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upstart writes:

Stroke may be triggered by anger, emotional upset and heavy physical exertion:

A global study co-led by NUI Galway into causes of stroke has found that one in 11 survivors experienced a period of anger or upset in the one hour leading up to it. One in 20 patients had engaged in heavy physical exertion.

The suspected triggers have been identified as part of the global INTERSTROKE study -- the largest research project of its kind, which analysed 13,462 cases of acute stroke, involving patients with a range of ethnic backgrounds in 32 countries, including Ireland.

[...] Stroke is a leading global cause of death or disability. Each year, approximately 7,500 Irish people have a stroke and around 2,000 of these people die. An estimated 30,000 people are living in Ireland with disabilities as a result of a stroke.

Professor Andrew Smyth, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at NUI Galway, Director of the HRB-Clinical Research Facility Galway and a Consultant Nephrologist at Galway University Hospitals, was one of the lead researchers.

He said: "Stroke prevention is a priority for physicians, and despite advances it remains difficult to predict when a stroke will occur. Many studies have focused on medium to long-term exposures, such as hypertension, obesity or smoking. Our study aimed to look at acute exposures that may act as triggers."

The research analysed patterns in patients who suffered ischemic stroke -- the most common type of stroke, which occurs when a blood clot blocks or narrows an artery leading to the brain, and also intracerebral haemorrhage -- which is less common and involves bleeding within the brain tissue itself.

Journal Reference:
Andrew Smyth, Martin O’Donnell, Graeme J Hankey, et al. Anger or emotional upset and heavy physical exertion as triggers of stroke: the INTERSTROKE study, European Heart Journal (DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehab738)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Intel Evo 4.0 spec coming with Raptor Lake mobile may see the advent of 8 MP webcams with high VCX benchmark scores

Recently, we exclusively reported that laptops with Windows 11 coming this holiday will feature markedly improved webcams. This is due to Microsoft apparently enforcing some hard requirements on the specifications of webcams and real-time communication (RTC) hardware such as mics and speakers. Now, it looks like Intel has joined the fray too.

We now have another exclusive piece of information that the Intel Evo platform, which will see its third iteration with upcoming Alder Lake mobile processors, will also include webcam performance as part of the platform specifications. However, the full implementation of this may only begin with Evo 4.0 that is expected to debut in the generation after Alder Lake, which is likely Raptor Lake mobile.

[..] Overall, it looks like the days of pathetic webcams on laptops are finally coming to an end. With both Microsoft and Intel enforcing these specifications, we might soon start seeing decent webcams that actually offer richer video collaboration experiences that are orders of magnitude better than today's implementations.

Your future filled with Zoom meetings demands the finest in webcam technology.

Valued Camera eXperience (VCX) forum.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Distributed, Asynchronous Git Syncing with NNCP:

I have a directory that I use with org-mode and org-roam. I want it to be synced across multiple machines. I also want to keep the history with git. And, I want to use end-to-end encryption (no storing a plain git repo on a remote server), have a serverless setup, not require any two machines to be up simultaneously, and be resilient in the face of races and conflicts.

I've tried a number of setups – git-remote-gcrypt on a remote server (fragile), some complicated scripts around a separate repo in syncthing (requires one machine to be "in charge"), etc. They all were subpar.

Then NNCP (network node control point) introduced asynchronous multicast and I was intrigued.

So, I wrote gitsync-nncp, which uses NNCP to distribute git bundles to all the participating machines. The comprehensive documentation for gitsync-nncp goes into a lot more detail about how it works and what problems it solves. It's working quite well for me!

Have any of our Emacs users had similar problems, or found alternative solutions?

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Most dog breeds highly inbred: Study suggests inbreeding contributes to increase in disease and health care costs:

In a recent study published in Canine Medicine and Genetics, an international team of researchers led by University of California, Davis, veterinary geneticist Danika Bannasch show that the majority of canine breeds are highly inbred, contributing to an increase in disease and health care costs throughout their lifespan.

"It's amazing how inbreeding seems to matter to health," Bannasch said. "While previous studies have shown that small dogs live longer than large dogs, no one had previously reported on morbidity, or the presence of disease. This study revealed that if dogs are of smaller size and not inbred, they are much healthier than larger dogs with high inbreeding."

The average inbreeding based on genetic analysis across 227 breeds was close to 25%, or the equivalent of sharing the same genetic material with a full sibling. These are levels considered well above what would be safe for either humans or wild animal populations. In humans, high levels of inbreeding (3-6%) have been associated with increased prevalence of complex diseases as well as other conditions.

"Data from other species, combined with strong breed predispositions to complex diseases like cancer and autoimmune diseases, highlight the relevance of high inbreeding in dogs to their health," said Bannasch, who also serves as the Maxine Adler Endowed Chair in Genetics at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Journal Reference:
Danika Bannasch, Thomas Famula, Jonas Donner, et al. The effect of inbreeding, body size and morphology on health in dog breeds [open], Canine Medicine and Genetics (DOI: 10.1186/s40575-021-00111-4)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

SiFive Details New Performance P650 RISC-V Core

SiFive's Performance P650 licenseable processor IP core will debut to lead partners in Q1'2022 while the general availability is expected in "summer" 2022. Whether the Performance P650 will make its way into any public SiFive developer boards or the like remain unknown, but hopefully they will come out next year with some performant successor to the HiFive Unmatched.

This successor to their Performance P550 is expected to be the fastest RISC-V processor IP core on the market. Over the P550 should be around a 40% performance increase per-clock cycle. Overall there should be around a 50% performance gain over the P550. SiFive is reporting the Performance P650 will be faster than the Arm Cortex-A77.

SiFive Performance P650 RISC-V core to outperform Arm Cortex-A77 performance per mm²

Building upon the Performance P550 design, the SiFive Performance P650 is scalable to sixteen cores using a coherent multicore complex, and delivers a 40% performance increase per clock cycle based on SiFive engineering estimated performance in SPECInt2006/GHz, thanks to an expansion of the processor's instruction-issue width. The company compares P650 to the Arm family by saying it "maintains a significant performance-per-area advantage compared to the Arm Cortex-A77".

Other architecture enhancements over the previous generation include a higher maximum clock frequency (Liliputing says up to 3.5 GHz), platform-level memory management, interrupt control units, and support for the new RISC-V hypervisor extension for virtualization.

ARM Cortex-A77.

Previously: Intel Will License SiFive's New P550 RISC-V Core
SiFive Teases Fast New RISC-V Processor Core; Intel Acquisition Attempt Failed

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 launched: First 5 nm Windows PC SoC with four Cortex-X1 cores at 3 GHz, 6 nm Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3 announced too

Qualcomm today unveiled the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 and Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3 Compute Platforms that will power the next wave of Windows-on-ARM Always On Always Connected PCs. The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 is the first 5 nm SoC for the PC and features a 4+4 CPU with Cortex-X1 and Cortex-A78 cores along with other Qualcomm connectivity and security features.

[...] With the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, PCs are all set to get their first taste of the 5 nm architecture albeit on ARM. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 is about 85% faster in CPU and 60% faster in GPU performance. The exact comparative parameters were not disclosed during the presentation, however.

The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 is also slated to offer 29+ TOPS of AI performance. Once again, the comparisons aren't really obvious, but we can hazard a guess that this could be with respect to the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2.

Previously, ARM SoCs have had only a single Cortex-X core, with the exception of Google's Tensor, found in the Pixel 6, which has 2x Cortex-X1 cores.

Also at CNX Software.

See also: Qualcomm 8cx Gen 3: Too dangerous to deploy

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: Flagship SoC for 2022 Devices

At this year's Tech Summit from Hawaii, it's time again for Qualcomm to unveil and detail the company's most important launch of the year, showcasing the newest Snapdragon flagship SoC that will be powering our upcoming 2022 devices. Today, as the first of a few announcements at the event, Qualcomm is announcing the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the direct follow-up to last year's Snapdragon 888.

takyon writes:

FTC Crashes NVIDIA's Party by Suing to Block its $40 Billion Deal To Acquire Arm Holdings

NVIDIA is now facing the most stringent test yet to its planned acquisition of the chip designer Arm Holdings.

To wit, the US FTC is now suing NVIDIA to block the $40 billion deal. FTC Bureau of Competition Director, Holly Vedova, said in a statement:

"The FTC is suing to block the largest semiconductor chip merger in history to prevent a chip conglomerate from stifling the innovation pipeline for next-generation technologies."

Vedova went on to note:

"Tomorrow's technologies depend on preserving today's competitive, cutting-edge chip markets. This proposed deal would distort Arm's incentives in chip markets and allow the combined firm to unfairly undermine Nvidia's rivals."

FTC press release.

Also at NYT, The Verge, and Reuters.

Previously;
Nvidia's $40 Billion ARM Acquisition: "All but Dead"?
European Commission Extends Probe of Nvidia's Arm Acquisition

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Microsoft Edge now bashes Google Chrome when you download it:

​Microsoft Edge is now displaying in-browser alerts that discourage users from downloading Google Chrome by bashing the popular browser.

As developers compete for control of browser market share, it is not uncommon for them to try and discourage users from downloading competing browsers.

Last February, Windows 10 started to show messages in the Start Menu that suggeted users to switch to Microsoft Edge when Firefox was installed or configured as the default browser.

[...] A few weeks later, Google began telling Microsoft Edge users to switch to Chrome to use browser extensions more securely.

[...] Fast forward almost a year later, and now Microsoft Edge is displaying in-browser notifications that bash Google Chrome when a user attempts to download it.

upstart writes:

Colour-changing magnifying glass gives clear view of infrared light:

Detecting light beyond the visible red range of our eyes is hard to do, because infrared light carries so little energy compared to ambient heat at room temperature. This obscures infrared light unless specialised detectors are chilled to very low temperatures, which is both expensive and energy-intensive.

Now researchers led by the University of Cambridge have demonstrated a new concept in detecting infrared light, showing how to convert it into visible light, which is easily detected.

In collaboration with colleagues from the UK, Spain and Belgium, the team used a single layer of molecules to absorb the mid-infrared light inside their vibrating chemical bonds. These shaking molecules can donate their energy to visible light that they encounter, ‘upconverting’ it to emissions closer to the blue end of the spectrum, which can then be detected by modern visible-light cameras.

The results, reported in the journal Science, open up new low-cost ways to sense contaminants, track cancers, check gas mixtures, and remotely sense the outer universe.

The challenge faced by the researchers was to make sure the quaking molecules met the visible light quickly enough. “This meant we had to trap light really tightly around the molecules, by squeezing it into crevices surrounded by gold,” said first author Angelos Xomalis from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.

upstart writes:

Nonverbal social interactions – even with unfriendly avatars – boost cooperation:

The study revealed that participants were more willing to cooperate with animated avatars than with static figures representing their negotiation partners. It also found -- somewhat surprisingly -- that people were more willing to accept unfair offers from unfriendly avatars than from friendly ones.

"This work is an extension of previous studies exploring how nonverbal cues influence people's perceptions of one another," said Matthew Moore, who led the research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with psychology professors Florin Dolcos and Sanda Dolcos. The new research was conducted at the U. of I.'s Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, where Moore was a postdoctoral fellow.

"Nonverbal interactions represent a huge part of human communication," Sanda Dolcos said. "We might not be aware of this, but much of the information that we take in is through these nonverbal channels."

Previous studies often used still photos or other static representations of people engaged in social interactions to study how people form opinions or make decisions, Florin Dolcos said.

"By animating the avatars, we're capturing interactions that are much closer to what happens in real-life situations," he said.

[...] "If we better understand the mechanisms involved, then we can better understand things like how to intervene," he said. "So, for example, if we have a goal of increasing cooperation or helping people make adaptive decisions, then we have clearer targets for our interventions."

Journal Reference:
Moore, Matthew, Katsumi, Yuta, Dolcos, Sanda, et al. Electrophysiological Correlates of Social Decision-making: An EEG Investigation of a Modified Ultimatum Game, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01782)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The secret life of Tasmanian devils is hiding in their whiskers:

Scientists can peer at least nine months into a Tasmanian devil's past by studying its whiskers, a new study led by UNSW Sydney has found.

The long, wiry whiskers on these stocky marsupials hold chemical imprints from food they've eaten in the past – records that can help tell broader stories about their foraging habits, habitat use and how they respond to environmental change.

Researchers have now mapped this timescale for the first time, showing that devils' whiskers can capture seasonal dietary changes over at least nine months and potentially up to a year.

[...] Up until now, tracing a devil's culinary history with its whiskers has been a bit like using an out-of-order time machine: scientists could see the chemical records, but couldn't confirm if they were from a week, month, or year ago.

To get a clearer picture of the timeline, the UNSW-led research team fed tablets enriched in heavy stable isotopes – types of atoms that don't decay into other elements over time – to six captive devils at three-month intervals. These stable isotopes acted as timestamps, marking the whiskers with each season's passing.

When more than a year had passed, the team removed the longest whisker from each animal for analysis. They found the whiskers grew fast at first before slowing down, and that whiskers on different parts of their muzzle grew to different maximum lengths. On average, the longest whiskers held at least nine months of the animal's ecological history – but as whisker growth slows over time, the researchers suggest it's likely they can hold up to a year.

Journal Reference:
Marie R. G. Attard, Anna Lewis, Stephen Wroe, et al. Whisker growth in Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) and applications for stable isotope studies [open], Ecosphere (DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3846)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Really stupid "smart contract" bug let hackers steal $31 million in digital coin:

Blockchain startup MonoX Finance said on Wednesday that a hacker stole $31 million by exploiting a bug in software the service uses to draft smart contracts.

The company uses a decentralized finance protocol known as MonoX that lets users trade digital currency tokens without some of the requirements of traditional exchanges. "Project owners can list their tokens without the burden of capital requirements and focus on using funds for building the project instead of providing liquidity," MonoX company representatives say here. "It works by grouping deposited tokens into a virtual pair with vCASH, to offer a single token pool design."

An accounting error built into the company's software let an attacker inflate the price of the MONO token and to then use it to cash out all the other deposited tokens, MonoX Finance revealed in a post. The haul amounted to $31 million worth of tokens on the Ethereum or Polygon blockchains, both of which are supported by the MonoX protocol.

Specifically, the hack used the same token as both the tokenIn and tokenOut, which are methods for exchanging the value of one token for another. MonoX updates prices after each swap by calculating new prices for both tokens. When the swap is completed, the price of tokenIn—that is, the token sent by the user—decreases and the price of tokenOut—or the token received by the user—increases.

By using the same token for both tokenIn and tokenOut, the hacker greatly inflated the price of the MONO token because the updating of the tokenOut overwrote the price update of the tokenIn. The hacker then exchanged the token for $31 million worth of tokens on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains.

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

Lawsuit: Google employees were fired for upholding “Don’t be evil” code:

Three former Google software engineers who sued the company yesterday claim they were fired for following Google's famous "Don't be evil" mantra.

"Google terminated each plaintiffs' employment with it for adhering to the directive 'Don't be evil' and calling out activity by Google that they each believed betrayed that directive," according to the complaint filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court by Rebecca Rivers, Sophie Waldman, and Paul Duke. The ex-employees say Google falsely blamed them for a data leak after they circulated an internal petition.

The lawsuit notes that the Google Code of Conduct "that each full-time Google employee is required to sign as a condition of employment" specifically instructs them not to be evil. The ex-employees say they tried to uphold the "Don't be evil" policy in August 2019 by circulating a petition "requesting that Google affirm that it would not collaborate with CBP [US Customs and Border Protection] or ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] with respect to enforcement of the Trump border control policies."

"[E]ach plaintiff protested Google's engagement in supporting BCP policies that resulted in separation of families and 'caging' of immigrants who were seeking asylum in the United States," the complaint said.

Google's firings of Rivers, Waldman, and Duke are also part of an ongoing case in which the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Google.

Previously:
(2018-10-13) Google Leak: The Good Censor
(2018-09-14) "Senior Google Scientist" Resigns over Chinese Search Engine Censorship Project
(2018-05-19) "Don't be Evil" Disappearing From Google's Code of Conduct

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Omicron is now in the U.S., with first case found in California:

The first U.S. case of the omicron variant has been identified in California in a traveler who returned from South Africa on Nov. 22, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

The patient had mild symptoms that were improving and was in isolation, officials said.

Much remains unknown about the highly mutated variant, which scientists fear could be more transmissible and more resistant to vaccines. The new variant has been identified in more than 20 countries since it was first identified in southern Africa last week.

[...] Federal health officials are expanding a program that offers free coronavirus testing at key U.S. airports, part of strengthened efforts to monitor international arrivals amid growing concerns about the omicron variant.

Under the program, visitors from eight African nations, including those connecting through Europe, who arrive at New York’s John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, San Francisco International and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International airports, will be given the option of taking a test when they arrive. Those who volunteer also will be given the option of an at-home test to take three to five days after arrival.

International arrivals already are required to show proof of a negative virus test before boarding U.S.-bound flights, but Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing this week that the screening program at four of the nation’s busiest airports will provide additional data that can aid in the agency’s monitoring efforts.

First case of omicron COVID variant identified in the US:

The first confirmed US case of the omicron variant of COVID-19 has been identified in California, Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a White House briefing Wednesday. The infected person arrived in the US from South Africa on Nov. 22 and tested positive on Nov. 29, Fauci said.

upstart writes:

“Exercise in a pill” could offer solution for at-risk people:

Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) have identified unique molecular signals in the body that could hold the key to developing a supplement capable of administering the health benefits of exercise to patients incapable of physical activity.

The molecular messages are sent to our brain and potentially our eyes immediately after we exercise.

The ANU team is conducting research to better understand what impact these molecular messages have on retinal health, but also the central nervous system and eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Associate Professor Riccardo Natoli, Head of Clear Vision Research at ANU, says the molecules could potentially be hijacked, recoded and "bottled up" in a pill and taken like a vitamin.

"The beneficial messages being sent to the central nervous system during exercise are packaged up in what are known as lipid particles. We are essentially prescribing the molecular message of exercise to those who physically aren't able to," he said.

"We think that as you age, the ability to communicate between the muscles and the retina starts to be lost. Similar to taking supplements, maybe we can provide genetic or molecular supplementation that enables that natural biological process to continue as we age.

"Our goal is to figure out what these molecules are communicating to the body and how they're communicating."

Journal Reference:
Joshua A. Chu-Tan, Max Kirkby, Riccardo Natoli. Running to save sight: The effects of exercise on retinal health and function, Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology (DOI: 10.1111/ceo.14023)

Original Submission