[ 3 / 100 Days Of Productivity ]

make this year about yourself. write a journal with your thoughts and ideas, take care of yourself and remind yourself to put your well-being first, acquire new skills, learn a language, set yourself goals to achieve, and study for your future. you will thank yourself later.

Psst, hey dude you're awesome

Thanks anon I think you’re awesome too :)

“My love for maths is like π- infinite and irrational.” -Anne

Things I learned from Junior Year

Hey hey so my junior year  ends in a week and I want to share some of the (surprising) things I’ve learned from what everyone generally calls the most important year of high school

1. Do what you love, love what you do

Junior year is when almost everyone is basically freaking out about college transcripts. I cannot stress how important it is to actually take the classes and activities that you want to do, not what you think colleges will want to see. Almost everyone I knew took all these AP classes for their college transcripts and not only were most of us pretty miserable but our grades dropped and we wasted months of our year. So, you first, college second.

2. You will get into a college

If you’re applying, you will get into a college. It might not be your dream school or your top three, but you will get into a college. So don’t worry over “perfecting” your college app for your top colleges. There will always be a college willing to welcome you and that C you got in physics class. If one door closes, another door opens. Broaden your horizons and let the opportunities fall where they may. 

3. Community college is a valid option

Let’s be real, community college is taken as a giant joke, the place where the people that couldn’t get into “real college” go, the school that gets you nowhere. But, that’s pretty damn far from the truth. People go to community college for a lot of reasons: it’s way cheaper, you can use it as a springboard to get into a university which is easier than if you applied as a freshman bc college credits, etc. You can be just as successful as someone that went to a private college. Don’t be afraid of considering community college as a place to go to.

4. Watch your mental health

Take that mental health day. All that SAT prep coupled with school, extra curriculars, and the general downward spiral of other people’s mental health during the year will mush together into a workaholic 2 hour sleep schedule where all you eat is basically coffee and potato chips. If you need to, take that D on that math test if it means not pulling an all-nighter for the third day in a row. Take that extra day away from school to study for that test in the subject you’re terrible at. Take that extra day to not do anything but relax with some bubble tea and take-out and netflix. Just don’t let it turn into a mental health week. 

5. You don’t need a life plan

You don’t need to have your life all planned out. Half of everyone doesn’t really know what they’re doing, so don’t feel panicky if someone actually does. But, this doesn’t mean you get to slack off. Explore your options, your hobbies, cultivate your abilities and passions, so you won’t be completely befuddled when you’ve actually got a make some sort of plan later on. 

6. Don’t feel pressured

Don’t let people pressure you into doing things you don’t feel ready for. Yes, I mean things like drinking (especially underage drinking), smoking things, and sex and everything in between. Because kids will be losing their virginities and going to wild parties and getting tattoos. It happens. Don’t feel like you need to have your first kiss or your first drink before college. It isn’t a race or a competition. Don’t do things you’ll regret or set yourself up for trouble. Be careful, be safe, be comfortable. 

Ah I hope this post is helpful in any sort of way! I’ve finally posted something original which is a big woohoo. Have a great whatever time of day it is! okie dokes bye :)

this user has marfan syndrome

I think some adults need to realize that teens don’t dislike adults because teens are rebellious and punk, a lot of kids and teens dislike adults because every interaction they’ve had with them is dismissing and condescending 

I am going to miss living here

10 years, 10 goals

I was tagged by @crumpetofcuriosity !!! Thank you!!!

List 10 goals you have for the next 10 years, write it down or save it somewhere you can find it again, then tag 10 people.

To be happy with where I am. Hardly anyone knows if where they are is the right place, I want to understand that.

Be confident!!! I have come so far and have loved to watch my confidence grow. I can’t wait to see where it has gotten to in 10 years.

To be working hard. As long as I am showing some serious effort, I can be satisfied. 

To still be learning Latin, because truth is, I am nowhere near where I want to be. Hopefully, ten years is a good time span to improve…

To befriend more people!!! I have made so many new people in the past few months and it has made me such a better person. I want to continue.

To read more. I have just started reading more and finding time to read, so I hope I continue that.

To make changes where changes are necessary. A lot of people don’t quite believe in quitting, but I think sometimes quitting is healthy. Sometimes, we give things our all, but they are doing us more harm than good. Some changes are necessary.

To take risks!! Some risks are good and can teach us important lessons. Risks don’t have to always be scary and huge. Some are beneficial.

To laugh at myself more. I take things wayyy too seriously and I hope to change that.

To stop procrastinating. I have literally had this in my drafts foorreevveerr, so I hope to get things done when I can, rather than just when I feel like it.

I can’t think of ten people to tag, but I encourage everyone to try this out! It really helps to put things in perspective, even though ten years seems like a really long time.

Study identifies new brain death pathway in Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease tragically ravages the brains, memories and, ultimately, personalities of its victims. Now affecting 5 million Americans, Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S., and a cure for Alzheimer’s remains elusive, as the exact biological events that trigger it are still unknown.

In a new study, Arizona State University-Banner Health neuroscientist Salvatore Oddo and his colleagues from Phoenix’s Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) — as well as the University of California, Irvine, and Mount Sinai in New York — have identified a new way for brain cells to become fated to die during Alzheimer’s disease.

The research team has found the first evidence that the activation of a biological pathway called necroptosis, which causes neuronal loss, is closely linked with Alzheimer’s severity, cognitive decline and extreme loss of tissue and brain weight that are all advanced hallmarks of the disease.

“We anticipate that our findings will spur a new area of Alzheimer’s disease research focused on further detailing the role of necroptosis and developing new therapeutic strategies aimed at blocking it,” said Oddo, the lead author of this study, and scientist at the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center at the Biodesign Institute and associate professor in the School of Life Sciences.

The findings appear in the advanced online edition of Nature Neuroscience.

Necroptosis, which causes cells to burst from the inside out and die, is triggered by a triad of proteins. It has been shown to play a central role in multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS), and now for the first time, also in Alzheimer’s disease.

“There is no doubt that the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease have fewer neurons,” said Oddo. “The brain is much smaller and weighs less; it shrinks because neurons are dying. That has been known for 100 years, but until now, the mechanism wasn’t understood.”

Links with Alzheimer’s

Necroptosis was first identified as a result of inflammation, a common malady in Alzheimer’s.

Three critical proteins are involved in the initiation of necroptosis, known as RIPK1, RIPK3 and MLKL. The study describes a key event in the process of necroptosis when RIPK1 and RIPK3 form a filamentous structure known as the necrosome.

The formation of the necrosome appears to jump-start the process of necroptosis. It activates MLKL, which affects the cell’s mitochondria, eventually leading to cell death.

Winnie Liang, TGen assistant professor, director of TGen Scientific Operations and director of TGen’s Collaborative Sequencing Center, said MLKL executes necroptosis to ultimately cause cell death.

“In this study, we show for the first time that necroptosis is activated in Alzheimer’s disease, providing a plausible mechanism underlying neuronal loss in this disorder,” said Liang, who contributed to the study’s gene expression analyses.

To explore necroptosis, the research team utilized multiple cohorts of human samples obtained from the Brain and Body Donation Program at the Banner Sun Health Research Institute and Mount Sinai VA Medical Center Brain Bank.

First, they measured RIPK1, RIPK3 and MLKL in a specific region of the brain that is typically ravaged by cell loss during the advance of Alzheimer’s disease — the temporal gyrus. Results showed that during necroptosis, these markers were increased in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Next, they identified the molecular cascade of necroptosis activation, with RIPK1 activating RIPK3 by binding with it. This protein complex then binds to and activates MLKL. Analysis of mRNA and protein revealed elevated levels of both RIPK1 and MLKL in the postmortem brain tissues of patients with Alzheimer’s when compared with normal postmortem brains.  

Furthermore, they also demonstrated that necroptosis activation correlated with the protein tau. Intriguingly, necroptosis did not appear to be linked with the other chief physiological characteristic of Alzheimer’s pathology, beta-amyloid plaque.

Engines of decline

To assess the relationship between necroptotic protein levels and cognitive health, the study revisited the scores of patients whose postmortem brain tissue was evaluated for necroptosis. Results showed a significant association between RIPK1, MLKL and diminished scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a widely used test measuring cognitive health.

Given the established relationship between necroptosis and Alzheimer’s pathology, including cell loss and attendant cognitive deficit, the study sought to inhibit the process to study the dynamic effects on cell death and memory loss.

With such experiments not possible in people, the team demonstrated in a mouse model of the disease that lowering the activation of the necroptosis pathway reduces cell loss and improves performance in memory-related tasks, offering new hope for human therapeutics to halt or reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s.

The results reveal that the inhibition of necroptosis activation through the blockage of RIPK1 prevents cell loss in mice. Compellingly, mice with inhibited activation of necroptosis pathways performed significantly better in tests of spatial memory involving navigation through a water maze.

New understanding, new hope

The study opens a new window on Alzheimer’s research and offers hope for therapies targeting cell loss in the brain, an inevitable and devastating outcome of Alzheimer’s progression.

Oddo stresses that RIPK1, RIPK3 and MLKL are among many potential drug targets, and others will likely follow as the links between necroptosis and Alzheimer’s become clearer. While multiple causes of the disease are likely, understanding more clearly all targets that trigger disease will offer the best hope since neuronal loss has been found in people more than a decade before any symptoms of dementia.

“One may not agree as to which molecules trigger Alzheimer’s disease, ” said Oddo, “but everybody agrees that the end result is the neuronal loss. If you can prevent that you may have a beneficial effect.”

Excited to finally be using the #bulletjournal system again in 2018! This is my study plan for the upcoming week, well, at least part of it. . As anyone has been saying: how are we so close to 2018? Or should I say to some people in different timezones than me: happy 2018!!! ✨ . Do you have any resolutions for 2018?? I do!! And I will be sharing them with you on my new blog in a post very very soon! Also, look out for a video about my planning system this upcoming week 😊