#with the key roles mice

[batri-jopa]

This Christmas, I wish you to find the childlike ability to enjoy every little thing and forget about the differences between people❤️ And in the coming New Year, may there always be a helping hand to help you realize your plans and dreams! 🌠

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Maybe I should end at this point but I have to share how much I loved the way my cousin reacted to me sending him my wishes! Other ppl thanked me, wished me Merry Christmas too and sometimes mentioned it's a nice drawing - but he send me a full analysis!!!🤯 And I just want to let you all to know that it's always worth to leave a comment on details of the artpiece you liked, every artist /writer /creator absolutely love to hear someone engaged with it enough to notice those details!🥰

Please remember to spread love and leave comments on other ppl's creations!❤️❤️❤️

[Translation: "The central mice draw special attention, and from what we can see, they play the key roles. One coordinates and indicates tasks, and the other puts in a lot of strength to keep the work in the right shape! So we bet that although other animals draw attention faster with their colourful and festive plumage, it is actually the mice who are the brains behind this Christmas Decoration :D " ]

[urrmomzfavorite]

PICK A CARD MESSAGE YOU NEED TO HEAR

Pile One: Cards: Three of Cups, The World, Ace of Pentacles, Page of Swords

Pile One, I’m really excited for you, my loves! Your friends are going to play a key role in your success when it comes to your career. You’ve been undergoing a period of deep transformation, shedding old layers, and purging what no longer serves you. There have been tough choices, some that went against your desires but were necessary for your growth. I feel a recognition of childhood trauma and the realization of how it has shaped your life so far. It’s a hard truth to swallow, but you’re emerging stronger. Your luck is turning, and that's the part I’m excited about—finally, we’re entering the rebirth phase! Soon, you’ll face a crossroads, which may feel like a test from the universe for some of you. The advice here is simple: choose YOU. What is best for you, always. Apply the hard lessons you’ve learned in recent years.

Great things are on the horizon for you and your loved ones, filled with celebrations and opportunities for growth. Stand your ground and set clear boundaries. You’re currently building a solid, honest foundation for your life. Your friends, as well as your community, are playing a huge part in your evolution. There are abundant opportunities ahead, and soon, you’ll find yourself in rooms you never even dreamed of.

Pile One, you’re a powerhouse, and I’m so proud of you! <3

(Lenormand Cards drawn: The Whip, The Coffin, The Child, The Mice, The Cross, The Rider, The Clover, The Crossroads, The Tower, The Dog, The House, The Bouquet)

message me for a personal reading <3

Pile Two: ( I honestly forgot to write the tarot cards that i drew, and now it's next day and i have no idea what they were, adhd brain sorry )

Pile Two, how does it feel to be right? You’re shining and glowing—no one can miss your light because you're radiating. I’m picking up on a "getting my revenge energy," but not in a malicious way. It’s more of a constructive, maybe a little mischievous, but not destructive vibe. I love how you express yourself—you would make an excellent politician. You’ve been through some challenges but bounced back quickly, showing resilience. I feel like you’ve realized you should always go where you’re celebrated, not where you're tolerated.

Now, I have something to say, and if it doesn’t resonate, it’s not for you. I feel like you've started a new relationship, and maybe the honeymoon phase is over. There’s been a lot of communication through messages, and it seems like you know it’s coming to an end. You're scared of what's next. My advice? Follow your childhood dreams. I feel like reconnecting with past hobbies or passions will bring you guidance. Your inner child is calling to you, and you’re finally answering the call. Is that why you’re glowing? BADDIEEEEEEEE. If you're going through this right now, just know that you are protected, and you're in good hands.

Your path is becoming clearer, and you're walking toward abundance and greater strength in your character. Let go of that feeling of being haunted, and trust that you are protected.

(Lenormand Cards drawn: The Whip, The Heart, The Letter, The Coffin, The Cross, The Crossroads, The Child, The Sun.) (Prism Oracle Deck: Abundance, Strength, Ghost, Caution, Protected)

message me for a personal reading <3

Pile Three: Cards: The Hanged One, The Magician, Knight of Swords, The Devil, Nine of Wands, Knight of Cups

Pile Three, you’re creating significant change around you. I’m getting this feeling that things are finally starting to fall into place. It’s like you’ve found the right key to unlock a door you’ve been trying to open for a while. It’s been a long and sometimes lonely journey, but you kept going, knowing success was inevitable. I want to commend you for your strategic approach, rational thinking, and cleverness. Some might call it luck, but the truth is, you’ve put in the work!

Soon, you will receive news or a message that will bring you much joy. You’ve poured so much energy and passion into this, and now you're reflecting on your growth. Pile Three, perhaps you’ve even gone through a physical transformation recently?

Your finances are set to grow significantly this year, and important people will want to work with you. Once again, I’m so proud of you, and I wish you all the best, my loves.

(Lenormand Cards drawn: The Scythe, The Tower, The Dog, The Fox, The Star, The Fish) (Prism Oracle Deck: Passion, Pain, Reflection, Growth)

message me for a personal reading <3

[covid-safer-hotties]

Nasal COVID-19 vaccine halts transmission - Published July 31, 2024

Study in hamsters indicates vaccines targeting nose, mouth may be key to controlling spread of respiratory infections

A nasal COVID-19 vaccine blocks transmission of the virus, according to an animal study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings suggest that vaccines delivered directly to the nose or mouth could play a critical role in containing the spread of respiratory infections.

The lightning-fast development of COVID-19 vaccines just months after the virus appeared was a triumph of modern science and saved millions of lives. But for all the good they did in reducing illnesses and deaths, the shots were unable to end the pandemic because of one notable weakness: They couldn’t stop the spread of the virus.

A new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that next-generation vaccines that target the virus’s points of entry — the nose and mouth — may be able to do what traditional shots cannot: contain the spread of respiratory infections and prevent transmission. Using a nasal COVID-19 vaccine based on Washington University technology, approved for use in India and licensed to Ocugen for further development in the U.S., the researchers showed that vaccinated hamsters that developed infections did not pass the virus on to others, breaking the cycle of transmission. In contrast, an approved COVID-19 vaccine that is injected failed to prevent the spread of the virus.

The findings, published July 31 in Science Advances, provide further evidence that so-called mucosal vaccines sprayed into the nose or dropped into the mouth may be the key to controlling respiratory infections such as influenza and COVID-19 that continue to circulate and cause significant illness and death.

“To prevent transmission, you need to keep the amount of virus in the upper airways low,” said senior author Jacco Boon, PhD, a professor of medicine, of molecular microbiology and of pathology & immunology. “The less virus that is there to begin with, the less likely you are to infect someone else if you cough or sneeze or even just breathe on them. This study shows that mucosal vaccines are superior to injected vaccines in terms of limiting viral replication in the upper airways and preventing spread to the next individual. In an epidemic or pandemic situation, this is the kind of vaccine you’re going to want.”

Developing vaccines that can control virus levels in the nose has proven challenging. Viruses such as influenza virus, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) multiply rapidly in the nose and spread from person to person within a few days of initial exposure. Traditional injectable vaccines generate immune responses that can take a week to build to full strength and are much less potent in the nose than in the bloodstream, leaving the nose relatively unprotected against a fast-multiplying, fast-spreading virus.

In principle, a vaccine sprayed or dropped directly into the nose or mouth could limit viral reproduction and thereby reduce transmission by eliciting an immune response right where it’s needed most. But gathering evidence that mucosal vaccines actually do reduce transmission has proven tricky. Animal models of transmission are not well-established, and tracking person-to-person transmission is fiendishly complicated, given the number and variety of encounters a typical person has on any given day.

For this study, Boon and colleagues developed and validated a model for community transmission using hamsters and then used it to assess the effect of mucosal vaccination on the spread of SARS-CoV-2. (Unlike mice, hamsters are naturally susceptible to infection with SARS-CoV-2, making them the ideal laboratory animals for a transmission study.)

The researchers immunized groups of hamsters with laboratory versions of approved COVID-19 vaccines: the nasal iNCOVACC used in India or the injected Pfizer vaccine. For comparison, some hamsters were not immunized. After giving the vaccinated hamsters a few weeks for their immune responses to fully mature, the researchers infected other hamsters with SARS-CoV-2 and then placed the immunized hamsters with the infected hamsters for eight hours. This first step of the experiment mimics the experience of vaccinated people who are exposed to a person with COVID-19.

After spending eight hours rubbing shoulders with infected hamsters, most of the vaccinated animals became infected. Virus was found in the noses and lungs of 12 of 14 (86%) hamsters that had received the nasal vaccine, and 15 of 16 (94%) hamsters that had received the injected vaccine. Importantly, while most animals in both groups were infected, they weren’t infected to the same degree. Hamsters that had been nasally immunized had virus levels in the airways 100 to 100,000 times lower than those that had received the shot or had not been vaccinated. The study did not assess the animals’ health, but previous studies have shown that both vaccines reduce the likelihood of severe illness and death from COVID-19.

The second step of the experiment yielded even more striking results. The researchers took vaccinated hamsters that subsequently developed infections and placed them with healthy vaccinated and unvaccinated hamsters for eight hours to model transmission of virus from a vaccinated person to others.

None of the hamsters that were exposed to nasally vaccinated hamsters became infected, regardless of whether the recipient hamster had been vaccinated or not. In contrast, roughly half of the hamsters that were exposed to hamsters vaccinated by injection became infected — again, regardless of the recipient’s immunization status. In other words, vaccination through the nose — but not by injection — broke the cycle of transmission.

These data, Boon said, could be important as the world prepares for the possibility that avian influenza, currently causing an outbreak in dairy cows, might adapt to humans and trigger a flu epidemic. An injectable vaccine for avian influenza already exists, and a team of researchers at Washington University is working toward a nasal vaccine for avian influenza. That team includes Boon and co-author Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine and one of the inventors of the nasal vaccine technology used in this paper.

“Mucosal vaccines are the future of vaccines for respiratory infections,” Boon said. “Historically, developing such vaccines has been challenging. There’s still so much we don’t know about the kind of immune response we need and how to elicit it. I think we’re going to see a lot of very exciting research in the next few years that could lead to big improvements in vaccines for respiratory infections.”

Study linked in the first link!

[theresattrpgforthat]

Do you have any solo ttrpgs that deal with like being a bodyguard or someone's knight? It's something I've had rattling around in my head for a while

Theme: Solo Knights

Hello friend, no luck in the bodyguard department but I sure do have some knight games! Let’s take a look.

Frog Errant, by ManaDawn Tabletop Games.

It’s a deadly and brutal world out there, and it is not too friendly for a lone frog. But if you embrace your quest and heed the omens, you may just be able to make a name for yourself. And if you wander long and far enough, you may be remembered in the songs of both frogs and mice.

Frog Errant is a solo, or GMless, game mode for Mausritter or other Into the Odd based games. In Frog Errant you will take up the role of a wandering frog knight-errant, seeking adventure, looking to fulfill a Quest - all while avoiding you prophesied Doom.

If you are familiar with Mausritter, then this game will be pretty easy to pick up. The game builds in some story that isn’t present in Mausritter - primarily the Quest that has been given to your frog knight, as well as a Doom that has been prophesied to overcome you. It looks like you can use a lot of the items and monsters from Mausritter, but Frog Errant has plenty of new pieces too!

Misericorde, by Andrew White.

Misericorde is a game of knightly romance, pining, unrequited love and confronting the expected behaviours of your social class. You play as a squire serving under a knight on a great quest, without your assistance they surely will fail and yet, as a squire you are obligated to remain in the background, forgotten and not commented on. However, you have developed feelings, perhaps unrequited, for your knight. The actions of the game focus on this struggle, between your Duty and your Desire. Will you hold back, hew to your duty and rank; or will you break free and open your heart, no matter how your beloved may respond.

You’re not exactly a knight in this game, but rather a squire to one. Misericorde is completely unlike the other games on this list because it focuses on devotion and desire, rather than the actions that a forsworn duty drives a Knight to do. You play the game by setting up scenes, asking questions, and rolling dice on an Oracle to figure out what happens next. This is an interpretive game, so while the Oracle will point you in a direction, you determine what exactly each result means.

Chalice, by Monkey’s Paw Games.

Chalice is a solo journaling role-playing game where you chronicle the perilous journey of a Grail-seeking knight in Arthurian England. During the game, you will tell the story of your Knight’s physical and spiritual descent as they quest for, and ultimately fail to find, the Grail. Your Knight’s quest is doomed. Their chivalric virtues will be surely undone by their fatal flaws and moral shortcomings.

This looks like the most immersive game for Arthurian mythology as a solo game. The game itself is designed to look like a manuscript from medieval times, calligraphy and all. Your Knight has benefits called Passions, key relationships called Bindings, and a fate determined by drawing cards from a tarot deck. Throughout the game, you will draw more cards that serve as prompts, which will give or strike through your Passions and Bindings, and play happens over the span of years. Each year is measured in two parts: the deed, which will be what your character accomplishes, and the Chanson, which is evocative recording of your character’s deeds. When you are unable to fulfill a prompt given to you, your story end

Pilgrimage of the Sun Guard, by Amanda P.

Quests in King Arthur stories are about ideals, conflict and temptation. 

Pilgrimage of the Sun Guard is a solo prompt-based journaling game where you create a Sun Guard and travel alone on a quest, attempting to hold to your Code until you reach the end, facing trials and complications along the way.  

You are the last Sun Guard. Will you take up the mantle and ride the ancient roads?

Pilgrimage of the Sun Guard follows a cycle of play. You will start by travelling to a new location, and follow the directions according to each location’s prompt. This may involve using or acquiring resources, accomplishing great deeds, and writing a record of what happened with each step of the quest. When you run out of all of your resources, you can choose to either end your quest there, or break your Code to continue. If you like the story of Gawain & the Green Knight, this game might be for you.

Sanctum Guard, by Bulger007.

Sanctum Guard is a 20-minute pen-and-paper solo game about protecting a powerful magic artifact against a horde of night terrors. In this game, you are a lone guardian of a secluded sanctum built to protect the Obsidram, a powerful artifact that can potentially destroy worlds if it falls into the wrong hands.

You live in peace and harmony with the Obsidram while it is hidden in this secret and desolate domain from power-hungry minds. But one night, someone or something finds the way and you see a glimmering portal from which a horde of monsters descends upon you. Will you manage to protect the Obsidram?

This game runs like a tower defense game, and requires a sheet of graph paper to play. You will build your Sanctum randomly, then roll against generated monsters with the hopes that you can take them out before they utterly destroy the Sanctum and take your sacred relic.

This game doesn’t detail who you’re guarding the Obsidram for, although I think you could also substitute the relic for a person, if you want to be guarding someone instead of something.

Falling Kingdom: The Last Knights, by Purple Robed Wizard.

“The lands are shattered, the gods that once held our hand are dead and the beasts are upon us. Our King. killed by his own flesh. All of us, but waiting to follow. But we still stand, we hold our ground as we rot, we are the Last Knights, and we will stand until we last draw breath.”

In Falling Kingdom you control the last Knights of a realm threatened by a great, corrupting and unstoppable force. There is no great victory waiting for you at the end, no songs to be heard. There is only struggle, corruption, betrayal and death.  The Kingdom will Fall, but this story isn’t about that, it is about the heroes that face this imminent fall, the Knights of the realm, normal men and women elevated to a position where they will fight for their homelands against all odds.

This is a map-conquering game, with randomly generated missions, a Great Battle that could turn the tides of the war, and a stages of battles depending on how much territory you win or lose. You can accumulate corruption as you play, which is helpful in getting successful rolls, but accrue too much, and your knights begin to die. If you like a game about strategy, tragedy, and abstract warfare, this might be the game for you.

Sentinel, by Meghan Cross.

You are the lone guardian of a place of great power - known to you only as The Sanctuary. Many years you have kept vigil in this place, guarding what is kept within from any and all who come to disrupt it or steal it for themselves. 

Sentinel is a solo journaling game about a solitary guardian and the place they are charged with keeping safe. It is a deck and dice based game in which you will create your guardian and the sanctuary that they protect before reliving the memories, facing threats, and finding interesting objects while time passes around you. And then, when the time has come for your watch to end, find out what happens to The Sanctuary when you are no longer able to guard it.

This is a journaling game that uses cards to determine what kinds of actions your character can take. Hearts summon memories, Diamonds grant you items, Spades bring threats, and Clubs pass time. If you draw a Joker, the game is over and the story ends. At the end of the game, the final roll determines whether or not you are successful in your quest. This is a great game for folks who like journaling and world building.

Games I've Recommended in the Past

5-Min Knight, by enui.

Fetch My Blade, by Ethan Yen.

[probablyasocialecologist]

While the Cass Review has been presented by the U.K. media, politicians and some prominent doctors as a triumph of objective inquiry, its most controversial recommendations are based on prejudice rather than evidence. Instead of helping young people, the review has caused enormous harm to children and their families, to democratic discourse and to wider principles of scientific endeavour. There is an urgent need to critically examine the actual context and findings of the report. Since its 2020 inception, the Cass Review’s anti-trans credentials have been clear. It explicitly excluded trans people from key roles in research, analysis and oversight of the project, while sidelining most practitioners with experience in trans health care. The project centered and sympathized with anti-trans voices, including professionals who deny the very existence of trans children. Former U.K. minister for women and equalities Kemi Badenoch, who has a history of hostility toward trans people even though her role was to promote equality within the government, boasted that the Cass Review was only possible because of her active involvement. The methodology underpinning the Cass Review has been extensively criticized by medical experts and academics from a range of disciplines. Criticism has focused especially on the effect of bias on the Cass approach, double standards in the interpretation of data, substandard scientific rigor, methodological flaws and a failure to properly substantiate claims. For example, although the existing literature reports a wide range of important benefits of social transition and no credible evidence of harm, the Cass Review cautions against it. The review also dismisses substantial documented benefits of adolescent medical transition as underevidenced while highlighting risks based on evidence of significantly worse quality. A warning about impaired brain maturation, for instance, cites a single, very short speculative paper that in turn rests on one experimental study with female mice. Meanwhile extensive qualitative data and clinical consensus are almost entirely ignored. These issues help explain why the Cass recommendations differ from previous academic reviews and expert guidance from major medical organisations such as the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the American Academy of Pediatrics. WPATH’s experts themselves highlight the Cass report’s “selective and inconsistent use of evidence,” with recommendations that “often do not follow from the data presented in the systematic reviews.” Leading specialists in transgender medical care from the U.S. and Australia emphasize that “the Review obscures key findings, misrepresents its own data, and is rife with misapplications of the scientific method.” For instance, the Cass report warns that an “exponential change in referrals” to England’s child and adolescent gender clinic during the 2010s is “very much faster than would be expected.” But this increase has not been exponential, and the maximum 5,000 referrals it notes in 2021 represents a very small proportion of the 44,000 trans adolescents in the U.K. estimated from 2021 census data.

7 August 2024

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Analysis: Of Mice and Men (Key Terms & Concepts)

AMERICAN DREAM

In Of Mice and Men the American Dream is symbolized by George and Lennie's desire for their own piece of land.

They momentarily believe if they work hard and save their money, they can afford to buy a home and work only for their own upkeep rather than someone else's.

Lennie and George's dream is eventually thwarted by the accidental killing of Curley's wife, demonstrating that no matter how hard one works, there are strong forces outside of one's control that ultimately determine one's success or failure.

DIFFERENCES

Steinbeck has an eclectic cast of characters in the story that have noticeable differences, like mental or physical disabilities, that set them apart and influence how they are treated by others in society.

Most specifically are Lennie, Candy, and Crooks, though Curley's wife can also be included because she is a woman, and therefore vastly different from the men around her.

ECONOMIC CLASS

In Of Mice and Men Steinbeck shows that hard-working Americans like George, Lennie, and the rest of their co-workers are unable to rise to a desirable middle-class lifestyle due to social and natural forces outside of their control.

They are doomed to wander from place to place in search of better work, better pay, and a place to call home.

FEMININITY

Curley's wife is the only female character physically present in the story.

Her femininity is both feared and resented by the males that surround her on the ranch.

Steinbeck uses Curley's wife to demonstrate how women are lonely and out of place in the masculine world of the ranch.

LONELINESS

There is an ever-present sense of loneliness in the text. Crooks, Candy, and Curley's wife all express their deep desire for companionship.

George and Lennie have managed to temporarily escape loneliness through their friendship, which makes others curious as well as a little jealous.

George eventually ends up alone like the others after he is forced to kill Lennie at the end of the story.

RABBITS

Rabbits take on a significant role in the story, representing George and Lennie's vision of the American Dream.

Before George kills Lennie, he tells Lennie about the rabbits that they plan to have.

When George kills Lennie, he also kills the idea of the rabbits and their dream of having a life of freedom.

RACE

Crooks, the African-American stable hand, is the main example of how race is incorporated into the story.

Steinbeck portrays Crooks as bitter and lonely because of the way he is ostracized from the rest of society.

Steinbeck shows that despite African-Americans being free they are still enslaved by terrible racism in the United States.

Curley's wife most poignantly reminds Crooks of his position when she threatens to have him lynched for crossing her.

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References

[mindblowingscience]

This early memory loss is comparable to mild cognitive impairment in humans that precedes full-blown Alzheimer’s disease. The ketogenic diet is a low-carbohydrate, high fat, and moderate protein diet, which shifts the body’s metabolism from using glucose as the main fuel source to burning fat and producing ketones for energy. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, previously found that mice lived 13% longer on ketogenic diets.

Continue Reading.

[whenyuuwish]

bluecherry in the Cinderella AU

✦. ❝ so this is love, so this is what makes life divine. i’m all aglow and now i know the key to all heaven is mine. my heart has wings and i can fly. i’ll touch every star in the sky so this is the miracle, that i’ve been dreaming of

warnings: child neglect and abuse, bullying, confinement/imprisonment loss and abandonment, emotional manipulation

Whitney is raised in a harsh orphanage, where she takes on the responsibilities of caring for her younger brothers, Jordan and Myles. Despite being the oldest, she's forced to do all the chores, while the other orphans neglect to help.

Jordan and Myles secretly help Whitney with her work, but are punished whenever they’re caught. The boys are like Whitney’s little small friends, loyal and protective of her.

Whitney is drawn to stories of adventure and romance, spinning tales of magic for her brothers and longing for a life beyond her mundane duties.

The king of the Queendom of Roses, Riddle Rosehearts, announces a ball to find a bride for his friend, Prince Ace Trappola (Son of the Kingdom Caelumrose, where the other/oldest son gave up on the crowd as he wished for adventure). Whitney learns that all eligible maidens are invited, fueling her dream to attend and escape her harsh life, even if just for a night.

Her orphanage rivals, the “older girls,” mock Whitney’s desire to go to the ball. They take advantage of her enthusiasm by adding to her chores, making it seem impossible for her to prepare in time.

As Whitney faces the disappointment of missing the ball, a mysterious, mischievous fairy named Lilia appears. Understanding her wishes, he transforms her into a regal young lady with a beautiful blue dress and glass slippers. Lilia also transforms a nearby pumpkin into a carriage and her the orphanage mice into horses to take her to the ball. He reminds her that the spell will break at midnight.

At the ball, Prince Ace is surrounded by eager suitors (he’s not that interested in romance), yet none capture his attention until he meets Whitney. Despite her old-fashioned manners and shy demeanor, Ace is captivated by her charm and mystery.

Whitney and Ace share a dance and quickly become close, bonding over their mutual desire to defy their rigid roles in society. The Prince’s friends Riddle, Deuce, and others watch, shocked by Ace’s sudden interest in someone so different.

Just as the two are about to share a deeper conversation, Whitney hears the clock chime midnight. Remembering Lilia’s warning, she rushes from the palace, leaving behind a single glass slipper.

The next day, Prince Ace declares that he will marry the girl whose foot fits the slipper. The royal Duke, Deuce, is sent to every household in the kingdom.

News reaches Whitney’s orphanage, and her rivals do everything possible to hide her, locking her away in a storage room so she can’t try on the slipper.

Jordan and Myles, with the help of some of the orphanage animals, manage to retrieve the key to free Whitney from her locked room, allowing her to reach Deuce just in time.

Deuce arrives, and the slipper fits perfectly on Whitney’s foot. Her rivals are horrified as Deuce declares her the Prince’s chosen bride.

Whitney is taken to the castle, where she and Prince Ace are reunited. The two fall deeply in love, each finding in the other a kindred spirit who shares their desire for freedom and adventure.

Whitney, now free from the constraints of her old life, brings her brothers to live with her in the palace.

[reasonsforhope]

A new drug was able to quickly and temporarily immobilize sperm in male mice, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications, a discovery researchers described as a “game-changer” that could pave the way for a male contraceptive pill and could ultimately allow men to share equal responsibility with women for birth control.

A single oral dose of the drug immobilized mice sperm for up to two and a half hours and was 100% effective in the first two hours, the researchers said.

Treated mice showed normal mating behavior but none impregnated a mate despite 52 different attempts to do so, the researchers said, compared to almost a third of mice impregnating mates after being treated with an inactive control substance.

The drug is fast-acting—Melanie Balbach, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine, said it worked within 30 to 60 minutes—and works by inhibiting an enzyme needed for sperm to function.

It is also temporary, with efficacy dropping to 91% at three hours and fertility returning to normal by the next day.

These properties set the drug apart from many of the other efforts to develop a male contraceptive, the researchers said, which often rely on hormones to control fertility and can take weeks or months to be effective or to wear off.

The study demonstrates proof-of-concept for “safe, non-hormonal, on-demand, male contraceptives,” the researchers said, and while it may work in theory any product will be many years and a great deal of testing in the future.

-via Forbes, 2/14/23

And there is ANOTHER breakthrough with a different method from just two months later:

A ground-breaking contraceptive pill for men could be just around the corner after a major genetic breakthrough. Scientists at Washington State University have identified a gene which temporarily renders sperm infertile after they remove it.

The research team discovered a protein encoded by this gene, found solely in the testicular tissue of most mammals, which reduced sperm counts and deformed remaining sperm to make them incapable of fertilizing an egg when altered. The potentially historic breakthrough contraceptive pill would also have no hormonal side-effects and could be additionally help control animal overpopulation — replacing castration.

Crucially, the destabilization of the infertility protein is not permanent, meaning sperm will recover once the person or animal stops taking the treatment. Scientists have hailed the discovery as potentially important for the future of the human race. In their study, researchers identified the expression of a gene called Arrdc5 in the testicular tissue of mice, pigs, cattle, and humans...

However, disrupting the functions of this protein will not require any hormonal interference, a key hurdle considering the multiple roles testosterone plays beyond sperm production in men, including the building of bone mass and muscle strength as well as red blood cell production. The team also says that designing a drug which only targets this protein would further make it easily reversible as a contraceptive.

-via Study Finds, 4/19/23

Note: Please excuse the cissexist language from the sources here, which I have not edited out for accuracy, etc. The Forbes article does respectfully discuss trans and nonbinary people and their birth control needs further down.

[bpod-bpod]

Keeping Gum

Revealing the roles of cells bearing the proteins NFATc1 and PDGFRα in the maintenance and regeneration of dental and surrounding tissues by tracing cells in live mice, imaging 'cleared' tissue and 3D image reconstruction techniques. Insights for tissue regeneration treatments

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Xue Yang and colleagues

State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, China

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife (reviewed preprint), September 2024

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[qwenvs3000f24]

Unit 09: The Forest Feeds the Forest

What does a sugar maple, a mouse, an owl, and an earthworm have in common? It would seem like very little! A sugar maple is huge, towering many meters above the forest floor, whereas an earthworm is minuscule, and finds its home underground. Despite their differences, however, each of these organisms has a very important role to play in each other’s lives.

The sugar maple is an iconic Canadian species. It is found on the flag, is the source of the maple syrup, and explains the breathtaking autumn vistas of rolling hills covered in the reds, oranges, and yellows of changing leaves. But the sugar maple is not only important to Canadian identity—it is also an integral part of forest ecosystems.

Like any other organism in the forest, the sugar maple has one goal: reproduce. To maximize the likelihood of one of its offspring surviving to maturity, the sugar maple puts out many seeds—each individual tree can produce hundreds of thousands! This is very much like buying a lottery ticket—surely one must be a winner!

If you have ever walked into a sugar maple forest, you will know that at any given point, you will be surrounded by hundreds—if not thousands—of trees. If each one of these trees produces hundreds of thousands of seeds…you do the math! This is a good outcome for the sugar maple, but it is also beneficial to the mouse. Mice, in preparation for the winter ahead, must store food. This winter caching corresponds to the timing of the production of maple seeds, which makes these seeds a key part of the mouse’s diet.

These seeds are of such importance that their availability is a key determinant of the mouse’s population! Like many fruiting plants, the seed crops of sugar maples go through “booms” and “busts”—some years have exceptional seed production, whereas other years have poor seed production. In the good years, the millions of seeds produced by the sugar maples in the forest mean that mice can survive and reproduce without issue. “Boom” years for the sugar maple correspond with “boom” years for the mouse.

The mouse “boom” benefits predators of mice—such as the owl. The owl, which does not need to struggle to find food, is able to raise more offspring. The owl experiences a “boom” itself, which will lead to a reversal of the mouse “boom”—an intricate cycle which continues in perpetuity.

As the season draws to a close the days get shorter, the nights get colder, and slowly those reds, oranges, and yellows begin to emerge. The leaves eventually fall to the forest floor—a shared fate with millions of others. As the days turn into months and the months into years, the earthworm comes along and begins feeding on the decaying plant matter. The earthworm in turn increases the nutrients in the soil. This, of course, is good for the sugar maple, which is good for the mouse, which is good for the owl...

[parmaviolets]

shut up im literally obsessed with ur fnaf au. can you explain everything about it?? (characters added, their roles, etc?) i love it so mych im gobbling it up nom nom nom

hii thank you. infodump time teehee

The AU is kind of set during the events of FNAF 2, but I've shuffled things around so it's a sequel and also it takes place in Massachusetts circa 2004.

more under the cut because augh. Many thoughts

Mike has recently gotten married to his coworker, Eugene, who is for all intents and purposes a regular accountant type guy except for being a weird freak (compliment) and ALSO more relevantly, been promoted to day guard. This means they're going to need a new nightguard, and that ends up being Jeremy, who recently moved back to his hometown (Fazbear Capital of the World) from where he was living in Vermont.

Jeremy has a girlfriend, which he talks about all the time but Mike does not fucking believe she's real until she threatens him with a knife for bullying Her Guy. Her name is Nadia Knox! She's a scene girl who works at a hardware store, loves blasting MCR in her car, carries a ridiculous amount of things in her bag, likes making copies of people's house keys without them knowing, tracing cell phones, shoplifting, etc. normal girl hobbies basically

She and Jeremy have kind of a beard relationship going on because like. Jeremy is very aromantic and she's bi but really looking for serious relationships right now. But they pass really easily as a couple because they genuinely do really like each other as friends and have a lot of affection for each other.

Charlotte "Chucky" Emily is another gal that works at the pizzeria, mostly in repair and maintenance of the animatronics and equipment. She grew up with Michael mostly so they've got a silly kind of sibling relationship going on, but besides that she doesn't really.. have friends. She was homeschooled by her father, Henry, and finds herself a little socially inept so she kinda keeps to herself.

Chucky was partially raised by William Afton too, but when she was younger he had a bad falling out with Henry and she didn't really see him for like. 10 years after that. but Will always somehow got little gifts to her- toolboxes, books, taxidermied mice. Normal things that the estranged business partner of your father would send you, as far as she knew. Because she doesn't go outside enough to know that's fucking Weird.

Henry is kind of silly. He gives off the vibes like he was a looney tunes character that escaped Disneyland and now he's stuck in a slasher and doesn't know it. He and William were good friends back in the day! Also had some subtextual homoeroticism. When Will left to manage Afton Robotics, Henry took over full ownership of Freddy's.

Into the plot deets, Jeremy was actually intended to be one of the victims of the original Missing Children's Incident, but he got a tummy ache and went home before he could get Murdered. Following that, his mother thought "this city sucks, I'm going to Vermont" and took him with her. Now that he's 21 and definitely needs to move out of his mother's house, he decided to go back to Brockton (mistake #1) and work at Freddy's (mistake #2) because it was the only place that was gonna hire him hashtag job market in shambles.

ogh okay I need to get ready for work now see u

[karizard-ao3]

Eremika Role Reversal WIP Segment

It's Mikasa Week on Twitter and I was really trying to get this fic done in time for it but it's ended up being a lot more than I anticipated, so I'm sharing this portion of the rough draft because I still want to celebrate Mikasa, who is a perfect angel and has never done anything wrong in her life.

There's no context needed. This is from the start of the WIP onward.

The door swings open and slams into the wall, rattling the paintings that hang there in the luxurious suite. 

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Armin shouts, storming into the room, his eyes blazing with fury and panic. “Do you even know what you’ve done?”

Eren is on his feet in an instant, his eyes hard and dark, his teeth set into a snarl, stalking towards him, wolflike and dangerous, putting his body between Armin and the pale, black-haired girl beyond. It is still strange to Armin, seeing Eren like this: glaring at him with two gleaming eyes, standing there without his prosthesis or his crutch. Armin’s eyes linger for a disoriented moment on the strange curve of calf and shin that fills out Eren’s pant leg before he comes back to himself and turns his attention to the young woman beyond. At the window seat, Mikasa has barely moved, her eyes still trained on the desolation below. Armin’s stomach twists, fresh anguish and rage coursing through him. He doesn't recognize either of his two best friends anymore. He doesn’t know where he fits in this new hell they have created. 

“Mikasa!” Armin shouts. 

“Get out,” Eren growls. “If you’re here to act superior, just go.”

“I won’t,” Armin snaps. “I need to talk to Mikasa.”

Mikasa turns towards the commotion, watching them both with shadowed eyes, her lips pulling into a frown. 

“Armin?” she says. “How long have you been here?”

“Do you know how many years of diplomacy you’ve just wasted?” he demands, ignoring her question, pushing past Eren. Eren grabs his wrist, restraining him, squeezing far tighter than he needs to, his fingertips digging into Armin’s skin hard enough to bruise. Armin ignores the pain. “Do you know how many people you’ve slaughtered, Mikasa?”

“They were coming to kill you,” Mikasa says, faintly, her cheeks fading to an even whiter cast. “They…”

“Leave. Now,” Eren instructs, swinging Armin around and shoving him towards the door. “She needs to rest.”

“She needs to answer for her crimes,” says Armin, his voice dripping with vitriol. 

“She hasn’t committed any,” Eren hisses, giving Armin one final shove and shutting the door in his face. He turns the key in the lock and turns to Mikasa. “Don’t listen to him,” he says, but she has already turned back to the window, her body curling in on itself. He comes up behind her, resting his hand on her shoulder. 

“The houses look so small without the walls,” she says. Eren considers this, looking out at the scene before them. The cottages and inns and shops of Shiganshina huddle together like frightened mice, surrounded by a mind numbing expanse of empty, trodden fields. In the distance, he can see the horizon. It feels like a dream to be able to watch the sun set instead of losing it to the walls long before darkness falls. 

“I wasn’t thinking about diplomacy,” Mikasa whispers. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t.” She sits for a moment, the muscles in her throat shifting as she swallows again and again. “How many babies did I kill?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Eren soothes. “You didn’t mean to do it. It was her, and they’ll see that soon..”

She takes a deep, shaky breath, her gaze still glued to the scars she has left on the land. She hasn’t looked Eren in the face since she came out of her titan, wheezing and gasping for breath, her eyes wild and frenzied, their friends staring at her in simultaneous horror and relief.

No one can agree on whether she has saved them or damned them all. 

But Eren knows where he stands, and it is here at her side. He combs his fingers through her tangled hair, an idle habit, and she wilts beneath his touch. 

"How do I live with myself after this?" she says. "Why did your father put this burden on me?"

That's something Eren has often wondered himself, first with discontentment and jealousy and then with dawning sorrow as he realized the full scope of the unwilling sacrifice his father had exacted from her. She would not talk about it at length, besides when she had revealed all during her trial, but he believed he could pinpoint the night it had happened. He had risen, restless, from his sleeping pad on the floor of the makeshift refugee center- a colorless, hollow cavern echoing inside his chest as his every nerve screamed for his mother to return to him from across the gulf of mortality. How could he sleep when the memories of her disappearing into that titan's grinning craw played an endless, looping show in the theater of his mind? Surrounding him, curled on their own thin mats, Armin and Mikasa slept, their breath deep and even, sleep erasing the harrowed, wide-eyed panic that had painted their faces beneath smears of tears and dirt. Eren could not lose himself in sleep and so he walked, wandering the streets of this unfamiliar city, imagining he would find his mother waiting around just the next corner and reminding himself that wishful thinking was not enough to raise the dead. When he finally returned, not long before sunrise, Mikasa was lying awake, staring up at the ceiling, so still that he feared for a moment she was dead, too, but, as he lowered himself onto his mat and pulled the thin blanket to his shoulders, her head fell sideways and she looked at him. Her eyes were so wide and shiny that they seemed to glow like twin full moons, the reflected light silvery and sad. She looked even older than she had before she had fallen asleep. He had a moment of disorientation noticing that the scratches he remembered seeing on her cheeks and forehead were gone, but memory could be fickle and he brushed away his moment of unease.

"I couldn't sleep," Eren said, scooting to the edge of his mat, closer to her. 

"Someone woke me up," she'd said, rolling to face him. "Now I'm thinking."

Their eyes met, and for a moment Eren could imagine that they were in the bedroom they had shared in his family home, back in Shiganshina, tucked into their twin beds and whispering their secrets to each other from across the expanse of floor that separated them. Now they were so close that Eren could reach out and take her hand when he confessed, "I miss my mom."

"I don't know who I am anymore," said Mikasa, repaying his revelation with one of her own. She was working her way up to telling him what was truly on her mind. She never disclosed her real secret in the first round

"I want to kill every last titan," said Eren, his hand tightening around hers, his voice quivering with irate passion. "I want to wipe them off this earth." Mikasa shrank in on herself, and Eren didn't know why there suddenly appeared to be a wall between them. He hated walls. "When they're all gone, we can have our home back," he said. "When all the titans are dead, we'll be free."

He waited for her to take her turn, but it was a long wait, agonizing as she turned her thoughts over in her head, always so much more careful than he. Finally, she met his eyes again and said, "I'm scared."

"Then you can sleep with me tonight," said Eren, just as his mother would have done, and lifted his blanket for her to crawl under. It barely covered them, but she added her blanket to the pile and they wrapped their skinny, ten-year-old arms around each other and laid like that until dawn, neither of them speaking but neither of them sleeping either.

Now he wonders if they're in for another sleepless night as he strokes her black hair, humming under his breath. She rouses a little, turns to him. "Don't do that," she says. "I don't deserve it."

“Of course you do,” he murmurs, his fingers smoothing down the black, silken strands, gentle but persistent. 

“How do I live with myself?” she repeated, and even though it pains him to hear the anguish in her voice, it comforts him to see that she is no longer playing the statue. 

“You lost control,” he reasons. “Ackermans aren’t supposed to transform. It’s the one thing you’re not good at.”

Her lips twist and she touches her fingers to the back of her neck, her eyes dulling like stones. He knows what she is thinking, knows better than he knows his own mind. “And yet…” she murmurs. 

And yet she can transform. 

She wonders, as she often does, how many people ignored her screams on the night that Grisha Jaeger cursed her, when he lured her from her mat at the refugee shelter, murmuring, “Come with me, Mikasa. Let’s find Eren,” and spirited her away to the small wood outside of town. She had trusted Eren’s father, had thought nothing of following him in among the trees, had still believed he would never do her any harm when he withdrew the syringe from his coat and held it up, gleaming in the moonlight. “This has to work,” he had rasped, grabbing her arm with a hand like a vise. “I can’t give this to my son. I can’t give this to Eren.”

“Uncle?” she had whimpered as he twisted her into a headlock and forced her chin forward, exposing the nape of his neck. She was polite in her terror, respectful of her elders as her Hizuran mother had taught her to be. 

“If I do it here, maybe… Maybe…” Grisha muttered, running a finger along the ridges of her vertebrae and settling on one bony peak. 

“Uncle?” she whimpered again. Then, pain. It stabbed into her and shot down her back and clawed at the base of her skull, howling through her throat in an agonized wail that shifted into a roar of hunger. 

It wasn’t until she had devoured the old man that she came to and realized what he had done to her and what she had done to him. His memories bled into hers, giving her a panoramic view of his violent demise, crushed between her gnashing teeth and down into her gullet, and the understanding that she was one of the fabled Ackermans, and she could not be turned into a titan except by this one trick, Grisha’s final gambit – an injection directly into her spine.

She was delirious as she stumbled back to the shelter, battered by tidal waves of past lives that would have been locked to her if it weren’t for her exceptional inheritance – her Ackerman immunity. She lost her way several times, dogged by the paranoid sensation of being watched from inside her head, her every confused thought observed by a pair of shadowed eyes. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she searched for her sleeping mat and Armin, hoping that Eren would come back and that he would not hate her for what she had become. The memory unleashes her tears in the present. They lacquer her cheeks and she tastes their saltiness when the beads break open on her lips. The back of her neck prickles. She resumes her vigil at the window, her teeth making tatters of her lips as she frets, wisps of steam shrouding her face as her skin stitches itself back together with Sisyphean diligence beneath her unrelenting ravages. Her hand hovers at her bare throat, her fingers reaching for nothing. Eren stands and goes to her bedside, retrieving a neatly folded bundle and letting it unfurl. 

He loops the scarf around her neck and her grasping fingers find purchase in the knit fabric, tugging it up over her nose. She sighs, the tension in her back easing just a little. Eren brushes the hair away from her forehead. 

Mikasa lets out a long, painful breath. “I don’t know why I thought I could control it this time. I thought… Historia…” she trails off, nestling deeper into her scarf. “Do you know where she is?”

“I can find her for you,” Eren offers, wondering if he should leave her alone. “We can go look for her together.”

Mikasa looks towards the locked door. On the other side are the friends who had become her foes. She almost wishes they had succeeded in killing her. 

No. 

Not almost. 

She should be in the ether along with everyone who had died today. And yet, she is not and she is not sure whether she even deserves that peace. Because of her, twenty percent of humanity has been trampled and a new wall has formed, advancing Paradisian territory far beyond the island, bisecting continents and cupping the sea. Years of diplomatic efforts had been negated in a matter of hours. Would Hizuru at least still stand with her, or was this too much for even them who had declared themselves allies to the devil island that had sheltered and raised their lost Azumabito princess? 

“Mikasa?” Eren asks. “Do you want to go look for the Queen?”

Mikasa does not. She is afraid to see Historia. She is worried they will come too close and that skin will touch skin and the horror will begin anew. And yet, Mikasa needs to see her with an intensity that threatens to turn her inside out.

She falters. “No,” she says, running her hands up and down the gooseflesh that has risen on her arms. “I can’t face- When they see me again… I want- I want to at least look strong.” She takes a deep breath. “I want to take a bath and put on my uniform. I think… I think I should at least do that… I should be at my best when I go to face my crimes.” 

With that declaration, the meager ration of resilience bestowed upon her by her scarf’s gentle embrace is depleted and she is nearly crushed by the weight of what she’s become.

Eren surges towards her as her eyes cloud over and she wilts like a moisture-starved campanula. She has withdrawn once more. He cradles her face in his hands, trying to catch her gaze but she is limp and listless and all he can think to do, when all his other efforts have been exhausted, is to pull her to her feet and help her to the bathroom. She stands against the wall, staring at nothing as he fills the claw-footed bathtub.

"Come here, Mikasa," he says in a melodious, inviting baritone. "Your bath is ready."

She wanders over and looks down at the clear, steaming water. She wants to be immersed in it, but the small feats she must complete before she can are insurmountable. Her fingers falter at her neckline. The small white button on her shirt is the heaviest thing she has ever had to move.

Eren does it for her, brushing her hand away with gentle fingers. His capacity for softness becomes infinite when they are alone. He looks everywhere but down as he slips each button through its buttonhole, remembering another time when he undressed her. His breath catches and he fumbles on the last button, then steadies his hands and slides her shirt from her shoulders. She doesn't blush or smile at him like she did in Marley. Her eyes now are like tarnished silver coins when back then they had gleamed like polished hematite, holding his as he settled on top of her with gleeful uncertainty. He helps her remove her pants, sliding them down her legs and tapping each shin in turn, prompting her to step out of them. 

"Sorry," she mutters, placing a light hand on his shoulder to steady herself. 

He keeps his eyes on her feet as he removes her underpants, then stands, averting his gaze, and turns her around so only her bare back is visible to him when he pulls her athletic brassiere over her head.

He helps her into the tub and she sinks down to her chin, resting her head back against the porcelain. The tips of her short hair fan out across the surface of the water and she closes her eyes.

Eren retrieves a chair and sets it with its back against the tub before he sits in it, wiggling the toes he's still getting used to having again while he listens to the faint lapping of the bathwater behind him and Mikasa's measured breaths.

He extends his leg, moving his foot back and forth. It still didn't feel like his after so many years without it. He had been eaten in Trost when he was fifteen, swallowed by a bearded titan after throwing Armin from its maw. His leg had fallen victim to the monster's teeth, and his eye had been damaged after, possibly when Mikasa, in her titan form for the first time ever, had torn open the bearded brute and excavated his gullet, searching for Eren. He had lost a lot of blood and his consciousness, remembering nothing past pitch blackness, suffocating heat, and his futile attempts to haul himself back up the monster’s esophagus with his blades, plunging them into titan’s slimy gastric wall, his head swimming from the temperature and the sanguineous gush from his severed knee. He thinks he remembers ripping his sleeve and tying a clumsy tourniquet around his stump, but the only thing he can be sure of is that he has been ingested, and then he woke up in a bed with a bandage over half of his face and phantom pains in his missing foot and calf. Armin was sitting with him, staring out the window, unaware that Eren had returned to the waking world. 

“Did Mikasa save me again?” he’d croaked. He was parched. His tongue was rough and tacky against the roof of his mouth and he wanted nothing more than he wanted a sip of water. 

Armin jolted, looking down at Eren with wide eyes. “Good morning!” he said. “I mean, good afternoon!”

Eren cast a feeble glance side to side, expecting to see Mikasa, but she was nowhere to be found. The betrayal irked him but he was too proud to ask why she wasn’t at his bedside with Armin. “How- how long-?” he asked, struggling to form the words in a mouth like the deserts in Armin’s book. How long had he been asleep for?

Armin stood. “I’ll get you some water,” he said, catching Eren’s predicament. “And then… I have to tell you about Mikasa.”

Armin said it in such a grave way that Eren was sure that she was dead. He would have gulped if he’d had enough moisture in his mouth to do so, but he could hardly swallow. Instead, he lay there with his hands clasped on his chest, waiting for the water and waiting to find out his dearest and most confusing friend was gone. It didn’t make sense. She was strong, and talented, and she was supposed to survive longer than the rest of them. She was supposed to die as an old woman. 

Armin helped Eren sit, propping him up with more pillows and holding the glass of water to his lips. Eren drank as much as he could stomach, then lifted his chin, indicating he was done. Armin sat back down in his chair, holding the half-empty glass in his lap with both hands.

“What happened to Mikasa?” Eren rasped.

Armin didn’t answer for a long time.

“Armin? What-?”

“She’s a titan.”

Now it was Eren’s turn to fall silent as he tried to work out what Armin could possibly mean. “You mean…” This time he can swallow. “Are you saying a titan ate her?”

“...No,” said Armin. “I mean…” He sighed. “It sounds… It sounds insane, doesn’t it? But… in Trost… after you saved me from that bearded titan and he swallowed you instead, the supply depot was abandoned and overrun by titans. We couldn’t retreat without more gas and we couldn’t get to the gas. It was just us cadets, and… well. Mikasa… she screamed something about being strong and if we don’t fight we can’t win and she went tearing away across the rooftops and went after the titan who had eaten you. She used up way too much gas and we were too far behind her to help. One of the titans noticed her and headed her way, and…” Armin stopped, staring sightlessly in front of him, reliving the moment with lingering disbelief. “She cut her palm with her blade, and… she just… burst, somehow. Like… she burst and the titan inside of her shot out and wrapped around her, and… Uh.” Armin shook his head. “The first thing she did was rip apart the bearded titan and take you out. Once she'd put you out of reach, she took care of the titans outside the supply depot and we took care of the titans inside, and… Well. I had this idea, too. That we could do before we went back to rejoin the troops. There was this big boulder near the gate and Mikasa was still a titan and…” He trailed off.

“And what?” said Eren.

Armin was clearly proud of his ingenuity but doing his best not to brag. “I suggested that she could seal the gate with the rock. I think it saved her life.”

“Eh?” said Eren. He was tiring out fast but he was still trying to make sense of how Mikasa, their Mikasa, could be one of the same enemies who had killed his mother.

Armin gripped the water glass tighter. “They wanted to kill her,” he said.

Eren tensed. 

“Most of the cadets retreated before we tried for the gate and reported what had happened to Command. And then it took her a while to come out of the titan. She kept pacing around until eventually she collapsed and… well. People were scared and the wait gave them plenty of time to panic. She could barely move when I got her back over the wall, but everyone was circled around us, flinching and jumpy like they thought she was going to attack them. There was this one guy who kept screaming to ready the cannons. But, you know. The gate was sealed because of her, and Pixis had just arrived and he's… If you meet him, you'll get it. He's… interesting." Armin stopped talking for a moment, lost in thought. "If Pixis hadn't been there, I don't think Mikasa would have made it out alive."

"Of course she would have," said Eren, resting heavily on his pile of pillows. "She's the most talented cadet in our year. Maybe ever."

Armin was doubtful. "You didn't see her," he said. "Trost took a lot out of her."

"Where is she now?" Eren asked. He was too weary to restrain the plaintive note in his voice, or to decrypt what it meant for him if the girl he'd always wanted to save had become one of the monsters he needed to destroy.

"She's locked up while they decide what to do with her," Armin said. 

Eren had gone back to sleep not long after that, and in his dreams Mikasa loomed over him, smiling like the titan who had orphaned him, blank-eyed and clumsy. He spent the next couple of weeks stewing over it whenever he was alone, trying to make sense of it. He wanted to see her but the thought repulsed him at the same time. Mikasa was a titan. Armin had seen it happen, and the people attending to Eren's care whispered about it with each other, sharing the rumors that were floating around on the streets.

When they helped him into a wheelchair and rolled him to the courthouse for his first outing since his injury, he was sullen. The conflict still raged inside him. How could he kill all of the titans when she was one of them? Without her he had no more home, but creatures like her were the ones who had taken it from him in the first place. 

[covid-safer-hotties]

Reference saved in our archive

Covid's making it difficult for people's immune systems to suppress cancer. There was a recent small-scale mouse study showing "tumor shrinkage" in a small percentage of those transgenic mice. This is a much larger analysis of the oncogenic potential of covid in humans. Guess which story the news has been reporting.

Abstract The 2019 outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 has caused a major worldwide health crisis with high rates of morbidity and death. Interestingly, it has also been linked to cancer, which begs the issue of whether it plays a role in carcinogenesis. Recent studies have revealed various mechanisms by which SARS-CoV-2 can influence oncogenic pathways, potentially promoting cancer development. The virus encodes several proteins that alter key signaling pathways associated with cancer hallmarks. Unlike classical oncogenic viruses, which transform cells through viral oncogenes or by activating host oncogenes, SARS-CoV-2 appears to promote tumorigenesis by inhibiting tumor suppressor genes and pathways while activating survival, proliferation, and inflammation-associated signaling cascades. Bioinformatic analyses and experimental studies have identified numerous interactions between SARS-CoV-2 proteins and cellular components involved in cancer-related processes. This review explores the intricate relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and cancer, focusing on the regulation of key hallmarks driving initiation, promotion and progression of cancer by viral proteins. By elucidating the underlying mechanisms driving cellular transformation, the potential of SARS-CoV-2 as an oncovirus is highlighted. Comprehending these interplays is essential to enhance our understanding of COVID-19 and cancer biology and further formulating strategies to alleviate SARS-CoV-2 influence on cancer consequences.

[theresattrpgforthat]

THEME: Mint's Fave Games (Part 2/2)

This is part 2 to a very difficult ask in which I managed to narrow it down to 12 games that I'm very normal about but still couldn't fit all in one post. 6 games left! I'll put the link for Part 1 here. Let's go!

Exceptionals, by Bramble Wolf Games, aka @sahonithereadwolf. (Purchased, not yet played)

I’m not a big comics fan, but X-Men has always been my favourite form of superhero media, particularly because I love the care and purposefulness of talking about marginalization and bigotry in a nuanced way. The creator of Exceptionals loves that very same thing about X-Men, and asks about what life is like for your average neighbourhood mutant.. This is a game where you can play Genodivergent folks, people who experience a process called Claremont-Simonson Mutation.

The game system uses d10’s - 2d10’s for any given roll, while you can use other d10’s to track the Bonds your characters have with each-other. Characters are made up of 4 “protocols”, lists of words and phrases that describe your mutation as well as your role as a community member. These pieces will not just give you advantages - they’ll give you disadvantages as well, which will affect the outcome of your rolls.

This is not a game about superheroes. This is a game in which superheroes exist, but your group is more likely going to be figuring out how to keep their neighbourhood safe when the police are one of the constant dangers, learning how to care for community members who have unique problems, and making noise when asking nicely for others to respect your rights doesn’t work.

The Wildsea, by Felix Isaacs. (Purchased, not yet played)

I was sold on setting alone for this one. The Wildsea is inspired by works such as Railsea, (a re-telling of Moby Dick), as well as Firefly, Blades in the Dark, and Sunless Sea. You are sailors on a verdant ocean of giant trees, hunting leviathan squirrels and trading with various outports and settlements. Character creation involves three parts: your Bloodline, Origin and Post, combining species, background and job to allow for some highly customizable, evocative characters.

The Wildsea prioritizes narrative play, allowing players to determine how their stats affect their actions, and using an in-game mechanic called Whispers and Charts to help you create locations as you play. Travel is never boring, as everyone has a role to play and the wonders of The Wildsea never cease. The community behind this game is wildly inventive, with oodles of home-brew and character inspiration. You can pick up the free version of the rules here, and check out the Storm and Root Expansion at the Kickstarter link.

HouseHold, by Two Little Mice. (Unpurchased)

Two Little Mice are known for gorgeous games and this is no exception. Household is a game about little people living inside an abandoned house, each room of which is a different nation. Will you dance with a Boggart princess at the ball of the Chandelier? Cross the Long Hallway and survive to tell the tale? Are you a Sluagh with a mouse steed or a Sprite with a beetle companion? Do you wear the finest of bee furs, or is mushroom leather what you prefer to wear?

This game is unique on this list in that I don’t actually plan to run it - I play to play it, with a friend of mine who backed the game on Kickstarter. He’s already got the full version of the book, plus its expansion, and let me tell you, it’s deliciously beautiful. The game uses the same system as Broken Compass: your character choices will give you strengths in certain arenas, and you’ll use pips to give yourself strengths in subsets of skills within each arena. The game uses card symbols to represent Society, Academia, War and Street - these characters won’t just be fighting spiders and bringing down rats, they’ll also try to catch the eye of an aristocrat at a dinner party, or pick-pocket the keys off of a palace guard. Character advancement is chronicled as Memories; your play the game as if your character’s stories have already happened, and are in the process of being written down for posterity.

If you’re interested in this game I’d recommend checking out the linked website above, as the 96-page Quickstart and the character sheet are free to download!

Brinkwood: The Blood of Tyrants, by Far Horizons Co-Op. (Played)

This game has the most hardcore slogan that I’ve ever seen, and it has not failed to get people stoked about it - Drink the Rich. It’s Robin Hood meets Castlevania. A powerful Faerie helps you fight against Vampire Capitalists using magic-infused masks, and a sanctuary hidden inside a wild wood. This is yet another Forged-in-the-Dark game that shows you how to build a rebellion via three different strategies, and has a well-written and well-thought-out Codex that allows you to put the game in different settings, as well as an Almanac (included in the base game) that immerses you in the milieu of Cardenfell.

My favourite aspect of Brinkwood is the communal Mask playbooks. As characters, you’ll have your own personal character sheet, but when you go out on different forays, you’ll have the opportunity to share the Masks that are available to the group. This means that players can choose strategically-optimal playbooks for missions that require more stealth, combat, or social control, and it also means that you’ll never feel nailed into a specific role. I very much want to see more of this kind of setup in games, even if I have to design it myself.

Moth-Light, by Justin Ford. (Purchased, not yet played)

You are humans that have fled to a planet after the fall of your civilization. In this speculative future, your new home must be shared with giant, predator insects called Moths. Your future depends on your ability to develop trust, form pacts, and work together.

This is (you guessed it) another Forged-in-the-Dark game with a really unique implementation of the group playbook. Depending on the Pact you choose, you don’t just determine what kind of story you want to tell, you also determine what action ratings are available to your characters. This makes sense, as a story about different villages banding together to achieve peace will provide different challenges then a story about a series of war-games, in which your characters are desperate to prove their worth. The spectrum of stories available within this game are broad-spanning, and I’m itching to get this game to table sometime before the year is over to see how it plays.

Moth-Light is still in beta, but after your first purchase you’ll receive new updates about the game as they come out! When I bought this game, only the Promise and the Scavengers were available - now the creator has updated the file to include the Slayers and the Jammers! I’ve also created my own Pact for this game, inspired by the Chronicles of Pern. It’s called RIDERS, it’s about people creating sympathetic bonds with the Moths in order to stop an even greater threat, and you can find it here!

Apocalypse Keys, by Rae Nedjadi. (@temporalhiccup ) (Played)

I just finished running this game and I don’t know how to express to you the emotional rollercoaster that it led us on. Rae Nedjadi is a fucking amazing designer and you can tell he intensively play-tested this game because Apocalypse Keys is tight. The mystery setup gives you an idea of how long a single mystery will take, and the generative style of play allows you to not just fill out the world, but also come up with the answer to the mystery as you unlock clues.

The central focus of the game involves Grasping Keys, which is a move that allows your character to find clues that will eventually be connected to core facets of the mystery for a very dramatic roll. Also, unlike a lot of PbtA games, your characters use a token system reminiscent of Belonging Outside Belonging games instead of stats, which you can spend to increase your chances of success - but roll too high and you are too good at what you do, possibly causing collateral damage in the process. If you love Hellboy, if you love monsters, if you’re queer… you really need to check out this game.

Finally....

If you want to see what other games are currently living rent-free in my noggin that I hope to pick up at play someday, you can check out the Games that Intrigue Me folder I've started on Itch. There's currently 148 games in there that I haven't played yet!

[dropsofsciencenews]

Why do dogs shake even when they are barely wet?

ITA version ESP version

Many furry mammals perform quick shakes to remove water and irritants from their fur, following a typical pattern of three shakes back and forth. But what is the mechanism that triggers this innate response? Dr. Dawei Zhang and his team from Harvard Medical School asked themselves this question and, in the lab, sought to understand it by using mice as a model.

The first step was to observe if different stimuli on the mice’s skin could trigger the “wet dog shake.” Researchers blew air on the mice, sprayed them with water, and even immersed them briefly in a bath. Surprisingly, a small drop of oil on the neck was enough to trigger the shake, suggesting that a light, annoying touch was the triggering factor.

At this point, the researchers aimed to understand which part of the nervous system “felt” this drop, initiating the shake response. They genetically modified some mice, eliminating specific skin receptors. First, they removed the receptors that perceive temperature changes, noting that the mice continued to shake. Temperature, therefore, was not a decisive factor. Then, they eliminated mechanoreceptors, which respond to tactile stimuli. This time, the mice shook far less than unmodified ones, suggesting that tactile sensitivity was key.

The team then focused on a specific group of mechanoreceptors, the low-threshold C fibers (C-LTMR), located around hair follicles and responsive to light touches. To confirm the hypothesis, the researchers used optogenetics, a technique that activates nerves with light. By stimulating the C-LTMR optically, the mice shook as if wet; blocking them, however, reduced the shake, confirming the role of the C-LTMR.

But the team also wanted to understand where the signals from C-LTMR travelled and which part of the brain processed them to generate the shake response. They traced the path of these signals, discovering they travelled from hair follicles to the spinal cord, and from there to a specific region of the brain called the parabrachial nucleus, which processes sensations like pain and itching. This pathway called the C-LTMR-spinoparabrachial circuit, turned out to be the mechanism behind the “wet dog shake.”

This discovery is significant because C-LTMR represents an evolved defence system that removes annoying stimuli like drops of water or parasites. Thanks to a system of specialized tactile receptors and neural pathways, shaking vigorously is the most efficient way for many mammals to eliminate these irritants.

What about humans? Like other mammals, we have something similar. Our receptors, called C-mechanoreceptors, have adapted to perceive pleasant sensations like caresses and hugs. Yet, many people feel a slight chill when someone lightly touches their neck. This reaction may be a distant “evolutionary memory” of the response that triggers the shake in dogs and other animals. In us, however, this reflex has lost its defensive function, transforming into a response linked to pleasure and social connection.

See you soon, and Good Science!

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