2015年12月3日～6日、レバノンの首都ベイルートでシリア考古学会議（the International Syrian Congress on Archaeology and Cultural Heritage）が開催されました。世界各国から考古学者が集まったこの会議では、今年8月18日にイスラム国（ISIS)に殺害されたハレド・アル・アサド氏に対して黙祷が捧げられました。パルミラ博物館長だったハレド・アル・アサド氏は、工芸品などの貴重な文化財をイスラム国の手から守るために安全な場所に移動させており、尋問されてもその場所を明かさなかったために殺害されました。
ハレド・アサド氏は身に迫る危険を知りつつもパルミラに残ることを選びました。
ISIS beheads scholar archaeologist Khaled al-As’ad in Palmyra
古代ペルシャの町を紹介したドキュメンタリー番組(41:07- Palmyra)。
ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS Ancient Persia and Arabian Peninsula
参考
Profile: Khaled al-Asaad, Syria’s ‘Mr Palmyra’ (BBC NEWS 19 August 2015):Khaled al-Asaad, the archaeologist who has reportedly been killed by Islamic State militants, had a lifelong connection to the town, having been born into a prominent family in the area in 1934.
通常はロケットは打ち上げのときに一度きり使われてきましたが、2015年11月23日に、アマゾンの創業者ジェフ・ベゾスが設立した企業ブルーオリジンが、再利用可能なロケットの着陸に成功しました。これによりロケット打ち上げのコストが劇的に削減される可能性があります。
‘There and back again’ – Amazon founder has success with reusable rocket
Emergence of a novel GII.17 norovirus – End of the GII.4 era? In the winter of 2014/15 a novel GII.P17-GII.17 norovirus strain (GII.17 Kawasaki 2014) emerged, as a major cause of gastroenteritis outbreaks in China and Japan. Since their emergence these novel GII.P17-GII.17 viruses have replaced the previously dominant GII.4 genotype Sydney 2012 variant in some areas in Asia but were only detected in a limited number of cases on other continents. This perspective provides an overview of the available information on GII.17 viruses in order to gain insight in the viral and host characteristics of this norovirus genotype. We further discuss the emergence of this novel GII.P17-GII.17 norovirus in context of current knowledge on the epidemiology of noroviruses. It remains to be seen if the currently dominant norovirus strain GII.4 Sydney 2012 will be replaced in other parts of the world. Nevertheless, the public health community and surveillance systems need to be prepared in case of a potential increase of norovirus activity in the next seasons caused by this novel GII.P17-GII.17 norovirus. (de Graaf et al., Euro Surveill. 2015 Jul 2;20(26). pii: 21178.)
アクアバウンティー・テクノロジーズ社が開発した、遺伝子組換え技術により通常よりも速く成長するサケ『アクアドバンテージ・サーモン』が生産・販売され食用に供されることを、 アメリカ食品医薬品局（Food and Drug Administration; FDA）が2015年11月19日に承認しました。アクアバウンティーが最初にFDAの許可を申請したのは1996年で、実に20年近くもかかってようやくここまでたどり着いたということになります。
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) > Animal & Veterinary > Development & Approval Process > Genetic Engineering > Genetically Engineered Animals > AquAdvantage Salmon（アクアドバーンテージ・サーモンに関するFDAの文書）
FDA Approves AquAdvantage® Salmon （アクアバウンティ社のプレスリリースPDFファイル）：”MAYNARD, Massachusetts, 19 November 2015 – AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. (AIM: ABTU; OTC: AQBT), a biotechnology company focused on enhancing productivity in aquaculture, and a majority-owned subsidiary of Intrexon Corporation (NYSE: XON), announces today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Company’s New Animal Drug Application for the production, sale, and consumption of its AquAdvantage® Salmon, an Atlantic salmon that has been genetically enhanced to reach market size in less time than conventional farmed Atlantic salmon.”
The FDA just approved genetically modified salmon for the first time. But how does it taste? (VOX Science & Health. Updated by Julia Belluz on November 19, 2015):”AquaBounty first asked the FDA to approve the fish for human consumption in 1996. But the FDA said because this was the first genetically modified animal that would be eaten by humans, the agency wanted to take it slow and weigh the pros and cons.”
GE Salmon Faces Exclusion from Retailers (WholeFoods Magazine, December 2013):”Chains within both the natural and mainstream channels, including Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s and Target, have either signed on to a pledge or made clear in policy statements that they will not purchase the GE Atlantic salmon if approved.”
Characterization and multi-generational stability of the growth hormone transgene (EO-1α) responsible for enhanced growth rates in Atlantic Salmon. Edward S. Yaskowiak, Margaret A. Shears, Alka Agarwal-Mawal, Garth L. Fletcher Transgenic Research August 2006, Volume 15, Issue 4, pp 465-480: “We have generated a stable line of growth hormone (GH) transgenic Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) using an “all fish” gene construct (opAFP-GHc2) containing a growth hormone cDNA from chinook salmon whose expression is regulated by the 5′ promoter and 3′ termination regions derived from an ocean pout antifreeze protein (AFP) gene. In this study we show that a reorganized form of the opAFP-GHc2 construct (termed EO-1α) integrated as a single functional copy into a 35 bp repeat region of the genomic DNA. PCR based mapping revealed that the linear sequence of the EO-1α integrant was organized as follows: base pairs 1580–2193 of the ocean pout promoter region followed by the intact chinook salmon GH cDNA, the complete ocean pout antifreeze 3′ region, and the first 1678 bp of the ocean pout antifreeze 5′ region.”
Risk assessment and mitigation of AquAdvantage salmon (BiologyFortified. Posted by Anastasia Bodnar, Oct 16, 2010):”Pressure treatment will be used to produce triploid AquAdvantage salmon. This treatment was successful at creating 98.9% or more triploids, with 1.1% or fewer eggs remaining diploid (11). Testing of each batch of eggs will be conducted, and any batch that contains 5% or more diploids will be destroyed (7,11). Any diploid individuals are capable of reproduction, so the possibility of their escape must be controlled with other measures.”
カリフォルニア工科大学Kip Thorne教授によるレクチャー「Einstein’s General Relativity, from 1905 to 2005: Warped Spacetime, Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, and the Accelerating Universe」（November 16, 2005）。
Einstein’s General Relativity, from 1905 to 2005 – Kip Thorne – 11/16/2005
ロベルト・ダイクラーフ（Robbert Dijkgraaf）教授によるレクチャー。
100 Years of General Relativity
Relativity priority dispute (Wikipedia):”Undisputed and well known facts: General relativity:Einstein gave four lectures on his theory on Nov 4, Nov 11, Nov 18 and Nov 25 in Berlin”
TensorFlow: smarter machine learning, for everyone (Google OFficial Blog, November 9, 2015):”We use TensorFlow for everything from speech recognition in the Google app, to Smart Reply in Inbox, to search in Google Photos.”
GoogleがGoogle Photosの画像検索、スマート返信機能などに用いている機械学習技術をオープンソース化(TECH CRUNCH日本語版 2015年11月10日 by Sarah Perez）：”このディープラーニングのフレームワークは、CPU、Nvidia GPU、Android、iOS、OSXで使うことができる実用的なC++バックエンドを持ち、またPythonのフロントエンドのインターフェイスであるNumpy、iPython Notebooksや他のPythonをベースとしたツールにも対応する。”
グーグルが最新機械学習ソフトを無償公開するわけとは (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL日本語版 By ALISTAIR BARR 2015 年 11 月 10 日）:”同教授らによると、ディープラーニングシステムは特定のタスクを実行できる構造をつくり、大量のデータで訓練を行わなければならない。グーグルの研究者たちは数年前、動画投稿サイトのユーチューブから約1000万枚の画像を、1万6000のコンピュータープロセッサーを結ぶネットワークに取り込むこ とで猫を認識する方法をあるシステムに教えた。このシステムは数百万のパラメーター（クリスティアニーニ教授はこれを「ノブ（取っ手）」と呼ぶ）を取り込むことが可能だが調整が必要だ。それを担当する優秀なエンジニアがいなければ、グーグルが公開したディープラーニングのアルゴリズムはあまり役に立たない。”
iPAD Proになって画面が大型化するのが魅力の一つですが、それよりもインパクトがあるのがアップルペンシル。アニメーター、デザイナー、サイエンティスト、エンジニアなどクリエイティブな仕事をするプロフェッショナルのためのツールになるのかもしれません。
Animator at Disney are testing the Apple Pencil
iPAD Proでは、マイクロソフト社のワード、エクセル、パワーポイントも活用できるようです。
Apple Pencil – Demos
タブレットＰＣとスタイラスペンで手書きのような感覚が得られるのかといえば、まだまだそうでもないのが現状です。しかし、アップルが普通のスタイラスペンでなく、iPAD Proのため「アップルペンシル」を作りました。
Apple Pencil | Hands On
Genome-wide inactivation of porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs)
Abstract The shortage of organs for transplantation is a major barrier to the treatment of organ failure. While porcine organs are considered promising, their use has been checked by concerns about transmission of porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) to humans. Here, we describe the eradication of all PERVs in a porcine kidney epithelial cell line (PK15). We first determined the PK15 PERV copy number to be 62. Using CRISPR-Cas9, we disrupted all 62 copies of the PERV pol gene and demonstrated a >1000-fold reduction in PERV transmission to human cells using our engineered cells. Our study shows that CRISPR-Cas9 multiplexability can be as high as 62 and demonstrates the possibility that PERVs can be inactivated for clinical application to porcine-to-human xenotransplantation. Published Online October 11 2015 Science DOI: 10.1126/science.aad1191
Announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015
大村智博士の業績に関するレビューアーティクル。
Ivermectin, ‘Wonder drug’ from Japan: the human use perspective Andy CRUMP and Satoshi ŌMURA Proc Jpn Acad Ser B Phys Biol Sci. 2011 Feb 10; 87(2): 13–28. Abstract Discovered in the late-1970s, the pioneering drug ivermectin, a dihydro derivative of avermectin—originating solely from a single microorganism isolated at the Kitasato Intitute, Tokyo, Japan from Japanese soil—has had an immeasurably beneficial impact in improving the lives and welfare of billions of people throughout the world. Originally introduced as a veterinary drug, it kills a wide range of internal and external parasites in commercial livestock and companion animals. It was quickly discovered to be ideal in combating two of the world’s most devastating and disfiguring diseases which have plagued the world’s poor throughout the tropics for centuries. It is now being used free-of-charge as the sole tool in campaigns to eliminate both diseases globally. It has also been used to successfully overcome several other human diseases and new uses for it are continually being found. This paper looks in depth at the events surrounding ivermectin’s passage from being a huge success in Animal Health into its widespread use in humans, a development which has led many to describe it as a “wonder” drug.
2015年10月1日（木）にアメリカ、オレゴン州にあるアムクア・コミュニティ・カレッジ（Umpqua Community College）で一人の男が大学構内で銃を乱射し、学生ら10人が死亡(射殺された犯人一人を含めた人数）したと報道されています。警察との銃撃戦で死亡した犯人は同大学の26歳の学生クリス・ハーパー・マーサー（Chris Harper Mercer）と特定されました。なお、初期の報道は混乱し、死亡者数や犯人の情報が異なって伝えられていたようです。
UCC Oregon Gunman is Chris Harper Mercer, 26, Body Armor, 3 Pistols, Long Gun, Full Ammunition
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