Neuroscientists have explained the risky, aggressive or just plain baffling behavior of teenagers as the product of a brain that is somehow compromised. Groundbreaking research in the past 10 years, however, shows that this view is wrong. The teen brain is not defective. It is not a half-baked adult brain, either. It has been forged by evolution to function differently from that of a child or an adult.

    The most important of the teen brain's features is its ability to change in response to the environment by modifying the communication networks that connect brain regions. It allows teenagers to make enormous progress in thinking and socialization. But the change also makes them sensitive to dangerous behavior and serious mental disorders.

    The most recent studies indicate that the riskiest behaviors arise from a mismatch between the maturation of networks in the limbic system(边缘系统), which drives emotions at adolescence, and the maturation of networks in the prefrontal cortex（前额皮质）, which occurs later and promotes sound judgment and the control of impulses. Indeed, we now know that one's prefrontal cortex continues to change noticeably until his 20s. And yet adolescence seems to be starting earlier, extending the “mismatch years.”

    The plasticity of networks linking brain regions—and not the growth of those regions, as previously thought—is key to eventually behaving like an adult. Understanding that, and knowing that a widening gap between the development of emotional and judgment networks is happening in young people today, can help parents, teachers, counselors and teenagers themselves. People will better see that behavior such as risk-taking and turning away from parents and toward peers are not signs of cognitive or emotional problems. They are a natural result of brain development, a normal part of adolescents learning how to negotiate with a complex world.

    The same understanding can also help adults decide when to intervene. A 15-year-old girl's departure from her parents' tastes in clothing, music or politics may be a source of anxiety for Mom and Dad but does not indicate mental illness. A 16-year-old boy's tendency to skateboard without a helmet or to accept risky dares from friends is not unimportant but is more likely a sign of short-range thinking and peer pressure than a desire to hurt himself. Knowing more about the unique teen brain will help all of us learn how to separate unusual behavior that is age-appropriate from that which might indicate illness. Such awareness could help society reduce the rates of teen addiction, motor vehicle accidents and depression.

    “Patience” is a word that you have probably heard a lot! But you may wonder, “What on earth is patience, and why does everyone keep telling me to have it?”

    Patience is waiting for something or someone. It is accepting delay without getting angry or upset.

    ※It is waiting for someone else to speak when you have something to say !

    ※It is waiting to eat before everyone is at table !

    ※It is waiting for your birthday even though you may want a present now !

    ※Patience is trying something again when you want to give up.

    Patience doesn't sound like much fun. And to be truthful, sometimes, it's not. And with so much technology in the world, we don't always have to be patient. For example, we are able to stream our favorite TV shows on our cell phones, go to restaurants where food is served hot and fast, among many other things.

    So, why wait when we can have everything right now? Because just about any successful person has patience. Many good and important things take patience. For example, most great inventors and explorers have a lot of patience!

    ※When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, it took him over 1,000 tries!

※It took the Wright Brothers years to invent the airplane!

    ※It takes between 150 and 300 days to travel from Earth to Mars!

    ※If great inventors did not have patience and self-control, you would not be reading this right now. In fact, you might be living in a cave or tent somewhere. You would have no electricity, no car, no school and almost certainly no Internet!

    Depression(抑郁) can be a destructive illness, plaguing millions of people worldwide with feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and fatigue. Despite numerous antidepressant drugs, as many as a third of patients don't respond to medication. This has forced doctors to be more creative in finding different treatments for the condition.

    In the past two decades, researchers have tied depression to a seemingly unrelated condition: inflammation(炎症), the body's natural response to stress. It could rise from injury or inflection, or even emotional issues like an unhappy marriage or problems at work. Some amount of inflammation is generally beneficial, as it increases production of cytokines(致癌因子)，proteins that help us heal and protect us from the effects of overwork.

    But excessive cytokine levels, and the inflammation they bring on, could come at a cost—a number of studies suggests that high levels of cytokines could contribute to depression.

    Cytokines can reach the brain several ways: directly through the blood-brain barrier or indirectly by binding to nerve fibers elsewhere, which send signals to the brain to produce the inflammation molecules. In the brain, cytokines can disturb the production and release of several important signaling chemicals, including serotonin, dopamine and glutamate, which help control emotion, appetite, sleep, learning and memory. It's though that a lack of serotonin activity in the brain causes depression; most antidepressants increase the activity. But cytokines also have been shown to activate stress hormone signaling in the brain, which man also serve to develop depression.

    With all the evidence implicating inflammation in depression, doctors have been anxious to test anti-inflammatory drugs as a potential treatment. Four small studies published between 2006 and 2017 by research groups in Europe and Iran found that adults diagnosed with depression who took aspirin or another anti-inflammatory drug called Celecoxib, along with an antidepressant, got more relief from feelings of sadness, hopelessness, guilt and fatigue compared with those taking an antidepressant alone. However, Andrew Miller, a professor of psychiatry at Emory University, thought something was wrong in these small, limited studies. None of them looked at whether the participants had to have high levels of cytokines before they'd see a benefit from anti-inflammatory drugs.  "Unfortunately, much of the field has fallen into the trap of viewing inflammation as the be-all, end-all," Miller says. He and his colleagues wanted to see whether the effect of these drugs was limited to the depression patients with high cytokine levels, or if it helped all people diagnosed with depression.

    Making employees feel happy and healthy at work is good for many businesses. But it isn't always an easy thing. A research suggests that just 33% of the U. S. employees consider themselves fully engaged (投身于) at work, while 16% are actively disengaged, and 51% are just showing up.

    But there is an exception. When it comes to employee engagement, it seems that employees in small companies are doing better. According to the same research, the largest U.S. companies have the lowest levels of engagement, while companies with fewer than 25 employees have the highest. And in one recent report, 75 percent of small business workers surveyed said they were "very" or "extremely" satisfied with their role as a small company employee.

    Unlike big companies, small companies are often short of resources but the employees can get more surprises there. Small companies offer excellent career opportunities to their employees. The bosses often know their staff very well and understand their personal needs. Employees of small companies are more likely to receive free meals, paid leave, and they can even bring their pets to work.

    But of course, there're many other draws in small businesses. One of the top draws is flexible scheduling (弹性工时). Another is being able to really see the fruits of one's labor. Besides, non­cash award is also a big draw. This could be something small that reflects employees' interests and lifestyles.

    While a parental leave might lead to some financial problems, small companies may do something to improve it. "It may be impossible for a five­person team to be reduced to four for six months," writes Camilla Velasquez, head of HR management platform Justworks. "But it could be possible to allow new parents to take on reduced hours in a work­from­home environment." This kind of method has been realized in some small companies.

The coronavirus in China right now has really turned things upside down for a lot of people, but not even it can come between a marathon runner and his training.

Like many of his countrymen, Pan Shancu, an amateur marathon runner from Hangzhou, in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, is trapped in his apartment because of the COVID-19，but he didn't let that small detail stop him from keeping in shape for his next race, whenever it may be. He has been using the small space in his apartment as a training track, jogging around two tables and the short length of a small hallway, and recently posted on social media.

"I could not bear siting around anymore," Pan wrote. "Let's run laps in the room! Yes, one lap is about eight meters (26 feet) and I ran 50 kilometers (31 miles), I did it in 4:48:44. I am sweating all over, feeling great!"

The runner, who has a marathon best of two hours and 59 minutes, also wrote that he considers his neighbors while jogging, trying to step as lightly as possible on the floor as not to disturb them. He completed 6, 250 circuits in one of his rooms in four hours, 48 minutes and 44 seconds, and his neighbors have yet to complain.

Pan Shancu's achievement spread rapidly like virus this week, with people praising his training spirit, and saying to adopting similar strategies to stay in shape.

"I start in the kitchen, go through the living room, turn into my daughter's room, the less than 20m-long racecourse has beautiful scenery and on my left, my husband's snoring is cheering me on," one commented on Pan's post. "This is a silent battle. My husband's opinion is that I have psychological issues.