BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI
The public update noted that the downtrend in infections is giving hospitals a breather but that personal protective equipment remains lacking.
Plastic, meet your match. New research shows that mealworms can eat Styrofoam, and the waste is biodegradable. http://cnn.it/1LkUySV
塑膠，滿足你的比賽。新的研究表明粉虱可以吃發泡膠，並可生物降解廢物。HTTP://cnn.it/1LkUySV
翻譯由 Bing 提供
Mealworms may help fight our plastic waste problem
"The mealworm's gut environment is very important."
CNN.COM|由 JAREEN IMAM, CNN 上傳
A breather from the feverish stock market rally that hit Tokyo in the first half of the year has slowed luxury purchases. More worrisome, companies have hesitated to start raising wages despite a rebound in their profits, a reluctance that Mr. Abe has taken to complaining about.今年上半年東京股市暴漲之中發生的短暫停頓，導致了奢侈品銷售的放緩。更令人擔心的是，儘管利潤反彈，企業對漲薪卻一直猶豫不決，這已經引來了安倍晉三的抱怨。
Biden inaugurated ahead of showpiece Monday
Iconic Australian brewer Foster's Group dropped its resistance to a takeover by SABMiller and agreed to a sale to its U.K. rival for more than $10 billion.
Pièce de résistance is a French term (circa 1839), translated into English literally as "piece of resistance", referring to the best part or feature of something (as in a meal), a showpiece, or highlight. Literal translation of the phrase, however, fails to define it. The phrase gives the sense that the referred-to element is the defining essence of the whole, that part that makes it memorable or gives it its unique character.
New JAL chief relies on 'amoeba' style for rebound
2010/02/03
Japan Airlines Corp. Chairman Kazuo Inamori, right, inspects the company's aircraft maintenance facility at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Tuesday with JAL President Masaru Onishi. (AZUMI FUKUOKA/ THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)
Japan Airlines Corp. restarted Monday under a new chairman who promised to introduce an "amoeba" style of management and eliminate the airline's red tape that has strangled profits and worker enthusiasm.
"I think that JAL was a bureaucratic organization. I want to change the minds of its executives and other employees so that they become conscious about profits and losses," Kazuo Inamori, the new chairman, said at a news conference in Tokyo.
Inamori, 78, said his amoeba style increases a sense of management among employees and rejuvenates their interest in profitability.
Although Inamori has a track record of success, turning around JAL, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, poses perhaps his most difficult challenge.
The airline has fallen into financial trouble several times since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States. However, JAL "overcame" the difficulties through government assistance.
"Every time (government) money was poured in, JAL took a breather and became remiss. The government overprotected the airline," a senior official of the transport ministry said.
New JAL President Masaru Onishi agreed that the government handouts led to laziness within the airline.
"Without making efforts to get funds from the markets, we thought that we could just obtain assistance from the (government-affiliated) Development Bank of Japan," Onishi said.
In the news conference, Inamori said a new mind-set was needed among JAL employees.
He cited his success in reaping annual sales exceeding 1 trillion yen ($11.1 billion) each at electronics giant Kyocera Corp. and mobile phone network operator KDDI Corp., as well as turning around the fortunes of copy machine maker Mita Industrial Co., now called Kyocera Mita Corp.
Under the amoeba method, employees are split into teams of up to several dozen members. The leader of each team "manages" the others to increase earnings per hour.
The performance of each team is evaluated at the end of each month and disclosed to all company employees on the first day of the following month.
A team leader who has reached a high performance level is promoted to manager of a bigger team.
Giving employees a strong awareness of management leads to increased productivity of the entire company, Inamori said. The system also encourages employees to do their jobs quicker.
While Inamori expressed confidence that amoeba management will function well in rehabilitating JAL, he acknowledged it will be a tough challenge.
Mita Industrial, which had been placed under bankruptcy protection, became a group company of Kyocera in January 2000. After adopting the amoeba management style under Inamori, the company reached its rehabilitation target in three years, seven years ahead of schedule.
Managers and their subordinates at Kyocera Mita also held frequent drinking sessions to brainstorm, discuss new themes and prevent numerical targets from being the only focus.
However, the history of JAL is very different from those of Kyocera, KDDI and Kyocera Mita. In addition, the airline industry could prove a more complicated sector than the electronics and telecommunications industries.
There is also the question surrounding Inamori's age. He said he would come to the office for only about three days a week due to health reasons, so it might be difficult to spread his ideas to JAL employees.
"In the amoeba management, it is important to change the minds of employees," an executive at Kyocera said. "If I use an analogy, it is like Chinese medicine therapy that gradually reforms one's physical constitution.
"I wonder if the method will work well in the current JAL, which needs powerful medicine or even surgery."
"I think that JAL was a bureaucratic organization. I want to change the minds of its executives and other employees so that they become conscious about profits and losses," Kazuo Inamori, the new chairman, said at a news conference in Tokyo.
Inamori, 78, said his amoeba style increases a sense of management among employees and rejuvenates their interest in profitability.
Although Inamori has a track record of success, turning around JAL, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, poses perhaps his most difficult challenge.
The airline has fallen into financial trouble several times since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States. However, JAL "overcame" the difficulties through government assistance.
"Every time (government) money was poured in, JAL took a breather and became remiss. The government overprotected the airline," a senior official of the transport ministry said.
New JAL President Masaru Onishi agreed that the government handouts led to laziness within the airline.
"Without making efforts to get funds from the markets, we thought that we could just obtain assistance from the (government-affiliated) Development Bank of Japan," Onishi said.
In the news conference, Inamori said a new mind-set was needed among JAL employees.
He cited his success in reaping annual sales exceeding 1 trillion yen ($11.1 billion) each at electronics giant Kyocera Corp. and mobile phone network operator KDDI Corp., as well as turning around the fortunes of copy machine maker Mita Industrial Co., now called Kyocera Mita Corp.
Under the amoeba method, employees are split into teams of up to several dozen members. The leader of each team "manages" the others to increase earnings per hour.
The performance of each team is evaluated at the end of each month and disclosed to all company employees on the first day of the following month.
A team leader who has reached a high performance level is promoted to manager of a bigger team.
Giving employees a strong awareness of management leads to increased productivity of the entire company, Inamori said. The system also encourages employees to do their jobs quicker.
While Inamori expressed confidence that amoeba management will function well in rehabilitating JAL, he acknowledged it will be a tough challenge.
Mita Industrial, which had been placed under bankruptcy protection, became a group company of Kyocera in January 2000. After adopting the amoeba management style under Inamori, the company reached its rehabilitation target in three years, seven years ahead of schedule.
Managers and their subordinates at Kyocera Mita also held frequent drinking sessions to brainstorm, discuss new themes and prevent numerical targets from being the only focus.
However, the history of JAL is very different from those of Kyocera, KDDI and Kyocera Mita. In addition, the airline industry could prove a more complicated sector than the electronics and telecommunications industries.
There is also the question surrounding Inamori's age. He said he would come to the office for only about three days a week due to health reasons, so it might be difficult to spread his ideas to JAL employees.
"In the amoeba management, it is important to change the minds of employees," an executive at Kyocera said. "If I use an analogy, it is like Chinese medicine therapy that gradually reforms one's physical constitution.
"I wonder if the method will work well in the current JAL, which needs powerful medicine or even surgery."
例：
A ruling by a federal appeals court yesterday could jeopardize a criminal case against former employees of the accounting firm KPMG -- a case that has been cited by prosecutors as the showpiece of a broad investigation into the sale of questionable tax shelters that helped wealthy investors evade billions of dollars in taxes.
But some educators and
students say projects playing off current debates can improve the odds
of getting noticed, winning a prize and having a showpiece entry for a
college résumé.
The school's new home is a brick-and-glass showpiece in a business and
development park, the frame of the military base's chapel incorporated
into the cafeteria.
比較 centrepiece
showpiece
The noun showpiece has one meaning:
Meaning #1: the outstanding item (the prize piece or main exhibit) in a collection
Synonyms: collector's item, piece de resistance
日本語 (Japanese)
n. -,（特別）展示品; ((特に)) 優れた見本.、絶好の手本, 見本となる傑作,
Styrofoam
發泡膠
amoeba
a·moe·ba(ə-mē'bə)
also
n., pl., -bas, also -bas, or -bae, also -bae (-bē).
Any of various one-celled aquatic or parasitic protozoans of the genus Amoeba or related genera, having no definite form and consisting of a mass of protoplasm containing one or more nuclei surrounded by a flexible outer membrane. It moves by means of pseudopods.
[New Latin, genus name, from Greek amoibē, change, from ameibein, to change.]
amoebic a·moe'bic (-bĭk) adj.remiss
adj.
- Lax in attending to duty; negligent.
- Exhibiting carelessness or slackness. See synonyms at negligent.
[Middle English, from Latin remissus, past participle of remittere, to remit, slacken. See remit.]
remissly re·miss'ly adv.remissness re·miss'ness n.
breather
Pronunciation: /ˈbriːðə/
noun
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