10. 关于“与……比较……”

compared to/compared with

in comparison to ~

严格说来，“compared to”和“compared with”的区别含糊不清。可能是因为我是美国，我的印象是“compared with”的含义是“比较两个模糊的概念”。

What does the brain matter compared with the heart? Virginia Woolf

与“心”相比，“头”有什么价值？ 弗吉尼亚 伍尔夫

（头无所谓，重要的是心）

在科学论文中，比较某组具体数值或不同情况的时候，应该用“compared to”或者是“In comparison to”。

例1：与对照组比较，实验组小鼠肝脏肿大

✓ Compared to the controls, infected mice had an enlarged liver

✓ In comparison to the controls, infected mice had an enlarged liver

11. 关于“~阳性/~阴性”和“~率”

中国论文作者把“~阳性/ ~阴性” (-positive/-negative) 和“~ 率” (rate)译成英文时，经常犯的错误是：

☓  -positive rate/-negative rate, detection rate, infection rate/infective rate, isolation rate

例1：阳性率

患者血清IgM阳性率分别为50%

☓ The patient serum IgM-positive rate was 50%

✓ Sera from patients tested positive for IgM at a rate of 50%

例2：妇女抗体阳性率为0.5%

☓ Women had an antibody-positive rate of 0.5%

✓ Women tested positive for antibodies at a rate of 0.5%

例3：阴(性)

500位儿童中HBsAg、抗-HBc和抗-HBs等全阴者100例

☓ Of 500 children, 100 were HBsAg, anti-HBc and anti-HBs negative

✓ Of 500 children, 100 were negative for HBsAg, anti-HBc, and anti-HBs

✓ Of 500 children, 100 tested negative for…

例4：分离率

62份腹泻病例粪便标本中分离到致泻性细菌18株，分离率为25%

18 strains of diarrheagenic bacteria were isolated from stool samples from 62 patients with diarrhea; bacteria were isolated at a rate of 25%

例5：检出率

致病菌检出率为15%

☓ The pathogenic bacteria detection rate was 15%

✓ Pathogenic bacteria were detected at a rate of 15%

12. 关于记述核苷酸或氨基酸序列的特征：相似性，同源性和一致性

similarity相似性 homology同源性 identity一致性

Similarity is NOT equal to Homology!!!

Identity - The extent to which two sequences (nucleotide or amino acid sequences) are invariant.

Similarity - The extent to which nucleotide or protein sequences are related

Homology - Sequence similarity that can be attributed to descent from a common ancestor.

Similarity is expressed in percent. In contrast, there are no degrees or percentages of homology. As Prof. Peter Gogarten of the University of Connecticut explained it, homology is like pregnancy - it is only "yes" or "no." So two sequences are either homologous or or they are not.

如果我们再看中文，我们能了解上述概念的差别

   similarity       identity       homology

序列相似度  序列一致度  序列同源性

“序列相似度”（similarity）和“序列一致度（identity）”都有“度”，所以我们能用%来表示；而相比之下“序列同源性”只有“性”，所以我们只能说序列“有同源性 (sequences are homologous)”或是序列“没有同源性(sequences are NOT homologous)”。一个外国研究者这样说明“similarity”，“identity”和“homology”：我们能用百分比表示“similarity”和“identity”，但是“homology”很像怀孕，选择只能是”有”或是“没有”。

例1：重组质粒测序后与GenBank报道的EFG基因比对，核苷酸序列同源性和推导氨基酸序列同源性均为99%

☓ the recombinant plasmid had a nucleotide sequence homology of 99% and a deduced amino acid sequence homology to the EFG gene reported in GenBank

✓ the nucleotide sequence of the recombinant plasmid had a similarity of 99% to that of the EFG gene registered in GenBank and the deduced amino acid sequence had a similarity of 99% to that of the EFG gene registered in GenBank

例2：病例病毒分离株的XY区核苷酸高度同源

The XY region was highly homologous among strains isolated from patients

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