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【推荐3】They say there is power in names and nowhere is that truer than China, where Chinese characters often carry a deep significance. For any brand planning to enter the Chinese market, choosing the right Chinese name is usually a top priority.

In choosing their Chinese name, brands should consider something that is memorable, easy to pronounce and with no negative meaning in the multiple Chinese dialects, and that conveys a sense of the brand’s DNA. This can be a challenge for luxury fashion houses, as their name often comes with its own heritage(传统) and meaning. However, they also have the advantage that they may enjoy a certain degree of brand recognition in China.

Brands have three main options when it comes to choosing a Chinese name. The majority choose a simple transliteration(音译), choosing a series of characters with sounds that are closely similar to the pronunciation of the brand’s original name. For example, Dior’s Chinese name is“迪奥”(di’ao).The two characters, while meaningless in combination, respectively mean “to enlighten” and “mysterious”, a smart choice for this brand.

Since more and more Chinese people are travelling abroad and they tend to pick up a short form, for instance, LV for Louis Vuitton, brands might wonder whether it is even necessary to spend considerable time and energy coming up with an official Chinese name. Nevertheless, most marketers still advise that brands select an official Chinese name. “Although brands only use their English name on their shop front, they still need a Chinese name, as their customers, sales assistants and floor managers usually won’t use the English name,” argues Louis Houdart, CEO of China-based branding agency Creative Capital.

Houdart adds that it is important for brands to establish and popularize their Chinese name, otherwise they might run the risk of customers’ coming up with their own understanding and pronunciation, messing their brand’s image and leaving it open to copyright infringement(侵权).

【推荐1】Researchers hope brain implants (植入物) will one day help people who have lost the ability to speak, to get their voice back and maybe even to sing. Now, for the first time, scientists have demonstrated that the brain’s electrical activity can be interpreted and used to reconstruct music.

A study published in PLOSBiology analyzed data from 29 people who already had brain implants that monitored them for epileptic seizures (癫痫). As the participants listened to Pink Floyd’s song “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1,” a song which is “very layered,” and therefore is interesting to analyze, their implanted electrodes (电极) obtained electrical activity in several brain regions related to musical elements such as tone, rhythm, harmony and lyrics. The researchers then ran these data through an AI model to partially reconstruct what participants heard. The reconstructed melody was roughly complete, and the lyrics were unclear but recognizable if one knew what to listen for.

Beyond music, the results may be most useful for translating brain signals into human speech, which itself contains melodic differences, including tempo, stress, accents and intonation. These subtle differences “carry meaning that we can’t communicate with words alone,” Bellier says. The researchers hope their new model will improve brain-computer interfaces, devices that turn brain activity into synthesized (合成的) speech for those who can no longer speak on their own. “Instead of robotically saying, ‘I Love. You,’ you can yell, ‘I love you!” says the study’s senior author, Robert T. Knight, a cognitive neuroscientist.

The current model relies on surgically implanted electrodes. But as brain-recording techniques improve, it may be possible to gather such data with more sensitive electrodes attached to the outside of the scalp (头皮). For now the researchers hope to generate crisper musical playback by packing the electrodes closer together on the brain’s surface, enabling an even more detailed look at the electrical symphony the organ produces. “Today we reconstructed a song,” Knight says. “Maybe tomorrow we can reconstruct the entire Pink Floyd album.”

【推荐3】It s an all too common story: A young child walks off during a party and falls into a backyard pool. No one notices she’s missing——until it’s too late. When Grayson Barron learned of such a tragedy in a friend’s neighborhood, the 18-year-old immediately jumped into problem-solving mode. The new pool alarm system he’s just developed sends out several types of warnings when someone or something splashes into an unguarded pool.

Grayson calls his floating system “The Buoy (浮标)”. The idea is to turn it on when no one is using the pool. A large splash will trigger its built-in sensors to send out a series of alerts——a flashing light, an alarm that sounds like a loud doorbell and a text to the owner’s mobile phone. You could be on the other side of the world and know if somebody has just jumped in your pool.

Grayson’s is not the first pool alarm, but the teen says others all have drawbacks. Some are very costly. Other floating alarms can become stuck in corners of a pool or lose balance. He wanted a low-cost option that was reliable (可靠的). Grayson 3-D printed the main part of his device, then attached sensors. They detect its direction and movements. He then equipped the device with a light, a speaker and a wireless network that can send texts. A battery, which is hooked up to solar panels, keeps the system charged for months.

While hard to design, the new system “is so easy to use,” says Grayson. “All I do is turn it on and throw it into a pool.” After that, he says, it just “does its thing”.

【推荐2】Approximately half of working-age Americans are struggling to pay for health care expenses, according to a new analysis, which also found around 1 in 3 individuals are struggling with some form of health care debt.

Findings released Thursday from the first-ever Health Care Affordability Survey from the Commonwealth Fund show 51% of adults between 19 and 64 years old said it was either very or somewhat difficult for them and their family to afford their health care costs, including 43% of people who reported having employer-based health insurance and 57% who had health insurance through a marketplace or individual plan.

About half of working-age adults with Medicare coverage and 45% of those insured under Medicaid (医疗补助) also reported having difficulty paying health care costs. Notably, 65% of working-age adults also said price inflation for other goods and services in the past year had affected their or their family’s ability to afford health care.

The survey, concerning a nationally representative sample of nearly 7,900 people 19 and older in the U. S., was conducted from mid-April through July of this year. It follows a separate analysis from research organization KFF that showed both health insurance costs for employer-sponsored plans and worker contributions to those plans ticked up in 2023.

The newly published analysis found that 38% of respondents cited affordability as the reason they or a family member skipped or delayed getting needed health care services or filling prescription medication in the past 12 months, including 29% of people with employer-based coverage, 37% who were covered by individual and marketplace health plans, 42% who had Medicare and 39% who were covered by Medicaid.

More than 6 in 10 people who lacked any type of health insurance said they or a family member delayed or skipped care because they couldn’t afford it. And among all those who reported skipping or delaying care, 57% said a health problem got worse as a result.

【推荐3】Conifers (针叶树) are generally better than broad-leaved trees at purifying air from pollutants. But deciduous (落叶的) trees may be better at taking in particle-bound pollution. A new study led by the University of Gothenburg shows that the best trees for air purification depend on the type of pollutants involved.

Trees and other greener in cities provide many benefits that are important for the well-being of residents. Leaves and needled on trees filter air pollutants and reduce exposure to poisonous substance in the air. But which trees purify the air most effectively? Researchers from the University of Gothenburg have collected leaves and needle from eleven different trees growing in the same place in the Gothenburg Botanical Garden (GBG) to analyse which cub-stances they have absorbed.

“This tree collection provided a unique opportunity to test many different species of trees with similar environmental conditions and exposure to air pollutants,” said Jenny Klingberg, a researcher of the GBG

A total of 32 different pollutants were analysed, some of which are bound to articles of various sizes. Others are gaseous. This project has focused on paths (多环芳烃). In cities, traffic is the biggest source of these pollutants, which are released due to incomplete burning in engines.

“Our analysis show that different species of trees have different abilities to absorb air pollutants. Conifers generally absorb morn gaseous paths than broad-leaved trees. Another advantage of conifers is that they also act as air purifies in winter, when air pollution is usually at its highest,” said Jenny Klingberg.

“This study contributes to improving our understanding of the ability of trees to clean the air and which species are best at absorbing air pollutants,” said Jenny Klingberg. This known-edge is important for urban planning when designing sustainable cities. While trees and green-era can contribute to better air quality in cities, at the end of the day, the most important measure is to reduce emissions.