【推荐2】Running on the beach can certainly be a good thing. It’s definitely different from running on the pavement, a track or trails with soft surfaces.

For starters, sand can be a challenge because it has an uneven surface and constantly shifts under your feet. As you push off, you’re going to lose some of your energy as the sand moves. So, you’re not going to be able to push yourself forward as you are on a track or pavement. But this unevenness has an upside: It gives your body an extra workout, forcing you to engage muscles that don’t get as much use during runs on firm surfaces. For instance, your feet, ankles, lower back and the muscles around your hips might feel more painful and more tired than usual after a beach run just because the surface is constantly moving and changing step by step.

You also might feel painful afterward because beaches tend to slope（倾斜）downward, toward the water. If you’re going for a long run on the beach, you might notice that one side of your body — including your ankle, leg or knee — might feel more painful because you’re putting more pressure on it due to the slope.

Some beach runners tend to run barefoot. However, if you’re not used to barefoot running, start slowly and don’t run long distances at first. That’s because running barefoot uses different muscles compared with running with shoes, and it’s important to strengthen these muscles and adapt your feet. Moreover, because sand can be rough, you can get blisters（疱）pretty easily from running barefoot.

Despite these challenges, running on sand can be a smart choice for athletes because running on it can decrease the impact on their body during high-intensity workouts. This could potentially lead to reduced muscle damage and less pain. Women had less myoglobin（肌红蛋白） — a protein that can be a sign of muscle pain — in their blood after running on sand than they did after running on grass. This suggests running on softer ground surfaces, such as sand, may reduce muscle damage.

【推荐1】Sleeping in on Saturday after a few weeks of too little shuteye may feel refreshing, but it can give a false sense of security.

New research shows long-term sleep loss cannot be cured that easily.

Scientists researched the effects of short-and long-term sleep loss and found that those who suffer long-term sleep loss may function normally soon after waking up, but experience steadily slower reaction times as the day goes by, even if they had tried to catch up the previous night.

The research has important safety significances in an increasingly busy society, not just for shift-workers but for the roughly one in six Americans who regularly get six hours or less of sleep a night.

“We know that staying awake 24 hours without sleep will affect your performance to do all sorts of things, and this effect equals to drinking too much when driving,” said lead researcher Dr. Daniel Cohen of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. But when those who suffer long-term sleep loss become all-nighters, “the harm is increased ten times,” Cohen said.

The National Institutes of Health says adults need seven hours to nine hours of sleep for good health. Regularly getting too little sleep increases the risk of health problems, including memory impairment(受损) and a weakened immune system.

More immediately, too little sleep affects reaction times; sleepiness is to blame for car crashes and other accidents.

It has critically important complicated and unexpected results for anyone who works “crazy hours” and thinks they are performing fine with a few hours of weeknight sleep, said Harris, director at New York’s Montefiore Medical Center. “Don’t think you can just bank up your sleep on the weekend, because it doesn’t work that way,” he warned.

【推荐2】Given that October is Mental Health Month, how can we manage our mental health and boost our mood as our third year with the COVID-19 pandemic draws to a close? According to Dr Andrew Thompson, a registered doctor at Instantscripts, even some small, 15-minute acts can play a huge role in improving your mental well-being at a time like this.

1. Reach out to a support network

This network can be made up of friends, family, mental health professionals — anyone you trust who can help support you during this time. Taking 15 minutes out of your day for a quick phone call to a friend can really boost your mood and help reduce those feelings of isolation for a while.

Try setting up a picnic with friends to enjoy some social time with the added bonus of getting outside.

2. Set up a daily schedule/routine

It’s easy to get glued to your work computer during the day, and stay up all hours of the night streaming movies and TV during lockdown. But all of that leads to you getting less sleep and that can contribute to poor mental health. Instead of accidentally overscheduling, take 15 minutes to establish a clear routine each day that allows for plenty of downtime and rest. That means switching off your laptop whenever you finish work, and prioritizing your sleep every night.

Try setting up a Google Calendar to make keeping track of your day easier.

3. Take advantage of telehealth services

One of the big benefits of the pandemic is that many support services are now accessible remotely, meaning you can get help without having to leave home.

Spending just 15 minutes talking through your mental health concerns with a professional can do you a world of good and get you started on the path to better mental well-being.

Try reaching out to services such as BeyondBlue (1300 22 4436), which offer 24/7 counseling and support.

4. Get active for 15 minutes

It can be so easy to give up on exercise when you’re struggling mentally, but studies have shown that moving your body really can improve your mood. Setting aside 15 minutes every day for exercise that you actually enjoy — whether it’s a walk, yoga, or a YouTube workout video — can give you a little hit of positive endorphins.

Try investing in a smartwatch like a FitBit Inspire 2 to keep you motivated, track your activity and remind you to keep moving.

【推荐3】Most new runners assume that the best way to improve is simply to run greater and greater distances. While it’s true that going farther and faster will improve your running skills, most coaches and trainers will advise some level of strength training as well. Focusing on your core is a common suggestion. A recent study seems to back this up. In the Journal of Biomechanics, researchers investigated a symptom that has long confused runners from beginners to experienced ones. A good number of runners, 14 percent to be exact, experience gradual lower back pain. The results of the new study seem to suggest that weak deep core muscles might be to blame. When these muscles aren’t strong enough, the study found, muscles on other areas of the body kick in to keep the runner up-right, eventually leading to back pain.

To understand the role that these muscles play, the researchers had eight volunteers with minimal running experience run along an indoor track. High-speed cameras and 3D motion detectors analyzed which muscles moved, and how much. Once they created a working computer model for each runner, the scientists imitated what would happen if certain deep muscles were weaker, or shut off completely. As it turns out, when a person can’t use their deep core muscles very well, their bodies still want (and need) to maintain a good running form, and uses surface muscles to do so.

What’s wrong with that? A muscle is a muscle, right? Not exactly. While the surface muscles are often targeted in workouts - they give you a six-pack (六块腹肌), after all - they are pretty useless when it comes to supporting your spine (脊柱). The deeper core muscles, which essentially lie beneath and can’t be seen from the outside, do all the heavy spinal lifting.

It’s important to note that even when you’ve made these muscles super strong, you won’t likely notice visible results. But they will probably help you run better and definitely help prevent potential back pain. Perhaps throwing a nice long plank (平板支撑) may work.

【推荐1】Cloud computing is set to change how people communicate,work and learn.But do you know it may also affect how you are hired for a job in the future?

It was once more common for people to find jobs advertised in the newspaper and then physically send applications to organizations. Now we primarily look online using job sites and apply for those jobs using cloud recruitment (招聘) services.

However, many new technologies, with the help of artificial intelligence(AI),are changing recruitment and the way we communicate with those holding the key to our dream jobs.

AI recruitment technology, such as ENGAGE Talent, is making it easier for recruiters to find potential employees by analyzing networking sites, like LinkedIn, for appropriate candidates. Primarily based on keywords, circumstance changes or current company performance, it can find candidates that haven’t clearly expressed an interest in changing jobs. Helen Poitevin, research director of IT research firm Gartner, stated, “This method of finding a passive candidate is the subject of a lot of investment and innovation today.”

Another innovation designed to help recruiters is AI assistants, similar to Apple’s Siri. CNN reported that graduates in the future might have to be overseen by a virtual assistant before getting a real interview for highly competitive graduate programs.

Companies such as Hire Vue have already developed software that plays prerecorded questions for candidates and analyzes their responses for different factors, including grammar, facial expressions and tones. It can then produce a result that defines the candidate’s qualities and recommends whether they should be considered.

The US graduate Sarah Ali has been through eight Hire Vue interviews. She told CNN, “Once I understood the AI interview process, I started thinking of it as a game and how I could optimize (优化) myself.”

This interview process has yet become the mainstream outside the US, but with the power of cloud computing, how long will it be before this tech is used worldwide?

【推荐2】Pre-school children who spend time together take on one another's personalities, a new research has found. The study shows that environment plays a key role in shaping people's personalities. While genetics still forms the central part of the human psyche （心理）, the research finds that personality traits （特征） are “contagious”（传染的） among children. “Our finding flies in the face of common assumptions that personality can't be changed,” said Dr. Jennifer Neal, co-author of the study.

The researchers studied the personalities and social networks of two pre-school classes fora full school year. One of the classes was a set of three-year-olds, and the other a set of four-year-olds. Children whose friends were hard-working or outgoing gradually took on these personality traits over time. Psychology expert Dr. Emily Dublin said kids are having a far bigger effect on each other than people may realize.

The new study is not the first to explore the contagious effects of personality traits. A 2015psychology study found that rudeness at work can be contagious as it travels from person to person “like a disease”. The study found that seeing a boss being rude to an employee was enough to cause people to be rude to those around them.

The researchers questioned 6,000 people on the social “climate” in their workplaces, which included offices, hotels and restaurants. They found 75 percent of those who took part said they had been treated rudely at least once in the past year. And the study also suggests that merely seeing other people being subjected to rudeness made it more likely that a person would treat their colleagues in the same way. Rudeness could include leaving someone off an invite toa company event, sending unkind emails, finding fault with others or failing to give praise.

Dr. Torkelson believes companies need to be more aware of the harm that rudeness in the workplace can do as it can damage the working environment. She said better training could help to fight against the problem.

【推荐3】Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany on December 7, 1770. His father, Johann Beethoven, also a musician, wanted his son to be a genius and encouraged him to develop his musical talents. Johann was so determined to make his son into a successful musician that he would pull poor Ludwig out of bed in the middle of the night and force the young boy to practice piano until the early hours of the morning.

At the age of eleven, Ludwig van Beethoven received professional piano and composition training in Bonn, and within ten years he became well known in Vienna for his imagination when creating music on the piano. He continued to live there and became very interested in the construction of pianos, which developed into the modern grand concert piano.

Things changed for Beethoven in 1798 when his hearing was becoming impaired. He composed the First Symphony and Septet Op 20 and performed them on April 2, 1800, and it won great success. However, his hearing continued to worsen, and he began to separate himself from his family and friends in order to avoid conversation.

After the performance of his Ninth Symphony, he turned around to see the warm applause of the audience and broke down in tears when he realized that he couldn’t hear them. Fighting against depression (抑郁) and a disorder, Beethoven continued to produce music by using special equipment that helped him to hear his symphonies. This equipment was a thin stick connected with the soundboard of his piano. Biting it, he was able to feel vibrations (震动) of sound. The music that he created during this period was filled with heroism and struggle, and went on to become his most famous compositions.