英倫翻譯社/ Trsmaster

The Rimping Supermarket chain in Chiang Mai has gotten rid of plastic packaging for vegetables and is now instead using banana leaves to wrap them. Their initiative has gained global recognition, thanks to a Facebook post that went viral recently.

清邁Rimping連鎖超市已放棄以塑膠包裝蔬菜的做法，取而代之的是以香蕉葉加以包裹。由於一則近期爆紅的「臉書」貼文，他們的新做法獲得全球認同。

The Facebook post by Perfect Homes Chiangmai praised the supermarket for going green and contained a few pictures of produce wrapped in banana leaves.

「清邁完美家庭」（Perfect Homes Chiangmai）的臉書貼文讚揚該超市勵行環保原則，並附上一些以香蕉葉包裝的農產品照片。

"When Perfect Homes spotted a rather nifty alternative to Earth-unfriendly packaging the other day at a branch of Rimping Supermarket, we couldn’t help but get fired up! As well as offering shoppers the option to buy or borrow a cloth bag in store, the popular grocery outfit now bundles its Veggie First fresh greens in banana leaves finished with a fibre tie," the real estate company explained in a blog post.

「當完美家庭幾天前在一家Rimping超市分店看見一個相當棒的替代不友善地球的包裝方式時，我們不禁振奮起來！這家廣受歡迎的賣場不但提供購物者購買或借用店內的布袋，現在還將其Veggie First鮮蔬以纖維繩綑紮在香蕉葉裡，」該房地產公司在部落格貼文中解釋說。

Five trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year, and more than 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced since the early 1950s.

Absorbing complex information or picking up a new skill from scratch by, say, listening to an audio recording during sleep is almost certainly impossible. But research shows that the sleeping brain is far from idle and that some forms of learning can happen.

睡覺時透過聽錄音來吸收複雜的資訊或從頭開展一項新技能，幾乎確定不可能成功。但研究顯示，睡眠期間的大腦並未空轉，可以產生某些形式的學習。

The first study to demonstrate a memory and learning benefit from sleep was published in 1914 by German psychologist Rosa Heine. She found that learning new material in the evening before sleep results in better recall compared to learning during the day.

德國心理學家羅莎．海涅在1914年發表第一項證明睡眠有益記憶和學習的研究。她發現，相較於在白天學習，在晚上睡前學新東西能記得更好。

In recent years, multiple studies have found that a basic form of learning, called conditioning, can happen during sleep. In a 2012 study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Israeli researchers found that people can learn to associate sounds with odors during sleep.

近幾年，已有多項研究發現，睡眠期間能發生被稱為「制約作用」的基本學習形式。以色列研究團隊2012年發表在《自然神經科學雜誌》期刊的研究發現，人們可以在睡覺時學會將聲音與氣味相連結。

Although the memory was implicit, it could affect the people’s behavior, researchers found in a 2014 study published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

"Overall, the ratio of （survey respondents） in favor of a wedding stands at about half the people surveyed. But the portion of those who replied that a wedding is a must drops to the 10 percentage range. This is attributable to the growing importance of one’s decision and judgment and less importance placed on formality in marriage," said the institute.

該研究院表示，「整體而言，約一半比率的受訪者支持舉行婚禮。但答覆必須舉行婚禮的百分比就降到10%的範圍。這歸因於個人的決定與判斷愈來愈重要，婚禮的儀式禮節則較不重要。」

"Such responses were not confined to a certain group, which shows increasing emphasis on personal choice over social norms," said the institute. In Korea, a couple can formalize their marriage by registering a declaration of marriage with the local authorities, with no need for a ceremony.

該研究院提到，「這樣的回答不限於特定團體，顯示愈來愈強調個人選擇大於社會規範的趨勢」。在南韓，情侶可藉由向地方當局登記結婚宣言，正式確立婚姻關係，不需舉行婚禮。

英倫翻譯社轉自https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1283004

Up to 10 percent of adults in the developed world suffer from chronic insomnia, and cancer patients are particularly prone to it, researchers note in Sleep Medicine.

在已開發世界，多達10％的成人飽受慢性失眠之苦，癌症患者特別有這種傾向，研究人員在「睡眠醫學期刊」中指出。

For the study, researchers examined data on 405 cancer patients in Germany who were 59 years old on average and completed two assessments of insomnia severity：once when they joined the study and again twelve months later.

針對這項研究，研究人員檢視405名德國癌症患者的資料，其平均年齡為59歲，並完成兩份失眠嚴重程度評估：一次是他們加入該研究時，接著是12個月之後。

The most common malignancies were breast cancer, tumors of the prostate or testicles, and colorectal cancer. Most patients - 83 percent - were being treated for a first-time cancer. The rest of them had a relapses or secondary tumors in a different location than the original cancer.

最常見的惡性腫瘤是乳癌、攝護腺或睪丸腫瘤，以及大腸直腸癌。多數患者—83％—是首次罹癌，其餘則是復發，或在原來癌症以外的不同身體部位有續發腫瘤。

At the start of the study, 49 percent of the patients had insomnia symptoms, and 13 percent had severe enough sleep problems to meet the clinical definition of insomnia, the study found. After a year, 64 percent of the patients who started out with insomnia were still suffering from symptoms.

While the original stations were conceived as "palaces for the people", the new designs are less formal with light boxes for seats and laser-printed glass patterns.

早期的車站被視為「人民宮殿」，新的設計則比較沒那麼形式化，反而出現燈箱座椅及雷射雕刻玻璃圖案等。

Take the station of Solntsevo for example. Moscow’s Nefa Architects punched holes in the walls of the station entrances to "create light and shadow." Down on the platform, cylindrical white light boxes serve as seats sturdy enough to withstand passengers’ weight. "We wanted to let the sun inside," said Nefa’s lead architect Dmitry Ovcharov.

以「陽光地站」為例。莫斯科Nefa建築事務所的建築師，在車站入口的牆壁上鑿孔，藉此「創造光影效果」，並在月台上設置白色的圓柱形燈箱座椅，其堅固程度足以承受乘客的重量。Nefa首席建築師德米崔．奧夫查洛夫表示：「我們想要讓陽光照進來。」

In 2018, the transport system, which dates back to 1935, opened 16 new stations and carried around two billion passengers per year.（AFP）

歷史可溯及1935年的莫斯科地鐵系統，2018年啟用16座新站，年運量約20億人次。（法新社）

英倫翻譯社 轉自https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1282395