英倫翻譯社/ Trsmaster

◎陳維真

A Colorado man who was admitted to the hospital for a kidney stone received surprising news when the nurse came back with test results revealing he was actually a woman.

科羅拉多州一名男子因為腎結石而住院，卻在護士領回檢查報告時接到一個令人訝異的消息，原來他是女兒身。

Denver photographer Steve Crecelius said he’s felt a little different all his life."When I was about 6 years old, I started having these feminine feelings, but that was in the ’60s. Wearing my mom’s makeup, I thought I looked pretty."

丹佛攝影師史帝夫．克里塞勒斯說他這輩子一直覺得自己有點不同。「我6歲時開始有這些女性的感覺，但那是60年代。我塗上媽媽的化妝品，覺得自己好漂亮。」

So when he went to the emergency room five years ago, he wasn’t too shocked when the nurse told him she found traits of both genders in his ultrasound results. He was intersex, meaning he had both male genitalia and internal female sex organs.

所以5年前他進入急診室，護士向克里塞勒斯表示，她在超音波檢查結果中發現克里塞勒斯有雙性性徵時，他沒有太過訝異。克里塞勒斯是雙性人，他有男性生殖器，體內也有女性的性器官。

Steve, who now goes by "Stevie," said his wife and their six children accepted his new identity right away.

現在被叫做「史蒂薇」的史帝夫表示，他的妻子和6個小孩馬上就接受了他的新身分。

◎魏國金

More than 13,000 people have been killed in Syria since an anti-regime revolt broke out in March 2011, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP on Sunday.

自2011年3月敘利亞爆發反阿塞德總統政權動亂以來，已有超過1萬3000人被殺害，敘利亞人權瞭望台的拉曼週日對法新社指出。

"In total, 13,004 people were killed," Abdel Rahman said, adding that 9,183 of them were civilians.

「總共有1萬3004人被殺。」拉曼說，他補充，當中9183人是平民。

Another 3,072 were regime troops and 749 were army defectors, he added, noting that civilians who had taken up arms during the increasingly militarised revolt were being counted under the category of "civilians."

他補充提到，另外3072人是當局部隊，749人是倒戈軍人。在武裝反叛日盛之際，拿起武器戰鬥的百姓被算在「平民」的範疇。

The violence has been relentless despite an April 12 ceasefire brokered by UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan.

儘管聯合國與阿拉伯聯盟和平特使安南促成4月12日的停火，然而暴力衝突卻不間斷。

◎國際新聞中心

Scientists say a gene variation could contribute up to 155g to a child’s birthweight.

科學家說，一種基因的變異可能會讓兒童出生體重增加多達155公克。

The gene studied is believed to act as a growth suppressor, reducing birthweight. But the UK-based researchers found a particular variant passed down from the mother can add 93g to the birthweight, or 155g if passed down from the maternal grandmother.

研究針對的這種基因據信扮演生長抑制者的角色，會降低出生體重。但英國研究人員發現一種從母親遺傳的特別基因變異，可能讓出生體重增加93公克，從外婆遺傳的基因變異，可能讓出生體重增加155公克。

Professor Gudrun Moore of University College London and colleagues looked at a gene called PHLDA2 in nearly 9,500 DNA samples taken from mothers and their babies, collected in three separate studies.

倫敦大學學院的摩爾教授與同僚，從取自母親與她們小孩的將近9500份DNA樣本中，研究一種稱為PHLDA2的基因。這些樣本取自於3份不同的研究。

They found a gene variant called RS1 appeared to change the way in which the gene functioned, leading to higher birthweights. "The gene is already known to have a profound effect on birthweight by acting as a growth suppressor," Prof Moore said.

摩爾教授說，他們發現一種稱為RS1的基因變異似乎會改變基因運作方式，導致出生體重增加，摩爾說：「這種基因已知會扮演生長抑制者的角色，對出生體重有深遠影響。」

◎陳成良

Google Inc is planning to open an online store to sell tablet PCs directly to consumers, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

Google正打算開設一家線上商店，直接賣平板電腦給消費者，據華爾街日報週四報導。

The online store would offer tablets made by Samsung Electronics Co and Asustek Computer Inc based on Google’s Android software, according to the report, which cited anonymous sources and which Reuters was not able to confirm.

該線上商店將供應由三星電子及華碩電腦公司製造、以Google的Android軟體為基礎的平板電腦，該報導引述不具名消息人士說。路透無法證實這項消息。

Google briefly sold a specially-designed Android smartphone--the Nexus One--directly to consumers in 2010, but closed the store after four months saying it had not lived up to expectations.

Google曾在2010年直接向消費者出售特別設計過的Android智慧型手機Nexus One，但4個月後就關門大吉，指該店銷售情況未如預期。

Google now relies on retail and carrier partners to sell Android smartphones made by a variety of handset makers and Android has become the world’s No.1 smartphone operating system, ahead of iPhone-maker Apple Inc.

Google目前仰賴零售及電信營運商夥伴來銷售由各家手機廠生產的Android智慧型手機，而Android已經成為全球排名第一的智慧型手機作業系統，領先iPhone製造商蘋果公司。

◎陳成良

The U.S. Army is dedicating millions of research dollars into discovering building helmets to allow soldiers to telepathically communicate with one another on the battlefield.

美國陸軍正投入數百萬美元研究經費，研製能讓士兵在戰場上透過心電感應進行交流的頭盔。

The technology, which seems like something out of a science fiction novel, would use electrodes to pick up code words that soldiers were thinking. Those codewords would then be transmitted back to a computer where the soldier’s position and message--telling, for instance, that it is safe to progress towards a target--which would be transmitted to their peers in the field.

這種技術看似源自科幻小說，將使用電極來收集士兵思考時的腦電波代碼。這些代碼隨後傳輸回一部電腦，電腦將士兵的位置和訊息，例如，朝某個目標行進是安全的等指令，傳送給戰場上的同袍。

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency（DARPA）was established in 1958 and was dedicated to expanding the Department of Defense’ technology usage, some of which included state-of-the-art, and top secret, research into the mind.

國防先進研究計畫局（DARPA）成立於1958年，致力於推廣國防部的科技應用，其中包括最先進的、最機密的心智研究。

Based largely out of University of California-Irvine, in conjunction with labs in Philadelphia and Maryland, scientists are trying to improve so-called ’synthetic telepathy’ so that it could be used in a battlefield.

這項研究工作主要由加州大學爾灣分校負責，費城和馬里蘭州的一些實驗室也參與其中。科學家試圖改進所謂的「綜合讀心術」，這樣就能應用在戰場。