pit against

THE TELOMERE EFFECTを読んでいます。
人と社会、特に住んでいる地域社会との関わりは "telomere" の長さに影響を与える事が明らかになって来ました。
Exactly how does low social cohesion penetrate to your cells and telomeres? One answer has to do with vigilance, that sense of needing to be on the high alert to maintain your safty. A group of German scientists performed a fascinating study of vigilance that pitted country folks against city dwellers. People from both groups were invited to take one of those nerve-wracking math tests that are designed to elicit a stress response, the kind where volunteers perform complex mental math while researchers give instant feedback.
"pit against" は10/15/2011に取り上げています。
復習ですが、今回は語源に触れている次の辞書の説明を引用します。
・The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms: Set in direct opposition or competition, as in The civil war pitted brother against brother. This idiom alludes to setting fighting cocks or dogs against one another in a pit.
なるほど、それで "pit" ですか。

accost

THE TELOMERE EFFECTを読んでいます。
人の "telomere" を短くする、すなわち寿命を短くする要因にストレスがありますが、住んでいる環境もそのストレスを作る原因となる生活環境の一つです。
We have friends in a beautiful gated neighborhood, where the houses sit on acres of rolling hills. There are positive signs of social cohesion, including Fourth of July picnics and holiday dances. But there's also mistrust and infighting, and it's not free of crime. It's a a neighborhood full of doctors and lawyers, but if you live there you might wake up in the morning to the sound of a police helicopter hovering over your house, searching for an armed robbery suspect who has jumped over the gate. When you take out the trash, a neighbor who is unhappy about your plans for remodeling might accost you. Check your messages, and you could find that your neighbors are in a heated e-mail fight about whether to hire a security patrol and who will pay for it.
"accost" は1/24/2014に取り上げたので復習ですが、今回はV2 Vocabulary Building Dictionaryの説明を引用します。
Tips: Accost is derived from the Latin word accostare, “to adjoin,” from costa, “rib or side.” The underlying sense is “to be alongside.” If you come up "alongside" someone in a rather aggressive or threatening way, you are accosting them. Accost usually refers to approaching and talking to someone abruptly and in a surprising way. Accost can refer simply to approaching someone to talk, but it usually refers to approaching someone and verbally attacking or threatening the person: "He accosted me in the lobby and called me a liar." Accost can also refer to approaching someone regarding sexual favors: "I was accosted by the prostitute as I walked down the street."

resistance exercise

THE TELOMERE EFFECTを読んでいます。
運動は健康に良いと言われていますが、ある種の運動は "telomerase" を増やすので、 "telomere" が長くなり、細胞の寿命が長くなることが分かって来たようです。
But are all types of exercise equal when it comes to cell aging?
...
Two kinds of exercise stood out. Moderate aerobic endurance exercise, performed three times a week for forty-five minutes at a time, for six months, increased telomerase activity twofold. So did high-intensity interval training (HIIT), in which short bursts of heart-pounding activity are alternated with periods of recovery. Resistance exercise had no significant effect on telomerase activity (although it had other benefits; the researchers concluded that "resistance exercise should be complementary to endurance training rather than a substitute").
"resistance exercise" は筋肉に負担をかける運動の様ですが、辞書に説明があるか確認します。OneLookの検索では次の辞書以外 "resistance exercise" の項目を設けている辞書はありませんでした。
・Medical Dictionary: Exercise in which a muscle contraction is opposed by force to increase strength or endurance. If the resistance is applied by using weights, it is mechanical resistance; if applied by a clinician, it is manual resistance.
しかし、Google検索では "resistance exercise" を説明するサイトは幾つもありましたので "resistance exercise" は一般用語になっている様です。

telomeres don't sweat the small staff

THE TELOMERE EFFECTを読んでいます。
TELOMERE TIPS: Your telomeres don't sweat the small staff. Toxic stress, on the other hand, is something to watch for. Toxic stress is severe stress that lasts for years. Toxic stress can dampen down telomerase and shorten telomeres.
"telomerase" は "telomere" から派生した言葉ですが、THE TELOMERE EFFECTの他の個所にある "telomerase" の説明を抜粋します。
Telomerase, the Enzyme That Replenishes Telomeres Telomerase can slow, prevent, or even reverse the shortening of telomeres that comes with cell division. Telomeres can, in a sense, be renewed by telomerase.
すると "telomerase" を摂取すれば "telomere" は短くならず、永久に長生きできる？　と思ったのですが、そうは簡単にはいきません。 "don't sweat the small staff" とありますが、toxic stress, severe stressには "telomerase" と "telomere" も負ける様です。
それではどうする、どうすれば "telomerase" と "telomere" が減らずに長生きできるのかが結局THE TELOMERE EFFECTの主題なのですね。

Hayflick limit & senescence

THE TELOMERE EFFECTのIntroductionからもう一つ興味深い言葉を二つ取り上げます。
In 1961 the biologist Leonard Hayflick discovered that normal human cells can divide a finite number of times before they die.
...
Hayflick called this youthful phase of cell division "luxuriant growth." After a while, though, the reproducing cells in Hayflick's lab stopped in their tracks, as if they were getting tired. The longest-lasting cells managed about fifty cell divisions, although most divided far fewer times. Eventurally these tired cells reached a stage he called senescence: They were still alive but they had all stopped dividing, permanently. This is called the Hayflick limit, the natural limit that human cells have for dividing, and the stop switch happens to be telomeres that have become critically short.
人の細胞分裂に限界（"Hayflick limit"）があったのは知っていましたが、その名称は知りませんでした。これを発見したのがHayflick氏だったのですね。
"senescence" は文中に意味を説明しているので分かりますが、一応辞書の説明も読みます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Loss of a cell's power of division and growth.: We have devised a functional approach to clone genes involved in the regulation of cell growth and senescence.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: the state of being old: the process of becoming old
Senescence can be traced back to Latin senex, meaning "old." Can you guess which other English words come from senex? Senile might come to mind, as well as senior. But another one might surprise you: senate. This word for a legislative assembly dates back to ancient Rome, where the Senatus was originally a council of elders composed of the heads of patrician families. There's also the much rarer senectitude, which, like senescence, refers to the state of being old (specifically, to the final stage of the normal life span).