The Happiness of English

There are more positive words than negative ones in the written English language.

By Jef Akst |

Wikimedia Commons, Christoph Michels

Across books, songs, even news publications and social media sites, positives words are used more commonly than negative ones, according to a new study published Monday (August 29) on arXiv, an online prepublication site widely used in the physical sciences.

Hypotheses regarding the reasons language evolved as it did are varied, including purely practical explanations such as coordinating social behaviors, like hunting, and more cultural explanations, like the support of altruism and cooperation. The answer, some anthropologists believe, may be found in the language itself.

In one of the most comprehensive analyses of the English language to date, mathematicians from Cornell University and the University of Vermont collated more than 10,000 words from four sources of text—Google Books, Twitter, The New York Times, and song lyrics. The words were scored on a scale of 1 to 9, with 1 being the most negative and 9 being the most positive. (The highest score was awarded to “laughter,” which received an 8.5, while “terrorist” received the lowest, coming it at 1.3, according to Wired Science.)

Overall, the researchers found that positive words outnumbered negative ones, suggesting “a positivity bias” in the language, the authors wrote. “In our stories and writings we tend toward pro-social communication.” They added that future work is needed to determine the “positivity” of other languages and dialects, as well as the trends towards other emotions. Comparing the results could reveal interesting correlations between language characteristics and aspects of societal organization in different cultures around the world.

Source: TheScientist
http://the-scientist.com/2011/08/31/the-happiness-of-english/

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Philippines: Small Towns Find Solutions In Their Backyards to Fight Pollution

The Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Sta. Cruz, Laguna, is one of the most well-managed MRFs in the Philippines. Around 13 million Filipinos are affected by the pollution in the Laguna Lake, which they depend on for drinking, fishing, irrigation, hydropower and economic activities. LISCOP aims to help save the lake from further degradation by working with stakeholders to reduce pollution and improve the environmental quality of the lake and its watershed. Under LISCOP, communities plan and carry out solid and wastewater management projects to save the Laguna Lake by finding solutions in their own backyards. Laguna, Philippines, August 26, 2011—In a manner of speaking, Laguna Lake is the cradle of civilization in Luzon, the country’s most economically vibrant island. But pollution from industrial, commercial, agricultural and domestic sources have been poured into the lake and have made it a virtual septic tank for various types of effluents. Around 13 million people directly depend on the lake for drinking, fishing, irrigation, hydro-electric power and employment through eco-tourism and other economic activities. One of them is Pacita H. de Guzman, 41, who lives in Sta. Cruz Laguna. With the high cost of caring for a child with special medical needs, garbage meant cash to her. “When I first learned that they were going to build a dumpsite near our home, all I could think was it would be smelly. I hoped they would build it somewhere else, not in my backyard,” she said in Filipino. But the Sta. Cruz Material Recovery Facility (MRF) turned out to be one of the most well-managed MRFs in the country. It didn’t smell nor had it been swarmed with flies and it even became a source of additional income for Ms. de Guzman and some of her neighbors. She is now part of a group of 23 garbage-pickers; they reduce the amount of solid waste polluting the Laguna Lake. Jennie D. Corpuz, the MRF Supervisor, said Sta. Cruz had a growing plastic and biological waste problem forcing the community to take solid waste management seriously. The MRF, funded and monitored by the Laguna de Bay Institutional Strengthening and Community Participation Project (LISCOP), is a model of how a local government unit with a tiny budget can run a state-of-the-art facility. Models of Innovation LISCOP is a World Bank-funded project that aims to improve the environmental quality of the Laguna Lake and its watershed through a “solution-in-my-backyard” approach. The project is slowly changing the way small towns around Laguna Lake think about garbage management, sanitation, using natural resources in a sustainable manner, soil erosion control, flood prevention, and eco-tourism, among other things. Another Sta. Cruz initiative supported by LISCOP is the construction and operation of a wastewater treatment facility that treats wastewater from the town’s slaughterhouse prior to discharge into the river. A visit to the slaughterhouse showed young people swimming in a nearby river where water from the slaughterhouse is released. Biogas is also harvested from the treatment facility that is used by the workers in cooking their food and boiling water. “A lot of our visitors are surprised that a slaughterhouse can be this clean and can release water that is safe for bathing,” says Edwin M. Kalacas, Officer-in-Charge of the slaughterhouse. “Cleanliness is very important to us.” Recycling lifestyle Also in Laguna is the Kalayaan Sanitary Landfill, the only one in the country fully operated by a small town for its own use, benefiting 4,314 households in three barangays. Situated on the Sierra Madre mountain range 220 meters above sea level, the landfill is a scenic place with a vegetable garden where local residents come for picnics. “Garbage is a big headache for us. That is why we really have to involve the community and enforce political will. We are operating strictly on a no-segregation-no-collection policy,” says Reinelsa B. Corpuz, the town’s Municipal Environmental and Natural Resources Officer. “They hated me in the beginning, but we just had to take the heat until they got used to it.” Through such initiatives, LISCOP has built concrete steps towards a pollution-free Laguna Lake. In January 2011, the World Bank noted a 10 percent reduction in pollution in the lake from the firms that have been regulated by LLDA since 2004. Enterprises increased compliance with environmental regulations by 30 percent. LLDA OIC General Manager and concurrent Assistant General Manager Dolora Nepomuceno said LISCOP's support to LGUs led to the upgrading of 23 out of the 41 LGU-operated open dumps into well-managed, solid waste management facilities like MRFs, composting facilities, and sanitary landfills. “An assessment of 11 MRFs with composting has shown that these facilities have diverted about 500 metric tons of solid waste annually,” he said. Ms. Nepomuceno said the project has also strengthened LLDA's capacity, modernized its regulatory and planning instruments through the use and expansion of the environmental user fee system (EUFS), and improved its partnership with key stakeholders including the LGUs. (EUFS refer to the market-based policy instrument designed to encourage companies to invest in water treatment facilities, practice waste minimization as well as reusing, recycling and greener production techniques.) “A particularly noteworthy result of the expansion of the EUFS is the reduced average industrial biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) loading, from 24.34 to 1.29 metric tons per firm for those covered by the EUFS. Firms are shifting to more efficient and cleaner production technologies,” said Ms. Nepomuceno. (BOD refers to a standard method for determining the amount of organic pollution in water bodies.) World Bank Country Director Bert Hofman said the EUFS has led industries to invest in pollution abatement systems. "This innovation with EUFs could be replicated in Manila Bay and other parts of the Philippines consistent with the 2004 Clean Water Act," said Mr. Hofman. Those involved in LISCOP say solutions to pollution, big or small, could be found in communities’ own backyards especially with the adoption of best practices tested around the world, and a collaborative, can-do attitude.

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Safer Roads in Bosnia and Herzegovina

There are a lot more cars in Bosnia and Herzegovina than before. And as half of the roads are in poor shape, that means slower traffic and more bottlenecks and also more accidents. Jasmina Hadzic, the Communications Assistant in the Bosnia and Herzegovina World Bank Office, offers this story.

But there are bright spots: getting in and out of the capital Sarajevo at rush hour isn't the headache it once was. A major bridge spanning the Bosna River that squeezed traffic coming in and out of the city was rebuilt and the road crossing it was too. That has shaved lots of time off idling in the car.

Dzemal Pandza

"I drive through this section on a daily basis. Before there were traffic jams. I used to be stuck in traffic for a whole hour. People were nervous. Since the reconstruction, it is much easier to get to your destination. No nervousness, no traffic jams. Basically, it is much better now," says Dzemal Pandza, a courier who delivers packages and zigzags over the bridge several times a day.

Fixing the worst roads and most dangerous bridges is part of a project supported by the World Bank. The Bank has been supporting the rehabilitation of magisterial and regional roads through the Road Infrastructure and Safety Project, under implementation since 2008. The project builds on the results of an earlier Bank road project, which closed in June 2007. The success of this earlier project led the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to contribute additional US$195 million to a program to help clear the maintenance backlog on the road network, while the World Bank project provides US$25 million to this follow-up program.

Most bridges and tunnels in Bosnia and Herzegovina need a lot of repairs. Roads need work, too. Of the country's approximately 22,615 kilometres of roads, half are in good condition, with the remaining half in either fair or poor condition.

The poor condition of roads and bridges is due to an extended period of neglect after the hostilities, insufficient funds for routine maintenance, lack of enforcement of axle-load limits, and a significant increase in traffic volumes.

Since 1996, with the World Bank assistance about 2,500 kilometres of roads around the country have been rebuilt.

Alma Kezo

"I drive over Jošanica Bridge at least three to four times a week, and as a driver, I can say that the reconstruction of the bridge has significantly improved the traffic. It is much easier to pass this part of the road, as it has always had traffic jams in the past. Now driving through this section is much easier, also thanks to the roundabout just off the bridge," says Alma Kezo, a resident of Sarajevo.

Fixing roads is important: road traffic in and around major urban areas is growing by five per cent each year. There are enough roads but they are not in good enough shape to handle the extra wear and tear. They need upgrading and enhancing. And that is despite a decade of substantial expenditures—insufficient money on maintenance since the end of the conflict has led to the premature deterioration of many roads. Large investments are required to reconstruct roads and bridges, and more importantly to build new ones with more capacity and of better quality to meet the needs of the market economy. Significant investments have been made, and improvements are evident, but more is required.

Road safety also remains a serious social and public health issue. The state of the road network, driver behaviour and limited education, poor or nonexistent enforcement, and significant growth in vehicle ownership and use have increased traffic accidents—there were 436 fatalities and 8,470 injuries in 2004. The 2008 rates declined slightly to 5.3 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles, but the rate is still nearly 3 times higher than the EU-27 average. Hence, road safety is a significant and growing concern that requires a comprehensive response.

Significant progress has been made to work towards better drivers and safer roads. An institutional framework for road safety has been established, and road safety strategies, have been approved in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

New tests for ‘legal marijuana,’ ‘bath salts’ and other emerging designer drugs

Posted by Biomechanism 

Marijuana plant

Scientists have reported developing new tests to help cope with a wave of deaths, emergency room visits and other problems from a new genre of designer drugs sold legally in stores and online that mimic the effects of cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana. They spoke at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held here this week.

The reports, among more than 7,500 on the ACS agenda, focus on drugs sold as “bath salts,” “plant food,” “incense” and other products with colorful names, such as “Ivory Wave,” “Red Dove” and “legal marijuana.” They provide users with a high, but many have not been made illegal and are undetectable with current drug tests. In one presentation on these “legal highs,” a United Kingdom researcher reported a new method to trace the source of the substances in “bath salts.” In the other, a U.S. researcher discussed the challenges facing law enforcement and policymakers in regulating synthetic versions of marijuana.

Oliver Sutcliffe, PhD, and his collaborators reported the successful use of a method called isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) to determine who is making bath salts — drugs that can cause euphoria, paranoia, anxiety and hallucinations when snorted, smoked or injected — and which chemical companies supplied the raw materials. He and his co-workers are based at the University of Strathclyde and the James Hutton Institute in the U.K.

“With the new method, we could work backwards and trace the substances back to the starting materials,” said Sutcliffe. IRMS measures the relative amounts of an element’s different forms, or isotopic ratio. “This method was successful because the isotopic ratio of the starting material is transferred like a fingerprint through the synthesis,” he explained.

“Bath salts” first garnered significant media attention in the U.K. in early 2010 and then became a problem in the U.S. These products are not in the supermarket soap aisle — they are sold on the Internet, on the street and in stores that sell drug paraphernalia. They are sold in small individual bags for as low as $20 each to provide a cheap, legal high.

The powders often contain mephedrone, which is a synthetic compound structurally related to methcathinone, which is found in Khat. This plant is illegal in many countries, including the U.K. and the U.S. Usually, that would mean that these compounds (and derivatives thereof) would be illegal in those countries too, but because the bath salts are labelled “not for human consumption,” they get around this restriction and other legislation governing the supply of medicines for human use. However, Florida and Louisiana — two hotspots of abuse of bath salts — specifically banned the substances. U.K. officials banned the import of bath salts, which may lead some in the drug trade to set up clandestine labs on U.K. soil, said Sutcliffe. The new method allows law enforcement to track down these bath salts manufacturers.

In previous work, Sutcliffe developed the first pure reference standard for mephedrone and the first reliable liquid chromatography test for the substance, which could be efficiently run in a typical law enforcement lab. The team is also developing a colour-change test kit for mephedrone, which he estimates may be available by the end of the year.

In another presentation, Robert Lantz, Ph.D., from the Rocky Mountain Instrumental Laboratories, described another high that is legal in most of the U.S. — synthetic cannabinoids marketed as incense, a spice product or “legal marijuana” that give a high similar to marijuana without showing up in conventional drug tests.

“We can detect synthetic cannabinoids with modern analytical chemistry techniques, such as liquid or gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, but these assays are too expensive for the 5,000-10,000 urine samples that most drug testing labs receive daily,” said Lantz. Most labs screen for drugs with less expensive antibody assays, but because the structures of these substances are so dissimilar, different antibodies would likely be required for many of them, driving up the cost of a more comprehensive test.

Synthetic cannabinoid abuse rose sharply in 2010, according to U.S. poison control centres, up to 2,863 compared to only 14 in 2009. About 200 synthetic cannabinoids exist, but the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) banned only five. A handful of states, such as Washington, Georgia and Colorado, refused five, but they are not always the same five that the DEA banned. “The states banned several specific compounds without a particular basis for their choices,” Lantz pointed out.

Colorado recently passed a law banning any substance that binds to a cannabinoid receptor in the human body. “The bill was well-intentioned, but technically, the new law not only covers synthetic cannabinoids but also endocannabinoids, which are naturally occurring substances that the human body produces to regulate many normal processes,” said Lantz.

Unfounded pesticide concerns adversely affect the health of low-income populations

Posted by Biomechanism

The increasingly prevalent notion that expensive organic fruits and vegetables are safer because pesticides — used to protect traditional crops from insects, thus ensuring high crop yields and making them less expensive — are a risk for causing cancer has no good scientific support, an authority on the disease said here today. Such unfounded fears could have the unanticipated consequence of keeping healthful fruits and vegetables from those with low incomes.

Bruce N. Ames, Ph.D., developer of a widely used test for potential carcinogens that bears his name, spoke at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held here this week. With more than 7,500 reports on new advances in science and more than 12,000 scientists and others expected in attendance, it will be one of 2011′s largest scientific gatherings.

Ames described his “triage theory,” which explains how the lack of essential vitamins and minerals from fruit and vegetables in the diet of younger people can set the stage for cancer and other diseases later in life. A professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California at Berkeley, Ames also is a senior scientist at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, where he works on healthy aging. He developed the Ames test, which uses bacteria to test whether substances damage the genetic material DNA and, in doing so, have the potential to cause cancer. He has received the U.S. National Medal of Science among many other awards.

In the presentation, Ames said that today’s animal cancer studies unfairly label many substances, including pesticides and other synthetic chemicals, as dangerous to humans. Ames’ and Lois Swirsky Gold’s research indicates that almost all pesticides in the human diet are substances present naturally in plants to protect them from insects.

“Animal cancer tests, which are done at very high doses of synthetic chemicals such as pesticides — the “maximum tolerated dose” (MTD) — are being misinterpreted to mean that minuscule doses in the diet are relevant to human cancer. 99.99 percent of the pesticides we eat are naturally present in plants to protect them from insects and other predators. Over half of all chemicals tested, whether natural or synthetic, are carcinogenic in rodent tests,” Ames said. He thinks this is due to the high dose itself and is not relevant to low doses.

At very low doses, many of these substances are not of concern to humans, he said. For example, a single cup of coffee contains 15-20 of these natural pesticides and chemicals from roasting that test positive in animal cancer tests, but they are present in very low amounts. Human pesticide consumption from fresh food is even less of a concern, according to Ames — the amount of pesticide residues that an average person ingests throughout an entire year is even less than the amount of those “harmful” substances in one cup of coffee. In fact, evidence suggests coffee is protective against cancer in humans.

Unfounded fears about the dangers of pesticide residues on fruit and vegetables may stop many consumers from buying these fresh, healthful foods. In response, some stores sell “organic” foods grown without synthetic pesticides, but these foods are much more expensive and out of the reach of low-income populations. As a result, people — especially those who are poor — may consume fewer fruits and vegetables.

But how does a lack of fresh produce lead to cancer and other aging diseases? That’s where Ames’ triage theory comes in.

In wartime, battlefield doctors with limited supplies and time do a triage, making quick decisions about which injured soldiers to treat. In a similar way, the body makes decisions about how to ration vital nutrients while experiencing an immediate moderate deficiency, but this is often at a cost.

“The theory is that, as a result of recurrent shortages of vitamins and minerals during evolution, natural selection developed a metabolic rebalancing response to shortage,” he said. “Rebalancing favors vitamin- and mineral-dependent proteins needed for short-term survival and reproduction while starving those proteins only required for long-term health.” Ames noted that the theory is strongly supported by recent work (Am J Clin Nutr. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.27930; FASEB J DOI:10.1096/fj.11-180885; J Nucleic Acids DOI:10.4061/2010/725071).

For example, if a person’s diet is low in calcium — a nutrient essential for many ongoing cellular processes — the body takes it from wherever it can find it — usually the bones. The body doesn’t care about the risk of osteoporosis 30 or 40 years in the future (long-term health) when it is faced with an emergency right now (short-term survival). Thus, insidious or hidden damage happens to organs and DNA whenever a person is lacking vitamins or minerals, and this eventually leads to aging-related diseases, such as dementia, osteoporosis, heart trouble and cancer.

And with today’s obesity epidemic, resulting largely from bad diets that lack healthful foods containing vitamins, minerals and fiber, aging-related diseases are likely to be around for some time to come.

Controlling cells’ environments: A step toward building much-needed tissues and organs

Posted by Biomechanism 

With stem cells so fickle and indecisive that they make Shakespeare’s Hamlet pale by comparison, scientists today described an advance in encouraging stem cells to make decisions about their fate. The technology for doing so, reported here at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), is an advance toward using stem cells in “regenerative medicine” — to grow from scratch organs for transplants and tissues for treating diseases.

Human embryonic stem cells offer the unique ability to not only renew themselves, but to also differentiate into any one of the more than 200 cell types found in the human body.

“Stem cells have great potential in regenerative medicine, in developing new drugs and in advancing biomedical research,” said Laura L. Kiessling, Ph.D., who presented the report. “To exploit that potential, we need two things: first, reproducible methods to grow human stem cells in the laboratory, and second, the ability to make stem cells grow into heart cells, brain cells or whatever kind of cell. Our technology takes a different approach to both of these problems, and the results are very encouraging.”

Biologically, so-called pluripotent human embryonic stem cells have not made up their minds about what to become. That’s essential because these cells, which are derived from embryos, have the agility to develop into the hundreds of different kinds of cells in a fully-formed human body. But controlling their differentiation has also stood as a major barrier to making the stem cell dream come true and using these all-purpose cells in medicine.

Past approaches to growing and scripting the fate of stem cells have involved adding growth-regulating and other substances to cultures of stem cells growing in the laboratory. These conditions left scientists guessing about exactly what wound up in the stem cells. Kiessling and colleagues are pioneering a new approach that involves using chemically controlled surfaces.

Kiessling previously developed chemically modified plastic and glass surfaces that take much of the guess work out of growing stem cells in laboratory cultures. In the past, scientists grew stem cells on surfaces that contained mouse cells. That left scientists with nagging questions about possible contamination of stem cells with disease-causing animal viruses — a stumbling block for using stem cells in potential medical applications. And that growth system was what scientists term “undefined.” There were variations from batch to batch of mouse cells, and scientists never really knew what the stem cells were coming into contact with and how it might be changing them. The synthetic, chemically-defined, surfaces ended that uncertainty. The approach was inexpensive, simple and a much-needed advance in producing stem cells, Kiessling explained.

With the ability to grow stem cells on the synthetic surfaces under chemically defined, or known, conditions, Kiessling’s group took an additional step in their latest research. It found that chemically defined surfaces can exert control over signaling pathways. “Signaling” is how molecules talk to one another and get things done inside a cell. It’s how an immune cell knows to fight an infection or how a pancreatic cell determines that more insulin is needed in the bloodstream, for example. By controlling how molecules inside a stem cell communicate, researchers could someday in the future nudge them to become one type of cell or tissue over another.

To see whether a new chemically defined surface could change signaling in a pilot experiment, Kiessling tested cancer cells. The research involved use of a signaling substance, transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), which controls a range of activities, from cell growth to self-destruction.

“The new surfaces give scientists much more control over cells, opening up a wide range of possible future applications,” Kiessling explained. Building directly on the results of the pilot study, the surfaces could have applications in wound healing. TGF- beta can help wounds heal, but if it touches healthy skin, inflammation or even a cancerous tumor could develop. “We haven’t done this, but you could imagine a bandage that has a localized concentration of the special peptide surface that would recruit TGF-beta just to the wound site,” said Kiessling.

The surfaces also could make it easier to manufacture organs and tissues in the laboratory someday. “We think that this strategy, with different sets of peptides (building blocks of proteins) bound to the surface, could direct certain human embryonic stem cells on the surface to become one type of cell and other stem cells to become a second cell type, right next to each other. For the tissue engineering involved in growing replacement organs, you need to organize specialized cells in particular ways like this.”

Free radicals crucial to suppressing appetite

Posted by Biomechanism 

Obesity is growing at alarming rates worldwide, and the biggest culprit is overeating. In a study of brain circuits that control hunger and satiety, Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that molecular mechanisms controlling free radicals—molecules tied to aging and tissue damage—are at the heart of increased appetite in diet-induced obesity.

Caption: This image shows satiety promoting melanocortin neurons (green) in the hypothalamus, some of which are activated (red nuclei) after treatment. Credit: Tamas Horvath, Yale University

Published Aug. 28 in the advanced online issue of Nature Medicine, the study found that elevating free radical levels in the hypothalamus directly or indirectly suppresses appetite in obese mice by activating satiety-promoting melanocortin neurons. Free radicals, however, are also thought to drive the aging process.

“It’s a catch-22,” said senior author Tamas Horvath, the Jean and David W. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Research, chair of comparative medicine and director of the Yale Program on Integrative Cell Signaling and Neurobiology of Metabolism. “On one hand, you must have these critical signaling molecules to stop eating. On the other hand, if exposed to them chronically, free radicals damage cells and promote aging.”

“That’s why, in response to continuous overeating, a cellular mechanism kicks in to suppress the generation of these free radicals,” added lead author Sabrina Diano, associate professor of Ob/Gyn, neurobiology and comparative medicine. “While this free radical-suppressing mechanism—promoted by growth of intracellular organelles, called peroxisomes—protects the cells from damage, this same process will decrease the ability to feel full after eating.”

After the mice ate, the team saw that the neurons responsible for stopping overeating had high levels of free radicals. This process is driven by the hormone leptin and glucose, which signal the brain to modulate food intake. When mice eat, leptin and glucose levels go up, as does free radical levels. However, in mice with diet-induced obesity, these same neurons display impaired firing and activity (leptin resistance); in these mice, levels of free radicals were buffered by peroxisomes, preventing the activation of these neurons and thus the ability to feel sated after eating.

According to Horvath and Diano, the crucial role of free radicals in promoting satiety as well as degenerative processes associated with aging may explain why it has been difficult to develop successful therapeutic strategies for obesity without major side effects. Current studies address the question of whether, under any circumstance, satiety could be promoted without sustained elevation of free radicals in the brain and periphery.

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Other authors on the study include Zhong-Wu Liu, Jin Kwoan Jeong, Marcelo O. Dietrich, Hai-Bin Ruan, Esther Kim, Shigetomo Suyama, Kaitlin Kelly, Erika Gyengesi, Jack L. Arbiser, Denise D. Belsham, David A. Sarruf, Michael W. Schwartz, Anton M. Bennett, Marya Shanabrough, Charles V. Mobbs, Xiaoyong Yang, and Xiao-Bing Gao.

The study was supported by grants form the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association.

Citation: Nature Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/nm.2421