The Health Consumer: Speed Bumps on the Way to an A.D.H.D. Diagnosis

In school, she would procrastinate and then pull desperate all-nighters to study for an exam. She’d become hyperfocused on a project and let everything else fall by the wayside. Maintaining relationships was tricky. “I would concentrate intensely on a friend and then move on,” she said. She commuted to college one year simply because she had missed the deadline to apply for housing.

“I managed to achieve a lot, but it was difficult,” said Ms. Goldberg, a mother of three who lives near Philadelphia. “I sensed something was wrong, but others would always talk me out of it.”

Finally, in her late 40s, Ms. Goldberg was given a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a condition caused by signaling problems in the brain. The primary symptoms are impulsiveness, inattention, restlessness and poor self-regulation. Children with the condition tend to be hyperactive, but adults who have it often just seem distracted and disorganized.

Undiagnosed, A.D.H.D. can wreak havoc on relationships, finances and one’s self-esteem. Adults with the disorder are twice as likely as those without it to be divorced, for instance, and four times as likely to have car accidents. It’s no surprise that they also tend to have poor credit ratings.

“A.D.H.D. is a very debilitating mental disorder,” said Russell Barkley, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina. “It can produce more severe impairment, and in more domains of life, than depression or anxiety.”

More than 5 percent of adults have A.D.H.D., according to a recent study by Dr. Barkley. But just 10 percent of those adults have a formal diagnosis.

It’s an expensive problem for many consumers. Adults with the condition, particularly women, are frequently given a diagnosis of depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder instead — or their symptoms are dismissed, as Ms. Goldberg’s were.

Ms. Goldberg said of her eventual diagnosis: “It was so freeing. I realized, ‘I’m not stupid — I have a mental disorder.’?”

Just getting the correct diagnosis can be costly. “Many clinicians do not know how to spot the signs,” said Ari Tuckman, a psychologist in West Chester, Pa., and author of a book about A.D.H.D., “More Attention, Less Deficit” (Specialty Press, 2009).

Clinicians may arrive at the diagnosis with a snap judgment, or they may send patients for lengthy and expensive neuropsychological evaluations. Both approaches tend to miss the main symptoms — and therefore waste the patient’s time and money.

If you think that you may have A.D.H.D., or that a friend or family member may, the first thing to do is get a proper diagnosis. Here’s how to get tested and what to avoid.

Step 1: Test yourself.

Cost: Free.

If you’re not quite sure if you or a family member has the disorder, start by printing out the Adult A.D.H.D. Self-Report Scale and answering the 18-question assessment. It was developed by a team of psychiatrists in conjunction with the World Health Organization, and it is used by many clinicians to diagnose A.D.H.D.

The test is simple and has a straightforward scoring system. Use the results only as a guide to gauge your symptoms or a family member’s; it should not serve as a final diagnosis.

Bear in mind that A.D.H.D. is not something you suddenly develop as an adult; you are born with it. “If you tell me, ‘My life was fine until I was 24,’ you don’t have this disorder,” said Dr. Barkley.

Avoid: Snap diagnoses.

Diagnosing this disorder takes time. A quick assessment, even by your favorite doctor or therapist, can miss important signs.

“I can’t guess how many clients I have had who have seen other psychologists, psychiatrists and primary care physicians who missed their A.D.H.D., even though it was burning like a bonfire,” said Dr. Tuckman. “It’s possible to make a diagnosis by using a rating scale and a 10-minute discussion, but it’s also far too easy to make an inaccurate diagnosis or miss a diagnosis.”

Step 2: Find an experienced clinician.

Cost: $200 to $500.

Make an appointment, or more than one, with a psychiatrist, psychologist or neurologist who has expertise in diagnosing A.D.H.D. Ask your doctor or a psychotherapist for a recommendation, or contact a local chapter of the organization Children and Adults With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (informally known as Chadd) and inquire about local professionals.

Dr. Barkley also suggests calling a nearby medical school or university psychiatry program and asking whether there is a doctor on staff who specializes in adult A.D.H.D.

 

Intel Increases Transistor Speed by Building Upward

The transistors on computer chips — whether for PC’s or smartphones — have been designed in essentially the same way since 1959 when Robert Noyce, Intel’s co-founder, and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments independently invented the first integrated circuits that became the basic building block of electronic devices in the information age.

These early transistors were built on a flat surface. But like a real estate developer building skyscrapers to get more rentable space from a plot of land, Intel is now building up. When the space between the billions of tiny electronic switches on the flat surface of a computer chip is measured in the width of just dozens of atoms, designers needed the third dimension to find more room.

The company has already begun making its microprocessors using a new 3-D transistor design, called a Finfet (for fin field-effect transistor), which is based around a remarkably small pillar, or fin, of silicon that rises above the surface of the chip. Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., plans to enter general production based on the new technology some time later this year.

Although the company did not give technical details about its new process in its Wednesday announcement, it said that it expected to be able to make chips that run as much as 37 percent faster in low-voltage applications and it would be able to cut power consumption as much as 50 percent.

Intel currently uses a photolithographic process to make a chip, in which the smallest feature on the chip is just 32 nanometers, a level of microscopic manufacture that was reached in 2009. (By comparison a human red blood cell is 7,500 nanometers in width and a strand of DNA is 2.5 nanometers.) “Intel is on track for 22-nanometer manufacturing later this year,” said Mark T. Bohr, an Intel senior fellow and the scientist who has overseen the effort to develop the next generation of smaller transistors.

The company’s engineers said that they now felt confident that they would be able to solve the challenges of making chips through at least the 10-nanometer generation, which is likely to happen in 2015.

The timing of the announcement Wednesday is significant, Dr. Bohr said, because it is evidence that the world’s largest chip maker is not slipping from the pace of doubling the number of transistors that can be etched onto a sliver of silicon every two years, a phenomenon known as Moore’s Law. Although not a law of physics, the 1965 observation by Intel’s co-founder, Gordon Moore, has defined the speed of innovation for much of the world’s economy. It has also set the computing industry apart from other types of manufacturing because it has continued to improve at an accelerating rate, offering greater computing power and lower cost at regular intervals.

However, despite its promise and the company’s bold claims, Intel’s 3-D transistor is still a controversial technology within the chip industry. Indeed, a number of the company’s competitors say they believe that Intel is taking a what could be a disastrous multibillion-dollar gamble on an unproved technology.

There has been industry speculation that Finfet technology will give Intel a clear speed advantage, but possibly less control over power consumption than alternative approaches.

By opting for a technology that emphasizes speed over low power, Intel faces the possibility that it could win the technology battle and yet lose the more important battle in the marketplace. The scope of Intel’s gamble is underscored by the fact that while the company dominates in the markets for data center computers, desktops and laptops, it has largely been locked out of the tablet and smartphone markets, which are growing far more quickly than the traditional PC industry.

Those devices use ultra-low-powered chips to conserve battery power and reduce overheating. Apple, for example, uses Intel’s microprocessors for its desktops and laptops, but for the iPhone and iPad it has chosen to use a rival low-power design, built by others, that Apple originally helped pioneer in the late 1980s.

Industry executives and analysts have said that Intel is likely to have a lead of a full generation over its rivals in the shift to 3-D transistors. For example, T.S.M.C., the Taiwan-based chip maker, has said that it does not plan to deploy Finfet transistor technology for another two years.

Other companies, like ST Microelectronics, are wagering that an alternative technology based on placing a remarkably thin insulating layer below traditional transistors will chart a safer course toward the next generation of chip manufacturing. They believe that the insulation approach will excel in low-power applications, and that could be a crucial advantage in consumer-oriented markets where a vast majority of popular products are both hand-held and battery-powered.

“Silicon-on-insulator could be a win in terms of power efficiency,” said David Lammers, the editor in chief of Semiconductor Manufacturing and Design Community, a Web site. “From what I am hearing from the S.O.I. camp, there is a consensus and concession that Finfets are faster. That’s the way you want to go for leading-edge performance.”

In a factory tour here last week, Intel used a scanning electronic microscope to display a computer chip made using the new 22-nanometer manufacturing process. Viewed at a magnification of more than 100,000 times, the silicon fins are clearly visible as a series of walls projected above a flat surface.

It is possible to make transistors out of one or a number of the tiny fins to build switches that have different characteristics, such as faster switching speeds or extremely low power. Looking at the chip under less magnification, it is possible to see the wiring design, which appears much like a street map displaying millions of intersections.

Despite the impressive display, Intel’s executives acknowledge the challenge the company is facing in trying to catch up in the new consumer markets that so far have eluded it.

“The ecosystem right now is not aligned in our favor,” said Andy D. Bryant, Intel’s chief administrative officer, who now runs the company’s technology and manufacturing group. “It has to be good enough for the ecosystem to take notice and say, ‘We better pay attention to those guys.’?”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 4, 2011

An earlier version of this article misspelled the dateline as Hillsborough.

View the original article here

Intel Increases Transistor Speed by Building Upward

The transistors on computer chips — whether for PC’s or smartphones — have been designed in essentially the same way since 1959 when Robert Noyce, Intel’s co-founder, and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments independently invented the first integrated circuits that became the basic building block of electronic devices in the information age.

These early transistors were built on a flat surface. But like a real estate developer building skyscrapers to get more rentable space from a plot of land, Intel is now building up. When the space between the billions of tiny electronic switches on the flat surface of a computer chip is measured in the width of just dozens of atoms, designers needed the third dimension to find more room.

The company has already begun making its microprocessors using a new 3-D transistor design, called a Finfet (for fin field-effect transistor), which is based around a remarkably small pillar, or fin, of silicon that rises above the surface of the chip. Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., plans to enter general production based on the new technology some time later this year.

Although the company did not give technical details about its new process in its Wednesday announcement, it said that it expected to be able to make chips that run as much as 37 percent faster in low-voltage applications and it would be able to cut power consumption as much as 50 percent.

Intel currently uses a photolithographic process to make a chip, in which the smallest feature on the chip is just 32 nanometers, a level of microscopic manufacture that was reached in 2009. (By comparison a human red blood cell is 7,500 nanometers in width and a strand of DNA is 2.5 nanometers.) “Intel is on track for 22-nanometer manufacturing later this year,” said Mark T. Bohr, an Intel senior fellow and the scientist who has overseen the effort to develop the next generation of smaller transistors.

The company’s engineers said that they now felt confident that they would be able to solve the challenges of making chips through at least the 10-nanometer generation, which is likely to happen in 2015.

The timing of the announcement Wednesday is significant, Dr. Bohr said, because it is evidence that the world’s largest chip maker is not slipping from the pace of doubling the number of transistors that can be etched onto a sliver of silicon every two years, a phenomenon known as Moore’s Law. Although not a law of physics, the 1965 observation by Intel’s co-founder, Gordon Moore, has defined the speed of innovation for much of the world’s economy. It has also set the computing industry apart from other types of manufacturing because it has continued to improve at an accelerating rate, offering greater computing power and lower cost at regular intervals.

However, despite its promise and the company’s bold claims, Intel’s 3-D transistor is still a controversial technology within the chip industry. Indeed, a number of the company’s competitors say they believe that Intel is taking a what could be a disastrous multibillion-dollar gamble on an unproved technology.

There has been industry speculation that Finfet technology will give Intel a clear speed advantage, but possibly less control over power consumption than alternative approaches.

By opting for a technology that emphasizes speed over low power, Intel faces the possibility that it could win the technology battle and yet lose the more important battle in the marketplace. The scope of Intel’s gamble is underscored by the fact that while the company dominates in the markets for data center computers, desktops and laptops, it has largely been locked out of the tablet and smartphone markets, which are growing far more quickly than the traditional PC industry.

Those devices use ultra-low-powered chips to conserve battery power and reduce overheating. Apple, for example, uses Intel’s microprocessors for its desktops and laptops, but for the iPhone and iPad it has chosen to use a rival low-power design, built by others, that Apple originally helped pioneer in the late 1980s.

Industry executives and analysts have said that Intel is likely to have a lead of a full generation over its rivals in the shift to 3-D transistors. For example, T.S.M.C., the Taiwan-based chip maker, has said that it does not plan to deploy Finfet transistor technology for another two years.

Other companies, like ST Microelectronics, are wagering that an alternative technology based on placing a remarkably thin insulating layer below traditional transistors will chart a safer course toward the next generation of chip manufacturing. They believe that the insulation approach will excel in low-power applications, and that could be a crucial advantage in consumer-oriented markets where a vast majority of popular products are both hand-held and battery-powered.

“Silicon-on-insulator could be a win in terms of power efficiency,” said David Lammers, the editor in chief of Semiconductor Manufacturing and Design Community, a Web site. “From what I am hearing from the S.O.I. camp, there is a consensus and concession that Finfets are faster. That’s the way you want to go for leading-edge performance.”

In a factory tour here last week, Intel used a scanning electronic microscope to display a computer chip made using the new 22-nanometer manufacturing process. Viewed at a magnification of more than 100,000 times, the silicon fins are clearly visible as a series of walls projected above a flat surface.

It is possible to make transistors out of one or a number of the tiny fins to build switches that have different characteristics, such as faster switching speeds or extremely low power. Looking at the chip under less magnification, it is possible to see the wiring design, which appears much like a street map displaying millions of intersections.

Despite the impressive display, Intel’s executives acknowledge the challenge the company is facing in trying to catch up in the new consumer markets that so far have eluded it.

“The ecosystem right now is not aligned in our favor,” said Andy D. Bryant, Intel’s chief administrative officer, who now runs the company’s technology and manufacturing group. “It has to be good enough for the ecosystem to take notice and say, ‘We better pay attention to those guys.’?”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 4, 2011

An earlier version of this article misspelled the dateline as Hillsborough.

 

Intel Increases Transistor Speed by Building Upward

 

The transistors on computer chips — whether for PC’s or smartphones — have been designed in essentially the same way since 1959 when Robert Noyce, Intel’s co-founder, and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments independently invented the first integrated circuits that became the basic building block of electronic devices in the information age.

These early transistors were built on a flat surface. But like a real estate developer building skyscrapers to get more rentable space from a plot of land, Intel is now building up. When the space between the billions of tiny electronic switches on the flat surface of a computer chip is measured in the width of just dozens of atoms, designers needed the third dimension to find more room.

The company has already begun making its microprocessors using a new 3-D transistor design, called a Finfet (for fin field-effect transistor), which is based around a remarkably small pillar, or fin, of silicon that rises above the surface of the chip. Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., plans to enter general production based on the new technology some time later this year.

Although the company did not give technical details about its new process in its Wednesday announcement, it said that it expected to be able to make chips that run as much as 37 percent faster in low-voltage applications and it would be able to cut power consumption as much as 50 percent.

Intel currently uses a photolithographic process to make a chip, in which the smallest feature on the chip is just 32 nanometers, a level of microscopic manufacture that was reached in 2009. (By comparison a human red blood cell is 7,500 nanometers in width and a strand of DNA is 2.5 nanometers.) “Intel is on track for 22-nanometer manufacturing later this year,” said Mark T. Bohr, an Intel senior fellow and the scientist who has overseen the effort to develop the next generation of smaller transistors.

The company’s engineers said that they now felt confident that they would be able to solve the challenges of making chips through at least the 10-nanometer generation, which is likely to happen in 2015.

The timing of the announcement Wednesday is significant, Dr. Bohr said, because it is evidence that the world’s largest chip maker is not slipping from the pace of doubling the number of transistors that can be etched onto a sliver of silicon every two years, a phenomenon known as Moore’s Law. Although not a law of physics, the 1965 observation by Intel’s co-founder, Gordon Moore, has defined the speed of innovation for much of the world’s economy. It has also set the computing industry apart from other types of manufacturing because it has continued to improve at an accelerating rate, offering greater computing power and lower cost at regular intervals.

However, despite its promise and the company’s bold claims, Intel’s 3-D transistor is still a controversial technology within the chip industry. Indeed, a number of the company’s competitors say they believe that Intel is taking a what could be a disastrous multibillion-dollar gamble on an unproved technology.

There has been industry speculation that Finfet technology will give Intel a clear speed advantage, but possibly less control over power consumption than alternative approaches.

By opting for a technology that emphasizes speed over low power, Intel faces the possibility that it could win the technology battle and yet lose the more important battle in the marketplace. The scope of Intel’s gamble is underscored by the fact that while the company dominates in the markets for data center computers, desktops and laptops, it has largely been locked out of the tablet and smartphone markets, which are growing far more quickly than the traditional PC industry.

Those devices use ultra-low-powered chips to conserve battery power and reduce overheating. Apple, for example, uses Intel’s microprocessors for its desktops and laptops, but for the iPhone and iPad it has chosen to use a rival low-power design, built by others, that Apple originally helped pioneer in the late 1980s.

Industry executives and analysts have said that Intel is likely to have a lead of a full generation over its rivals in the shift to 3-D transistors. For example, T.S.M.C., the Taiwan-based chip maker, has said that it does not plan to deploy Finfet transistor technology for another two years.

Other companies, like ST Microelectronics, are wagering that an alternative technology based on placing a remarkably thin insulating layer below traditional transistors will chart a safer course toward the next generation of chip manufacturing. They believe that the insulation approach will excel in low-power applications, and that could be a crucial advantage in consumer-oriented markets where a vast majority of popular products are both hand-held and battery-powered.

“Silicon-on-insulator could be a win in terms of power efficiency,” said David Lammers, the editor in chief of Semiconductor Manufacturing and Design Community, a Web site. “From what I am hearing from the S.O.I. camp, there is a consensus and concession that Finfets are faster. That’s the way you want to go for leading-edge performance.”

In a factory tour here last week, Intel used a scanning electronic microscope to display a computer chip made using the new 22-nanometer manufacturing process. Viewed at a magnification of more than 100,000 times, the silicon fins are clearly visible as a series of walls projected above a flat surface.

It is possible to make transistors out of one or a number of the tiny fins to build switches that have different characteristics, such as faster switching speeds or extremely low power. Looking at the chip under less magnification, it is possible to see the wiring design, which appears much like a street map displaying millions of intersections.

Despite the impressive display, Intel’s executives acknowledge the challenge the company is facing in trying to catch up in the new consumer markets that so far have eluded it.

“The ecosystem right now is not aligned in our favor,” said Andy D. Bryant, Intel’s chief administrative officer, who now runs the company’s technology and manufacturing group. “It has to be good enough for the ecosystem to take notice and say, ‘We better pay attention to those guys.’?”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 4, 2011

An earlier version of this article misspelled the dateline as Hillsborough.

 

Brilliant Speed Takes Blue Grass at the Wire

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Brilliant Speed punched his ticket for the Kentucky Derby with a thrilling stretch run to win the $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland.

The 3-year-old colt lagged behind the rest of the 12-horse field until the turn, then exploded over the final quarter-mile to edge Twinspired by a nose.

The $450,000 winner's check gives Brilliant Speed more than enough graded-stakes earnings to earn a spot in next month's Run for the Roses. Ridden by Joel Rosario and trained by Tom Albertrani, Brilliant Speed covered the 1 1-8 miles on Keeneland's Polytrack in 1:50.92 and paid $40.20, $20.80 and $13.

Twinspired and jockey Robby Albarado paid $21.20 and $11.80 for second, while King Congie paid $8.80 for third.

Santiva went off as the solid 2-1 favorite but never threatened despite slow fractions on a cold, wet day more reminiscent of late fall than early spring. He ended up ninth, jeopardizing his chances of making the Derby field.

The Derby is limited to 20 horses, with a spot determined by graded stakes earnings if more than 20 are entered. Santiva began the day 18th on the list.

Meanwhile, Brilliant Speed locked up a spot by looking right at home in his first start on a synthetic surface. He loped lazily along before the turn for home. Rosario got his horse's attention then expertly swung him wide, allowing Brilliant Speed to chase down the leaders with massive strides.

The victory was the latest in a string of improbable results for one of the Derby's final major preps. Brilliant Speed went off at 19-1 thanks largely to an unimpressive resume that included just one victory, a triumph on the turf in a maiden allowance race at Tampa the day after Christmas.

He hit the board in each of his two previous starts this year, including a third in the Hallandale Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 6.

Yet nothing seemed to indicate the kind of performance he put together Saturday. His win has earned him a trip to the Derby, sweet redemption for owner Charlotte Weber, who lost Derby contender To Honor and Serve to a leg injury last week.

Success in the Blue Grass hasn't translated to the Derby lately. Strike the Gold is the last horse to sweep both races and Street Sense is the last Blue Grass entry to come through under the twin spires.

 

Archos flashes 7c Android tablet, brags about its 1.2GHz clock speed

 After taking a breather from cranking out new tablets, Archos is at it again, this time with the Archos 7c Home Tablet, a 7-inch number that ARMdevices.net caught on camera during a visit to the company's Chinese outpost. This slate packs a Cortex A8 processor and RK2918 chipset, which the rep quaintly says is "faster than any chipset you can find" -- you know, owing to its 1.2GHz clock speed and all. Alas, it runs Android Gingerbread (2.3) and not Honeycomb (3.0), so you'll have to do some hacking to get your Android Market fix. Although the 7c has a capacitive display, the woman leading the demo appears to jab at browser links with her finger -- a throwback to some less-than-responsive resistive screens we've tested. On the bright side, 1080p video plays smoothly -- at least in the few seconds before the camera pans away. The 7c is headed to the US and Europe in June for an unknown price, but for now you can head past the break to see it in action.