It’s not that it’s a spiral - one of my favorite types of graphs is the Condegram spiral. (Named after Mark Conde)
It’s used in astronomy/meteorology to show changes the Earths magnetic fields (Kp index) & is used to visualize space weather.
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Another awesome spiral graph - and one of the best examples of #dataviz ever IMO - is the Rose plots by Florence Nightingale.
These 1858 plots show the causes of mortality in Crimean war & make a compelling case that for improving conditions (particularly shelter in winter). 3/
I also really like circular or spiral dendrograms. Take a look at this beautiful 🌀 graphic showing the evolution/domestication of yeast.
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So if I like 🌀graphics so much why do I viscerally dislike this NYT COVID spiral? 5/
The beauty of Nightingale & Conde’s spirals is they show *granular* data. You can clearly see the sudden changes in deaths or solar activity.
The NYT graphic *averages* the data - this makes it look smooth but it also makes the surges in cases more subtle & harder to see. 6/
Another problem is how the NYT graphic plots cases: above & below the spiral.
Compare to the Condegram, which only goes above the spiral.
Humans are better at perceiving height than width. Just look at these two lines of identical length. Which case is easier to discern? 7/
To illustrate this point: Compare the NYT COVID spiral to the same data presented linearly.
Is it obvious that the green🟩line is more than twice as wide as the blue 🟦 line? 8/
Bottom line: this plot from the NYT distorts the data through unnecessary smoothing & plotting on both the inside & outside of the spiral. This has the effect of making it hard to see the true increase in cases. A missed #dataviz opportunity.
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As a bonus - here are few more of my favorite spiral #dataviz:
A 1850 plot by William Farr showing a (spurious) relationship between temperature & cholera cases in London. Correlation doesn't equal causation but it's still a compelling spiral graphic.
Not a spiral but another of my all time favorite ID dataviz examples: a plot showing polio cases in the US from 1931 to 1955.
Look how it combines granular data from each state/each week, along with monthly averages, and a heatmap for emphasis. 😍
Every year, there is a predictable spike in fatal car accidents, medical errors, & heart attacks.
It’s estimated that there are thousands of excess deaths, a 1% increase in energy consumption, & billions of dollars in lost GDP.
The cause? Daylight savings transitions.
🧵
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Earth's axis of rotation and orbital axis are not precisely aligned. The 23.5 degree difference - 'axis tilt' - gives us our seasons and a noticeable difference in day length over the course of the year.
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For millennia this seasonal variation was an accepted fact of life.
In 1895, George Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist, was annoyed that less afternoon light meant less time for bug collecting.
He realized that clocks could be adjusted seasonally to align with daylight.
Unlike other Trump moves, this is arguably GOOD news for researchers!
If the NIH budget is unchanged (a big if), this allocates more money to researchers; if you go from an indirect of 75% to 15% it means you can fund 3 grants instead of 2.
Between 1947 and 1965, indirect rates ranged from 8% to 25% of total direct costs. In 1965, Congress removed most caps. Since then indirects have steadily risen.
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A lot of indirects go to thing like depreciation of facilities not paying salaries of support staff.
This accounting can be a little misleading.
If donors build a new $400m building, the institution can depreciate it & “lose” $20m/year over 20 years. Indirects pay this.
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🚨Apparently all NIH Study Sections have been suspended indefinitely.
For those who don’t know, this means there won’t be any review of grants submitted to NIH
Depending on how long this goes on for, this could lead to an interruption in billions in research funding.
With a budget of ~$47.4B, the NIH is by far the biggest supporter of biomedical research worldwide.
Grants are reviewed periodically by committees of experts outside of the NIH.
When these study sections are cancelled, it prevents grants from being reviewed & funded.
Hopefully this interruption will be brief (days)
A longer interruption in study sections (months) will inevitably cause an interruption in grant funding. This means labs shutdown, researchers furloughed/fired, & clinical trials suspended. This will harm progress & patients!
#HurricaneHelene damaged the factory responsible for manufacturing over 60% of all IV fluids used in the US, leading to a major national shortage.
As clinicians what can we do to about the #IVFluidShortage and how can we prevent this crisis from happening again?
A thread 🧵 1/
There are many things we can do as clinicians to improve ICU care & reduce IVF use.
1️⃣Don't order Maintenance IV Fluid!
Almost no patient actually needs continuous IV fluids.
Most either need resuscitation (e.g. boluses) or can take fluid other ways (PO, feeding tube, TPN).
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Frequently if someone is NPO overnight for a procedure, MIVF are ordered.
This is wrong for two reasons.
We are all NPO while asleep & don't need salt water infusions!
We should be letting people drink clears up to TWO HOURS before surgery, per ASA.
New favorite physiology paper: Central Venous Pressure in Space.
So much space & cardio physiology to unpack here including:
- effects of posture, 3g shuttle launch, & microgravity on CVP
- change in the relationship between filling pressure (CVP) & LV size
- Guyton curves! 1/
To measure CVP in space they needed two things:
📼 an instrument/recorder that could accurately measure pressure despite g-force, vibration, & changes in pressure. They built & tested one!
🧑🚀👩🚀👨🚀 an astronaut willing to fly into space with a central line! 3 volunteered! 2/
The night before launch they placed a 4Fr central line in the median cubital vein & advanced under fluoro.
🚀The astronauts wore the data recorder under their flight suit during launch.
🌍The collected data from launch up to 48 hrs in orbit. 3/