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JaneChen_2009I-_拯救生命的温暖怀抱_
Please close your eyes, and open your hands. 请闭上眼睛 打开双手
Now imagine what you could place in your hands: an apple, maybe your wallet. 想象下,你们的手中可以放些什么? 一只苹果?或者钱包?
Now open your eyes. 请睁开眼睛.
What about a life? 你曾否想过一个生命?
What you see here is a premature baby. 这是一个早产儿。
premature:adj.早产的;不成熟的;比预期早的;n.早产儿;过早发生的事物;
He looks like he's resting peacefully , but in fact he's struggling to stay alive because he can't regulate his own body temperature. 看起来,他似乎在安睡,但实际上,他正与死神作斗争。 因为他无法调节自己的体温。
peacefully:adv.平静地;和平地; regulate:v.调节;控制;
This baby is so tiny he doesn't have enough fat on his body to stay warm. 这个婴儿实在太小了, 他没有足够的脂肪来维持体温。
Sadly, 20 million babies like this are born every year, around the world. 很悲哀...每年都有两千万这样的婴儿 诞生在世界上。
Four million of these babies die annually . 其中的四百万无法存活。
annually:adv.每年;一年一次;
But the bigger problem is that the ones who do survive grow up with severe , long-term health problems. 但更严重的问题是,如果他们侥幸存活 一些慢性病将伴随他们一生。
severe:adj.极为恶劣的;十分严重的;严厉的;苛刻的; long-term:adj.长期的;从长远来看;
The reason is because in the first month of a baby's life, its only job is to grow. 因为在婴儿诞生的第一个月 他们唯一要做的就是成长。
If it's battling hypothermia , its organs can't develop normally , resulting in a range of health problems from diabetes , to heart disease , to low I.Q. 如果体温不稳定,器官不能正常发育 随之而来的,就是一连串健康问题 如糖尿病,心脏病, 或弱智。
hypothermia:n.降低体温;低体温症; organs:n.[生物]器官;机构;风琴(organ的复数); normally:adv.正常地;通常地,一般地; diabetes:n.糖尿病;多尿症; disease:n.病,[医]疾病;弊病;vt.传染;使…有病;
Imagine, many of these problems could be prevented if these babies were just kept warm. 想象下,这些问题本可避免 只要能让婴儿保暖。
That is the primary function of an incubator . 给婴儿保暖是恒温箱的主要功能。
incubator:n.[禽]孵卵器;[儿科]保温箱;早产儿保育器;细菌培养器;
But traditional incubators require electricity and cost up to 20 thousand dollars. 但传统的恒温箱需要电源 且售价高达2万美元。
traditional:传统的,惯例的, incubators:n.育成中心;培养器;[禽]孵化员(incubator的复数); electricity:n.电力;电流;强烈的紧张情绪;
So, you're not going to find them in rural areas of developing countries. 在发展中国家的偏远地区,恒温箱根本不存在。
rural:adj.农村的,乡下的;田园的,有乡村风味的;
As a result , parents resort to local solutions like tying hot water bottles around their babies bodies, or placing them under light bulbs like the ones you see here -- methods that are both ineffective and unsafe . 因此,父母们只能就地取材, 如在早产儿身体周围绑上热水壶 或如你们所看的这张图,将早产儿放在灯泡下-- 这些方法效果差,且不安全。
As a result:结果; resort:n.度假胜地;诉诸;采取;旅游胜地;v.去;凭藉; bulbs:n.[电]灯泡;[植]鳞茎;大浇斗(bulb的复数); ineffective:adj.无效的,失效的;不起作用的; unsafe:adj.不安全的;危险的;不安稳的;
I've seen this firsthand over and over again . 我多次亲眼目睹这些惨剧。
firsthand:adj.直接的;直接采购的;直接得来的;adv.直接地; over and over again:adv.一再地;反复不断地;
On one of my first trips to India, I met this young woman, Sevitha, who had just given birth to a tiny premature baby, Rani . 头几次去印度时,我遇到了这样一位年轻的女性,Sevitha, 她刚刚诞下了一个瘦小的早产儿,Rani。
Rani:n.王妃;王侯夫人;
She took her baby to the nearest village clinic , and the doctor advised her to take Rani a city hospital so she could be placed in an incubator. 她带着孩子去了村子里最近的诊所, 医生建议她带Rani去市区的医院 把Rani放在恒温箱里。
clinic:n.诊所;临床实习;(医院的)门诊部;门诊时间; advised:adj.考虑过的; v.劝告; (advise的过去分词和过去式)
But that hospital was over four hours away. 但去医院要花四个多小时。
And Sevitha didn't have the means to get there, so her baby died. Sevitha没办法去, 于是,她的宝贝走了。
Inspired by this story, and dozens of other similar stories like this, my team and I realized what was needed was a local solution , something that could work without electricity, 由这个故事,及其他类似的故事中受到启发, 我和我的团队意识到,必须要有一个能够就地取材的办法, 一个可不插电的工具,
Inspired:adj.受到启发的; v.鼓舞; (inspire的过去分词和过去式) solution:n.解决方案;溶液;溶解;解答;
that was simple enough for a mother or a midwife to use, given that the majority of births still take place in the home. 简单易用,不会难倒母亲和产婆, 因为大多数的婴儿仍然是在家中被接生的。
midwife:n.助产士;促成因素;vt.助胎儿出生;促成; majority:n.大部分:大多数:多数票:成年人: take place:发生;举行;
We needed something that was portable , something that could be sterilized and reused across multiple babies, and something ultra-low-cost, compared to the 20,000 dollars that an incubator in the U.S. costs. 这个工具需方便携带, 能够被消毒,并给不同的婴儿重复使用, 价格得极其便宜, 远低于两万美元, 这就是我们要设计的恒温箱。
portable:adj.便携式的;手提的;轻便的;n.便携机;(尤指)手提电脑; sterilized:v.灭菌;消毒;使绝育;(sterilize的过去分词和过去式) multiple:adj.数量多的;多种多样的;n.倍数; compared:adj.比较的,对照的; v.相比; (compare的过去式和过去分词)
So, this is what we came up with. 这就是我们的成果。
What you see here looks nothing like an incubator. 它看起来一点也不像个恒温箱。
It looks like a small sleeping bag for a baby. 反似婴儿用的睡袋。
sleeping bag:n.睡袋;
You can open it up completely. It's waterproof . 你可以把它完全打开。它是防水的。
waterproof:adj.防水的,不透水的;v.使防水;n.防水材料;
There is no seams inside so you can sterilize it very easily. 无缝设计,便于消毒。
seams:n.缝合线(seam的复数);缝合处;v.焊接(seam的三单形式);用线缝接;
But the magic is in this pouch of wax . 但神奇的地方就在这一包蜡里。
pouch:n.小袋;育儿袋;烟草袋;vi.成袋状;vt.使成袋状;把…装入袋中; wax:n.蜡; v.给…打蜡; adj.蜡制的;
This is a phase-change material. 这是一种渐变性材料。
It's a wax-like substance with a melting point of human body temperature, 37 degrees Celsius . 形似蜡,融点为人体体温 37摄氏度。
substance:n.物质;实质;主旨;物品; melting point:n.熔点; Celsius:adj.摄氏的;n.摄氏度;
You can melt this simply using hot water and then when it melts it's able to maintain one constant temperature for four to six hours at a time, after which you simply reheat the pouch. 用热水就可以把它融化 当它融化时,它将保持恒定的温度 每次维持4到6小时, 之后,你可以对包囊再加热。
melts:n.[冶]熔体(melt的复数);v.熔化(melt的第三人称单数形式); maintain:v.维持;保持;维修;保养;坚持(意见); reheat:vt.再热;将…重新加热;n.再热(炉);
So, you then place it into this little pocket back here, and it creates a warm micro-environment for the baby. 将它放在背后的小口袋里, 它会为婴儿营造 一个温暖的小环境。
Looks simple, but we've reiterated this dozens of times by going into the field to talk to doctors, moms and clinicians , to ensure that this really meets the needs of the local communities . 看似简单,但我们为此多次 造访当地的医生,母亲,诊所 以确保它能满足当地的要求。
reiterated:反复的;重复的; clinicians:临床医生(clinician的名词复数); ensure:vt.保证,确保;使安全; communities:n.社区;社会;团体;共有(community的复数)
We plan to launch this product in India in 2010. 我们计划于2010年在印度投放该产品。
launch:v.发射(导弹,火箭等); n.发射;
And the target price point will be 25 dollars, less than 0.1 percent of the cost of a traditional incubator. 目标价格定为每只25美元, 不到传统恒温箱 价格的0.1%。
Over the next five years we hope to save the lives of almost a million babies. 在接下来的五年, 我们希望能够救助一百万名婴儿。
But the longer-term social impact is a reduction in population growth. 但它长期的社会影响是降低人口增长。
impact:n.影响;效果;碰撞;冲击力;v.挤入,压紧;撞击;对…产生影响; reduction:n.减少;缩小;降低;减价;折扣;缩图;
This seems counter-intuitive , but turns out that as infant mortality is reduced population sizes also decrease , because parents don't need to anticipate that their babies are going to die. 听起来似乎有违常理, 但只要婴儿的死亡率降低, 人口也将减少, 因为父母们不用担心孩子会过早夭折 而生更多的孩子。
counter-intuitive:adj.反直觉的;违反语感的; infant:n.婴儿;幼儿;未成年人;adj.婴儿的;幼稚的;初期的;未成年的; mortality:n.死亡数,死亡率;必死性,必死的命运; decrease:v.降低;减少;缩小;减弱;n.减少;减小量;所减少的总量;减缩位置; anticipate:v.预期,期望;占先,抢先;提前使用;
We hope that the Embrace infant warmer and other simple innovations like this represent a new trend for the future of technology : simple, localized , affordable solutions that have the potential to make huge social impact. 我们希望这款 温暖的拥抱 以及其他类似的小创新 能代表未来科技的趋势: 简约化,本土化,经济化, 这将对社会产生巨大影响力。
Embrace:n.拥抱,怀抱;v.拥抱;乐意采纳(思想、建议等);信奉;包括; innovations:n.创新(innovation的复数);改革; represent:v.代表;表现;描绘;回忆;再赠送; trend:n.趋势;动向;趋向;动态;v.走向;趋向; technology:n.技术;工艺;术语; localized:adj.局部的;地区的;小范围的;v.定位(localize的过去分词); affordable:adj.负担得起的; potential:n.潜能;可能性;[电]电势;adj.潜在的;可能的;势的;
In designing this we followed a few basic principles . 在设计中,我们遵循了一些基本的法则。
principles:n.原则;主义;本质;政策;(principle的复数)
We really tried to understand the end user, in this case, people like Sevitha. 我们急用户之所急,想用户之所想, 了解Sevitha他们的需求。
We try to understand the root of the problem rather than being biased by what already exists. 我们努力挖掘问题的根源 不受表面现象的影响。
biased:adj.有偏见的;结果偏倚的,有偏的;
And then we thought of the most simple solution we could to address this problem. 我们希望寻找最简单的方法 来解决问题。
In doing this, I believe we can truly bring technology to the masses . 这样一来,我相信科技必将造福于大众。
masses:n.民众;大量(mass的复数);包块;v.集中;聚集(mass的三单形式);
And we can save millions of lives, through the simple warmth of an Embrace. 通过简单的 温暖的拥抱 ,我们可以拯救许多生命。