Greater parental involvement ‘needed to tackle Ireland’s bullying problem’
Consultations with children aged between 13 and 17-years-old have revealed pupils would like to see more involvement from parents and students when it comes to implementing anti-bullying policies.
Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland, Children’s Ombudsman Emily Logan explained how she discussed Cyber-bullying with 300 teenagers in a bid to gather information that can be used to help schools develop strategies on managing bullying.
It was noted that many students not only felt sympathetic towards victims, but also the perpetrators, claiming many may be acting out in response to problems at home or in their community.
“I think children are keen that …teachers and principals reach out into their communities to engage with parents and the children in trying to resolve these problems,” Ms Logan stated.
The consultations revealed that many youngsters believe more information that explains what cyber bullying entails needs to be made available.
Special school assemblies held at the start of the year were suggested as one way for principals explain what forms harassment can take and that it will not be tolerated.
Irish exports surge by 10% in 3rdquarter, set for record year
Exports surged by 10 per cent in the third quarter and are now on track for a record year with sales set to top €183 billion.
The Irish Exporters Association (IEA) said exports in July, August and September had been boosted by euro weakness against the dollar and sterling and by strong growth in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and medical devices which accounted for 61 per cent of manufacturing exports.
It also reported continued strong growth in the services sector, particularly in computer services. In contrast, computer hardware and agri-food exports were down.
The IEA also warned that exports to the growing markets of Asia, Africa, Russia and South America were disappointing.
Aer Lingus airline is ‘strategically important to growth of exports’
Aer Lingus is of “strategic importance” to the growth of the export industry, the head of the Irish Exports Association said today.
The airline’s cargo facility ships a significant proportion of the country’s trade in goods between Ireland the US, accounting for about half of the value of exports, and 43 per cent of imports.
John Whelan said the Government had not given enough consideration to how vital the airline cargo facility was to high tech and life sciences exporters. It warned that Ryanair could possibly drop the air cargo facility if its takeover of the airline was successful, as the airline did not carry air cargo on its current network.
“At risk is the €18 billion of pharmaceutical and medical technology that is exported by airfreight to the US and €4.5 billion of high-tech imports required for a wide range of manufacturing companies in Ireland.
“The daily airfreight connection to the US has been at the heart of Irish export growth for several decades. Let us not forget this is our largest export market as well as our main source of foreign direct investment,” he said. “The daily airfreight link is a strategic trade corridor for Ireland and must be treated as such.”
World’s rarest whale seen for first time
When two of the exceedingly rare spade-toothed whales washed up on a New Zealand shore, they were initially mistaken for the more common Gray’s beaked whales (pictured above)
The world’s rarest whale has been seen for the first time after a mother and calf were washed up on a beach in New Zealand.
Spade-toothed beaked whales were first discovered in 1872 when bone fragments were found on a remote Pacific island, but until now the species has remained entirely hidden from human view.
In the 140 years since they were first discovered, the only sign that the creatures’ continued existence lay in two partial skulls found in New Zealand in the 1950s and Chile in 1986.
Now scientists have reported a complete description of the whales, which are thought to spend most of their lives in the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean, only rarely coming to the surface.
The Mother and her male calf were stranded on Opape Beach at the northern tip of New Zealand in December 2010 but were initially thought to be of a much more common species known as Gray’s beaked whales.
It was only after routine DNA analysis that experts realised their true identity.
Dr Rochelle Constantine of the University of Auckland said: “This is the first time this species — a whale over five meters in length — has ever been seen as a complete specimen, and we were lucky enough to find two of them.
“Up until now, all we have known about the spade-toothed beaked whale was from three partial skulls collected from New Zealand and Chile over a 140-year period. It is remarkable that we know almost nothing about such a large mammal.”
Because the animals had never been seen very little is known about their behaviour, but writing in the Current Biology journal, the researchers suggested they were likely to be “exceptionally deep divers, foraging for squid and small fish and spending little time at the surface.”
Dr Constantine said it was unclear why the species has been so elusive, but added: “It may be that they are simply an offshore species that lives and dies in the deep ocean waters and only rarely wash ashore. New Zealand is surrounded by massive oceans. There is a lot of marine life that remains unknown to us.”
Good bye battery? One day your heart might power your pacemaker
Researchers reported last Sunday that it may soon be possible to power a pacemaker by a patient’s beating heart.
The team, which presented its work at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2012 in Los Angeles, developed an energy harvesting device that someday might take the vibrations created by a heartbeat and convert them into enough electrical energy to power a pacemaker, said lead author M. Amin Karami, a research fellow in the department of aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
That may save many patients from repeated surgeries, he said.
Pacemakers, which are usually implanted in the chest, are used to control abnormal heart rhythms. One of the major problems with the devices in use today is that their batteries typically run out of juice after five to seven years of operation. For younger people with pacemakers, that means enduring repeated surgeries to implant replacements. But a pacemaker that harvested its own energy might be able to operate indefinitely.
“If we had a mechanism to generate this small amount of power, you’d never have to recharge it,” said Karami, in a video released by the American Heart Association (and available for viewing above.)
According to their research abstract, Karami and his colleagues first measured images of cardiac wall motion to estimate the vibrations created by a beating heart. Then, they used a mechanical shaking device to reproduce the same amount of vibration.
Taking a piezoelectric harvester — a harvester made with a smart material that can generate electricity when stretched or pushed out of shape — and mounting it on their shaker, they recorded how much power they could produce over 100 heart beats at differing heart rates.
The team’s energy harvester was able to generate more than 10 times the power required to operate a pacemaker, as long as heart rate was between 20 and 600 beats per minute. At just over an inch square, it was about half the size of the batteries used in today’s pacemakers.
The team does not yet have a prototype pacemaker using the energy harvester, Karami said, and will need to conduct safety testing in animals and humans.
Modified tomatoes can lower our bad cholesterol, say Californian scientists
Scientists have come up with a tasty way to lower bad cholesterol. All it takes is a helping of genetically modified tomatoes.
The more positive side of genetic modification (GM) of foodstuffs was presented yesterday at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting in Los Angeles.
Companies have been modifying food crops for years but mainly to deliver benefits such as insect and fungus resistance, attributes of little interest to the consumer.
The drug, which is a peptide, is the first of its kind made in a plant that can be eaten, the researchers, led by Prof Alan Fogelman, told the meeting.
The drug mimics one of the effects caused by good cholesterol in helping to clear out bad cholesterol.
Strict science did not, however, dictate his choice of the tomato, Prof Fogelman acknowledged – he just likes them. The team could just as well have used any fruit or vegetable.
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