Imagination Stage is a children's theater in the state of Maryland. A special performance is put on for children with autism (自闭症) each day. People with autism have difficulty communcating and socializing with other people. Children in the theater are allowed to move around during the performance. It's OK if they shout out or hold their ears when the music is too loud. These special performances are sometimes the only thing that a family can go to the theater together to see if a child has autism.

    That is the same idea with Autism on the Seas. This company organizes vacations for families of children with autism, especially vacations on cruise ships. Jamie Grover is director of group development in Autism on the Seas. He said, “With our staff on board, parents know that they are going to be able to relax, enjoy their vacation, and participate in ship activities. They know that their children are well taken care of.”

    The benefit of such vacations organized by Autism on the Seas is not waiting in huge lines on departure day. The company has staff to help in the ports. Waiting in long lines or being in the middle of big crowds can cause problem behavior in children with autism. Autism on the Seas helps families avoid situations like that.

    Autism on the Seas works with the help of cruise companies like Royal Caribbean. Special times or places are arranged for families to play video games, go skating or rock climbing, or eat dinner. Autism on the Seas also directs families to organizations that can help them pay for these vacations.

    Bambi Van Woert from the state of Michigan went on a cruise with her 7-year-old Ben, who has autism. She said, “I would never do something like this myself. I cannot take Ben shopping by myself at this point, so for me to try to do a cruise without help would be absurd.”

    “Children start putting their fingers in their noses as infants,” says Sarah Springer, MD' of Kids Plus Pediatrics in Pittsburgh. “As soon as they have motor control of their fingers, they'll find holes where their fingers can fit. It's not a worry—just a normal part of how they explore and learn.”

    In order to help your child to stop engaging in the behavior it's important to understand why they may start the habit in the first place, according to the University of Michigan Health System. Nose-picking can be a result of boredom, sleepiness, falling asleep, relaxation or coping. In most instances, nose-picking is likely just a phase（阶段）and the child will eventually quit it.

    There isn't much parents can do to stop the behavior of nose-picking, as it's a normal part of being a kid, Dr. Springer says. Parents are advised to ignore the behavior and not show frustration's this won't help encourage your child to stop picking their nose. Instead, Dr. Springer says to help your child learn to blow their nose once they are four or five years old and talk to your child about keeping their hands clean to avoid spreading germs.

    Take note of the season or climate, too, as dry air or cold can increase the occurrence of nose-picking. Parents should use a humidifier（增湿器）in these conditions to help nasal secretions（鼻分泌物）stay moist. Putting petroleum jelly（凡士林）a few times a day inside the nose can help with irritation and minimize picking.

    Once your child enters school, it's inevitable for them to see and pick up bad habits, Dr. Springer said. Nose-picking is a common habit, even among adults and as children age most will realize it's not an acceptable behavior.

    “Nose picking is a normal part of childhood,” Dr. Springer says. “Most kids will become conscious of the social stigma（羞耻）associated with it, and will eventually stop picking, at least in public.”

    Recent summer temperatures in parts of Australia were high enough to melt asphalt. As global warming speeds up the heat and climatic events increase, many plants may be unable to cope. But at least one species of eucalyptus tree can resist extreme heat by continuing to “sweat” when other essential processes stop, a new study finds.

    As plants change sunlight into food, or photosynthesize (光合作用), they absorb carbon dioxide through pores on their leaves. These pores also release water via transpiration(蒸腾), which circulates nutrients through the plant and helps cool it by evaporation(蒸发). But exceptionally high temperatures are known to greatly reduce photosynthesis—and most existing plant models suggest this should also decrease transpiration, leaving trees in danger of fatally overheating. Because it is difficult for scientists to control and vary trees' conditions in their natural environment, little is known about how individual species handle this situation.

    Ecologist John Drake of the S.U.N.Y. College of Environmental Science and Forestry and his colleagues grew a dozen Parramatta red gum (Eucalyptus parramattensis) trees in large, climate-controlled plastic pods that separated the trees from the surrounding forest for a year in Richmond, Australia. Six of the trees were grown at surrounding air temperatures and six at temperatures three degrees Celsius higher. The researchers withheld (扣留) water from the surface soil of all 12 trees for a month to imitate a mild dry spell, then induced a four-day “extreme” heat wave: They raised the maximum temperatures in half of the pods（three with surrounding temperatures and three of the warmer ones）— to 44 degrees ℃.

    Photosynthesis ground to a near halt in the trees facing the artificial heat wave. But to the researchers' surprise, these trees continued to transpire at close-to-normal levels, effectively cooling themselves and their surroundings. The trees grown in warmer conditions coped just as well as the others, and photosynthesis rates bounced back to normal after the heat wave passed, Drake and his colleagues reported online in Global Change Biology.

    The researchers think the Parramatta red gums were able to effectively sweat — even without photosynthesis — because they are particularly good at tapping into water deep in the soil. But if a heat wave and a severe drought (干旱) were to hit at the same time and the groundwater was exhausted, the trees may not be so lucky, Drake says.

    Other scientists call the finding encouraging. “It's definitely good news,” says Trevor Keenan, an ecologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who was not part of the study. “It would be very interesting to know how this translates to other species,” he adds. Drake hopes to conduct similar experiments with trees common in North America.

    Chinese New Year has been welcomed in Britain with its biggest ever program of events and celebrations.

    From London's Trafalgar Square to major cities across Britain, tens of thousands of British people have joined Chinese communities to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rooster.

    In Manchester there was a Dragon Parade, led by a spectacular 54-meter long dragon, ending is Chinatown where there was traditional Chinese entertainment, more than 6,000 lanterns, street food villages and a fireworks show. Celebrations also took place in Liverpool. Birmingham, Lake District, Durham, Edinburgh. Leeds and Newcastle.

    Academic Dr. Wu Kegang said that the Chinese New Year event in Britain “is now bigger than ever and it is growing every year.”

    When Wu arrived in Britain 26 years ago from Guangdong, south China, the first thing he noticed was that Chinese New Year was celebrated mainly in towns and cities with big Chinese communities. “You would go to London Chinatown and join your countrymen to celebrate, or to Chinatowns in places like Liverpool and Manchester for what were events almost exclusively held for Chinese people,” Wu recalled.

    “Now it is so different, and we are seeing local communities all over the country taking part alongside their own Chinese populations,” he said. “It is clear to me that the celebrations will continue to grow in Britain. Chinese New Year has earned its place in the calendar of events in Britain, and is here to stay.”

Internet Time Tied to Teen Depression(抑郁) Symptoms

    Spending time online is normal behaviour for teenagers. But too much Internet use by teens —or too little, for that matter —might be related to depression, a new study finds.

    The findings, reported in the journal of Pediatrics, do not mean that the Internet is to blame. For one, teens in the study who spent no time online were also at increased risk of depression symptoms. Instead, the researchers say that both heavy Internet use, and non-use, could serve as signals that a teenager is having a hard time.

    For the study, Dr Pierre-Andre Michaud and his colleagues at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, surveyed 7,200 individuals aged 16 to 20 about their Internet use.

    Those who were online more than two hours per day were considered "heavy" Internet users, while those online anywhere from several times per week to two hours per day were considered "regular" users.

    The teenagers also answered a number of health-related questions, including some standard questions about "depressive tendencies" that gauge (判定) how often a person feels sad or hopeless. Compared with regular Internet users, the study found, kids who were heavy users or non-users were more likely to be depressed or very depressed.

    Among male teens, heavy users and non-users were both around one-third more likely to have a high depression score, compared to "regular" users. Among girls, heavy Internet users had an 86 percent greater chance of depression, while non-users had a 46 percent greater likelihood compared to regular users.

    That was with factors like family income and any chronic health problems taken into account. Since teenagers typically go online to contact friends, the researchers guess that those who are never online may be more socially isolated.

    Do you have any stress in your daily life and do you know how to reduce your stress?

    Our world is changing with ever increasing speed and many people are finding it difficult to keep up with it. Although no one can control the world at large, people do have the power to control their personal world by controlling stress and their responses (反应) to it.

    Of course a certain amount of stress, both physical and mental is normal and healthy for humans but too much can be fatal. According to a report on the Mayo Clinic's website, "80% of patient visits to their doctors are stress related. Almost 60% of all employee absences from work are related to stress. Over one million people (in the U. S. ) die each year due to diseases related to stress. This includes obesity(肥胖), lung cancer (due to smoking), heart disease and high blood pressure. "

    The result of stress or the way it shows in a person's life is, in part, their reaction to the situation. Some of the ways in which stress "shows up" are signals that need to be recognised, before more serious conditions develop. A few of these are: stomachaches, chest pain, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem (自尊) and impatience.

    The good news is that these reactions can be changed naturally. By using positive suggestions a hypnotist (催眠治疗师) can help us make great changes. A deep, relaxing hypnotic rest is a very safe, pleasant and enjoyable process and stress reduction is a natural by-product.

    If you would like to get the tools to reduce stress naturally, hypnotism can be very helpful. A professional hypnotist not only guides people through stress reducing exercises and offers suggestions for dealing with stress, but also teaches self hypnosis skills which can be used throughout life.