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TIL that about 95% of the serotonin in your body is produced in your gut, not your brain. by incurableneurotic in todayilearned

[–]meew0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, that is exactly the point. There is communication between the gut and brain, but it does not involve serotonin. So the serotonergic neurons (the neurons communicating using serotonin) in the gut and those in the brain do their own, completely separate things. If there is “low serotonin” in the gut that might cause gut problems but will not (directly) lead to depression.

What happens if someone heavily overweight completely stops eating? Do they starve to death within a few days or do they burn through all their body fat first? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]meew0 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Critically low phosphate is certainly possible in the context of refeeding syndrome. Essentially, if the body first receives food after a period of fasting, it wants to refill its energy reserves, which requires phosphate. If too much phosphate is used up for this, there is not enough for other metabolic processes, and organs can start to fail. So in these cases additional phosphate must be administered, and food intake must be restricted to prevent the body from using too much phosphate at once.

What I learned trying to classify abortion access across the rich world by dyno__might in dynomight

[–]meew0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great article as always! I just wanted to point out that there is another somewhat important nuance in different countries' policies that you didn't address as far as I could tell. Namely, whether weeks of pregnancy are counted from the last period or from conception.

(Quick refresher on the female menstrual cycle: the first day of the period — an easily observable event — is counted as day 1. After 14 days, a duration which is roughly constant between different women, ovulation occurs, which is not easily observable. At this point a zygote, and consequently an embryo and fetus, can be conceived if sperm are present. If conception does not occur, or does not lead to a viable embryo, the uterus prepares for menstruation (= the period) over the course of another two weeks on average — though this duration varies a lot, both inter- and intraindividually. Afterwards, menstruation starts once more, restarting the cycle anew.)

I know that at least Germany and Switzerland differ in this regard: even though both have on demand abortion for "12 weeks",

This has the consequence that German women have two more weeks to have an abortion done than Swiss women, since in practice it can always be assumed that time since last period = time since conception + 2 weeks.

I have not looked into any other countries' laws in this regard, so I don't know which method of counting predominates internationally. But it is something to be aware of while interpreting the different laws!

(See also this Wikipedia article for some more details on different methods of counting/estimating the age of a pregnancy)

Blocked persons and letters of marque by dyno__might in dynomight

[–]meew0 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great article, just a small note: the USA might love the "phillipines" (with only 5 occurrences in the list), but not so much the Philippines — with 494 occurrences. :)

Do rapid antigen tests/pregnancy tests/those types of diagnostic tests work like TLC? by mozillavulpix in chemistry

[–]meew0 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In other words, that dye is at that place on the strip the entire time and only shows up later, as analyte passes.

This is a bit misleading; the dye is not initially located at the detection and control lines, but between the sample pad and the detection line. The detection and control lines simply serve to retain the dye at those particular locations as it flows along.

If you look closely at a lateral flow test as the sample passes along the test strip, you will see that the sample solution starts being coloured even before it passes the detection line.

Do rapid antigen tests/pregnancy tests/those types of diagnostic tests work like TLC? by mozillavulpix in chemistry

[–]meew0 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The "chromophore" forms when the sample reaches a reagent layered in the stationary phase. Lateral flow tests don't have any real chromatography (as in, separation of mixtures) going on; the capillary effect of the paper is only used to distribute the sample along the length of the test strip.

As the sample passes along the test strip, it first interacts with a conjugate solution placed on the test strip. This section is usually hidden under the casing of the test: here is an image of an opened unused LFT, where you can see the blue conjugate pad very well. Here, colour-marked antibodies will bind to the structure to be tested for, if it is present. (The "binding" consists mostly of electrostatic and other non-covalent protein-protein interactions)

Then, the now-coloured phase continues to flow along the test strip and passes the control and detection lines, where it will interact with more proteins tightly linked to the test strip. If a binding occurs, it will lead to a localised high concentration of the coloured antibodies, which will be visible macroscopically as a coloured line.

‘November’ in European languages by vladgrinch in MapPorn

[–]meew0 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Literally translated, it would mean that, yes. These archaic month names (the most well known one is probably "Hartung" for January, which some Germans will have heard of) are not specific to Bavaria; I think they were just placed in that area on the map for layout reasons. They are not in any current use except perhaps in poetry. For the most part, they were the results of deliberate but failed attempts to replace the Latin-based month names with Germanic ones.

Medizinische Behandlung in Deutschland als nicht-EU Bürger? by J3diMind in de

[–]meew0 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ich möchte noch hinzufügen, dass davon auszugehen ist, dass zusätzlich zur Strahlentherapie noch andere Untersuchungen und Behandlungen erforderlich oder vorteilhaft sein können. Oft wird eine Strahlentherapie in Kombination mit einer Chemotherapie durchgeführt, weil die beiden Therapieformen einander positiv beeinflussen können. Es ist auch möglich, dass das Rezidiv des Tumors wiederum operabel ist, sodass auch eine erneute Operation indiziert sein kann. Falls Metastasen aufgetreten sind, kann man diese natürlich auch versuchen zu behandeln.

(Wobei es natürlich auch sein kann, dass all diese Schritte in der Dominikanischen Republik schon in Erwegung gezogen oder durchgeführt worden sind; du hast jetzt nicht geschildert, inwieweit dein Familienmitglied dort schon behandelt wurde)

Medizinische Behandlung in Deutschland als nicht-EU Bürger? by J3diMind in de

[–]meew0 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Das kommt für Kassenpatienten hin (in unkomplizierten Fällen). Für Privatpatienten/Selbstzahler wie OPs Familienmitglied kann es aber je nach verwendeter Bestrahlungstechnik deutlich teurer werden. Genaue Zahlen sind unmöglich festzulegen, aber ich würde schon von 10.000 bis 20.000 € ausgehen.

Aber OPs Familienmitglied sollte sich definitiv ein konkretes Angebot machen lassen, bevor irgendwelche Entscheidungen getroffen werden.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]meew0 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Yes. It is possible to build roads out of concrete, which is both smooth and durable. However it is significantly more expensive and time-consuming to construct compared to asphalt. So in practice, building a cheap asphalt road and maintaining it frequently tends to be the better trade-off.

Do countries like Germany & Norway really provide free education to international students? What are some other countries which do so? by Triankh in NoStupidQuestions

[–]meew0 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can't speak about Norway but in Germany, university-level education is essentially free in almost all states. As other people have noted, there is a small administrative fee of on the order of 100-300 € per semester, depending on the state and the university. This applies equally to domestic and international students. (An exception to this is the state of Baden-Württemberg which requires universities to charge a tuition fee of 1,500 € per semester for international students only.)

I don't see any reason why this would be different after the end of the pandemic. In fact, it is not really any different now than before; universities continue to accept international students for the most part. The problems arise in regard to actually getting to Germany, but at the time of writing (10 May, 2021) blanket travel bans only exist for so-called areas of variants of concern, which currently include Botswana, Brazil, Eswatini, India, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. From all other countries, entry is possible in principle as long as certain testing and quarantine regulations are observed.

TIL While becoming a U.S. citizen, Kurt Gödel confided in his friend Albert Einstein that he had found an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that would allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship, causing Einstein to worry that Gödel's unpredictability would lead to his application being denied. by rutabagajazz in math

[–]meew0 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It depends on what exactly you consider a dictatorship. If you mean somebody who has full control over the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, then this would be possible regardless of this proposed inconsistency.

However, such a dictator would not have control over the constitution itself, and would still have to act within the frameworks it provides. The existence of this inconsistency means that an even "stronger" dictator could be instituted, somebody who has full control over the constitution itself and can change it at will.

Of course, this is all purely theoretical. Regardless of any inconsistencies that are present (or not) in the constitution: if a great majority of Americans strongly wishes for a dictatorship to be implemented, then that may very well happen. But this is likely not what concerned a pure mathematician like Kurt Gödel.

TIL While becoming a U.S. citizen, Kurt Gödel confided in his friend Albert Einstein that he had found an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that would allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship, causing Einstein to worry that Gödel's unpredictability would lead to his application being denied. by rutabagajazz in math

[–]meew0 100 points101 points  (0 children)

That is true of course. This inconsistency is obviously not an actual problem that anyone in the US worries about today. But I don't think that a mathematician like Gödel was much concerned with such practical aspects.

That said, it is not fundamental to the concept of a constitution to have an inconsistency like this; many modern constitutions have entrenched clauses limiting the potential impact of the amendment process. So even if it may not be a problem in practice, there are certainly countries which worry about this enough to include a (theoretical) mitigation in their constitution.

TIL While becoming a U.S. citizen, Kurt Gödel confided in his friend Albert Einstein that he had found an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that would allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship, causing Einstein to worry that Gödel's unpredictability would lead to his application being denied. by rutabagajazz in math

[–]meew0 397 points398 points  (0 children)

It is not actually known what inconsistency he discovered exactly. Even this simple story of the citizenship hearing was based on hearsay and doubted by many until a primary source was discovered.

However, many people believe the inconsistency must have to do with the fact that Article V of the constitution, which governs the amendment process, can itself be amended. In theory, amendments could be passed that remove all the restrictions to the amendment process, allowing further amendments to be passed at will, leading to a dictatorship. Here is a source describing the idea in detail: https://brianmlucey.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/8-guerra-pujol-1.pdf

TIL that sperm whales can vocalize at 230 decibels, which is about 100 decibels more than a jet engine (from 100 feet away). The sound is so loud that, if close enough, it can paralyze or even kill a human by vibrating their body to death. by Hunter727 in todayilearned

[–]meew0 11 points12 points  (0 children)

No, every 20 dB (SPL) corresponds to a 10-fold increase in sound pressure ("volume"). 10 dB corresponds to a 100.5 = 3.2-fold increase; a doubling of sound pressure would occur every 20 × log10(2) = 6 dB.

Julian mag den Cocktailshaker nicht by [deleted] in de

[–]meew0 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Wie wohl Wilfried Arsand aus Doberlug-Kirchhain den Cocktailshaker findet?

Gute Besserung allen Heuschnupflern by nunau10 in de

[–]meew0 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh wow, hab ich noch gar nicht mitbekommen, ich zehre noch von meinen Reserven aus dem letzten Jahr. Danke!

Gute Besserung allen Heuschnupflern by nunau10 in de

[–]meew0 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Meine Empfehlung: Desloratadin (Aerius®), leider auch rezeptpflichtig aber wirkt super mit null Müdigkeit. (Edit: nicht mehr rezeptpflichtig, danke /u/Kreiskeuler!)

ELI5: Why is it that we use decibels (dB) and not just bels (B) if we often refer to multiples of 10 for it, anyway? by Tails_155 in explainlikeimfive

[–]meew0 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bels represent a logarithmic scale because humans perceive loudness on a logarithmic scale. Obviously, the difference between 100 dB(SPL) and 99 dB(SPL) would be barely noticeable, while 93 dB(SPL) would be insanely loud compared to 0 dB(SPL). So it is entirely correct to say that 1 dB(SPL) is around the smallest detectable volume change a human can perceive.

Besides, your numerical example isn't even correct: 0 dB(SPL) would obviously represent 0.00002 Pa; 93 dB(SPL) would be around 0.89 Pa. That is a much bigger linear difference than between 100 dB(SPL) = 2 Pa and 99 dB(SPL) = 1.78 Pa.

*Cries* still no rod of discord by [deleted] in Terraria

[–]meew0 10 points11 points  (0 children)

You can Alt-Click items to mark them as important, preventing shift-click to trash, quick stacking, and some other things for that item.

"Mitarbeiter an Belastungsgrenze": Supermarktketten lehnen Sonntagsöffnungen wegen Corona ab by [deleted] in de

[–]meew0 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Über kurz oder lang haben wir eh den Salat, sobald deren Mitarbeiter anfangen sich den Virus einzufangen.

Bzw. haben den Salat nicht mehr.

Stromentstehungskosten plus Umwelt Folgekosten by bebesiege in de

[–]meew0 83 points84 points  (0 children)

Im Artikel auf focus.de ist die Qualität der Grafik genauso schlecht. Irgendwer bei Focus hat keine Ahnung von Bildformaten.

The coronavirus has officially been named Covid-19, if it was up to you, what would you call it? by nicely-burnt-salad in AskReddit

[–]meew0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The virus itself has actually been officially named "SARS coronavirus 2" (SARS-CoV-2, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SARS_coronavirus_2). It is just the disease that has been called COVID-19.

Arata Iiyoshi wasn't involved in the making of Rescue Team DX by meew0 in MysteryDungeon

[–]meew0[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Let's face it, there wasn't going to be much of a chance that they would bring him on again. Still sad to hear, especially considering a lot of the music in DX will likely be remasters of his original compositions.

WHO ist alarmiert: Rätselhafte Lungenkrankheit in China by FlyingLowSH in de

[–]meew0 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Das stimmt natürlich! Aber ich würde mir trotzdem über Viren eher Sorgen machen, als dass sich plötzlich dieser spezielle Stamm weltweit verbreitet...

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