【每日阅读训练第四期——速度越障6系列】【6-3】经管

Rena张

这周rena和猴哥换班~~~今天的速度多了个free~~~不过越障没有超过1000words哦~~~ 童鞋们加油~~~~~
【speed】

Repurposing drugs
Virtually there
Computers may give new life to old medicines



【time 1】
MOST drugs have side-effects. One reason is that they interact with proteins other than the one they are being aimed at to treat a particular disease. Viewed another way, however, this means some drugs can have more than one use if what is a side-effect of one treatment can be turned into the central effect of another. Existing medicines may thus be repurposed for new therapies, not only helping patients but also saving drug companies time and development money, since they do not have to retest the substances in question to show they are safe.

They do, however, have to work out what other proteins the drug in question is interacting with, and that itself is a costly business. But it may soon get cheaper if a method proposed by Sivanesan Dakshanamurthy, a molecular biologist at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, turns out to work. For Dr Dakshanamurthy plans to do the first part of this testing inside a computer.

Dr Dakshanamurthy’s initial study of the method, just published in Medicinal Chemistry, started from the observation that the shapes of most drug molecules—and particularly the dispositions of the groups of atoms within them that bind to specific proteins and thus make them potent—are well known and publicly available. Also publicly available are databases loaded with information about many of the proteins found in the human body, and what sorts of molecules they tend to interact with. It was just a question, he reasoned, of matching the two together.
【250 words】

【time 2】
Of course, “just” is a slippery word. But a lot of programming later he and his colleagues managed to build a model they hoped would be able to compare information on the structures of drugs with information on the structures of human proteins, in order to find the best fits between the two.

To test their model, the team fed it information on 3,671 drugs already approved by America’s Food and Drug Administration, together with data on the structures of 2,335 proteins found in the human body. And it worked. In 91% of cases it matched a drug to a protein known to be its target.

As a proof of principle, that is not bad. That the model missed some known interactions was to be expected, and the information thus gathered can be used to refine it. What Dr Dakshanamurthy was really looking for, though, were cases where the model predicted an interaction not yet observed in the real world. Given the model’s successful rate of matching drugs to known targets, he thinks some of these previously unknown connections might be worth investigating.

For example, the model suggests that a drug called mebendazole, currently used to combat hookworms, also interacts with a group of proteins known as tubulins. Since tubulins are associated with angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels from old ones), and angiogenesis is an important part of the development of cancers, it might behove someone to investigate whether mebendazole can be used to treat cancer as well as parasites.
【252 words】

【time 3】
The model also suggested that an anti-inflammatory drug called celecoxib should bind with CDH11, a protein which plays an important role in the development of both rheumatoid arthritis and metastatic breast cancer. That suggestion, too, would bear further scrutiny.
Mere interaction with a protein does not a drug make. The interaction has to have a useful effect—damping down the activity of a protein that is too abundant, perhaps, or stimulating that of one which is not abundant enough. But interaction of some sort is a prerequisite for the development of a new drug or a new use for an existing one. And the model offers lots of potential. Nearly 27,000 molecules are approved for pharmaceutical use, and the human genome project showed that there are at least 23,000 human proteins. Even though not all of those proteins are well-enough understood for the Dakshanamurthy treatment to work on them, that is still a lot of potential interactions—far more than can conveniently be investigated by screening in a laboratory. But screening in a computer is fast and cheap. And even if only a handful of the new interactions it throws up are real and useful, it will have been a worthwhile exercise.
【202 words】

Fake ID cards
Identity crisis
Technology and globalisation are giving a boost to the trade in fake identity cards



【time 4】
A PACK of photo paper, laminating sheets, spray glue: it sounds like a list of things you need for the school art class. In fact they are ingredients for a fake identity card. Add a dash of Photoshop expertise, and you can earn yourself £1,000 (about $1,500) a week, according to a former vendor, a privately educated British schoolboy, who used to sell fake cards at £25 a time to his classmates.

The trade is even more profitable in America. Because the legal drinking age is 21, demand is higher and buyers are richer. An ex-student says he was able to sell bogus IDs for $120 each. Whereas he found holograms and bar codes on American driving licences easy to forge, he failed to copy the magnetic strips. Unwisely, perhaps, some American states are now phasing out licences with magnetic strips in favour of cheaper ones with bar codes.

The business of forged identity cards is booming, particularly in the Anglosphere. A study in 2009 of American university students found that 17% of freshmen and 32% of seniors owned a false ID. Today the numbers are even higher, experts reckon. Bars near American campuses have started to ask for two kinds of identification.

The use of fake IDs is spreading around the world. China has no great taboo against under-age drinking, so bar owners seldom check. But getting into an internet café is more difficult. One well-known place to get a card is the east gate of Renmin University in Beijing. Merchants there report that they can make 100,000 yuan ($16,000) a year.
【263 words】

【time 5】
Fake IDs used to be easy to detect, at least by experts, says Geoff Slagle of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. The main problem, he says, were “flashpassers”: youths who flash their cards at uninterested barmaids, who do nothing but check the photo on the card.

Yet technology has given the fake ID business a boost. With today’s software and printers, good fakes are easier to make. Counterfeiters no longer need to produce one document at a time; the latest gear allows for mass-production. And since orders can be taken over the internet, the producers no longer need to be close to their customers.

At the same time, IDs themselves have become more sophisticated. This has driven counterfeiters to invest more and raise prices. A decade ago, a good fake card could be bought for between $35 and $50, according to David Myers, an identity-card expert in Florida. Now people have to be prepared to pay ten times more.

As a result, many ID mills have gone online and are now based in China and other Asian countries, where costs are low and forgers hard to prosecute. A popular site is ID Chief. “We are at it again. Here is the Mississippi license,” it touts in its latest offer, which charges $200 for two cards. On August 6th four American senators sent a letter to the Chinese ambassador, asking the country to close down such firms. (Editor's update: ID Chief has since announced that it would close.)
【249 words】

【free】
Western countries could do something about the problem themselves. One improvement would be to introduce a standard national ID card, particularly in America. Not only does each state issue its own driving licence, but there are also numerous other official identity cards. Five years ago Mr Myers counted 542. The figure has since grown, he says.

Fighting technology with technology seems most promising—by replacing ID cards with phones. In Britain a new scheme called Touch2id encodes fingerprints and proof of age on a smart sticker that is to be attached to a mobile. To get served, youths need to swipe their phone over a chip-reader and have their fingerprints scanned.

An overseas counterfeiter would have a hard time to trick such a system, says Edgar Whitley of the London School of Economics. Yet it is also pricey: the Touch2id scanners cost £200 each. Without government mandates or cash to pay for installing such devices, fake IDs are here to stay.
【161 words】


【obstacle】

The euro crisis
A delicate proposal

HOW TO resolve the euro's woes? Angela Merkel says Germany will not agree to pool sovereign debt or share banking liabilities with other countries until there is greater political union. François Hollande says France cannot accept the loss of sovereignty without greater solidarity. So today Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council (who chairs European summits), issued a report that tries to split the difference: there should be both joint liabilities and more European-level control of national policies.

Drafted with three others—José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the Eurogroup (made up of finance ministers of the euro zone)—the report is thus a delicate piece of diplomacy at a time of sharp differences between Germany and France; indeed between Germany and many of the euro zone's biggest countries.

It sets out four “building blocks” for deeper euro-zone integration: a European system to guarantee bank deposits and manage troubled banks; fiscal integration to exert greater control on national budgets and steps towards issuing joint debt; more integration in economic policy-making to boost competitiveness; and more democratic accountability in European-level decisions. Precisely what these building blocks consist of, how the steps should be sequenced and how much can be done within existing treaties is all left a bit vague. The paper is peppered with words like “appropriate” and “commensurate” without attempting to define them.

On what many in Brussels call “banking union”, it proposes creating a fund, “primarily funded” through contributions from banks, to help guarantee deposits and wind up failed banks. To be credible the fund should be backstopped by the euro zone's permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), expected to be activated in the coming weeks.
On fiscal union, the report goes beyond the current system of euro-zone controls on national budget. It suggests jointly setting the ceiling for each country's debt and deficit. Governments would have to seek permission to break these limits, and Brussels could demand changes. Greater budget controls could, later on, lead to some form of Eurobonds (or “Eurobills” for short-dated debt). This is how the report puts the delicate issue:

In a medium term perspective, the issuance of common debt could be explored as an element of such a fiscal union and subject to progress on fiscal integration. Steps towards the introduction of joint and several sovereign liabilities could be considered as long as a robust framework for budgetary discipline and competitiveness is in place to avoid moral hazard and foster responsibility and compliance. The process towards the issuance of common debt should be criteria-based and phased, whereby progress in the pooling of decisions on budgets would be accompanied with commensurate steps towards the pooling of risks. Several options for partial common debt issuance have been proposed, such as the pooling of some short-term funding instruments on a limited and conditional basis, or the gradual roll-over into a redemption fund. Different forms of fiscal solidarity could also be envisaged.

Even further in the future, the euro zone could create a common treasury with some kind of central budget.

The report has been toned down in drafting, and some contentious ideas have been dropped. Gone is the call, made in an earlier version, for an “immediate and permanent” mutualisation of risk to backstop the banking sector. Ditto for the idea that the ESM could recapitalise banks directly (so relieving some troubled sovereigns like Spain from having to take on a big additional debt burden). The report is also silent on the question of a financial-transactions tax, no doubt to avoid upsetting a British government that is wary of stronger European bank supervision.

It is worth comparing the wooliness of Mr Van Rompuy's paper with the detail of the more convincingly worked-out proposal (here) issued on the same day by a group of prominent economists under the aegis of Jacques Delors, the former commission president, and Helmut Schmidt, the former German chancellor. It calls, for instance, for the creation of a special fund to help countries weather cyclical downturns. It also proposes a European debt agency to oversee the issuance of limited amounts of joint Eurobonds (typically up to 10% of GDP, with more possible if a country is willing to cede ever more budgetary decision-making powers).

Mr Van Rompuy's report does not pretend to be a “roadmap” to greater fiscal federalism. It is, instead, a proposal to talk about one. European officials argue that just getting Mrs Merkel to agree in principle to discuss things like the mutualisation of debt would be a big achievement, as would getting the French to talk about surrendering the powers of the Fifth Republic. Yet talking is one thing, agreeing quite another—and there is still no sign of accord among leaders.

Mr Van Rompuy says a detailed plan for integration could be presented in December, with perhaps an interim version issued in October. But will the markets be ready to wait that long? After all, this is the week that Cyprus asked for a bail-out, and Spain confirmed it would seek up to ?00 billion to recapitalise its banks.

The likelihood is that this week's European summit will disappoint, and that could set off another round of panic in the markets. If the euro is to survive, Mr Van Rompuy may have to draft his roadmap rather sooner than he expects.

【908 words】

铁板神猴

那我占了
----------------------
Obstacle: 6'09''
Unsolved euro crisis ... the author give no definite conclusion again ... as always.

cleotina

跟上

xjbb

占位～今天的版面很漂亮，字体也很舒服，谢谢Rena了！

Speed:
1'21
Most of medicines can be repurposed to treat other disease beside the one it mainly function. This can be studied through computers by matching molecules between protein and medicine.
1'18
Comparing drug molecules to that of human proteins, to find the best match. current progress of the model whereby studying the hypothesis.
1'05
The drug-protein interactions should be proved to be functional to the disease. Not all medicine can be studied in this way because some drugs take no interaction with proteins.
1'26
The matter is originated from a discovery that some students were making fake ID to earn money. Then it was found that in the U.S. this behavior is even more common and profitable. it's booming all over the world, people from different country have different use of the ID cards.
2'15
Not only the large demand but also technology boosted the development of fake ID cards. Some firms are set up in countries such as China, dedicatedly producing fake ID cards for people from all over the world. Then question is, how to fight against it? Law or technology? seems the latter is better.

Obstacle:
9'05
Main idea:
EU is proposing that euro crisis may be relieved by further integration among the relatively larger economies in EU.
Details:
Origin:
Large economies in EU such as Germany and France refused to share/pool their sovereign debts and banking liabilities in EU. However, the severe situation required them to do so, at least need a higher, European level policy.
Content of the proposal:
Need to promote integration from the following perspectives:
bank deposits.
national budgets, joint debt.
economic policy.
European-level decisions.
However, the proposal is not specific or virtual enough to support its feasibility.
Effectiveness of the proposal:
Insiders are not confident in the proposal. After all, it's a problem whether the members can reach agreement on it, and time is quite limited.

阿丫丫丫

谢谢楼主~ 也谢谢队长猴子~

第一次做阅读小分队，水平很烂，看了大家的速度，备受鼓舞，望大家鞭策~

由于我自己用Excel记录，所以一律按秒计算，方便自己比较。


速度：
103,75,65,101,69,57


越障：476

Due to the Euro Crisis, the HVR issued a report for the ideal solution with other 3 important men.


In this report, there are four 'building blocks', which stand for the four suggestions such as limitation of the debt, share of the budget and so on. Whereas no details and schedule are listed in the report.


The feasibility and the consequence of this report is unknown.

草莓葡萄

follow

1:39
Drugs have side effects and new computer program helps to detection the interaction effect
1:47
Comparing test in order to find the best fits between drugs and human’s protein. Consequently, 91% reached at the target.
1:14
The computer model is useful
2:02
Fake card is very popular among young people who were before age 21 in America, where forbidding young people drinking.
1:34
Fake card is much more expensive than before. Therefore many people buy the fake card from china.

Obstacle
5:35
Background:Germany and France refuse to share debts with other country, without particular regulation.
New step: joint liabilities and increase the control level of national policies
下面具体讲措施的各种report的分析， 没仔细读下去， 读完也没记住o(╯□╰)o

风静静

谢谢~~~

1:35
drugs have two-side effects on human beings because they interact with more than one protent

1:21
researcher did an experiment to check the data of drugs and the protent they may interact

1:13
another drugs that interacts with one proteint was found to interact with a substance that links to cancer.
besides interacting with more than one protent, drugs can also dump down or stimulate the abundance of proteint.

1:52
the business of selling the fake identification is booming among students in Brititan, America and also China.

1:24
the contemporary technology benefits the fake identification.

6:04
considering the Euro crisis, Germany and france have their own position.
the euro union recently announce a strategy with deliberate consideration of the opinion of Germany and france.
this strategy include four parts(1,2,3,4)
but this strategy has its own shortcomings.
another strategy proposed by MR. VAN seems to be better.
then disscuss the prospect of the first strategy.

我表示我对经管类文章，真的不怎么懂，好忧伤~

Fighting小虾米

1'17
1'07
0'56
1'20
1'03

越障：7'22
Germany will help resolve debt if the greater policitical union can be reached.
A reoport delicate four "building blocks" issues, "banking union", but the report does not pretend to be a "roadmap" to greater fiscal federalism.
The detailed plan will be presented in December, but do not know the situation of the debt crisis at that time
European summit may be disappoined

莽莽要上7

speed：
1‘25 drugs有副作用，interact with 别的protein，就会有能被利用的新的therapy。如何interact是个问题，然后DS跑出来提了个新方法是什么，这个新方法match问题没有解决。
2’22 match问题可以用一个model来看。于是提供数的据大部分都可以解释。DS觉得那些没有被观察出来的更值得研究。举了个例子M&T
1‘55 介绍interact，useful effects和potential

2’01 fake ID biz is booming，举了个调查的例子，说了说Fake ID在中国的情况。
1‘40 Technology促进了Fake ID 的发展。

越障晚上来读=。=

莽莽要上7

BTW，谢谢发帖呀！嘿嘿~我很喜欢第一幅的漫画^^