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Biotech

Chemical Cocktail Can Keep a Heart Viable 10 Days, Outside the Body 97

Posted by timothy from the with-very-few-exceptions-not-a-worm dept.
nj_peeps writes "Harvard professor Hemant Thatte has developed a cocktail of 21 chemical compounds that he calls Somah, derived from the Sanskrit for 'ambrosia of rejuvenation.' Using Somah, Thatte and his team have accomplished some amazing feats with pig hearts. They can keep the organ viable for transplant up to 10 days after harvest — far longer than the four-hour limit seen in hospitals today. Not only that, but using low temperatures and Somah, they were able to take a pig heart that was removed post mortem and get it to beat 24 hours later in the lab."
Biotech

Crowdsourcing HIV Research 52

Posted by timothy from the work-backwards-to-zero dept.
biolgeek writes "In recent years, HIV has been managed with a collection of therapies. However, the virus will likely evolve around these drugs, making it crucially important to get a better understanding of the virus itself. An important step in understanding the virus is to get a handle on its genetic blueprint. William Dampier of Drexler University is taking a novel approach to this research by crowdsourcing his problem. He is hosting a bioinformatics competition, which requires contestants to find markers in the HIV sequence that predict a change in the severity of the infection (as measured by viral load). So far the best entry comes from Fontanelles, an HIV research group, which has been able to predict a change in viral load with 66% accuracy."

Comment Re:Perhaps nobody else cares? (Score 1) 952

by Card (#31954664) Attached to: HDTV Has Ruined the LCD Market

besides gamers and drafters who else really wants it?

How about photographers? My old Konica-Minolta from 2004 used to take 2272 x 1704 pictures. My new Canon takes 18 megapixel images. Trying to edit them with a 22" widescreen monitor is rather painful, so I'm upgrading my display RSN.

Also on my wish list: Proper color management at OS level. Sheesh, it's 2010 already, make it just work!
Math

Quantum Theory May Explain Wishful Thinking 415

Posted by CmdrTaco from the over-your-head dept.
explosivejared writes "Humans don't always make the most rational decisions. As studies have shown, even when logic and reasoning point in one direction, sometimes we chose the opposite route, motivated by personal bias or simply 'wishful thinking.' This paradoxical human behavior has resisted explanation by classical decision theory for over a decade. But now, scientists have shown that a quantum probability model can provide a simple explanation for human decision-making — and may eventually help explain the success of human cognition overall."

Comment Quick and dirty translation (Score 3, Informative) 114

by Card (#27545375) Attached to: Finnish Court Dismisses E-Voting Result

The Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the municipal elections will be renewed at Karkkila, Kauniainen and Vihti. Last autumn 232 votes were lost in the three municipalities that participated in the electronic voting pilot.

The court annulled the election results and ordered the election to be held again. In its summary, the court finds that the errors in the e-voting system, the insufficent instructions and the large amount of lost votes mean that the election wasn't properly held.

16 citizens appealed about the election results, some of whom were also candidates in the election. The previous appeal the Helsinki Administrative Court didn't result in the rejection of election results, as the Administrative Court did not consider the voting problems serious enough.

That verdict wasn't satisfactory to the appellants, who took the matter to the Supreme Court. Two percent of the votes were lost in the municipality of Kauniainen; the difference would have affected the outcome.

Minister Tuija Brax (Green party) - one of the main proponents of the highly controversial e-voting system - said that she was happy with the decision. Before the court's ruling came in, the minister refused to comment about the necessity of holding a new election, as such thing was impossible [without court order]. Before the election, minister Brax had said that all the [proposed] problem scenarios with the election system were pure "science fiction".

The story isn't that well written. The system allowed the user to remove his ID card before the vote was registered. The lack of a paper trail is a large problem, and the lack of openness in the design doesn't help to gain the users' trust. Further, the system was designed by Tieto Oy (formerly TietoEnator), also responsible for the new systems at Sampo Bank (with numerous login problems, XSS exploits and such). Vestigia terrent.

Government

Submission + - Finnish court dismisses e-voting result (mbnet.fi)

Submitted by
wizzor
wizzor writes: "The Supreme Administrative Court of Finland rejected a (previously discussed) municipal election result. Previously, The Helsinki Administrative Court found the result acceptable, even though 2% of votes where lost due to a fault in the voting system.

Here is a Google translation of the news item.

Apparently 98% of the votes isn't enough to determine how the remaining 2% voted after all."

Comment I didn't understand half of that (Score 3, Insightful) 352

by Card (#26749391) Attached to: Massive <em>EVE Online</em> Alliance Disbanded

This story is rather incomprehensible to the rest of us. Could an EVE player explain some terms like sovereignty, ISK reserves, cyno-jammers and capfleet towers, please? Good thing that territorial control was explained...

The article also says

Once assured a place within GoonSwarm, Agamar proceeded to disband the Band of Brothers alliance using his director level access.

...but what powers does the director level access give you, exactly?

Comment Re:What's the margin of victory? (Score 2) 159

by Card (#26682911) Attached to: Finnish Court Accepts E-Voting Result With 2% Lost

This was a municipal election, carried out in three small municipalities with just several thousand voters. The victory margin in those municipalities was just a few votes. This error clearly affects the outcome of the vote.

Effi's site had an english version, too:
An error margin of 2% in municipal elections ruled acceptable in Finland

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