Meta's AI climate tool raised false hope of CO₂ removal, scientists say
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why It's Finally Time to Embrace Prebuilt Gaming PCs
Pre-built PCs now use name-brand components and have shifted away from low-quality parts to a higher standard. Upgrading a pre-built system is easy, since you can add storage or swap out the RAM or GPU. Pre-built PCs come with better warranties for all original components compared to custom-built systems. Are you looking at buying a pre-built gaming PC, but leery because of the reputation of pre-built systems? While the past they may not have been worth buying, modern pre-built gaming PCs are actually a great choice for your setup—here's why. In the past, I had always told people to avoid pre-built gaming PCs. They were known for using low-quality and cheap parts to save a buck while charging a premium for being 'built for gaming.' When I used to work in PC repair, I can't tell you how many no-name low-cost power supplies I replaced, nor can I even begin to remember how many junky motherboards blew caps after just a year or two of use. This alone was enough to avoid going pre-built—but that's all changed now. A shift in recent years has changed the landscape of pre-built gaming PCs. For a while, you couldn't get graphics cards (or any PC components, for that matter) unless you bought a pre-built system because of scalpers. Companies actually saw this and did something good for a change: built better systems. Yes, pre-built PC prices did go up some, but so did the quality of the systems. Instead of no-name bargain-barrel power supplies, many mid-range gaming PCs now ship with name-brand PSUs. The same can be said for SSDs, graphics cards, motherboards, and RAM. Another thing that happened was a lot of component manufacturers got into the pre-built gaming space. Yes, there are still brands like ORIGIN-PC and MAINGEAR out there, but CORSAIR, NZXT, MSI, and others now have pre-built gaming desktops that are pretty great, all things considered. Rather than skimping out, many companies are now using name-brand and quality components, and everyone benefits from this. Of course, there are still bargain-bin PCs out there that use no-name components, but that's becoming the exception, not the rule. Something you might not realize is that pre-built PCs can be upgraded just like custom-built systems. A custom-built PC and pre-built PC is all built from the same parts—the only thing that changes is who is building it. This means you can swap out the RAM, SSD, graphics card, power supply, or even processor without a problem. While the new components won't be covered under the pre-built PC company's warranty (more on that below), you'll have an upgraded system. One of the biggest ways you can upgrade a pre-built system is by adding more storage. Since many companies are using name-brand and premium motherboards, there are typically a handful of NVMe slots on modern systems, with only one being used up in a typical build from the factory. Another way is by adding more or swapping out RAM entirely. Both the NVMe upgrade and RAM upgrade can add big benefits to your system while being easy and cost-effective to do. However, the biggest thing you can swap out in a pre-built system is also (typically) the biggest component—the graphics card. Yes, in a pre-built system you can definitely swap the GPU out, so long as the power supply can keep up. If the PSU is too underpowered for the new GPU you plan to add? Just upgrade the PSU at the same time. The warranty of a pre-built gaming PC is actually better than that of a custom-built—sort of. Pre-built systems are warrantied top to bottom for the original components that it ships with. Depending on what brand you go with, a warranty claim could result in either a full system swap or a single component swap. Either way, however, the brand will likely offer full system diagnostics to help determine what the issue is. Custom-building your own PC isn't quite so user-friendly in that regard. I have a friend who re-built his gaming PC recently and did a custom build. He just spent almost two weeks diagnosing what the issue was so he could RMA the defective parts. To diagnose the issue, he had to purchase new components to test things one-by-one in order to find out what was broken. This wouldn't have been the case had he went pre-built. So, if you're not super savvy on PC building (or you just want to take the easy way out), there's nothing wrong with buying a pre-built gaming PC these days. While the gaming community might see that as a lesser system, know that it's not lesser in any way. Pre-built gaming PCs are great options these days, and still remain one of the few ways to get brand-new graphics cards on release with any relative ease.
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Landmark Study Shows Ultromics' EchoGo® Amyloidosis Significantly Improves Detection of Cardiac Amyloidosis with Echocardiography
Cardiac amyloidosis is an often-missed, life-threatening cause of heart failure. As new disease-modifying therapies emerge, timely and earlier diagnosis is critical. EchoGo® Amyloidosis is the first FDA-cleared AI screening tool for cardiac amyloidosis using an echocardiogram and has received Breakthrough Device designation from the FDA. Study results demonstrate accuracy of EchoGo® Amyloidosis in detecting cardiac amyloidosis, with strong performance across AL, ATTRwt, and ATTRv subtypes. OXFORD, England, July 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A large-scale, multi-center international study published in the European Heart Journal has shown that EchoGo® Amyloidosis, an AI-powered tool developed by Ultromics, significantly improves the screening of cardiac amyloidosis from a standard echocardiogram. It is the first FDA-cleared AI tool for this condition and has also received Breakthrough Device designation from the FDA. Researchers from Ultromics and Mayo Clinic, with investigators at The University of Chicago Medicine and collaborators around the world, validated and tested the model in a large and multiethnic patient population, and compared its performance to conventional diagnostic methods. The findings demonstrate that EchoGo® Amyloidosis is highly accurate, achieving 85% sensitivity and 93% specificity.1 The model performed consistently well across all major cardiac amyloidosis subtypes, and crucially distinguished the disease from phenotypically similar conditions such as hypertensive heart disease, HFpEF, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, conditions that often contribute to missed or delayed diagnosis.1 "EchoGo® Amyloidosis is a breakthrough tool that can help us identify at-risk patients so they can receive the treatment they need," said Ross Upton, CEO and Founder of Ultromics. "It uses deep learning to analyze a single routine echocardiography videoclip to deliver insights, helping clinicians decide when further investigation is needed. Early identification is critical in guiding access to therapies that are most effective when initiated at earlier stages of disease." Cardiac Amyloidosis: An Urgent Clinical Challenge Cardiac amyloidosis is a serious and often underdiagnosed cause of heart failure, driven by abnormal amyloid protein deposits, either light chain (AL) or transthyretin-derived (ATTRwt and ATTRv), that stiffen the heart and impair its function. Symptoms often mimic those of other cardiac conditions, making diagnosis challenging. As many as two-thirds of cases may be missed clinically. 2-4 Early diagnosis is crucial, as new drug therapies such as Tafamidis are now available that can slow or halt disease progression.5 The condition is especially difficult to identify in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a common but diagnostically complex subtype of heart failure. Studies suggest that an estimated 15% of HFpEF patients may have underlying cardiac amyloidosis,6 a hidden burden that often goes unrecognized. Study Design and Key Findings The clinical study evaluating EchoGo® Amyloidosis followed a rigorous two-phase process: Development & Optimization Phase: Conducted at Mayo Clinic using 9,786 patients, including 1,349 biopsy-confirmed cardiac amyloidosis (CA) cases and 1,263 matched controls, to train and refine the deep learning model. External Validation Phase: Conducted across 2,719 patients at 18 global centers, where the AI was independently tested against gold-standard diagnostic criteria The external validation cohort included a broad range of institutions including The University of Chicago Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, University of Pennsylvania, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, University of Washington, Hospital of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health (Japan), Instituto do Coração – INCOR (Brazil), ICBA and Centro Privado de Cardiología (Argentina), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, NorthShore University HealthSystem, University of Virginia Medical Center, Boston University, MedStar Health Research Institute, University of Leicester (UK), and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. EchoGo® Amyloidosis was trained using apical 4-chamber echocardiographic video clips and validated against established diagnostic benchmarks, including biopsy and Tc-PYP imaging. The AI demonstrated high diagnostic performance, achieving 85% sensitivity and 93% specificity, indicating its ability to detect cardiac amyloidosis accurately from a single routine echocardiogram.1 EchoGo® Amyloidosis demonstrated strong performance across all major subtypes of cardiac amyloidosis, with sensitivities of 84% for AL, 85% for ATTRwt, and 86% for ATTRv. In a high-risk subgroup of HFpEF patients with increased wall thickness, EchoGo® Amyloidosis maintained strong diagnostic performance, demonstrating potential utility in one of the most diagnostically challenging settings in cardiovascular care.1 In comparative analysis, EchoGo® Amyloidosis outperformed two validated clinical scoring systems, the Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis Score (TCAS) and the Increased Wall Thickness Score (IWT). The AI model demonstrated an AUC of 0.921, significantly exceeding TCAS (0.74) and IWT (0.80) in diagnostic accuracy.1 Decision curve analysis showed EchoGo® Amyloidosis identified 36.4% more true positive cases and reduced unnecessary referrals by 6.9% compared to the next best method.1 "EchoGo® Amyloidosis achieved high diagnostic accuracy across a broad spectrum of patients and clinical environments," said Patricia A. Pellikka, MD, Vice Chair, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, and senior author of the study. "In our subgroup analysis of older adults with HFpEF, where diagnosis is particularly challenging, the model not only maintained strong performance but also significantly outperformed traditional clinical and transthoracic echo-based screening methods. These results highlight its potential to improve early detection, reduce diagnostic uncertainty, and enhance patient care." "Current approaches to detecting cardiac amyloidosis on echocardiography often rely on markers that are either unreliable in contemporary clinical settings or time-consuming to implement consistently across high-volume echocardiography laboratories," said Jeremy A. Slivnick, MD, co-author and Assistant Professor at The University of Chicago Medicine. "With its ability to provide fully automated detection of cardiac amyloidosis using a single apical 4-chamber view, EchoGo® Amyloidosis offers a practical alternative that can be seamlessly integrated into routine workflows without compromising diagnostic performance." EchoGo® Amyloidosis is FDA-cleared and currently in use across multiple U.S. centers. It is part of Ultromics' growing AI portfolio, which also includes EchoGo® Heart Failure, an FDA-cleared device designed to aid in the detection of HFpEF, reimbursable under Medicare and commercial payer pathways, including Category III CPT Code 0932T for outpatient use and NTAP (XXE2X19) coverage for inpatient settings. Both tools operate through the EchoGo® platform, delivering diagnostic and clinical decision support from standard echocardiographic video clips, while integrating seamlessly into existing workflows to enable timely, informed care. Ultromics continues to advance the field of cardiovascular imaging by integrating AI and deep learning into everyday practice. Its mission is to support earlier detection, smarter triage, and broader access to therapies that are most effective when introduced at earlier stages of disease. Full study: About Ultromics Ultromics is a pioneering health technology company founded at the University of Oxford, dedicated to transforming cardiac care through AI-powered echocardiography. Its flagship product under the EchoGo® platform applies advanced artificial intelligence to routine ultrasound scans, helping clinicians detect heart disease earlier and more accurately, starting with HFpEF and cardiac amyloidosis. With multiple FDA-cleared solutions, including the first AI screening tool for cardiac amyloidosis, Ultromics is setting new standards for real-world clinical integration of AI in cardiovascular imaging. The company collaborates with world-leading institutions, including Mayo Clinic, Pfizer, and Janssen Biotech, Inc. (a Johnson & Johnson Company), to accelerate innovation and improve outcomes for patients globally. Learn more at Website: References [1] Slivnick, Hawkes et al., Eur Heart J (in press).[2] González-López E, et al., Eur Heart J. 2015;36:2585–94.[3] Hahn VS, et al., JACC Heart Fail. 2020;8:712–24.[4] AbouEzzeddine OF, et al., JAMA Cardiol. 2021;6:1267–74.[5] Maurer MS, et al., N Engl J Med 2018;379:1007–16.[6] Hahn VS et al, JACC Heart Fail. 2020;8:712–724. Photo: View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Ultromics Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Can a Mini PC Replace Your Desktop PC?
We typically see desktop PCs as powerful, zero-compromise machines that easily trump mini PCs in every single aspect. But is this really the case? While nothing can fully replace a desktop for certain tasks, mini PCs can serve as excellent desktop alternatives with few, if any, compromises for most people. If you're using your desktop PC for relatively non-demanding work, like working in Google Workspace or Microsoft Office apps, light photo and video editing, maybe some hobbyist-level programming and such, a mini PC can definitely replace it, and it doesn't have to entail compromises. Mini PCs have come a long way during this decade. Instead of feeble machines powered by lackluster processors and insufficient memory, modern mini PCs are excellent as everyday work machines, including budget models that sell for just a couple of hundred dollars. Thanks to Intel's recent focus on designing CPUs that combine performance and efficient cores (P-cores and E-cores), we've gotten a number of power-sipping, efficient core-only processors that pack surprisingly high amounts of power. CPUs such as the Core i3-1220P, N100, and N150 can match any budget desktop PC while being power-efficient and able to tackle any type of aforementioned workload without breaking a sweat. Couple said CPUs with at least 16GB of memory, and you've got yourself a capable everyday computing machine that can fit the palm of your hand and feel as snappy as any modern desktop and laptop. The best thing is that these CPUs are found in mini PC machines that cost anywhere from less than $150 to about $250, meaning you can get a worthy desktop replacement without paying the prebuilt and small form factor PC taxes. If you're willing to spend more, you can snag machines powered by the latest and greatest AMD and Intel mobile CPUs that come with surprisingly powerful iGPUs you can use for demanding tasks such as video editing in resolutions higher than 1080p, batch photo editing in Adobe Lightroom, working in CAD software (just make sure you get enough memory), music production, as well as professional-level coding and programming. In a nutshell, a mini PC can do everything a desktop PC can, unless we're talking about workloads that require powerful desktop-class GPUs (such as 3D rendering) or workstation-class CPUs, like an AMD Threadripper processor. PC gamers, on the other hand, should stick to their desktops. While it's true that mini PCs powered by AMD's newer mobile chips that include beefy iGPUs are capable of running even newer AAA titles at 1080p with decent performance (higher than 30FPS), they're still pretty limited compared to even budget gaming PCs. While they certainly can match desktop CPUs in power (the CPU found inside my ASUS ROG Ally outperforms my previous desktop CPU, an AMD Ryzen 5600X), the GPU part of the equation is lacking. A budget gaming GPU from a few generations ago, such as the RTX 2060, runs circles around even the most powerful integrated graphics you can find in a mini PC. Now, you can certainly pair an OCuLink-equipped mini PC with an external GPU, but the catch is that said setup will cost more than what you'd pay for an equivalent gaming PC you'd build yourself. Furthermore, dealing with external GPUs is an entire can of worms that entails lots of troubleshooting issues. If you're not particularly tech savvy, it's better to even get a prebuilt gaming PC than attempting to make a mini PC and an eGPU combo work. Truth be told, there are certain mini PCs, such as the Beelink Gti12 Ultra and Gti14 Ultra, that come with a full-sized PCIe 4.0 x8 slot, allowing you to pair them with an appropriate eGPU dock and get yourself a hassle-free gaming PC setup that won't limit the GPU performance due to the lack of bandwidth like other solutions (Thunderbolt and OcuLink) do. However, they're more expensive than building a comparable gaming PC, so I don't recommend them over building the PC yourself unless you have specific needs and demands that require this kind of solution. Lastly, there's a number of gaming-oriented mini PCs, such as the ASUS ROG NUC lineup or MINISFORUM AtomMan series, but they're prohibitively expensive and usually not worth it unless you really want a tiny gaming PC and aren't ready to build an SFF gaming desktop yourself. If you're a professional, I recommend sticking to your desktop. While high-end mini PCs can match high-end laptops in terms of CPU power, their integrated graphics leave much to be desired. If you need a high-end dedicated GPU for your work, you shouldn't even think about getting a mini PC. Also, you won't find a Threadripper-equivalent mini PC offering similar amounts of processing power. While you certainly can use a mini PC for CPU-intensive workloads, the amount of time you'll save by using an HEDT CPU is priceless in situations where time is money. If you like the idea of a compact desktop machine that excels at demanding workloads, think about building an SFF PC based on a flagship desktop-class CPU like an AMD Ryzen 9950X or Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, or consider getting an M4 Pro Mac Mini or Mac Studio if you're okay with using macOS. An M4 Pro-powered Mac Mini can be an outstanding 4K video editing or coding machine—for coding, you can get away even with the base M4 Mac Mini. At the same time, a Mac Studio can be a perfect choice for running large local LLMs and other AI-related workloads due to being available with up to 512GB of lighting-fast unified memory. A mini PC can definitely replace a desktop PC; the only question is what you're using said desktop PC for. If the answer is everyday office work, music production, hobbyist or semi-professional video or photo editing, programming, and similar workloads that don't require powerful GPUs, then yes, you can get an equivalent experience out of a mini PC. But if you're a PC gamer, someone who can't do their work without a desktop-level GPU, or a professional who needs their work completed as quickly as possible, I recommend sticking to the desktop form factor.
