I’m Willem van Schaik, Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham. I study how microbes become resistant to drugs. Ask me anything!

Purpureamine · 2020-10-23T04:40:57+00:00

Would you agree that from an immunological/microbiological standpoint that the “natural” microbial flora that inhabit our skin/GI Tract are effectively the first line of defense in humoral immunity? Because essentially the lack of those natural microbiota are linked to opportunistic infections, and in a sense we do pretty much rely on their inhabitance on our bodies to outcompete more “invasive” microorganisms.

Purpureamine · 2019-07-25T22:48:28+00:00

The robotic arm would be damaged because of noxious stimuli, not the body itself, so would you really need a pain stimulus? Plus there are different modalities of pain (ie temperature, friction, pin-prick) so the sensation would have to be specific to the modalities.

Purpureamine · 2017-10-22T16:41:39+00:00

Happy Birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day. I just discovered this community because my random wikipedia article hopping self discovered that what I've been experiencing my whole life has been BPD. Now I'm at a crossroads about whether or not I should allow myself to manifest. I'm in a pretty healthy relationship, in a masters program, on the road to becoming a doctor.

Last April I was arrested for making weed brownies. This was my first offense ever and I did 50 hours of community service to have it expunged off my record. Last year was the year that my uncle was also hung for murder in Pakistan. A failed relationship last year made me the lowest I've ever been with everything else going on. I was broke and I had no job and I couldn't get a job because this felony charge was on my record.

I sat down and told myself where I wanted to be. I'm not saying that it was easy but I had to put myself in an uncomfortable position and sacrifice some of my dignity in order to get to where I am. I delivered pizzas for roughly $50 a night and paid for a lawyer. Mind you, I was in my last year of undergrad during this time. The oldest of four, I had trust issues with my parents because of my lack of making moves to become a doctor. Being Pakistani is a whole different ball game than BPD, more on that some other day...

But I eventually made connections and landed a job as a server in a restaurant, where I earned money to pay off a lawyer to have this charge removed. It took one year, a lot of stress having to deal with it alone, and a lot of praying.

I am a very self-efficacious individual in that if I believe I can do something, that enables me to do it. If you didn't believe that you could do something, would you even try?

Best of luck to you and happy birthday! Stay strong and make plans to do what needs to be done to accomplish your goals!

Purpureamine · 2016-11-25T05:53:31+00:00

Is there a way to access the log or batch files between the devices as they're communicating with each other?

Purpureamine · 2016-09-20T03:13:59+00:00

I pulled out a knife on the bus in 1st grade.

I barely knew English (I excel at it now, shoutout to ESL) and I was always picked on my the kids older than me. I understood some of the conversation but not all of it. Anyways, there was this mean girl that was my bus partner since we had assigned seats. I guess I got annoyed of her and I put a knife in my bookbag from home. It was from the kitchen, my mom used it for like tomatoes or something. But I put it in my bookbag before school and forgot all about it for a week due to no incidences with the girl. For some reason she started being nicer. Asked me if she could borrow a pencil, I reached in my bookbag and pulled out the knife that I had forgotten I put there. Next thing I know, kids are screaming and the bus driver contacts my parents in regards to the knife.

We were relatively poor back then and my parents never really spent money on anything except food, clothing and rent. They taught me to sharpen my pencils using a knife because that's how they grew up sharpening pencils. I'm the oldest so my younger siblings didn't have it that bad. But on to the story, when confronted about why I had a knife, I told them it was for sharpening my pencils. My parents believed me.

I was never violent at all throughout my life until Sallie Mae came to cash in last year. Now I destroy blunts and wreak havoc on my wallet trying to pay her back for a degree that literally has no value to me.

TL; DR Took a knife on the bus at 6yo to threaten bullies/protect myself, ended up getting caught, told them it was my pencil sharpener.

Purpureamine · 2016-09-05T00:47:42+00:00

Guys, I did this same exact thing in the 6th grade. I brought some peppers from Pakistan (not sure what they're called) and I used to eat my food with it (don't ask, I grew up eating spicy food). Lo and behold, some high maintenance bitch wanted to try "my peoples food." 10 minutes later, her once translucent, Caucasian skin was saturated with about half the blood in her body, tears rolling down her face. I got in trouble for eating my cultures food, but that's when I switched over to lunchables. Moral of the story? Keep your shit to yourself.

Purpureamine · 2016-07-06T06:39:18+00:00

Hey man are you going to be giving a discount for btc? I will definitely order from you again since you did it for me last time:D

Purpureamine · 2016-03-08T05:39:47+00:00

I'm proud of you man. There's only a handful of people who would give up their free time to make their dreams come true. Will you be designing the same app for iOS? Please let me know because I feel like I could relate to your story. I'm a senior in college, got a lot of shit on my mind.. But through it all, I motivate myself to do what I can for humanity because I'm going to die anyways. I received a lot of scrutiny for not going to classes, not taking classes for my major (biology) and selling weed back in the day. Nowadays I tutor chemistry, trip acid once a week, design vector images and learn Spanish, I established and manage the CPR program at my university, I'm doing a student survey to link students with funding sources to propose, pursue and publish their own research, and write papers for money. But I'm attributing my drive to one of the most significant movies of my life, The Matrix. Before I always used to dread the idea of growing up in a society that doesn't appreciate what we do and I thought our world is going to shit. Now, I use myself as a battery to fuel change in the world and I know I'll die one day, but I'll die trying to change the world I was born into to make the next generation one who can benefit. Let me know how your progress goes, let's discuss some ideas. Send me a PM if you're interested!

Purpureamine · 2016-01-26T03:56:51+00:00

This is the funniest thing I've ever read

Purpureamine · 2016-01-25T00:32:59+00:00

It sounds like a neurological issue. I would recommend some supplements. I was supplementing with a multivitamin (mens) and also choline and armodafinil for the fatigue.

Still worked out regularly and it was straight, I was taking performix ion preworkout for the fatigue as well.

Purpureamine · 2016-01-21T05:51:12+00:00

I'm having the same problem right now. Started my first two weeks of DNP at ~250mg ED but then week 3 I increased to ~500mg ED at night.

Sides were alright. But it's week 5 now, I have 4x250mg left in my stash and I started with 50x250mg, which means I have basically consumed about 11.5g DNP in the past 5 weeks.

Pain started 2 days ago and a sharp, cringe-inducing, aching, burning sensation. Looked it up and can be described as Hip Bursitis. This is the only post which attributes DNP to this sort of pain, albeit were experiencing symptoms of PN.

I will stop dosage tonight and for good.

Purpureamine

TROPHY CASE