5,220 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2016
  2. Apr 2016
    1. sequelae

      Sequelae simply means a negative after-effect.

      In this case, it is the long-term negative impact on the bodies defense system (immune system) following a measles infection. This negative impact is also known as immunosuppression.

    2. vaccination targets remain unmet

      Unmet vaccination targets mean that countries are failing to vaccinate enough of their populations to achieve herd immunity and provide adequate protection to prevent the spread of the measles disease.

    3. polymicrobial

      Polymicrobial

      Poly = many, like how a polyhedron is a shape with many sides

      Microbial = having to do with microorganisms, or living things that are too small to see with the naked eye. Like viruses, bacteria and fungi, some of which can make you sick, and some which can be beneficial (like yogurt!)

    4. all-cause infectious disease

      All-cause infectious disease in this paper aims to describes infectious diseases other than measles. In other words, diseases caused by all infectious agents.

    5. B and T lymphocytes

      B and T lymphocytes are important cell types that make up the long-term response of your immune system.

      When the body fights off disease it uses some generic, built-in responses to be able to start controlling an infection right away, but this innate response is rarely able to cure you. After about a week, your body learns the specific pathogen that is making you sick and makes B and T lymphocytes to effectively fight off that specific pathogen, and importantly, to remember it in case you get sick with the same thing again. Using this learning response (called an adaptive immune response because it adapts to the infection you have) is how vaccines work.

      If the B and T lymphocytes you made against a specific pathogen are killed then you loose that specific response, the "memory" you built to defend yourself.

      If the number of B and T lymphocytes you have is reduced, this can also impair your ability to fight off a pathogen no matter if you have done so before.

      To learn more about how the immune system works to fight off infection you can read this free Chapter from the textbook "Molecular Biology of the Cell"

    6. interannual fluctuations in nonmeasles deaths

      Interannual fluctuations in nonmeasles deaths is another way to say "the yearly change in the numbers of nonmeasles deaths." In other words, the number of children who die from diseases other than measles changes from year to year.

      The authors in this paper will use these changes in the number of deaths, correlated to the number of measles cases, to demonstrate the long-term effect of measles caused immunosuppression.

    7. pre- and post-vaccine eras

      The pre-vaccine era is before the measles vaccine became available for the public for use in the 1960's.

      The post-vaccine era continues today, when the measles vaccine (MMR) is available to those who wish to receive it.

    8. disease mortality

      Disease mortality is the scientific term used for the amount of death a disease causes. The flu, which kills many people every year, has a HIGHER mortality than the common cold.

    9. predispose

      Predispose means to make something easier to happen, in this case easier to get sick. For example, if you do not exercise and eat right you are predisposed to (or more likely to become) obese.

    10. population-level data

      Population-level data is a term that is used in statistics to describe including the entire population in your analysis. This is in contrast to using a smaller sample population to infer (make an educated guess) things about the whole population.

      For example, imagine that your entire school is the population you wish to study. If you want to collect population-level data you will need to ask everyone if they like chocolate ice cream. Sometimes this isn't possible so scientists collect the data from a smaller sample, like just your class. They learn that 75% of your class likes chocolate ice cream and so they infer that 75% of the entire school likes chocolate ice cream. This approach is easier, but it is still more accurate to survey the entire class.

      In this study, the use of full population-level data, not inferences from sample data, makes their conclusions stronger.

      A sample is part of a who population

      Food for thought: What is the population that is really important to study in this research? In other worlds, the population of a single country is really a sample of what even larger population?

    1. Facial Action Coding System (FACS)

      The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) is a system for identifying and categorizing changes in facial expression.

      Even minute anatomical changes in facial muscles (i.e., contraction or relaxation of specific muscles in the face) can be coded as distinct "action units," and there is extensive training involved in being able to identify and code these facial movements.

      The head scientist involved in designing the FACS system, Paul Ekman, is known for using FACS to detect microexpressions—brief, involuntary facial movements that can be used, among other things, in the detection of deception.

      The television show Lie To Me was loosely based on Ekman and his work.

    2. Duchenne smiling

      Named after 19th century French physician Guillaume Duchenne, a "Duchenne smile" is one that involves both the mouth and the eyes; it is considered to be a more "genuine" display of happiness, compared with a smile that only involves the mouth.

      Here's an example, modeled by psychologist Paul Ekman, who is an expert on facial expressions and emotion.

      .

      Can you tell which one is which?

      Test yourself with this short video!

    3. Linguistic Inquiry Word Count software (LIWC)

      The Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC, pronounced "Luke") software is text analysis software that can analyze linguistic content for specific words and/or categories of words.

    4. orbicularis oculi (AU6)

      This is the muscle that circles around the eye. It controls blinking, squinting, and the movement at the corners of the eyes that relates to Duchenne smiles.

      Image Description

    5. ego defensiveness

      "Ego defensiveness" is very similar to self-protection. The idea is that people have psychological mechanisms that are commonly used to protect/defend the "ego," or the self.

    6. self-report measures

      "Self-report measures" involve responses to basic survey questions. For example, asking participants how happy they are, on a scale from 1 to 10, would be a self-report measure.

    1. integrins

      Integrins are another class of cell adhesion molecules. These receptors are known to interact with the extracellular matrix or surface proteins on endothelial cells, and help in the process of leukocyte extravasation, a process that involves the movement of leukocytes (white blood cells) through the walls of the blood vessels into the site of infection.

    2. chemokine

      Chemokines are proteins released by cells that can recruit other cells by forming a chemical gradient (similar to a trail of scent).

      Chemokines and selectins become alert/activated during an infection and, in turn, activate/trigger the integrins to initiate cellular recruitment.

      In case of cellular responses, activation involves biochemical changes in the structure of molecules, which now allow it to bind/release from certain other molecules.

      A series of such activation events is what induces a signaling cascade in cells.

    3. endothelial selectins

      Selectins are carbohydrate-binding molecules present on cell surfaces. Endothelial cells line the the walls of blood vessels.

      E-selectins are produced by endothelial cells. During an infection, selectins serve to recruit immune cells to the site of inflammation.

    4. inflammatory injury

      Inflammation, meaning swelling with redness and pain, is one of the major consequences of an immune response. However, sometimes excessive inflammation can be harmful to the host, hence referred to as inflammatory injury (injury inflicted upon the host by the body's immune system).

    5. immune response

      In general, when the mammalian body encounters a foreign object, be it a pathogen causing disease or an allergic nonpathogenic molecule, the immune cells in the system are triggered and begin a cascade of reactions in an attempt to contain and eventually eliminate the foreign entity.

  3. Mar 2016
    1. chimeric

      A chimeric fly has two distinct cell populations. In this case, a mutagenic event occurred early in the development of the female chimera, causing it to have one genotype on one half of its body, and a different genotype on the other half.

    2. wild-type

      Refers to the phenotype of an organism as it was found in nature. In contrast to a mutant allele, the wildtype phenotype is the product of the "normal" allele for a particular gene.

    3. homology arms

      Homology arms are DNA sequences in a plasmid that are identical to a specific genomic DNA sequence. The homology arms are used to direct homologous recombination of a plasmid into the genome.

    1. wavelength

      Light travels from place to place in the form of a wave. All types of light have a characteristic wavelength. In the visible spectrum, red light has the longest wavelengths and purple has the shortest. UV light has shorter wavelengths than visible light.

    2. bacterial respiration

      Bacterial respiration is when microbes “eat” organic carbon, causing it to break down into smaller molecules. In most cases, bacteria require oxygen to break down organic carbon.

    3. mineralization

      Mineralization refers to the break down of organic molecules to inorganic molecules. For the purposes of this paper, it means conversion of organic carbon to carbon dioxide.

    4. quantum yields

      Quantum yield is a measurement of how much of a chemical reacts when exposed to light. For example, in this study it would be the amount of carbon dioxide produced divided by the amount of UV sunlight absorbed by dissolved organic carbon.

    5. Areal rates

      Areal rate refers to the amount of something that happens over an amount of surface area. For example the rate of bacterial respiration is measured as the amount of oxygen released per day, but the areal rate would be measured as the amount of oxygen released per square meter per day.

    1. About 20% had been arrested at baseline, and just over 20% had been victimized

      Baseline measurements are measurements that report on the sample population prior to the experiment. In this case, prior to the start of the jobs summer jobs program, 20% of the youth in the study had been arrested and 20% had been victims of violent activity.

    2. operative mechanism

      By operative mechanism, the author is referring to the thing or factor that helps us understand why this summer jobs program helps reduce violent crime.

    3. The empirical literature

      Empirical literature refers to articles that are based on data that has been collected in a field (real-world) or laboratory setting. Because science is a process that builds upon itself, scientists are always looking to see what the existing empirical literature establishes so that a study that presents something new can be designed.

    4. outcome measures

      In this experimental study, outcome measures refer to violent activity as well as other types of crime and schooling outcomes. This paper reports specifically on whether summer jobs have any affect on violent activity.

    1. disturbance

      What is a disturbance, in this context? In ecology, a disturbance is anything that changes the ecosystem. For example, a forest fire, tornado, human activity (building more houses in an area that used to be a grassland), etc.

    2. slower regrowth dynamics

      Why do boreal forests grow slower than other forest types? For starters, boreal forests have shorter growing seasons. Also, boreal forests have only conifer tree species that do not grow as quickly as deciduous trees.

    3. carbon storage

      Why is carbon storage important? Find out by following this link to explore carbon "sequestration" (just a fancy term for "storage") and how this process can help curb global warming.

    4. importance of forest ecosystem services

      What are important ecosystem services that forests provide?

      First, let's break this down into what an ecosystem service is. These services include any benefit that an ecosystem can provide to people.

      So, what can forests provide that benefit people? Here are some examples: Forests provide timber, store carbon, purify air and water, and provide space for recreation (e.g., hiking in the woods!).

    5. biodiversity richness

      Richness is simply the number of different species.

      Biodiversity refers to the diversity of biology (a.k.a. the number of different species).

      Putting this all together, we can determine that forests, compared with other types of ecosystems (e.g., deserts), have a lot of different species of plants, animals, bacteria, etc. (this is especially the case in tropical forests).

    6. spatially explicit

      Describes where things are in relation to each other. In this case, the satellite images of Earth provide a clear picture of where forests are located and distributed.

      Imagine having spatially explicit data of Earth's surface, all collected at the same time. This is what satellite-based imaging systems do. By examining these pictures over time, we are able to map forest loss and gain. Imagine trying to do this task from the ground. It would be very hard indeed.

    7. tropical, subtropical, temperate, and boreal

      Tropical: Areas near Earth's equator that are warm/hot year-round with consistent or seasonal rainfall.

      Subtropical: Areas with hot and humid summers and mild winters.

      Temperate: Areas with four seasons (summer, fall/autumn, winter, and spring) divided mainly by differences in temperature.

      Boreal: Subarctic areas with long, cold winters and short, cool summers.

      Check out where these climate domains/zones are around the world on this map.

    8. deforestation dynamics

      "Deforestation dynamics" refers to changes (i.e., dynamics) in forests due to cutting down trees and replacing them with nonforest land uses, such as agriculture or development (houses, buildings, etc.).

    9. statistically significant trend

      This wording implies that Hansen and colleagues ran a statistical model to determine whether the loss or gain in forest cover over time was more or less than what you would expect if forest cover did not change.

      The tropics experienced a clear increasing rate of forest loss, expressed in units of forest area loss per year, whereas other climate domains (e.g., temperate, boreal, subtropical) all lost and gained forest cover

      However, when you add all of the subtropical regions of Earth together, for instance, there isn't a clear net loss or gain in forest cover. This is because of the fact that most forest change in the subtropics is due to forestry land uses where trees are grown as a crop. In forestry land uses, trees are continuously grown and cut down to make products such as lumber and paper.

    10. short-cycle tree planting and harvesting

      This statement refers to "short rotation forestry," which is a type of forestry that densely plants fast-growing tree species (e.g., poplar trees).

      Once these trees reach a certain size (e.g., stems that are 10–20 cm in diameter at breast height), they are then cut down and harvested for lumber, pulp, and paper products, or energy.

      The trees then regrow from the stumps, sending up new trunks. This process of cutting down a tree to stimulate regrowth is called "coppice."

    11. systematic global image acquisitions

      In this context, the authors are describing the satellite images—these images are widespread (e.g., systemic) in that they photograph the entire surface of Earth.

    12. Google cloud

      The authors used Google Earth Engine to process the Landsat images.

      The Google Earth Engine is a cloud platform, meaning that a network of thousands of computers works together to perform a task that a single computer would take years to do.

      Similarly, Google Cloud provides the same features. Google Cloud allows you to store, manage, and process information on computer servers that are accessed through the Google Cloud website.

      Cloud computing is especially helpful for processing large amounts of data/information.

      Hansen and colleagues processed 700,000 images of Earth. Processing this information through the Google Earth Engine with 10,000 computers took approximately 15 days. If the authors only had one computer to work with, these calculations would have taken a few years!

  4. Nov 2015
    1. SWS × REM sleep duration

      A measure that reflects the amount of time participants spent in slow-wave sleep and rapid-eye-movement sleep.

      It is calculated by multiplying the number of minutes of SWS by the number of minutes of REM sleep.

  5. Oct 2015
    1. NHEJ events

      In non-homologous end joining splices in DNA are repaired by splicing rather than by referring to an intact complementary strand of DNA. This method of repair is less accurate than homologous recombination.

    2. PGP1 human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells

      Induced pluripotent stem cells come from adult cells which have been artificially changed to exhibit stem cell properties. These properties are immortality and the ability to develop into various different cell types. These cells are thus unspecialized. https://www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/references/protocols/cell-culture/stem-cell-protocols/ipsc-protocols/generation-human-induced-pluripotent-stem-cells-fibroblasts.html

    3. integrated reporter

      The integrated reporter was the green fluorescent DNA sequence which was integrated into the target DNA. The green fluorescent sequence could then be manipulated, and the results could be measured.

    4. 68-bp

      Since DNA consists of a double strand, the bases form into pairs such that cytosine always pairs with guanine and adenine always pairs with thymine. A 68 bp sequence would contain 68 of these pairs.

    5. PAM (protospacer-adjacent motif)

      The PAM is a short DNA sequence close to the targeted DNA sequence of the invading organism. The PAM is crucial for the system to recognize whether or not the DNA sequence is self or not self. If the PAM is missing the system will not be activated

    6. RNA

      In contrast to DNA, which is a double strand of linked amino acids, RNA is a single strand. The four "letters" in the DNA alphabet are adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. RNA is made up of adenine, thymine, and cytosine, but in place of guanine it has uracil.

    7. DNA

      Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a double stranded helix (coiled in a spiral) of proteins which form a sort of "alphabet" to encode genetic information. The "letters" of this alphabet consist of adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine.

      Adenine always pairs with thymine, and cytosine always pairs with guanine, thus, when the two strands are divided the complete DNA molecule can be exactly reproduced. http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/basics/dna

    8. viral

      Viruses are submicroscopic parasites with a simple structure. Their main parts are a strand of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) and an surrounding protein shell called a capsid. Some viruses also have an outer viral envelope surrounding their capsid. Viruses are not capable of reproducing on their own, but rather must invade a cell and commandeer that cell's resources to reproduce themselves http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21523/

    9. clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats

      Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) are strands of DNA with repeating sequences (repeats) interspersed with other sequences which don't repeat (spacers).

    1. memory consolidation

      The process by which memories become more stable (less likely to be forgotten). The authors' work is based on previous findings that sleep is particularly important for memory consolidation.

  6. Aug 2015
    1. epitaxial

      The growth of one crystalline material on the surface of another crystalline.

      In this case, the crystalline surface upon which epitaxial growth occurs is the exposed crystalline core of the cylindrical micelle. The exposed core can continue to elongate as more block copolymers are added to the solution.

    2. colloidal dispersions

      A solution that has evenly dispersed particles that are 1 nm to 1000 nm. The particles are in solution and do not settle out. An example of a colloidal dispersion is milk.

    3. non-centrosymmetric

      Glossary: Molecules have different degrees of molecular symmetry. A molecule that is noncentrosymmetric will not contain an inversion center or a center of symmetry. An example of a molecule that is centrosymmetric is a benzene ring (C6H6) where the inversion center is the center of the ring.

    4. micelle corona

      A micelle is an aggregate comprised of amphiphilic molecules. A micelle will have a core (inside-lipophilic) and a corona (outside-hydrophilic).

      The individual components that make up this aggregate are referred to as unimers.

      Although most micelles are have hydrophobic cores and hydrophilic corona, these micelles don't fit this classification. The corona is PI (hydrophobic) and the core is PFS (also hydrophobic). Self-assembly is induced because hexane/decane are poor solvents for PFS but good for PI .

    5. block copolymers

      A block copolymer is a polymer chain comprised of homopolymer subunits linked by a covalent bond.

      For example:

      Homopolymer (where A is the monomer unit) : A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A

      Block copolymer (where A and B are monomer units): A-A-A-A-B-B-B-B

    6. Abstract

      As the field of nanotechnology continues to grow, the ability to carefully control nanoparticle size, shape, and composition still remains a challenge. Most nanoparticles exhibit a great deal of symmetry. The authors of this paper focused on developing a method to create block copolymer micelles that had very little symmetry (i.e., noncentrosymmetric). They were able to achieve their goal through unidirectional micelle growth. The authors later used this same strategy to synthesize a "supermicelle."

  7. Jul 2015
    1. coimmunoprecipitated

      Coimmunoprecipitation (Co-IP) is the immunoprecipitation of intact protein complexes. Co-IP works by selecting an antibody that targets a known protein that is believed to be a member of a larger complex of proteins. By targeting this known member with an antibody it may become possible to pull the entire protein complex out of solution and thereby identify unknown members of the complex.

      Immunoprecipitation (IP) is the technique of precipitating a protein antigen out of solution using an antibody that specifically binds to that particular protein. This process can be used to isolate and concentrate a particular protein from a sample containing many thousands of different proteins.

    2. point mutations

      Point mutation is a technique in which a single base nucleotide is replaced with another nucleotide. As a result, the mutant protein has a different primary sequence with respect to the wild-type protein.

    3. RNA interference (RNAi)

      RNAi is a biological process in which RNA molecules inhibit gene expression, typically by causing the destruction of specific mRNA molecules. The final result is the depletion of specific target proteins.

    4. helical viral ribonucleoproteins (vRNPs)

      The genome of influenza A viruses consists of eight segments of single-stranded, negative-sense RNA that are encapsidated as individual rod-shaped ribonucleoprotein complexes (RNPs). Each RNP contains a viral RNA, a viral polymerase and multiple copies of the viral nucleoprotein (NP).

    5. supramacromolecular

      A supramolecular complex is a well-defined assembly of molecules held together by noncovalent bonds. While a supramolecular assembly can be simply composed of two molecules (e.g., a DNA double helix), it is more often used to denote larger complexes of molecules that form sphere-, rod-, or sheetlike species.

    6. single-stranded, negative-sense RNA genome

      Viral RNA with a base sequence complementary to that of mRNA; during replication it serves as a template for the transcription of viral complementary RNA. Negative-sense (3' to 5') viral RNA cannot be translated into protein directly. Instead, it must first be transcribed into a positive-sense RNA (5' to 3') which acts as an mRNA. Some viruses (influenza, for example) have negative-sense genomes and so must carry an RNA polymerase inside the virion.