Pet owners have long been encouraged to think that they are happier, healthier and live longer than people without pets, but a new US study claims they might be barking up the wrong tree.
Howard Herzog, a professor of psychology at Western Carolina University, says studies conducted in the past to determine whether having a pet improves health and longevity have “produced a mishmash of conflicting results.”
“While pets are undoubtedly good for some people, there is presently insufficient evidence to support the contention that pet owners are healthier or happier or that they live longer” than people without pets, Herzog wrote in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.
Photo: AFP
照片：法新社
“While some researchers have reported that positive effects accrue from interacting with animals, others have found that the health and happiness of pet owners is no better, and in some cases worse, than that of non-pet owners.”
Herzog cites several studies purportedly showing the benefits of having a pet, including one from 1980 which showed that heart attack victims who had a pet were around four times more likely than petless victims to survive for a year after the crisis, but said more gloomy studies had been ignored.
“While the media abounds with stories extolling the health benefits of pets, studies in which pet ownership has been found to have no impact or even negative effects on human physical or mental health rarely make headlines,” he said.
He cited another study which found no difference in blood pressure between older pet-owners and the petless. In fact, the pet owners in that study exercised less than the non-owners and were more likely to be overweight.
Moreover, he said pets — which can be found in two-thirds of US households — bring with them a cornucopia of health problems that can be transmitted to humans such as giardia, salmonella poisoning, skin mites and worms.
(AFP)
寵物飼主長期被洗腦，自認應比沒養寵物者，更快樂、更健康，並且活得更久；但美國一項新研究指出，這些飼主可能只是自我感覺良好。
西卡羅萊納大學心理學教授霍華德‧賀佐格表示，過去針對養寵物是否能促進健康與延年益壽的研究，卻「產生混合的衝突性結果」。
賀佐格在八月號的《心理科學最新指南》中寫道：「無庸置疑，飼養寵物對一些人有益，但目前對於寵物飼主較無寵物者更健康、快樂或長壽的論述，則是佐證不足。」
他說：「當一些研究員指出，與動物互動產生正向影響，但其他研究員則發現飼主的健康與快樂程度，不見得比沒養寵物者好，有時甚至比沒寵物者更糟。」
賀佐格引用多項據稱養寵物有好處的研究，包含一項一九八零年的研究顯示，心臟病患者在發病後，有寵物者多存活一年的機率，比沒有寵物者大四倍；但他說，一些對於飼主較不利的研究，則被忽略。
他說：「媒體充斥讚揚養寵物對健康有益的報導，至於發現養寵物對身心無益，甚至會有負面影響的研究，則鮮少受媒體關注。」
他引用另一項研究，該研究發現養寵物與無寵物的年長者，血壓值並無差異。但事實上，在該研究中養寵物者的運動量比無寵物者的運動量少，並且前者也更可能體重過重。
此外，他說寵物─存在於美國三分之二的家庭─可能將大量人畜共通傳染病等健康問題，傳染給飼主，舉凡梨形鞭毛蟲、沙門氏桿菌中毒症、毛囊蠕型?與寄生蟲。
（法新社／翻譯：林亞蒂）
Teams of scientists around the world have recently demonstrated the viability of airborne and waterborne DNA collection. The methods, which permit the analysis of large samples of soil, air or water for genetic material, rely on the concept of environmental DNA. This “eDNA” is found in the innumerable particles of biological matter that creatures shed as they go about their lives. While these tiny scraps are invisible to the naked eye, eDNA tests can reveal a wealth of information to researchers. For example, wildlife managers in the Susquehanna River system in Pennsylvania, US detected Didymosphenia geminata DNA through eDNA
網球天王費德勒（Roger Federer）於上週四（15日）宣布引退，為長達二十四年的職業生涯畫下了句點。回顧過去，他曾經贏得二十個大滿貫冠軍，與對手喬克維奇、納達爾合稱「網壇三巨頭」，如今這名年屆四十一歲的傳奇即將引退，令許多球迷感到不捨。今天就讓我們從他的引退宣言，來學TOEIC測驗的常考英文吧！ acknowledge 認可、承認 費德勒在Twitter上發聲明宣布退休，其中一段這樣感謝他的團隊： I really want to thank and acknowledge my amazing team. . . who have given me the best advice and have always been there for me. （我真的想要感謝和認可我優秀的團隊…，你們給予我最棒的建議，且一直陪伴著我。） acknowledge解釋為「認可」，單字來自於knowledge「知識」，字首「ac-」有「朝向某方向」的意思，代表come to understand or recognize 的意思，因此就是「認可、承認」。 acknowledge 後面加上動名詞，表達「承認做了」某件事情。動詞後面加上動名詞表達已經做了某件事情，其他常見動詞還有forget。forget 後方加上to V 則表達忘記做某件事情。 She acknowledged having been at fault.（她承認自己有做錯。） She forgot turning on the TV.（她忘記已經開了電視。） She forgot to turn on the TV.（她忘記要開電視了。） acknowledge + that acknowledge 加上 that 名詞子句的用法，則代表「承認」某件事情。 She acknowledged that she had been at fault.（她承認自己有過錯。） All I want is some acknowledgment that his behavior is unreasonable. （我只要你們承認他的行為是無理取鬧就好。） 名詞變化acknowledgment 則是去掉 e 並在字尾加上「-ment 」。 We sent her a copy of the book in acknowledgment of her part in its creation. （我們寄給她一本書，以感謝她為這本書的問世所做的貢獻。） 片語in acknowledgement of代表「認可某件事情」，除了動詞加上受詞的用法，也可以採用名詞變化。若用動詞改寫則是We sent
A: Wow, look at that drone in the sky! B: Drones have become increasingly common in recent years. Walmart, Amazon and other companies have all begun promoting drone delivery services. A: Chunghwa Post is also providing this service. B: Really? A: Currently, Hsinchu County’s Jianshih Township post office is trialing parcel delivery to remote villages by unmanned aerial vehicles. B: That’s fantastic. It will make it much more convenient to post things to mountainous areas. A: 哇你看，天空中有一架無人機！ B: 這幾年無人機好像越來越普遍，沃爾瑪、亞馬遜等公司，都開始推出了無人機送貨服務。 A: 其實中華郵政也有這項服務唷。 B: 真的嗎？ A: 新竹縣尖石鄉的郵局，正在試辦無人機偏鄉物流運送。 B: 太棒了，以後寄東西到山區就方便多啦。 （Translated by Edward Jones, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩）
Hsinchu post office launches drone delivery (2/2) 新竹郵局無人機起飛（二） A: Chunghwa Post is using drones to deliver parcels. This should save loads of time. B: Delivering a parcel from Jianshih Township Office to Smangus normally takes 100 minutes by road. A drone can do it in just 45. A: That’s super convenient! B: With drones becoming more common, the government has amended the Civil Aviation Act to require large drones to be registered. A: How many drones have been registered to date? B: Nearly 80,000 in Taiwan, since the act was amended 2 years ago. A: 郵局用無人機來送貨，應該能節省不少時間。 B: 從尖石鄉公所送貨到新光部落，原本一百分鐘的車程，無人機只需要四十五分鐘。 A: 真的超方便耶！ B: 不過無人機越來越多，政府特別修改《民用航空法》，所有大型無人機都要註冊管理。 A: 有很多無人機註冊嗎？ B: 修法兩年以來，台灣已經有將近八萬架註冊囉。 （Translated by
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