- Is it safe to drink milk and eat chicken? What precautions to take during the bird flu outbreak
- Extreme temperatures are tied to more than half a million stroke deaths a year. With climate change, expect more
- Vietnam is planning high-speed rail connections with China
- ‘I cannot afford to live’: Gen Z is full of financial angst despite inheriting a golden job market
- How to supercharge cancer-fighting cells: give them stem cell skills
- What happens when climate change and the mental-health crisis collide?
KMU Weekly: News around the World
Issue 116 - Mar. 15. 2024
Is it safe to drink milk and eat chicken? What precautions to take during the bird flu outbreak
喝牛奶和吃雞肉安全嗎？禽流感爆發時應採取哪些預防措施
Health
A worker on a dairy farm in Texas tested positive for the avian flu, only the second case of a person in the United States who has contracted the H5N1 influenza strain. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the person was diagnosed with the H5N1 virus and was recovering with mild symptoms. The first case, in 2022, was diagnosed in a Colorado man who was directly exposed to poultry. The risk to the public remains low, according to the CDC, but I still have questions. What exactly is the avian flu? Should people avoid eating poultry and drinking milk? CNN: What exactly is the bird flu? Dr. Leana Wen: Bird flu, also called avian flu or avian influenza, refers to infections caused by the avian influenza Type A viruses. These viruses generally spread among wild birds, especially wild aquatic birds such as ducks and geese. They can also infect domestic poultry and other animals. CNN: Is it safe to eat chicken and chicken eggs and to drink milk? Wen: It is safe to drink milk that has been pasteurized. The process of pasteurization kills bacteria and viruses, including any influenza viruses that may be present in the milk. Similarly, it is safe to eat poultry, including chicken and eggs, that have been properly handled and cooked.
---from CNN
德州一家乳牛場的工人禽流感檢測呈陽性，這是美國第二例感染H5N1流感病毒的病例。美國疾病管制與預防中心表示，該人被診斷出感染H5N1病毒，目前正在恢復中，症狀輕微。 第一例被診斷出來的病例是2022年在一名直接接觸家禽的科羅拉多州男子。 根據疾病管制與預防中心的說法，對於民眾的風險仍然很低。但我仍然有疑問，禽流感到底是什麼？人們應該避免吃家禽和喝牛奶嗎？ CNN：禽流感到底是什麼？ Leana Wen博士：禽流感，是指A型禽流感病毒引起的感染。這些病毒通常在野生鳥類中傳播，尤其是野生水禽，如鴨和鵝等。它們也會感染家禽和其他動物。 CNN：吃雞肉和雞蛋以及喝牛奶安全嗎？ Wen：經過巴氏殺菌的牛奶是安全的。巴氏殺菌過程可以殺死細菌和病毒，包括牛奶中可能存在的任何流感病毒。同樣的，食用經過妥善處理和烹調的家禽，包括雞肉和雞蛋，也是安全的。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
Extreme temperatures are tied to more than half a million stroke deaths a year. With climate change, expect more
極端氣溫每年導致超過 50萬人中風死亡。隨著氣候變化，可能人數會更多
Health
In 2019 alone, more than half a million people died due to a stroke linked to high and low temperatures, a new study found. With the world getting warmer due to human-made climate change, that number is expected to rise. The study, published Wednesday in the medical journal Neurology, found that since 1990, the number of strokes attributable to high and low temperatures have been increasing all around the globe. Men had more strokes related to extreme temperatures than women, but it affected people across all age groups. For this study, researchers looked at temperatures and strokes in 204 countries and territories. Researchers from Xiangya Hospital Central South University in China created a model using global data on disease, deaths and disability and climate data that captures temperatures, cloud cover and weather variables. The study authors noted that the number of people having strokes has risen as the population ages and grows, but this doesn’t account for everything. “Nonoptimal temperatures” made a difference: The number of people who had a stroke due to hot and cold temperatures grew and was significantly larger in 2019 than in 1990.
---from CNN
一項新的研究發現，光是2019年，就有超過50萬人死於與高溫和低溫有關的中風。隨著人類造成的氣候變遷導致全球暖化，這一數字預計還會上升。 週三發表在醫學期刊《神經學》上的這項研究發現，自1990年以來，全球因高溫和低溫導致的中風人數一直在增加。男性比女性更容易因極端溫度而中風，但它的影響遍及所有年齡層。 在這項研究中，研究人員觀察了204個國家和地區的氣溫和中風情況。中國中南大學湘雅醫院的研究人員利用全球疾病、死亡和殘疾數據建構了一個模型，這模型紀錄了溫度、雲層和氣候變化的數據。 該研究的作者指出，隨著人口高齡化和人數增長，中風人數也在增加，但這並不能說明一切。「非最佳氣溫」產生了影響：由於炎熱和寒冷的氣溫而中風的人數有所增加，並且2019年的人數明顯多於1990年。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
Vietnam is planning high-speed rail connections with China
越南正計劃與中國建立高速鐵路連接
Culture
Vietnam aims to start building two high-speed railway lines linking its capital Hanoi with China before 2030, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said, another sign of a recent warming of ties between the two Communist-ruled neighbors. China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner and a vital source of imports for its manufacturing sector. The two countries are already connected via a system of highways and two railway lines that are old and need upgrading on the Vietnam side. One of the planned high-speed lines would run from Vietnam’s port cities of Haiphong and Quang Ninh through Hanoi to Lao Cai province, which borders China’s Yunnan province, the ministry said in a statement released late on Tuesday. The other would run from Hanoi to Lang Son province, which borders China’s Guangxi region, passing through an area densely populated with global manufacturing facilities, including some owned by Chinese investors. Earlier this month, Vietnam said it was seeking to learn from China to develop its first high-speed railway network and had sent its officials to work with Chinese railway companies. A massive high-speed railway line linking capital Hanoi with business hub Ho Chi Minh City is also being planned in the country.
---from CNN
越南計畫和投資部(Ministry of Planning and Investment)表示，越南計畫在2030年之前開始建造兩條連接首都河內和中國的高速鐵路，這是最近這兩個共產黨統治的鄰國之間關係升溫的又一個跡象。 中國是越南最大的貿易夥伴，也是越南製造業的重要進口來源。兩國已經透過高速公路系統和兩條鐵路線相連，這兩條鐵路線在越南端已經陳舊，需要升級改造。 該部門在週二晚間發布的聲明中表示，其中一條計劃中的高鐵路線將從越南港口城市海防和廣寧經河內到達與中國雲南省接壤的老街省。 另一條高鐵將從河內延伸至與中國廣西地區接壤的諒山省，途經一個全球製造工廠密集的地區，其中的一些工廠為中國投資者所擁有。 本月早些時候，越南表示正在尋求向中國學習，以發展其第一個高速鐵路網，並且已派遣官員與中國鐵路公司合作。 越南也正在規劃一條連接首都河內與商業中心胡志明市的大型高速鐵路。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
‘I cannot afford to live’: Gen Z is full of financial angst despite inheriting a golden job market
「我無法負擔生活所需」：儘管繼承了黃金就業市場，Z世代仍充滿財務焦慮
Culture
Gen Z is coming into the workforce and — in one of the grand traditions of what Millennials cringe-ily called “adulting” — they’re complaining about how much easier older generations had it. Before all the Boomers and Slackers throw their tablets across the room, let me note that Gen Zers — folks born between the late 1990s and early 2010s — are entering adulthood during one of strongest job markets in US history. Compared with Millennials, especially, who entered the workforce in the Dark Ages known as the Great Recession, the Gen Z experience is a dream. “This is the best economy we’ve seen for younger workers that anybody can remember,” Brendan Duke, senior director for economic policy at the Center for American Progress, tells me. Their wages have gone up faster than inflation overall, and more quickly than any other age cohort, he added. But Gen Z isn’t having an easy go of it either. Like all of us, they’re struggling with an onslaught of inflation that pushed prices rapidly higher over the past three years. The essentials have been particularly expensive: Food prices surged during the pandemic, and companies haven’t been shy about keeping them elevated even as supply chains recovered. Shelter costs ballooned when the Federal Reserve jacked up interest rates, leading Boomers (or anyone with a less-than-3% mortgage) to stay in the homes they might otherwise have downsized out of. We can’t seem to build homes fast enough to meet demand.
---from CNN
Z世代即將進入職場，他們開始抱怨上一代的生活要容易得多，這是千禧世代尷尬地稱之為「成年」的偉大傳統之一。 在所有嬰兒潮世代和懶人把平板電腦扔到房間的另一邊之前，我要指出的是，正在美國史上最強勁的就業市場來到之際，Z世代(出生於1990 年代末至2010 年代初的人)即將邁入成年。特別是與千禧世代相比，在被稱為「大衰退」的黑暗時代進入勞動市場，Z世代的經歷簡直是一場夢。 美國進步中心(Center for American Progress)經濟政策高級主任Brendan Duke告訴我：「這是我們所見過的最有利於年輕工作人口的經濟，大家都記得。」他補充說，他們的工資上漲速度超過了整體通膨率，也快於其他年齡層的人。 但Z世代的日子也不輕鬆。 和我們所有人一樣，他們也在對抗在過去三年中推高了物價的通貨膨脹。生活必需品的價格尤其昂貴：疫情期間食品價格飆升，即使供應鏈恢復，企業也毫不猶豫地將價格維持在高位。當聯準會提高利率時，住房成本激增，導致嬰兒潮世代（或房貸利率低於3%的人）留在他們原本可能縮小規模的房子裡。我們似乎無法以夠快的速度建造房屋來滿足需求。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
How to supercharge cancer-fighting cells: give them stem cell skills
如何增強抗癌細胞：賦予它們幹細胞技能
Sciences
Bioengineered immune cells have been shown to attack and even cure cancer, but they tend to get exhausted if the fight goes on for a long time. Now, two separate research teams have found a way to rejuvenate these cells: make them more like stem cells. Both teams found that the bespoke immune cells called CAR T cells gain new vigour if engineered to have high levels of a particular protein. These boosted CAR T cells have gene activity similar to that of stem cells and a renewed ability to fend off cancer. Both papers were published today in Nature. The papers “open a new avenue for engineering therapeutic T cells for cancer patients”, says Tuoqi Wu, an immunologist at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas.
---from Nature
生物工程免疫細胞已被證明可以攻擊甚至治癒癌症，但如果戰鬥持續很長時間，它們往往會筋疲力盡。現在，兩個獨立的研究小組找到了一種使這些細胞恢復活力的方法：使它們更像幹細胞。 兩個團隊都發現，被稱為CAR-T胞的客製化免疫細胞，如果被設計成帶有高表現的特定蛋白質，就會獲得新的活力。這些增強的CAR-T細胞具有與幹細胞相似的基因活性，並且具有新的抵抗癌症的能力。兩篇論文都發表在今天的《自然》期刊上。 在達拉斯的德州大學西南分校免疫學家 Tuoqi Wu 表示，這些論文「為癌症患者的治療性T細胞工程開闢了一條新的路徑」。
---摘錄翻譯自Nature
What happens when climate change and the mental-health crisis collide?
當氣候變遷和心理健康危機衝撞時，會發生什麼事？
Sciences
Surveys are revealing that experiencing the effects of climate change — and awareness of the threat — can lead to psychological responses such as a chronic fear of environmental doom, known as eco-anxiety. Eco-distress, climate anxiety and climate grief are other terms used. In a 2021 survey of 10,000 people aged 16–25 in 10 countries, nearly 60% of respondents were highly worried about climate change, and more than 45% said their feelings about climate change affected their daily lives, such as their ability to work or sleep. Such reactions to an existential threat are expected, and many people can handle these feelings on their own — but some need specialist help. Although there is anecdotal evidence that people with eco-anxiety are increasingly going to clinics, the psychological toll of climate change tends to be invisible — one reason why it has been neglected. Researchers and governments need better ways to measure the wide-ranging extent of climate change’s effects on mental health. Data scientists, climate scientists and climate-attribution researchers, among others, should join mental-health researchers in furthering the underlying science. Mental-health professionals also need training and support to provide help. Mental illness is already underdiagnosed and stigmatized, and mental health care in most countries is shockingly insufficient. Climate change makes the case for addressing this crisis even more urgent.
--from Nature
調查顯示，經歷氣候變遷，以及意識到這種威脅，可能會導致心理反應，比如對環境毀滅的長期恐懼，這就是所謂的生態焦慮。其他的說法還包括生態災難、氣候焦慮和氣候悲傷。 2021年，一項對10 個國家10,000 名16-25 歲年輕人進行的調查顯示，近60% 的受訪者高度擔心氣候變遷，超過45% 的受訪者表示，他們對氣候變化的感受影響了他們的日常生活，比如他們的工作能力或睡眠。 對於這種生存威脅的反應是意料中事，許多人可以自己處理這些感受—但有些人需要專家的協助。儘管坊間有證據顯示，越來越多患有生態焦慮的人去診所就診，但氣候變化對心理的影響往往是看不見的—這也是它被忽視的原因之一。 研究人員和政府需要更好的方法來衡量氣候變化對心理健康影響的廣泛程度。數據科學家、氣候科學家和氣候歸因研究人員應該與心理健康研究人員一起推動基礎科學的發展。心理健康專業人員也需要培訓和支持以提供協助。精神疾病已經得不到充分診斷並且被污名化，而且大多數國家的精神衛生保健服務嚴重不足。氣候變遷使得解決這種危機變得更加迫切。
--摘錄翻譯自Nature