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Best podcasts about up goer five

Latest podcast episodes about up goer five

Hacker Public Radio
HPR3753: Some thoughts on "Numeronyms"

Hacker Public Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 21, 2022


Overview I have recently been wondering about the use of abbreviations which are built from the first letter of a word followed by a number and the last letter. The number represents the count of letters between the start and end letter. Thus accessibility becomes a11y. This came to light (to me anyway) during an email exchange with Mike Ray regarding the accessibility issues on the tag index page on the HPR site. The website issues were resolved, but I was left wondering how useful the term a11y is, or whether it just jars with me! According to the Wikipedia article this type of word is known as a numeronym, but they may also be referred to as alphanumeric acronyms, alphanumeric abbreviations, or numerical contractions. As the Wikipedia article notes these types of abbreviations are almost always used to refer to their computing sense — such as g11n for globalisation — in the context of computing, not the general context. Looking at a11y as an example While I sympathise with the motivation behind using 'a11y' to mean accessibility, I do find it odd and counter-intuitive. I often find myself pondering the acceptability of this type of abbreviation. How many other words in common English fit patterns like this I wonder? Quite a few I would expect. How does this affect the admissibility of such abbreviations? Not only are they adventurously strange to my simple brain, but I find them to be aesthetically displeasing. My experiments with the standard Linux dictionary looking for words that fit this pattern I find affirmatively supportive of this view. I describe this experiment later. Algebraically, it is to be expected that there are many dictionary words of 13 characters which start with 'a' and end with 'y'. Looking at them allegorically, such numeronyms convey little meaning except in very limited contexts since the motivation seems to be to reduce the need to type long words. Alternatively, if they were accepted by data entry software and expanded automatically a better case could be made for applicability, but only one word could be assigned to a numeronym. In my mind there is a certain artificiality in the use of these abbreviations. You might wonder at the weird rambling nature of the above section - this was my (small) joke to try and use many of the words that match the a11y pattern. Here's the result of transforming them: While I sympathise with the motivation behind 'a11y' to mean accessibility, I do find it odd and counter-intuitive. I often find myself pondering the a11y of this type of abbreviation. How many other words in common English fit these patterns I wonder? Quite a few I would expect. How does this affect the a11y of such abbreviations? Not only are they a11y strange to my simple brain, but I find them to be a11y displeasing. My experiments with the standard Linux dictionary looking for words that fit this pattern I find a11y supportive of this view. I describe this experiment later. A11y, it is to be expected that there are many dictionary words of 13 characters which start with 'a' and end with 'y'. Looking at them a11y, such numeronyms convey little meaning except in very limited contexts since the motivation seems to be to reduce the need to type long words. A11y, if they were accepted by data entry software and expanded a11y a better case could be made for a11y, but only one word could be assigned to a numeronym. In my mind there is a certain a11y in the use of these abbreviations. Make your own numeronyms The following piece of Bash scripting scans the file /usr/share/dict/words and picks out words which match the a11y pattern (after removing those ending in 's). It writes the word and the numeronym generated from it, which it computes, though it's unnecessary in this case because they all generate the same numeronym. I did it this way because I wanted to apply the algorithm to other words: while read -r word; do printf '%-20s %s\n' "$word" "${word:0:1}$((${#word}-2))${word: -1}" done <

Hacking Chinese Podcast
96 - Which words you should learn and where to find them

Hacking Chinese Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2022 11:44


When learning a language, it's important to know many words, but it's also important that you learn the right words. How do you know which words to learn? Where should you find those words? And how much can you express using only the ten hundred most used words? Link to article: Which words you should learn and where to find them: https://www.hackingchinese.com/which-words-you-should-learn-in-and-where-to-find-them/ #learnchinese #requency #wordlists #fluency June Chinese vocabulary challenge: https://www.hackingchinese.com/chinese-vocabulary-challenge/ Hacking Chinese on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hackingchinese/ Skritter on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skritterchinese/ xkcd's Up Goer Five: https://xkcd.com/1133/ How to improve fluency in Chinese by playing word games: https://www.hackingchinese.com/playing-word-games-to-practise-fluency/ The most common Chinese words, characters and components for language learners and teachers: https://www.hackingchinese.com/the-most-common-chinese-words-characters-and-components-for-language-learners-and-teachers/ Mapping the terra incognita of Chinese vocabulary: https://www.hackingchinese.com/mapping-the-terra-incognita-of-vocabulary/ Listen to this and other episodes on your favourite podcasting platform, including Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcast, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify and YouTube: https://www.hackingchinese.com/podcast More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at https://www.hackingchinese.com Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)

Science... sort of
332 - Anchor's Away Part 4

Science... sort of

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 26, 2020 56:21


00:00:00- We're doing another Anchor-themed clip show! Following up on episodes 266, 282, and 326 we have another round of short audio clips that Ryan created for the podcast startup Anchor under the banner of Organized Curiosity (explanation of the name here). 00:01:43 - Ryan explains the ‘Up-Goer Five’ challenge, reads an abstract he wrote using the Up-Goer Five Text Editor, tries to explain what the abstract actually means, and then shares some thoughts on whether or not this exercise is effective. 00:17:57 - News you probably cannot use: Cheerios included some seeds in their cereal boxes to help folks grow flowers for the bees. A nice idea, but unfortunately still might do more harm than good. 00:23:22 - It’s the holidays so Ryan is drinking glögg and eating raisins. It’s tradition. Make your own glögg AND make your own raisins so you can enjoy some too. 00:24:50 - Q&A: Paul from Cork, Ireland calls in to talk about how he hopes his daughter takes an interest in science (us to!) and to talk about whales. Ryan then tells the tale of the time he met a wild humpback, which was amazing but smelly. 00:31:20 - A new study suggests a pretty fundamental shakeup of the dinosaur family tree. First, he explains how dinosaur diversity was previously organized. Then he explains what the new study actually found. 00:40:40 - Bio bios: dog (Canis lupus familiaris) 00:45:44 - Q&A: Tachi calls in to leave some comments about the “Up Goer Five” challenge, Ryan responds. Also, go read The Elements of Style, it’s great. 00:47:10 - PaleoPOWs are a lot like clip shows; they comfort you in dark times. In this episode, we thank Zachary G. for his recurring donation via PayPal. Thanks, Zachary! Ryan also appeared on the podcast MonsterTalk to talk about the Loveland Frog so go check that out. Thanks for getting through 2020 with us, see you on the other side. More cool rewards await you if you decide to support us on our Patreon! Music credit: Golden Hour - Broke For Free

Good Bad Show
Lingo

Good Bad Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 6, 2017 49:19


Is lingo good or bad? Links Mentioned: Slingo Judge John Hodgman Thing Explainer Up Goer Five Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast Linguistic relativity Heavy Metal Historian

linguistics lingo work podcast judge john hodgman thing explainer up goer five heavy metal historian
Palaeo After Dark
Podcast 61 - Frills and Horns; Ceratopsian Convergence

Palaeo After Dark

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2015 85:06


That gang discusses convergent evolution and potential sexual selection in the horns and frills of ceratopsian dinosaurs, which Amanda refers to as the "most American dinosaur". Also, Amanda defends a cause, James practices being a "tiger mom", and Curt drinks for two with disastrous but expected consequences. Up-Goer Five podcast summary (using only the ten hundred most commonly used English words): The group talks about big angry animals with no hair that have things coming out of their faces. There are two groups of big angry animals with no hair that have things coming out of their faces, one with tall things coming off of the neck with smaller things coming out of their faces and another with a short thing coming off of the neck and longer things coming out of their faces. Some studies have looked at what all these things on faces and necks are for, and hurt marks on the hard bits of bodies show that the things were used to fight so that a Mr big angry animal with no hair could find a Mrs big angry animal with no hair. A new finding also shows that after the ones with long things on the necks died out, one of the ones with a short thing on its neck began to look like one of the long thing on the neck ones on its own. "Wallpaper" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/   References: Farlow, James O., and Peter Dodson. "The behavioral significance of frill and horn morphology in ceratopsian dinosaurs." Evolution (1975): 353-361. Farke, Andrew A. "Horn use in Triceratops (Dinosauria: Ceratopsidae): testing behavioral hypotheses using scale models." Palaeontologia Electronica 7.1 (2004): 1-10. Farke, Andrew A., Ewan DS Wolff, and Darren H. Tanke. "Evidence of combat in Triceratops." (2009): e4252. Brown, Caleb M., and Donald M. Henderson. "A New Horned Dinosaur Reveals Convergent Evolution in Cranial Ornamentation in Ceratopsidae." Current Biology (2015).

Palaeo After Dark
Podcast 60 – Many Memorable Mesozoic Mammals

Palaeo After Dark

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 14, 2015 108:30


In this episode, the gang discuss the diverse and ecologically abundant mammals of the Mesozoic. Meanwhile, Amanda gives dedicated fans an exclusive cat report, James learns something, and Curtis does his best Skeletor impression. However, the greatest question goes unanswered: what are Wombles? Up-Goer Five podcast summary (using only the ten hundred most commonly used English words):The group talks about two papers that look at warm blooded animals with hair from a very long time ago, during the time of the big angry animals that did not have hair. While it used to be thought that there were not many different kinds of warm blooded animals with hair a very long time ago, new studies show that there were lots of different kinds of warm blooded animals with hair a long time ago and that they did lots of different things even when there were still big angry animals that did not have hair. It is shown that they changed to do these many different things several different times, and that changes to do these different things have happened alone in different groups that are not families with each other. References:  Luo, X-Z. 2007. Transformation and diversification in early mammal evolution. Nature 450: 1011–1019. Chen, M. & Wilson, GP. 2015. A multivariate approach to infer locomotor modes in Mesozoic mammals. Paleobiology 41: 280–312.

Ping! (HD) - Channel 9
Ping 243: Time flies with Hyperlapse, Xbox features, Randall Munroe explains complicated things

Ping! (HD) - Channel 9

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2015 19:48


Welcome back to Ping! We talk about the return of robot combat return to television, we chat about a one-way ticket to Mars on the space desk, and more stories that 'softies are pinging each other about...[00:46] Build and Ignite On Demand [01:53] Last show...[04:14] Meet Microsoft Hyperlapse, Life moves at its own pace. With Microsoft Hyperlapse, your videos don’t have to, Ping 219 [06:03] Xbox One April System Update: Game Hub Links, What’s On and More Now Available, Xbox One to Finally Get Miracast Support [07:33] With addition of FIFA 15, EA Access now offers all the latest EA Sports games with subscription [08:05] Xbox One Owners Can Play Madden NFL 16 Before Everyone [09:31] Taking smartphone photography to the next level [12:35] Up Goer Five, Thing Explainer [14:14] ManCan - Put a Brewery In Your Fridge, Not a Growler[17:10] Microsoft Campus Tours - Inside the Channel 9 StudioQuestion (Well more of a request) of the week: [18:32] Please post your safe for work photos you've taken with your Lumia or other Windows DeviceChat with us throughout the week using #PingShow on TwitterLike us on Facebook http://facebook.com/ThePingShowMail us:The Ping Show c/o Channel 9, Bldg 20 One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052@MarkDeFalco @RicksterCDN

Ping! (MP4) - Channel 9
Ping 243: Time flies with Hyperlapse, Xbox features, Randall Munroe explains complicated things

Ping! (MP4) - Channel 9

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2015 19:48


Welcome back to Ping! We talk about the return of robot combat return to television, we chat about a one-way ticket to Mars on the space desk, and more stories that 'softies are pinging each other about...[00:46] Build and Ignite On Demand [01:53] Last show...[04:14] Meet Microsoft Hyperlapse, Life moves at its own pace. With Microsoft Hyperlapse, your videos don’t have to, Ping 219 [06:03] Xbox One April System Update: Game Hub Links, What’s On and More Now Available, Xbox One to Finally Get Miracast Support [07:33] With addition of FIFA 15, EA Access now offers all the latest EA Sports games with subscription [08:05] Xbox One Owners Can Play Madden NFL 16 Before Everyone [09:31] Taking smartphone photography to the next level [12:35] Up Goer Five, Thing Explainer [14:14] ManCan - Put a Brewery In Your Fridge, Not a Growler[17:10] Microsoft Campus Tours - Inside the Channel 9 StudioQuestion (Well more of a request) of the week: [18:32] Please post your safe for work photos you've taken with your Lumia or other Windows DeviceChat with us throughout the week using #PingShow on TwitterLike us on Facebook http://facebook.com/ThePingShowMail us:The Ping Show c/o Channel 9, Bldg 20 One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052@MarkDeFalco @RicksterCDN

New Books Network
Roberto Trotta, “The Edge of the Sky: All You Need to Know About the All-There-Is” (Basic Books, 2014)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2014 61:57


Roberto Trotta‘s new book, The Edge of the Sky: All You Need to Know About the All-There-Is (Basic Books, 2014) uses only the thousand (or ten-hundred) most common words in the English language to describe our current understanding and the most compelling outstanding mysteries in astrophysics and particle physics. A senior lecturer in astrophysics at Imperial College London, and an accomplished science communicator and scientific consultant, Trotta finds creative, and often surprisingly effective, ways to introduce concepts like the Big Bang, dark matter, supersymmetry, and the multiverse. What began as a challenge to describe his job as an astrophysicist using the Up-Goer Five text editor(inspired by the web comic, xkcd) has become a delightful exploration of the universe (the All-There-Is) that is completely free from technical jargon. Anyone interested in cosmology–from beginners to experts–will find in this book a fresh and illuminating perspective on the present state of this dynamic field and the very human endeavor to understand it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Multiple Sclerosis Discovery: The Podcast of the MS Discovery Forum
Multiple Sclerosis Discovery -- Episode 9 with Dr. Amit Bar-Or

Multiple Sclerosis Discovery: The Podcast of the MS Discovery Forum

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 25, 2014 22:26


[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller Hello, and welcome to Episode Nine of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with researcher Amit Bar-Or about how children with MS can illuminate early mechanisms of the disease. But to begin, here's a brief summary of some of the topics we’ve been covering on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   According to a Cochrane meta-analysis, interferon-beta and glatiramer acetate are clinically similar treatments for multiple sclerosis. Researchers analyzed five head-to-head clinical trials and found that both drugs did similarly well in improving disability scores and MRI measures in patients with relapsing remitting MS. The researchers were not able to measure quality of life scores for the disease-modifying therapies.   We also published a Research Roundup this week all about social media and the role it plays in science. Social media can sometimes work against the scientific method if patients in a clinical trial are in the habit of oversharing on blogs, Facebook, or Twitter. Patients who discuss their symptoms online might affect the blinding of clinical trials. It’s not all bad, though. We also wrote about some great social media sites for researchers such as ResearchGate, LinkedIn, and even Reddit. We also shared some amusing links on how scientists can improve their communication skills such as the “Up-Goer Five,” a schematic of the Saturn V rocket explained using only the 1000 most commonly used words in English.   Every week we curate research articles on all topics related to multiple sclerosis and highlight our favorites in the “Editors' Pick.” Last week, some of our favorites were a review on oligodendrocytes, a research article about the origin and maturation of B cells, and a review about how the relationship between axons and myelin is involved in demyelination. You can see our weekly picks by going to our website, clicking on the “Papers” tab, and selecting “Editors’ Picks.” In addition to the Editors’ Picks, we link to every MS-related study found in PubMed. Last week was a banner week for MS studies. One hundred four were published, and we linked to them all.   [transition music]   Now to the interview. Dr. Amit Bar-Or is an associate professor of neurology and neurosurgery at McGill University. Some of his work focuses on multiple sclerosis in children and how they can shed light on the origin of the disease.   Interviewer – Dan Keller Welcome, Dr. Bar-Or. Let's talk about pediatric MS and what we can learn from it, especially about treating children but also about what it tells us about the disease, in general. Where does it stand now? What have you found in children?   Interviewee – Amit Bar-Or Well the last few years have seen a substantial increase in the appreciation that MS can occur, does occur in children. Probably one out of every twenty adults with MS will have had an initial episode clinically that manifested in the pediatric age group, which one defines somewhat arbitrarily as 18 in most places. But the presence of MS in children, of course, you can imagine creates a particularly sensitive clinical context with a lot of challenges to both the child and the family and caregivers. So understanding more about pediatric onset MS – for the purpose of better caring for the children – is one important accomplishment of some of the more recent insights that have been gained in the groups that have been studied. The other, of course, is that a challenge that we have, in general, in the MS field is understanding more about what initiates MS. What are the initiating mechanisms? We've learned a fair bit but still have more to learn about the genetics and about the environmental contributions. And we know that in adults with MS one can measure certain abnormalities, for instance, in their immune response, but we really don’t know whether an abnormality that is measured in an adult represents a consequence of dysregulation and an epiphenomena that may be abnormal but is not going to benefit the illness if you treat it, as opposed to an abnormality that is very much involved in mediating the problem. So the children given that at least, on the average, they're going to be closer to the biological onset of the illness could this provide an opportunity to get insights into earlier mechanisms in a context that is less confounded by such epiphenomena of chronicity, of long-standing illness. And so, one is viewing the studies that are ongoing now – in terms of trying to better understand the pediatric MS context – both in terms of the merits of understanding them for their own sake, as well as a potential window into the broader spectrum. One of the first questions that you then need to ask if you're considering whether children can teach you about MS, in general, is whether MS in children is the same illness as MS in adults. Maybe they're different illnesses. And so one of the approaches that has been taken is to say in adults who develop MS as adults the field has identified certain genetic risk factors and certain environmental exposures that are thought to contribute to risk. And one of the first questions that has been asked is do those same risk factors – genetic and environmental – play out in children who develop MS? And the answer is essentially yes. For the same types of genetic contributors that have been identified in adults, one can see them as risk factors for developing MS in children. And the same environmental exposures – which include, for instance, low levels of vitamin D or exposure to a particular virus called Epstein-Barr virus at a certain phase – these again in children have emerged as being risk factors for the development of MS. So one thinks that at least based on that indirect evidence we can think of pediatric onset MS as, indeed, a reflection of the same illness at earlier time points and again reinforcing the value of understanding early mechanisms less encumbered by chronic disease processes.   MSDF What early mechanisms have you been able to discern from looking at the development of MS in children?   Dr. Bar-Or Well, there are a few very interesting observations that have emerged, and they include observations both on the immune system side and on the central nervous system side. So I'll start with the central nervous system side. We have always been challenged with the effort of trying to understand what are the actual targets of injury in multiple sclerosis. Certainly over the years, it's been described as an illness that affects myelin – the myelin making cells or the oligodendrocytes – so people have considered myelin antigens, or potential targets, as important targets in the disease. But much of that thinking has, in fact, been shaped by the most commonly used animal model system, which is experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, where you, in fact, inoculate the animal in its periphery with an antigen of the CNS typically a myelin antigen such as MBP or PLP or MOG. The animal has T cells that then get activated in the periphery that can respond to that antigen. They traffic to the central nervous system, identify the antigen, and contribute to an inflammatory injury process. In MS, though, we do not know what the triggering insult is or what they are in terms of the sequence, and we still don't really know what the actual targets of the illness are. This is important because more and more we've appreciated over the last decade or two that in addition to the myelin and the oligodendrocytes there's a very important injury to the neurons and their axons – the neuronal cell bodies and their extensions where they deliver their signals – which are typically wrapped in some cases in myelin, and others remain demyelinated or lacking in myelin. The issue of what the target is could guide both a better insight into initiating mechanisms – and how to deal with them therapeutically – as well as therapies that are designed to try to target very specific immune responses. Because if we knew what the specific antigens were, we might be able to develop approaches to change the immune system in what's called an antigen-specific way. Which means we try to change only the bad guys' cells or enhance the very specific regulatory cells that will control them without impacting the rest of the immune system, which would be conceptually much better in terms of having both benefit without risks of limiting the ability of the immune system to do, for the most part, what it does normally. One study in which we had the opportunity to compare spinal fluids from children presenting with a first episode of what may or may not be MS, and these children are then followed very, very carefully prospectively – meaning forward in time – as part of the Canadian Pediatric Demyelinating Disease Study was to establish over time who, in fact, has MS and who doesn't. And then go back to those early samples from that first clinical event and compare it what's called a proteomic level where we say we don’t know what the differences might be, but let's use a technology that breaks the CSF down – the cerebrospinal fluid down – into all of the components that make the different proteins. And then we have a survey of all of the different protein content and compare between the two. And we anticipated that we would see differences in those typical myelin antigens that the community has thought over the years are the relevant targets. So first surprise was we did not see any differences in those particular previously or traditionally implicated antigens. However, we did see differences in a number of molecules that are referable to a tiny little apparatus that serves an important physiologic function, and that's called the axoglial apparatus. That area is a tiny, tiny area where the glial cell – in this case the oligodendrocyte, the myelinating cell – its membrane dives down and attaches to the axon. That point of contact is part of what forms the axoglial apparatus. And it becomes a very enticing potential target of injury because an injury to that target would be expected to cause, on one hand, injury to the myelinating cell (maybe leading to demyelination) but also could produce an injury to the axon itself perhaps contributing to the axonal and neuronal injury. And again, we now know that both of those injuries are very much part of the MS disease process, or at least part of the consequence of the MS disease process. So this is just one study in children where we may be getting clues in a more refined way to the particular early targets of the disease or those structures involved in early in the disease, which is now guiding some of the thinking about how to followup on that both to better understand and potentially target therapeutically. An example on the immune system side is that there has been the sense in the broad community in MS and in other human autoimmune conditions that certain types of cells – that are called effector cells – may be dysregulated in MS either because they are overly active or insufficiently regulated or both. So either an effector problem, a regulator problem, or a combination of the two. But it's been difficult to identify which of these cell subsets is really involved in the disease as opposed to dysregulated, as I mentioned before, as a consequence of the disease. And the children have provided an opportunity to again look early on. And one study had identified that one of the abnormalities had appeared to involve a failure of normally developing regulatory T cells – this is work by Regitta Walderman (12:20) and Betina Belint at the time – which showed very nicely that in children with MS, as compared to controls, there seems to be a deficiency in the development or the maintenance of regulatory T cells. And in fact, it looked as though cells that normally get educated by an organ that we call the thymus, which is very active particularly in children, seemed to be getting older faster in the kids with MS. And so this raises the interesting question of whether there is a premature senescence or premature aging, in a sense, of certain immune cell populations so that over time their functional capacity is not quite the same, and if this is on the regulatory cell side and you have a diminished capacity for whatever reason you might expect the effector cells to be able to spillover inappropriately and participate in disease. So those are two examples – one of the neurobiological side and one of the immunological side – where children are providing what I would consider very important insights into the overall MS spectrum.   MSDF Let me ask you about the injury to the axoglial complex. Glia provide supporting roles both nutritionally and through other molecules and as well as physically. Do you think this is an injury to the oligodendrocyte – which then impacts the axon – or is it some sort of attack which just hits this area, in general?   Dr. Bar-Or Well this is a great question. And there's an ongoing discussion as to the chicken/egg; what gets injured first? What we do know is that when you look at the available tissue for studying pathology of MS – which, of course, tends to be quite biased to late in the disease where people may die for other reasons and postmortem – we have relatively little insight pathologically in what's happening in patients in early stages of the disease. Fortunately, people who develop MS even through the diagnosis rarely, rarely require a biopsy to get tissue to establish the diagnosis. And in fact, if you're doing a biopsy, it's usually because it's atypical, not typical. So we have several groups who are working hard and making important contributions, including into this earlier event, but there is still a big gap in our understanding of the early events and hence the very difficult to talk about initiating processes. But you bring up the very important context of the neurobiology of MS, which involves the ongoing function and integrity of the brain cells, including the neurons and the different glial cells. Those include the oligodendrocytes which make myelin but also the astrocytes which provide, among other things, important support to the blood-brain barrier and important support to the neurons, as well as the microglial cells which are very crafty cells of the central nervous system that probably performs several different functions. And all of these cells when they get activated or insulted they may fail to provide the normal physiologic protection, or they may even actively contribute to propagating injury. If you injure the oligodendrocyte in the myelin, the axon that is served by that myelin is working harder and may peter out over time. On the other hand, the integrity of the axon is important for the oligodendrocyte to maintain its myelination and its wrapping (15:34). So there's very important crosstalk, and it is very likely that injuring one element sufficiently will result in deterioration of the other regardless of which one you're injuring first. From a therapeutic standpoint, our efforts are to understand this crosstalk better and to understand how to try to establish protection, if not repair, of any one of these elements as part of the overview. It's clear that if you don't have an axon there's nothing to myelinate; if you don't have the myelinating cells you're left with bare axons that don't function or survival as well with the increased demand. And so, we need to have a more complete view so that we can approach not just a single biology at a time but, of course, we also – to understand any given biology – have to develop approaches that will isolate that biology so we can understand it. And one of our challenges is that we do not really have good models of those neurobiological aspects of MS to study. The EAE, for instance, which recapitulates some of the features of MS, has not really been shown to recapitulate those particular features that we're discussing.   MSDF Finally, let me get back to one thing you mentioned that if you can identify the antigens of interest that are either spurring an attack or being targets of an attack the idea would be to find specific ways to approach those antigens. Now we have certain drugs that will deplete B cells, and they show benefit. We have certain drugs that will keep trafficking down cell adhesion molecules, and those seem to have benefit. Is there a focus on any particular antigens at this point and any particular approaches (clonal deletion, any sort of small molecules)? Where's that going?   Dr. Bar-Or Well there are a number, and I probably won't be able to summarize all of them here. But there are generally several different strategies that try to target the immune system in a much more selective way than most of the approved therapies, including the not yet approved B-cell depleting approach which, of course, is more specific than targeting cells beyond B cells but is still depleting quite a few cells. Many of the B cells in the circulation, at least, are depleted. One extension to what you had raised is that it's fascinating to see how different approaches can achieve benefit of decreasing new disease activity, and we need to be able to sit back on a regular basis and integrate the insights from all of the successful, as well as unsuccessful, therapeutic interventions, including those that were not only unsuccessful in limiting new disease activity but the occasion where they increased new disease activity. What would appear initially paradoxical. Understanding all of that will give us very important insights into the disease itself. As far as antigen-specific approaches, one way is if you know what the antigen is – which, of course, we don't really know but we can hypothesize – you can try to develop induction of regulatory cells with that specificity or killing off or creating a state of unresponsiveness, also know as (18:40) of the effector specific cells or a combination of the two. There are different strategies that people have tried to use that are based, for instance, on the requirement of a T cell during activation to have an antigen-presenting cell present the antigen. And the profile of molecules both through contact and through secretion that the T cell can then receive in that environment of interaction with the antigen-presenting cell can often define the response profile, subsequently, of that cell. And if certain molecules such as costimulatory molecules are not present in that interaction or modulated, you might actually shut the cell down – you may not kill it, but it will be unresponsive or hyperresponsive – and that would be one strategy. Another, for instance, is to say well I don't know exactly which particular antigen, but I think it's myelin antigens. Let me get out of a patient's blood their immune cells and stimulate them to a variety of potential antigens, and whatever grows will reflect what grows in that person against the CNS antigens. And use that in a way to modify them so that they cannot cause problems and inject them back into a patient almost like a vaccine with a view that you are now giving that person whatever their T cells were that could respond to myelin, and their immune system now will respond to them and kill them and kill any other such cells that are present in the body leaving the rest of the immune system intact. And will that limit that person's ability to respond to their myelin? That again, is individualized medicine, which is one of the hot areas to pursue in the future, recognizing that if we hang our hat on a single target that may be true for one person but not for others or may be true for a person at some point in their illness but is not the predominant target later on. And so I think that using these kinds of approaches, which recognize the specificity or the selectivity, at least, as potential but also that there are very likely to be differences across individuals and maybe even with the same individual over time. And to try to individualize the therapy that is going to be most suitable for that person at that time.    MSDF Thank you, Dr. Bar-Or.   [transition music]   Thank you for listening to Episode Nine of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery. This podcast was produced by the MS Discovery Forum, MSDF, the premier source of independent news and information on MS research. MSDF’s executive editor is Robert Finn. Msdiscovery.org is part of the non-profit Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis. Robert McBurney is our President and CEO, and Hollie Schmidt is vice president of scientific operations.   Msdiscovery.org aims to focus attention on what is known and not yet known about the causes of MS and related conditions, their pathological mechanisms, and potential ways to intervene. By communicating this information in a way that builds bridges among different disciplines, we hope to open new routes toward significant clinical advances.   We’re interested in your opinions. Please join the discussion on one of our online forums or send comments, criticisms, and suggestions to editor@msdiscovery.org.   [outro music]

A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over
Gnarly Foot (Rebroadcast) - 25 August 2014

A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 24, 2014 51:40


It's the Up Goer Five Challenge! Try to describe something complex using only the thousand most common words in English. It's a useful mental exercise that's harder than you might think. Also, if you want to make a room dark, you might turn off the lights. But you might also cut them off or shut them. You probably know the experience of hearing or seeing a word so long that it ceases to make sense. But did you know linguists have a term for that? Plus, cumshaw artists, the history of Hoosier and beep, and the debate over whether numbers are nouns or adjectives.FULL DETAILSWho uses the phone book these days, right? The people of Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia do! And not only are their names printed, but so are their nicknames. If you're looking to call Carrots, Lettuce Leaf, Moose, Diesel, or Hose, they're all in there.What makes a word a word? If something's not in the dictionary, you might not be able to use it in Scrabble. But dictionaries aren't the last word on whether a word is legitimate. If you use a word that someone else understands, then it's a word. So when Johnny from East Hampton, New York, called to ask if his made-up term micronutia, meaning "something even smaller than minutia," was a real word, he was happy with our answer.We've all had the experience of saying a word over and over again until it starts to sound like nonsense. Linguists call this semantic satiation, although you might also think of it as Gnarly Foot phenomenon. Stare at your foot long enough, and you'll start to wonder how such a bizarre-looking thing could ever be attached to your body. Something similar happens with language.A bleeble is that little sound or word they throw into a radio broadcast, like the call letters, that serves as a brief signature. Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game using three-word phrases linked by the word and. For example, what idiom could be described literally as a country carnival found in the center of town? Hint: this phrase could also be used to describe a good bet.Is Hoosier a derogatory term? People from Indiana proudly embrace it, but in the dialect island that is the St. Louis area, the word means someone who is uncouth or uncultured. In Southern Appalachia, the related words hoodger, and hoojer still refer to a rustic, ill-mannered person from the hills.How do you make a room dark? Do you shut the lights, cut the lights, or turn off the lights? "Shut the light," as Bob Dylan sang, may derive from old lanterns on which you'd shut a little door. They're all correct, though even the most common phrase, turn off the light, sounds weird when you think about it. After all, you're not turning anything if you're flipping a switch up and down.In architecture and design, an affordance is a part of something that serves a function, like the handle on a cup or the notch in a dictionary where you put your thumb. In language we have affordances, too, such as words that indicate a place for someone else to speak or respond.Is a number a noun or an adjective? Even dictionary editors struggle with how to classify parts of speech. Like color, such words often lie along a spectrum, and asking at what point the number seven goes from a noun to an adjective is like asking at what point blue becomes purple. A while back, we talked about bookmashes—the found poetry formed by book spines stacked on top of each other. On our Facebook page, Irvin Kanines shared her bookmash: Shortcuts to Bliss/ Running with Scissors/ Naked/ Why Didn't I Think of That?Try to explain something while only using the thousand most common words in English. It's harder than you might think. This comic from xkcd points out the difficulty in describing a space ship called the Up Goer Five, and an Up-Goer Five Text Editor points out what words don't fit. The challenge becomes even more fun if you're trying to describe complex subjects like science or engineering.Tracy from Sherman, Texas, wonders why her dad always used cabbage as a verb to mean "to pilfer or swipe." This term goes back to at least the 18th century, when the verb to cabbage had to do with employee theft. Specifically, it referred to the way dressmakers would cut fabric for a garment and keep the excess for themselves, perhaps rolling it into a little ball that looked like, well, cabbage. Today, a student might sneak in a cabbage sheet to cheat on a test.To hoodwink, or put something over on someone, derives from the act of thieves literally throwing a hood on victims before robbing them, thereby making them wink, which has an archaic meaning of "to close one's eyes."Sue in Eureka, California, was working at the grocery store during Senior Day when she reminded an elderly customer that the woman might be eligible for a discount. The shopper responded, "Thanks for the tap on the shoulder." Did that mean Sue had said something offensive? No. A tap on the shoulder is simply a way of alerting a stranger to something, since the shoulder is an appropriate body part to touch on someone you don't know.Think you know Downton Abbey? Try using the Up-Goer Five Text Editor to describe the plot using the thousand most common words in English! Your description probably won't sound much like the Dowager Countess.When did we start using the word beep? After all, today we have car horns, microwaves and other electronic gizmos that beep, but before the early 1900s, nothing ever beeped. It makes you wonder: How did people back then know their Hot Pocket was ready?We spoke earlier about cumshaw artists, or people who get things done by crafty stealing or bartering. Alan Johnson from Plano, Texas, told us a story from his Air Force days in Vietnam, when he and some comrades stole a bunch of plywood by sneaking onto a Navy base and loading it into the truck. When a Naval officer saw them, they started unloading it and explaining how they'd come to drop off some excess wood. So the officer told them to get their wood out of there! Classic cumshaw artistry.This episode was hosted by Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette.--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: http://waywordradio.org/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2014, Wayword LLC.

A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over
Gnarly Foot (Rebroadcast) - 9 September 2013

A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2013 51:25


It's the Up Goer Five Challenge! Try to describe something complex using only the thousand most common words in English. It's a useful mental exercise that's harder than you might think. Also, if you want to make a room dark, you might turn off the lights. But you might also cut them off or shut them. You probably know the experience of hearing or seeing a word so long that it ceases to make sense. But did you know linguists have a term for that? Plus, cumshaw artists, the history of Hoosier and beep, and the debate over whether numbers are nouns or adjectives.FULL DETAILSWho uses the phone book these days, right? The people of Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia do! And not only are their names printed, but so are their nicknames. If you're looking to call Carrots, Lettuce Leaf, Moose, Diesel, or Hose, they're all in there.What makes a word a word? If something's not in the dictionary, you might not be able to use it in Scrabble. But dictionaries aren't the last word on whether a word is legitimate. If you use a word that someone else understands, then it's a word. So when Johnny from East Hampton, New York, called to ask if his made-up term micronutia, meaning "something even smaller than minutia," was a real word, he was happy with our answer.We've all had the experience of saying a word over and over again until it starts to sound like nonsense. Linguists call this semantic satiation, although you might also think of it as Gnarly Foot phenomenon. Stare at your foot long enough, and you'll start to wonder how such a bizarre-looking thing could ever be attached to your body. Something similar happens with language.A bleeble is that little sound or word they throw into a radio broadcast, like the call letters, that serves as a brief signature. Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game using three-word phrases linked by the word and. For example, what idiom could be described literally as a country carnival found in the center of town? Hint: this phrase could also be used to describe a good bet.Is Hoosier a derogatory term? People from Indiana proudly embrace it, but in the dialect island that is the St. Louis area, the word means someone who is uncouth or uncultured. In Southern Appalachia, the related words hoodger, and hoojer still refer to a rustic, ill-mannered person from the hills.How do you make a room dark? Do you shut the lights, cut the lights, or turn off the lights? "Shut the light," as Bob Dylan sang, may derive from old lanterns on which you'd shut a little door. They're all correct, though even the most common phrase, turn off the light, sounds weird when you think about it. After all, you're not turning anything if you're flipping a switch up and down.In architecture and design, an affordance is a part of something that serves a function, like the handle on a cup or the notch in a dictionary where you put your thumb. In language we have affordances, too, such as words that indicate a place for someone else to speak or respond.Is a number a noun or an adjective? Even dictionary editors struggle with how to classify parts of speech. Like color, such words often lie along a spectrum, and asking at what point the number seven goes from a noun to an adjective is like asking at what point blue becomes purple. A while back, we talked about bookmashes—the found poetry formed by book spines stacked on top of each other. On our Facebook page, Irvin Kanines shared her bookmash: Shortcuts to Bliss/ Running with Scissors/ Naked/ Why Didn't I Think of That?Try to explain something while only using the thousand most common words in English. It's harder than you might think. This comic from xkcd points out the difficulty in describing a space ship called the Up Goer Five, and an Up-Goer Five Text Editor points out what words don't fit. The challenge becomes even more fun if you're trying to describe complex subjects like science or engineering.Tracy from Sherman, Texas, wonders why her dad always used cabbage as a verb to mean "to pilfer or swipe." This term goes back to at least the 18th century, when the verb to cabbage had to do with employee theft. Specifically, it referred to the way dressmakers would cut fabric for a garment and keep the excess for themselves, perhaps rolling it into a little ball that looked like, well, cabbage. Today, a student might sneak in a cabbage sheet to cheat on a test.To hoodwink, or put something over on someone, derives from the act of thieves literally throwing a hood on victims before robbing them, thereby making them wink, which has an archaic meaning of "to close one's eyes."Sue in Eureka, California, was working at the grocery store during Senior Day when she reminded an elderly customer that the woman might be eligible for a discount. The shopper responded, "Thanks for the tap on the shoulder." Did that mean Sue had said something offensive? No. A tap on the shoulder is simply a way of alerting a stranger to something, since the shoulder is an appropriate body part to touch on someone you don't know.Think you know Downton Abbey? Try using the Up-Goer Five Text Editor to describe the plot using the thousand most common words in English! Your description probably won't sound much like the Dowager Countess.When did we start using the word beep? After all, today we have car horns, microwaves and other electronic gizmos that beep, but before the early 1900s, nothing ever beeped. It makes you wonder: How did people back then know their Hot Pocket was ready?We spoke earlier about cumshaw artists, or people who get things done by crafty stealing or bartering. Alan Johnson from Plano, Texas, told us a story from his Air Force days in Vietnam, when he and some comrades stole a bunch of plywood by sneaking onto a Navy base and loading it into the truck. When a Naval officer saw them, they started unloading it and explaining how they'd come to drop off some excess wood. So the officer told them to get their wood out of there! Classic cumshaw artistry.This episode was hosted by Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette.....Support for A Way with Words also comes from National University, which invites you to change your future today. More at http://www.nu.edu/.--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: http://waywordradio.org/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2013, Wayword LLC.

A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over

It's the Up Goer Five Challenge! Try to describe something complex using only the thousand most common words in English. It's a useful mental exercise that's harder than you might think. Also, if you want to make a room dark, you might turn off the lights. But you might also cut them off or shut them. You probably know the experience of hearing or seeing a word so long that it ceases to make sense. But did you know linguists have a term for that? Plus, cumshaw artists, the history of Hoosier and beep, and the debate over whether numbers are nouns or adjectives.FULL DETAILSWho uses the phone book these days, right? The people of Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia do! And not only are their names printed, but so are their nicknames. If you're looking to call Carrots, Lettuce Leaf, Moose, Diesel, or Hose, they're all in there.What makes a word a word? If something's not in the dictionary, you might not be able to use it in Scrabble. But dictionaries aren't the last word on whether a word is legitimate. If you use a word that someone else understands, then it's a word. So when Johnny from East Hampton, New York, called to ask if his made-up term micronutia, meaning "something even smaller than minutia," was a real word, he was happy with our answer.We've all had the experience of saying a word over and over again until it starts to sound like nonsense. Linguists call this semantic satiation, although you might also think of it as Gnarly Foot phenomenon. Stare at your foot long enough, and you'll start to wonder how such a bizarre-looking thing could ever be attached to your body. Something similar happens with language.A bleeble is that little sound or word they throw into a radio broadcast, like the call letters, that serves as a brief signature. Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game using three-word phrases linked by the word and. For example, what idiom could be described literally as a country carnival found in the center of town? Hint: this phrase could also be used to describe a good bet.Is Hoosier a derogatory term? People from Indiana proudly embrace it, but in the dialect island that is the St. Louis area, the word means someone who is uncouth or uncultured. In Southern Appalachia, the related words hoodger, and hoojer still refer to a rustic, ill-mannered person from the hills.How do you make a room dark? Do you shut the lights, cut the lights, or turn off the lights? "Shut the light," as Bob Dylan sang, may derive from old lanterns on which you'd shut a little door. They're all correct, though even the most common phrase, turn off the light, sounds weird when you think about it. After all, you're not turning anything if you're flipping a switch up and down.In architecture and design, an affordance is a part of something that serves a function, like the handle on a cup or the notch in a dictionary where you put your thumb. In language we have affordances, too, such as words that indicate a place for someone else to speak or respond.Is a number a noun or an adjective? Even dictionary editors struggle with how to classify parts of speech. Like color, such words often lie along a spectrum, and asking at what point the number seven goes from a noun to an adjective is like asking at what point blue becomes purple. A while back, we talked about bookmashes—the found poetry formed by book spines stacked on top of each other. On our Facebook page, Irvin Kanines shared her bookmash: Shortcuts to Bliss/ Running with Scissors/ Naked/ Why Didn't I Think of That?Try to explain something while only using the thousand most common words in English. It's harder than you might think. This comic from xkcd points out the difficulty in describing a space ship called the Up Goer Five, and an Up-Goer Five Text Editor points out what words don't fit. The challenge becomes even more fun if you're trying to describe complex subjects like science or engineering.Tracy from Sherman, Texas, wonders why her dad always used cabbage as a verb to mean "to pilfer or swipe." This term goes back to at least the 18th century, when the verb to cabbage had to do with employee theft. Specifically, it referred to the way dressmakers would cut fabric for a garment and keep the excess for themselves, perhaps rolling it into a little ball that looked like, well, cabbage. Today, a student might sneak in a cabbage sheet to cheat on a test.To hoodwink, or put something over on someone, derives from the act of thieves literally throwing a hood on victims before robbing them, thereby making them wink, which has an archaic meaning of "to close one's eyes."Sue in Eureka, California, was working at the grocery store during Senior Day when she reminded an elderly customer that the woman might be eligible for a discount. The shopper responded, "Thanks for the tap on the shoulder." Did that mean Sue had said something offensive? No. A tap on the shoulder is simply a way of alerting a stranger to something, since the shoulder is an appropriate body part to touch on someone you don't know.Think you know Downton Abbey? Try using the Up-Goer Five Text Editor to describe the plot using the thousand most common words in English! Your description probably won't sound much like the Dowager Countess.When did we start using the word beep? After all, today we have car horns, microwaves and other electronic gizmos that beep, but before the early 1900s, nothing ever beeped. It makes you wonder: How did people back then know their Hot Pocket was ready?We spoke earlier about cumshaw artists, or people who get things done by crafty stealing or bartering. Alan Johnson from Plano, Texas, told us a story from his Air Force days in Vietnam, when he and some comrades stole a bunch of plywood by sneaking onto a Navy base and loading it into the truck. When a Naval officer saw them, they started unloading it and explaining how they'd come to drop off some excess wood. So the officer told them to get their wood out of there! Classic cumshaw artistry.This episode was hosted by Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette.....Support for A Way with Words also comes from National University, which invites you to change your future today. More at http://www.nu.edu/.And from The Ken Blanchard Companies, whose purpose is to make a leadership difference among executives, managers, and individuals in organizations everywhere. More about Ken Blanchard's leadership training programs at kenblanchard.com/leadership.--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: http://waywordradio.org/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2012, Wayword LLC.