KSEC Page シニアのための英語クラブ



K-SEC Meeting Summary for October 15, 2018Here is a summary of the materials we read at the K-SEC meeting.A. Attendees (in ABC order):Kanzawa, Kotake, Nishimura, Nishiwaki, Sadayasu, Tomozawa, Tsurumoto, Umemura, . (Total of 8)B. Summary of the materials read1. The Most Fun (and Useful) Things You Can Do With an Amazon Echo or Google Home –Tomozawa-This is a NY Times article about smart home devices called “AI speakers.”AI speaker was first introduced by Amazon in 2014 to the US market followed by Google, Line and other makers.Basic functions of the smart home devices will tell you the weather and answer trivia questions. But they can do so much more. This article tells tips to streamline your day, relax a little or just have some fun.Both the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa offer a “routines” skill, which automates certain tasks based on a single command. For example, you can ask your Amazon Echo or Google Home to tell you the weather and what’s on your calendar for the day, after saying “Alexa, start my day” or “Hey Google, good morning.” With this particular routine, there are nine actions the Google Home can perform, including reading the day’s top stories or local news, and then transition into six other actions like playing your favorite music or a preferred podcast to finish up your “morning.”Here are other things they can perform?It can act as your household intercom?Call anyone at any time — free?Shop with your voice?Test your language skills, it can do translation?Meditate with a soothing sound?Have a deeper conversation2 Japanese university professor Honjo wins Nobel prize –Kotake-Japanese scientist Tasuku Honjo was awarded on Monday this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, for his discovery of a protein that contributed to the development of an immunotherapeutic drug against cancer. Honjo, a 76-year-old professor at Kyoto University, won the prize with U.S. national James Allison, the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute said. Honjo opened a pathway for a new cancer treatment by discovering the PD-1 protein, which is responsible for suppressing immune response.　His method of treating cancer — by controlling the protein’s function to suppress immunity — led to the development of Nivolumab, a drug marketed as Opdivo and used against lung cancer and melanoma. Following the discovery of the protein in 1992, Honjo presented his research in 2002 showing that a drug that prevents the unification of cancer cells and that the PD-1 protein is effective against cancer in animals. James Allison of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University learned how cancer can put the brakes on the immune system — and how to release those brakes. Their work, conducted separately during the 1990s, led to the development of drugs known as “checkpoint inhibitors,” first used to treat the deadly skin cancer melanoma but now used for a growing list of advanced- stage tumors, including those of the lungs, head and neck, bladder, kidney, colon and liver. The drugs marked an entirely new way to treat tumors, a kind of immunotherapy that uses the patient’s own body to kill cancer cells. Up until then, the standard arsenal consisted of surgery to remove the tumor and radiation and chemotherapy to poison the cancer. The Nobel Assembly said after announcing the prize in Stockholm that the therapy “has now revolutionized cancer treatment and has fundamentally changed the way we view how cancer can be managed”. Normally, key immune system soldiers called T cells seek out and attack invaders. But for poorly understood reasons, it was hard to rev them up against cancer. In an interview Monday, Allison said he wasn’t trying to cure cancer but to understand how T cells work when, at the University of California, Berkeley, he was studying a protein named CTLA-4. He learned that the protein could put the brakes on T cells, creating what’s called an immune “checkpoint.” He then created an antibody that blocked the protein’s action — in other words, it released the brakes so the T cells could do their job. Working separately, Honjo discovered another protein, called PD-1, that also hampers T cells’ ability to attack cancer, but in a somewhat different way. Allison’s research led to development of the drug Yervoy, approved in 2011 after studies showed it extended the survival of some patients with late-stage melanoma. A few years later, developers created drugs that release the PD-1 brake Honjo discovered — Keytruda and Opdivo, now commonly advertised on TV.Allison said the biggest challenge with immunotherapy now is to learn why it helps some patients but not others — and how to combine it with traditional therapies to improve outcomes and reduce side effects. Nobel Prize-winning scientist Tasuku Honjo voiced hope on Tuesday that Japan would invest more in science, “Science is an investment for the future.”C. Role assignment for November 5th, 2018 Kanzawa, Nishimura ................
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