In the eastern Afghan city of Herat, 18-year-old high school student Somaya Faruqi adjusts a suction cap as she puts the finishing touches before unveiling a low-cost, lightweight ventilator created by her and six other young women.
The all-female Afghan Robotics Team, which has won international awards for its robots, started work in March on an open-source, low-cost ventilator as the coronavirus pandemic hit the war-torn nation.
It took the team almost four months to finalize the ventilator, which is partly based on a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) design, and they received guidance from experts at Harvard University.
Photo: Reuters 照片:路透
The device is easy to carry, can run on battery power for 10 hours and costs around US$700 (approx. NT$21,000) to produce, compared with the US$20,000 price of a traditional ventilator.
Although the ventilator still has to undergo final testing from health authorities before it can be used, officials welcome it in a country with only 800 ventilators, to treat the fast-growing number of coronavirus cases in a health system damaged by decades of war.
Health Ministry spokesman Akmal Samsor said once the ventilators were approved they would be rolled out in Afghan hospitals and the design shared with the World Health Organization.
Afghanistan has recorded 36,710 COVID-19 cases and 1,283 deaths, though experts warn that the true count is probably far higher due to low testing rates.
(Reuters)
在阿富汗東部的城市赫拉特,十八歲的高中生索瑪亞‧法路琪調整了吸盤,在這款低成本、輕便的呼吸器發表前,做最後的修飾。這呼吸器是由法路琪和其他六位年輕女性一起創作出來的。
阿富汗機器人團隊全由女子組成,所設計的機器人曾獲得國際獎項。冠狀病毒疫情重創已飽經戰火摧殘的阿富汗,因此小組成員自三月起,便開始研發開源、低成本的呼吸器。
該團隊花了近四個月的時間完成呼吸器,它部分是基於美國麻省理工學院的設計,團隊也受到哈佛大學專家的指導。
這套裝置便於攜帶,可用電池供電,續航力有十小時;其成本約為七百美元(約為台幣兩萬一千元),傳統的呼吸器則要價兩萬美元。
雖然這套呼吸器還必須經過衛生主管機關的最後測試才能夠派上用場,但在這僅有八百套呼吸器、染疫民眾暴增、醫療系統已被數十年戰亂毀壞的國家,政府官員對此呼吸器的研發樂見其成。
阿富汗衛生部發言人阿克馬‧山穆索表示,這些呼吸器一經核准,便將推廣至國內各醫院使用,其設計也將與世界衛生組織共享。
阿富汗已有三萬六千七百一十人確診武漢肺炎(冠狀病毒病,COVID-19),其中一千二百八十三人死亡,但專家表示,由於檢測率低,實際的數字可能還要高得多。
(台北時報林俐凱編譯)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
Everyone has seen a piece of fruit turn brown after being cut. Have you ever wondered why that happens? It is a common phenomenon that occurs due to a chemical reaction called enzymatic browning. The appearance, flavor and nutritional value of the fruit are all affected by this reaction. Some fruits, such as apples, pears, bananas, avocados and peaches, are more prone to enzymatic browning than others. These fruits contain high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, or PPO for short. __1__ This causes a chain of chemical reactions that ultimately transforms the phenolic compounds into
A: As well as Eid al-Fitr, Southeast Asia is celebrating the Water Festival this week. B: And this year, Thailand is expanding the celebration between April 12 and 16 for the event, officially known as the Songkran Festival, expecting to make 24.3 billion Thai baht in tourism revenue. A: Does Taiwan celebrate the Water Festival? B: Some local cities and counties do have similar activities. A: Let’s go experience the festival then. A: 除了「開齋節」外,東南亞「潑水節」本週也盛大登場! B: 泰國今年從4月12日到16日擴大「宋干節」連假,預估觀光收入可高達243億泰銖。 A: 台灣會慶祝「潑水節」嗎? B: 有些縣市會舉辦類似活動。 A: 那我們也去體驗一下吧。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)