number1scatterbrain - Slashdot User

Submission + - (Shuffle)Sheer Heart Attack

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number1scatterbrain

on Friday May 11, 2007 @03:44PM

number1scatterbrain writes: "iPods may cause pacemakers to miss a beat 18:39 11 May 2007 NewScientist.com news service New Scientist Tech and Reuters Web Links http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11839& feedId=online-news_rss20 Krit Jongnarangsin Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute Heart Rhythm Society iPods can cause implantable cardiac pacemakers to malfunction, according to a study presented at a meeting of heart specialists on Thursday. The study tested the effect of placing the portable device near the chest of 100 patients with an average age of 76 — all were fitted with pacemakers. Technicians monitored information from an electrocardiogram and from the pacemaker itself, via a telemetry screen, during the trials. Some form of interference was detected half of the time when an iPod was held 5 centimetres from the patient's chest for between 5 and 10 seconds. And, in a few cases, interference was detected when a device was 45 cm from the chest. In some cases the devices appeared to interfere with the pacemaker's telemetry link and in others with its reading of the heart's pacing. Clever kid The study was held at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University and the results were presented at the Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Denver. The study did not examine any portable music devices other than iPods, but it did incorporate both hard-drive-based and flash-memory-based iPods. Jay Thaker, lead author of the study is a 17-year-old high school student at Okemos High School in Okemos, Michigan. Thaker asked his father, who is an electrophysiologist, about a potential interaction between pacemakers and iPods. "We looked online but didn't see anything. Then, one of his patients asked him if there would be a problem, so (my father) put me in touch with Dr Krit (Jongnarangsin)," Thaker says. Groovy grannies Jongnarangsin, a long-time friend of Thaker's father, is the senior author of the study and an assistant professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Michigan. "Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users," Jongnarangsin says, adding that, for this reason, it is unclear how often iPods may cause misreadings of heart rates. "This needs to be studied more," Jongnarangsin adds. Thaker says he is interested in doing a similar study about how another type of implantable device, called a cardioverter defibrillator (ICDs), may be affected by iPods. iPod manufacturer Apple did not return requests for comment by time of posting. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11839& feedId=online-news_rss20"

Submission + - Massive IBM Layoffs!

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number1scatterbrain

on Monday May 07, 2007 @03:37PM

number1scatterbrain writes: "150,000 U.S. layoffs for IBM? Last year I wrote a series of columns on management problems at IBM Global Services, explaining how the executive ranks from CEO Sam Palmisano on down were losing touch with reality, bidding contracts too low to make a profit then mismanaging them in an attempt to make a profit anyway, often to the detriment of IBM customers. Those columns and the reaction they created within the ranks at IBM showed just how bad things had become. Well they just got worse. This is according to my many friends at Big Blue, who believe they are about to undergo the biggest restructuring of IBM since the Gerstner days, only this time for all the wrong reasons. The IBM project I am writing about is called LEAN... http://www.pbs.org/hplink/redir/http://www.pbs.org /cringely/?campaign=pbshomefeatures_5_icringely_20 07-05-07"

Submission + - Erectile dysfunction probed with engineering tool

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number1scatterbrain

on Wednesday May 02, 2007 @10:03AM

number1scatterbrain writes: "12:48 02 May 2007 NewScientist.com news service Anna Gosline Tools Related Articles Perspectives: The biggest flop of all 28 April 2007 It pays to be well hung, if you're a rat 26 February 2007 Artificial penis allows rabbits to mate normally 25 May 2006 Search New Scientist Contact us Web Links Daniel Udelson, Boston University College of Engineering Journal of the Royal Society Interface Like a column collapsing under the burden of a heavy roof, erectile dysfunction is a classical mechanical engineering problem, says a US urologist. Using mathematical models of penis geometry and hydrostatic pressure, doctors can predict when penises will fail — and in which vagina — he says. The most widely investigated parameter of penile rigidity is intracavernosal pressure (ICP) — the fluid pressure achieved by blood build up in the two expandable "caverns" of the penis. For a healthy man, the erect ICP is between 60 and 90 millimetres of mercury (mmHg), but can drop to just 30 mmHg, in men with erectile dysfunction (ED). Anti-impotence drugs, such as Viagra, work by relaxing arterial muscles and allowing more blood, and hence more pressure, to build up in the penis. But Daniel Udelson, a research urologist and professor of aerospace engineering at Boston University, thought that penis geometry — specifically the ratio of width to length — ought to play a significant role in the robustness of an erection against the force of sexual intercourse. Ancient formula So Udelson developed a model that would predict the buckling force, based on penis length, circumference and the ease of expandability over a range of ICPs — it is a direct adaptation of 200-year-old column buckling research by Swiss mathematician Leonard Euler. Udelson tested the model against 57 men with erectile dysfunction. Each was measured by slowly injecting their penises with saline solution until erect. Udelson then applied a force to the tip of the penis until it started to bend, the first sign of buckling. The model correctly predicted the buckling forces for 80% of patients — forces ranged from about 2 kilograms to just 0.3 kg given a pressure of 50 mmHg. But the buckling force during intercourse doesn't just rely a man's blood flow and penis shape, it also depends on his partner's vagina. Previous studies have found that the force required enter a vagina, which depends on a vaginal diameter and lubrication, ranges from 1.5 to 2.5 kg. So, "an individual male may exhibit ED with one partner but not with another," says Udelson Journal reference: Journal of the Royal Society Interface (DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2007.0221)"

Submission + - Quantum Physics says Goodbye to Reality

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number1scatterbrain

on Friday April 27, 2007 @12:32PM

number1scatterbrain writes: "Quantum physics says goodbye to reality (Apr 20) http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/4/14 Some physicists are uncomfortable with the idea that all individual quantum events are innately random. This is why many have proposed more complete theories, which suggest that events are at least partially governed by extra "hidden variables". Now physicists from Austria claim to have performed an experiment that rules out a broad class of hidden-variables theories that focus on realism — giving the uneasy consequence that reality does not exist when we are not observing it (Nature 446 871)."

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