Category Archives: Science

Business, Science

MedTech Innovations Now and Beyond

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Artificial Intelligence Meets Radiology

Artificial Narrow Intelligence is becoming a thing of its own with natural language processing also emerging as tools in healthcare. While IBM Watson is largely a marketing property, other healthcare giants are putting a real stake in AI. And coming up with semi-workable technologies. Note that AI is plateauing at the moment. Some sunspots include a company called Arterys which has developed a deep learning algo for radiology. Knowing folks in the radiology field myself, I would say that this could augment their scale-ability IF they as radiologists embrace and trust the algo to search effective. There will be push back of course, especially if the technology is cumbersome, requires a login, has a poor quality interface, the usual guaranteed problems. The iPad of the 90s WAS the PalmPilot so execution is essential for Arterys.

Cyber Pills Make the Fantastic Voyage

Nanotechnology is allowing for digestable computers to enter the body orally. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the very first pill of this kind last year. The pill is called Abilify MyCite joining the ranks of pills with totally goofy pharma names. How about Track-O-Matic. Hmmm, maybe not… This pill has sensors that communicate with a wearable patch to confirm that the drug in the pill has been taken. That information is relayed to a smartphone for the forgetful patient or the family or team of clinicians taking care of the patient. In the event of a court order for, say, a man who is required to take medication as part of his or her sentencing, this sensor in a pill might come in handy. 

Medical ChatBots Are A Thing, Sort Of

AI chatbots like in the struggling Kik App are pretty terrible at the moment. In the next 5 years there might be more messaging capability but I would not recommend talking with a chatbot about your feelings just yet. The benefits of an effective chatbot with Artificial Narrow Intelligence is to engage people in need of a human therapist and can direct them accordingly. A company called Ada Health is providing this service in Europe as of 2017. It’s been tested by over 1.75 million people. Meanwhile in the UK, the National Health Service is using a chatbot app for providing medical advice thus drawing down the on call nurses. However, I can tell you that having a conversation with a real nurse over the phone when you’re having an asthma attack is the only way to go because they know which hospital to go to and can give you medically sound advice…expensive but valuable.

Virtual Reality in Health Care

Playing video games is one way to distract people from pain. It’s especially potent if the patient has never played a video game before. Cue the VR helmet and you have a great distraction. Of course, there are elderTech folks developing the sounds and environments of your grandparents youth: dust bowl, anyone? While there are over 100 million sufferers of chronic pain in the US and Oxycondin has terrible side-effects (and is a scourge on society), VR and video games have mild side-effects like the feeling that you want to crash your actual car after playing Grand Theft Auto for 5 hours straight. Look to see this technology applied more widely.

Roche and the Acquisitions of mySugr

mySugr is a diabetes management startup from the Alps (Austrian-side). They have already registered patients from all over the world. The acquisition was around $100 according to TechCrunch. The good news is that mySugr is now embedded in Roche giving that pharmaceutical giant a new competitive edge. Other pharmaceuticals will follow suit. Meanwhile competitors like Livongo and Glooko are likely to be emboldened to cash out at a higher price point. This tactic is a classic in pharma: buy instead of build. It’s not hard to predict that more such acquisitions will happen in 2018.

CRISPR and Gene-Editing Is Not a Fad

In 2016, experiments were conducted to demonstrate how to treat mice with muscular dystrophy using CRISPR techniques. Genome editing is a thing and probably is a path to curing cancer in my opinion. MIT is leading the way. Could this technology be used to manage potential mutations of fatal blood disorders through something called base editing? Yep. Meanwhile, China is also pushing forward on human testing with this technology in part due to less ethical approach to science. How do you feel about that?

Insurance companies want to give you better rates for wearing fitness wearables

Qualcomm and Xiaomi + other smartphone providers are signing up participants with a price of $1000 if the user meets their daily walking goals. Imagine being paid to be healthy? I wonder if there is a business model there? Certainly, I would like a tax deduction for my gym membership and a free pizza to balance the health benefits while I’m at it (kidding;-P) But seriously, instead of Stickk.com where you punish yourself for not meeting your target, how about a pool of funds to pay out to citizens who meet their person targets? Make the target hard to game of course. Insurance companies are all over this predictably, largely because, it’s not that interesting outside of the financial team in these firms. Make insurance marketing the greatest it always wasn’t:-)

 

Business, Science

China and Mobile Payments from the Wall Street Journal

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The WeChat App is the one app that rules all interactions in China with Alipay increasingly falling behind. North Americans are afraid of bundled information. Everyone in China is purchasing with their information bundled for commercial interest and as well as the State. What is clear is that China is ahead of the Western world in mobile technology but then again so is Africa….

Business, Science

Why We Aren’t Getting Super HD on Netflix

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Netflix Logo Not PixelatedNetflix video resolution can sometimes be really pixelated & low quality compared to Hulu so I wanted to find out exactly why. With your big screen TVs in homes everywhere, you might be watching House of Cards season 2 but it may not be as crisp as you had hoped. You might find yourself thinking: “Why does Netflix look so bad on my TV?”. Even when the show is supposed to be in “SuperHD” (which equals 1080p) you may be staring at standard quality. And if you are trying to watch old episodes of say…..StarTrek Next Generation then you are likely going to see pixelated faces as well. So how do we get Super HD on Netflix and higher quality resolution on retro TV shows of yesteryear?

Kevin Spacey Pixelated Images

The SHORT answer is you CAN’T do much to fix this pixelation problem other then wait for Netflix to boost its delivery quality over time. Millions of people share this network problem but don’t have an avenue to complain to Netflix OR are too used to low quality streaming via the black market of online streaming to really care. Old-school business thinking would say that if customers aren’t complaining there isn’t a problem but Netflix knows its unique selling proposition is tied to delivery & quality. So, apparently you can’t get top quality because Netflix is structured to deliver bandwidth through it’s network based on demand for a given show AND based on the amount of viewers that are using the Netflix network. In other words, because there are about 1000+ watching the same episode of Star Trek, Netflix does not allocate that much definition to ensuring the quality of a low-demand show is high.

Deanna Troi Pixelate Images

Netflix would much rather allocate definition HD to their high demand shows first and then trickle down through their inventory of shows. The problem for top demand shows is that Netflix starts streaming sooner than top quality can be played because the company wants to be fast and deliver images at a reasonably high level as quickly as possible so that impatient users don’t get upset with the user experience. Then coupled with this quick delivery, the bandwidth (demand within the Netflix network) gets crowded by too many users and so full-resolution streaming is not possible. So if you’re staying in on a Saturday night, you’ve picked the wrong time to watch Netflix because so is everyone else and that means lower quality HD.

Netflix Network TreeIn sum, the most important factor to EXPLAIN WHY YOU CAN’T GET WHAT YOU WANT IS:

1) the time of day that you are using Netflix and whether that time of day is peak or prime for a high volume of viewers. When you are watching a show at peak hours you are sharing with a giant network that is ‘rationing’ bandwidth. In other words, Netflix is a net neutral system where everyone has equal access. Netflix is charging the same rate across the board and delivering a rationed system to the masses, so much for capitalism. On top of this network, Netflix is playing a game where they are trying to get the highest quality services across the network. Netflix is responsible for around 33% of all internet traffic in the US and Canada for hard-wired Internet connections, so their system is robust to say the least.

2)  your device or television is only a minor factor in quality (assuming your have a decent TV or computer built in the last 3 years). Folks online have written about A/B testing the quality of their 2 modern TVs side by side to determine MegaBitsPerSecond averages which range from 40 to 60. So the devices themselves aren’t really the significant factor in the quality of images on your TV screen.

Netflix Crappy Options

The Long-Term Reality>>>> Netflix didn’t have the ability to stream into homes until the mid-2000s so we can expect the resolution to gradually improve as the technology to deliver and received that data accelerates. Open Connect is their current solution to this data bandwidth conundrum. Open Connect would allow Internet Service Providers (ISP) to directly divert traffic through other infrastructure provided by competing ISPs in order to get data from A to B to C. This system allows users to view decent quality rather quickly. However, this Open Connect system is not being applied very much by the existing ISP providers who really don’t want to help each-other out that much except with price setting OR sharing cellphone towers for coverage. So given that networks are sharing some information, you can expect more ISPs to join Open Connect should customer demand push for it. As Netflix delivers UltraHD in 2014, expectations will continue to grow amongst consumers and Netflix will try to avoid lagging behind for fear that Apple or other competitors will swoop in and take some of their impressive market-share.

Business, Science

How the Stock Market Works | The Cartoon

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The stock of a corporation is partitioned into shares, the total of which are stated at the time of business formation. Additional shares may subsequently be authorized by the existing shareholders and issued by the company. In some jurisdictions, each share of stock has a certain declared par value, which is a nominal accounting value used to represent the equity on the balance sheet of the corporation. In other jurisdictions, however, shares of stock may be issued without associated par value.

Shares represent a fraction of ownership in a business. A business may declare different types (classes) of shares, each having distinctive ownership rules, privileges, or share values. Ownership of shares may be documented by issuance of a stock certificate. A stock certificate is a legal document that specifies the amount of shares owned by the shareholder, and other specifics of the shares, such as the par value, if any, or the class of the shares.

In the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, and Australia, stock can also refer to completely different financial instruments such as government bonds or, less commonly, to all kinds of marketable securities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock

In finance, investment is the purchase of an asset or item with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future and be sold at the higher price. It generally does not include deposits with a bank or similar institution. The term investment is usually used when referring to a long-term outlook. This is the opposite of trading or speculation, which are short-term practices involving a much higher degree of risk. Financial assets take many forms and can range from the ultra safe low return government bonds to much higher risk higher reward international stocks. A good investment strategy will diversify the portfolio according to the specified needs. The most famous and successful investor of all time is Warren Buffett. In March 2013 Forbes magazine had Warren Buffett ranked as number 2 in their Forbes 400 list. Buffett has advised in numerous articles and interviews that a good investment strategy is long term and choosing the right assets to invest in requires due diligence. Edward O. Thorp was a very successful hedge fund manager in the 1970s and 1980s that spoke of a similar approach. Another thing they both have in common is a similar approach to managing investment money. No matter how successful the fundamental pick is, without a proper money management strategy, full potential of the asset can’t be reached. Both investors have been shown to use principles from the Kelly criterion for money management. Numerous interactive calculators which use the kelly criterion can be found online.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment

A stockbroker is a regulated professional individual, usually associated with a brokerage firm or broker-dealer, who buys and sells stocks and other securities for both retail and institutional clients, through a stock exchange or over the counter, in return for a fee or commission. Stockbrokers are known by numerous professional designations, depending on the license they hold, the type of securities they sell, or the services they provide. In the United States, a stockbroker must pass both the Series 7 and Series 63 and or Series 66 exams in order to be licensed. In most English speaking venues, the two word term stock broker, like stock brokerage, normally applies to the brokerage firm, rather than to the individual.

While the term “stockbroker” is still in use, more common terms are “broker”, “financial advisor”, “registered rep.” or simply “rep.” — the latter being abbreviations of the official Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) designation “Registered Representative,” obtained by passing the FINRA General Securities Representative Exam (also known as the “Series 7 exam”) and being employed (“associated with”) a registered broker-dealer, also called a brokerage firm or (in the case of some larger money center broker/dealers) a “wirehouse”, typically a FINRA member firm.[7] Other FINRA licenses or series exams exist. Although individuals holding some of those licenses, such as the “Series 6”, cannot be called stockbrokers since they are prohibited from selling stock and are not trained or licensed in the full array of capabilities of a Series 7 stockbroker (see list of securities examinations). Selling variable products such as a variable annuity contract or variable universal life insurance policy typically require the broker to also have one or another state insurance department licenses.