The today’s paper of the day is actually more a notification than a scientific paper. It is a reminder of the fact that isograms exist. Isograms are words in which each letter, which is in the word, is exactly n times in word. Means: The most prominent isograms are the n=1 isograms (the nonpattern words). For “short” words there are still plenty n=1 isograms (e.g. “boyfriends” with 10 letters). More complicated it becomes for longer words (more than 14 letters) in English, as English has just 26 letters at all. The longest English n=1 isogram is “subdermatoglyphic” with 17 letters, but it is not a common word but more a word creation. In languages with more letters even longer n=1 isograms exist. For example, in German with the additional letters “ä”, “ö” and “ü”, the longest common German n=1 isogram is “Büroflächenumsatz” with 17 letters but there are of course also longer n=1 isogram word creations. The longest is “Heizölrückstoßabdämpfung” with 24 letters. There are also n=2 and n=3 isograms, but finding them is quite complicated. While there are still some examples for n=2 isograms, like "Anna" and "Otto" and “concisions” and “horseshoer”, there are nearly no n=3 isograms. One example would be “deeded”. But maybe you can find some more? "An Overview of Isograms."
Dmitri A. Borgmann Word Ways 7.1 (1974): 10.
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Your cells know two “dying” programs: apoptosis and necrosis. The latter results in swelling, ripping of the cell membrane, release of the cell content to the environment and therefore inflammation of the neighbour cells. In contrast, apoptosis is the self-induced and well-controlled suicide program of the cell which results in shrinking and fragmentation and doesn’t harm the neighbour cells. However, as always in life, the is not just black and white. Both processes have some similarities, especially in the beginning. Moreover, both can be triggered by similar toxic stimuli, and the “magnitude of the initial insult, rather than the type of the stimulus […] plays a critical role in the decision of the cell to undergo either apoptosis or necrosis.” The “decision” seems to be controlled by the intracellular ATP (energy) concentration, as apopotosis needs much more energy than necrosis. The hypothesis about the interplay between insult magnitude and intracellular ATP was tested by L. Formigli et al. (2000). They treted rat fibroblasts with different concentrations of Antimycin A, a toxin which blocks the mitochondrial respiratory chain and therefore leads to hypoxia (reduced oxygen content) and so to reduced ATP production. Indeed they were abel to show, that low Antimycin A concentrations, which result just in a small damage of the intracellular ATP storages, lead more to apoptosis, while high concentrations, which attack the ATP storages, lead to necrosis. Concentrations between resulted in mixed cell deaths: They showed apoptotic DNA fragmentation and degradation combined with necrotic cytoplasmatic swelling and membrane disruption. This mixed dying strategy L. Formigli et al. named “aponecrosis”. It seems like that cells which experience a toxic stimulus first try apoptosis, when there is still a certain amount of ATP left. However, if the ATP concentrations are depleted before the apoptosis process is finished, the cell switches to necrosis. So message of the day: (I) dying needs energy and (II) there are more than two ways to die. "Aponecrosis: morphological and biochemical exploration of a syncretic process of cell death sharing apoptosis and necrosis."
L. Formigli, et al. Journal of cellular physiology 182.1 (2000): 41-49. Medieval music: when I read that word, immediately I hear lutes, pipes and drums in my head and pictures of singing bards, dancing noblewomen and royal parties are popping up. But how was this music perceived by the medieval people? Sensual or intellectual? The enthusiasm of humans to music is old. Already Aristotle considered music as one of the four diciplines (grammar, drawing, gymnastics and music) which was worth to spend free time in. The purpose of music was always the same: providing pleasure (hedone — delectatio). “Delectation that accompanies leisure is understood as the antithesis of sadness caused by work.” Work? What has work to do with music? Does it refer to playing music instead of listening to it? No. It is the other way around.“Play [music] should be a remedy for sadness and should provide pleasure in periods of leisure and recreation. On the other hand, the purpose of deductio (listening) is to give rise to noble and worthy thought as well as speculation or contemplation of things divine.” So listening to music is sort of intellectual work which can result in pleasure (delectatio). The base of this “listening is mental work” idea, is the Pythagorean tradition, which was a “major force in medieval music theory — the relationship between sounds can be expressed numerically, it may therefore be considered in terms of the relationship of two numbers, apart from actual sound and beyond physical time.” Therefore, besides the sensual level, there is also an intellectual level of music. And this is why the medieval philosopher “Peter of Auvergne considered deductio (listening) an intellectual activity dictated by the mind that led through delectatio (pleasure) to happiness”. But of course that doesn’t mean, that medieval people were all mind working people which couldn’t enjoy music just by listening, as the most of us are doing it normally. Also in the medieval times, according to Peter von Auvergne, there were two categories of listeners: “in the first category are free and educated persons prepared for intellectual pursuits, while the second category included uneducated and hard working persons who in moments of ease derive pleasure from games and spectacles”. Referring to the fact how I use music in my free time, I definitely belong to the second category. What about you? "The Medieval Concept of Music Perception. Hearing, Calculating and Contemplating."
Elzbieta Witkowska-Zaremba Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis16 (2014): 369-376. The todays paper of the day is about stuttering. When I googled stuttering I found a funny quote: “Stuttering is Ok. Because what I say is worth repeating”. This quote highlights already the most prominent feature of stuttering: the involuntary repetitions of sounds and words which disturb the fluency of speech. Moreover, involuntary prolongations of sounds and involuntary silent pauses in which the person is unable to say anything, are also characteristics of stuttering. Sometimes people stutter in uncomfortable stressful situations, sometimes the stuttering is a persistant disease (also called chronic perseverative stuttering - CPS). The latter is the focus of the paper of Jolanta Góral-Półrola et al. (2015). The neurodevelopmental hypothesis of fluency of speech “suggests that the main symptoms in stuttering disorders are the result of integrated genetic, developmental, neurological, and social factors.” Based on this hypothesis, Góral-Półrola et al. (2015) looked at the gene expression of a 26 years old CPS patient. The focus was on stress related genes. Interestingly, “the expression of almost all tested genes, with the exception of IL1, in patient’s leukocytes were lower than in the control group.” This either means a lower stress load of this patient or insufficient stress response and protection of the cells. Of course, a single patient is not enough for significant study results, but having in mind that the most of us were already in a stressfull situation in which they started stutering, it seems quite logical that chronic stuttering may be connected to an decreased stress tolerance due to low stress gene expression. Just as remark: "Changes in gene expression associated with cell stress in the patient with chronic persevarative stuttering"
Góral-Półrola et al. (2015). The word “cephalopod” has its origin in Greek and means as much as “head foot”. Consequently, the class cephalopods includes octopuses, squid, cuttlefish and nautiluses, which are all characterized by their arms/tentacles (“feet”) which are directly connected to their head. Since at least the movie “Finding Dory”, we all know again why cephalopods are such fascinating animals. Their ability to change their colors and body shape, “ink” production, three hearts,… . Moreover they are found “in all oceans of the world, from the tropics to the poles, the intertidal to the abyss.” (http://www.thecephalopodpage.org) So, of course, they also exist in the nort-western Mediterranean and Roger Villanueva published a paper in 1992 in which he looked at the distribution of cephalpalopods in the bathybenthic zone (700-2000m) of the nort-western Mediterranean. He mainly found the octopus Bathypolypus sponsalis and the squid Neorossia caroli. In both species, young and small individuals could be found in a wider range of depths as old and large individuals. The large individuals are nearer to the surface while the small individuals can also be found in larger depths. So if you are afraid of meeting large cephalopods while diving, you have to dive deeper. "Deep-sea cephalopods of the north-western Mediterranean: Indications of up-slope ontogenetic migration in two bathybenthic species."
Roger Villanueva Journal of Zoology 227.2 (1992): 267-276. Matrix isolation is an experimental technique in which guest particles (atoms, molecules, ions, etc.) are embedded in a matrix of unreactive host substrates. Embedded in the matrix, the guest particles are isolated from each other. Diffusion processes and chemical reactions between the guest particles are prevented (reactions between guest and host particles are possible). “The matrix isolation technique was first introduced in 1954 by Pimentel and co-workers, who used the technique for systematic studies of free radicals and other unstable or transient species.“ (http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/oc2/matrix.html). Initially matrix isolation was used to describe the embedding of guest particles in any unreactive material, but today mainly gases in low temperature solids are used as host medium (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_isolation). That is interesting, as the paper written by Anthony J. Rest in 1990 showed that “many low temperature media, which have been regarded as ‘infra dig’, can produce results which are analogous to those obtained using gas matrices”. "Infra dig matrix media."
Anthony J. Rest Journal of Molecular Structure222.1-2 (1990): 87-93. The best “papers of the day” are papers which deal with problems I never thought about although they are quite obvious. This is the case for the paper of Amr M. Abd-Elhady et al. (2014) which deals with the problem of backflow current-overvoltages in wind turbines. I never thought about it, but wind turbines have a high risk of being hit by a lightning due to their size and location. Of course, wind turbines have a grounding system. However, that grounding system depends on the soil resistivity (= how much the soil resists the flow of electricity) which depends on moisture and salt content and temperature. High soil resistivity makes it “difficult to attain low grounding impedance for the utilized electrodes. These increase the ground potential rise (GPR) and make surge arresters operate in reverse direction.” The resulting backflow surge current can damage the equipment (cable, transformers, surge arresters . . .) and therefore needs to be prevented. Using a modelling approach, Amr M. Abd-Elhady et al. analysed which parameters influence the damage caused by lightning and tested an alternative grounding system. For example: The lightning damage is worse when the lightning hits the wind turbine at the negative peak of voltage waveform. Moreover, they compared the damage in “in service” and “out of service” wind turbines and the influence of the number of connected wind turbines in a wind farm. Interestingly, the damage decreases with increasing the number of wind turbines for the non-thunderstruck turbines case and increases with increasing the number of wind turbines for the thunderstruck turbines. So in larger wind farms, the wind turbine which is hit by lightning receives more damage but the surrounded wind turbines are less damaged compared to a small wind farm. High-frequency modeling of Zafarana wind farm and reduction of backflow current-overvoltages
Amr M. Abd-Elhady, Nehmdoh A. Sabiha and Mohamed A. Izzularab International Transactions on Electrical Energy Systems 24.4 (2014): 457-476. Evoked-response audiometry (or electric-response audiometry, ERA) is a collective term for techniques which record electrical activity response of the auditory pathway to auditory signals. These techniques allow conclusions about the hearing ability of the subject. According to the website corticalera.com, “the earliest report of relevance was that of Davis who identified the auditory cortical evoked response in 1939 although changes in the EEG evoked by a loud sound had been observed by Berger a decade earlier.” The first ERA technique was the cortical ERA (CERA) in which the cortical response is recorded from the vertex. Many tests had to be done for optimising the detection and analysis of the small bio-electronic signals. One of these tests is described in the paper of the day: “Validation of Evoked-Response Audiometry (Era) in Deaf Children” by Hallowed Davis (1966). It compares the ERA results with “old” testing methods for hearing ability which relied on behaviour signal to auditory signal. The measured ERA volume threshold for different auditory signals for different frequences differed from the voluntary thresholds (measured by behavioral response) just by 0.1dB. So no wonder that cortical ERA was in “widespread clinical use” just a handful of years later (in the 1970s). “Validation of Evoked-Response Audiometry (Era) in Deaf Children”
Hallowed Davis International audiology 5.2 (1966): 77-81 Climate change does not only destroy the living environment of polar bears but also affects plants in future. That also affects the soybean… one of the important ingredients of the vegetarian diet (see for example: The Role of Soy in Vegetarian Diets by M. Messina and V.Messina (2010)). Therefore, Sailaja Koti et al. (2004) analysed the effect of carbon dioxide, temperature, and ultraviolet-B radiation on the soybean reproduction (Flower morphology, pollen production, pollen germination, pollen tube lengths and pollen morphology). All three factors are supposed to rise in future. Normally a higher concentration of carbon dioxide is better for plants. However, in combination with higher temperature the positive effect of carbon dioxide on soybean reproduction success is missing. Indeed, Sailaja Koti et al. showed that as soon as increased carbon dioxid concentration is combinated with an increase in temperature or ultraviolet-B radiation, it is producing stress in the soybean. “There were no beneficial interactions between the three important global change factors ([CO2], temperature, and UV-B radiation) on the reproductive processes of soybean.” The amount of stress induced by these factors depend on the soybean genotype. Among the six tested genotypes, the soybean DG 5630RR was the one with the lowest stress response. So in future… if the carbon dioxide concentration, temperature, and ultraviolet-B radiation increases, this is the soybean you should rely on (in comparison to the other 5 genotypes and just regarding the reproduction… not the value as ingredient of your diet). "Interactive effects of carbon dioxide, temperature, and ultraviolet-B radiation on soybean (Glycine max L.) flower and pollen morphology, pollen production, germination, and tube lengths."
Sailaja Koti, et al. (2005) Journal of Experimental Botany 56.412 (2005): 725-736. Teleology… don’t confuse that with theology… is a doctrine which deals with the idea that all living and processes in nature follow a certain purpose and are goal orientated. Children are especial receptible for teological explanations. “When asked about properties of natural entities like pointy rocks, children prefer teleological explanations over physical–causal ones, endorsing that rocks are pointy ‘so that animals won’t sit on them’, not because ‘’bits of stuff piled up over time’.” With increasing age this preference to explanations which satisfy the beliefs about intentional causality in nature are replaced by rational explanations. However, people suffering from Alzheimer disease prefer teleological explanations again. So maybe rational explanations don’t replace but cover the teleological explanation. That would mean that teleological explanatory is a sort of explanatory default which can be reactivated when the causal knowledge is damaged. Deborah Kelemen and Evelyn Rossett tested this hypothesis of the co-existence of teleological and rational explanation. They predicted: “Even healthy, schooled adults should display scientifically unwarranted promiscuous teleological intuitions when their capacity to inhibit more primary purpose-based intuitions is impaired by processing demands”. So they designed a test were the participants had to decide if a explanation is good or bad (right or wrong). Indeed they could show that without time limit the participants (university students) prefer rational explanations but “in speeded conditions judged significantly more scientifically unwarranted teleological explanations as correct (e.g., ‘‘the sun radiates heat because warmth nurtures life”)”. So maybe the rational thinking is really just covering our default assumption that in nature everything is connected with each other and everything has a certain function in this interplay? No wonder as the “perfect” evolutionary adaptation of organisms to their environments makes it sometimes hard to keep in mind that it is all a result of random mutation and selection. "The Human Function Compunction: Teleological explanation in adults."
Deborah Kelemen and Evelyn Rossett, 2009 Cognition 111.1 (2009): 138-143. |
IdeaI love to increase my general science knowledge by reading papers from different fields of science. Here I share some of them. Archiv
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