.]

Clinical Features of H1N1 Influenza
Typical Signs and Symptoms

The incubation period for H1N1 influenza is 1-4 days, possibly as long as 7 days. The clinical features of influenza are well known and include:

* Sudden onset of fever (usually high);

* Headache;

* Extreme tiredness;

* Dry cough;

* Sore throat;

* Runny nose; and

* Muscle aches and stomach symptoms -- more common in children.

(CDC. Interim guidance for clinicians on identifying and caring for patients with swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus infection. June 2009. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/identifyingpatients.htm Accessed September 16, 2009.)

The symptoms of pandemic H1N1 influenza of 2009 are essentially the same as the seasonal flu, although some have noted an increased frequency of gastrointestinal symptoms, including vomiting and diarrhea, and others have noted the absence of fever in a significant number with virologically proven cases.

The CDC defines cases as influenza-like illness (ILI) if there is fever of ≥100° F (37.8° C) plus cough and/or sore throat in the absence of a known cause other than influenza. Another category is acute respiratory illness (ARI), defined by the presence of 2 of the following 4 symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, or rhinorrhea [runny nose]. In the outbreak of pandemic influenza in New York City, 95% of virologically proven cases satisfied the ILI definition. (CDC. Swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus infections in a school -- New York City, April 2009. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Dispatch. 2009;58:1-3. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm58d0430a1.htm Accessed September 25, 2009.)

Patients with 2009 influenza A H1N1 infections have higher rates of gastrointestinal symptoms and lack of fever compared with those who have seasonal flu. Most patients have mild symptoms, but a small subset of previously healthy young adults have severe pulmonary disease that progresses to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); this may occur with or without underlying conditions.

Symptoms in virologically confirmed cases. During an outbreak of H1N1 in a New York City high school, a sample of New York City school students (median age, 15 years) with virologically confirmed cases were interviewed about their symptoms by telephone. They reported:

* Cough (98%);

* Subjective fever (96%);

* Fatigue (89%);

* Headache (82%);

* Sore throat (82%);

* Abdominal pain (50%);

* Diarrhea (48%);

* Dyspnea (48%); and

* Joint pain (46%).

The measured mean peak fever in this group was 102.2° F. (CDC. Swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus infections in a school -- New York City, April 2009. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Dispatch. 2009;58:1-3. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm58d0430a1.htm Accessed September 25, 2009.)
Case Definitions for H1N1 Influenza

(CDC. Interim guidance for clinicians on identifying and caring for patients with swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus infection. June 2009. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/identifyingpatients.htm Accessed September 16, 2009.)

* Confirmed case: Patient with ILI plus laboratory evidence confirmed by real-time RT-PCR or viral culture;

* Probable case: ILI plus laboratory test positive for influenza A and negative for human H1 and H3 by RT-PCR; and

* Optional: ILI without negative H1N1 test and (1) previously healthy person > 65 years hospitalized for ILI; (2) epidemiologic link to confirmed or probable case in past 7 days; or (3) ILI plus travel to a state or country with confirmed or probable cases.

* Exacerbation of underlying chronic disease;

* Complications related to the upper airways, including sinusitis [sinus infection] or otitis; [ear infection]

* Pulmonary complications, including bronchitis, asthma (sometimes with status asthmaticus [asthma that does not respond to conventional treatments of inhalers and corticosteroids]), and acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis; and

* Miscellaneous conditions, including cardiac (myocarditis and pericarditis), myositis, rhabdomyolysis [muscle death], central nervous system complications (encephalopathy [generic term for any brain disease], encephalitis [irritation/inflammation of the brain], seizures), toxic shock syndrome, and secondary bacterial pneumonia.

IRC Humor

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:22:59 GMT

Had to share teh funneh!

(Myrbree): "You too can be a vampire just like Edward! Just rub on Edwards SuperDuper Vampire Glitter and you will become a vampire just like him! No joke!"

(Myrbree): "Disclaimer: superduper effects take a year to set in. You must use the glitter gel every day for the transformation to take effect. Each tube contains real blood from a real vampire and the blood soaks into your skin and into your bloodstream. Thus turning you into a vampire safely."

(Myrbree): "each tube contains 100% organic ingredients and each tube contains a one month supply. After a years worth of use you will notice a thirst for human blood and you will stop aging and the ability to throw cars across the country. Get your tube of Edwards SuperDuper Glitter Gel and be on your way to stalking the night an immortal today! Chicks dig it!"

Moar site updates

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:22:57 GMT

Just added a section for conferences to the support grouping in my site. Transcripts of past IRC conferences are located there - including, now, the Vampire Aging conference from 2005. Menus have been rearranged a little bit in this section for better presentation.

Also added an event listing for Sangi's upcoming IRC chat on my special events page in the "Interact" section.

Moar site updates :)

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:41:36 GMT

** All updates are noted with a "NEW" marker on the site pages **

Added OrthaeVelve's Sanguine Feeding Lecture

Added an anecdote from OrthaeVelve

Added Sarasvati's article on whether a medical cause for vampirism is practical

Shuffled some things from the general vamprism page to the anecdotes page

Resorted categories on the general vampirism page

Added link to Vyrdolak's article "Communing with Vampires"

Added links to conference transcripts from VVC public meetings and VVC global chats

clicky to visit my site

Site Updates - 4 Aug 2009

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:41:38 GMT

I have added 3 articles to my site this morning. (Ya'll can stop fainting now... :) )

One by Musidora on being a donor, and two from LadyCG - one on long term blood storage, and one on donors.

All three are linked off my site's Bloodvamps page.

Ya'll can stop passin' out now... :)

Mon, 04 May 2009 04:01:59 GMT

I went through and did some initial updates and link checks for the site.

This especially applies to the webboards page - it's gotten a thorough check and weeding of old/dead/spam-laden links.

If you have a forum/webboard/etc. you want to see included, let me know the name and URL. If it looks appropriate, I will add it to the list.

Public question

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:00:24 GMT

For those who ARE otherkin who may be reading this post...

If you were looking for a site with otherkin info - not a forum, but an informative site...

What types of information would you want to see?

I know specifics can be difficult to nail down between species, but I'm looking for overall types, subject headings as it were.

Thanks. :)

(Yes, this is xposted in my personal LJ)

Update Status

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:32:13 GMT

Done:
1) Added Russian translation button since that's getting more popular among visitors
2) Cleared out old "new" markings
3) Added Media section (Yes, inspired by the VVC's media page)
4) Updated site stats for those who are curious
5) Minor updates to a few articles

In progress:
6) Link checking and verification
7) Webring updates / verifications

Wander over and see... :)

Site cleanup

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:45:31 GMT

I've been doing some minor cleanup on the site this week, pulling things that don't work and some minor tweaking.

If there's suggestion for things to include as I move on to cleaning up the linkrot and adding new content, please feel free to let me know. :)

Quick FYI

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:46:30 GMT

I will be working on integrating this LJ into my site. I'll be doing some cleanup and tweaking, so expect some deconstruction dust kicking around. :)

Site stuff

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:48:50 GMT

I've gone through and updated the FAQ's pages, cleaned up a couple links, gone through most of the FAQ files and made minor tweaks here and there for readability or to update contents.

I'll slowly be going over the rest, little bit at a time, as my sanity allows. :) Announcements will be made here as things are done and uploaded.

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:11:40 GMT

Ok, that's it... things are just tooo chaotic RL.

Until further notice, I am....

..... ON HIATUS .....

Connectivity

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 05:44:29 GMT

Still having some connectivity problems. Those of you waiting to get in touch with me, please be patient.

Thank you.

UPDATE > linkrot on reciprocal links page

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 02:19:34 GMT

No, I'm not dead. :P

I've updated the reciprocal links page on my site with a couple new links, and cleaned out a LOT of dead ones.

The ones either dead or no longer linking to me for whatever reason are the following:

realvamp/otherkin sites:
Choronzon
Clutch Arcane
Darkfaeryglitter/darkfaery subculture
Darkness & Shadows (ChrisII)
Den of Shadows (Wolfkin)
Empyree's Vampire Links
Fangs & Claws (LadyJinx)
HiddenLair (Neserit)
Dragnon's Den
House Aeterno
NocturnalThirst.tk
Real Vampires (Russian)
Realms Between
S@ngD.t Links Page
SD Vampire Connexion
Simply Dark
Silken Shadows Vampire Community

Blogs:
Evil at it's best (@ MSN)
Valve Reaper (@ MSN)

Profiles:
Asha Vampyress
Drksilot
Forest-Night Flight

Non-realvamp/otherkin links:
Alternatives
Arto links page
Gothix Radio
Ihor Zhelem's links page :(
Loxfin
Les Kirschner's weird links
Myztek's Links
Suite101
Bloodclub
Esoterism.com

If your site or page is in this list and you want me to add it back to my reciprocal links page, simply let me know where you have a link to me on your site. If your site has complex, unusually-named or php-based navigation methods, it's possible I simply couldn't find it (and if that's the case, then you should really think about how you design your site navigation!)

Updates will resume for my site, but at a slower pace than in the past, at least for now. I have too many irons in the fire, and things that actually PAY my bills have to come first. The site will stay up regardless, it just means that I may not get to it as often as I'd like.

Webring Alert

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:52:18 GMT

For those who haven't already seen it, and have webrings, they have substantially changed their service offerings.

Anyone owning more than 2 rings AND/OR with memberships in more than 5 other rings WILL BE CHARGED MONEY.

Theoretically, they won't force a choice until January 15th 2007, however they're also saying (in their forums) that they won't charge your account before November 1, 2006.... confused? So's a good portion of webring members.

Anyway... if you have a webring membership and haven't checked in for a while, you might want to do so NOW and decide whether this applies to you, and whether you care what rings they believe you should keep if you exceed these limits.

(xposted to sphynxcatvp as well.)

0 day windows exploit

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 09:13:40 GMT

There's what's known as a 0-day Windows exploit (exploit discovered before a patch is ready) in the wild. Some websites are already exploiting it, and it's only a matter of time before it becomes an exploit used in email (whether as spam or as the product of an installed virus) and files.

This is a hack of the Windows MetaFile format - Thus all Windows machines are vulnerable, and this is a cross-browser suseptibity.

Snippet from the page: "Note that this WILL temporarily disable the "Thumbnail" view in Windows Explorer and Window's Image and FAX viewer. This is by design, since these viewers are no longer safe to use until a non-vulnerable file has been produced by Microsoft and installed."

For details, go here. This page also includes details on how to disable the vulnerable component.

It is recommended that you reboot after disabling the component to prevent anything already in memory from being affected.

Thoughts on enlightenment

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 07:31:20 GMT

"...Shin Buddhism cautions us to always remember that, even if we do awaken to the Dharma and to our true, egocentric nature, we don't become "better people." We're still egotistical, judgmental, impatient, fallible and arrogant. In that sense, Buddhism is really beyond ethics, beyond "right and wrong," because it accepts, with compassion, that to be human is to be flawed. However, though we don't become "better" (more moral) people, we do gain insight. As mentioned above, what can change is the way we look at our lives and our relationship to others. We can come to see that our lives and, indeed, all life, is both interdependent and precious. This insight can have a profound and transforming effect on how we live our lives."

Snippet ganked from here.

Good research practices

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 22:24:16 GMT

Just because it seems to be necessary... :)

Good Research Practices

Good research practices use what is called the "scientific method" for determining whether a theory or conjecture is valid, or at least has merit. It is based on evidence rather than belief.

What is this "scientific method"?

Observe and describe a phenomenon or set of phenomenons.

Create a theory or conjecture to explain the phenomenon(s).

Use what is theorized to predict repeat performances of said phenomena.

Experiment to see whether the theory is correct by discovering whether the criteria will actually duplicate the same set of results. Properly performed experiments will have the most reliable results.

What is the typical process like?

Define the question

Gather information and resources

Form hypothesis

Plan experiment

Do experiment and collect data

Analyze data

Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypotheses

Communicate results

Key points to note:

If the experiments bear out the hypothesis it may come to be regarded as a theory.

If the experiments do not bear out the hypothesis, it MUST BE REJECTED OR MODIFIED.

The key in the description of the scientific method just given is the predictive power of the
hypothesis or theory, as tested by experiment.

It is often said in science that theories can never be proved, only disproved. There is always the possibility that a new observation or a new experiment will conflict with a long-standing theory.

COMMON MISTAKES:

Ignoring data which does not support the hypothesis.

Failure to account for errors in the method used to run the experiment.

Mistaking the hypothesis for an actual explanation, without performing proper experiments.

Bias towards a specific result or specific set of results.

Selected links for further understanding:

http://phyun5.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7/Notes_www/node6.html
http://koning.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/Plants_Human/scimeth.html
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/scimeth.htm
http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/chance.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

Site News - Oct/November Updates

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 20:38:10 GMT

Site-related news:

The interviewers *really* came out of the woodwork this year. In response to many emails, I have set up my own "Press Room" section on my site. This can be found under the "about" tab.

One of my articles - Maintaining Good Health - was published under the title of "Healthy Vamps" in LadyCG's book "Practical Vampyrism for Modern Vampyres". If you are interested, the book may be purchased via Amazon or other retailers, using the ISBN number 1-4116-4299-6.

Another article, Grounding & Centering 101, has been accepted for the December 2005 issue of VC Magazine, and may currently be viewed here for the rest of this month. (Check the VCMagazine archives after the end of this month, and look for "December 2005".)

I have also agreed to what is probably my first interview ever (and a joint interview with Memory And Dream, too) - the results can be viewed over here.

New links for October and November

SphynxCat's Real Vampires - FAQ's of Life
-- Added article by Ravena on Enabling the Vampire Community
-- Added article by Damien Daville on What IS a real vampire?
-- Updated the article on Origin Theories

SphynxCat's Real Vampires - General Articles
-- Added article by Sarah Dorrance on Posing vs. Real Life

Nightwatch Interview posted

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 19:37:49 GMT

The Nightwatch interview with two community members is now up and available for downloading.

The upside is it's just an .mp3 file, so it only takes winamp or some other compatible player.

The downside is it's HUGE. About 105MB. So... be warned.

Bling bling!

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 04:56:40 GMT

I got a plug on the Night Watch show tonight! W0000t!

Archive of the show is expected to be online sometime tomorrow or the next day, but I don't know how long the archives stay up.

Bloodlines Int - changed again

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 05:49:58 GMT

Looks like he put the "original" content back up - the bloodlines site some of us are familiar with.

However....

Be careful which you click, because the fetish link is still on that main page too.

Haven't seen the A&E special yet?

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 22:55:53 GMT

Have you seen the A&E special "The Secret Life of Vampires"?

If not, click here for info on how you can.

A&E Documentary - Additional Showtimes

Sat, 29 Oct 2005 14:58:20 GMT

For those of you who missed it the first time, they will be reshowing it on Halloween itself - October 31st. Check your local listings for showtimes and details.

(You will be be able to pull up your local listings by entering in JUST your zipcode, or if you're not in the USA, click "international listings".)

Oh yea...

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 04:13:40 GMT

I should have mentioned this earlier, but the routing issues appear to be fixed. I haven't seen any issues impacting my site for a few days now.

Four more days to Halloween...