Continuing with today’s music theme, here’re the lyrics for another number from Fossils 4, the latest album from the bangla band Fossils.

Listen to the album on Saavn or Dhingana.

Song: Mohakaash
Album: Fossils 4

ekhon drishti oboruddho noy
ekhon thanda mohajuddho noy

belagam prithibi ke dilam chhuti ami
sekole bedhe mohakash
belagam prithibi ke dilam chhuti ami
sekole bedhe mohakash

ekhon amar gotibeg jhorer dusshapno
bhenge diyechi nirjhore
bokeya joto struggle chukiye amar
ahladi tamadi obokash

sekole bedhechi mohakash

aaj daye bharheen halka mon
okal kushmando din japon
aaj daye bharheen halka mon
okal kushmando din japon

aaj chhatar-matha, matha-mundu-heen prokolper khoj
e-project bhul projection-er, durbeen bonam anubikkhoner
e-uponyash roj guuje guuje mil, shunyotar overdose

tomake niye jete pari jodi hou aalor sowari
jodi khojo notun bari aasman-e
ami bojhate pari aajgubir maane

chailei tui amar sange jabi
shudhu ektai alikhito daabi
rekho mohakasher chabi gopone
cholo amar sange amar free-zone-e

ekhon amar gotibeg jhorer dusshapno
bhenge diyechi nirjhore
ekhon amar gotibeg jhorer dusshapno
bhenge diyechi nirjhore

bokeya joto struggle chukiye amar
ahladi tamadi obokash

tai,
belagam prithibi ke dilam chhuti ami
sekole bedhe mohakash

sekole bedhe mohakash
sekole bedhechi mohakash
sekole bedhe mohakash

(chorus continues)

I just wanted to jot down a few points about Matlab programming. Specifically, this is about finding a string within another cell array of strings, where the thing I’m really interested in is the index of the cell array where the reference string occurs. For example, if my reference string is 'Gamma', and my cell array is {'Alpha','Beta','Gamma','Delta'}, then the result of the code should be 3.

Say,

cellArray = {'Alpha','Beta','Gamma','Delta','GammaSquared'};
refString = 'Gamma';

Method 1

This method uses the Matlab function strfind (link).

index = strfind(cellArray,refString);
index = find(~cellfun(@isempty,index));

Result:

index = 
    3   5

This method works great if the idea is to find a substring, i.e. in the case where we are looking for all possible matches. It doesn’t work too well, however, if we’re looking for a specific match.

Method 2

This uses the Matlab function ismember (link).

index = find(ismember(cellArray,refString));

Result:

index = 
    3

Works great if the idea is to find a perfect match. However, let’s also keep tabs on the computation time.

tic; index = find(ismember(cellArray,refString)); toc;

Result:

Elapsed time is 0.001047 seconds.

Method 3

This uses the Matlab function strcmp (link).

index = find(strcmp(cellArray,refString));

Result:

index = 
    3

Same result as in Method 2, but what about computation time?

tic; index = find(strcmp(cellArray,refString)); toc;

Result:

Elapsed time is 0.000025 seconds.

Turns out Method 3 is more than 41 times faster to execute. So we have a winner!

Reference

Stack Overflow: How to search for a string in cell array in MATLAB?

I’ve written about the naked mole rat before, about how it seems to be immune to acid.

Well, it turns out it has more tricks up its genetic sleeve.

To compare how the naked mole rat made their proteins, they inserted an engineered gene in the naked mole rat as well as in mice, which allowed them to compare the rate of errors in making proteins. And here’s what they found:

[The naked mole rat] built the engineered protein far more accurately, in other words. Naked mole rats, the scientists found, made anywhere from four to ten times fewer mistakes. Yet the naked mole rats can make their proteins as quickly as the sloppier mice.

This seems to be a fascinating creature the more we study it!

I wonder, though, why other species did not pick up this brilliant piece of evolution. Are there side effects to this that are detrimental, overall, to other species but which don’t affect the naked mole rat? As I said in my earlier post, intriguing.

(Original source, quoted by National Geographic: Jorge Azpurua et al.“Naked mole-rat has increased translational fidelity compared with the mouse, as well as a unique 28S ribosomal RNA cleavage.” PNAS 2013

I defended my dissertation proposal today.

What this means is that I now have an approved (by my dissertation advisory committee) framework for the research that will grant me my Ph.D.

There were no bad surprises that caught me or my adviser off guard. My advisory committee members are really great people, and we were able to discuss what I’m proposing to do very well. They suggested a couple of things, but they were ideas that me and my advisor had been discussing ourselves only recently, so even that wasn’t out of the blue for us. Although—to an extent we were, or at least I was, thinking of doing those things for different reasons than what the committee suggested. That’s the thing with these defenses—you get a different perspective on what you look at everyday.

Well, one more step completed. This was on the calendar for quite a long time, and it’s nice to get this done. :)

On the other hand, this is the beginnning of the next, arduous path—now that I’ve proposed something, I’ve to actually go ahead and do those things! Lots of experiments to do; many lines of MATLAB code to write and debug—fun times are ahead!

But for now—a bit of a break. Well earned, if I do say so myself. :)

This is just perfectly adorable; I couldn’t help but link to it. Parents Sam Cornwell and his wife compiled a video featuring one second of each day since the birth of their son.

Watch: