It's just under five months since the announcement of TechStars London, the UK outpost of Boulder, U.S.-based uber-accelerator TechStars after it merged with Jon Bradford?s Springboard. Today TechStars London is unveiling its first cohort, giving us a glimpse at how things are shaping up post-merger.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/VSdkuNHPlu0/
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Details of a touchscreen showing 3D images that can be felt and manipulated have been published by Microsoft's research unit.
The project combines an LCD flat panel screen with force sensors and a robotic arm that moves it back and forwards.
By controlling how much resistance there is to a user's fingertip the firm says it can simulate the shape and weight of objects shown on screen.
Microsoft says the device could have medical uses as well as for gaming.
Work on the project is being carried out at the firm's Redmond campus near Seattle.
Simulated shapesWhen a person touches the prototype it pushes back with a light force to ensure one of their fingers stays in contact with the screen.
If they then press against it the robotic arm instantly pulls the screen backwards in a matching smooth movement. If they start to retract their finger, it moves it back towards them.
Meanwhile a computer adjusts the size and perspective of the on-screen graphics to create a 3D effect.
The trick to simulating a physical sense of touch is to adjust the amount of force-feedback resistance.
So, in an application which shows graphics representing different square blocks on a wall, a "stone" one requires a relatively large amount of force to push it off the ledge and a "sponge" one less.
In addition, the kit can be used to provide a sense of shape by adjusting the screen's position to match a virtual object's contours as a person drags their finger over its surface.
"As your finger pushes on the touchscreen and the senses merge with stereo vision, if we do the convergence correctly and update the visuals constantly so that they correspond to your finger's depth perception, this is enough for your brain to accept the virtual world as real," said senior researcher Michael Pahud.
His team have used the technique to allow users to feel the shape of a virtual cup and ball, among other objects, while viewing them using special glasses to get a stereo-vision effect.
Touch-and-find tumoursMicrosoft suggests one use for the device would be to allow doctors to explore body scans.
It has created a demonstration using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of a brain to show how a medic could navigate through the different slices by pushing their finger against the display.
It also allows them to draw notes and leave a "haptic detent" - or force-feedback marker - at certain layers to make it easier to find them again later on.
In time, the researchers suggest, this could be extended to flag up potential problems.
"I could imagine receiving haptic feedback when you encountered an anomaly, such as a tumour, because we can change the response based on what you touch," said Mr Pahud.
"You can have different responses for when you touch soft tissue versus hard tissue, which makes for a very rich experience."
Bumpy screensOne medical tech expert said the project showed promise, but added that previous efforts to try to use touch-based feedback in robotic surgery and other health-related equipment suggested it was not yet responsive enough to be reliable.
In particular, Dr Peter Weller, head of the Centre for Health Infomatics at City University, London, said he was concerned Microsoft's screen would not be able to give an accurate enough indication of textures.
"If you were moving your finger over a surface that was rough the screen would have to go up and down very quickly to be able to give you that impression," he told the BBC.
"The examples that they give are all very smooth - squares and cylinders and all that - but if it was going to be used in the real world it would have to respond to rapidly changing shapes."
Tactus has developed a screen that can make itself go bumpy
Others are working on different ways to provide touch-feedback. California-based Tactus, for example, has developed a screen with tiny channels of fluid which allows bumps to pop up to simulate the feel of buttons.
Dr Weller suggested that if this or other such technologies could be combined with Microsoft's current research then its screen could indeed find its way into use.
"I think their example of the brain scan is a bit artificial, but where I could see it being useful would be for a doctor doing teleconsultancy work," he said,
"It would mean the patient could be in another country or hospital and the doctor could feel their glands or abdomen from a distance."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23132678#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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In this Friday, June 28, 2013 photo, trader Kevin Colter, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. U.S. stock futures are rising ahead of new data on manufacturing and construction, Monday, July 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
In this Friday, June 28, 2013 photo, trader Kevin Colter, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. U.S. stock futures are rising ahead of new data on manufacturing and construction, Monday, July 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Investors have stopped worrying about the Federal Reserve. At least for now.
Stocks rose on Wall Street Monday as investors judged that the economy still isn't growing fast enough for the central bank to cut back on its stimulus program.
U.S. manufacturing grew modestly in June after a pickup in new orders and stronger production, according to a private survey. The Institute for Supply Management said its factory index increased to 50.9 in June from 49 in the previous month.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index logged its first monthly decline since October last month after investors were unsettled by comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Bernanke said June 19 that the Fed could ease back on its stimulus this year and end it next year, providing the economy continues to recover.
"The market has maybe stepped back from the knee-jerk reaction that the Fed news provided," said Jim Russell, a regional investment director at US Bank. "The manufacturing ISM number came in strong enough ? not too hot, not too cold."
If the manufacturing report had been stronger, Russell said, stocks might have fallen as investors speculated that the Fed would be inclined to ease back on its stimulus sooner.
A separate report on construction spending added to the picture of a gradually improving economy. Construction spending rose 0.5 percent in May compared with April when spending was up 0.1 percent, the Commerce Department said Monday.
The central bank is currently buying $85 billion of bonds a month to keep interest rates low and encourage borrowing and spending. That stimulus has been a major factor supporting a rally in stocks this year. Despite last month's loss, the S&P 500 is still up 13.7 percent this year.
The Dow Jones gained 104 points, or 0.7 percent, to 15,013 as of 2:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 12 points, or 0.78 percent, to 1,618. The Nasdaq composite gained 35 points, or 1 percent, to 3,438.
Stocks may have also gotten a lift as it was the first trading day of the quarter.
The S&P 500 index is more than twice as likely to gain as decline on the first trading day of a new quarter, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices. The index has risen 27 times and fallen 13 times during the past 10 years on the first trading day of the quarter.
Nine of the 10 industry groups that make up the S&P 500 index rose, led by materials companies, a category that includes miners and chemical makers. Utilities companies were the only ones to decline.
This week's most keenly watched economic release will be the government's monthly employment report Friday. Economists expect the U.S. added 165,000 jobs in June, a figure that would affirm the economy's steady, but slow, trajectory, said Scott Wren, a senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors.
"It's a confirmation of more of the same," said Wren. "More modest growth, more modest inflation, but not a big acceleration."
U.S. stocks also followed global markets higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.3 percent, boosted by signs of improvement in Japan's economy.
In Europe, stock indexes rose after a mixed set of economic indicators for the region. While unemployment in the 17 countries that use the euro rose to another record high in May, manufacturing picked up in Britain, France and Italy and stabilized in Spain.
Germany's DAX index rose 0.3 percent and Britain's FTSE 100 index climbed 1.5 percent.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was unchanged from Friday at 2.49 percent. The note's yield surged to 2.66 percent last Monday as investors worried that the Fed was poised to reduce on its bond purchases. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is used to set interest rates on many kinds of loans including home mortgages.
In commodities trading, the price of oil climbed $1.22, or 1.3 percent, to $97.84 a barrel. The price of oil rose on concerns that unrest in Egypt, the largest Arab nation, could spread and affect the transport of oil supplies in the Middle East and Africa.
Gold rose $32, or 2.6 percent, to $1,255.70 an ounce.
Trading will be curtailed this week due to the Independence Day holiday Thursday. The New York Stock Exchange will close at 1 p.m. on Wednesday and reopen on Friday.
The dollar edged lower against the euro and rose against the Japanese yen.
Among stocks making big moves:
? Onyx Pharmaceuticals surged $43.88, or 51 percent, to $130.70 after the company rejected a takeover bid from Amgen, a larger biotechnology company . Onyx said other companies have expressed interest in a buyout.
? Cablevision rose $1.55, or 9.2 percent, to $18.37 after Reuters reported that Time Warner Cable is considering making a bid for the company.
? Best Buy rose $2.25, or 8.2 percent, to $29.56 after Credit Suisse resumed its coverage of the stock with an "outperform" rating and a target price of $42. Analysts at the investment bank believe that the company's new approach to serving customers will help it increase its earnings.
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June 30, 2013 ? With death rates from cancer have remained largely unchanged over the past 60 years, a physicist is trying to shed more light on the disease with a very different theory of its origin that traces cancer back to the dawn of multicellularity more than a billion years ago.
In this month's special issue of Physics World devoted to the "physics of cancer," Paul Davies, principal investigator at Arizona State University's Center for Convergence of Physical Sciences and Cancer Biology, explains his radical new theory.
Davies was brought in to lead the centre in 2009 having almost no experience in cancer research whatsoever. With a background in theoretical physics and cosmology, he was employed to bring fresh, unbiased eyes to the underlying principles of the disease.
He has since raised questions that are rarely asked by oncologists: thinking about why cancer exists at all and what place it holds in the grand story of life on Earth.
His new theory, drawn together with Charles Lineweaver of the Australian National University, suggests that cancer is a throwback to an ancient genetic "sub-routine" where the mechanisms that usually instruct cells when to multiply and die malfunctions, thus forcing the cells to revert back to a default option that was programmed into their ancestors long ago.
"To use a computer analogy, cancer is like Windows defaulting to 'safe mode' after suffering an insult of some sort," Davies writes.
The result of this malfunction is the start of a cascade of events that we identify as cancer -- a runaway proliferation of cells that form a tumour, which eventually becomes mobile itself, spreading to other parts of the body and invading and colonizing.
Orthodox explanations suppose that cancer results from an accumulation of random genetic mutations, with the cancer starting from scratch each time it manifests; however, Davies and Lineweaver believe it is caused by a set of genes that have been passed on from our very early ancestors and are "switched on" in the very early stages of an organism's life as cells differentiate into specialist forms.
The pair suggests that the genes that are involved in the early development of the embryo -- and that are silenced, or switched off, thereafter -- become inappropriately reactivated in the adult as a result of some sort of trigger or damage, such as chemicals, radiation or inflammation.
"Very roughly, the earlier the embryonic stage, the more basic and ancient will be the genes guiding development, and the more carefully conserved and widely distributed they will be among species," Davies writes.
Several research teams around the world are currently providing experimental evidence that shows the similarities between the expression of genes in a tumour and an embryo, adding weight to Davies and Lineweaver's theory.
Davies makes it clear that radical new thinking is needed; however, just like ageing, he states that cancer cannot generally be cured but can be mitigated, which we can only do when we better understand the disease, and its place in the "great sweep of evolutionary history."
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/p6KiNvaRN-s/130630225413.htm
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By RODRIQUE NGOWI
Associated Press
Associated Press Sports
updated 3:14 p.m. ET June 29, 2013
BOSTON (AP) - Hundreds of relatives, friends and teammates wept together and hugged Saturday at the funeral of a semi-pro football player whose killing led to murder and weapons charges against former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez.
The body of Odin Lloyd was found June 17 near Hernandez's home. Police arrested Hernandez on Wednesday and charged him with orchestrating the execution-style shooting.
Lloyd played for the Boston Bandits and was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee. Members of Lloyd's team showed up for the funeral in their uniforms and chanted his name as pallbearers placed his casket in a hearse outside Church of the Holy Spirit in Boston's Mattapan neighborhood. The crowd of mourners was so large that some could not find room inside the church for the two-hour service.
Hernandez has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail. Two other men are also in custody. Prosecutors say the three were in a car with Lloyd shortly before his death.
Authorities have said trouble that led to Lloyd's killing happened June 14, when Lloyd went with Hernandez to a Boston nightclub. Hernandez became upset when Lloyd began talking with people Hernandez apparently didn't like, prosecutors said.
On June 16, the night before the slaying, a prosecutor said, Hernandez texted two unidentified friends and asked them to hurry to Massachusetts from Connecticut.
A few minutes later, he texted Lloyd to tell him he wanted to get together, prosecutors said. Authorities say Hernandez, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace picked up Lloyd at around 2:30 a.m. June 17, drove him to an industrial park near Hernandez's home and shot him five times. They have not said who fired the shots.
Prosecutors said an ammunition clip found in Hernandez's Hummer matched the caliber of casings found at the scene of Lloyd's killing.
Hernandez's lawyer argued in court that the case is circumstantial. He said Hernandez, who was cut by the Patriots the day he was arrested, wanted to clear his name.
Ortiz's attorney, John Connors, said he will seek bail for his client at the July 9 hearing. He described Ortiz as a "gentle person" and said he will advise Ortiz to plead not guilty to the gun charge he is facing.
Wallace surrendered in Miramar, Fla., on Friday, police said. Authorities had been seeking Wallace on a charge of acting as an accessory after Lloyd's murder. Details of that allegation weren't released.
Hernandez was drafted by the Patriots in 2010 and signed a five-year contract worth $40 million last summer. He could face life in prison if convicted.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsPFT: Aaron Hernandez had character concerns in the draft, but they involved drug use and partying -- never murder, a charge which he presently faces.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/52351787/ns/sports-nfl/
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That includes the $1.7 billion in payments on two pension loans taken out under Quinn as well as a major $10 billion pension bond dating to 2003 under his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich. The $7.7 billion represents about 21.7 percent of the overall state?...
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