1 . Three paralysed (瘫痪的) men, who were told they would spend the rest of their lives in a wheelchair, are able to walk again, thanks to an electrical device, which was placed around the men’s spines (脊柱) and boosted signals from their brains to their legs.
The first patient to be treated was 30-year-old Swiss man David M’zee, who suffered a severe spinal injury several years ago in a sporting accident. David’s doctor said he would never walk again. However, thanks to the electrical device developed by a team at a public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, he agreed to take part in a trial led by Dr. Courtine at the university.
“I came with my daughter, Charlotte, who was one month old at the time. As we approached David, he looked her in the eye and said, ‘I will walk before you,’” Dr Courtine recalls. “When Charlotte took her first step she was 14 months old, by which time David was walking by Lake Geneva. He said to her, ‘I have beaten you.’”
David can now walk up to eight paces when the device is switched off and this is the first time that this has been recorded in a chronic (慢性的) spinal injury. However, out of the lab, in the real world, it is hard for David to walk more than a few paces. The signals from the device soon become uncomfortable and so can’t be used all the time. The system is also expensive and not reliable enough to be used out of the laboratory for day-to-day use, so it’s far from a cure.
David is the first of three patients who have benefited from the first wave of the treatment. Two other men have also managed to walk again, to various degrees.
The researchers plan to begin larger trials in Europe and the US in the next few years. If these go well, the researchers are confident the system could become more widely available.
1. How does the electrical device help the paralysed walk again?A.By straightening the spines. | B.By making the brains recover. |
C.By signaling the legs to move. | D.By making use of a wheelchair. |
A.To point out David’s weakness. | B.To explain David’s failure to walk. |
C.To show the speed of David’s recovery. | D.To prove his daughter’s athletic ability. |
A.It is hard for typical patients to operate. | B.It is unreliable when used out of the lab. |
C.It always makes patients uncomfortable. | D.It sometimes sends wrong signals to legs. |
A.The device can cure paralysis. | B.The device has been widely used. |
C.The device will be tested globally. | D.The device has a potential market. |
2 . Many of us remember the feeling of having our braces (牙套) regularly adjusted and retightened at the dentist’s. And interventions are based entirely upon the estimate of dentists and involve a great deal of trial and error, which can lead to too many visits to the dentist’s.
Professor Erleben and his team created a computer model that creates accurate 3D simulations (模拟) of an individual patient’s jaw, which dentists can use to predict how sets of braces should be designed to best straighten a patient’s teeth and plan the best possible treatment. To create these simulations, the computer model was used to map sets of human teeth after getting detailed CT images of teeth and the small, fine structures between the jawbone and the teeth. This type of precise digital simulation is referred to as a digital twin, a virtual model that lives in the cloud.
The virtual model can answer what’s happening in the real world, and do so instantly. For example, one can ask what would happen if you pushed on one tooth and get answers with regards to where it would move and how it would affect other teeth. The model also helps to predict the post treatment effect, achieve “visualization” of treatment, and facilitate patients to understand the plan of straightening their teeth. What’s more, it has enabled more flexible and convenient digital medical follow-up services.
The area of research that uses digital twins is relatively new. “However, we need to set up a sufficiently big database if digital twins are to really take root and benefit the healthcare industry,” Erleben said, “In the future, the virtual model can be used to plan, design and improve, and can therefore be used to operate companies, robots, factories and used much more in the energy, healthcare and other fields.”
1. What is Paragraph 1 mainly about?A.The professional integrity of dentists. | B.The current state of dental treatment. |
C.The procedure of retightening braces. | D.The intervention of modern technology. |
A.Predicting treatment effect. | B.Designing a computer model. |
C.Drawing the shape of a mouth. | D.Obtaining the details of teeth. |
A.Doubtful. | B.Curious. | C.Favorable. | D.Dismissive. |
A.Why digital twins make a hit | B.Where virtual treatment goes |
C.What trouble dentists encounter | D.How a virtual model aids dentists |
3 . For decades, scientists thought of the brain as the most valuable and consequently most closely guarded part of the body. Locked safely behind the blood-brain barrier, it was broadly free of the harm of viruses and the battles started by the immune system (免疫系统). Then, about 20 years ago, some researchers began to wonder: is the brain really so separated from the body? The answer, according to a growing body of evidence, is no.
The list of brain conditions that have been associated with changes elsewhere in the body is long and growing. Changes in the makeup of the microorganisms in the digestive system have been linked to disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. There is also a theory that infection during pregnancy could lead to brain diseases in babies.
The effect is two-way. There is a lengthening list of symptoms not typically viewed as disorders of the nervous system, but the brain plays a large part in them. For example, the development of a fever is influenced by a population of nerve cells that control body temperature and appetite. Evidence is mounting that cancers use nerves to grow and spread.
The interconnection between the brain and body has promising implications for our ability to both understand and treat illnesses. If some brain disorders start outside the brain, then perhaps treatments for them could also reach in from outside. Treatments that take effect through the digestive system, the heart or other organs, would be much easier and less risky than those that must cross the blood-brain barrier.
It also works in the opposite direction. Study shows mice have healthier hearts after receiving stimulation to a brain area involved in positive emotion and motivation. Activation of the brain reward centre — called the ventral tegmental area (VTA) — seems to cause immune changes that contribute to it. Working out how this happens could help to destroy cancers, enhance responses to vaccines and even re-evaluate physical diseases that, for centuries, have not been considered as being psychologically driven.
1. What do the researchers focus on about the brain?A.Its protecting system. | B.Its exposure to diseases. |
C.Its controlling function. | D.Its connection to the body. |
A.By explaining a theory. | B.By providing examples. |
C.By making comparisons. | D.By presenting cause and effect. |
A.Cheaper. | B.More specific. |
C.Safer. | D.More direct. |
A.Brain health depends on immune changes. |
B.Brain stimulation leads to negative emotions. |
C.The brain can help enhance psychological health. |
D.The brain may be key to treating physical diseases. |
1. What day is it today?
A.Friday. | B.Wednesday. | C.Monday. |
A.Coworkers. | B.Doctor and patients. | C.Teacher and student. |
A.Look for a new job. | B.Do physical tests often. | C.Change her breakfast habits. |
5 . French surgeons have performed what they said on Wednesday was the world’s first partial face transplant — giving a new nose, chin and lips to a woman attacked by a dog.
Specialists from two French hospitals carried out the operation on a 38-year-old woman on Sunday in the northern city of Amiens by taking the face from a brain-dead woman, who had hanged herself just hours before the operation. Her family agreed on the operation.
“The patient is in an excellent state and the transplant looks normal.” The hospitals said in a brief statement after waiting three days to announce the pioneering surgery. The woman had been left without a nose and lips after the dog attacked her last May, and was unable to talk or chew properly. Such injuries are “extremely difficult, if not impossible” to repair using normal surgical techniques, the statement said. The statement did not say what the woman would look like when she had fully recovered, but medical experts said she was unlikely to resemble the woman who had been the source of her new face. The operation was led by Jean-Michel Dubernard, a specialist from a hospital in Lyon who has also carried out hand transplants. Skin transplants have long been used to treat burns and other injuries, but operations around the mouth and nose have been considered very difficult because of the area’s high sensitivity to foreign tissue. Teams in France, the United States and Britain had been developing techniques to make face transplants a reality.
There was a short-term risk for the patient if blood vessels (脉管) became blocked, a medium-term danger of her body rejecting the new skin and a long-term possibility that the drugs used could cause cancers. Experts say that although such medical advances should be celebrated, the transplant had thrown up moral and ethical (伦理的) issues. Little is known about the psychological effect of the transplant.
1. What makes the woman’s operation extremely challenging?A.The patient’s unstable mood. |
B.The doctor’s lack of surgical techniques. |
C.The masses’ unacceptance of this transplant. |
D.The damaged area’s high sensitivity to transplanted tissues. |
A.Heart damage. | B.Organ rejection. |
C.Side effect of the drugs. | D.Block of blood vessels. |
A.The woman had used the dead woman’s whole face. |
B.Such transplants have been performed by top doctors. |
C.The woman will suffer from psychological damage soon. |
D.There has arisen a moral and ethical debate about the operation. |
A.First Face Transplant Opens Debate. |
B.French Woman has First Partial Face Transplant. |
C.Risks and Ethical Problems of a Face Transplant. |
D.A Complete Face Transplant of a French Woman. |
6 . Nightmare disorder is characterized by frequent nightmares that cause unhappiness and greatly impact our life. But a new approach is added to existing therapy (疗法) by introducing certain sounds which can help a person to turn their nightmare into a sweet dream.
The existing therapy, called Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT), is already used as a way to reduce the frequency and intensity of nightmares. “You write down the bad dream in a very detailed way and then create new endings that are nonfrightening for nightmares,” said Dr. Kilkenny, the director of the Institute of Sleep Medicine at Staten Island University Hospital.
In this newly published study, the 36 participants were divided into 2 equal-sized groups. Both groups practiced IRT, but the second group additionally used Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR). TMR works by associating the stimulation (刺激) of a specific sound with a specific thought while you’re awake. The daily practice saw them completing IRT with added TMR. The 36 participants were then recorded for 2 weeks as they slept.
Fortunately for the dreamers, both groups saw an improvement in their sleep and a drop in nightmare frequency. However, the group who had received the combination of IRT and TMR saw a drop in nightmare frequency that lasted for three months beyond the study — and even began to experience more joyful dreams instead of nightmares. “The study shows again that IRT alone works to improve nightmare disorder, but the new change is that the addition of TMR to IRT not only improves nightmare disorder but also increases the amount of positive dream experiences,” said Kilkenny.
While the results of this study are encouraging, it might be difficult to carry out them on your own. “If you’re experiencing frequent or serious nightmares, it may be helpful to first address your sleeping habits and make sure your are getting enough sleep with regular sleep and wake times,” said Dr. Dimitriu, the founder of Menlo Sleep Medicine in California.
1. What are patients required to do in IRT?A.Listen to calming music during sleep. |
B.Record their frequency of nightmares. |
C.Recreate a pleasant ending for the nightmare. |
D.Tell the doctor about details of their nightmares. |
A.By taking sleeping medicine. |
B.By practicing IRT more times. |
C.By introducing sound stimulation. |
D.By recording sounds in nightmares. |
A.Participants tend to sleep longer than before. |
B.TMR could enhance the effectiveness of IRT. |
C.The sound treatment can help improve sleeplessness. |
D.The nightmares can be avoided by both TMR and IRT. |
A.Taking regular exercises. | B.Doing a medical checkup. |
C.Seeking accurate examination. | D.Adjusting the sleeping habits. |
Tu Youyou,
However, the discovery of artemisinin wasn’t easy. From then on, she and her team examined 2,000 old medical texts and
She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine on 6 October 2015 for the discovery of artemisinin, which could be thought
1. What does the man think he still has a problem with?
A.His nose. | B.His head. | C.His mouth. |
A.In a hospital. | B.In a school lab. | C.At a research center. |
A.His smell. | B.His taste. | C.His muscle. |
A.Taking new medicines. | B.Using new treatments. | C.Finding new senses. |
9 . What if “looking your age” refers not to your face, but to your chest? Osaka Metropolitan University scientists have developed an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) model that uses chest radiographs (胸片) to accurately estimate a patient’s chronological (按时间计算的) age. More importantly, when there is a difference, it can signal a correlation with chronic (慢性) disease.
The research team, led by graduate student Yasuhito Mitsuyama and Dr. Daiju Ueda from the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka Metropolitan University, first constructed a deep learning-based AI model to estimate age from chest radiographs of healthy individuals. They then applied the model to radiographs of patients with known diseases to analyze the relationship between AI-estimated age and each disease. Given that AI trained on a single dataset is easy to overfitting (过度拟合), the researchers collected data from multiple institutions.
For the development, training, internal and external testing of the AI model for age estimation, a total of 67,099 chest radiographs were obtained between 2008 and 2021 from 36,051 healthy individuals who underwent health check-ups at three facilities. The developed model showed a correlation coefficient (系数) of 0.95 between the AI-estimated age and chronological age. Generally, a correlation coefficient of 0.9 or higher is considered to be very strong.
To confirm the usefulness of AI-estimated age using chest radiographs as a bio-marker(生物指标), an additional 34,197 chest radiographs were gathered from 34,197 patients with known diseases from two other institutions. The results revealed that the difference between AI-estimated age and the patient’s chronological age was positively correlated with a variety of chronic diseases, like high blood pressure. In other words, the higher the AI-estimated age compared to the chronological age, the more likely individuals were to have these diseases.
“Chronological age is one of the most critical factors in medicine,” stated Mitsuyama. “Our results suggest that chest radiography-based apparent age may accurately reflect health conditions beyond chronological age. We aim to further develop this research and apply it to estimate the severity of chronic diseases, to predict life expectancy, and to forecast possible surgical complications.”
1. What is the significance of the new research about AI?A.It helps detect and intervene early disease. |
B.It reveals the potential principles of age differences. |
C.It calculates the patient’s real age more precisely than ever. |
D.It helps doctors treat patients with chest diseases. |
A.By taking chest X-rays. | B.By using AI completely. |
C.By listing patients’ health data. | D.By analyzing and associating. |
A.Al’s single data easily lead to over-prediction. |
B.Chronological age is related to chest rather than face. |
C.A higher AI-estimated age suggests a chronic disease. |
D.Real age reflects health conditions beyond AI-estimated age. |
A.AI Can Tell Your True Age | B.You Are Healthy with AI |
C.AI Discovers Your Identity | D.Live Longer by Using AI |
1. What may cause the man feel tired these days?
A.High blood pressure. | B.Stress at work. | C.Sleeping pills. |
A.One month. | B.Two weeks. | C.Two months. |
A.Retiring early. | B.Reducing the work. | C.Sleeping early. |
A.A manager. | B.An athlete. | C.A doctor. |