【推荐1】Children with long-term health conditions, such as asthma (哮喘), may be at greater risk of developing a mental health disorder in early adolescence compared to healthy children, according to a new study.

The findings, published in the journal Development and Psychopathology, show that kids with chronic illness exhibit higher rates of mental problems at age 10, and these health issues continue to be associated with poor mental health at ages 13 and 15.

In the study, the research team reviewed a sample of approximately 7,000 children to investigate the occurrence of mental health disorders, including anxiety or depression, and chronic illness. They found that children with chronic health conditions were approximately twice as likely at 10 and at 13 to present with a mental health disorder than healthy children. At age 15, children with chronic health problems were 60% more likely to present with such disorders.

“Although the link between chronic health conditions and mental health problems in childhood has been made before, this study provides the strongest evidence of it to data in the years of late childhood and early adolescence," said study author Dr. Ann Marie Brady. “The difference chronic illness makes to mental health is concerning, and the first impact can be seen even before adolescence, in late childhood."

The researchers also found that bullying and health-related absence from school were two most significant additional factors for children with mental health issues. The second one was identified as the most consistent factor predicting mental health problems over time.

“If children with chronic illness are more likely to miss school, or experience bullying, that can make the situation worse. Keeping an eye on school attendance and looking out for evidence of bullying amongst those children may help to find out who are most at risk.", said Dr. Brady.

【推荐2】We all know the saying, “Nobody is perfect.” It has been planted in our brains since we were children, and of course, it is the truth. So if nobody is perfect, why do we have such a hard time admitting when we are in trouble or need help?

Like many other young people trying to get through their first year of college, I felt anxiety, and it had its grips on me pretty tight. It began getting in the way of my life, and I had to sit down and tell myself that my behavior was not healthy and there was a solution. Finally, I decided to turn to therapy (精神疗法).

Therapy. It has such a negative stigma (污名), but why ? Does going to therapy mean that you are failing as a person or that you cannot fix your problems on your own? No. Going to therapy means that you are strong enough to recognize that something inside your head is not working correctly, and you are brave enough to try to fix it.

After a couple of weeks, many parts of my life became so much clearer. I began to understand that I, myself, am my worst enemy, which was pretty frightening. But, although frightened, I knew that it was only I who could guide me towards feeling better, and that was extremely empowering.

I have been guided towards a healthier mindset, one that is positive and powerful. I have been able to understand that no matter what happens in my life. I will always be okay.

A lot of people do not understand that it is normal to have negative feelings and sometimes to feel like we have lost control over certain parts of our lives. Seeing a therapist can greatly change your way of thinking about something if you keep your mind open and I am so thankful that I decided to go and do something for myself.

If you are in need of help, you can go to therapy and then everything will be okay.

【推荐3】The cancer death rate in the U.S. fell by the most on record as advances in treatments for lung tumors （肿瘤） like video-assisted surgery helped prolong the lives of patients.

The death rate from cancer has been gradually declining for 26 years, thanks in large part to fewer people smoking cigarettes. But from 2016 to 2017, the most recent period available, it dropped by 2.2%, the most ever in a single year, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Cancer Society. That compares with an average 1.5% yearly decline over the decade. The drop translates to roughly 2.9 million fewer cancer deaths than would have occurred had death rates remained at their peak. For lung cancer specifically, the death rate declined 4.3% annually from 2013 to 2017.

"It is really lung cancer that is driving this," said Rebecca Siegel, scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, and lead author on the new study. "We found increases in survival for lung cancer at every stage in diagnosis.”, She attributed the lower deaths to improvements in treatments, including video-assisted surgery that enables more patients with early lung tumors to become eligible for operations; more precise radiation treatment; and better scanning technology that allows doctors to better assess the stage of tumor, so the patient gets the best treatment right away. At later stages of illness, new, targeted drugs that aim at specific disease-causing genes are helping patients whose tumors have those genetic flaws （缺陷）.Overall, lung cancer death rates have dropped by 51% for men since their peak in 1990, and by 26% for women since their peak in 2002.

There's the potential for more progress in future reports. That's because the latest death-rate statistics go only through 2017, and likely don't include the potential impact in lung cancer death from immune-therapy drugs. They became widely used in lung cancer only in the past few years.

The report, based on U.S. government data, isn't all good news. Prostate （前列腺）cancer death rates have leveled off recently after a period of decline. That may be because many doctors pulled back on using the controversial prostate-specific antigen test, or PSA, which can spot the disease but can lead to over-treatment of men who may never have                                        died from their tumors.

"Though it was definitely causing harm, it was also contributing to declines in death," Siegel said. What's needed now is better screening tests to detect only the prostate cancers that will go on to cause harm.

Population death rates are considered one of the most reliable ways of measuring progress in cancer treatment and prevention. By contrast, cancer survival rates can sometimes be influenced by improvements in diagnosing tiny, early stage tumors that wouldn't necessarily be deadly.

【推荐1】Throughout the ages different ideas have been expressed about the working of the human brain. In ancient times, men thought that the mind was based in the heart. It was not until the 18th century that man realized that the whole of the brain was involved in the workings of the mind.

During the 19th century scientists found that when certain parts of the brain were damaged men lost the ability to do certain things. And so, people thought that each part of the brain controlled a different activity. But modern research has found that this is not so.

In the past 50 years there has been a great increase in the amount of research being done on the brain. Scientists have found that the way the brain works is far more complicated than they had thought. They have tried to use computers to copy the way the brain works. However, they have found that even using the latest electronic equipment they would have to build a computer weighed over 10,000 kilos.

Earlier scientists thought that the power of the brain decreased during a man’s lifetime. But now it has been found that an old person who has always been mentally active has a quicker mind than a young person who has done only physical work. It means the more work we give our brains, the more work they can do.

Scientists hope that if we can discover how the brain works, we will be able to make better use of it. For example, how do we learn language? Some children learn to speak and read and write when they are very young compared to average children. But scientists are not sure why this happens.

Other people now believe that we use only 1% of our brains’ full potential. They say that the only limit on the power of the brain is the limit of what we think is possible. This is probably because of the way we are taught as children. When we first start learning to use our minds we are told what to do, for example, to remember certain facts, but we are not taught how our memory works and how to make best use of it. We are told to make notes but we are not taught how our brains accept information and which is the best way to organize the information we want our brains to accept.

This century man has made many discoveries about the universe — the world outside himself. But he has also started to look into the workings of that other universe which is inside himself.

【推荐1】The world’s first 3D-printed wood log hive (蜂箱) is a new project developed by the Lacrima Foundation in Edinburgh to reduce the troubling decline of honey bee populations around the world.

The Lacrima Foundation is a charity that is “committed to the conservation and protection of one of the Earth’s most important inhabitants.” The charity teamed up with beekeepers in Europe to work towards a rewilding approach that would offer bees a natural nest habitat and, in turn, create resilience (复原力) among bee communities.

Honey bees are one of the most important pollinators (授粉者), and although they may seem small and insignificant, they are vital for the production of our food — we couldn’t eat without them! However, in recent years, bee populations have been severely impacted by the growing climate emergency and our intensive agriculture practices, including the overuse of pesticides.

With help from local partners, the Foundation created 3D-printed wood log hives, which allow the bees to live in an undisturbed ecosystem where they can carry out their lives. They install these hives in high sections of tree trunks to simulate (模拟) natural conditions for the big honey bee populations.

Vince Moucha, chairman of the Lacrima Foundation, said, “Even though there are other people and organisations working in the field of natural beekeeping, the impact, progress and scope of these projects is minimal and slow, due to limited access to resources and clear vision. I am driven by responsibility and decided to act on it due to the urgency and importance of this matter.”

The Foundation will continue to work with beekeepers in the UK, Europe, and the United States to help our bee populations survive and thrive for them and us! Check out the Lacrima Foundation, where you can see their mission and make a donation to the cause and even get a honey bee gift bracelet (手链) in return.

【推荐3】You’ve most likely heard the news by now: A car-commuting, desk-bound, TV-watching lifestyle can be harmful to our health. All the time that we spend rooted in the chair is linked to increased risks of so many deadly diseases that experts have named this modern-day health epidemic the “sitting disease”.

Sitting for too long slows down the body’s metabolism (新陈代谢) and the way enzymes (酶) break down our fat reserves, raising both blood sugar levels and blood pressure. Small amounts of regular activity, even just standing and moving around, throughout the day is enough to bring the increased levels back down. And those small amounts of activity add up. Thirty minutes of light activity in two or three-minute bursts can be just as effective as a half-hour block of exercise. But without that activity, blood sugar levels and blood pressure keep rising, steadily damaging the inside of the arteries (动脉) and increasing the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other serious diseases. In essence, fundamental changes in biology occur if you sit for too long.

But wait, you’re a runner. You needn’t worry about the harm of a sedentary lifestyle because you exercise regularly, right? Well, not so fast. Recent studies show that people spend an average of 64 hours a week sitting, whether or not they exercise 150 minutes a week as recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). Regular exercisers, furthermore, are found to be about 30 percent less active on days when they exercise. Overall, most people simply aren’t exercising or moving around enough to counteract all the harm that can result from sitting nine hours or more a day.

Scared straight out of your chair? Good. The remedy is as simple as standing up and taking activity breaks.

【推荐1】Moving to a foreign country is an amazing, life-changing experience. It’s a chance to meet new people, put yourself in a different culture and possibly learn another language. However, before such an adventure, there are some practical decisions that need to be made. One such decision is choosing where to live.

Will you stay in your own apartment where you can have your own space and privacy? Will you share a flat with other young foreigners who are in a similar position to you? Or will you choose to live with a host family? For me, choosing to live with a French family was the best choice I made, and here is why.

Firstly, a family can show you around the city or town and help you settle in, stopping you from feeling lonely. When you’re in a new environment with people that you don’t know and who are speaking a language you’re still not fluent in, you might feel lost, tired and homesick—I know I did. However, my host family were wonderful and welcoming; they showed me which buses to take to get to work, cooked dinner for me, and took me with them on trips to the beach, the theatre and even a bullfight（斗牛表演）. These were great chances to experience French culture and build relationships.

Above all, living with French people has helped me improve my language skills. Being constantly exposed to French conversations has allowed me to learn new phrases, widen my vocabulary and even improve my accent. My host family are happy to answer my questions and correct me when I say things wrong.

Finally, the experience of living abroad is one that you will remember forever, and perhaps the friendships—like the memories—will also last. I hope to remain in contact with my host family long after I leave France because when I was away from my friends and loved ones, they welcomed me and made me part of their family.

【推荐2】How important is fish farming? Very. Although it's an ancient business, the rise of aquaculture has been one of the biggest revolutions in food supply over the past half century.

Aquaculture has made fish more affordable for consumers around the world, popularizing the consumption of what used to be expensive, and easing the pressure on hard-pressed wild stocks. Aquaculture also has many clear environmental benefits: compared with other ways of growing animal protein, it uses little or no land, and has low greenhouse emissions. And while the world has traditionally had a bad record of regulating wild fishing, fish farming generally occurs within the boundaries of governments, meaning it should, in theory, be much easier to ensure that good practices are upheld.

Crowding large numbers of fish into limited spaces means that waste products, including waste, uneaten food and dead fish, are poured into the surrounding waters, polluting them. Besides, the pesticides and drugs used to treat conditions that upset fish in concentrated numbers can also affect local wildlife. Many farmed fish are fed on other fish, so the industry also puts pressure on wild stocks：about a fifth of all caught fish, some 18 million tonnes, is used for fish oil and fishmeal production. There is also the problem of fish escaping, with potentially dangerous effects on surrounding ecosystems.

In 2018 the Scottish Parliament’s environment committee published a report into the fish farming industry’s environmental effects, stating that key problems simply hadn’t been tackled, and that the Scottish government’s plan to double salmon output by 2030 could cause“irrecoverable damage”to ecosystems. Since then, protections have been toughened. There is now more pressure from regulators to situate farms in remote, deep-water locations. Meanwhile, though, catches of Scottish wild salmon have fallen to their lowest level since records began in 1952. “There are good reasons for fish farming and real dangers to it as well. ”concludes an official. “The question is how to make it work. ”

【推荐3】St Andrews & the Fishing Villages of Fife

An ancient university, breathtaking medieval ruins, and old-fashioned coastal villages: explore all this and more on our adventure through Fife.

• Places you’ll explore

Forth Bridge - An incredible engineering achievement, and a UNESCO World Heritage sight.

Anstruther - Be charmed by the cobbled lanes and quaint(古色古香的)buildings of this traditional fishing village.

St Andrews Cathedral - This ruined cathedral was once one of Scotland’s most splendid buildings.

St Andrews Old Town - Enjoy the 1,000 years of history as you explore the old streets and ancient castle.

The Old Course - Golf was so popular in Scotland, but it was banned in the 15th century. And nowhere was it more popular than in St Andrews, the Home of Golf.

Historic Village of Falkland - This quaint town in the Kingdom of Fife boasts a beautiful palace and a peaceful setting.

• Tour detail

Departs 09:30 - Rabbie’s Cafe Bar, Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG

Returns 18:00 approx

• Prices

• Adult price: £45 per person

• Discount price: £40 per person (Seniors over 60 and children between 5 and 15; unfortunately, we don’t allow children under 5 years old on the tour)

• Important information

• Pack your waterproof clothing and walking shoes

• Falkland Palace is closed from November to Easter

• Tour inclusions

• Transport in a 16 seat Mercedes mini-coach

• Air conditioning as standard

• The stories and services of a Rabbie’s driver-guide

• Tour exclusions

• Entry fees to visitor attractions

• Customer reviews

A great day

Howard Carroll, posted on 18/05/2017

A great day out. Fully recommend the tour. Gillian and Eric were not only friendly but very knowledgeable.

Excellent tour guide

M W Grzelak, posted on 15/02/2017

First time but not my last. Grant was an excellent and intelligent guide who cherishes his Scottish heritage. The tour offered the best venues (场地) and just enough time to experience them.