通勤學英語 15Mins Today

每日跟讀#556: Making the world hotter: India’s expected AC explosion

 

Ratan Kumar once battled India’s brutal summers with damp bedsheets and midnight baths. Now he is among millions upon millions of Indians using air conditioning. India’s AC market is expected to explode from 30 million to a billion units by 2050.

 

拉坦‧庫瑪爾曾藉由濕床單及半夜沖澡，來抵抗印度的酷暑。現在，他和數百萬印度人一樣，已開始使用冷氣機。2050年前，印度的冷氣機市場可望從3000萬台飆升至10億台。

 

India is already the number-three spewer of greenhouse gases, burning through 800 million tonnes of coal every year. But for Indians enduring scorching, even deadly, summers, the air conditioners are a godsend.

 

印度已是全球第3大溫室氣體排放國，每年燃燒8億噸煤炭。但對於忍受灼熱、甚至致命性夏季的印度人來說，冷氣機宛如上天恩賜。

 

Currently just five percent of Indian households are equipped with AC compared to 90 percent in the United States and 60 percent in China, up from virtually zero 30 years ago.

 

印度30年前幾乎沒有任何家庭裝設冷氣機，目前也只有5％；相較之下，美國的比率為90％，中國則是60％。

 

But India’s AC market is catching up fast, seeing double-digit growth in the last decade as incomes rise and electricity supplies become more reliable.

 

 

不過，隨著所得增加，以及電力供應更為可靠，印度的冷氣機市場快速成長，過去10年呈現兩位數的增長。

 

Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1272344

 

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每日跟讀#555: Future House: 3-D Printed and Ready to Fly

 

Homes you can print, transport on the back of a truck, even fly. Although they sound like the homes of science fiction, they might well be the real residences of the not-too-distant future.

 

Impelled by the pressures of climate change and population growth and shaped by the promise of technologies like 3-D printing, a revolution is brewing in the future of homebuilding around the globe — especially in cities.

 

房屋可以列印，裝在卡車後方運送，甚至還能空運。這些房屋聽來雖像是科幻小說中的家園，卻大有可能在不太遙遠的未來成為真正的住宅。

 

受到氣候變遷和人口增長壓力的驅使，加上如3-D列印等科技大有可為的發展，全球未來房屋的建築正在醞釀一場革命，尤其是在城市中。

 

As Earth's inhabitants, we need to rethink almost everything about the way we live, especially in coastal cities, because our world may be reshaped by rising oceans in ways we can't yet fully anticipate, according to Hans-Peter Plag, a professor and director of the Mitigation and Adaptation Research Institute at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

 

"We have built with the design principle that sea level is not going to change," he said. "This time has come to an end. On the other hand, living in the coastal zone is extremely important for us. So we need to find a way to live in the coastal zone, but we cannot assume that sea level is stable."

 

根據維吉尼亞州諾福克市老道明大學「調節和適應研究所」教授兼所長漢斯─彼得．普拉格的說法，身為地球居民，我們幾乎對人類生活方式的每一方面都須重新思考，特別是在沿海城市，因為我們的世界可能因海平面上升而重塑，且結果迄今仍難以完全預測。

 

他說：「我們之前建造房屋的設計原則，是海平面不會有所改變。 這個年代即將過去。另一方面，生活在沿海地帶對我們而言又非常重要。因此，我們需要找到在沿海地區居住的方法，但不能再假設海平面會穩定不變。」

 

Complicating the problem of a shrinking landmass is the prediction that the human population will grow to almost 10 billion people by 2050. And while many cities in the world will have to cope with extraordinary growth, others will have to prepare for shifting migration patterns that could leave them virtually deserted.

 

Today, 1 in 8 people live in urban slums, and by 2025, "it is likely that 1.6 billion will require adequate, affordable housing," according to the UN-Habitat's World Cities Report 2016.

 

讓陸塊縮減問題變得更棘手的是，預估到2050年時世界人口將成長到近100億人。雖然世上有許多城市將必須設法應付異常的人口增長，卻也另有些城市不得不為轉變中的人口遷移模式預作準備，這些城市最後可能淪為空城。

 

根據聯合國人居署發表的2016年世界城市狀況報告，現今有八分之一的人居住在城市的貧民窟，到2025年時「可能有16億人需要適切且可負擔得起的住宅」。

 

Behrokh Khoshnevis, professor of engineering at the University of Southern California and director of its Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT), is one of many innovators looking to ease the housing crises of the future. "Somehow, we have to address the issue of shelter, which is at the base of the pyramid of needs," Khoshnevis said.

 

He hopes his 3-D printing construction method, which he calls Contour Crafting, will create a way to build homes for a fraction of the current cost. While he can't do anything about the price of land, Khoshnevis said his technology would build a house in a day and cut down on the construction cost by 30 percent.

 

貝羅．柯什內維斯是南加大工程學教授兼「快速自動製造技術中心」主任，也是尋求緩解未來住屋危機的許多創新者之一。柯什內維斯說：「無論如何，我們必須解決住屋問題，它在需求金字塔的最底層。」

 

他把他的3-D列印施工方法稱為「輪廓製作」法，希望透過這種方法可以現今成本的一小部分建造房屋。雖然柯什內維斯對降低土地價格無能為力，他卻表示他的技術可在一天內建成一所房屋，且將會建造成本削減30％。

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/301455/web/

 

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每日跟讀#555: Future House: 3-D Printed and Ready to Fly

 

Homes you can print, transport on the back of a truck, even fly. Although they sound like the homes of science fiction, they might well be the real residences of the not-too-distant future.

 

Impelled by the pressures of climate change and population growth and shaped by the promise of technologies like 3-D printing, a revolution is brewing in the future of homebuilding around the globe — especially in cities.

 

房屋可以列印，裝在卡車後方運送，甚至還能空運。這些房屋聽來雖像是科幻小說中的家園，卻大有可能在不太遙遠的未來成為真正的住宅。

 

受到氣候變遷和人口增長壓力的驅使，加上如3-D列印等科技大有可為的發展，全球未來房屋的建築正在醞釀一場革命，尤其是在城市中。

 

As Earth's inhabitants, we need to rethink almost everything about the way we live, especially in coastal cities, because our world may be reshaped by rising oceans in ways we can't yet fully anticipate, according to Hans-Peter Plag, a professor and director of the Mitigation and Adaptation Research Institute at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

 

"We have built with the design principle that sea level is not going to change," he said. "This time has come to an end. On the other hand, living in the coastal zone is extremely important for us. So we need to find a way to live in the coastal zone, but we cannot assume that sea level is stable."

 

根據維吉尼亞州諾福克市老道明大學「調節和適應研究所」教授兼所長漢斯─彼得．普拉格的說法，身為地球居民，我們幾乎對人類生活方式的每一方面都須重新思考，特別是在沿海城市，因為我們的世界可能因海平面上升而重塑，且結果迄今仍難以完全預測。

 

他說：「我們之前建造房屋的設計原則，是海平面不會有所改變。 這個年代即將過去。另一方面，生活在沿海地帶對我們而言又非常重要。因此，我們需要找到在沿海地區居住的方法，但不能再假設海平面會穩定不變。」

 

Complicating the problem of a shrinking landmass is the prediction that the human population will grow to almost 10 billion people by 2050. And while many cities in the world will have to cope with extraordinary growth, others will have to prepare for shifting migration patterns that could leave them virtually deserted.

 

Today, 1 in 8 people live in urban slums, and by 2025, "it is likely that 1.6 billion will require adequate, affordable housing," according to the UN-Habitat's World Cities Report 2016.

 

讓陸塊縮減問題變得更棘手的是，預估到2050年時世界人口將成長到近100億人。雖然世上有許多城市將必須設法應付異常的人口增長，卻也另有些城市不得不為轉變中的人口遷移模式預作準備，這些城市最後可能淪為空城。

 

根據聯合國人居署發表的2016年世界城市狀況報告，現今有八分之一的人居住在城市的貧民窟，到2025年時「可能有16億人需要適切且可負擔得起的住宅」。

 

Behrokh Khoshnevis, professor of engineering at the University of Southern California and director of its Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT), is one of many innovators looking to ease the housing crises of the future. "Somehow, we have to address the issue of shelter, which is at the base of the pyramid of needs," Khoshnevis said.

 

He hopes his 3-D printing construction method, which he calls Contour Crafting, will create a way to build homes for a fraction of the current cost. While he can't do anything about the price of land, Khoshnevis said his technology would build a house in a day and cut down on the construction cost by 30 percent.

 

貝羅．柯什內維斯是南加大工程學教授兼「快速自動製造技術中心」主任，也是尋求緩解未來住屋危機的許多創新者之一。柯什內維斯說：「無論如何，我們必須解決住屋問題，它在需求金字塔的最底層。」

 

他把他的3-D列印施工方法稱為「輪廓製作」法，希望透過這種方法可以現今成本的一小部分建造房屋。雖然柯什內維斯對降低土地價格無能為力，他卻表示他的技術可在一天內建成一所房屋，且將會建造成本削減30％。

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/301455/web/

 

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每日跟讀#554: China Banned 23 Million People From Traveling Last Year for Poor ’Social Credit’ Scores

 

Millions of people in China last year were barred from traveling and even getting a better job because of their failure to pay fines, among other minor offenses.

 

去年有數百萬中國人被禁止旅行，甚至無法獲得較好的工作，因為他們沒有繳納罰款，或犯下其他輕罪。

 

China’s National Public Credit Information Center released a report that said it stopped 17.5 million people from buying airplane tickets and 5.5 million from hopping on a train in 2018 because they had low "social credit" scores. Another 290,000 people were stopped from getting a high-paying senior management job and 128 people couldn’t leave the country because they hadn’t yet paid taxes.

 

中國的「國家公共信用信息中心」發布一份報告指出，2018年共阻止1750萬人購買機票、550萬人搭乘火車，因為他們的「社會信用」分數過低。另有29萬人被阻止獲得高薪的高階管理工作，還有128人不能踏出國門，因為他們尚未繳稅。

 

Since 2014, China has been testing out a social credit system that takes points away from people for minor offenses. So, if people don’t pay fines on time, fail to pay their taxes, or even engage in false advertising, their social credit scores could drop.

 

2014年起，中國積極試驗一套社會信用系統，人民會因犯下輕罪而被扣分。因此，若不準時繳交罰款、沒有繳稅，甚至涉及不實廣告，他們的社會信用分數就會往下掉。

 

Chinese citizens living under the system have little leverage in improving their social credit scores without paying their fines.

 

在該系統下生活的中國公民，沒有什麼手段可提高沒繳罰款的社會信用分數。

 

Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1273761

 

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每日跟讀#554: China Banned 23 Million People From Traveling Last Year for Poor ’Social Credit’ Scores

 

Millions of people in China last year were barred from traveling and even getting a better job because of their failure to pay fines, among other minor offenses.

 

去年有數百萬中國人被禁止旅行，甚至無法獲得較好的工作，因為他們沒有繳納罰款，或犯下其他輕罪。

 

China’s National Public Credit Information Center released a report that said it stopped 17.5 million people from buying airplane tickets and 5.5 million from hopping on a train in 2018 because they had low "social credit" scores. Another 290,000 people were stopped from getting a high-paying senior management job and 128 people couldn’t leave the country because they hadn’t yet paid taxes.

 

中國的「國家公共信用信息中心」發布一份報告指出，2018年共阻止1750萬人購買機票、550萬人搭乘火車，因為他們的「社會信用」分數過低。另有29萬人被阻止獲得高薪的高階管理工作，還有128人不能踏出國門，因為他們尚未繳稅。

 

Since 2014, China has been testing out a social credit system that takes points away from people for minor offenses. So, if people don’t pay fines on time, fail to pay their taxes, or even engage in false advertising, their social credit scores could drop.

 

2014年起，中國積極試驗一套社會信用系統，人民會因犯下輕罪而被扣分。因此，若不準時繳交罰款、沒有繳稅，甚至涉及不實廣告，他們的社會信用分數就會往下掉。

 

Chinese citizens living under the system have little leverage in improving their social credit scores without paying their fines.

 

在該系統下生活的中國公民，沒有什麼手段可提高沒繳罰款的社會信用分數。

 

Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1273761

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today/daily-shadowing

 

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每日跟讀#553: Part Office Building, Part Homeless Shelter

 

A year ago, when Amazon let a homeless shelter for families move into a former motel it owned, it was viewed as a nice but fleeting gesture.

 

The motel was on a chunk of downtown property where Amazon planned to eventually erect yet another set of sparkling buildings to meet its insatiable need for office space in this city. The hotel would be torn down and the shelter kicked out when that time came.

 

一年前，亞馬遜公司讓一個遊民（無處可住）家庭收容所遷進該公司所有，曾為汽車旅館的一棟建築，當時被認為是好心，但僅屬暫時性的善舉。

 

這家汽車旅館位於市中心的一大片地產上，亞馬遜最終計畫在這塊土地上興建另一批閃閃發光的建築，以因應該公司在這個城市對辦公室空間永難滿足的需求。當重建的時刻降臨時，旅館會被拆除，收容所也會被掃地出門。

 

Instead, Amazon has decided to let the shelter stay. In an unusual arrangement, the company has agreed to give the shelter, Mary’s Place, a permanent home inside one of the new office buildings for which it will break ground in the fall.

 

Amazon will give roughly half of the six-story building to the shelter, providing it with 47,000 square feet of space with private rooms that can hold 65 families, or about 220 people and their pets. The facility, expected to open in early 2020, will have its own entrance and elevators.

 

然而事非如此，亞馬遜已決定讓收容所留下。在一項不尋常的安排下，該公司已同意在預定秋天動工興建的新辦公大樓中的某一棟裡，讓收容所「瑪麗之家」擁有一個永遠的家。

 

亞馬遜準備大約將這棟六層樓大樓的一半提供給收容所，讓收容所擁有4萬7000平方英尺地坪，計有足可容納65戶家庭，或約220人和他們的寵物的私人房間。這項設施預計2020年年初啟用，將有自己的大門和電梯。

 

“I see it as this huge gift because everywhere we go, we end up leaving,” said Marty Hartman, the executive director of Mary’s Place, which runs seven transitional shelters around the Seattle area meant to house families until they can find permanent homes. “You come in and become a fabric of the neighborhood you’re in, and then you say goodbye. That’s a hard thing for a lot of people to do."

In an interview at the current Mary’s Place site owned by Amazon, which was bustling with families returning to the shelter for the evening, John Schoettler, Amazon’s vice president for global real estate and facilities, said the company would spend “tens of millions of dollars” on the design and construction of the shelter’s portion of the building. Amazon will pay the utilities for Mary’s Place, which will occupy the space rent free, although the organization will continue to pay its own staff.

 

「瑪麗之家」執行長馬蒂．哈特曼說：「我把它看成天大的一份禮物，因為無論我們到那裏，最終都得離開。」「瑪麗之家」在西雅圖地區經營七個中途之家性質的收容所，收容一些尚未找到固定住所的家庭。她說：「你住進來，成為你所加入鄰里的一份子，然後又得說再見。這對很多人來說是件困難的事。」

 

「瑪麗之家」目前所在地產權為亞馬遜所擁有，此刻正因一些家庭返回過夜而顯得頗為熱鬧，亞馬遜主管全球房地產和設施的副總裁約翰．舒特勒在此處接受訪問表示，該公司將花費「數千萬美元」設計和建造這棟建築內的收容所部分。亞馬遜將支付「瑪麗之家」的水電費、讓「瑪麗之家」免租金使用空間，不過「瑪麗之家」將繼續支付他們自己員工的薪水。

 

Schoettler said Amazon originally allowed the shelter to stay in the motel because of the severity of Seattle’s homelessness crisis, which had prompted the city’s mayor to declare a state of emergency in 2015. Schoettler said Amazon was impressed by Mary’s Place, and he described its plan to give the shelter a permanent home as an investment in the neighborhood.

 

In San Francisco, Google, Salesforce.com and others have funded a campaign to find permanent housing for homeless people. But Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington, D.C., said she was unaware of any other private corporation integrating a homeless shelter into its building.

 

舒特勒說，亞馬遜最初允許收容所搬進汽車旅館，是因西雅圖遊民危機十分嚴重。遊民危機2015年時促使西雅圖市長宣布進入緊急狀態。舒特勒說， 亞馬遜被瑪麗之家給打動了，他把亞馬遜計畫給收容所一個長久的家這件事，稱為該公司對當地社區的一項投資。

 

在舊金山，谷歌、Salesforce.com 和其他公司都在資助替無家可歸者尋找固定住處的一項運動。不過，華盛頓特區非營利宣導團體「終結無家可歸全國聯盟」總裁南恩．羅曼說，據她所知，沒有任何其他私人公司讓遊民收容所進住他們的大樓。

每日跟讀#553: Part Office Building, Part Homeless Shelter

 

A year ago, when Amazon let a homeless shelter for families move into a former motel it owned, it was viewed as a nice but fleeting gesture.

 

The motel was on a chunk of downtown property where Amazon planned to eventually erect yet another set of sparkling buildings to meet its insatiable need for office space in this city. The hotel would be torn down and the shelter kicked out when that time came.

 

一年前，亞馬遜公司讓一個遊民（無處可住）家庭收容所遷進該公司所有，曾為汽車旅館的一棟建築，當時被認為是好心，但僅屬暫時性的善舉。

 

這家汽車旅館位於市中心的一大片地產上，亞馬遜最終計畫在這塊土地上興建另一批閃閃發光的建築，以因應該公司在這個城市對辦公室空間永難滿足的需求。當重建的時刻降臨時，旅館會被拆除，收容所也會被掃地出門。

 

Instead, Amazon has decided to let the shelter stay. In an unusual arrangement, the company has agreed to give the shelter, Mary’s Place, a permanent home inside one of the new office buildings for which it will break ground in the fall.

 

Amazon will give roughly half of the six-story building to the shelter, providing it with 47,000 square feet of space with private rooms that can hold 65 families, or about 220 people and their pets. The facility, expected to open in early 2020, will have its own entrance and elevators.

 

然而事非如此，亞馬遜已決定讓收容所留下。在一項不尋常的安排下，該公司已同意在預定秋天動工興建的新辦公大樓中的某一棟裡，讓收容所「瑪麗之家」擁有一個永遠的家。

 

亞馬遜準備大約將這棟六層樓大樓的一半提供給收容所，讓收容所擁有4萬7000平方英尺地坪，計有足可容納65戶家庭，或約220人和他們的寵物的私人房間。這項設施預計2020年年初啟用，將有自己的大門和電梯。

 

“I see it as this huge gift because everywhere we go, we end up leaving,” said Marty Hartman, the executive director of Mary’s Place, which runs seven transitional shelters around the Seattle area meant to house families until they can find permanent homes. “You come in and become a fabric of the neighborhood you’re in, and then you say goodbye. That’s a hard thing for a lot of people to do."

In an interview at the current Mary’s Place site owned by Amazon, which was bustling with families returning to the shelter for the evening, John Schoettler, Amazon’s vice president for global real estate and facilities, said the company would spend “tens of millions of dollars” on the design and construction of the shelter’s portion of the building. Amazon will pay the utilities for Mary’s Place, which will occupy the space rent free, although the organization will continue to pay its own staff.

 

「瑪麗之家」執行長馬蒂．哈特曼說：「我把它看成天大的一份禮物，因為無論我們到那裏，最終都得離開。」「瑪麗之家」在西雅圖地區經營七個中途之家性質的收容所，收容一些尚未找到固定住所的家庭。她說：「你住進來，成為你所加入鄰里的一份子，然後又得說再見。這對很多人來說是件困難的事。」

 

「瑪麗之家」目前所在地產權為亞馬遜所擁有，此刻正因一些家庭返回過夜而顯得頗為熱鬧，亞馬遜主管全球房地產和設施的副總裁約翰．舒特勒在此處接受訪問表示，該公司將花費「數千萬美元」設計和建造這棟建築內的收容所部分。亞馬遜將支付「瑪麗之家」的水電費、讓「瑪麗之家」免租金使用空間，不過「瑪麗之家」將繼續支付他們自己員工的薪水。

 

Schoettler said Amazon originally allowed the shelter to stay in the motel because of the severity of Seattle’s homelessness crisis, which had prompted the city’s mayor to declare a state of emergency in 2015. Schoettler said Amazon was impressed by Mary’s Place, and he described its plan to give the shelter a permanent home as an investment in the neighborhood.

 

In San Francisco, Google, Salesforce.com and others have funded a campaign to find permanent housing for homeless people. But Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington, D.C., said she was unaware of any other private corporation integrating a homeless shelter into its building.

 

舒特勒說，亞馬遜最初允許收容所搬進汽車旅館，是因西雅圖遊民危機十分嚴重。遊民危機2015年時促使西雅圖市長宣布進入緊急狀態。舒特勒說， 亞馬遜被瑪麗之家給打動了，他把亞馬遜計畫給收容所一個長久的家這件事，稱為該公司對當地社區的一項投資。

 

在舊金山，谷歌、Salesforce.com 和其他公司都在資助替無家可歸者尋找固定住處的一項運動。不過，華盛頓特區非營利宣導團體「終結無家可歸全國聯盟」總裁南恩．羅曼說，據她所知，沒有任何其他私人公司讓遊民收容所進住他們的大樓。

Summary:

In this article scientists warn about the dangers of farming with insects. Care needs to be taken and studies done to ensure the minimization of potential risks when it comes to farming with insects.

 

Vocabulary and sample sentences:

 

Wreak havoc : to do great damage

Do typhoons wreak havoc on landfall?

Did the 2008 financial crisis wreak havoc on the global economy?

 

Cultivation: the use of land to grow crops, the deliberate development of relationships, qualities, or skills :

Is fruit cultivation in Taiwan important?

Is the cultivation of good manners important? 

 

Poultry: chickens, ducks, geese all their meat

Is poultry farming profitable? 

Do you enjoy eating poultry? 

 

Invasive species : foreign species that invade and spread quickly in a new environment

Are fire ants an invasive species?

Can invasive species destroy the environment? 

 

15分鐘跟著John and Gavin探索世界時事趣聞的單字與詞彙，

 

用email訂閱就可以收到所有15mins.Today最新節目通知。

Summary:

In this article scientists warn about the dangers of farming with insects. Care needs to be taken and studies done to ensure the minimization of potential risks when it comes to farming with insects.

 

Vocabulary and sample sentences:

 

Wreak havoc : to do great damage

Do typhoons wreak havoc on landfall?

Did the 2008 financial crisis wreak havoc on the global economy?

 

Cultivation: the use of land to grow crops, the deliberate development of relationships, qualities, or skills :

Is fruit cultivation in Taiwan important?

Is the cultivation of good manners important? 

 

Poultry: chickens, ducks, geese all their meat

Is poultry farming profitable? 

Do you enjoy eating poultry? 

 

Invasive species : foreign species that invade and spread quickly in a new environment

Are fire ants an invasive species?

Can invasive species destroy the environment? 

 

15分鐘跟著John and Gavin探索世界時事趣聞的單字與詞彙，

 

用email訂閱就可以收到所有15mins.Today最新節目通知。

每日跟讀#552: Why Hospitals Should Let You Sleep

 

If part of a hospital stay is to recover from a procedure or illness, why is it so hard to get any rest?

 

如果住院的部分原因是要從手術或疾病康復，為什麼想要歇息片刻會這麼難？

 

There is more noise and light than is conducive for sleep. And nurses and others visit frequently to give medications, take vitals, draw blood or perform tests and checkups — in many cases waking patients to do so.

 

噪音和光線多（或強）到足以讓人難以入眠。護理師等人頻繁前來給藥、量取生命徵象、抽血或進行檢測，許多時候是叫醒病人來做。

 

Some monitoring is necessary, of course. Medication must be given; some vital signs do need to be checked. And frequent monitoring is warranted for some patients — such as those in intensive care units. But others are best left mostly alone. Yet many hospitals don’t distinguish between the two, disrupting everyone on a predefined schedule.

 

當然，有的監測有其必要。藥一定要給；有些生命徵象必須檢查。頻繁的監測對某些病人而言也是必要的，例如加護病房的病人，其他病人則最好少去打擾，然而許多醫院並未將二者加以區分，照著預定時程打擾每個病人。

 

Peter Ubel understands the problem as both a physician and patient. When he spent a night in the hospital recovering from surgery in 2013, he was interrupted multiple times by blood draws, vital sign checks, other lab tests, as well as by the beeping of machines. “Not an hour went by without some kind of disruption,” said Ubel, a physician with Duke University. “It’s a terrible way to start recovery.”

 

既是醫師又當過病人的伍柏了解這個問題。2013年他為了從手術恢復而住院一晚，當晚他被抽血、生命徵象檢查、其他檢驗和機器嗶嗶聲打擾多次。現為美國杜克大學內科醫師的伍柏說：「沒有一小時沒受到某種打擾，這是展開復原過程的可怕方式。」

 

It’s more than annoying — such disruptions can harm patients. Short sleep durations are associated with reduced immune function, delirium, hypertension and mood disorders. Hospital conditions, including sleep disruptions, may contribute to “posthospital syndrome” — the period of vulnerability to a host of health problems after hospitalization that are not related to the reason for that hospitalization.

 

這樣的干擾不只惱人，還可能傷害病人。睡眠期間短暫與免疫功能下降、譫妄、血壓高和情感疾患有關。醫院的環境，包括睡眠干擾，可能導致「出院症候群」，就是病人出院後有一段期間容易出現許多健康問題，而這些問題跟住院原因無關。

 

“In addressing a patient’s acute illness, we may inadvertently be causing harm by ignoring the important restorative powers of a healing environment,” said Harlan Krumholz, a Yale University physician who has been calling attention to posthospital syndrome for several years. “The key to a successful recovery after illness may be a less stressful, more supportive, more humane experience during the hospitalization.”

 

耶魯大學醫師克朗霍茲呼籲重視出院症候群已有多年，他說：「在治療病人的急性疾病時，我們可能忽視了有治療功用的環境重要的幫助復原力量，因而在無意中造成傷害。病後順利復原的關鍵，或許正是少點壓力、多點支持、而且更人道的住院經驗。」

 

It’s an environment that, all too often, seems set up for everyone else’s convenience but the patient’s. To help patients deal with the stresses of hospitalization, sedatives are often prescribed. These medications, including opioids, carry their own risks, such as addiction.

 

醫院的環境往往似乎是為所有其他人的方便而設，獨獨忽視了病人的方便。為了幫助病人應付住院的壓力，醫師通常會開鎮靜劑。這些藥劑，包括鴉片類藥物，帶有風險，譬如使人上癮。

 

“Instead, we could make the environment more conducive to rest and reduce the use of sedatives,” Ubel said.

 

伍柏說：「我們大可讓醫院環境更有助於休息，並減少鎮靜劑的使用。」

 

Solutions aren’t hard to fathom. Ubel listed some in 2013. Hospital workers could coordinate so that one disruption serves multiple needs: a blood draw and a vitals check at the same time instead of two hours apart.

 

解決方法並不難懂。伍柏2013年列舉過一些。醫院人員可以協調，使一次打擾滿足多種需求：同時抽血和測量生命徵象，而不是隔兩小時分開做。

 

Or they could allow patients’ needs to guide schedules. If a patient is at low risk and can go six or eight hours without a vitals check, for example, perhaps don’t do that check once every four hours.

 

或者他們可以根據病人的需求安排時程。比方說，如果病人屬於低危險群，可以連續6或8小時無須測量生命徵象，也許就不用每4小時測一次。

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/337387/web/

 

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