Newsworthy Science
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Ferocitus
Deity
Interesting, but at this stage it's just another "theory" that is little more than a SQL trawl through existing data.
How many low income earners (typically at the low end of the health spectrum) can afford it?
How many people with early onset dementia actually get cataract surgery?
Giant Study Finds Viagra Is Linked to Almost 70% Lower Risk of Alzheimer's
https://www.sciencealert.com/giant-...linked-to-almost-70-lower-risk-of-alzheimer-s
Maybe cataract surgery means that some men can finally find their Viagra!
How many low income earners (typically at the low end of the health spectrum) can afford it?
How many people with early onset dementia actually get cataract surgery?
Giant Study Finds Viagra Is Linked to Almost 70% Lower Risk of Alzheimer's
https://www.sciencealert.com/giant-...linked-to-almost-70-lower-risk-of-alzheimer-s
Maybe cataract surgery means that some men can finally find their Viagra!
Berzerker
Deity
i saw that about viagra... now I dont much about it but I think viagra increases blood flow?
Strenuous exercise has the same effect... In some ways our bodies are like engines, they need to be taken out on the highway and run at fast speeds to blow out some of the carbon/plaque gumming up the works
Strenuous exercise has the same effect... In some ways our bodies are like engines, they need to be taken out on the highway and run at fast speeds to blow out some of the carbon/plaque gumming up the works
EnglishEdward
Deity
Maybe the old men who take Viagra have an increased chance of having heart attacks
while bonking young hotties and die before they have time to develop Alzheimer's.
while bonking young hotties and die before they have time to develop Alzheimer's.
Ferocitus
Deity
This Air Force Targeting AI Thought It Had a 90% Success Rate. It Was More Like 25%
But Simpson said the low accuracy rate of the algorithm wasn’t the most worrying part of the exercise. While the algorithm was only right 25 percent of the time, he said, “It was confident that it was right 90 percent of the time, so it was confidently wrong. And that's not the algorithm's fault. It's because we fed it the wrong training data.”
https://www.defenseone.com/technolo...it-had-90-success-rate-it-was-more-25/187437/
And I found out what dissimulators are: they simply pretend that they're not pretending to be defective.
Stanislaw Lem, The Futurological Congress (1971).
But Simpson said the low accuracy rate of the algorithm wasn’t the most worrying part of the exercise. While the algorithm was only right 25 percent of the time, he said, “It was confident that it was right 90 percent of the time, so it was confidently wrong. And that's not the algorithm's fault. It's because we fed it the wrong training data.”
https://www.defenseone.com/technolo...it-had-90-success-rate-it-was-more-25/187437/
And I found out what dissimulators are: they simply pretend that they're not pretending to be defective.
Stanislaw Lem, The Futurological Congress (1971).
Berzerker
Deity
Doh!
Berzerker
Deity
I remember a US officer saying they were giving old Afghan men Viagra as part of the inducements in search of allies
Online surveys are rubbish, and making them bigger does not necessarily make them better
How this looked over the whole country by time:
Writeup Paper
The accuracy of survey results is often thought to increase with sample size. However, writing in Nature, Bradley et al. show that this is not always the case. Although ‘big’ surveys can, under certain conditions, be useful for tracking changes in a population measure over time and across space, their estimates of population variables can be considerably biased.
The US Census Bureau, in partnership with various federal agencies, and the Delphi group at Carnegie Mellon University, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in partnership with Facebook, designed and performed massive surveys to forecast the spread of COVID-19 and measure its effects; questions about vaccination were added in early 2021. With more than 3 million and 25 million responses collected, respectively (as of November 2021; see go.nature.com/3dg0qvy and go.nature.com/3y2r1bk), these are now probably the largest US surveys relating to the pandemic. However, using a subset of responses, Bradley and colleagues demonstrate that the US Census Bureau–federal agencies survey (dubbed the Census Household Pulse survey) and the Delphi–Facebook survey overestimated the vaccination uptake compared with the benchmark data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Fig. 1).
The authors conclude that having more data does not necessarily lead to better estimates. They discuss how design choices in survey-data collection can lead to error — in this case, the overestimation of vaccination uptake. Their findings are a reminder to researchers that statistical precision does not equate to unbiased population estimates.
I think the figure that gives the best representation of the issue is Extended Data Fig. 1: Comparisons of state-level vaccine uptake, hesitancy and willingness across surveys and the CDC for March 2021, panels i and j. Basically there is no relationship between the survey answer (how many people say they are vaccinated) and the actual number of people vaccinated at a state level.The US Census Bureau, in partnership with various federal agencies, and the Delphi group at Carnegie Mellon University, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in partnership with Facebook, designed and performed massive surveys to forecast the spread of COVID-19 and measure its effects; questions about vaccination were added in early 2021. With more than 3 million and 25 million responses collected, respectively (as of November 2021; see go.nature.com/3dg0qvy and go.nature.com/3y2r1bk), these are now probably the largest US surveys relating to the pandemic. However, using a subset of responses, Bradley and colleagues demonstrate that the US Census Bureau–federal agencies survey (dubbed the Census Household Pulse survey) and the Delphi–Facebook survey overestimated the vaccination uptake compared with the benchmark data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Fig. 1).
The authors conclude that having more data does not necessarily lead to better estimates. They discuss how design choices in survey-data collection can lead to error — in this case, the overestimation of vaccination uptake. Their findings are a reminder to researchers that statistical precision does not equate to unbiased population estimates.
Spoiler Caption :
How this looked over the whole country by time:
Spoiler Caption :
Writeup Paper
New Eye Drops Offer an Alternative to Reading Glasses
Vuity, a once-a-day treatment that can help users see up close without affecting their long-range vision, went on the market Thursday after being approved by the F.D.A. in October.
Vuity, a once-a-day treatment that can help users see up close without affecting their long-range vision, went on the market Thursday after being approved by the F.D.A. in October.
Credit...iStock/Getty Images
By Melinda Wenner Moyer
Dec. 14, 2021
An eye drop that improves close-range vision could make misplaced reading glasses less of an inconvenience for many of the 128 million Americans who suffer from age-related deficits in near vision. Vuity, which became available by prescription on Thursday, is a once-a-day treatment that can help users see up close without affecting their long-range vision.
“For anybody who doesn’t want to fiddle with reading glasses, this might be a really helpful alternative,” said Dr. Scott M. MacRae, an ophthalmologist at the University of Rochester’s Center for Visual Science. Dr. MacRae was not involved in the clinical trials for the drug, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in late October.
Nearly 90 percent of U.S. adults over 45 have problems with close-range vision, a condition known as presbyopia that typically worsens over time. To focus on close objects, the eye’s lens must change shape, yet it becomes less flexible as people age, making this process difficult. “Your ability to zoom in decreases,” Dr. MacRae said.
People who suffer from presbyopia often find they need to hold a book at arm’s length or turn on a bright light to read it, said Dr. George O. Waring IV, an ophthalmologist and the medical director of the Waring Vision Institute in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., who led Vuity’s clinical trials for the pharmaceutical company Allergan. Typically, eye doctors recommend that people with presbyopia wear over-the-counter or prescription reading glasses when they need to see up close, but Vuity may also be an option for them, he said.
similar eye drop products are in clinical development to treat presbyopia and may be available in the future, Dr. Waring said.
Dr. Waring and his colleagues presented the results of their Phase 3 clinical trials, which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, at the 2021 annual meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery in July. A single Vuity drop in each eye improved trial subjects’ close-range vision for six hours and improved their intermediate vision — important for computer work — for 10 hours.
Vuity’s benefit over reading glasses is that it does not impair distance vision like reading glasses do. Usually, when a person stops reading to do something else, they need to remove their reading glasses to see around them properly. “That’s the good part about this — the drops don’t really affect distance vision under normal daylight conditions,” Dr. MacRae said.
Dr. MacRae also noted that Vuity will work best for people who have only mild to moderate presbyopia, which probably means people between the ages of 45 and 55. Older individuals with more serious presbyopia may find that the eye drops do not improve their near vision enough to make a difference.
Vuity does not correct regular nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism — it improves only the age-related deficits in close-range vision. So people with other eye errors will want to continue wearing glasses or contact lenses even if they also use Vuity, Dr. MacRae noted.
And the drops are not meant to replace reading glasses entirely, Dr. Waring said. People with presbyopia will probably want to own reading glasses, too, but Vuity may reduce the amount of time they need to wear them. “For some people, it’s going to work great,” Dr. MacRae said. Vuity is not typically covered by health or vision insurance, and Dr. Waring said it might cost around $80 per 30-day supply.
Although the clinical trials did not report any serious side effects, 14.9 percent of subjects who took Vuity reported mild headaches, compared with 7 percent of subjects who took placebo drops. Up to 5 percent of subjects taking Vuity reported other side effects such as eye redness, blurred vision, eye pain, visual impairment, eye irritation and an increased production of tears.
Because the eye drops reduce pupil size, they also make it harder to see in the dark, so they are not recommended for people who drive at night or need to see well in low light for other reasons, Dr. Waring said.
https://www.science.org/content/article/millipede-really-does-have-1000-legs-and-more?
Another news article gave the number of legs for the female specimen as 1300 and 998, I think.
Another news article gave the number of legs for the female specimen as 1300 and 998, I think.
The paper has a creepy picture:
The leggiest animal on the planet, Eumillipes persephone, from Australia. (A) female with 330 segments and 1,306 legs (paratype specimen, T147124). (B) ventral view of legs (male holotype, T147101). (C) dorsal view of head and ventral view of gonopods (male holotype, T147101). Scale bars, 0.5 mm.
Berzerker
Deity
At Stonehenge researchers uncovered an outer ditch, on either side of the entrance they found the skull and jawbone of an auroch - these were large critters, dangerous, like giant bulls that went extinct following the ice age. They were numerous near Stonehenge going back 7-8 kya and probably considered sacred. Stonehenge was built during the age of Taurus
The Younger Dryas Impact theory group is suggesting the underground city of Cappadocia in Turkey may date back to Gobekli Tepe. I have no idea but its an interesting thought, their theory is a comet broke up and hit the Earth leaving parts scorched. The people who built Cappadocia went underground kinda like the Mole People did after the Flood. Movie reference to an old black and white scifi from the 50s.
The Younger Dryas Impact theory group is suggesting the underground city of Cappadocia in Turkey may date back to Gobekli Tepe. I have no idea but its an interesting thought, their theory is a comet broke up and hit the Earth leaving parts scorched. The people who built Cappadocia went underground kinda like the Mole People did after the Flood. Movie reference to an old black and white scifi from the 50s.
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Berzerker
Deity
Christmas comet visible this weekend... long period, ~80,000 year orbit
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/12/16/Christmas-comet-Leonard-astronomy/1301639680124/
smart roofs
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/12/16/energy-efficient-roof-system-study/1151639670532/
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/12/16/Christmas-comet-Leonard-astronomy/1301639680124/
smart roofs
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/12/16/energy-efficient-roof-system-study/1151639670532/
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Berzerker
Deity
The scientists' results therefore show, for the first time, that carbonaceous material from the outer solar system arrived on Earth late.
But the scientists are going one step further. They show that most of the molybdenum in Earth's mantle was supplied by the protoplanet Theia, whose collision with Earth 4.4 billion years ago led to the formation of the Moon. However, since a large part of the molybdenum in Earth's mantle originates from the outer solar system, this means that Theia itself also originated from the outer solar system. According to the scientists, the collision provided sufficient carbonaceous material to account for the entire amount of water on Earth.
https://phys.org/news/2019-05-formation-moon-brought-earth.html
so now they think Theia was further from the Sun... And... they think Theia brought our water 4.4 bya in addition to becoming our Moon.
but newer research:
Earth and Mars were formed from material that largely originated in the inner solar system; only a few percent of the building blocks of these two planets originated beyond Jupiter's orbit.
https://phys.org/news/2021-12-earth-mars-solar-material.html
But the scientists are going one step further. They show that most of the molybdenum in Earth's mantle was supplied by the protoplanet Theia, whose collision with Earth 4.4 billion years ago led to the formation of the Moon. However, since a large part of the molybdenum in Earth's mantle originates from the outer solar system, this means that Theia itself also originated from the outer solar system. According to the scientists, the collision provided sufficient carbonaceous material to account for the entire amount of water on Earth.
https://phys.org/news/2019-05-formation-moon-brought-earth.html
so now they think Theia was further from the Sun... And... they think Theia brought our water 4.4 bya in addition to becoming our Moon.
but newer research:
Earth and Mars were formed from material that largely originated in the inner solar system; only a few percent of the building blocks of these two planets originated beyond Jupiter's orbit.
https://phys.org/news/2021-12-earth-mars-solar-material.html
send this to my mom, she's been learning how to use her telescope and it's supposed to be mostly clear this evening. Thanks!
Berzerker
Deity
https://phys.org/news/2022-01-quadrantids-winter-meteor-spectacle.html
tonight and tomorrow morning, possibly the best meteor shower for 2022
tonight and tomorrow morning, possibly the best meteor shower for 2022
https://www.euronews.com/green/2022...s-big-as-cars-once-roamed-the-uk-experts-find
Oh boy, that's scary.
Oh boy, that's scary.
When the paper has a cool image why do the news sites not use it?
Spoiler Legend :
I also liked the map of where they found them all. I am not convinced the shape of britain has changed so little while everything else has changed so much.
Spoiler Map :
Autoimmune disease may be in the brain
But not in the "you are imagining it" sense, but the "brain is controlling the immune system" sense.
But not in the "you are imagining it" sense, but the "brain is controlling the immune system" sense.
Using a model of inflammatory bowel disease (in which a chemical called DSS is given to mice in their drinking water to induce intestinal inflammation), the authors investigated whether intestinal inflammation leads to the activation of certain brain areas. Neurons activated during episodes of bowel inflammation were identified in the insula, a region in the cerebral cortex that is involved in sensory processing and motor control.
When the mice had recovered from the episode of bowel inflammation, CNO-induced reactivation of these ‘captured’ insula neurons was sufficient to trigger an intestinal response that was reminiscent of the initial bowel inflammation (for example, in terms of the types of immune cell observed in the gut tissue).
Finally, Koren et al. tested whether inhibiting neurons in the insula affects the course of intestinal inflammation. Inhibition of insula neurons during an episode of DSS-induced intestinal inflammation reduced some signs of inflammation, indicating that inhibition of this brain area can attenuate intestinal inflammatory responses .
Write up PaperWhen the mice had recovered from the episode of bowel inflammation, CNO-induced reactivation of these ‘captured’ insula neurons was sufficient to trigger an intestinal response that was reminiscent of the initial bowel inflammation (for example, in terms of the types of immune cell observed in the gut tissue).
Finally, Koren et al. tested whether inhibiting neurons in the insula affects the course of intestinal inflammation. Inhibition of insula neurons during an episode of DSS-induced intestinal inflammation reduced some signs of inflammation, indicating that inhibition of this brain area can attenuate intestinal inflammatory responses .
