【Native Speaker每日综合训练—39系列】【39-17】 科技 Drug resistance

cherry6891

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公益申请，每月一名  

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Part I: Speaker

Get Ready to Gobble Drug-Resistant Bacteria
Many meat and poultry products probably carry drug-resistant bacteria before cooking. Katherine Harmon reports
Nov 22, 2011

Thanksgiving is just days away, a time to feast with family. And to avoid food-borne bacterial infections.

The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, or NARMS, is a joint effort of the CDC, the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Microbiologist Lance Price talked about NARMS data last month at the ScienceWriters2011 conference in Flagstaff:

“What’s the probability of not finding drug-resistant bacteria on your meat and poultry? So pork chops you have about a one-in-10 chance of NOT finding drug-resistant bacteria. And this is just based on four bacteria that NARMS tests for: campylobactor, salmonella, E. coli and Enterococcus. Ground beef, one in 20. Chicken breasts, less than a one-in-100 chance of not finding drug-resistant bacteria. And then ground turkey, forget it: less than a one in 300 chance. Pretty much every sample of ground turkey will have drug-resistant bacteria.”

So remember, if you buy ground turkey for meatballs or burgers once the whole bird is gone, cook it. Thoroughly.

Source:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/apple-google-say-drop-that-doughnut/
[Rephrase 1'18'']

cherry6891

Part II: Speed

Drug-Resistant Superbugs Kill at Least 23,000 People in the U.S. Each Year
By Dina Fine Maron | September 16, 2013

Time2
Each year, more than two million people in the United States develop antibiotic-resistant infections, and at least 23,000 of them die as a result, says the first-ever national snapshot of the issue. That toll only rises when other conditions exacerbated by these infections are included in the count. Because it’s difficult to attribute a death directly to antibiotic-resistant microbes (as opposed to illnesses that put the person in the hospital to begin with), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says these figures probably underestimate the scale of the problem.

CDC today released the findings as part of a blueprint for addressing the issue, which the agency says is an urgent and growing threat. “Even when alternative treatments exist, research has shown that patients with resistant infections are often much more likely to die, and survivors have significantly longer hospital stays, delayed recuperation and long term disability,” wrote CDC director Thomas Frieden.

The report authors ranked 18 microorganisms associated with drug resistance as urgent, serious or concerning by considering the pathogens’ clinical and economic impact alongside current and future projected incidence; transmissibility; availability of effective antibiotics; and barriers to prevention. Healthcare costs that arise from antibiotic resistance are challenging to pin down, but previous non-CDC estimates suggest that it can boost healthcare costs annually by $20 billion and cost another $35 billion in lost productivity.
[226 words]

time3
“Urgent threats” to human health include the serious diarrheal infection Clostridium difficile, a family of germs that includes Escherichia coli called Carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE), and Drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae–the bacteria responsible for the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea. Collectively, they claim more than 14,500 lives each year, primarily from C. difficile. Although resistance to the antibiotics that treat C. difficile infections is not yet a problem, CDC included it in the list because it is naturally resistant to many drugs used to treat other infections which enables it to spread quickly.

Microbes that present “serious threats,” according to CDC, include multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter, drug-resistant Campylobacter, and fluconazole-resistant Candida (a fungus) and drug-resistant tuberculosis, among others. “Concerning threats” include Vanomycin-resistant Staphyloccous aureus (VRSA).

Antibiotic-resistance most often arises when commercial antibiotics kill good bacteria that protect the body from infection alongside bacteria that cause illness–setting the stage for drug-resistant bacteria to flourish and take over. Some drug-resistant bacteria are then able to exchange genes with other bacteria, spreading resistance and helping sideline drugs normally capable of treating infection.

CDC scientists have long said that the overuse of antibiotics in both humans and animals has contributed to the spread of drug-resistant “superbugs.” In fact, multiple studies during the last decade have found that about half of all antibiotics prescribed in the U.S. are not needed or are inappropriate.The most acute antibiotic resistance problems arise in hospitals, Frieden said today on a conference call. “The most resistant organisms in hospitals are emerging in those settings because of poor antimicrobrial stewardship among humans.”

Antibiotic resistance poses a particular threat to people with compromised immune systems, such as patients undergoing chemotherapy or complex surgeries or individuals with chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma or rheumatoid arthritis. Most deaths linked to antibiotic-resistant infections happen in hospitals and nursing homes.[301 words]

time4
CDC’s prescription for combating these infections has four main components: Preventing infections and the spread of resistance; better tracking of resistant bacteria in order to understand the scope of the problem; improving the use of current antibiotics; and promoting the development of new antibiotics and better diagnostic tests for resistant bacteria.

The report does not say exactly how those objectives should be achieved or how much such an effort would cost. It does, however, recommend steps that states and communities, health providers, healthcare officials, and patients can take. Hospital patients, for example, should insist everyone wash their hands before touching them.

Two budget items on CDC’s wishlist for FY 2014 give some insight into how the agency hopes to improve its antibiotic-resistance efforts. In the President’s budget, CDC proposed an allocation of $40 million for a new Advanced Molecular Detection initiative, which would advance technologies such as high-throughout genome sequencing and improving bioinformatics. The agency also requested an increase of about $12.5 million for improvements to the National Healthcare Safety Network, which provides an integrated reporting system for healthcare-associated infections. The funds would expand that system to another 1,800 facilities.

To calculate the toll from antibiotic-resistance in this national snapshot CDC gathered existing data on the proportion of antibiotic resistant isolates and multiplied it by the total number of cases or deaths attributed to that bacterium. Since there is no total count for several pathogens, CDC says their estimates of antibiotic-resistant infections are conservative. [244 words]

source：
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2013/09/16/drug-resistant-superbugs-kill/

Defeating Drug-Resistant Cancers

time5
Last August, oncologist Keith Flaherty and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital published a study that gave hope to patients with metastatic melanoma. But the good news was tempered by a serious caveat: in most patients, the drug eventually stopped working after anywhere from months to years.

This issue of drug resistance has plagued the new generation of so-called targeted cancer therapies, designed to block the effects of genetic mutations that drive the growth of cancer. In two new studies published last week in Nature, researchers from Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the University of California, Los Angeles, uncovered how some melanoma tumors fight back against these drugs. They say the insight will aid in the design of new drugs and drug combinations that will allow targeted therapies to work longer and maybe even overcome resistance altogether.

“If we can understand and anticipate the full spectrum of ways cancers can get around these drugs, we can come up with formulas for combinations of drugs that could have lasting control,” says Levi Garraway, an oncologist and scientist at Dana Farber.

In one study, Garraway, Flaherty, and collaborators analyzed the effects of 600 different protein kinases, which are types of enzymes, on melanoma tumor cells growing in a dish. They found that overactivity among nine of the protein kinases made the cells resistant the type of drug that was so promising in Flaherty’s melanoma study. One enzyme had never previously been implicated in cancer. The researchers confirmed the findings by analyzing tissue samples from melanoma patients who evolved resistance to the drug.[261 words]

time6
It’s not yet clear how common this particular mechanism of drug resistance is. But Flaherty says that, based on the findings, he is very optimistic about targeted therapies. “It’s not chaos that creates resistance, it’s the same rational cell and molecular biology that led to the development of these therapies in first place,” he says. “We don’t need to invoke some phenomenally complex network biology to figure this out.”

In a related paper in Nature, Roger Lo, a physician and scientist at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, found changes similar to those in Garraway’s study. Lo agrees that the results will help scientists figure out more effective drug combinations. He likened the approach to those used to eradicate stubborn viruses. “A cocktail would be designed to cut off any possible escape route,” he says. However, “it’s more daunting to cover all grounds for a cancer cell,” because such cells tend to be very “plastic,” or capable of change.

Lo also cautions that researchers have studied relatively few patients, so it’s not yet clear how broadly these findings will apply to larger numbers of patients. (One problem is that it’s hard to come by tissue samples—researchers need tissue from the same patient both before and after treatment.) The researchers found resistance mechanisms in about 40 percent of the drug-resistant patients they studied, and are now looking for explanations for the remaining 60 percent.[233 words]

source:
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/421842/defeating-drug-resistant-cancers/

cherry6891

Part III: Obstacle

A new bug killer
Jun 7th 2014 | From the print edition

[Rephrase]
THE use and overuse of antibiotics have led to bacteria evolving resistance to many medications. Dealing with multi drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus (which causes MRSA infections) and Escherichia coli (linked to food poisoning) requires complex and costly care. The emergence of totally drug-resistant tuberculosis threatens a return to a time before antibiotics, when many life-threatening conditions were largely untreatable.

Nanotechnology could be one way of avoiding, or at least postponing, such a nightmare. Many nanoparticles, which are substances smaller than 100 nanometres (billionths of a metre) have antimicrobial properties, disrupting bacteria and either preventing them from spreading or killing them outright. Silver nanoparticles, in particular, interfere with bacterial replication and the tiniest specks physically abrade and disrupt membrane walls. The most powerful nano-attacks, however, appear to involve reactive oxygen species (ROS). These chemically active molecules are the shock troops of the biological world, rampaging through DNA, oxidising enzymes and damaging many of the cells and proteins essential for life.

The problem is that the mechanisms that allow nanoparticles to kill bacteria pose a risk to the very people they are intended to protect. Inhaled nanoparticles of metal oxides or silver can persist in the lungs and migrate to the kidneys, liver and brain with toxic effects. And ROS have been linked to genetic damage, heart problems and Alzheimer’s disease.

Now Philip Demokritou and Georgios Pyrgiotakis at the Centre for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology at the Harvard School of Public Health have come up with a way of creating safer nanoparticles, literally from thin air, using a process called electrospraying. A cooling element chills a tiny needle to condense a minuscule drop of water vapour from the atmosphere. Applying a high voltage to the needle then explodes the drop into a spray of droplets, each just 25 nanometres in size, containing water and ROS.

Powered up
Droplets this small would usually evaporate in a fraction of a second, and the ions within bond to organic molecules even faster. But because the condensed water is so pure, there are almost no other molecules to react with. And with the right voltage, Dr Pyrgiotakis discovered, a particle gets enough charge to boost its surface tension and resist evaporation for an hour or more. If the droplet happens to bounce into a bacterium during that time, its ROS are released to wreak havoc.

The researchers report that their nano droplets can decimate bacteria on surfaces, reducing them by a factor of between ten and nearly 100. The droplets have been tested against E.coli, S.aureus and a mycobacterium similar to the one that causes tuberculosis. In a new paper in Nanomedicine in March, they also found that an aerosol of the tiny particles, which they call nanobombs, reduced concentrations of airborne mycobacteria by over 50%. “It’s all about reducing the risk of transmission,” says Dr Demokritou. “There is not any technology out there to completely eliminate bacteria, but if you can you reduce rates by a half, that has huge implications for preventive policies.”

The researchers exposed mice to the droplets at six times the concentration used for attacking bacteria. They saw none of the biomarkers associated with lung inflammation or cellular damage from metal nanoparticles, and the mice had normal breathing. Dr Demokritou’s hypothesis is that lining fluid in the lungs of mice neutralises the nanobombs before they can penetrate to the living cells.

A personal bug shield
One of the first intended applications is replacing expensive air-disinfection systems in hospitals, which rely either on air filters that need regular maintenance or power-hungry ultraviolet lights. As the electrospray units are cheap (around $30 each) and can run on a trickle of 12-volt electricity, Dr Demokritou ultimately envisages consumer versions which plug into things like a laptop computer to create an invisible antibacterial shield for use on buses and aeroplanes.

The researchers have secured a grant from America’s Department of Agriculture to test their nanobombs on fruit and vegetables. In America leafy greens are responsible for over a fifth of all food-borne illnesses (more than any other food), despite processing that often involves nasty chemicals and unpopular irradiation treatments. Dr Demokritou believes electrospraying could be used from farm to fork to reduce pathogens like E.coli, salmonella and listeria, as well as yeasts and fungi that cause food to spoil.

Thomas Webster, director of the Nanomedicine Laboratory at Northeastern University in Boston, is impressed with the preliminary results but says the main concern is toxicity. “You have to do a good job looking at these materials and not just in the lungs,” he says. Wider environmental effects have to be considered, and whether they kill friendly bacteria.

The researchers are now planning further safety tests and will also experiment to see if electrosprayed nanoparticles can be effective against viruses like influenza. Most nanoparticles might still be too toxic to use against bacteria within the body, but if they can reduce the chance of catching an infection in the first place, that is nothing to be sneezed at.[858 words]

source:
http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21603236-water-particles-could-provide-powerful-airborne-shield-against-nasty-bacteria

疏离无罪

沙发~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~··

Speaker: NARMS's data showed that most of our meat have drug-resistant bacteria.So remember to cook all kind of meat before you eat it.

01:04
At least 23000 people died for antibiotic-resistant infections in america every year.And some scientists said the number is even underestimated.

01:27
Antibiotic resistance microbes are serious threat to human beings.Antibiotic-resistance often arises when commercial antibiotics kill good bacteria that protect the body from infection bacteria that cause illness.
Americans used more antibiotics than acctually needed.

01:14
CDC’s prescription for combating these infections has four main components.And according to the 2014 budget,these plans may cost lots of money.

01:23
Drug resistance makes the so-called targeted cancer therapies stop working.Scientists are analyzing the mechanism under the resistance to invent new drugs or drug combination to fight cancers.

01:06
Althought the mechanism is still unclear,scientists are optimsitic about the results which will help scientists figure out more effective drug combinations.But they have problems in getting enought samples to study.

05:45
The abuse of antibiotics have led to bacteria evolving resistance to many medications.Nanotechnology is one way of avoiding and dealing with the problem.But the mechanism that allow nanoparticles to kill bacteria pose a risk to the very people they are intended to protect because of its toxic effect.
Scientists are trying to creat safer nanoparticles.A kind of nano droplets which they called nanobombs can kill bacteria on surfaces.Thought this can not completelu kill bacteiras,it's still a success to people.And this nanobombs can be a personal bug shield.Further test and study are still needed.The toxicity and safety test are main things those scientists need to do.

小蘑菇开始打怪

占首页逼自己做作业。。
-----------
写点东西。。

speaker:

much every sample of ground turkey will have drug-resistant bacteria

slave918

T22:41

astudy shows that how much antibiotic-resistant infections influence people.

morechances to die, more hospitable stay.

costis boom.

T32:56

Thediseases that would caused antibiotic-resistance infections.

Themicrobes that prevent people.

Theprocess of how we get that disease.

Thebehind reason is we get too many antibiotics.

T41:54

HowCDC is going to address this problem.

Itdo give us some recommendations.

Wecan see how CDC improves the current situation by analyzing the budget.

thestatistics of the toll is conservative.

T51:46         

Anew drug study may help patients but it can not apply to some patients who hasantibiotic-resistant infections.

T61:08

2study

  

charming9386

28 AUG 生词略多 困 最后一个月  燃烧吧

Speed
01:19 [226 words]
Main idea: Anti-resistent superbug
structure:
              1)  Background
                  There are more and more anti-resistant infections every year   
        
              2)  CDC findings
                  patients with anti-resistant infections are more likely to die and have long disability

              3)  cost
                  In US,health system has spent large amount of money in the anti-resistent infections

01:42 [301 words]
Main idea: How the antibiotic resistence happen
structure:
              1)  Introduction
                  The article talked about several antibiotic disease ,such as ...

              2)  Why does this happen?
                  According to CDC,the wide spread of antibiotic resistence is due to overuse of antibiotic

              3)  Effect
                  Every year,there are many people died because of anti-resistent infections in hospital and nursing home

01:05 [244 words]
Main idea: The efforts to reduce anti-resistent infections
structure:
              1)  the measures proposed by CDC
                  CDC has proposed 4 steps to reduce anti-resistent infections.First...,last....

              2)  The cost
                  The institute suggest that we improve the fee of curing anti-resistent infections

              3)  The cost
                  CDC makes a conservative estimation about the cost of anti-resistent infections

01:20 [261 words]
Main idea: The research about anti-resistent infections
structure:
              1)  the background
                  the drug eventually stopped working

              2)  two research about anti-resistent infections
                  the scientists proposed that we have new design of drugs and the combination of drugs to overcome this resistence

              3)  research
                  the scientists analyze the kinds of protein,which are enzymes, and analyze the patients who infect m**.
01:13 [233 words]
Main idea: the essence of anti-resistent infections
              1)  The status quo
                  we did not know the combination of drugs

              2)  BUT if we know the combination of drugs,the scientist will more figure out the effectiveness of combination of drugs.
                  
              3)  The conclusion
                  We are not sure about that how the drug will be in a large number of patients.And we just studied 40% and need to explain the remaining 60%

04:12 [858 words]
Main idea: the anti-resistent bug killer
              1)  The reason
                  The anti-resistent bug is due to overuse of abtibiotic drugs

              2)  The contradict
                  If we use some drugs,these drugs may kill the bacteria as well as friendly cells in body.Therefore,
                  we should come up with some drugs,which will not kill friendly cells

              3)  The research
                  The scientists use a new method to avoid the disadvantage and apply this method into mices.It turns out to be that mices have normal breath

              4)  In addition, the scientists also use this method into plants and we notice the drug is chemicals and its toxicity.

              5)  The conclusion
                  We need more evidence and trials to test whether the new drug is applicable to human .

charming9386

加油 好困
strains
n. [微] 菌株（strain复数）；种族
v. [力] 拉紧；使过度劳累（strain的第三人称单数形式

tuberculosis
n. 肺结核；结核病

rampage
n. 暴怒；暴跳；乱闹
vi. 狂暴；乱闹；发怒

inhale
吸入

electrospraying technique
电子喷雾技术

droplets
n. [流] 液滴（droplet的复数）；飞沫

not be sneezed at
不可轻视

influenza
n. [内科] 流行性感冒（简写flu）；家畜流行性感冒

trickle
n. 滴，淌；细流
vt. 使…滴；使…淌；使…细细地流
vi. 滴；细细地流；慢慢地移动

biomarkers
n. 生物标记；生物指标

decimate
vt. 十中抽一，取十分之一；大批杀害

ZOEYZHANG114

1)        The advice about cooking is useful
2)        Antibiotic diseases are hard to cure and most of them happen in the hospitals
3)        The current statistics cannot display the accuracy of the data as to how many people involved in the diseases.
4)        The research about the mechanism about the disease is on the way.
5)        The new technology help to study the disease.

醒醒Shine

[speaker]
drug-resistant bacteria,very big chance to take

[time2]
many people die in antibiotic-resistant infection,threart, underestimate

[time3]
urgent threats, include many components
A-resistance arise: CA kill good bacteria
why arise: overuse of antibiotics
threat to people= compromised immune system

[time4]
combating 4 components, not about how achieve and cost,but steps can take
2 budget to show the future proposal
snapshot 快照
pathogen 病原体

[time5]
new study:metastatic melanoma,but serious caveat---stop working
explanation: melanoma tumors fight back drugs
BUT==> one study: one enzyme never implicated in cancer

[time6]
not clear how coomon, but F optimistic
helpful but still noe clear how broadly apply

[obstacle]
1
BG: antibiotics==>resitstance
solution: nanoparticles=antimicrobial properties==>disrupt, Xspreading/kill
BUT: risk of toixc effect(particle persist and migrate)
solution2: electrospray
2
electrospray mechanism
nano droplet--decimate surface bacteria
aerosol=nanobomb---reduce 50%
mice experiment, success
3
app1:replace expensive air-disinfection system
app2:ADA fruit,vege

concerns:environment, friendely bacteria
further safety tests,but still support


越障并不长，八百多字，属于典型的科普文。整体结构就是：提出现象--论证研究及价值--应用--不足和下一步深入
涉及到的名词之间关系，略复杂，但是细细一回忆记住名词的定位应该就能类似G考场上答题了
简单分析：nanoparticles有一些不===》于是提出了electrospray的解决办法，electrspray的原理就是droplet和aerosol两种，都起到了一定减小risk的作用===》于是在air-disinfection system replace和 fruit and vege领域有了应用
恩，就酱