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Your Highs And Lows Of 2017


Poodler

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From an AFC point of view, easy.

 

High: 4-1 v. Hibs

 

Low: 6 points capitulated to scum in 5 days.

 

 

From a personal view,

 

High: daughter 2 winning top prize and £1,500 for writing a short essay, beating all other Ph.D. nominees throughout UK inc. from Oxbridge, proudest moment ever as a parent.

 

Low: luckily a year of no real lows. Hope that continues for a while but life has a habit of throwing some yang in with the yin. Been blessed in recent years rather than cursed.

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Highs: finally getting a mention in the chat awards. So is "verbose drivelly snowflake" a good thing then? :trophy:

 

Lows: Jack and Taylors fuck up versus the hun 0-3

Maclean and Hayes cup final fuck up

Seeing the line up at Ibrox 4 weeks ago :banghead:

Nicky Maynard

From my main stand vantage point having to watch each right winger and overlapping full back's cross into the box from our apparently vacant left back

position getting rattled past Joe. Apollon, Huns, Celtic, Celtic again etc etc

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Indeed. It's only you who lies about things on the internet, in order to make them feel better about themselves. :checkit:

 

No not only him. I lied about having an intelligent daughter but none of you were clever enough to detect my fabrication. Big rump cow knew.

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The writer of this was at the Red Parkhead final and will be at Pittodrie the next two home games...

 

 

CAN BIG DATA MEND A BROKEN HEART?

 

 

“When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all”.

 

That’s actually a quote from the TV show Futurama but it’s also a clear way of explaining why people are not always good at taking their medications. Imagine: you‘re taking a drug to prevent yourself from having a heart attack.

 

But if you don’t feel any different after taking the drug, how can you know it’s even worked? Maybe you weren’t going to have a heart attack anyway? Maybe the drug you’re taking is giving you side-effects and besides, it isn’t worth it because you felt fine before. You don’t want to bother your doctor getting a new prescription and your blood pressure wasn’t that high anyway…So you stop taking your drugs and you hope for the best.

 

But heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. And it’s preventable.

 

This is particularly bad news if you happen to live in Scotland, where we lead the way in the number of heart attacks, strokes, and more - or - less everything that can go wrong with your heart. But why? We have access to lots of different types of drugs for your heart, and in each of these groups there are a range of specific drugs to choose from, so there should be something that works for everyone. Shouldn’t there? Unfortunately the problem isn’t that simple.

 

Once your doctor has identified high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or anything else that might increase your risk of a heart attack, a few steps have to happen to reduce that risk:

 

o Step 1 is prescribing a drug.

o Step 2 is taking the drug.

o Step 3 is the hard one.

 

Step 3 is taking the drug at the right time and continuing to take it for as long as you need to. And that’s hard. It’s hard because for the drugs we‘re talking about, ‘as long as you need to’ can mean ‘for the rest of your life’. And the rest of your life can be a long time.

 

So my research project will look at: how well people in Scotland manage to stick to Step 3, who is and who isn’t sticking to Step 3, and whether sticking to Step 3 does actually improve your chance of avoiding a heart attack or stroke.

 

To do this, I’m going to be using patient data from across Scotland to look back over the years and see whether or not people are picking up their medications from the pharmacy on time. This might sound straightforward before you remember that there are over 5 million people in Scotland. And, as I said before, we are not the healthiest bunch. So that’s a lot of people, with a lot of unhealthy hearts, and a lot of drugs prescribed by their doctors. To do this I’m going to have to enter a world that has always seemed distant, complicated, and honestly a little bit intimidating: the world of Big Data.

 

Firstly: what is Big Data? Is it Facebook working out your personality based on the number of cat pictures you like? Or apps predicting the next flu pandemic based on the number of people tweeting about a runny nose? Or targeted adverts based on your google history? The answer is, in a way, yes. Big Data is all those things and more. Big Data is what it says on the tin: data, but a lot of it.

 

For me, Big Data is looking at everyone in Scotland who has ever been prescribed a cardiovascular drug – or more simply, drugs for their heart – and looking to see if they picked up their next lot of drugs around about the time their first prescription should have run out. If they don’t, it means they are more likely to be skipping days, having gaps, or they might have stopped taking them altogether. By linking this to medical records I can see if people who aren’t taking their medications are statistically more likely to have a heart attack, stroke, or even die.

 

And by looking across the whole country I can also see if people are more likely to take their drugs if they fall into different groups: if they are older or younger, male or female, or if they are living in wealthier areas or not. By doing so, I will be able to see if certain groups of people are more likely to miss their medications, and with that information, I might be able to work out who needs help at sticking to Step 3. If we know who is at risk, we know who we can help.

 

And if we know who we can help, maybe we can mend a heart before it breaks.

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High: [personal] Enjoying a short break away with the family and my in laws.

 

High: [work based] proof-reading a new contract that my company will offer new staff that includes access to health-care and pensions - I've been bringing this issue up with my employer ever year for the last 10 years so it was satisfying to see that almost/finally[?] go through. Either that or they made it all up to dupe me!

 

Low: Two weeks of what the doctor said was 'reactive arthritis' in both wrists and ankles - a real shock not being able to walk properly or to even hold a pencil [sounds like being drunk but it was not much fun]. Rejoice in the movement of your body folks!

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Highs. Cuba and in particular the Havana bit of the holiday. Also seeing my boy find his feet (not literally as he was fully aware he had feet) and start to walk.

 

Lows. Fortunate to have all family members last another year so the Scottish Cup final takes this. Horrendous feeling but at the end of the day its just a game in comparison to some of the others that have posted earlier.

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Highs. Cuba and in particular the Havana bit of the holiday. Also seeing my boy find his feet (not literally as he was fully aware he had feet) and start to walk.

 

Lows. Fortunate to have all family members last another year so the Scottish Cup final takes this. Horrendous feeling but at the end of the day its just a game in comparison to some of the others that have posted earlier.

Holidaying in Cuba?

 

You must live in a band H for such a luxurious holiday.

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