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Psychiatric diagnosis
That way, madness lies



A new manual for diagnosing diseases of the psyche is about to be unveiled
Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition

Prepare to have your paradigms shifted ON FEBRUARY 10th the world of psychiatry will be asked, metaphorically, to lie on the couch and answer questions about the state it thinks it is in. For that is the day the American Psychiatric Association (APA) plans to release a draft of the fifth version of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Mental illness carrying the stigma that it does, and the brain being as little-understood as it is, revising the DSM is always a controversial undertaking. This time, however, some of the questions asked of the process are likely to be particularly probing.第一段把大致的情况讲了下，2月10日APA将要把第五版DXM-V草案公之于众。

The DSM, the first version of which was published in 1952, lists recognised psychological disorders and the symptoms used to diagnose them. In the United States, what is in it influences whether someone will be diagnosed with an illness at all, how he will be treated if he is so diagnosed, and whether his insurance company will pay for that treatment. Researchers in other countries generally defer to the DSM, too, making the manual’s definitions a [url=]lingua franca[/url][s1]
for the science of medical psychology. And, perhaps most profoundly, the DSM influences how mental illness is understood by society at large. 自第一版DSM出版以来，它的适用性越来越强。

A new DSM, then, is an important document. The APA has been working on the latest revision since 1999, and will not release the final version until May 2013. But some people are already accusing it of excessive secrecy and being too ambitious about the changes it proposes. Those critics will be picking over the draft next week to see if their fears have been realised.

Manual dexterity
The original DSM reflected the “psychodynamic” view of mental illness, in which problems were thought to result from an interplay between personality and life history. (Think Freud, Jung and long hours recounting your childhood and dreams.) The third version, which was published in 1980, took a more medical approach. Mental illnesses were seen as distinct and classifiable, like physical diseases. DSM-III came with checklists of symptoms that allowed straightforward, unambiguous diagnosis. Psychiatry began to seem less like an art form and more like a science. DSM从第一版到第三版的发展过程。。。从艺术走向科学

DSM-III also introduced many more diagnoses than had appeared before. These included [url=]attention-deficit disorder[/url][s2] , [url=]post-traumatic stress disorder[/url][s3] and social phobia. In fact, the number of specific diagnoses more than doubled between DSM-I and DSM-III, from 106 to 265. DSM-IV, published in 1994, increased the number to 297, but left the underlying model alone.

The APA’s DSM-V [url=]task force[/url][s4] , however, has suggested it would like to introduce a “new paradigm” into the manual. It wants to recognise that many conditions, such as anxiety and depression, tend to overlap, so that a diagnosis of only one or the other does not always make sense. The new version of the DSM is also expected to include a “dimensional” component, one that considers the severity as well as the nature of symptoms. This could lead to the paradoxical situation of a symptom (minor depression, for example) being classified as being below the threshold for the diagnosis of a disease, but nevertheless still being regarded as a problem—leaving the individual so diagnosed in a weird medical limbo.最新的DSM希望能包含病症和严重程度。

【The chairmen of two previous DSM task forces have been particularly critical of the present effort. In a letter to Psychiatric Times, written last June, for example, Allen Frances, a psychiatrist at Duke University who chaired the DSM-IV task force, accused his successors of being too secretive, and of closing themselves off from outside opinion. He also worried that adding dimensional ratings to the DSM could lead to many more diagnoses based on symptoms that would previously have placed an individual in the normal range. Pharmaceutical companies, eager to expand their markets, would be tempted to pounce on these new “patients”. Dr Frances was supported by Robert Spitzer, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University who was chairman of the DSM-III task force.

Members of the present task force, led by Alan Schatzberg, president of the APA, fired back a letter pointing out that they have held conferences, presented papers and consulted more than 200 outside advisers. They also accused Dr Frances and Dr Spitzer of having a financial interest in books based on the DSM-IV criteria. The two admit to receiving royalties, but say it has nothing to do with their criticism.】可以作为scandal 的实例

In the meantime, particular groups who may or may not be classified as “diseased” are also concerned about what ends up in the manual. Some of those with[url=] Asperger’s syndrome[/url][s5] —who find it hard to “read” the emotional states and intentions of others, but have otherwise typical intellectual faculties—are worried by hints that their condition might be included under the more general heading of “[url=]autism[/url][s6] spectrum disorder”. That would [url=]lump[/url][s7] them with people whose intelligence is profoundly impaired. Transsexuals, meanwhile, want the diagnoses of “gender identity disorder” and “transvestic fetishism” that the new DSM is expected to promulgate changed to be more respectful and less judgmental. In fact, any changes to the list of sexual disorders, including a possible new category called “hypersexual disorder”, are bound to get attention.有很多专业术语。。。

February 10th will be the first chance most people, including the critics, have to look at the document. When they do, the criticism is likely to get louder. After all, the effort to classify and categorise disorders of something as complex as the human mind—especially when that categorisation is done by committee—is unlikely to please everybody. It will be interesting to see what direction the new DSM is going in, and whether it stands up to analysis.

[s1]something resembling a common language <movies are the lingua franca of the twentieth century ― Gore Vidal>

[s2]a syndrome of disordered learning and disruptive behavior that is not caused by any serious underlying physical or mental disorder and that has several subtypes characterized primarily by symptoms of inattentiveness or primarily by symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsive behavior (as speaking out of turn) or by the significant expression of all three ― abbreviation ADD

[s3]a psychological reaction occurring after experiencing a highly stressing event (as wartime combat, physical violence, or a natural disaster) that is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, flashbacks, recurrent nightmares, and avoidance of reminders of the event ― abbreviation PTSD ― called also post-traumatic stress syndrome

[s4]a temporary grouping under one leader for the purpose of accomplishing a definite objective

[s5]a developmental disorder resembling autism that is characterized by impaired social interaction, by restricted and repetitive behaviors and activities, and by normal language and cognitive development ― called also Asperger's disorder

[s6]a variable developmental disorder that appears by age three and is characterized by impairment of the ability to form normal social relationships, by impairment of the ability to communicate with others, and by stereotyped behavior patterns自闭症

[s7]verb [VN] ~ A and B together
~ A (in) with B to put or consider different things together in the same group: You can't lump all Asian languages together.

misirUID: 2684938

Sexing chickens
Hey little hen
A way to determine the sex of a chicken embryo before it hatches should save money and improve animal welfare
Feb 9th 2010 | From The Economist online

THE world of poultry farming, the sexes are unequal. Broilers aside, hens can look forward, if that is the right phrase, to productive and reasonably long lives as layers of eggs for human consumption. Cocks are generally for the chop, a process that vexes animal-welfare activists. Only those few needed to keep the species going are allowed to live beyond chickdom. 可怜的公鸡啊。。。

Sorting the quick from the soon-to-be-dead, though, is a tedious process. “Vent sexing”, the most common way, requires a worker to squeeze a chick’s anal vent, or cloaca泄殖腔, to clear the faeces and assess the size of a telltale bump inside the hole. Not the most popular of jobs. The alternative, “feather sexing,” is a form of cross-breeding that leaves females with detectably longer pin feathers than those of their male counterparts. This is slightly more salubrious, but the long-feather gene has been linked to other traits that may be undesirable to hatcheries, such as cancer. That discourages hatchers from adopting the method.区别鸡雌雄的一般方法。。。

Yet chicken-sexing is a huge industry. The world’s population of laying hens is now nearly six billion strong, according to the United Nations’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. That is very nearly one hen for every human being. Time, then, to mechanise the process. And that is precisely what Tauseef Butt, a biomedical engineer and the boss of LifeSensors, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, proposes to do.母鸡的数量很多哦，这项辨性工作将要如何展开？

Dr Butt’s new device is an oestrogen雌激素sniffer嗅探器. It relies on the fact that female embryos produce this hormone in quantity and male ones do not. The sensor uses a fine needle to penetrate both the shell and the allantoic尿囊的 sac of an egg. This sac is a fluid-filled membrane that cushions the embryo and helps it trade carbon dioxide for oxygen from the air. (It is also the membrane that can make peeling a hard-boiled egg such a frustrating affair.)

The fluid sample thus extracted is mixed with genetically engineered yeast cells that fluoresce发荧光in the presence of oestrogen. The light so generated is recorded by a camera linked to a computer that keeps track of where the egg that produced the sample is now stored. Initial experiments, reported recently in the Journal of Animal Science, show that the process does not affect the hatchability of tested eggs, and appears to be virtually [url=]foolproof[/url][s1] , if rather long-winded冗长的(the results are available only after two hours).【这个例子可用于简单与复杂的ISSUE】

In future, Dr Butt envisages, the egg-sorting operation of a large hatchery might look like this: A conveyor belt moves the eggs along, gently jostling them until their allantoic sacs point upright. They then pass beneath an array of needles, which draw fluid from each. That done, they are sorted into bar-coded trays. Two hours later, once the samples have been analysed and the sex of each egg determined, they are returned to a sorter and divided by sex. The unfortunate male embryos then end up as pet food while the females go on to their lives as egg-mothers.

It would require some engineering (and a significant amount of storage space) to incorporate such a system into a hatchery. But the tweaks on the actual production line would be relatively minor, according to Dr Butt, and could be incorporated into the existing systems of robotic injectors used to pump vaccines into unhatched eggs.

Dr Butt reckons the cost of his system would be two or three cents per egg. The savings in labour, and in the cost of feeding and vaccinating cocks that slip through the existing procedures, should outweigh this. Sad for the redundant sexers, of course. But, as the adage has it, you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.

[s1]so simple, plain, or reliable as to leave no opportunity for error, misuse, or failure <a foolproof plan>十分简易的，傻瓜式的

misirUID: 2684938

Lexington
A refreshing dose of honesty
Maria Cantwell and the politics of global warming
Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition

NOT long after the flood, when Noah was safely back on dry land, God promised: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man...And never again will I destroy all living creatures.” The implication is clear. “Man will not destroy this earth,” says John Shimkus, a Bible-reading Republican congressman from Illinois. So there is no need to worry about global warming.

On January 28th, America formally pledged to承诺the UN that it would reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions by 17% (from what they were in 2005) by 2020. But there was a planet-sized catch. Meeting the target will depend on getting a climate bill through Congress, and that will be horribly hard. A bill to erect a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon-dioxide emissions squeaked through the House of Representatives last summer. But similar bills have stalled in the Senate, where nearly anything big needs a supermajority to pass.

Various obstacles block the way. First, Barack Obama has not yet decided what to do about health care, and he cannot wage two domestic wars at once. Second, cap-and-trade is a tough sell. An increasing number of Americans, like Mr Shimkus, doubt the science. The proportion who believe there is “solid evidence” that the earth is warming fell from 71% in 2008 to 57% last year. Among Republicans, disbelief is the norm: only 35% think there is solid evidence of warming, according to a Pew poll. The news that some climate scientists tried to muzzle dissenting不同意的voices has spread like the common cold on conservative blogs, fuelling widespread suspicion that global warming is an elaborate hoax巧妙的骗局. Many climate skeptics are furious. “My Carbon Footprint Will Fit Nicely in Your Liberal Ass,” reads a typical T-shirt. Even among Americans who believe in global warming, there is little appetite for tackling it. A hefty 85% told Gallup that the government should place a higher priority on fixing the economy, with only 12% saying the opposite.

Enter Maria Cantwell, the junior senator from Washington state. She is pushing a simpler, more voter-friendly version of cap-and-trade, called “cap-and-dividend”. Under her bill, the government would impose a ceiling on carbon emissions each year. Producers and importers of fossil fuels will have to buy permits. The permits would be auctioned, raising vast sums of money. Most of that money would be divided evenly among all Americans. The bill would raise energy prices, of course, and therefore the price of everything that requires energy to make or distribute. But a family of four would receive perhaps $1000 a year, which would more than make up for it, reckons Ms Cantwell. Cap-and-dividend would set a price on carbon, thus giving Americans a powerful incentive to burn less dirty fuel. It would also raise the rewards for investing in clean energy. And it would leave all but the richest 20% of Americans—who use the most energy—materially better off, she says.

Ms Cantwell’s bill is refreshingly simple. At a mere 40 pages, it is one-thirty-sixth as long as the monstrous House bill (known as “Waxman-Markey”, after its sponsors), which would regulate everything from televisions to “bottle-type water dispensers” and is completely incomprehensible to a layman. Instead of auctioning permits to emit, Waxman-Markey gives 85% of them away, at least at first. This is staggeringly inefficient: permits would go to those with political clout政治势力rather than those who value them most. No one is proud of this—Mr Obama wanted a 100% auction—but House Democrats decided that the only way to pass the bill was to hand out billions of dollars of goodies to groups that might otherwise oppose it. (There was plenty of pork left over for its supporters, too.)

The Senate will not pass a comprehensive climate bill any time soon. So Mr Obama is attacking the problem piece by piece逐渐地, bypassing Congress. On February 3rd, he unveiled a plan to promote biofuels and a task force to study the improbable dream of “clean” coal. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered private companies to publish estimates of the climate-related risks they face. The Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, is trying to regulate greenhouse gases under existing laws. But regulation is no substitute for putting a price on carbon, which would harness the power of the market to cut emissions more cheaply.

Tell it like it is
Of all the bills that would put a price on carbon, cap-and-dividend seems the most promising. (A carbon tax would be best of all, but has no chance of passing.) Ms Cantwell has a Republican co-sponsor, Susan Collins of Maine, and says she is hearing positive noises from a few other Republicans, such as Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The most attractive thing about the bill is that it is honest. To discourage the use of dirty energy, it says, it has to be more expensive. To make up for that, here’s a thousand bucks.

This challenges the conventional wisdom in Washington, DC, that the only way to pass a global-warming bill is to disguise what’s in it. Leading Democrats try to sell cap-and-trade as a way to create jobs and wean使断奶 America from its addiction to foreign oil. (It’s about “jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs,” said Nancy Pelosi, the speaker, last year.) Focus groups say this message ought to resonate. Frank Luntz, a pollster, released a study last month showing that voters are unswayed by melting ice caps but will support an energy bill that sticks it to the Saudis and creates American jobs. In real life, though, voters hear counter-arguments. Sure, cap-and-trade will create jobs, but it will destroy them, too. If the goal is to reduce dependence on foreign energy, why not mine more American coal? The only sound reason for acting to curb global warming is to curb global warming. Ms Cantwell does not put it so bluntly, but her bill speaks for itself.

misirUID: 2684938

Google v Facebook
Generating Buzz
The search giant makes a [url=]belated[/url][s1] attempt to take on the social-networking site
Feb 11th 2010 | SAN FRANCISCO | From The Economist print edition

FOR years Google has stayed on the fringes of the social-networking industry, leaving the field largely to the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Now, however, it is making a determined foray into online friendships. On February 9th the search giant unveiled Buzz, a networking service that will be closely integrated with the firm’s e-mail offering, Gmail. Google no doubt hopes Buzz will help it catch up with the leaders of the networking world—but the chances are slim.

Google’s move is a sign that the world of social networking and that of other online services, such as e-mail and search, are rapidly converging. Social networks such as Facebook, which boasts over 400m users, have become popular tools for communicating online and for posting information on a host of subjects. Google and other search engines have begun to incorporate content from social networks in their results.

Buzz represents the latest attempt by Google to muscle its way into the networking market. It already has a social network, Orkut, and a Twitter-like service called Jaiku, but neither has been wildly successful. The search firm is betting that at least two things will make Buzz more buzzworthy. One is that it lets Gmail users create a network easily from their e-mail contacts. Given that the e-mail service had 176m users in December, according to comScore, a market-research firm, that should give Buzz a handy launch pad. Buzz is also able to exploit Google’s search know-how to help users identify the material of most interest to them from the flood of data pouring into its networking pages.

This filtering ability is distinctive, but it will not be enough to make Buzz hum. Making it easy for users to turn e-mail contacts into pals on a social network is no guarantee of success either. Some users worry that this feature raises privacy problems, by revealing who they e-mail most often. Moreover, it is unlikely that people who have already set up social networks elsewhere will want to create yet another one from scratch. Yahoo! introduced similar features some time ago, yet still lags Facebook.【有点argu 的味道】

Nor is it clear that Google, which has fingers in multiple pies, will be able to match the focus of outfits such as Facebook, which lives and breathes social networking. On February 10th the search giant added yet another business to its fast-growing portfolio when it announced plans to launch an ultra-high-speed broadband service in America. Facebook, meanwhile, is working on various projects to improve its own network. Its [url=]hive[/url][s2] of activity is even said to include an e-mail service that will compete with Gmail. More battles loom.【同上】

[s1]事做得太晚的，东西发出得太迟的＝delayed

[s2]喧闹繁忙的场所；蜂房＝beehive

xiemeng2370UID: 2749773

好认真啊~哎~我就是看不下去大段的英文文章~

misirUID: 2684938

刚开始也不习惯的啊。。。
以前对着电脑屏幕超过一个小时都会觉得头晕目眩的呢~
看得多了貌似也好点了。。。
:) 20# xiemeng2370

misirUID: 2684938

China and America
The odd couple
Oct 22nd 2009
From The Economist print edition

America should be much more confident in its dealings with its closest rival
IT HAS become a [url=]tedious[/url][s1] tradition for Westerners dealing with China to [url=]garnish[/url][s2] their speeches with wisdom from the Chinese classics. Barack Obama, addressing Chinese and American leaders in July, used not just a [url=]banal[/url][s3] quotation from Mencius, a Confucian sage, but a punchier one from Yao Ming, a Chinese basketball player: “No matter whether you are new or an old team member, you need time to adjust to one another.” Though it is 30 years since the two countries re-established diplomatic ties severed by the Communist takeover, both sides still badly need to adjust.
The heart of the problem is a profound uncertainty in both countries about where the relationship may lead. In many respects the two countries are in the same bed. Their economies have become interlocked, especially in the past decade. America is the world’s biggest debtor and China its biggest creditor. From climate change to the economic recovery, the world faces problems that demand China and America work in concert (means together).
Prussian blues, Chinese reds
Yet relations are dogged by fears of a new cold war, or even a hot one, breaking out. Some Americans in Washington, DC, talk of China as “the new Prussia”. China has engaged in a rapid military build-up that could challenge America as the defender of Asian peace (and Taiwan’s sovereignty). Unannounced, China is building its first aircraft-carrier, yet its generals(将军) often refuse even to talk to their American peers.
Underlying the strategic competition is China’s economic rise. Its companies are “colonising” swathes of Africa and Latin America, cosying up to regimes Westerners [url=]shun[/url][s4] . Its huge foreign-exchange holdings and its sniffing of bargains mean Chinese investment in the West will grow rapidly in the coming years. And to cap it all, China owns $800 billion of American government debt—enough to give it power of life and death over the American economy.
Tensions will get worse in the next few years for two reasons. The first is unavoidable: 2012 witnesses important political transitions in the form of elections in Taiwan and America and a Communist Party Congress in China. Second—and more generally—there has been a recalibration of perceived power. There is now talk of a G2 of China and America, implying that their global weights are nearly equal. In fact, as our special report argues, this is a misperception, and a dangerous one.
China’s economy is still less than a third the size of America’s at market exchange-rates. Its GDP per head is one-fourteenth that of America. The innovation gap between the two countries remains huge. America’s defence budget is still six times China’s. As for the Treasury bills, dumping them is not an option for China: a tumbling dollar would hurt its own economy (see article). And as American consumers spend less, while Chinese stimulus boosts its domestic spending, the huge and politically troublesome trade imbalances are shrinking. In the meantime, the danger of overegging China’s economic expansion abroad is that it will fuel protectionism at a time when American unemployment is painfully high.
In terms of [url=]geopolitical[/url][s5] power, China has neither the [url=]clout[/url][s6] nor the inclination to challenge America. Confidently though China’s leaders now strut the world stage, they remain preoccupied by simmering discontent at home: there are tens of thousands of protests each year. For all the economic progress, all sorts of tensions—social, cultural, demographic, even religious—haunt the regime and help explain why it resorts to nationalism so often. So it is odd, and wrong, that America’s approach towards China is driven by its own insecurities.
To simplify enormously, the danger is that a frightened United States will be too tough on China over the economy, especially trade; and not tough enough on human rights. On money matters, Mr. Obama’s foolish decision to slap tariffs关税on Chinese tyres has given dangerous encouragement to protectionists in America. As unemployment there climbs inexorably towards 10%, the pressure will grow for Congress to fuel a self-defeating attack on Chinese exports and the [url=]undervalue[/url][s7] d yuan. This is bad economics: both China and America would lose enormously from a trade war.
If economic freedom is one American value that Mr Obama should not sacrifice on his first visit to China next month, the other is personal freedom. Chinese authoritarianism is not somehow more acceptable because China is a rising power; nor are human rights bargaining chips to be played only when expedient. That Mr. Obama needs Chinese help to fix the global economy and on climate-change mitigation does not mean the leader of the free world should stifle criticism of its political system. Avoiding a meeting with the Dalai Lama in Washington this month was an unnecessary sop to his hosts. The Communist Party, keen to bolster its image at home, wants the trip to appear successful as much as Mr. Obama does.
Same bed, different dreams—and one is stronger
A more confident approach is a bet on whose sort of system of government will prove ultimately stronger. At the moment China’s responses on the climate, the financial crisis and the emerging swine-flu pandemic have won it praise internationally. But they have also borne the hallmarks of an [url=]authoritarian[/url][s8] system. For instance, on greenery, it is clear that if China had exposed its response to the rigors of democratic debate, it would have acted more slowly: China’s system enables it to mobilize huge resources and make politically difficult decisions. But an effective long-term response to climate change needs public understanding of the issues and a legal environment that allows foreign owners of green technologies to transfer them without fear of theft. China lacks both.
Behind China’s fa&ccedil;ade of strength, on[url=] stunning[/url][s9] display with its parade of tanks and missiles through Beijing on October 1st, lie fretful frailties—also on display that day, when spectators were banned for fear of protests. Social tensions in China are likely to rise, even as it grows richer. Locking up activists, as China has been wont使习惯于; 习惯to do recently, is not a lasting solution. Mr Obama should meet some of them in Beijing to find out for himself. If his hosts have a hissy fit, let them.

[s1]tiresome because of length or dullness : BORING<a tedious public ceremony>

[s2]to equip with accessories : FURNISH

[s3]lacking originality, freshness, or novelty : TRITE

[s4]to avoid deliberately and especially habitually <shuns publicity>

[s5]a study of the influence of such factors as geography, economics, and demography on the politics and especially the foreign policy of a state

[s6]PULL.INFLUENCE <political clout>

[s7]to value, rate, or estimate below the real worth <undervalue stock>

[s8]独裁主义者（与个人自由相反，赞成绝对服从权威）

[s9]1 : causing astonishment or disbelief <stunning news>
2 : strikingly impressive especially in beauty or excellence <a stunning view> <stunning workmanship>

misirUID: 2684938

Face value
Cultural revolutionary
Qi Lu, the boss of Bing, hopes to get Microsoft back in the online game
Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition

Lu believes it’s the intention that counts THE boss of Microsoft’s online-services arm, Qi Lu, tends to flourish in the face of adversity. When he was five, to protect him from the[url=] turmoil [/url][s1] of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, his parents sent him to live in a village where he grew up in poverty. Still, he managed to enter Shanghai’s Fudan University where he graduated in computer science and became a lecturer. That might have been it. But he impressed a visiting professor and was offered a scholarship at Carnegie Mellon University. With a PhD in his pocket, he soon joined Yahoo!, then a rising star of the internet, and ended up leading the development of the firm’s search and advertising technology.这段介绍了他的生平

Now Mr Lu faces a new challenge. His job at Microsoft, where he moved a year ago, is to take on Google in the online search and advertising business, where the Silicon Valley firm rules supreme. How well Mr Lu and his group do will have a big impact, not only on Microsoft, but on the entire online industry.

Catching up with Google will take years, and a lot of [url=]stamina[/url][s2] , but Mr Lu has plenty. When your [url=]correspondent[/url][s3] interviewed him, at 7am, he had already been awake for three hours and run five miles on a treadmill跑步机, as he does every day. “If you drive a car at a constant 65mph, it stays in good condition,” he says to those who fear he will wear himself out. “Eating a lot of fruit and vegetables also keeps me fresh.”有自虐倾向。。。

Mr Lu is also a driver of badly needed cultural change at the world’s largest software firm. “We need to adapt to a much faster rate of innovation,” says Mr Lu, whose friendly, [url=]self-effacing[/url][s4] demeanor风度 stands in [url=]stark[/url][s5] contrast to the bulldog manner of Microsoft executives of yore从前; 昔日. Developing stand-alone programs and running an online service are two very different things. Instead of releasing a new version of a program every couple of years, online firms live in a perpetual cycle of product improvement and instantaneous user feedback. A search service’s engineers constantly sift through data collected online, come up with hypotheses about how to improve performance and results, and then test them with a small group of users.工作过程

Most importantly, Mr Lu seems to know just where he wants to take Microsoft’s search business. To him, it is all about “understanding user intent”. At first, search engines just looked at the words being searched for, and listed web pages that contained them. Google’s trick was to make results more relevant, mainly by counting the number of links to each web page containing the words and putting pages with the most links at the top of the search results. Now, explains Mr Lu, there is a growing wealth of data to help clarify how users’ interests are evolving, such as posts on social networks and “tweets” on Twitter, a micro-blogging site.

But [url=]tinker[/url][s6] ing with algorithms算法 alone will not help Microsoft grab much market share from Google, or help its online-services division finally turn a profit. In June, Microsoft relaunched its search service as Bing. With the new name came a new mission: Bing is not just meant to help people find things online, it is also meant to help them make decisions, in particular when it comes to spending money. To facilitate the purchase of a new camera, for instance, Bing does not simply list [url=]pertinent[/url][s7] sites, but aggregates links to reviews, price comparisons and pictures on a single page.

At the same time, Microsoft wants to merge its search business with Mr Lu’s former division at Yahoo! If approved by regulators, the deal would treble Bing’s market share. That is crucial in a business where size really matters. More searches mean more data to test hypotheses, which makes for more relevant results and advertisements, which in turn leads to more clicks and revenues.

Meanwhile, Mr Lu intends to improve Bing continuously—and not just by copying Google. Microsoft’s service was the first to allow users to search the latest tweets. In December it introduced further innovations, such as boxes that pop up next to the results for searches involving famous people or places, with information on local hotels, say, or on a musician’s lyrics. Bing is also considering cutting deals with newspapers and other content providers for exclusive rights to link to their wares. Microsoft is said to be talking to News Corporation about this, for example. There is even talk that Bing could replace Google as the preferred search engine on Apple’s iPhone, as once-friendly relations between Apple and Google have cooled.

These tactics look promising. Bing’s share of web searches in America is up by a few points to nearly 11%. Google has been forced to react by introducing more features, some of them similar to Bing’s. But Mr Lu would be the first to admit that the service still has a long way to go. Bing has gained market share at the expense of Yahoo! rather than Google. Outside America, Bing is little more than an [url=]also-ran[/url][s8] .

Even so, Mr Lu is optimistic. “We have what it takes—and an obligation to do a good job,” he says. “A concentration of power is not healthy for the internet industry.” Then again, concentrated power, which Microsoft itself knows a thing or two about, is not easy to overcome.

[s1]a state or condition of extreme confusion, agitation, or commotion

[s2]防止疾病、疲劳或经受磨难的）体力，耐力＝endurance

[s3]符合的，一致的＝agreeing＝matching；n 记者；通信者；（远地商务）联系人

[s4]not wanting to attract attention to yourself or your abilities不出风头的

[s5]to an absolute or complete degree : WHOLLY <stark naked> <stark mad>

[s6]~ (with sth) to make small changes to sth in order to repair or improve it, especially in a way that may not be helpful:

[s7]having a clear decisive relevance to the matter in hand

[s8]a person who is not successful, especially in a competition or an election or when compared with other people

misirUID: 2684938

February 10, 2010 | 134 comments
How to Reform the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Recent scandals have undermined the credibility of the international scientific body, yet the scientific evidence for climate change remains as strong as ever
By David Biello

   
Himalayan glaciers to disappear by 2035. Nuclear power plants cheaper than fossil fuel–fired ones. A chairman who might have financial conflicts of interest (and an interest in penning a racy, loosely autobiographical romance novel). These are some of the mistakes currently argued to have been made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—a panel of more than 2,500 volunteer scientists and other experts from 154 countries tasked with assessing climate change.

So the question is: Is it time to reform the IPCC, despite its Nobel Peace Prize–winning [url=]stature[/url][s1] ?

As it currently stands the IPCC produces vast reports roughly every six years, the fourth and most recent review in 2007, with another due in 2014. The idea is to synthesize all the latest peer-reviewed literature on climate change to present an authoritative and comprehensive report on the physical science of climate change and the issues it [url=]entail[/url][s2] s: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability as well as mitigation. The IPCC also occasionally produces reports on specific technologies or policies such as carbon capture and storage, with upcoming reports set to address renewable sources of energy and managing the risk of extreme weather events. IPCC的工作

The main IPCC report from 2007, particularly the section dealing with the physical science of climate change, is perhaps the most exhaustively reviewed 3,000-page scientific document on the planet. Governments and reviewers submitted some 90,000 comments on the draft text, which then had to be addressed by the expert authors. And the final "summary for policymakers" (a condensed version of the full text) was reviewed word by word by government officials with guidance from the scientists.2007年IPCC出版了关于气候的大部头著作

Yet, errors still made it through this rigorous process, including the seeming transposition of Himalayan glaciers melting by 2350 to 2035—a physical impossibility as well as a statement apparently based on one scientist's opinion. The IPCC went so far as to issue a retraction撤回 of the statement and express "regret" for that error, among others.严密的著作里还是有错误的存在

Of course, retractions are a big part of self-correction in science—and responsible for much of the robustness of the scientific method in general. And none of these errors detract降低 from the central theory of climate change: Rising CO2 and other greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere from human activity are "very likely" responsible for the observed temperature change over the industrial era, as the IPCC puts it.

A more robust way to expose such errors and correct them more quickly is proposed by former IPCC lead author and atmospheric scientist John Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Writing in the February 11 edition of Nature, Christy called for a "living, 'Wikipedia-IPCC.'" (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) After all, as he noted: "Voluminous printed reports issued every six years by government-nominated authors cannot accommodate the rapid and chaotic development of scientific information today." Lead IPCC author and director of climate change and adaptation at the environmental group World Wildlife Fund, Jeff Price similarly argued in the same issue for producing more reports faster. 指出IPCC的出版物缺乏时效性

Yet, it is just such government approval and multiple layers of review that help give the IPCC process its authority. And such a process requires one thing: time, argues physicist Thomas Stocker, co-chair of the physical sciences group for the 2014 report. "Faster turnover would jeopardize the multistage review and thus compromise authority and comprehensiveness," he wrote in the same issue, while also arguing that the IPCC must be rigorous in its pursuit of assessments that are "policy relevant but never policy prescriptive."

To enhance that relevance, contributing IPCC author and [url=]paleoclimatologist[/url][s3] Eduardo Zorita of the GKSS Research Center in Germany calls for the creation of an international climate agency, along the lines of the International Atomic Energy Agency or the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, that would continue to deliver assessments but with a permanent staff, rather than relying on the voluntary contributions of thousands of scientists. "Climate assessment is too important to be left in the hands of advocates," he concluded in the same issue.

And IPCC lead author and environmental scientist Mike Hulme of the University of East Anglia in England, an institution that has come under fire遭到抨击after e-mails were released purporting to show deception among climate scientists, urged the replacement of the IPCC with three independent panels to deliver respectively: scientific syntheses, regional assessments and policy analyses, thereby splitting the functions that have caused potential problems with the IPCC process. "The IPCC is no longer fit for purpose," Hulme wrote. "It is not feasible for one panel under sole ownership—that of the world's governments, but operating under the delegated management of the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization—to deliver an exhaustive 'integrated' assessment of all relevant climate change knowledge."

Ultimately, the uncovered errors in the most recent IPCC report prove the difficulty of its task as well as highlight the process's fundamental openness and self-correction. "There should be an open dialogue where anybody's views should be heard and considered," noted lead U.S. climate negotiator Todd Stern during public remarks at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank, on February 9. But, he added: "The mounting evidence on the ground of what's actually happening and the growing sophistication of the modeling goes way beyond any particular set of data or any particular problems that occurred with respect to the University of East Anglia or IPCC mistakes."

After all, the IPCC has judged the evidence for human-caused climate change to be "unequivocal" and it is 90 percent certain that the "net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming." The IPCC further warned in its 2007 report that "warming could lead to some impacts that are abrupt or irreversible, depending upon the rate and magnitude of the climate change."

In fact, thanks to the long timelines of IPCC reports, its 2007 summary contained no scientific information published or collected after 2005; meanwhile, reports from the field in recent years have measured conditions that are even worse than those predicted by climate models. A 2009 update from several IPCC authors noted that even with the less than 1 degree Celsius of warming that has already occurred there have been catastrophic heat waves, a precipitous meltdown of polar ice, and other more extreme impacts, which will only get worse as warming continues due to the rising levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases.

That is an intensifying risk that Stern, for one, judged as worthy of taking out an insurance policy: "People would not dream of failing to insure their homes or cars for risks to those things that are 50 times lower than the risks we face from climate change and its effects. It's nothing short of crazy to be putting our heads in the sand and failing to take action. And doubly crazy to risk losing out on the next great game of energy in the 21st century."

[s1]quality or status gained by growth, development, or achievement

[s2]to impose, involve, or imply as a necessary accompaniment or result <the project will entail considerable expense>

[s3]a science dealing with the climate of past ages

misirUID: 2684938

Feb 13, 2010 09:00 AM in Health & Medicine | 19 comments
Anti-aging talk: Getting old or just getting started?
By Katie Moisse

NEW YORK—Almost five centuries after Juan Ponce de Leon's legendary[url=]quest[/url][s1] for the Fountain of Youth, a cure for aging continues to drive a multibillion-dollar biotech industry. But despite [url=]gerontology[/url][s2] 's growing list of biological "breakthroughs," what it means to get old and how to best stave off the process remains a topic of heated debate.

The race to extend human life and the implications of achieving such a feat were the inspiration for Robert Kane Pappas's documentary film To Age or Not to Age. Featuring prominent scientists in the field from Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) and the University of California, San Francisco, as well as industry leaders from the Glaxo Smith Kline company Sirtris and the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) Foundation, the film asked whether the seemingly inevitable act of aging is little more than a by-product of suboptimal living. Some of the anti-aging game's key players were even in attendance for the film's February 11 debut here at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater.

Pappas's production hinged on a 2006 report in Nature that resveratrol白藜芦醇—a natural substance found in the skin of grapes—improved the health and survival of mice fed a high-fat diet. Inspired by coverage of the research by New York Times reporter Nicholas Wade (who also attended the premiere), Pappas sought to follow the fate of the finding from the lab to the precious anti-aging pill. While resveratrol's life-extending effects in humans remain unknown, phase II clinical trials of resveratrol mimetics in patients with age-related diseases, including cancer and [url=]diabetes[/url][s3] , are ongoing.

The very definition of aging was one of the documentary's more intriguing topics. Do we get sick as we get old or vice versa? Do we wear out like old cars? The question resurfaced after the movie during a colorful panel discussion with the "George Washington of geriatric care" Robert Butler, M.I.T. scientist Leonard Guarente and the "Lady Gaga of longevity" (so-called because of his shocking ideas) Aubrey de Grey.

"Aging is an optional feature of life and it can be slowed," says de Grey, chief science officer for the California-based SENS Foundation, claiming that the process is a product of evolutionary neglect more so than intent. De Grey's anti-aging efforts combine gerontology with regenerative medicine to stop the process rather than extend life span. "Maintenance works," he says. "That's why we have 50-year-old [url=]VW[/url][s4] Bugs driving around quite happily."

De Grey has a point, says Butler, who entered the field of aging in 1955 and was the National Institute on Aging's first director in 1976. "The longer you live, the healthier you've been," he says, referring to extensive studies on centenarians—people who exceed the ripe old age of 100.

Guarente, a co-chair of the scientific advisory board for Sirtris—manufacturer of resveratrol-mimetics白藜芦醇类似物—agrees that aging is the default state缺省状态. "No mechanism turns on to kill us," he says. Rather, all three scientists are interested in targeting mechanisms that can keep us alive, and healthier, for longer.

The documentary ended on a [url=]clam[/url][s5] —a 405-year-old quahog圆蛤类(born slightly after the time of Ponce de Leon) that was plucked from icy waters off the northern coast of Iceland in 2007. Before that clam, the official world record for oldest mollusk软体动物belonged to a 220-year-old. If the scientists in the documentary are right, perhaps humans will one day live well into the hundreds.

[s1]~ (for sth) (formal or literary) to search for sth that is difficult to find
[s2]the comprehensive study of aging and the problems of the aged
[s3]糖尿病（一种新陈代谢失调症，以排尿过多和持续的口渴为特征，原因之一是胰岛素分泌不足，血糖和尿糖高，得这种病的人体型偏胖而且懒散
[s4]大众汽车(=<德>Volkswagen)
[s5]蛤蜊（一种双壳、穴居于海洋及淡水的软体动物，可食用）；守口的人（嘴闭得象贝壳）