- Coffee, Tea and Nagging at Japan's Anti-procrastination Café
- Walpurgis Night: the Pagan Festival of Bonfires, Witches and Celtic Folk Music -article with video
- 'Brain Zap' Technology May Help Hardcore Smokers Quit
- Green Walls in Offices Have a Positive Impact on Skin and Immune Health
- Climate Change will Force New Animal Encounters — and Boost Viral Outbreaks
- A Stark Future for Ocean Life
Coffee, Tea and Nagging at Japan's Anti-procrastination Café
日本抗拖延症咖啡廳裡的咖啡、茶和嘮叨
Culture
Writers facing deadlines go to Tokyo's "Manuscript Writing Cafe" with an understanding -- they can't leave until their work is done. The clean, well-lit place in western Tokyo has 10 seats reserved for writers, editors, manga artists and anybody else grappling with the written word and deadlines. Coffee and tea are unlimited and self-serve, and high-speed Wi-Fi and docking ports are installed at every seat. Customers enter, write down their names, writing goals and the time they plan to finish. They can also ask for progress checks as they work, with "mild" just asking them if they have finished as they pay and "normal" being a check-in every hour. Those choosing "hard" will feel silent pressure from staff standing frequently behind them.
--from CNN news
正在趕稿的作家來到日本東京的「原稿執筆カフェ」都有個體認：沒寫完就不准走。位於東京西區窗明几淨的咖啡廳，保留10個位置給作家、編輯、漫畫家及任何為截稿期限趕工的文字工作者。自助式的咖啡和茶無限供應，配備高速Wi-Fi，每個座位設有擴充插孔。來訪顧客要寫下名字，以及預計達成的寫作目標與截止時間。他們可以要求督促服務，「溫和」是在付款時，店員會詢問是否達標；「普通」則是每小時檢查進度。選擇「嚴格」者，將感受到店員經常站在身後所帶來的無聲壓力。
--摘錄翻譯自CNN news
Walpurgis Night: the Pagan Festival of Bonfires, Witches and Celtic Folk Music
瓦爾普吉斯之夜：營火、女巫和賽爾提克民謠的異教節慶
Culture
Walpurgis Night, also known as 'Walpurgisnacht' and 'Night of the Witches', is a pagan festival celebrated each year on 30 April. The tradition involves lighting bonfires and singing traditional Celtic folk songs to mark the arrival of spring. The origins of the ritual date back to pagan celebrations of fertility rites and the coming of spring. Local variants of Walpurgis Night are observed throughout Northern and Central Europe. Traditionally speaking, the celebration is a night to pay tribute to the 8th century Saint Walpurga. Walpurga, was an English-born nun who has been praised by Christians for successfully warding off pests, illness and witchcraft. A medieval account of her being canonized on 1 May in 870 AD.
--from Euronews, article with vide
瓦爾普吉斯之夜是在每年4月30日慶祝的一個異教節日，又以Walpurgisnacht或「女巫之夜」為人熟知。此傳統包含點燃營火及吟唱傳統賽爾提克民謠迎接春天的到來。這項儀式源自異教徒的傳宗接代儀式及迎春的慶祝活動。瓦爾普吉斯之夜在北歐及中歐有不同的形式。傳統而言，慶典是向第8世紀的聖徒Walpurga致敬之夜。Walpurga是出生於英國的修女，她因成功驅除害蟲、疾病和巫術而受到基督徒讚揚。中世紀記述她於西元870年5月1日被封聖。
--摘錄翻譯自Euronews，原文含影片
'Brain Zap' Technology May Help Hardcore Smokers Quit
「大腦電擊」技術可能有助老煙槍戒菸
Health
Smokers who received noninvasive brain stimulation -- using low-intensity electric or magnetic impulses -- were twice as likely to go without cigarettes over three to six months as those who received sham brain stimulation, according to a new study review from researchers at the University Hospital of Dijon. Transcranial direct current stimulation sends a low-intensity direct current through the brain, using electrodes placed on the patient’s head. This weak current affects brain activity. Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, is a volunteer medical spokesman for the American Lung Association, and director of the Tobacco Treatment Clinic at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. However, he doesn't believe that noninvasive brain stimulation is for every smoker. "Patients need a lot of things to align in their lives to feel like they can do it", he said.
--from U.S.News
根據法國第戎大學醫院研究人員的一項新研究，接受非侵入性腦刺激（使用低強度電流或磁脈衝）的吸煙者在三到六個月內不吸煙的可能性是接受腦部模擬刺激組吸煙者的兩倍。跨顱直流電刺激運用放置在患者頭部的電極，向大腦發送低強度直流電，這種微弱的電流會影響大腦活動。然而，美國肺臟協會義務醫療發言人兼約翰霍普金斯醫院煙草治療診所主任Galiatsatos，並不認為非侵入性腦刺激適合每個吸煙者。他說：「患者需要很多事物來調整他們的生活，才能感覺自己做得到。」
-摘錄翻譯自U.S.News
Green Walls in Offices Have a Positive Impact on Skin and Immune Health
辦公室的植物牆對皮膚和免疫健康有正面影響
Health
It is estimated that one out of five people living in the developed countries suffers from autoimmune disorders, the resulting costs for society are estimated at more than a hundred billion euros per year. The experimental study led by the Natural Resources Institute Finland showed that air-circulating green walls installed inside offices modified microbiota affecting employees’ skin health and enhanced the immune system’s regulation. In the study, the level of TGF-β1 cytokine, linked to effective immune regulation, increased in the blood of those who worked in rooms with green walls installed during a month compared with the control group.
--from Technology Ｎetworks
生活在已開發國家的人中，估計約有五分之一受自體免疫失調之苦，由此產生的社會成本估計每年超過一千億歐元。 芬蘭自然資源研究所領導的實驗研究指出，安裝在辦公室內的空氣循環植物牆改變了會影響員工皮膚健康的微生物群，並增強了免疫系統的調節功能。在這項研究中，與對照組相比，在裝設植物牆的房間工作的人的血液中，與有效免疫調節相關的TGF-β1細胞激素濃度在一個月內提升了。
--摘錄翻譯自Technology Ｎetworks
Climate Change will Force New Animal Encounters — and Boost Viral Outbreaks
氣候變化將迫使動物產生新的交會，並增加病毒傳播的爆發
Sciences
Over the next 50 years, climate change could drive more than 15,000 new cases of mammals transmitting viruses to other mammals, according to a study published in Nature. It’s one of the first to predict how global warming will shift wildlife habitats and increase encounters between species capable of swapping pathogens, and to quantify how many times viruses are expected to jump between species. A predicted rise in viruses jumping between species could trigger more outbreaks, posing a serious threat to human and animal health alike, the study warns — providing all the more reason for governments and health organizations to invest in pathogen surveillance and to improve health-care infrastructure.
--from Nature news
根據發表在Nature 上的一項研究，未來50年內，氣候變化可能會導致超過 15,000個哺乳動物將病毒傳播給其他哺乳動物的新案例。此研究是第一個預測全球暖化將如何改變野生動物棲息地、增加物種間交換病原體的交會，並量化病毒跨物種傳播的預測次數。全球暖化也預期會增加病毒跨物種傳播可能，進而引發更多疫病爆發，對人類和動物的健康都構成嚴重威脅；此研究對政府和衛生組織提供警示與更多理由去投資於病原體監測，以及改善醫療保健基礎設施。
--摘錄翻譯自Nature news
A Stark Future for Ocean Life
海洋生命的嚴酷未來
Sciences
The year 2021 marked the highest temperature and likely the lowest oxygen content for the oceans since human records began. These changes have put marine species on the front lines of climate change. Penn and Deutsch present extensive modeling to reveal that runaway climate change would put ocean life on track for a mass extinction rivaling the worst in Earth’s history. As warming causes the demand for oxygen to exceed supply in a given location, survival likely becomes untenable, causing extinctions. The authors calibrated their model against the oceanographic changes they reconstructed for the end-Permian mass extinction event. Although not a perfect analog to the current climate situation, the end-Permian mass extinction is one of the most cataclysmic periods in Earth’s history for which there are records of extensive warming and extinction.
--from SCIENCE, Vol 376, Issue 6592．PP.452-453
自有人類紀錄以來，2021年是海洋的最高溫度，也可能是最低的含氧量。這些變化將海洋物種置於氣候變化的前線。Penn和Deutsch以廣大的模型，展示失控的氣候變化將使海洋生物步上相當於地球史上最嚴重大規模滅絕之路。由於暖化導致特定地點對氧氣的需求超過供應，生存似乎變得難以為繼，造成物種滅絕。作者根據他們重建的二疊紀末大滅絕事件海況變化，校準了他們的模型。雖非完美類比當前的氣候情況，但二疊紀末有廣泛暖化及滅絕紀錄的大規模滅絕，是地球史上最具災難性的時期之一。
--摘錄翻譯自SCIENCE第376卷，第6592期,第452-453頁