Tiny Pacemaker Could Help Youngest Patients

 

What's up, sunshine. It's Friday fri-yay hope you're having an awesome one.

Quick psychology term that I'm going to share with you before we get toyour news and head into this weekend serial position effect.
 

serial position effect 序列位置效应(在接收连续信息时会对最初与最后的信息较有记忆)

It's a psychological phenomenon describing how people have this tendency to remember the first and last items in a series uh they remember those things best.

 

That's why I'm often saying "Let's start this week off strong let's finish this week strong we only have 86,400 seconds in a day so let's tackle this last day of the week with some enthusiasm and finish this week strong.".

We begin today with health news there's an outbreak of measles in multiple states in the United States, the outbreak began in a rural county in Texas and has now spread to several hundred cases there, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas have also confirmed cases of measles.
 

measles [ˋmiz!z] n.【医】麻疹

Measles is one of the world's most contagious diseases, it is also easily preventable with a vaccine the viral infection can be serious for small children symptoms like coughing, runny nose, sore throat, fever and skin rash are slow to appear usually 10 to 14 days after exposure.

The measles vaccine was developed in the 1960s and is so effective that measles was declared fully eradicated in the US in 2000.

 

Under normal circumstances the US Centers for Disease Control or CDC recommends one dose of the vaccine between 12 to 15 months of age and another between 4 and 6 years old.

It's important to note that measles has not been eradicated in many countries around the world and outbreaks can happen because of imported cases and low vaccination rates.

 

Local officials in States linked to the measles outbreak are now concerned the measles virus could spread into high-traffic areas and vulnerable populations because of the contagious nature of the virus and low vaccination rates in some areas of the country.

 

high-traffic [ˌhaɪˈtræfɪk] adj.（地点、地区）人流量大的

Experts expect the outbreak could continue to grow. U.S Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is publicly urging people to get the measles vaccine let's hear from our Dr Sanjay Gupta who explains what measles is and why it's so contagious.

Measles is one of the most contagious diseases on the planet now like the flu or COVID-19 it can be spread through coughing, sneezing even breathing, but the thing about the measles virus is that it can also linger longer, picture this, if someone had measles and left the room 2 hours later.

If someone who was unvaccinated walked in they would have a 90% chance of getting measles 2 hours later. It's also estimated that a person with measles could infect nine out of 10 of their close contacts if their contacts are unvaccinated.

Another reason it's so contagious is that it can spread before symptoms even develop, that means you can spread it to others days before you start to get sick,days before those characteristic red spots appear, but the key here is vaccination and because measles is so contagious you need a really high level of vaccination.

We're talking 95% in the community to help keep it at bay, that's why we see outbreaks occur in pockets of the country where that number has dropped.
 

pocket [ˋpɑkɪt] n.（孤立的）小块地区

Now to news out of the Middle East where Israel has ordered six UN schools in East Jerusalem to close within 30 days, the closures will mean roughly 800 students there may not be able to finish the school year.

The schools were run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees which operates schools for Palestinians in Israeli occupied areas.

 

Israel has accused a handful of employees of that agency in Gaza of participating in the attack on Israelis on October 7th of 2023, a claim the UN denies.

Israel's Ministry of Education is now telling parents to register the students in other schools but with the war in Gaza continuing the education system for Palestinians in the region is in ruins, at least 70% of the school buildings there in Gaza have taken direct hits from Israeli air strikes and nearly a quarter of university campuses have been destroyed.

The UN says none of the nearly 800,000 students there have had any formal schooling for more than a year, many of those schools were located within large areas of land that Israel seized to incorporate into what the military has announced as security zones.

 

schooling [ˋskulɪŋ] n. 學校教育

Our Jeremy Diamond shows us how the military transformed part of Gazan territory within about a half a mile of the Israeli border into rubble.

 

Inside Gaza swaths of land closest to the Israeli border have been turned into a wasteland.

Nearly every building within about a half a mile of the border fence has been destroyed and we filmed this footage a year ago while demolitions were still ongoing.

 

demolition [͵dɛməˋlɪʃən] n. 拆除（建筑等）

Over time the Israeli military has raised about 22 square miles of Palestinian land, creating a buffer zone on about 16% of Gaza's territory, it is a no-go zone for Palestinians, some of whom have been killed after setting foot inside the unmarked perimeter.

Over the course of the war this one-time economic hub was flattened, this video which CNN geolocated shows the destruction of Gaza's only Coca-Cola factory but it's not just factories, in the town of Khuza’a, hundreds of homes were leveled with a clear zone of destruction spanning about 1 kilometer from the border.

 

geolocate [dʒiəˋloket] v. 地理定位

Residential buildings, green houses, sheds, factories you name it, it needs to be flat that's the order. A sergeant major who served in Khuzah said, except for the UNRWA school, and that small water facility, the directive was nothing left.

 

directive [dəˋrɛktɪv] n. 指令，命令

He is one of a dozen Israeli soldiers who describe the demolitions and enforcement of the buffer zone. To breaking the silence, an Israeli watchdog group that verifies and publishes soldiers’ testimonials.

 

testimonial [͵tɛstəˋmonɪəl] n.  astatement in support of a particular truth, fact, or claim

The Israeli military did not respond to CNN's request for comment. More than 6,200 Palestinian buildings have been damaged or destroyed within 1 kilometer of the Gaza border according to satellite analysis, including here in Al Bureij where homes and acres of farmland were destroyed.

Pop Quiz, hotshot

 

hotshot [ˋhɑt͵ʃɑt] n. 高手，能人

 

What animal was the first to use an external cardiac pacemaker?

 

mouse

rabbit

dog

cat

If you said dog you’re dog on right. In 1952, doctors at the University of Toronto successfully paced the heart of a dog using an external electronic pacemaker, a medical device which is implanted in millions of people today helping to stabilize their heartbeat.

 

dog on: absolutely; doggone

pace [pes] v. 为……定步速（或速度）；调整……的速度（或步调）

pacemaker [ˋpes͵mekɚ] n. 心律调整器

Today's story getting a 10 out of 10 goes to a pacemaker so small it can fit on the tip of a needle.

Scientists at Northwestern University say they have developed the world's smallest pacemaker, smaller than a grain of rice it can be injected into a patient's body without surgery.

Normally the medical device fits in the palm of a hand typically about the size of a matchbox, our Jacqueline Howard shows us how the device works and the tiniest patients it could one day help.

It's about the same size as a sesame seed, they're calling this the world's smallest pacemaker.

 

Engineers at Northwestern University developed the device to be so minuscule that it fits inside the tip of a syringe and it can be injected right into a patient's chest so no invasive surgeries needed.

 

minuscule [ˈmɪnəskjul] adj. 微小的

syringe [ˋsɪrɪndʒ] n. 注射器

The pacemaker itself is light sensitive, it works alongside this small patch stuck to the skin. When an irregular heartbeat is detected. It flashes that light activates electrodes on the pacemaker and then sends electrical impulses to the heart helping to control and correct the pace of the heartbeats.

While this tiny pacemaker can work with a heart of any size it might especially benefit newborn babies with congenital heart defects as they recover from serious heart surgeries. Post-op recovery can be uh daunting especially for infants who undergo that kind of surgery.

 

congenital [kənˋdʒɛnət!] adj. 天生的；先天的

post-op 手术后的

The pacemaker isn't meant to be worn for life, it will dissolve away over a period of 6 to 9 months completely. For now this tiny piece of technology is still an experiment but one day it could make a big difference for our youngest tiniest heart patients.

 

dissolve [dɪˋzɑlv] v. 分解；使溶解

 

All right everybody now it's time for the best part of the week is shoutout time.

And we're showing some love to Utterback School in Conrad, Montana you are utterly awesome rise up cue that Friday music nadair remember to go out make someone smile this weekend.

You never know when or how but you just may be the light someone needs you are more powerful than you know and thanks to all of you who have been subscribing to our CNN 10 YouTube channel we're about to hit 1 million followers rise up.

I'm Coy Wire this is CNN 10 it's been a blessing to spend this week with you.