# astro: when an unlucky star ventures close enough to a black hole, it spaghettifies ...

<< To be disrupted, an unlucky star must venture close enough to a black hole that gravitational tides exceed the internal gravity that binds the star together. In other words, the difference in the black hole's gravitational pull on the near and far sides of the star, along with the inertial pull as the star swings around the black hole, stretches the star out into a stream. "Basically it spaghettifies," >> James Guillochon

Joshua Sokol. Star-Swallowing Black Holes Reveal Secrets in Exotic Light Shows. August 8, 2018.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/star-swallowing-black-holes-reveal-secrets-in-exotic-light-shows-20180808/

# behav: strange "sunk cost" behaviors: to repeat the wrong choice

<< In a temporal context, a sensitivity to sunk costs arises when an individual resists ending an activity, even if it seems unproductive, because of the time already invested. In two parallel foraging tasks [AA] found that mice, rats, and humans show similar sensitivities to sunk costs in their decision-making. >>

Brian M. Sweis, Samantha V. Abram, et al. Sensitivity to "sunk costs" in mice, rats, and humans. Science  Jul 13, 2018; 361 (6398): 178-81 doi: 10.1126/science.aar8644

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6398/178

Krystle Barbour. Sticking with the wrong choice. University of Minnesota Medical School. July 13, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-07-wrong-choice.html

# drugs: proteins found in tick saliva (Rhipicephalus and Amblyomma) to treat a potentially fatal form of heart disease

<< Tick saliva contains proteins [evasins] that suppress chemokine-driven inflammation by binding and neutralizing multiple chemokines simultaneously, helping them to suck blood for several weeks without eliciting inflammation. >>

Kamayani Singh, Graham Davies, et al.  Yeast surface display identifies a family of evasins from ticks with novel polyvalent CC chemokine - binding activities. Scientific Reports. Jun 27, 2017; 7 (4267).

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-04378-1

AA << has identified several new tick evasins and shown that one of them, P991_AMBCA, from the cayenne tick found in the Americas, can bind to and block the effect of chemokines which cause inflammation in myocarditis, heart attack and stroke. >>

From bug to drug - tick saliva could be key to treating heart disease. University of Oxford. Jun 27, 2017.

https://m.phys.org/news/2017-06-bug-drugtick-saliva-key-heart.html

Also: "saliva" in:

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=saliva

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=saliva

# drugs: from a slug (A. subfuscus) mucus: strong adhesives for wet surfaces

<< Adhesives that can bond strongly to biological tissues would have broad applications ranging from tissue repair and drug delivery to wound dressings and biomedical devices. However, existing tissue adhesives are far from ideal. >>

<< Achieving high adhesion energy requires the synergy of two effects. First, the adhesive should form strong bonds with the substrate. Second, materials inside either the adhesive or the substrate (or both) should dissipate energy by hysteresis. Tissue adhesives must also show compatibility with body fluids, as well as with cells and tissues. >>

AA << report the design of a family of tough adhesives for biological applications to meet those requirements. The design is inspired by a defensive mucus secreted by slugs (Arion subfuscus) that strongly adheres to wet surfaces. >>

J Li, AD Celiz, et al. Tough adhesives for diverse wet surfaces. Science  Jul 28, 2017; 357 (6349): 378-81. doi: 10.1126/science.aah6362

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6349/378 

Sticky when wet: Strong adhesive for wound healing. Slug-inspired, flexible medical bio-glue sticks to wet surfaces without toxicity. Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. July 27, 2017.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170727141508.htm

# phyto: photosynthesis also occurs through far-red light

AA << studied photosystem complexes from cyanobacteria grown in the presence of far-red light. >>

<< Kinetic measurements demonstrated that far-red light is capable of directly driving water oxidation, despite having less energy than the red light used by most photosynthetic organisms. >>

Dennis J. Nurnberg, Jennifer Morton, et al.  Photochemistry beyond the red limit in chlorophyll f - containing photosystems. Science. Jun 15, 2018: 360 (6394): 1210-3. doi: 10.1126/science.aar8313

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6394/1210

Hayley Dunning. New type of photosynthesis discovered. Imperial College London. Jun 14, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-06-photosynthesis.html

# phyto: a molecular compass to coordinate growth

<< Using this protein [protein BASL: Breaking of Asymmetry in the Stomatal Lineage] to detect the polarity field is like switching a light on in each cell across the tissue. It allows us to see that these cells all have a compass, pointing in the same direction across the leaf >>

<< In this way we will find out if, as we suspect, this molecular compass is a conserved mechanism in the development of plant shapes across the plant kingdom which could be co-opted in different ways by different branches of evolution. >> Catherine Mansfield.

Adrian Galvin. Leaves possess a molecular compass. John Innes Centre. Aug 21, 2018

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-08-molecular-compass.html 

Catherine Mansfield, Jacob L. Newman, et al. Ectopic BASL Reveals Tissue Cell Polarity throughout Leaf Development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Current Biology. 28 (16): 2638-46.E4 Aug 20, 2018 doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.019

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30810-8

# ai.bot: a pulsatile semantic approach to assist in the drafting of sci/tech reports

<< At IBM Research AI, [AA] built an AI-based solution to assist analysts in preparing reports. >>

<< An AI-assisted solution can help analysts to prepare complete reports and also avoid bias based on past experience. >>

Oktie Hassanzadeh. Semantic concept discovery over event databases. IBM. July 17, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-07-semantic-concept-discovery-event-databases.html

https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2018/07/semantic-concept-discovery/   

Oktie Hassanzadeh, Shari Trewin, Alfio Massimiliano Gliozzo. Semantic Concept Discovery Over Event Databases. ESWC. Feb 14, 2018.

https://2018.eswc-conferences.org/paper_182/

FonT

sarebbe davvero singolare, sorprendente, se, dopo l'analisi dei dati, una AI "decidesse" di scrivere il report finale in forma poetica, magari con un approccio quasistocastico, fuzzy, per la stesura del testo ...