Dieting to lose weight has become very popular in recent years. People have become more health conscious and try to take better care of their bodies by eating more healthily and exercising more regularly to lose any unnecessary fat that they may have.

    Not only are people being more careful about what they eat, they are also concerned with how they eat and how their meals are prepared. People are taking more time for each meal. Many avoid the so-called "plastic" fast-food hamburgers and choose to eat a salad or a sandwich of more healthful ingredients(营养成分) in a quiet restaurant with a more leisurely atmosphere. At home, they also try to take enough time to eat a relaxed dinner without phone or TV interruptions.

    While dieting may be viewed as beneficial, it has also become a serious problem for Americans, particularly for young women. Dieting for them has actually become a psychological addiction. They eat so little that they can lose as much as fifty percent of their total body weight, and although they look like skeletons, they still insist that they are fat.

    The current wave of exercising, dieting and the problems produced have caused many organizations to begin educating the public. Many schools, hospitals, health organizations, newspapers and magazines, for example, are offering classed, printing booklet articles and so on, to inform the public of the way to exercise and diet, of the dangers of dieting too rapidly, and of the places people can go for medical help if they find themselves on the road to "diet addiction".

WELCOME AND ARRIVAL INFORMATION

    Welcome to Harvard University Housing and thank you for choosing to live with us. To help you make a smooth transition, please read the information below on planning your arrival.

    Pets

    Dogs living with you in your pet-friendly apartment must be vaccinated for rabies and licensed with the City of Cambridge every year.

    International Students

    Consider unlocking your phone prior to leaving your home country. This will enable you to use a SIM card from a company such as campus SIMS or US Mobile in your phone after you arrive. Those sim cards may be available at the Property Management Office.

    Driving

    If you plan on bringing a moving van or truck it will not fit under the overpasses on Soldiers Field Road and Memorial Drive. Plan your route in advance to avoid a risky and costly problem.

    Parking arrangements for trucks and vans must be made in advance as well. Visit your property page for information about parking your car.

    Furniture and Lighting

    Most HUH units have no furniture—the unit is empty except for a stove and a refrigerator. You need to bring, buy, or rent a bed, other furniture, and household items. In many HUH units, rooms do not have overhead lights, so you also may need table or floor lamps.

    If you want to stock up on groceries and some household items as soon as you arrive, please find information about "Grocery Shopping" by selecting it from the drop-down menu.

    A dog spent the last four years of his life waiting a crossroad in the Thai city of Khon Kaen as if waiting for someone. People originally thought the dog had been abandoned, but then realized that he looked healthy, so people asked around about him. It turned out that the dog had indeed been spending most of his time around that crossroad, but a woman had been coming round regularly to bring him food and water.

    One day, while photographing the dog everyone called Leo, a reporter met the woman who had been taking care of him. She had come to drop off some food. After learning the story about the dog and the woman, the reporter decided to share the story on social media. The post soon went viral and the photos of Leo got shared hundreds of times. And the photos reached the eyes of Leo's former old owner.

    Nang Noi Sittisarn, a 64-year-old woman from Thailand's Roi Et Province, almost had a heart attack when her daughter showed her a photo of the beloved dog named BonBon she had lost during a car trip. When she learned that he had been waiting for her in the same spot for the last four years, her heart melted(融化).

    Auntie Noi told her daughter to drive her to where the dog was waiting. When she got there and called his name. BonBon, the poor dog started wiggling(扭动)his tail and came to her, but when she tried to take him home with her, he was unwilling to follow. She didn't want to force the dog to come with her so she agreed to leave him with his new master. However, she and her daughter will come to visit him regularly.

A key part of protecting endangered species is figuring out where they're living. Using environmental DNA, or eDNA, to track species isn't new. For a few years now, researchers have been using DNA in water.

Two teams of scientists — one in Denmark led by Dr Kristine Bohmann and one in the UK led by Dr Elizabeth Clare — came up with the same question at about the same time: Could they identify the animals in an area from DNA that was simply floating in the air? DNA in the air is usually so small that it would take a microscope to see it. "I thought the chances of collecting animal DNA from air would be slim though much time had been spent on it, but we moved on," said Bohmann who was trying to think of a crazy research idea for a Danish foundation that funds far-out science.

One team collected samples from different locations at Denmark's Copenhagen Zoo, and the other at Hamerton Zoo Park in the UK. Clearly, they both chose the zoos. "We realized we have the Copenhagen Zoo," Bohmann recalls. In fact, both the zoos in the UK and Denmark were almost like the zoos that were custom-built for the experiments: The animals in the zoos were non-native, so they really stuck out in DNA analyses. "If we detect a flamingo (火烈鸟), we're sure it's not coming from anywhere else but the zoo," Bohmann says.

In the laboratory, by comparing their samples with examples of DNA from different animals, the scientists succeeded in identifying many different animals at the zoos.

Neither team knew that the other team was working on a similar experiment. The two were nearing submission to a scientific journal when they discovered about the other experiment. Rather than compete to rush out a publication first, they got in touch and decided to publish their findings as a pair. "We both thought the papers are stronger together," says Clare.

"The next step is to figure out how to take this method into nature to track animals that are hard to spot, including endangered animals," says Bohmann.

A school district in Michigan has banned all backpacks from school buildings, in response to growing safety concerns. 

Flint Community Schools announced last week that backpacks would be banned and the ban would be in place for the rest of the school year. The new policy went into effect on Monday. 

"We are doing all that we can to create a safe and secure environment for our scholars, families, teachers and staff," Superintendent (主管) Kevin Jones wrote in a letter posted on the school district's website. 

Jones cited growing threatening behavior happenings across the country, including weapons being brought to schools, as the reason for the backpack ban. 

"Backpacks make it easier for students to hide weapons, which can be taken apart and harder to identify than hidden in pockets, inside books, or under other items," he said. 

Following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last May, where 19 students and two teachers died, schools began taking policies requiring students to use clear backpacks. However, Flint Community Schools have gone a step further and banned clear backpacks from school buildings, with the superintendent saying that it doesn't resolve the issue. 

"By banning backpacks altogether and adding an increased security presence across the district, we can better control what is being brought into our buildings," Jones said. 

Students are allowed to store personal items like wallets, keys, hygiene products (卫生用品) and phones in small purses, bring lunchboxes or place their gym clothes in clear plastic bags, all of which will be subject to searches. 

If a student brings a backpack to school, parents or guardians must pick it up from the school, according to Jones. 

The Flint Board of Education, the district's administration and headmasters approved the policy change, Jones said, adding that the district received support from the Flint Police Department.