Scientific American 60 Second Science听抄（有音频文件）

kelediguoUID: 149939

Thanks! :)

kelediguoUID: 149939

2007-8-16

How is your cat feeling these days? Irritable? Losing weight? Not feeling a nip? He may be one of the many American house cats with thyroid disease. For 30 years, the epidemic has remained a mystery, but a study published this week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology provides a connection between elevated levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs, and feline hyperthyroidism. Cats love scratching soft things. This is precisely where the toxic PBDEs reside as flame-retardants used to protect carpeting, furniture and fabrics. The toxicologists confirmed that cats with hyperthyroidism had PBDE levels 3 times higher than healthy cats. Sadly the toxins are also found in cats’ beloved fishy food. So cats that enjoy juicy salmon niblets may be exposed to PBDE levels that are 12 times as high as in dry food. Cats and humans are the only mammals that have big problems of hyperthyroidism. So a sick cat might act as sort of a canary in the coal mine for us humans, giving the initial alert that your home may be contaminated.

zhenzhen_163UID: 196150

Another perfect (or almost) script from you.  :handshake

Not feeling a nip? or not feeling the nip? What do you think it means?

"Canary in a coal mine" seems to be more idiomatic but I'm not 100% sure.

kelediguoUID: 149939

Not feeling a nip? or not feeling the nip? What do you think it means?

I think "not feeling a nip" means "not having a good appetite, not wanting to eat something". Actually, I cannot see the difference between "not feeling a nip" and "not feeling the nip". Would you please explain it to me? :handshake

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

Cat Disease Linked To Flame Retardants In Furniture And To Pet FoodScience Daily — A mysterious epidemic of thyroid disease among pet cats in the United States may be linked to exposure to dust shed from flame retardants in household carpeting, furniture, fabrics and pet food, scientists are reporting in a new study.

Cats ingest large amounts of PBDE-laden house dust that the researchers believe comes from consumer household products. (Credit: iStockphoto/Kristian Sekulic)
Janice A. Dye, DVM, Ph.D., at the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and colleagues from there as well as Indiana University and the University of Georgia, report evidence linking the disease to exposure to environmental contaminants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which the researchers found to be elevated in blood samples of hyperthyroid cats. Their findings were based on analysis of blood samples from 23 pet cats, 11 of which had the disease, termed feline hyperthyroidism (FH). PBDE levels in the hyperthyroid cats were three times as high as those in younger, non-hyperthyroid cats.
Concerns about the possible health effects of PDBEs arose in the late 1990s, and studies have reported that PDBEs cause liver and nerve toxicity in animals. FH is one of the most common and deadly diseases in older cats, and indoor pets are thought to be most at-risk. For starters, cats ingest large amounts of PBDE-laden house dust that the researchers believe comes from consumer household products.
Dye, a toxicologist, began by hypothesizing that prolonged contact with certain polyurethane foams and components of carpet padding, furniture and mattresses would pose the greatest hazard for developing FH. In addition, the researchers suspected that diet might be another risk factor for developing FH. To see if a link existed, they analyzed PBDE content in several cat food brands.
Their analysis found that PBDE content of canned fish/seafood flavors, such as salmon and whitefish, was higher than dry or non-seafood canned items. Based on the analysis, they estimate that diets based on canned food could have PBDE levels 12 times as high as dry-food diets. The researchers indicate that pet cats might be receiving as much as 100 times greater dietary PBDE exposure than American adults.
With their meticulous grooming behavior, cats may ingest large amounts of dust that collect on their fur. "Our results showed that cats are being consistently exposed to PBDEs," Dye said. "Because they are endocrine-disrupting agents, cats may well be at increased risk for developing thyroid effects."
The danger of contracting feline hyperthyroidism might be greater in America, where people have the highest reported PBDE levels worldwide, the study said. Also, by the late 1990s, North America accounted for almost half of the global demand for PBDEs from commercial materials like furniture or upholstery, the report added.
The epidemic of hyperthyroidism in cats began almost 30 years ago, at the same time when PBDEs were introduced into household materials as a fire-prevention measure. Although the disease was first discovered in the U.S., it has since been diagnosed in Canada, Australia, Japan and many parts of Europe. Hyperthyroid disorders have also increased in humans--former President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush have the disorder, and even Millie, their Springer Spaniel, had contracted it.
Symptoms of the syndrome in cats include weight loss, an increase in appetite, hair loss and irritability. Cats and humans are the only mammals with high incidences of hyperthyroidism, Dye said. The study concludes that hyperthyroid cats could serve as modern-day versions of the canaries in the cage that alerted coal miners to poisonous gas.
"While the link between hyperthyroidism in cats and their elevated PBDE levels requires additional confirmation, it is clear that house cats may be able to serve as sentinels for indoor exposure to PBDEs for humans who share their houses," said Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., a co-author of the study. No link between human hyperthyrodism and PBDE exposure has been established, Birnbaum noted, adding that some ongoing studies do suggest such a connection. Although several states have banned use of certain PBDEs in commercial products, there are no regulations limiting PBDE content in foods, according to Birnbaum.
The study is scheduled for publication the Aug. 15 online issue of Environmental Science & Technology, a journal from the American Chemical Society.

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

How is your cat feeling these days? Irritable? Losing weight? Not feeling a nip? He may be one of many American house cats with thyroid disease. For thirty years, the epidemic has remained a mystery, but a study published this week in the journal of Environmental Sciences and Technology provides a connection between elevated level of polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs and feline hyperthyroidism. Cats love to scratch soft things. That is precisely where toxic PBDEs reside as flame-retardants used to protect carpeting and furniture and fabrics. The Toxicologists confirmed that cats with hyperthyroid had PBDE level three times higher than healthy cats. Sadly the toxins are also found in cats’ beloved fishy food. So cats that enjoy juicy salmon niblets may be exposed to PBDE level that is 12 times as high as in dry food. Cats and human are the only mammals that have big problems of hyperthyroidism. So a sick cat might act as sort of a canary in the coal mine for us human. Give the initial alert that your home may be contaminated.

liucirongUID: 2215759

August 16, 2007: 60-Second Science Thyroid Disease Hits Cats Exposed to Fire-Retardants

Flame-retardant polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) may be behind a widespread disease of cats. Steve Mirsky reports.

How is your cat feeling these days? **dable?, losing weight, not feeling in the nab?. He may be one of the many American house cats with thyroid disease. For 30 years the acdamic(epidemic) has remained mystery, but the study published this weekend in the Journal Environment Science and Technology provides a connection between elevated levers of polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDE and feline hyperthyroidism. Cats love scratching soft things—this is precisely where the toxic PBDE reside [riˈzaid]. As flame-retardants used to produce(protect) carpeting, furniture, and fabrics. The toxicologist confirmed that cats with hyperthyroidism have PBDE levers 3 times higher than healthy cats. Sadly, the toxic(toxins) are also found in cats’ beloved fishy food. So cats that enjoy juicy salmon liberates? may be exposed to PBDE levers that 12 times as high as dry food. Cats and humans are the only mammals that have big problems of hyperthyroidism, so a sick cat might act as a sort of ** in a coal mine for as(us) humans, giving an initial alert that your home may be contaminated.
















Cat thyroid disease linked to chemicals
EPA scientists zero in on flame retardants in some home products and pet food. There is concern about humans.
By Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 16, 2007

An epidemic of thyroid disease among pet cats could be caused by toxic flame retardants that are widely found in household dust and some pet food, government scientists reported Wednesday.

The often-lethal disease was rare in cats until the 1980s, when it began appearing widely, particularly in California cats. That was at the same time industry started using large volumes of brominated flame retardants in consumer products, including furniture cushions, electronics, mattresses and carpet padding.

Scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency noted a possible connection between hyperthyroidism and flame retardants. The chemicals -- known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs -- mimic thyroid hormones, so experts have theorized that high exposure in cats could cause overactive thyroids.

Cats that remain indoors and eat fish-flavored canned food were found to be the most highly contaminated.

"We know there is an association between indoor living for cats and hyperthyroidism," said Linda Birnbaum, a senior author of the study and the EPA's director of experimental toxicology. "Our paper does show cats are highly exposed and hyperthyroidism may be due to the high PBDEs. More studies are needed to fully determine this."

A major unanswered question is whether cats are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, signaling health dangers for their owners. Cats and human beings are the only mammals with a high rate of hyperthyroidism.

So far, no link has been established between human endocrine disorders and exposure to flame retardants. However, "there is growing concern," the scientists wrote.

"It is clear that house cats may be able to serve as sentinels for indoor exposure to PBDEs for humans who share their houses," said Birnbaum, one of the world's leading experts on hormone-altering chemicals.

Brominated flame retardants are ubiquitous outdoors and inside homes. The chemicals have been building up in people and wildlife over the last two decades, particularly in the United States, where human concentrations have doubled every few years.

People in the United States have the highest PBDE levels in humans worldwide, but U.S. cats are even more exposed -- some with levels 100 times greater, according to the study.

Twenty-three cats were tested in the EPA's study, including 11 with hyperthyroidism. The researchers found that the cats with hyperthyroidism had substantially higher levels of a PBDE compound. Symptoms of the disease, which is a leading cause of cat death, include weight loss, rapid heartbeat and irritability.

"Our results demonstrated that cats are being consistently exposed to PBDEs, an endocrine-disrupting environmental contaminant," the research team, led by Janice Dye and Marta Venier of the EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory in North Carolina, wrote in their study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Because of this exposure, "cats may be at increased risk for developing thyroid hyperplastic changes."

Myrto Petreas, branch chief of environmental chemistry at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, said that the cat study was small but that it reaffirmed health concerns not only for cats but humans too, "especially children, anyone exposed to high levels."

"PBDEs are in consumer products, so we get exposed while we use the products in homes and during the lifetime of the products. We inhale or ingest dust, mostly from hand-to-mouth transfer," said Petreas, who did not participate in the study.

The risk to cats that eat dry food and live in homes with average contamination is minimal, the study said, while "at the other extreme, maximal PBDE exposure" occurs in cats that eat fish-flavored canned food and live in houses with highly contaminated dust.

Cats that eat canned food containing whitefish, salmon and other seafood are exposed to PBDE levels up to 12 times higher than cats that eat dry food, and five times more than cats that eat poultry or beef canned foods, the study said. The chemicals build up in oceans and other water bodies and magnify in food chains.

However, much of the exposure -- for cats as well as people -- comes from dust, not food.

Cats, while sleeping, often come in direct and prolonged contact with upholstery, carpeting and mattress materials that contain flame retardants. In addition, they often sit on electronic equipment.

"Because of their meticulous grooming behavior, cats would effectively ingest any volatilized PBDEs or PBDE-laden dust that deposited on their fur during such activities," the scientists wrote.

Scientists say toddlers who crawl on floors and put objects in their mouths also can be highly exposed to the chemical-tainted dust, which has been found in most U.S. homes.

In people and cats with the highest levels, Petreas said, "it's explained not by diet, but more contact with contaminated sofas, computers and other consumer products."

Two pervasive PBDEs, used mostly in foam cushions, mattresses and carpet padding, have been banned in the United States since 2004. The ban was spurred by a California law.

However, other brominated flame retardants remain in widespread use.

In June, the California Assembly passed AB 706, written by Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), which would prohibit brominated and chlorinated flame retardants in furniture and bedding. The bill, which now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee, does not ban their use in electronics.

California has the nation's strictest fire-retardant standards for furnishings, so PBDE exposure is generally higher than elsewhere. The cat epidemic showed up first in California and the Great Lakes region -- the areas with the highest environmental levels of the chemicals.

zhenzhen_163UID: 196150

When you “feel a nip” in the air, it means it is cold. But I don’t think you can say “feel a nip” to indicate the loss of appetite, although appetite is a very good guess in top-down. Good for you on this guess. You are a good top-down listener.

I think she was talking about catnips. She made up the phrase just to be cute. Instead of saying “feeling the catnip”, she made it short and said “feeling the nip”. Cats go crazy when you give them catnip toys. They would play with them, toss them, bite them, and feel them for a long time. So if a cat loses interest in the catnip, something is seriously wrong. (Catnip is a plant whose smell makes cats go wild. Google “catnip toys” and you will find many companies offering this pet product.)

:)

[ 本帖最后由 zhenzhen_163 于 2007-8-17 21:50 编辑 ]

zhenzhen_163UID: 196150

:handshake

Who has the correct transcripts?

There are quite a few contributors here that offer good scripts. But for those of you who do not have much time and need to have an accurate transcript right away, let me say kelediguo’s posts are generally of the highest quality. If you had followed his posts carefully as I have for the past several months, you would have arrived at the same conclusion. So if you are just validating your understanding of the listenings, check out his posts.

However, if you have more time to browse around, other people’s posts are interesting reading as well.

I am definitely not discouraging people from posting their own scripts here. Everyone’s participation makes this thread a better place. What we need more though is discussion on interesting words and phrases. I suppose many people are wondering what the recordings are really saying even as they are reading the full transcript. Don’t be embarrassed to ask questions. Acquiring new vocabulary and knowledge is a very important part of the listening practice.

zhenzhen_163UID: 196150

Part II of a conversation on listening practice.

Questions:

… But it gave a chance to study the method you mentioned before. I have some puzzled questions want to ask you.
1、 Before listening, I should read the related articles first to get all the key words and concepts.
Does this mean after I finish this step, then I begin to carry out the “abc” method? ---Before listening, firstly I find the text to read, and then I listen?
2、 I am still puzzled that if there is no questions after listening ,how do I evaluate my understanding?
3、 On one hand, I felt it is difficult for me to understand the listening material for the first time, because there are some words I didn’t know and the speed was so fast, I didn’t have time to react. From this point on, isn’t that useful to do so-called“听抄”,because it makes me more familiar with vocabularies?
On the other hand, I didn’t know what I should note when listening? To be more exactly is that I felt I didn’t have time to note. If I did that, I couldn’t catch the meaning because I should try my best to guess those vocabularies which I thought was important in this passage.  

My reply:

Let me answer your 3 questions first:

1.                  Yes. Do pre-listening activities. Find relevant materials and read them.
2.                  After you have finished listening, check your understanding with the transcript. Kelediguo generally provides a very accurate script. You can see where you missed or misunderstood.
3.                  If you have done pre-listening properly, you will know a lot of the key words already. There will not be as many strange words to bother you as you begin to listen to the recording. You can concentrate on using your top-down skills.

After you are done with checking your understanding with a transcript, you can spend some time trying to memorize new words and phrases. Everyone has their own way of learning new vocabulary. If you must use “听抄” to learn the new words, fine, do it. I personally find dictionary work on etymology and online research on related articles a much more effective way of learning.

You can also replay the recording and try to emulate the announcer. See if you can read the text as well as he or she. Essentially, you are using the same material for speaking practice.

As far as note-taking is concerned, if it distracts you too much and makes it too hard for you to follow the speaker, stop taking notes. The number one priority in listening is to understand. You should concentrate on improving your listening ability first. When your listening ability has reached a certain level, note-taking will stop causing trouble for you. That is when you practice taking notes.

[ 本帖最后由 zhenzhen_163 于 2007-8-17 18:12 编辑 ]

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

A MAN walks into a bar: "Ouch!" You might not find it funny, but at least you got the joke. That's more than can be said for computers, which, despite radical advances in artificial intelligence, remain notably devoid of a funny bone.
Previously AI researchers have tended not to try mimicking humour, largely because the human sense of humour is so subjective and complex, making it difficult to program.
Now Julia Taylor and Lawrence Mazlack of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio have built a computer program or "bot" that is able to get a specific type of joke - one whose crux is a simple pun. They say this budding cyber wit could lend a sense of humour to physical robots acting as human companions or helpers, which will need to be able to spot jokes if they are to be accepted and not just annoy people. The bot is also teasing apart why some people laugh at a joke, such as the one above, when most just groan.
To teach the program to spot jokes, the researchers first gave it a database of words, extracted from a children's dictionary to keep things simple, and then supplied examples of how words can be related to one another in different ways to create different meanings. When presented with a new passage, the program uses that knowledge to work out how those new words relate to each other and what they likely mean. When it finds a word that doesn't seem to fit with its surroundings, it searches a digital pronunciation guide for similar-sounding words. If any of those words fits in better with the rest of the sentence, it flags the passage as a joke. The result is a bot that "gets" jokes that turn on a simple pun.
Taylor presented the bot at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence conference in Vancouver, Canada, last week but stresses that it does still miss some puns. And of course, there are many jokes that aren't based on puns, which the bot doesn't get (see "Robot humour"). Taylor notes that past experiences are often the key to why some people find things hilarious when others don't. "If you've been in a car accident, you probably won't find a joke about a car accident funny," she says. She is now working to personalise the bot's sense of humour by flagging certain links between words as either funny or not, depending on the experiences of people it might converse with.
Meanwhile Rada Mihalcea and colleagues at the University of North Texas in Denton have built a different kind of humour-spotting bot. Instead of working out why a sentence might be funny, it learns the frequencies of words that are found in jokes, and uses that to identify humour. "We got a lot of 'can't', 'don't', 'drunk' and 'poor'," Mihalcea says. "People like laughing about bad things."

• 01 August 2007
• NewScientist.com news service
• Michael Reilly

[ 本帖最后由 kevinliu6883 于 2007-8-18 03:33 编辑 ]

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

Age hit one button two researchers try to figure out how get robots to understand jokes. Say it is funny, because it is true. Two university synthetic computer scientists showed off their new software program that is designed to recognize jokes at a meeting of American Association for Artificial Intelligence, which took place in Canada, which is kind of funny. The work is related to the field of sociable computing which trys to make communication between people and computers more natural. The researcher meet net humor program still need a lot of work. The only joke currently can get depend on simple word play. For example, here is a joke that really gets a rise that is on testing computer. A mother said to her son: “Johnny you have been working a lot on garden this summer”, to which the boy replies: “I know, my teacher told me a wedlock”. Wedlock. Clearly, like a garden, the program still contains a lot of bugs, but some day you may have a helper robot that says: “Boy, am I hungry? I have had a Gigabit all day”. Gaggle bit all day. Just thing on, hello.

kelediguoUID: 149939

2007-8-17

Did you hear the one about two researchers who try to figure out how to get robots to understand jokes? See it’s funny because it’s true. Two University of Cincinnati computer scientists showed off their new software program that’s designed to recognize jokes at the meeting of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence which took place in Canada, which is kind of funny. The work is related to the field of sociable computing which tries to make communications between people and computers more natural. Researchers admit that their humor program still needs a lot of work. The only jokes it currently can get depend on simple wordplay. For example, here is a joke that really got a rise out of their test computer. A mother says to her son: “Johnny, you’ve been working in the garden a lot this summer.” To which the boy replies: “I know, my teacher told me to weed a lot.” Weed a lot? Clearly, like the garden the program still has a lot of bugs. But someday, you might have a helper robot that says: “Boy, am I hungry? I haven’t had a gigabyte all day.” Gigabyte all day! Is this thing on? Hello?

kelediguoUID: 149939

原帖由 zhenzhen_163 于 2007-8-17 14:57 发表
When you “feel a nip” in the air, it means it is cold. But I don’t think you can say “feel a nip” to indicate the loss of appetite, although appetite is a very good guess in top-down. Good f ...

Thanks a million! :handshake

linkunkun7UID: 2196646

gigabyte all day...是不是要谐音giggle by all day来搞笑啊？
我开始直接就听成这个了。。。
前一个笑话也不懂，老师在骂他吗？