If you can see the article but cannot download it, is it still open access?

I don't know. Jstor is going to release several articles out in the open but you will not be able to download unless you have subscriptions. Is that still open access? Part open, if you ask me.

Research Archive JStor Moves Toward Open Access - Technology Review

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/39448/?ref=rss

I can silence my cell phone calls, but what about alarms in concert halls? (Marimba v Mahler)

It's a very interesting story. I agree how annoying it can be sometimes when the alarm goes off despite best intentions to silence the cell phone in concert halls. It'd be great to have some sort of artificial intelligence built in it to suppress alarms while entering concerts and lectures. Short of it, I think a better idea is to turn off all alarms manually.

Marimba v Mahler

Babbage 15/01/12 11:55 PM

MOST films or performances Babbage has attended in the past decade or so were spoiled by somebody's mobile-phone ringtone. Readers everywhere must have had plenty of similar experiences. So they would no doubt applaud the actions of Alan Gilbert at a recent performance of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony by the New York Philharmonic, which he conducts. According to eyewitnesses, including Michael Jo, who was early in spreading the news via the blog thousandfold echo, a persistent musical tootle from a mobile (iPhone's "marimba" tune) so infuriated the maestro that he halted his musicians. The audience backed Mr Gilbert, heckling the ring offender, who silenced the phone in embarrassment. Mr Gilbert apologised for stopping, received thunderous applause, backed his musicians up a bit to a more vigorous movement, and went on without further mishaps.

The story spread around the world, no doubt because it touches a universal nerve. The New York Times reported that the gentleman in question, interviewed by the newspaper but not named, had received a brand new company iPhone a day before the concert, replacing his BlackBerry smartphone. An alarm had been set accidentally, it appears, and he was only able to silence it after much fumbling in his pocket. A spokeswoman for the Philharmonic told Babbage that the hapless interrupter, a front-row season subscriber, is mortified, and that the orchestra and staff feel for him. (Mr Gilbert declined requests for an interview, having apparently spoken more about the event than his schedule allows.)

The problem is that although most people are minded to silence their mobile phones during performances, alarms are often designed to make a racket regardless of whether the phone is in silent mode (some even sound when the device is powered down). In 2007 Apple's late boss, Steve Jobs, touted the original iPhone's mute switch in 2007, which could be without messing with menus (though the device can also be unintentionally unmuted in a pocket). But alarms override the mute function.

Donald Norman, a guru of usable design and a former Apple and HP executive, says that there have been proposals to design phones to detect a signal disseminated in a performance space that instructed the phone to mute itself. (Suggestions involving signal blockers are no use against alarms, and are in any case banned by telecoms regulators.) He notes that the vibration mode is of little help. After all, the vibrations need to be significant enough to rouse a mobile's owner, and creating them produces sound. Perhaps, Mr Norman suggests facetiously, concertgoers ought be frisked before entering a theatre.

Maybe it won't come to that. Modern smartphones can use satellite-navigation and Wi-Fi network information to determine location indoors. They also have an array of sensors for noise, light and movement. It shouldn't be too difficult to teach an operating system to suppress all alerts when, say, it discerns live music at the same time as locating itself in Avery Fisher Hall (the New York Philharmonic's home). 

For now, though, vigilance remains the only safeguard—albeit not a foolproof one. Mr Norman, doubtless a sophisticated user, admits that even he can't disable all sounds on his phone; every once in a while, the blasted device beeps. One can only hope it doesn't choose to do so at an inopportune time. Like the adagio of Mahler's Ninth.

Cardiac Arrests are extremely rare among Long-Distance Runners but nevertheless warrant a closer study, perhaps case control studies

Cardiac Arrest during Long-Distance Running Races

Now@NEJM 12/01/12 11:00 AM Lisa Rosenbaum Insights cardiac arrest hypertrophic cardiomyopathy long-distance running marathon

As legend has it, in 490 BC, when the Greeks defeated the Persians at the battlefield known as Marathon, the Greek messenger Pheidippides was sent to Athens to announce the victory. He ran the entire 26.22 miles. The marathon was born. But Pheidippides dropped dead. More than two millennia later, in the US, about two million people participate in these long-distance running rituals annually. But as participation increases, so too has sudden cardiac death. Though the absolute number of runners suffering cardiac arrest during these races remains low, the deaths that have occurred have received widespread public attention. Doctors are thus often asked whether long-distance running is unsafe. But as a medical school professor once cautioned me, “The plural of anecdote is not data.” Thanks to data presented in this week’s NEJM by Kim et al, we no longer need to rely solely upon anecdotes.

The crucial question is whether long-distance running really is associated with an increased risk of cardiac arrest. The short answer: not really. The investigators created a registry of data from the last decade of long-distance races in the US, including both marathons and half marathons. To be counted as an event, cardiac arrest had to occur during the race, or within one hour of completion. Of 10.9 million race participants, there were 59 cardiac arrests. Most of the runners who arrested were men, and of those who arrested, 71% died. The overall incidence of arrest was 1 in 184,000 participants, a rate that was higher among marathoners than among half-marathoners. However, when compared to the rate of cardiac arrest for other common, vigorous physical activities, this incidence is quite low. The incidence of arrest among these long-distance runners was less than rates observed among collegiate athletes, tri-athletes, and previously healthy joggers.

The authors were also interested in the causes of arrest among both those who died, and those who survived. Of the 59 total arrests, medical information was obtained for 31. Among the 42 who died following arrest, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, as well as “possible” hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, characterized by a slightly lower LV mass, was the most commonly identified cause of death. Notably, of the 15 runners who died and were found on autopsy to have increased LV mass, 9 had an additional clinical risk-factor, such as obstructive coronary disease, that may have contributed. Of those who survived arrest, ischemic heart disease was the most common cause. Interestingly, angiographic data among the ischemic runners found no evidence of thrombus or acute plaque rupture, suggesting that the mechanism of ischemia was likely related more to “demand.” This observational finding calls into question the existing dogma that plaque rupture is responsible for exercise-related cardiac events.

Though the overall annual incidence rate of cardiac arrest remained stable over the decade, event rates among male runners did increase. Thus, although the study provides reassurance that the increase in the absolute number of events likely reflects increased participation, it also raises some questions worthy of further consideration. Are more high-risk male runners with early atherosclerosis running these races? If so, might there be effective prevention strategies? Given the possibility that ischemia occurs in the setting of fixed stable stenoses, rather than an acute thrombosis, should higher risk male patients undergo stress testing prior to participating in these strenuous activities?

Given the extremely low rate of events, these questions will be tough to answer in a prospective fashion. In the interim, perhaps a different question arises from these data, one less related to the tragic arrests, and more related to the millions of others who enter these races yearly. These runners have committed themselves to a healthy lifestyle. What can we learn from them?