‍ Rapid PCR Could Bring Quick Diagnoses

A technique for doing PCR amplification of DNA samples could make it possible to do genome analysis in minutes of infectious agents. Cynthia Graber reports
🆔 @EngStud #podcast #listening #Transcript
PCR—the polymerase chain reaction—is a crucial tool. The DNA amplification technique is used in genome sequencing, forensics and the diagnosis of various diseases.

To give researchers more genetic material to work with, a PCR instrument repeatedly heats and cools an original biological sample. Which gives enzymes a chance to replicate the DNA millions of times so it can be more easily analyzed.

Such sequence amplification would be a boon to diagnosis in a doctor’s office—especially when an infectious disease is spreading rapidly. Unfortunately, genetic tests usually take a day or two to complete. But researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory aimed to speed up the process.

First they created an extremely fast thermal cycle, in which a sample experiences 45 degrees Celsius temperature changes per second. Then they searched for DNA amplification enzymes that could operate at that thermal cycling speed. And they found two that worked without any tweaking. The technique accomplishes a billion-fold amplification in well under three minutes. The work is in the journal Analyst. [E. K. Wheeler et al., Under-three minute PCR: Probing the limits of fast amplification]

The system could make it possible to identify food contamination virtually instantly. Or an infection before you even finish coughing.

‍ Using cow waste to fight climate change
#Transcript
Soil erosion - a double problem. Here in the east of England, this isn't smog in the air, it's soil on a hot, windy day. Losing soil like this lowers our ability to grow crops. It also releases carbon trapped in the earth and that contributes to climate change.

Soil degradation is a problem, said to affect almost half the world's people. Look at this tsunami of dust last year in Phoenix, Arizona. It’s the result of a spectacular storm. For most farmers, soil loss is a creeping problem that's only noticed too late.

Joanna Clark, Reading University

Soils are really important for climate change as well because they store a lot of carbon. There's three times more carbon stored in soil than there actually is in the atmosphere. So you imagine if all that carbon was released from the soil into the atmosphere, we'd have… This is the runaway climate change that people are concerned about.

So what to do? Well, we know cows' burps are a problem for climate change, but their dung also helps put carbon back into the soil. So, this mobile dairy in the south of England may prove part of a solution. It means cows spread their dung across the fields, not leave it in the farmyard. That way nutrients and carbon from the pasture return to the soil.

Here's the evidence. This field with its light stony soil is depleted from crops grown with chemical fertilisers: see the much darker carbon-rich soil in the far ploughed field previously fertilised by cows.
🆔 @EngStud #podcast #listening #vocabulary #RL
erosion – the gradual damage of something by wind, rain or waves.
degradation – process of changing into a worse condition.
dung – animal excrement.
pasture – an area of land covered in grass for farm animals to eat.
depleted – reduced in size, quantity or quality from what it was before.

RFIB 57. The effects of Under-nutrition.
The tragic paradox of massive suffering amid global plenty traces in part to widespread poverty,..
🆔 @EngStud #reading #PTE #vocabulary
Longman Dictionary
💠 trace verb [transitive]
2 ORIGINS to find the origins of when something began or where it came from
trace something (back) to something ریشه داشتن چیزی در چیزی
جستجوکردن ریشه (منشا) وجود چیزی در چیزی

💠 in part تاحدودی، بخشی از آن

‍ Learn how PTE Academic uses AI to mark an English test
نحوه ارزیابی آزمون‌دهندگان توسط هوش مصنوعی در بخش اسپیکینگ آزمون پی‌تی‌ای
🆔 @EngStud #PTE
This plain English video explains how Pearson can score an English test using artificial intelligence - including a candidate's speaking ability.
#Transcript
At PTE Academic we use AI for one very simple reason – to make the most unbiased English Test we can.
But how can a computer assess language as well as a human? Well, AI scoring means that it’s not simply a single human assessing your English, but a very clever algorithm that mimics how human markers would score based on many, many responses.
It all starts with our team of expert test developers. They create tests that reflect real-life scenarios - not just multiple-choice questions, but essay writing, listening tasks, and storytelling exercises. We then ask hundreds - sometimes thousands - of people from all around the world to answer the questions.
Each response is evaluated by experts who rate them on things such as use of language, content, or pronunciation.
These expert ratings become the sample data for our computers to understand what kinds of responses deserve what kind of marks.
This enables the machine, using AI, to imitate the expert ratings and assign human-like ratings to responses. Put simply that means that when you take our test, what you say or write is instantaneously compared with hundreds of previous responses and how they were scored. And because our test is built around state of the art technology it can be simply delivered and taken anywhere in the world - giving consistent scores every time.
So when you sit down to take the PTE Academic test you’re taking advantage of an algorithm that doesn’t simply evaluate your skin colour, your gender, or your shoes, but that cleverly evaluates your English on its own merits.
It’s simple really. Actually, maybe it’s the opposite of simple - clever.

گرامر Reduction
🆔 @EngStud #reading #writing #grammar #reduction #Reduced_Clauses
کلمه Reduction به معنای کاهش می باشد و در گرامر به معنای کوتاه کردن یک جمله و کاهش تعداد کلمه های آن است.. reduction دارای قواعد و قوانین خاص خود است به طوری که معنی جمله و ساختار صحیح آن باید حفظ شود. این گرامر، در ریدینگ و رایتینگ ها بسیار مهم است. شامل:
1_ Reduced Time Clauses
2_ Reduced Relative Clauses.
الف:کلمه ربط همراه با be
ب: کلمه ربط همراه با فعل اصلی
ج: کلمه ربط همراه با has , have
Being + p.p.
Having +p.p.
Having been+ p.p.
3_use infinitive “to”.

در این فایل صفحه 3 یک اشتباه تایپی دارد که بدین ترتیب اصلاح میشود:
Note: In non-defining sentences you neither omit the relative pronoun nor use "that":
My mother, who / whom that you met yesterday, wants to talk to you.
My mother you met yesterday...

Reduced Relative Clauses
🆔 @EngStud #reading #writing #grammar #reduction #Reduced_Clauses

#کتاب برای تقویت مهارت #ریدینگ:
#book #Inside_Reading 1 #Academic_Word_List #Reading #PTE #IELTS

#کتاب برای تقویت مهارت #ریدینگ:
#book #Inside_Reading 2
#AWL #Academic_Word_List #Reading #PTE #IELTS

#کتاب برای تقویت مهارت #ریدینگ:
#book #Inside_Reading 3
#AWL #Academic_Word_List #Reading #PTE #IELTS

#کتاب برای تقویت مهارت #ریدینگ:
#book #Inside_Reading 4
#AWL #Academic_Word_List #Reading #PTE #IELTS

RWFIB 115. Rise in temperature
🆔 @EngStud #reading #PTE #vocabulary
🔆 In a worst case scenario
در بدترین حالت.
🔆 In a best case scenario
در بهترین حالت.

🔆 oasis آبادی
(plural: oases /siːz/ آبادی ها)

🔆 eke out a living/existence to manage to live with very little money or food

Longman Dictionary
human adjective
belonging to or relating to people, especially as opposed to machines or animals انسانی. بشری
e.g: theories of human behaviour
🆔 @EngStud #PTE #vocabulary #we #essay

human2 ●●● W3 (also human being) noun [countable] شخص، فرد. انسان
a person
e.g: The monkeys show no fear of humans.

Names of 50 US States with American Accent - American English Pronunciation
تلفظ ایالت های آمریکا
🆔 @EngStud #pronunciation #DI #PTE

RWFIB 86. The Physical Universe
the Andromeda galaxy is located about two million light-years distant from us.
🆔 @EngStud #reading #PTE #vocabulary

↔️ distant adjective
far away in space or time . دور بودن(دوری) از لحاظ فضا یا زمان
distant from
e.g: stars that are distant from our galaxy

↔️ distance noun
1 AMOUNT OF SPACE [countable, uncountable] the amount of space between two places or things فاصله
distance from/between
e.g: the distance from Chicago to Detroit
2 FAR AWAY [singular] used to talk about a situation when something is far away from you in space or time دوری
at/from a distance
e.g: We watched from a distance.


🟪🟨 What is the difference between distant and distance?

As a adjective distant is far off (physically, logically or mentally).

As a noun distance is (countable) the amount of space between two points, usually geographical points, usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.
As a verb distance is to move away (from) someone or something.

مطالب مربوط به سطح بندی این مجموعه بسیار حرفه ای گنجانده شده اند. بطوری که زبان آموز به صورت واقعی از نظر دایره لغات و جمله بندی زبان انگلیسی به سطح های گفته شده می رسد.
در مجموعه کتاب های Destination، بر اساس آموزش بحث گرامر و دایره لغات طراحی شده اند. این موضوع به نحوی است که خواننده دایره لغات خود را در هنگام استفاده از آنها در تمرین های جمله سازی، بالا می برد. بدین ترتیب، خواننده این مجموعه آموزشی، می تواند دایره لغات خود را به صورتی بالا ببرد که در نوشتار از آن ها استفاده کند.
🆔 @EngStud #grammar #vocabulary #reading

کتابی برای تقویت ریدینگ #rwfib #rfib در پی تی ای.
فوق العاده سنگین ولی پر محتوا بسیار غنی از لغات سطح بالای آکادمیک هست.
برای وکب طبقه بندی شده با تاپیکهای مختلف آکادمیک مانند علمی، تکنولوژی، خانواده و دوستان، محیط زیست، جرم، گرمایش زمین، و... یکسری لغات جمع آوری شده. وکب را به مدلهای مختلف آموزش میدهد و تمریناتی برای پرکردن جای خالی هم دارد.👇

کتاب Destination سطح C1وC2. لغت و گرامر
Upper-Intermediate and Advanced
🆔 @EngStud #grammar #vocabulary #reading

RWFIB 142. intelligence of animals
As a general rule, animals that hunt for a living (like canines) are smarter
than strict vegetarians.
🆔 @EngStud #reading #PTE #vocabulary
cambridge Dictionary
as a (general) rule
usually: . بعنوان یک قاعده کلی. معمولا
e.g: As a general rule, I don't read detective novels.

The coffee industry in Vietnam
🆔 @EngStud #sst #rl #PTE #podcast #listening