Child abuse:

Schoolchildren to be taught protective measures

by Ananda KANNANGARA

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) has decided to educate schoolchildren on how to protect themselves from people who try to subject them to abuse and sexual harassment, and also various other similar problems they face on a regular basis.

According to the NCPA, special lessons which are based on these subjects will be prepared and taught at school as part of their school curriculum.

The programme will be carried out through the Education Department with the assistance of education authorities.

The NCPA, Chairperson, Anoma Dissanayake told the Junior Observer that most children, not only females, but also males in today's society faced many forms of harassment, especially sexual abuse without knowing the gravity of such offences.

"It is the duty of parents, elders and school teachers to educate children on these matters and prevent them from being engaged in such offences."She said teachers could play a major role to prevent children getting involved in such activities and therefore the NCPA proposes to educate children on these subjects at school level.

A senior NCPA official said in addition to schoolchildren being subject to physical harassment, today many schoolchildren are also victims of highway accidents, very often due to the carelessness of drivers.

He said therefore schoolchildren should also be educated on how to travel on roads and avoid road accidents .

"Children who travel by school vans could advise their drivers to refrain from careless driving or inform parents about such careless drivers,"the official said.

In the event the children cannot talk directly to the van drivers about their manner of driving, the children could even make complaints to the Police regarding their careless driving, he said.

He also focused on the school van - bus accident which occurred at Horagolla in Nittambuwa recently and said 14 schoolchildren were seriously injured due to the carelessness of the driver.

He said nine school children, travelling in a school van were also injured at Mt. Lavinia in January this year due to careless driving.

Eye injection gives a blind mouse the ability to see

This medication could be key to restoring sight in certain cases, but real obstacles exist .Losing the use of your eyes via retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration - diseases that effect your ability to sense light - can be absolutely traumatizing. But thanks to new research on lab mice, these types of blindness may soon be reversible through a series of injections.

In the study, a group of blind lab mice were given injections of a chemical called acrylamide-azobenzene-quaternary ammonium, or AAQ for short.

Previously known to be active on nerve cells, AAQ, when injected directly into a mouse's eye, allowed the animal to once again sense light. Though it's difficult for researchers to measure exactly how much of the mouse's sight was restored by the injection, lab testing has so far shown the mice regaining near-normal function.So far, AAQ has only been tested on mice - upcoming primate tests will tell scientists whether or not this drug is a possible solution for treating retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration in humans. But even if tests point to AAQ's effectiveness, regular injections may not be a preferred solution. After all, AAQ's effects only last for about 24 hours on the mice before they require another injection directly into the eye.

- Tecca

Oceans and ecosystems still absorb half of Earth's greenhouse gases

Earth's oceans, forests and other ecosystems continue to soak up about half the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere by human activities, even as those emissions have increased, according to a study by University of Colorado and NOAA scientists published August 1 in the journal Nature.

The scientists analysed 50 years of global carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements and found that the processes by which the planet's oceans and ecosystems absorb the greenhouse gas are not yet at capacity.

"Globally, these carbon dioxide 'sinks' have roughly kept pace with emissions from human activities, continuing to draw about half of the emitted CO2 back out of the atmosphere. However, we do not expect this to continue indefinitely," said NOAA's Pieter Tans, a climate researcher with NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., and co-authour of the study. The University of Colorado's Ashley Ballantyne is lead authour.

Carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere mainly by fossil fuel combustion but also by forest fires and some natural processes. The gas can also be pulled out of the atmosphere into the tissues of growing plants or absorbed by the waters of Earth's oceans. A series of recent studies suggested that natural sinks of carbon dioxide might no longer be keeping up with the increasing rate of emissions. If that were to happen, it would cause a faster-than-expected rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide and projected climate change impacts.

Ballantyne, Tans and their colleagues saw no faster-than-expected rise, however.. Their estimate showed that overall, oceans and natural ecosystems continue to pull about half of people's carbon dioxide emissions out of the atmosphere. Since emissions of CO2 have increased substantially since 1960, Ballantyne said, "Earth is taking up twice as much CO2 today as it was 50 years ago."The rest continues to accumulate in the atmosphere, where it is likely to accelerate global warming.

The researchers also scrutinized national and international inventories or bookkeeping estimates of CO2 emissions by people and compared those to the increasing atmospheric levels of the gas.The uptake of carbon dioxide by the oceans and by ecosystems is expected to slow down gradually," Tans said. Oceans, for example, are already becoming more acidic as they absorb about a quarter of the carbon dioxide pumped into the air by human activities. "As the oceans acidify, we know it becomes harder to stuff even more CO2 into the oceans," Tans said. "We just don't see a letup, globally, yet.

-ScienceDaily