Slashdot Mirror
Domain: miami.edu
Stories and comments across the archive that link to miami.edu.
Stories · 13
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Anti-Aging Stem Cell Treatment Proves Successful In Early Human Trials (newatlas.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Atlas: The results of two human clinical trials into a stem cell therapy that can reverse symptoms of age-associated frailty have been published, and the indications are that this landmark treatment is both safe and strikingly effective in tackling key factors in aging. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a particular type of adult stem cell generating a great deal of interest in the world of science. This new MSC treatment is targeted at reducing the effects of frailty on senior citizens. This is the first anti-aging stem cell treatment directed specifically at the problem of age-associated frailty to move close to a final FDA approval stage. The treatment derives human mesenchymal stem cells from adult donor bone marrow and in these clinical trials involves a single infusion in patients with an average age of 76. Both Phase 1 and Phase 2 human trials have demonstrated the treatment to have no adverse health effects.
Although the two human trials were ostensibly designed to just demonstrate safety they do offer remarkable results in efficacy as well, paving the way for larger, Phase 3 clinical trials. In the first trial 15 frail patients received a single MSC infusion collected from bone marrow donors aged between 20 and 45 years old. Six months later all patients demonstrated improved fitness outcomes, tumor necrosis factor levels and overall quality of life. The second trial was a randomized, double blind study with placebo group. Again no adverse affects were reported and physical improvements were noted by the researchers as "remarkable." The next stage for the research is to move into an expanded Phase 2b clinical trial involving 120 subjects across 10 locations. After that a final, large randomized Phase 3 clinical trial will be the only thing holding the treatment back from final public approval. The results of the Phase 1 clinical trial were recently published in The Journals of Gerontology. The results of the Phase 2 clinical trial were recently published in The Journals of Gerontology. Further reading available via University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. -
Funky Flying Wing Rotates 90 Degrees To Go Supersonic
Big Hairy Ian writes "An aircraft that resembles a four-point ninja star could go into supersonic mode by simply turning 90 degrees in midair. The unusual 'flying wing' concept has won $100,000 in NASA funding to trying becoming a reality for future passenger jet travel. The supersonic, bidirectional flying wing idea comes from a team headed by Ge-Chen Zha, an aerospace engineer at Florida State University. He said the fuel-efficient aircraft could reach supersonic speeds without the thunderclap sound (PDF) produced by a sonic boom — a major factor that previously limited where the supersonic Concorde passenger jet could fly over populated land masses." -
Tax Write-Offs For Free (As In Speech) Work?
deuist writes "Several years ago I wrote a book called The Not So Short Introduction to Getting Into Medical School (PDF) and released it online under a Creative Commons license. I have been asked several times to publish the text so that I can make money off of it. The book has become quite famous among pre-med students and is now available from the Princeton Review as a free CD that is given to pre-medical interest groups. My question to the Slashdot community involves claiming this work as volunteering for tax purposes. Have any of you had any success with releasing free software and then writing off your time when April 15 rolls around?" -
Mechanical Reasoners Battle It Out In Sydney Today
Stephan Schulz writes "Today, the CADE ATP System Competition will pit about 20 of the worlds most powerful mechanical mathematicians against each other — and for the first time they can win not only honour, but a monetary prize. The systems will reason against the clock on tasks ranging from undergraduate math problems and Cluedo-like puzzles to figuring out the possible responsibility for terrorist attacks from giant knowledge bases. If you think that is not impressive enough, they are doing it at a rate of 12 problems per hour, all day long. The competition starts at 10 a.m. in Sydney, Australia, which is midnight UTC. Live results will be available at the competition page. For added geek appeal, most of the contenders are available under open source licenses, so if you are weak in logic you can hack up your own brain extension and run it on an iPhone." -
Mechanical Reasoners Battle It Out In Sydney Today
Stephan Schulz writes "Today, the CADE ATP System Competition will pit about 20 of the worlds most powerful mechanical mathematicians against each other — and for the first time they can win not only honour, but a monetary prize. The systems will reason against the clock on tasks ranging from undergraduate math problems and Cluedo-like puzzles to figuring out the possible responsibility for terrorist attacks from giant knowledge bases. If you think that is not impressive enough, they are doing it at a rate of 12 problems per hour, all day long. The competition starts at 10 a.m. in Sydney, Australia, which is midnight UTC. Live results will be available at the competition page. For added geek appeal, most of the contenders are available under open source licenses, so if you are weak in logic you can hack up your own brain extension and run it on an iPhone." -
ICANN Stacks Board with Non-Critical Appointees
Froomkin writes "ICANN's outgoing dissident Board member, Andy Mueller-Maguhn, has leaked the slate that ICANN's so-called NomCom (actually an appointments committee) has picked. The new public representatives are mostly a mix of incumbent ICANN Board directors who don't rock the boat, corporate executives, and ISOC members. Dissident Andy Mueller-Maguhn got replaced by a former member of the board of Deutsche Telekom. Dissident Karl Auerbach (who had to sue ICANN to get to see its documents) got replaced by the President of the U.S. Council for International Business. At least the Board Squatters are finally going to be history. Details at ICANNWatch." ICANN is an interesting study in how a ruling regime can usurp a democratic institution and turn it into an autarchy. -
ICANN CEO Proposes Radical Changes
Froomkin writes: "ICANN CEO Stuart Lynn today released a plan for a "strong" ICANN that would have 5 of 15 Board members selected directly by governments and the rest by registrars, registries, plus a few Board-squatter-like ringers chosen by the ICANN Board or staff. The main justifications offered for this shift are that in order to be "strong" ICANN needs more money, more support, and less "process". Of course, promises Lynn, ICANN's "core values of openness and broad participation" should be "preserved". (Don't laugh. It's not funny.) "Meaningful participation" will be achieved by cutting out any direct representation for end-users. Oh yes, ICANN wants a much bigger budget, and to be independent of the US Dept. of Commerce, and to get direct control of the root server operators too, all so as to ensure that ICANN has unimpeded ability to execute its (undefined, growing) "mission". ICANN was supposed to save the Internet from governments; since major interest groups such as the ccTLDs and RIRs won't do what ICANN wants, and won't pay it, ICANN now turns to governments to save it from the Internet. See the Press Release here, and then look at entire plan, then visit ICANNWatch.org for updates and commentary." Yep. The proposal would eliminate any pretense of At-Large involvement in running ICANN - it would be solely a governmental and corporate body. -
ICANN Board Members Squat
Professor Froomkin has written a strong criticism of the ICANN initial board, which has extended its unelected one-year term to an astonishing four years, with no end in sight. According to ICANN's current bylaws, those board members are serving a life term - their terms never expire. I strongly urge Slashdot readers in California to make time to attend ICANN's next meeting in November. -
ICANN Board Members Squat
Professor Froomkin has written a strong criticism of the ICANN initial board, which has extended its unelected one-year term to an astonishing four years, with no end in sight. According to ICANN's current bylaws, those board members are serving a life term - their terms never expire. I strongly urge Slashdot readers in California to make time to attend ICANN's next meeting in November. -
Froomkin Examines ICANN Legitimacy
cygnusx writes: "First saw this in the TBTF blog: an excellent 2-part article on the legal legitimacy of ICANN itself. You can read the (PDF) drafts: part 1 and part 2. The article (being a draft) forbids quoting without permission, but the essential argument is that the U.S. government has acted irresponsibly in exercising federal power, whether ICANN is an independent entity or not. Incidentally, Part 1 contains one of the best for-laymen introductions to the DNS I have read so far." Professor Froomkin is an occasional Slashdot contributor who has kept a closer eye on ICANN than ICANN would have preferred. This is an excellent paper for anyone who cares about how the Internet is and will be governed. Update: 10/13 5:58 PM by michael : Only the first link works; it contains the entire paper. -
Froomkin Examines ICANN Legitimacy
cygnusx writes: "First saw this in the TBTF blog: an excellent 2-part article on the legal legitimacy of ICANN itself. You can read the (PDF) drafts: part 1 and part 2. The article (being a draft) forbids quoting without permission, but the essential argument is that the U.S. government has acted irresponsibly in exercising federal power, whether ICANN is an independent entity or not. Incidentally, Part 1 contains one of the best for-laymen introductions to the DNS I have read so far." Professor Froomkin is an occasional Slashdot contributor who has kept a closer eye on ICANN than ICANN would have preferred. This is an excellent paper for anyone who cares about how the Internet is and will be governed. Update: 10/13 5:58 PM by michael : Only the first link works; it contains the entire paper. -
WIPO, TLDs and Trademarks
Michael Froomkin writes "I am the public interests representative on a World Intellectual Property Group (WIPO) experts group panel advising on rules to sort out conflicts between domain names and trademarks. I have come to believe that WIPO's Interim Report, RFC 3, unfairly stacks the deck for large, corporate, trademark holders, and against small firms, consumers, and non-trademark holders. Please see A Critique of WIPO's RFC 3 for full details. It's long, and it is not pretty. " -
Name-Games
Holiday writes "Sun Microsystems has changed the name of Solaris 2.7 to Solaris 7. Apparently they wish to follow HP's lead into large version numbers." In related news Microsoft's NT 5.0 will be renamed Windows 2000. And since we're talking NT, here is a review of its latest features. I find it amusing that command line enhancements are among them. It's also interesting to see that while data may be imported from NDS, it can't be exported back again -- reducing the value of Novell's NDS... Thanks to Vertigo1 and Phantom of the Operating System.