RICK REA: Helping You Grow Through Online Marketing
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • About
  • Subscribe

Gadget News

IBMs Watson is really good at creating cancer treatment plans

5/31/2017

0 Comments

 
http://ift.tt/2qCPDZ0

IBM’s Watson is really good at creating cancer treatment plans

http://ift.tt/2spOlNo

Jeopardy-winning Watson is getting better and better at designing cancer treatments. New data presented this week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting show that IBM's Watson for Oncology suggests cancer treatments that are often in-line with what physicians recommend. The company also announced that the cancer care product, designed to help physicians diagnose and treat their patients, is being used by nine new medical centers around the world.

In a handful of studies being presented at ASCO, researchers show that Watson for Oncology is pretty dang good at recommending treatments for a variety of different cancers. From research done in India, Watson's treatment recommendations were in agreement with those of physicians 96 percent of the time for lung cancer, 93 percent of the time for rectal cancer, and 81 percent of the time for colon cancer.

And there were comparable rates of agreement for colorectal, lung, breast and gastric cancer treatments in a Thai-based study. Additionally, Watson was able to screen breast and lung cancer patients for clinical trial eligibility 78 percent faster than a human, reducing screening time from 110 minutes down to just 24.

Watson for Oncology is a cognitive computing system trained by physicians at Memorial Sloan Kettering. It's able to take a patient's medical records, extract pertinent information about their health, and come up with a personalized treatment plan. Watson can also suggest which treatments should not be pursued and provides relevant studies to back up its proposals. All in all, it's meant to help clinicians navigate each patient's case with the help of the latest available research.

Watson's healthcare successes aren't new, but these additional findings make it that much more useful for doctors. Further, while Watson is already being used all around the world, it's adding nine new hospitals to its client list, including medical groups in Australia, Mexico, Brazil and throughout southeast Asia. However, financial and functional issues have postponed a planned launch at the University of Texas' MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The expanding list of cancers that Watson can evaluate will also now include prostate cancer, according to IBM. In a press release, Andrew Norden, IBM Watson Health's deputy chief health officer for oncology and genomics, said, "These studies demonstrate that Watson technologies are doing what we expect them to do: helping physicians augment their own experience and expertise to deliver evidence-based care."

Source: ASCO (1), (2), (3)





Gadget News

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

May 31, 2017 at 04:06PM
0 Comments

Uber's financials improve but it really needs a new CFO

5/31/2017

0 Comments

 
http://ift.tt/2pcrFlg

Uber's financials improve, but it really needs a new CFO

http://ift.tt/2qIiyWX

Uber has revealed that its losses for the first quarter of 2017 amounted to $708 million. Huge, but still smaller than the $991 million it lost in the last quarter of 2016. While the fact that it didn't bleed as much money as it did last year could be considered a small victory, the company is now much too busy to celebrate: it has to find a replacement for Gautam Gupta, the head of finance who's leaving the ride-hailing service for another startup. Uber is reportedly looking for someone with public-company experience, since it's planning to launch an IPO as soon as next year.

Gupta is but the latest exec to leave what's considered the biggest start-up in the world. A string of other execs packed up and left in the past few months, including its VP of Maps Brian McClendon and one of its self-driving project heads Sherif Marakby. Even Uber President Jeff Jones left in March after the company was hit by a number of sexual harassment allegations and other controversies.

In addition to losing its head of finance, the company also recently fired Anthony Levandowski, who's the focus of Google's lawsuit against the ride-hailing firm. Mountain View is accusing Levandowski of taking valuable LiDAR and autonomous driving tech with him when he left Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car division.

While we don't know if Uber will find a replacement for Levandowski, it's definitely looking for a new finance head, especially since it also doesn't have a CFO. Gupta actually started his career with the company working under chief financial officer Brent Callinicos. He wasn't promoted to CFO even after Callinicos left Uber for Hyperloop One in 2015, so the company might be looking for two finance executives instead of one. The firm's first-quarter revenue is already 18 percent higher than Q4 2016's at $3.4 billion -- it now needs people who can help it grow that number while also cutting down on its losses.

Source: The Wall Street Journal





Gadget News

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

May 31, 2017 at 04:00PM
0 Comments

Silk Road founder will get life in prison after losing court appeal

5/31/2017

0 Comments

 
http://ift.tt/2rrffr9

Silk Road founder will get life in prison after losing court appeal

http://ift.tt/2qDgzE9


Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht is set to serve life in prison after he lost his court appeal this week. Ulbricht earned seven convictions — including money laundering and narcotics conspiracy — for operating the drug marketplace in 2015, filing his appeal later that same year, and arguing it in court in 2016.

Ulbricht’s appeal claimed that the court should not have seen documents obtained in alleged breach of Fourth Amendment rights, and that it made mistakes during his trial process that should have led to a mistrial. Ulbricht — also known as “Dread Pirate Roberts” online — also contended that the lifetime sentence handed down by the judge was unreasonable, forcing him to spend longer in prison than others convicted of similar charges.

In this case, his sentence is unusually long due to a “kingpin” charge prosecutors were able to make stick — a conviction usually reserved for major cartel leaders designed to ensure they remain behind bars for the rest of their lives. While Ulbricht himself wasn’t a major drug dealer in the classic mold, the hefty sentence shows how law enforcement officials saw his Silk Road network, and how it helped to redefine the global narcotics black market.





Gadget News

via The Verge http://ift.tt/1jLudMg

May 31, 2017 at 03:44PM
0 Comments

Healthier Me: Do sleep gadgets help you get a good night's rest? - Valley News Live

5/31/2017

0 Comments

 


Healthier Me: Do sleep gadgets help you get a good night's rest? - Valley News Live

http://ift.tt/2qI5aSx


Healthier Me: Do sleep gadgets help you get a good night's rest?
Valley News Live
Experts say they haven't found any negative affects of using sleep gadgets but they are still studying its long term impact. "we just have to remember that there is also a down side to using them at night and having limits," says Breidenbach. If you ...





Gadget News

via gadgets - Google News http://ift.tt/2pP6Yh0

May 31, 2017 at 03:11PM
0 Comments

Most foods labeled gluten free are indeed free of gluten FDA announces

5/31/2017

0 Comments

 
http://ift.tt/2rGySwj

Most foods labeled ‘gluten free’ are indeed free of gluten, FDA announces

http://ift.tt/2rW5TEp

“Gluten free” labels are mostly reliable, the Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday. That sounds like a no-brainer — of course foods labeled as gluten free shouldn’t have any gluten in them, right? But that hasn’t always been the case; I can tell you, as a person with celiac disease, that it’s a relief to find out the labels are actually meaningful these days.

Before 2014, a “gluten free” label was more a decoration than a promise.

Since 2014, the FDA has required that anything labeled “gluten free” contain no more than 20 molecules of gluten in every million molecules of foodstuff. And to back up that requirement, it actually goes out and checks. Of the 250 different cereals, flours, baking mixes, and granola bars it tested from 2015 through 2016, only one product contained more gluten than allowed, according to the results that the FDA released this week. The sole gluten-containing product, which STAT identified as Honey Nut Cheerios, was promptly recalled and General Mills changed how it made the cereal. When the FDA tested it again, no more gluten.

Before 2014, a “gluten free” label was more a decoration than a promise. Of course these days, it seems like everyone and their dogs are on gluten-free diets. But when I was diagnosed with celiac disease 14 years ago, it was the dark ages before Miley Cyrus called gluten “crapppp” on Twitter and McGnaw the Gluten Free Beaver danced on the Colbert Report. To find out if something was truly safe to eat, I had to test it myself.

Meet McGnaw, the gluten-free beaver.Video: The Colbert Report

Back then, no one knew what the hell I was saying when I asked whether a food was gluten free. (I still remember a confused waiter responding, “No, you have to pay for it.”) I’d have to explain that gluten is a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. In certain people, it can trigger an autoimmune reaction that obliterates the lining of their guts and makes them feel like crap for days. So, does this salad come with the croutons already mixed in, or can I get it without them?

It was enough to make you paranoid that the evil protein was everywhere

The hard part about sticking to the gluten-free diet wasn’t cutting out the usual gluten-containing suspects. By the time my doctor figured out was wrong with me, I was so sick I couldn’t even stand the smell of baking bread or a boiling pot of pasta. No, the hard part was figuring out where sneakier gluten was lurking. Was it floating in soy sauce? Beefing up the volume of spices? Mixed into the medications I use everyday? Hiding in difficult-to-decipher ingredients like modified food starch, or maybe tocopherol?

And that’s why it was such a bummer that the “gluten free” label didn’t mean anything concrete. It was enough to make you paranoid that the evil protein was everywhere, just waiting to send you running to the nearest bathroom. (Or, leave you straining in that bathroom for days, depending on your body’s favorite flavor of gluten reaction.)

A fun family science experiment where bad lab technique could mean diarrhea later on

So, my parents bought test kits, which made for a fun family science experiment where bad lab technique could mean diarrhea later on. We’d smash up little bits of food at the dinner table, stick the mess in some sort of liquid, plop in a dipstick, and wait until we could see a positive or negative readout. For whatever reason, anything with apples always came up positive with the particular test kit we used. I don’t know if the test just wasn’t specific enough and these were false positives, or if apple juice and apple sauce really were frequently contaminated. I mostly stayed away from them, just in case.

That all changed in 2013, when the FDA told manufacturers their products needed to contain less than 20 parts per million of gluten if they wanted to say it was gluten free. And in 2014, the FDA started enforcing the rule — presumably with better equipment than I had. I haven’t used a test kit in years, anyway, and this week’s announcement reassured me I don’t have to: I can continue eating foods labeled gluten free, confident that I won’t need to plan the next few days around where the nearest toilets are. I could even eat gluten-free apple sauce, if I wanted to. But, really, I’m good.





Gadget News

via The Verge http://ift.tt/1jLudMg

May 31, 2017 at 02:33PM
0 Comments

Now Brexit Is Making Brits Buy Secondhand Gadgets - Forbes

5/31/2017

0 Comments

 


Now Brexit Is Making Brits Buy Secondhand Gadgets - Forbes

http://ift.tt/2rGSHUj


Forbes

Now Brexit Is Making Brits Buy Secondhand Gadgets
Forbes
With a looming general election that most of the political parties are telling Britons is not about last year's referendum vote to leave the European Union, caution and fear about the consequences are finding curious new modes of expressions. One ...





Gadget News

via gadgets - Google News http://ift.tt/2pP6Yh0

May 31, 2017 at 02:10PM
0 Comments

Toddlers at risk of developing tech addiction as parents rely on gadgets to entertain kids - Mirror.co.uk

5/30/2017

0 Comments

 


Toddlers at risk of developing tech addiction as parents rely on gadgets to entertain kids - Mirror.co.uk

http://ift.tt/2sc8abV


Mirror.co.uk

Toddlers at risk of developing tech addiction as parents rely on gadgets to entertain kids
Mirror.co.uk
Toddlers who spend up to three hours a day staring at smartphones, tablets and TVs could be at risk of developing screen dependency disorders later in childhood, it has been claimed. A survey of 1,000 parents, commissioned by ITV's Good Morning Britain ...





Gadget News

via gadgets - Google News http://ift.tt/2pP6Yh0

May 30, 2017 at 01:34PM
0 Comments

Supreme Court decision lifts ownership rights over patent law

5/30/2017

0 Comments

 
http://ift.tt/2rlXvxt

Supreme Court decision lifts ownership rights over patent law

http://ift.tt/2rCywqo

In a win for anyone who has ever been frustrated by overpriced ink, the Supreme Court ruled today (PDF) that printer maker Lexmark can't sue companies that refill old cartridges and sell them at a discount. More specifically, the court ruled that Lexmark gave away its patent rights to the cartridges (and their single-use microchips) as soon as it started selling them. While the case may seem narrowly focused, digital rights groups are hailing it as a win for consumers in general and a decision that could affect everyone's right to repair their own devices.

Even though Lexmark's customer contract states the cartridges can't be reused or resold, the court decided that these restrictions don't apply to remanufacturers that recycle used cartridges -- such as the West Virginia-based printer shop that initially brought the case. The court also rejected Lexmark's arguments that these complicated contract structures are necessary in the modern technology industry. Pointing out that "a generic smartphone" has parts covered by 250,000 patents, Chief Justice John Roberts said that overbroad applications of patent rights were unfair to consumers, limited their ability to use their devices as they see fit and would "clog the channels of commerce, with little benefit from the extra control that the patentees retain."

As Fortune also notes, the Supreme Court has been routinely overturning these sorts of patent cases that get elevated from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals -- the court tasked with hearing every single patent case in the country. Ultimately, this is a good sign for consumers, however, and it bodes well if tech companies' efforts to squash mom-and-pop repair shops ever reaches the Supreme Court. In fact, the digital rights advocates at the Electronic Frontier Foundation are calling the decision a "victory in the right to tinker" and the patent reform watchdog group Public Knowledge says the decision, "is a strong recognition that consumer rights have primary importance."

Via: Wall Street Journal

Source: Supreme Court





Gadget News

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

May 30, 2017 at 01:09PM
0 Comments

Live with Essential's Andy Rubin at Code 2017!

5/30/2017

0 Comments

 
http://ift.tt/2qyV6fy

Live with Essential's Andy Rubin at Code 2017!

http://ift.tt/2rioeJe

The Essential Phone, Essential Home, Ambient OS, and much more!





Gadget News

via The Verge http://ift.tt/1jLudMg

May 30, 2017 at 12:58PM
0 Comments

Steve Ballmer says he wont inject politics into his government data project

5/30/2017

0 Comments

 
http://ift.tt/2qxYdbx

Steve Ballmer says he won’t inject politics into his government data project

http://ift.tt/2rSU2ah


Steve Ballmer may be working on a giant new project that utilizes government data, but he’s made one thing clear: he really doesn’t want to politicize the data.

Speaking at Recode’s annual Code Conference, Ballmer told journalists Kara Swisher and Kurt Wagner that he believes the database he’s been working on for the past few years, called USAFacts, shouldn’t be politicized because “numbers are not political...I’m not going to be partisan for what we do with USAFacts, I’m going to be partisan for the facts themselves.”

During the interview, Ballmer pulled out a Microsoft Surface tablet and stylus and showed a chart that compared US family income and taxes by income level in 2000, to the same data from 2015.

“Some people will say, ‘Twenty-four percent of the taxes are paid by one percent of the people, that’s too much,’” Ballmer said. “Others will say, ‘The middle class is getting hollowed out, that’s bad.’” The point of his project isn’t to take one side versus the other, he claimed, but just to make the data available in a way that the government is not; to not “fool us with the numbers. Don’t screw around with the numbers.”

Ballmer, who is best known for a long tenure as chief executive of Microsoft and his ownership of the L.A. Clippers basketball team, first revealed this ambitious data project in April. He told The New York Times that he had been working on it for three years with academics, economists, and other professionals, and did say at the time that he wanted the project to be “completely apolitical.”

But Ballmer, with his characteristic vigor, vehemently underscored this in his conversation with Recode, saying he “steadfastly refused for it to be political with two exceptions.”

He said he’s a business person that doesn’t believe in running deficits for all time, and that he thinks budgets should balance. And, his second exception, is that “every kid in America deserves an opportunity to advance from where their parents were economically.”

When asked whether he had his own political ambitions, he replied, “Zero. None. Nada.”





Gadget News

via The Verge http://ift.tt/1jLudMg

May 30, 2017 at 12:37PM
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Categories

    All

    Archives

    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017

    RSS Feed

All content copyrighted (C) 2010 ~ 2019
​All Photos Used Under Creative Commons
​www.RickRea.com 701-200-7831
Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • About
  • Subscribe