SoylentNews

Runaway1956 writes:

A new study of patients undergoing corneal transplants indicates that subtle differences between men and women may lead to poorer outcomes for a woman who has received a cornea from a male donor. The research, published today (14 July) in the American Journal of Transplantation, suggest that gender matching may be beneficial to potentially reduce the risk of failure and rejection in patients undergoing corneal transplantation.

In the study, a team led by Professor Stephen Kaye, from the University of Liverpool and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital; and Cathy Hopkinson from NHS (National Health Service) Blood and Transplant Service, investigated whether donor and recipient gender incompatibility influences corneal transplant rejection and failure up to five years post-transplant.

More than 18,000 patients were identified in the UK who had undergone a first corneal transplant. While over 80 per cent of all patients included still had a functioning graft at five years, a higher proportion of male to female transplants failed or were rejected during this time, when compared to gender-matched transplants.

For every 1,000 people transplanted with a gender-matched cornea, on average 180 will fail, compared to 220 for male-to-female mismatched grafts.

The effect of gender matching was especially evident in patients with Fuchs endothelial dystrophy which affects a thin layer of cells that line the back of the cornea, called corneal endothelial cells. These cells regulate the amount of fluid inside the cornea. An appropriate fluid balance in the cornea is necessary for clear vision

https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2016/07/14/corneal-transplants-men-women-dont-see-eye-eye/

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajt.13926/abstract;jsessionid=6950A3A34E70ECA93F46B07B891AD9CF.f01t02

Original Submission

Update: The coup appears to have been unsuccessful, and President Erdogan's plane is reportedly landing in Istanbul.

Update 2: Erdogan appears poised to reassert his power: "After the earlier recorded statement from Erdogan, the president is now addressing the media. He says the uprising was an act of treason and those responsible will pay a heavy price. It was carried out by a minority within the military who can't stomach unity of the country, Erdogan says. He says the uprising will be a reason to clean up the army."

Attempted military coup in Turkey

zocalo writes:

A faction of the Turkish military is attempting a coup in Turkey (alternative link) claiming that "democratic and secular rule of law has been eroded by the Erdogan government" and control is now in the hands of a "Peace Council". Reports of bridges over the Bosporos blocked to traffic, heavy police and military presence in Istanbul with exchanges of gunfire reported, low flying military aircraft over the city and all airports in the country are now closed. Social media services, Facebook, Twitter, etc., appear to have been blocked. President Erdogan is reportedly "safe" and expected to make a statement soon.

An Anonymous Coward adds:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/turkey-military-blocks-bridges-istanbul-160715195444742.html

Traffic engineers have been simulating traffic and traffic jams for many years. There is even a Wikipedia page for it. Now, one of them has put up a nice graphical simulation with several different types of roadway and ten parameters to play with. Enjoy!

Did you find an interesting set of parameters? Please post them here for others to use.

http://www.traffic-simulation.de/

Original Submission

hemocyanin writes:

Ever since Bernie Sanders endorsed Clinton, interest in Jill Stein has gone hockey stick.

In a recent Q&A, Jill Stein had this to say about Edward Snowden:

"Yes. I have called for pardoning Snowden. Not only pardoning him, but, welcoming him home as a hero, because he has done an incredible service to our country at great cost to himself for having to live away from his family, his friends, his job, his network, to basically live as an expatriate.

"This is a very difficult thing for him to do, but, what he has done is revealed the violations, of our constitutional rights, that were taking place and that still are taking place. I would say not only bring Snowden back, but, bring him into my administration as a member of the Cabinet, because we need people who are part of our national security administration who are really very patriotic. Truly patriotic to national security and who understand that if we're really going to protect American security, we also have to protect our Constitutional rights and that includes our right to privacy.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Scientists have made progress on a cure for Alzheimer's:

Experts at Adelaide's Flinders University have made an Alzheimer's breakthrough that may result in world's first dementia vaccine. Developed by Australian and US scientists, this vaccine may not only prevent but also reverse early stages of Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia.

The Alzheimer's vaccine may be tested on humans within the next two to three years after being bankrolled by the US Government. Scientists from Flinders University and America's Institute of Molecular Medicine and University of California developed the vaccine by targeting proteins in the brain that block neurons.

The formula targets tau proteins and abnormal beta-amyloid that cause Alzheimer's. The scientists are confident that the vaccine would eventually be used as preventative vaccine. According to Flinders University medicine professor Nikolai Petrovsky, the proteins must be removed from the brain as Alzheimer's, and dementia sufferers have lots of these broken down proteins inside.

Alzheimer's disease Advax^CpG- adjuvanted MultiTEP-based dual and single vaccines induce high-titer antibodies against various forms of tau and Aβ pathological molecules (open, DOI: 10.1038/srep28912)

Original Submission

tonyPick writes:

An article at Hackerboards is reporting the announcement that fabless semiconductor company SiFive has announced the first embedded SoCs based on the open source RISC-V platform

A VC-backed startup closely associated with the RISC-V project announced the first system-on-chip implementations of the open source RISC-V processor platform. At the RISC-V 4thWorkshop at MIT this week, SiFive announced two embedded SoC families. The Freedom Unleashed family debuts with a 28nm fabricated, Freedom U500 SoC with up to eight 1.6GHz cores that runs Linux, aimed at machine learning, storage, and networking applications. The MCU-like Freedom Everywhere family for Internet of Things starts with a 180nm Freedom E300 model that runs FreeRTOS.

Like RISC-V, both designs are fully open source, but the company also plans to sell finished SoCs with the help of fabrication partner TSMC. The platform will "reverse the industry's prohibitively rising licensing, design and implementation costs," says SiFive.

Although the SiFive announcement talks about the final SoC implementation currently only targets based on standard FPGA based development platforms appear to be available.

This earlier SN article contains more information on the RiscV project and the development of an open Instruction Set Architecture.

Original Submission

fork(2) writes:

IEEE Spectrum (doesn't appear to be paywalled) carries an article about Nissan's self-driving feature.

Nissan is about to offer a semiautonomous feature that's quite like Tesla's Autopilot. Not only does it sound like it - "ProPilot" - it also depends on a mono-camera sensor and on Mobileye processing.

Nissan is working very hard to emphasize the "semi" part of the word "semiautonomous," billing ProPilot as an improved form of cruise control -- not as a robotic chauffeur that's "almost twice as good as a person." That's what Tesla honcho Elon Musk said of Autopilot on 25 April, 12 days before a Tesla Model S under Autopilot control crashed into a truck, killing the car's driver. It was the first fatality attributed to a modern, self-driving car.

[...] With the Nissan, push a button and ProPilot maintains a fixed distance to the car in front of you, keeping within the lane and braking when necessary. Take your hands off the steering wheel, and it will nag you to put them back; ignore the nagging, and the system will cut off.

[...] And Nissan customers are about as different from Tesla's as you can get. ProPilot will initially be offered only in Japan, on the Nissan Serena, a staid and practical minivan. Tesla's cars are feline, earth-clawing performance cars, and their mostly American drivers are, as you'd expect, a rather adventurous breed, to judge by the Youtube videos they post.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

The mania surrounding "Pokemon Go" continued Thursday as more users found themselves in precarious situations while playing the augmented reality game.

In North San Diego County, two men fell off a bluff while playing the smartphone game, while farther north in Anaheim, a player was stabbed by group of men in a park recently.

The incidents come as law enforcement agencies across the nation are reporting a plethora of Pokemon-related attacks and odd happenings since the game was released last week.

On Wednesday, firefighters rescued two men who fell several stories after a sandy bluff they were standing on collapsed in Encinitas, according to authorities. The men, who were in their early 20s, were playing "Pokemon Go" at the time and were likely led to the cliff when they were trying to catch characters, said Sgt. Rich Eaton of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

One man fell 75 to 100 feet, and the other was found unconscious 50 feet down the bluff. Both were taken to area trauma centers and suffered moderate injuries, Encinitas fire officials said.

The men, according to firefighters, had crossed a fenced area to get to the bluff.

"I think people just need to realize this is a game," Eaton said. "It's not worth your life. No game is worth your life."

http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/2016/07/2_men_fall_off_cliff_in_califo.html

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Ethanol-fueled writes:

A local affiliate of CBS Reports that two best friends from Rhode Island are living their dream of making an epic zombie movie and becoming celebrities.

"Downs syndrome causes us to think slower than others, but we don't let that get in the way," co-producer Sam Suchmann says, "Because we're naturally amazing."

Their movie, Spring Break Zombie Massacre, premiered in Providence last week, and already they've been invited to several North American film festivals as well as a Thursday appearance in the Conan O' Brien show.

The two co-producers play brothers in the movie, two cool guys with bionic powers capable of saving humanity forever. The devil chases them through high school, college and spring break, trying to steal their powers and turning bullies into zombies and demons to help him in his quest.

Watch out, Star Trek Continues! These two are giving you a run for your money!

Original Submission

GreatAuntAnesthesia writes:

Not exactly new news, but I thought this lighthearted piece might be of interest to some Soylentils.

Nearly five million appropriately-aquatic Lego elements lost overboard from a cargo ship some 20 years ago continue to be washed up on the shoreline of Cornwall in the UK. The photos in the article suggest that even after 20 years at sea, these pieces are still in remarkably good condition. Looking for lost Lego.

According to Wikipedia, some of these pieces have also been found on the other side of the Atlantic.

I'll be sure to look out for them on my holidays.

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

A Nintendo press release promotes the company's upcoming product, which may be available during the "holiday shopping season." Enclosed in a case that imitates the styling of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the future console is to have an HDMI video output and will include 30 built-in games which the company describes as "retro." It will also include a controller; a second controller (not supported by all of the games) is to be sold for $10. The console is intended to sell for about $60, and will come with an HDMI cable and AC adapter.

The possibility of playing other games instead of the pre-loaded ones was not mentioned.

[Continues with a complete list of the 30 pre-loaded games...]

butthurt writes:

Stuff.co.nz reports on a supermarket that has removed sugary foods and drinks from its checkout areas. The change has been received favourably by the public.

Retailers often encourage impulsive purchases, focussing especially on the queueing areas behind cash registers.

A Richmond supermarket has removed confectionery and soft drinks from all its checkouts in a bid to encourage healthier snacks.

The sugar-free approach to the checkouts at Fresh Choice in Richmond, near Nelson, means chocolate bars, lollies and biscuits have been replaced with fresh fruit, salads and water.

Owner Gary Watson said he was confident it was the first full service supermarket in the country to have made the move away from sugary products at the checkout.

further information:

• Urge To Splurge at Checkout Counter May Contribute to Obesity
• S & R January 2013 Checkout & impulse sales (PDF)
• The Psychology of Impulse Buying

Original Submission

fork(2) writes:

If you live in academia or high-level research, the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) may be either your friend or foe. JIFs are a measure of the average number of citations that a journal's articles receive over some historical period (usually two years). Their purpose was originally to give an indication of the quality of journals. but they are also often used to assess the quality of individual papers or the researchers that author them.

Nature reports on a concerted effort to move away from this controversial metric.

Now, a paper posted to the preprint server bioRxiv1 on 5 July, authored by senior employees at several leading science publishers (including Nature's owner, SpringerNature), calls on journals to downplay the figure in favour of a metric that captures the range of citations that a journal's articles attract.

And in an editorial that... appear[ed] on 11 July in eight of its journals, the American Society for Microbiology [ASM] in Washington DC... announce[d] plans to remove the impact factor from its journals and website, as well as from marketing and advertising.

"To me, what's essential is to purge the conversation of the impact factor," says ASM chief executive Stefano Bertuzzi, a prominent critic of the metric. "We want to make it so tacky that people will be embarrassed just to mention it."

Bertuzzi was formerly the executive director of the American Society for Cell Biology, which banned the mention of impact factors from its annual meeting.

The bioRxiv preprint is available here.

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

A Chinese entomologist discovered (open, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4126.2.9) a beetle on the island of Hainan and named it Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) xii. The name was intended to honour the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, for

[...] his controls on corruption (eating rot), which will allow Chinese corruption to gradually disappear.

The beetle feeds upon rotting wood. A writer on Global Voices notes that rot can be a metaphor for corruption in Chinese literature and says that

The word "bug" has a negative connotation in Chinese culture.

Information about the insect has been blocked on China's internet, with a search of Weibo producing the error

due to relevant laws and policies, results [...] cannot be shown.

According to the American Web site China Digital Times, an official directive was issued saying

All websites find and delete the article 'Entomologists Report: Scholars Use 'Daddy Xi' to Name a New Type of Beetle' and related information.

coverage:

• New York Times
• Straits Times
• Hong Kong Free Press (Tor-friendly link)
• China Digital Times (English language)
• China Digital Times (Chinese language)
• Global Voices
• Wall Street Journal blog
• Public Radio International

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Last Best News reports

With 2,400 square feet of living space, the house will be heated and cooled passively, ventilated in the summer by opening windows and solar-powered skylights, assisted by large, completely noiseless bamboo ceiling fans.

In the winter, fresh, warm air will flow through the house after being heated by the sun in the 300-square-foot garden room that sits between the house and the two-car garage. Circulation will be aided by a heat-recovery ventilator. [...] Heating and cooling are efficient and require few inputs because the house sits inside a super-insulated envelope of overlapping structural insulated panels.

[...] Power is generated by a 2.2-kilowatt solar array and a vertical-axis wind turbine on the corner of the property. [...] The house is also equipped with its own DC microgrid that powers all-LED lighting as well as some equipment and appliances. The Hafers plan to stay connected to the city power grid for a year, to make sure their calculations are accurate and the house produces enough electricity.

All the Hafers' water will come from rainwater collected off the roof and stored in six 1,500-gallon tanks in the basement. Gray water—from sinks and appliances—will be stored in tanks totaling 1,500 gallons and will be used for irrigation, clothes washing, toilet flushing, and dish washing.

Toilet waste will be processed in a huge composter in the basement.

Original Submission

martyb [soylentnews.org] writes:

[Update: The New York Times has a story, Truck Attack in Nice, France: What We Know, and What We Don’t and an interactive map.]

LA Times is reporting:

A truck drove on to the sidewalk and plowed through a crowd of Bastille Day revelers who'd gathered to watch fireworks in the French resort city of Nice late Thursday in what officials and eyewitnesses described as a deliberate attack. The president of the Nice region says at least 75 people were killed and 50 injured. Eric Ciotti said on France Info radio that "it's a scene of horror." He said he was speaking from the scene.

Sylvie Toffin, a press officer with the local prefecture, said the truck "hit several people on a long trip" down the sidewalk near Nice's Palais de la Mediterranee, a building that fronts the beach. Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native who spoke to the AP nearby, said that he saw a truck drive into the crowd.

[...] The death toll appeared to be climbing. Calls to interior ministry and police officials were not returned. Images circulating on social media showed grisly scenes of piles of bodies in the street. The president of the Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur regional council, Christian Estrosi, said in a message posted to Twitter that dozens of people appear to have been killed.

[...] The president of the region that includes Nice says the truck that slammed into revelers celebrating Bastille Day on the city's waterfront was loaded with arms and grenades, and that the driver of the truck has now been killed by police.

Christian Estrosi told BFM TV that "the driver fired on the crowd, according to the police who killed him."

PBS reports:

Police killed the driver "after an exchange of gunfire," Eric Ciotti, the ranking politician of the Alpes-Maritime department that includes Nice, told BFM TV, according to the AP.

Damien Allemand, a journalist for Nice Matin, wrote online that "an enormous white truck came along at a crazy speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people."

"I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route," he said. "Heard noises, cries that I will never forget."

The truck jumped onto a sidewalk and rammed into a crowd watching fireworks for Bastille Day in the resort city. An eyewitness at the scene told the AP that after striking the crowd, the driver emerged from the truck and began shooting.

"There was carnage on the road," said Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native who spoke to the AP near the Promenade du Paillon. "Bodies everywhere."

The truck plowed into the crowd over a distance of more than a mile, Ciotti said.

Additional coverage:
Associate Press
ABC News

takyon writes:

China is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, but that won't stop it from ignoring this ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague:

An international tribunal in The Hague delivered a sweeping rebuke on Tuesday of China's behavior in the South China Sea, including the construction of artificial islands, and found that its expansive claim to sovereignty over the waters had no legal basis.

The tribunal also said that Beijing had violated international law by causing "severe harm to the coral reef environment" and by failing to prevent Chinese fishermen from harvesting endangered sea turtles and other species "on a substantial scale."

The landmark case, brought by the Philippines, was seen as an important crossroads in China's rise as a global power. It is the first time the Chinese government has been summoned before the international justice system, and the decision against it could provide leverage to other neighboring countries that have their own disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea.

"It's an overwhelming victory. We won on every significant point," said the Philippines' chief counsel in the case, Paul S. Reichler. "This is a remarkable victory for the Philippines."

But while the decision is legally binding, there is no mechanism for enforcing it, and China, which refused to participate in the tribunal's proceedings, reiterated on Tuesday that it would not abide by it. "The award is invalid and has no binding force," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "China does not accept or recognize it."

Now the U.S. can feel properly justified as it continues to do nothing. This news is also reported at Time , Reuters, The Guardian , and The Washington Post . Full response at Xinhua.

Previously: China Builds Artificial Islands in South China Sea
U.S. Spy Plane Deploys to Singapore Amid South China Sea Tensions
China Places Surface-to-Air Missile Launchers on Disputed Island
U.S. Admiral Warns of New Activity Near Reef Seized by China
The West Protests as the Chinese Military Continues to Operate in the South China Sea

Original Submission