Photographers Turn Their Cameras on Pets
In 2019 photographers Kendrick Brinson and David Walter Banks visited 14 countries on assignment. When the couple described the adventures they had experienced when photographing, people invariably asked, "But who takes care of your four cats and dogs?" They joked that the pet siter made a lot of money.
But 2020 couldn't have been (different). Due to COVID-19, Brinson and Banks never left the United States. Often, they didn't even leave their Los Angeles neighborhood. spending long hours in airport security lines and waiting-for the perfect lighting, the pair stayed along with dogs Tux and Tia and cats Rex and Kudzu. "Our pets became emotional therapy animals, and our only friends we could safely hug in a world (strike) by a deadly pandemic," Banks said.
As COVID-19 lockdowns swept across the world in March of 2020, the change made an especially great impact on photographers, who are accustomed to (spend) long periods abroad. And so many cameras (turn) on a domestic subject: the pet.
Research suggests that pets have offered emotional support during the pandemic, helping (make) the long days of isolation more bearable, says Emily MeCobb, a clinical associate professor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. In fact, the pandemic has sped up a trend, according to McCobb's and other scientists' observation, the pet is becoming a member of the family. "In the past 20 to 30 years, the role of the pet in the family (take) on a whole new role," says MeCobb." It really hasn't been that long these furry child substitutes gained this kind of importance in American society."
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A. vacant B. raised C. acknowledges D. quoted E. alerts F. colonial G. housed H. former I. recommendations J. requests K. reviews |
Museums Rethink What to Do with Their African Art Collections
Recently, a discussion is happening in museums around the world over the volume of African art in their collections. Officials in Germany and the Netherlands have announced plans to return art and artifacts (文物) taken from Africa during theperiod. And more museum staff are meeting on the topic across Europe.
According to the most commonlyfigures from UNESCO（United Nations Educational, Scientifie and Cultural Organization）, 90% to 95%of sub-Saharan cultural artifacts areoutside Africa. Many were taken by force long ago and ended up in museums across Europe and North America.
At the Africa Museum in Belgium, director Guido Gryseels says 85 percent of the-museum's collection comes from the Congo-the site of Belgium'scolony in Central Africa. For decades, Congolese leaders have asked for these objects to be returned. Most of their, and those by African countries to other museums, have been refused.
But recent events in Europe havethe possibility of returns at a much larger scale. In addition to the plans announced in Germany, last year France conducted a study of how much African art French museums are holding and madeabout what to do with it.
The study recommended the return of a wide range of objects taken by force. The suggestion got mixedin France, where there are at least 90000 African items in museums.
In France, some people have suggested returns could leave shelvesin French museums. Cecile Fromont, a French historian of Central African art, says that's not going to happen. One way of thinking about it, she says, is that more African art can go on display.
However, Guido Gryseels of the Africa Museum in Belgiumthat attitudes are changing. He says he's in discussion with the Congo to return works.
Around 13000 years ago North America had a wider variety of mammals (哺乳动物) than modem Africa. There were multiple horse species，camels and some now-extinct animals. And such1creatures were not just found in North America. On every continent mammals on average were a lot larger from around 2.5 million until about 11700 years ago.
Scientists have long debated what caused all these large creatures to go extinct while many of the smaller ones2.A team of researchers led by biologist Felisa Smith analyzed evidence from millions of years' worth of mammalian extinctions and found that on each continent large mammals started to3Ground the same time humans first showed up.
If the extinction trend continues, many more large mammals will soon disappear as well, as the primary threats from humans have4from overhunting to indirect processes such as habitat loss. In their new study Smith and her team analyzed a database of all land mammals that lived from 65 million years ago until today. "We found5no effect of climate on mammalian extinction over 65 million years," she says. But starting around 125000 years ago and continuing until today, large mammals have been more likely to go extinct than smaller ones, the researchers found. The average6of surviving mammals has decreased as a result. And those large-mammal extinctions are tightly coupled with the7of humans. For most of mammalian8history, an animal's size was not predictive of its extinction risk. That9only appeared once humans began to live alongside large mammals.
This finding does not mean climate-related changes could not have10some wildlife populations, enabling humans to more easily bring about their eventual downfall.11, it suggests the greater likelihood of large mammals going extinct is tied to human activities. The animals that evolved without the risk of hunting from humans were suddenly faced with a new12. They simply could not13fast enough to survive the invasion of humans.
Smith says the lesson to be learned from the new findings is that our ancestors prepared us to be extremely skillful killers. "What's14now," she says, "is that some of us are comfortable enough, have a high enough standard of living, that we can start thinking about our use of the Earth," Rather than simply behaving as15, many of us are now in a position to become environmental protectors.
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard, fishermen watched their markets dry up. Restaurants-normally major fish buyers-closed or cut back orders significantly. Fishermen weren't sure if they were going to get paid for what they fished.
Meanwhile as people lost jobs, food banks started to see a great demand for services. Things were getting desperate, with long lines for food assistance in many states.
Out of these dual crises, a new idea was born. Food assistance programs across the country have started connecting with local fishermen to stock up on local seafood, many for the first time. And the arrangement seems to be helping the fishermen, the economy and those in need of healthy food.
According to Catherine D' Amato, CEO of the Greater Boston Food Bank, the network usually keeps four or five weeks of food on hand in case of emergencies. The pandemic hit, and "we found ourselves below one week of stock and going down rapidly," she says. That's because the food bank normally distributes about I million pounds of food a week, and that became 2.5 million pounds of food a week, D' Amato says. While Congress and the states have increased funding and donations for food banks during the pandemic, it hasn't been enough.
"For many years, we have been wanting to be able to work with organizations in the fishing industry," D' Amato says. But it's complicated. Fishermen catch a lot of big fish, and food banks who might take it need the products to be cut small and easy to use for customers. It also has to be fish they know and recognize. The barriers have been too high in many places to make it work. But this spring, the state department of agriculture connected the food bank with some grant makers. They talked to some local fishermen about developing a traditional New England fish soup.
The grants paid fishermen for their catch and provided money for a local manufacturer to process, freeze and deliver the soup to food banks in family-size servings. The soup is helping to feed families and keep fishermen fishing. The fishermen hope to sell it in stores soon, and Damato hopes to purchase more soup and expand into new seafood products for her customers.
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There are two key categories of staff at WHO:professionals(P) or directors(D) who are internationally recruited(招募) and general(G) or national professional(NPO) staff who are recruited locally for both fixed or short-term positions. We also run internship(实习) and opportunities for junior professional officers (JPOs).
| Internationally recruited(Por D) Professional staff and directors are hired internationally and occupy leadership functions or positions that require a significant level of technical expertise. P or D staff are mobile and are expected to work across the globe. | Locally recruited (G or NPO) General Service staff are hired locally at the respective duty station. Their main role is to work with and support internationally recruited staff in their roles and to assure the smooth functioning of all administrative matters. National Professional Officers are nationals of the country in which they serve and perform functions of a professional nature requiring local knowledge, professional knowledge and experience. | Internships We offer internships for current students with educational background in public health, management or administration fields. |
| Junior professional officer programme The Junior Professional Officer(JPO) Programme provides young professionals at an early stage in their career with practical experience in international technical co-operation. JPOs are sponsored by their respective governments. | Recruitment restrictions Please note the following restrictions on recruitment： Relatives of WHO Staff: Except where another equally well qualified person cannot be recruited, appointment shall not be granted to a person who bears any of the following relationships to a staff member: father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister. Candidates under the age of 20 and above the age of 62 will not be considered for any vacancy. Policy on Non-Recruitment of Smokers: WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or other tobacco users who do not indicate a willingness to stop smoking. This policy underscores the Organization's commitment to promoting a tobacco-free environment. | |
A seismic (地震的；重大的) shift in climate science might be heating up.
New research shows that sound waves, produced by earthquakes can be used to measure temperatures in the ocean which traps 90% of the heat Earth absorbs from the sun，making long-term changes in ocean warmth, a major factor in how the world might respond to global warming.
For years the main approach of measuring ocean temperature has been Argo, an array (阵列) of 4000 automatic floats, which drifts the globe, sampling ocean water and measuring its temperature. Yet Argo measurements stop at 2000 meters.
The new technique called "Seismic Ocean Thermometry", would be especially useful in detecting long-term changes in ocean temperatures deeper than Argo's reach.
"Ocean Acoustic Tomography", the basis for the current research, was first tested nearly 30 years ago. The initial studies created sound waves artificially, basically increasing the volume on giant underwater speakers. Scientists measured the sound's travel time from the speakers to receivers thousands of kilometers away. Because ocean temperatures affect the speed of the waves, the researchers could calculate average temperatures along their paths. But some believed the noise was a threat to ocean life and the technique never took off.
The new study instead uses a natural sound source for investigation: earthquakes making a low, continuous noise beneath the seafloor off the coast of Sumatra that drum up sound waves in the ocean. On the shores of the Chagos Islands in the East Indian Ocean, between 2005 and 2016 Seismic Station Diego Garcia recorded seismic waves produced by those earthquakes. Some of those waves created physical changes in land and sea as they traveled. Others were sound waves or T waves that moved through the deep ocean, delivering valuable data about ocean temperature.
12 years of data coupled with mathematical models pointed to a temperature change of roughly 0.044 degrees per decade, a trend larger than those predicted by Argo. The findings suggest that Seismic Ocean Thermometry is a feasible method to measure changes in ocean temperature. Further data from other regions of the globe and other timeframes would help improve the warning models and predictions.
And in future studies the researchers plan to listen directly for sound waves, using a network of hydrophones, microphones which detect sound waves under water. Sound waves set the tone for a deep dive into our warming oceans even if they fail to reach 60000 miles under the sea?
Kite Power
The search for new, clean energy sources has occupied the attention of scientists and politicians for years. One common resource for green energy is the wind. A new twist on this old resource could cause the energy output of wind-power plants to rise dramatically.
Standard wind-power plants rely on fixed support and generally can only reach a height of 200 meters or so. Higher than that, winds tend to be stronger and more persistent.
Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in Germany have formed a kite-power research group. The group is working to develop kites with inflatable (可充气的) wings connected to electrical gencrators on the ground. The research group's goal is to design a kite that can operate on its own for 24 hours. Research has begun，but many challenges remain，including making the generators more efficient and perfecting the automatic flight control and the structure of the kites.
Meanwhile, in Italy, researchers are working in a similar power generator that relies on kites. When the generator, called KiteGen, senses the wind blowing, kites are released from the ends of poles with high-resistance cables to control their height and angle. These cables are able to move the kites if the system senses incoming objects such as planes, helicopters or even individual birds. The kites themselves are light, tough and able to reach fairly high altitudes. They form a circular shape in the wind, which sets the core of the generator in motion, producing electric current. KiteGen has the potential to be very cost-effective in the long run.
The plant also requires relatively little space, which makes it ideal for cities and means that multiple plants can be set up to provide even more energy.
In the future, it may be an efficient, cost-effective addition to the other sources of energy we use, or even a replacement for some of them.
A. But the challenge is figuring out how to collect the energy from those winds.
B. Kite power has the potential to greatly improve on current wind-power strategies.
C. Wind at these altitudes (海拔高度) is stronger and steadier0 which increases productivity factors of the system to about 60%.
D. Its plan is to build a kite power station using technology that can collectively generate (产生) large amounts of energy.
E. Nevertheless, they successfully demonstrated that their kites could operate automatically at an altitude of up to 700 meters.
F. After the initial cost of designing and setting up the plant, little additional investment will be necessary, apart from standard maintenance.
Robotic Exoskeletons
Thanks to robotic exoskeletons, victims of spinal cord (脊髓) injury have a new reason to hope. Robotic exoskeletons, consisting of metal legs, motors, batteries, wiring, a controller and a set of strips work together like the user's bones, muscles and nerves-outside the body. Fastened into an exoskeleton and supported by sticks, users can direct the machinery to take them where they want to go.
In addition to partly restoring mobility, robotic exoskeletons offer the significant mental and physical health benefits of standing up and moving. Just being able to get up from a wheelchair gives patients a more natural, positive view of the world. It also helps relieve pressure on patients' skin and reduces the danger of pressure sores. Standing upright strengthens a disabled person's muscles and bones, improves heart health，and reduces certain other health complications (并发症). And it may actually result in partial nerve repair, something that can only happen when a patient is able to move.
As promising as this technology is, however, it is no simple cure-all for paralysis(瘫痪) or its complications. The motion is not accurate compared with natural walking, and exoskeletons are not easy to use, especially on surfaces that are not smooth. They are very expensive, costing about US$100000. Health insurance plans and government programs may not cover the cost of buying one.
Nevertheless, robotic exoskeletons, and access to them, will continue to improve. As with much modem technology, robotic exoskeletons will likely become more capable and easy to use, even as their cost goes down. Governments and insurers may increasingly see that the health benefits of these walking machines outweigh the costs, making it easier to fund them. Perhaps the day will come when nearly everyone paralyzed by spinal cord injury will be able to "walk" again.
