- Why it’s sometimes healthy to give things up
- CDC confirms second reported case of bird flu in a person in the US
- No longer drinking? There are options for you
- Flame retardants found in thousands of consumer products linked to cancer in people for first time
- Scientists made a six-legged mouse embryo — here’s why
- Memories are made by breaking DNA — and fixing it
Why it’s sometimes healthy to give things up
為什麼放棄有時候是健康的
Health
Are you forcing yourself to continue learning a language? Or continuing a friendship that leaves you feeling drained more often than not? It could be ok — healthy, even — to give things like this up, says Adam Phillips, author of “On Giving Up.” Phillips is a practicing psychoanalyst — someone who helps people understand themselves and make better choices in life, according to the American Psychological Association. For Phillips, this means letting people speak freely about things that are troubling them. Lots of people have talked to Phillips about giving things up. There’s a duality to the notion, he says. “We tend to value, and even idealize, the idea of seeing things through, of finishing things rather than abandoning them,” says Phillips in the book. “Giving up is usually thought of as a failure rather than a way of succeeding at something else.”
---from CNN
您是否正在勉強自己繼續學習一種語言？還是要繼續維持一段會常常讓你感到精疲力竭的友誼？ 《論放棄》一書的作者Adam Phillips 表示，放棄這件事是可以的，甚至是健康的。 Phillips是一位執業的精神分析師，根據美國心理學會的說法，這個職業可以幫助人們了解自己並在生活中做出更好的選擇。對Phillips來說，這意味著可以讓人們自由地談論著困擾他們的事情。 很多人都與Phillips談過要放棄一些東西。他說，這個概念具有兩個面向。 Phillips在書中表示：「我們傾向於重視甚至理想化地看待事物、完成事物而不是放棄它。」 「放棄通常被認為是一種失敗，而不是在其他方面取得成功的一種方式。”
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
CDC confirms second reported case of bird flu in a person in the US
美國疾病管制與預防中心證實第二例禽流感病例
Health
A person who worked on a dairy farm and had “direct contact with dairy cattle” tested positive for avian flu in Texas late last week, the state’s Department of State Health Services said Monday. The case was confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the weekend, the department said. The CDC said the person who has the H5N1 virus is recovering and was told to isolate. Their only symptom was eye inflammation, and they are being treated with oseltamivir, the Texas health department said. Oseltamivir is the generic version of the antiviral medication Tamiflu. The department is working with local, state and federal health partners to investigate the case and has issued an alert asking health care providers to monitor for any additional cases of avian influenza. “The case does not change the risk for the general public, which remains low,” the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement. The CDC also said Monday that the risk is low but said it is monitoring the situation. “Because influenza viruses constantly change, continued surveillance and preparedness efforts are critical, and CDC is taking measures in case the public health risk assessment changes. This is a developing situation, and CDC will share additional updates as new relevant information becomes available,” the agency said in a news release.
---from CNN
德州衛生服務部週一表示，上週晚些時候，該州一名在乳牛場工作並「與乳牛有過直接接觸」的人檢測出禽流感呈陽性。該部門表示，美國疾病管制與預防中心週末證實了此病例。 疾病管制與預防中心表示，感染 H5N1 病毒的患者正在康復，並被告知要進行隔離。 德州衛生部門表示，他們唯一的症狀是眼部發炎，正在接受oseltamivir治療。Oseltamivir是抗病毒藥物Tamiflu的通用版本。 該部門正在與地方、州和聯邦衛生合作夥伴共同調查此病例，並已發出警告，要求醫療保健提供者監測是否有其他的禽流感病例。 德州衛生服務部在一份聲明中表示：「該案例並沒有改變公眾面臨的風險，風險仍然很低。」 疾病管制與預防中心週一也表示，風險很低，並且情況也在監測中。 「由於流感病毒不斷變化，持續的監測和準備工作至關重要，疾病管制與預防中心正在採取措施，以防止公共衛生風險評估發生變化。這是一個不斷發展的情況，隨著新的相關資訊的出現，疾病管制與預防中心將分享更多更新的訊息。」該機構在新聞稿中表示。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
No longer drinking? There are options for you
不再喝酒了嗎？你有更多的選擇
Culture
The Zero Co, as its name suggests, is a bottle shop totally devoted to non-alcoholic beer, wine and spirits — like a zero proof liquor store. Opening in 2022 and situated in the trendy Poncey-Highlands neighborhood of Atlanta, The Zero Co advertises itself as the city’s first non-alcoholic bottle shop — but it is part of a growing trend both in Atlanta and across the country. The number of people choosing to opt-out of alcohol, whether temporarily or permanently, has grown, and with it, the normalization of being alcohol-free. Restaurants have expanded mocktail lists, sober bars are on the rise, and non-alcoholic bottle shops are popping up in most major cities. These aren’t thoughtless alcohol replacements. With a level of care and craft — often with a price point matching their alcoholic counterparts — these substitutions are much, much more than a shirley temple. Yet the demand persists. At The Zero Co, sales in its first year were three times what Atkinson had predicted. Customers from across state lines come into Marigold searching for alternatives. And non-alcoholic options are still increasingly finding their way onto menus and in bars.
---from CNN
The Zero Co，顧名思義，是一家專門銷售無酒精啤酒、葡萄酒和烈酒的瓶裝酒類商店，就像一家零酒精酒類商店。The Zero Co 於2022年開業，位於亞特蘭大時尚的 Poncey-Highlands 社區，宣傳自己是該城市第一家無酒精瓶裝飲料店，但它是亞特蘭大乃至全國不斷增長的趨勢之一。 選擇暫時或永久戒酒的人數增加，隨之而來的是無酒精的常態化。餐廳擴大了無酒精雞尾酒的種類，清醒酒吧不斷增加，大多數主要城市的無酒精商店也如雨後春筍般湧現。這些並不是輕率的酒精替代品。憑藉精心製作和工藝—通常價格與酒精飲料相當——這些替代品比shirley temple (一種雞尾酒)要好得多。 然而，這種需求依然存在。The Zero Co 第一年的銷售額是Atkinson預測的三倍。來自各州的客戶來到Marigold尋找替代品。無酒精飲料也越來越多地出現在菜單上和酒吧裡。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
Flame retardants found in thousands of consumer products linked to cancer in people for first time
阻燃劑首次在數千種消費品中被發現與人類癌症有關
Culture
Flame retardants added for decades to thousands of consumer products in the United States may raise the risk of dying from cancer, according to new research. People with the highest levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, in their blood had approximately a 300% increased risk of dying from cancer compared with people with the lowest levels, the study found. “To our knowledge, this is the first study examining the association of PBDE exposure with risk of cause-specific mortality in the general adult population from the US,” the authors wrote. The new report analyzed levels of the chemical compounds in the blood of 1,100 people between 2003 and 2004 who were participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a longitudinal federal study on the health of US citizens. Researchers then compared PBDE levels with death certificates between 15 and 17 years later, according to the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open. While the study found a significant association between PBDEs and deaths from all cancers, researchers could not determine specific types of cancers from the available data.
---from CNN
一項最新研究表明，幾十年來美國數千種消費品中添加的阻燃劑可能會增加死於癌症的風險。 研究發現，血液中多溴二苯醚 (PBDE) 含量最高的人死於癌症的風險比含量最低的人，高出大約300%。 作者寫道：「據我們所知，這是第一個研究多溴聯苯醚暴露與美國普通成年人因特定原因死亡風險之間的關聯性的研究。」 這份新報告分析了2003年至2004年間 1,100人的血液中化合物的含量，這些人參與了全家健康和營養調查，這是一項針對美國公民健康的縱向聯邦研究。 根據週一發表在《JAMA Network Open》雜誌上的研究報告，研究人員隨後將多溴聯苯醚含量與15至17年後的死亡進行了比較。雖然該研究發現多溴聯苯醚與所有癌症死亡之間存在顯著關聯，但研究人員無法根據現有數據確定具體的癌症。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
Scientists made a six-legged mouse embryo — here’s why
科學家製造了一個六條腿的小鼠胚胎──原因如下
Sciences
Developmental biologist Moisés Mallo, at the Gulbenkian Science Institute in Oeiras, Portugal, and his colleagues were studying one of the receptor proteins, Tgfbr1, in a signalling pathway that is involved in many aspects of embryonic development. The scientists inactivated the Tgfbr1 gene in mouse embryos about halfway through development to see how the change affected spinal-cord development. Then, Mallo’s graduate student, Anastasiia Lozovska, came to his office to tell him she’d found that one of the bioengineered embryos had genitals that looked similar to two extra hind limbs. Her finding sent the research down an unexpected path. “I didn’t choose the project, the project chose me,” Mallo says. When Mallo’s team looked further into the six-legged mouse phenomenon, they found that Tgfbr1 directs these structures to become either genitalia or limbs by altering the way that DNA folds in the structure’s cells. Deactivating the protein changed the activity of other genes, resulting in extra limbs and no true external genitalia. The researchers hope to determine whether Tgfbr1 and its relatives affect DNA structure in other systems such as metastatic cancer, and in immune function.
---from Nature
葡萄牙Gulbenkian科學研究所的發育生物學家 Moisés Mallo 和他的同事正在研究一種受體蛋白 Tgfbr1，它在一個信號通路中與胚胎發育許多方面有關的。科學家們在發育到一半的小鼠胚胎使Tgfbr1 基因失去活性，以觀察這種變化如何影響脊髓發育。 然後，Mallo的研究生Anastasiia Lozovska 來到他的辦公室告訴他，她發現其中一個生物工程胚胎的生殖器看起來像多了兩條後肢。她的發現讓這項研究走上了一條意想不到的路。「不是我選擇了這個項目，而是這個項目選擇了我，」Mallo說。當 Mallo 的團隊進一步研究六條腿的小鼠現象時，他們發現 Tgfbr1 透過改變結構細胞中 DNA 折疊的方式來引導這些結構變成生殖器或四肢。使這種蛋白質失去活性，會改變其他基因的活性，導致產生多餘的四肢，並且沒有真正的外生殖器。研究人員希望確定 Tgfbr1 及其相似物是否會影響其他系統的DNA結構，例如轉移性癌症）和免疫功能中。
---摘錄翻譯自Nature
Memories are made by breaking DNA — and fixing it
記憶是透過破壞 DNA 並修復它而形成的
Sciences
When a long-term memory forms, some brain cells experience a rush of electrical activity so strong that it snaps their DNA. Then, an inflammatory response kicks in, repairing this damage and helping to cement the memory, a study in mice shows. The findings, published on 27 March in Nature, are “extremely exciting”, says Li-Huei Tsai, a neurobiologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge who was not involved in the work. They contribute to the picture that forming memories is a “risky business”, she says. Normally, breaks in both strands of the double helix DNA molecule are associated with diseases including cancer. But in this case, the DNA damage-and-repair cycle offers one explanation for how memories might form and last. It also suggests a tantalizing possibility: this cycle might be faulty in people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, causing a build-up of errors in a neuron’s DNA, says study co-author Jelena Radulovic, a neuroscientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
--from Nature
當長期記憶形成時，有些腦細胞會經歷強烈的電活動，以至會破壞它們的DNA。 一項針對老鼠的研究顯示，隨著發炎反應起作用，修復這種損傷，並幫助鞏固記憶。 未參與這項研究的劍橋麻省理工學院神經生物學家 Li-Huei Tsai 表示，3 月 27 日發表在《自然》期刊上的研究結果「極其令人興奮」。 她說，它們讓人們認為形成記憶是一件「冒險的事情」。通常，雙螺旋DNA分子兩條鏈的斷裂會與包括癌症在內的疾病有關。 但在這種情況下，DNA 損傷和修復週期為記憶如何形成和持續提供了一種解釋。 研究報告的合著者、在紐約市Albert Einstein醫學院的神經科學家Jelena Radulovic 表示，這也表明了一種誘人的可能性：這種循環可能在患有神經退化性疾病，例如Aliheimer 症等的人身上出錯，導致神經元DNA錯誤的積累。
--摘錄翻譯自Nature