Languages as science of acoustic adaptation

Sound mechanics of language
1. Words are basically strings of sound frequencies travelling through air to ear. 
2. Sound travel through media (like air) to reach ear at a distance.
3. High frequency consonants are prone to loss and distortion in media obstacles such as dense vegetation, rough terrain, reflection etc as compared Low frequency vowel sounds.
4. According to linguists  Ian Maddieson  of the University of New Mexico and Christophe Coupé of the Laboratoire Dynamique de Langage-CNRS in France, is why language spoken in warm, wet and heavily wooded areas tend to use more vowels and fewer consonants and mostly in simple syllables.

Ian Maddieson
http://www.unm.edu/~ianm/index.html#

Christophe Coupé
http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/annuaires/index.asp?Langue=EN&Page=Christophe%20COUPE

Summary:
High Frequency > Consonant sound like f, p or t > Get lost easily in their travel > Spoken in Georgian (Caucasus mountain region) > Cluttered syllables. (consonant heavy languages, strung together into clusters creating syllables too complex)

Low Frequency > Vowel sound like e, o and u > tend to travel long > Spoken in Pacific island & SE Asia > Simple syllables. (spoken in warm, wet, heavy wooded areas, tend to use more vowels, few consonants, simple syllables) 

Note:
1. Number of cycles per unit time is called frequency.
2. Wavelength is the distance in space required to complete a full cycle of a frequency.
    The wavelength of a sound is the inverse of it's frequency,
3. Higher frequency, shorter wavelength. e.g. 20,000 Hz frequency/Wavelength is 0.68 in or 1.72 cm
4. Lower frequency, longer wavelength. e.g. 20 Hz frequency's Wavelength is 56.5 ft or 17.22 m


Acoustic adaptation hypothesis
Propounded by biologist E.S.Morton in 1975 is about the idea that animal species adapt their vocalizations to get most out of the local acoustics.

Morton in a study noticed that in woodland areas, where trees might muffle or distort bird songs, birds tend to sing songs made up of lower frequencies, with less variation, than birds in open areas.

Phonology relates to environment 

Biologists have noticed that birds in some cities are adapting their songs to be heard amid the background noise of the urban life.

Maddieson and Coupé in their presentation to The Acoustic Society of America at it's 170th meeting this week in Jacksonville Florida, wrote, "Our research shows a significant pattern of the same kind among human languages."


Article was prepared after thankfully consulting and quoting researches from:
1. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/
2. http://acousticalsociety.org/

Laboured breathing or shortness of breath (dyspnea) due to pulmonary edema

Laboured breathing/shortness of breath (dyspnea) may have more than one causes as:
Asthma, 
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 
adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), 
head injury, 
swallowed or inhaled foreign object, 
agoraphobia (anxiety disorder), 
diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), 
diphtheria (fatal bacterial infection), 
skull fractures, 
lung cancer, 
encephalitis, 
patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), 
croup (virus causing swelling around vocal cords); 
and that needs to be explored for.

The symptoms may include one or many as:
Shortness of breath, 
rapid breathing, 
vomiting, 
cough, 
loss of consciousness, 
stopped breathing, 
wheezing, anxiety, 
gasping for breath, 
high-pitched breath sounds, 
coma, 
tired.
Link for more detail/thankfully consulted for:http://www.healthline.com/symptom/labored-breathing

Laboured breathing/shortness of breath (dyspnea) is alarming as it causes:
i. Respiratory distress,
ii. Cardiac arrest due to hypoxia.

Laboured breathing/shortness of breath (dyspnea) could also be due to pulmonary edema,
which may be of,
i. cardiogenic or 
ii. non cardiogenic types.

Edema is a medical term for swelling.
It is a general response of the body to injury or inflammation.
Edema can be isolated to a small area or affect the entire body.
Edema results whenever small blood vessels become 'leaky' and release fluid into nearby tissues.

Edema may have many causes as:
Low albumin (hypoalbuminemia), 
allergic reactions, 
obstruction of flow, 
critical illness, 
heart disease.

Old age is also a cause of edema as when heart weakens and pumps blood less effectively, fluid can slowly build up creating leg edema.
If fluid buildup occurs rapidly, fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema) can develop.
If there is heart failure of the right side of the heart, often times edema can develop in the abdomen as well.
Changing weather ('stress) is often a 'predisposing factor' for pulmonary edema in elderly people.

Link for more detail/thankfully consulted for:http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/heart-failure/edema-overview

Mode of action
As this results in distressing and emergency situations, consulting a qualified physician and admitting patient to an equipped hospital so that he/she can get oxygen, blood infusion and other sos medication for the control of urgent distressing health conditions.

Medications:
That also varies with cause of the edema and  the physical condition of the patient, which only can be ascertained by examination by a qualified physician.
Adequate blood studies and ECG should be made available and physician to be consulted with the outcome of these tests reports.

If the heart is okay, old age and environmental condition seems to be the causal factor then with due consultation and advise of a qualified physician these medicines on prescribed doses could be given for the period as advised by a qualified physician only:
1. Etofylline Theophylline tablets (100mg)
2. Torsemide tablets (10mg)
3. Levocetrizine tablets (5mg)

Note: Following is a prescription slip of a 90 years old male patient with dyspnea due to pulmonary edema