The Little Ones

The Little Ones

By Tenzing Dolkar 7A

It’s sunny out there, ponds are drying.

And the little tadpoles are in fear.

Moving and jumping, waiting for the rain.

Poor! I feel so sad, for them it’s too bad.

Nowhere left to go, how helpless we are too.

Lastly, poor little ones are going to die.

Being the part of the Earth’s pie.

For them the world seems dark.

Though everywhere around is bright and green.

Is there anything that we can do?

Do they have to be in water?

Can no one invent anything?

For these dying poor little ones!

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A Gentle Warning!

A Gentle Warning!

By Tenzin Dickey 7A

Don't make the earth mess.

Or you will forever stay in stress.

Earth is very generous.

People are very mean.

Let us all help our mother earth.

To keep pollution under control.

To have monsoon with no floods.

To enjoy spring and summer.

With no global warming.

And to be safe under the protective shield.

Of ozone from the ultra violet rays.

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Science Is the Solution for Problem

Science Is the Solution for Problem

By Tenzin Rangdol Dawa

People are dying, virus are spreading.

Looking for solutions is the aim of scientists.

Maths is our brain, Social is our lungs.

English is our heart and science is our soul.

Pen can write on paper, phone can send voice messages.

These are the inventions of science, which can predict the future.

Pele is the best in football; Jordon is the best in basketball.

Roald Dahl is the best author and Eisenstein is the best scientist.

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Empathy in psychiatry

Empathy in psychiatry

Tenzin Diki, XI A Science

Psyciatry is the medical speciality devoted to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of mental disorders. It has been described as an intermediary between the world from a social contest and the world from the perspective of those who are mentally ill. In its ongoing attempts to define, understand and categorise disorders and determine the best treatments, the medical speciality of psychiatry is always up against the protean complexity of our human brain.

Despite evidence for the centrality of the doctor –patient relation in effective, psychiatric treatment, the current research paradigm of psychiatry has paid limited attention to the role of empathetic human understanding in routine psychiatric treatments. There is increasing neurobiological evidence for the importance of emotional and interpersonal aspects of treatment for patients with mental health conditions. Inspite of the evidence for the importance of these empathetic interpersonal aspects of psychiatric treatment, there has been little recent discourse in the psychiatric literature about how empathy can be effectively used in the day to day practice of clinical psychiatry.

It is generally accepted that the modern English term ‘Empathy’ is derived from the German word ‘Einfuhlung’ which is a term from aesthetics, approximately meaning to ‘Feel into’ an object. According to NCBI, Carl Rogers is perhaps the most well known for his description of empathy in mental health context. He defined empathy as  ‘To perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with emotional components which pertain there to as if one were the other person, but without ever losing the ‘as if’ condition.

Empathy is widely endorsed as a desirable quality in doctors and is correlated with better patient satisfactory outcomes and savings in the time and expense. It has however proven challenging to measure empathy in medical practice or even defines it satisfactorily.

In general psychiatry, research attention to empathy has been very limited. A recent qualitative study found that resonating with a person and being available to understand them remains a key element of treatment according to patients but other than a few extant anecdotal account, there has been very little empirical work on empathy in general psychiatric practice, particularly in terms of how empathy is enacted.

This research gap is problematic, because empathy is especially important and complex to utilize in general psychiatry without an understanding of how empathy is enacted and used during the daily tasks of the psychiatrist empathy remains an abstract concept rather than a practice that can be discussed, improved and taught effectively.

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Aging

Aging

Tenzin Choezin, XI A Science

As the time goes by a person looks in the mirror and see himself getting a different and variety of look as the time goes. This is called aging. Aging is the process of becoming older. As we grow old, we age and this brings a lot of changes in person’s life.

According to me, we grew old because of DNA oxidation. As the time passes, our bodies get oxidized as we inhale oxygen during respiration. In this century we are not able to find the real cause of aging. In some animals such as backward aging jelly fish has found as way to cheat death by actually reversing its aging process according to National Geographic. The jellyfish can return to its polyp stage over a three day period, transforming its cell into a younger state that will eventually grow into adulthood all over again.

IN the near future, it is possible that the scientists will find the cause of aging and discover some method to slow its and stop it and eventually even reverse it. If ageing can be stooped this will bring a huge change to the world. If anti-aging is possible then living or dying will be an option. Which is a great to me and I hope it is for you as well.

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Ancient remedies like Acupuncture and Herbal medication for treatment of diseases; connecting science to culture

Ancient remedies like Acupuncture and Herbal medication for treatment of diseases; connecting science to culture

Youngzin Lhamo, XI A Science

Treatments for problems of the digestive system, muscle pains etc are dated long back in the ancient times. As long ago as 25,000B.C, the Chinese treated various digestive disorders with acupuncture. Acupuncture is a painful yet an interesting treatment in which very thin needles are placed into the body at key points. It is an ancient remedy, yet famous in all ways. For digestive system, this treatment has been proven to control appetite and to reduce stomach upset.

The ancient Chinese also used plants to treat digestive disorders. Plants used in this way are called herbs. The yellow underground stem of Chinese Rhubarb has been used for more than 2,000 years to regulate digestion. Another herb used as medicine since ancient time is garlic. The Chinese, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Hindus and Egyptians all used garlic to treat various intestinal disorders.

These practices are healthy and cause no side effects during treatment. Acupuncture is more popular in eastern Asian countries although it is practiced in other countries too. Acupuncture has its own depth study especially about areas of pinning points and its required technique. The practices of acupuncture and herbs are visible in Tibetan communities too. All medicines provided in Tibetan hospitals lead by Men-tsee-khang are herbal medicine. Since everything in the world has its merit and demerit and limitations, afore mentioned practices also has drawbacks. These treatment practices take quite along long time to heal any curable diseases.

The patients require lots of patience, faith and must be consistent especially in taking the herbal medicines on time. The roots of patience are always a fruitful result. The final outcomes are satisfactory with its root healing power. These herbal medicines heals a disease from the root rather than curing the symptoms like other effective dosage that heals us from the pain for a short duration.

These practices are convenient and beneficial. Nature is always healthy for our body. There are many ways in which the traditional old practices edges over modern high chemical input dosage which heals one and rises another disorder.

Hence, believe in nature and healing power would be more stronger with your faithful energy. I assume theses practices more significant and desirable. Look around for some interesting news about people who has been cured from incurable cancers and other benefits of traditional remedies for treatment of dieses.

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Happiness –the childbirth

Happiness –the childbirth

Tenzin Tselha, XI B Science

The development of the baby since nine months or 38 weeks or 266 days passed. The day has arrived, the gestation period. The long awaited moment of the family arrived, filled with fear, excitement and multiple emotions. The pregnant mother suffers the uterine contraction of the mother efforts fully for the healthy delivery of the baby out of the comfort zone in fifteen minutes. The process of this delivery is termed as parturition. The labour process of childbirth comprises mainly of four stages.

Starting witht the mother’s contraction and to the travelling of foetus down the birth canal, expulsion and the delivery of the baby and it’s placenta. If the mother of the baby proceeds the contraction normally, the moment of happiness and ladoos begins for the family. But in case, the mother is not able to contract week enough and unable to push the baby properly, labour techniques are needed. While the contraction takes place, with each contraction, the mother should relax for the foetus to receive oxygen. Without proper relaxation, the amount of blood reaching the foetus becomes lesser.

Relaxation and deep breathing will help the mother to reduce pain. The gynecologist will even provide a mixture of half air, half nitrous oxide at the beginning of contraction. During the delivery, the heart rate of the foetus is in between 120 to 160 beats per minute.

Normally, the rate decreases with each contraction and comes back. If it does not return to normal, this will be a problem which should be treated. Understand the suffering of the mother and pay the love and care back.

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Neurogenesis

Neurogenesis

Tenzing Thokmai, XI A Science

The term neurogenesis might sound like something out of science fictional movie or something only the high educated professors would understand, however it is not as complicated or futuristic as it may seem or sound. Neurogenesis is jut a fancier term that simply means the creation of new nerve cells but this creation of new nerve cell is controversial subject among the neuroscientists. You may be wondering why? So, here is the answer.

Until recently, most neuroscientist thought we were born with all the neurons that we were ever going to have. It was considered that the numbers of neurons were fixed and they did not replicate after the maturity of the brain. When we were babies we tend to produce new neurons to help build the pathways called neural circuits that acted as information highways between different parts of the brain. But, the Scientists believed that the generation of new neurons during the age of adult would disrupt the brain ability to learn and remember.

In 1962, scientist Joseph Altman was the first one who as able to provide evidence of neurogenesis (the birth of neurons) in a region of an adult rat brain called the hippocampus where the brain plays an important role in memory and spatial navigation. Then in 1979, another scientist, Michael Kaplan confirmed Altman’s finding in the rat brain after which in 1983, he found neural stem cells in the forebrain of an adult monkey from which new neurons were formed and regenerated.

These discoveries about neurogenesis in the adult brain were surprising to other researchers who did not believed that it could occur in humans. But, later in early 1980s, scientist Fernando Nottebohm and his research team came to know that the number of neurons in the forebrain of male canries dramatically increased during the mating season. This was the time when the birds needed to learn new songs to attract females. Nottebohm believed that these new neurons helped them to remember and learn those new songs which gave rise to the idea that the brains of mammals might too generate new neurons throughout their lifespan.

So, if new neurons are being formed in our so called brain then how can we facilitate it in order to make our mind sharper and gain long lasting memory power? Thus, many scientists say that it can be achieved through.

Exercise: running, yoga and sports increases hormones such as testosterone which is highly beneficial for neurogenesis and reduces stress.

Meditation: It has been found that meditation leads to increase in grey matter density in our brain including the hippocampus and you don’t have to be particularly Buddhist to practice meditation. Anyone from any religion can practice it.

Nutrition: As the saying goes “You become what you eat” is quite true because stuffs such as blueberries and green tea are good for brain health and supportive of neurognesis.

Rest and No stress: It is said that stress can cause death of neurons so be careful and just take a chill pill because you don’t want your brain to end up empty.

That’s all for now but for some neuroscientist, neurognesis in the adult brain is still an unproven theory. Bhut, others think the evidence offers intriguing possibilities about the role of adult generated neurons in learning and memory. So, this mystery will go on but my final question is “Do you believe it, or Not?”

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A story of a cancer survivor

A story of a cancer survivor

Yangchen Lhamo Drungtso, XI B Science

In the United States in 2017, an estimated 10, 270 new cases of cancer wil be diagnosed among children from birth to 14 years and about 1, 190 children are expected to die from the disease. According to World Health Orgnaisation (WHO), deadly disease ‘Cancer’ was defined as a generic term for a large group of diseases characterized by the growth of abnormal cells beyond their usual boundaries that then invade adjoining parts of the body and spread to other organs . So, I don’t think that it is an alarming piece of news that whole world needs to know so that we can address the issue soon.

Have you ever thought in the same manner and talked about these issues with your peers? Or  have you ever dreamt of becoming a life saver? For some, the answers may pop out to be a big fat “NO”. But, for me, as an eleventh grader from TCV School Selakui, I have dreamt of becoming a pediatric oncologist who could help children escape children from the inevitability of death due to cancer.

One fine morning, as I searched around my table to find my important research paper, my eyes caught a s statement by the well known Indian oncologist Siddhartha Mukerjee who talked in one of his interview in which she said, “Anyone who has spent time the oncology clinic understands that it can be if you look at it in a certain way a very depressing place. Perhaps the most striking sign of that is when young residents and fellows say, “I don’t want to become an oncologist because everyone dies. “It is absolutely not true”. And my eyes drawn towards that e last sentence which brings a ray of hope that can illuminate the lives of many cancer patients. Every year, 300, 000 families around the world will hear, “Your child has cancer”. And I can’t just sit, watching these heart wrecking news and ending up as a mere oncologist. It carries a huge responsibility for a future oncologist like me to take the road less travelled and to explore for an effective treatment.

            Beside accidents, cancer stands for the second leading cause of death in children youndger than 15 years of old. Children having cancer treatment have to overcome unbearable treatments like  radiation and chemotherapy that make life unbearable to live. And parker is one of the children with cancer. This life threatening moment happened at the age of six and half years. On the morning of March, 2013 he got an injury to his left hip but never knew that this small injury would bring a huge loss and burden to his family. Over the following weeks the pain grew intensely, his ability to walk became impaired, he developed diarrhea and his eyes began to bulge out. Not only that, he woke up in the middle of the night with low grade fever and his legs started hurting. So, he was sent back home from his boarding school. They consulted many pediatricians and Parker finally had an X-ray. After hours of observation and analysis, the pediatrician came up with his X-ray explaining them that, his hip was normal but there were some infections in his body. To get a CT scan for confirmation was going to take a lot of the time to schedule.

On the tenth day of April, 2013, before their morning alarm rang, they were awakened by the shrill cry of Parker. They rushed him to the ER Labs at Rady Children’s Hospital in SanDiego. Since, the labs were closed, there were no patients in sight. Parker’s mother told the doctors about his symptoms and handed the lab results. While waiting for the doctor, his mother craked jokes and acted as if she wasn’t scared at all. Then the doctors came with her eyes scarlet, swollen as if she had wept. She explained that there was a hught lump on Parker’s left kidney but they were unable to know what the lump was. So, They met with an oncologist and he explain to them that Parker had stage four neuroblastoma. Among the top fiev pediatric cancers, neuroblastoma is a solid tumor that arises from immature nerve cells in young children. It is found primarily in children younger than the age of 5 years old. It mostly begins in the adrenal glands and makes up 7 percent of childhood cancers in the U.S.

            The neuroblastoma in Parker started on his left adrenal glands and metastatised to his bone and 87% of his bone morrow. Thought the chances for his survival were only about 20%, Parker fought it fiercely as he endured then hours of tumor surgery, eight rounds of thermotherapy, fourteen rounds of radiation, ten cycles of a painful mouse antibody, the so called 3F8, and finally harvested 500 millions natural killer cells from this father. Through many sacrifices, a seven year old child has survived. During that time, a cancer survivor named Aiden who has once suffered from state four neuroblastoma gave parker immense hope during his dark days and helped him to get in touch with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York.

Now the big question arises. “How can we help these cancer patients?” Even thought we have treatments for this, we are still facing problems with intensive treatment that carries many unwanted side effects and even present possibility of the recurring tomor. Thus, the young future scientist and oncologist needs to ponder over this situation and find new solution. Finding better ideas and innovations to cure this deadly disease is the need of the hour. Besides this its our responsibility to lift up the spirits of these innocent children by nurture then with hope, helping them to tolerate with the situation and to give then a new life.

“Support the fighters

Admire the survivors

Honor the taken

Never, ever give up Hope”

                                         Anonymous

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My Life and NIPAH Virus

My Life and NIPAH Virus

Tenzin Lhadon

I thought that i had the greatest family ever...

Actually I had, until he came into my life...NIPHA VIRUS!.He was something that i can't control, something unacceptable and something.... horrible!

I lived in a village called Sungai Nipha in Malaysia with my parents and my younger sister who is barely a year old. As for me, I am Gina, a ten years old girl...I was everyone’s favourite and laughter. I use to help my father with his farm and my mother with her animal husbandary..When i get free time i use to help my uncle and aunt with their shops and i also use to spent time with the grandparents listening to their folk tales....I had no friend that i could play with because i was always busy helping the elder one accept for Ream,My cute baby pig..She was all i have as a friend.

Everything was going fine and happy...But one dreadful evening, my mother got sick. She had very high fever and she coughed a lot..We showed her to doctor and they said it will go away quickly..We gave her the medicine that doctor prescribed and slept. Next morning, She was quite better than last night so she went to work. We thought it was not that much serious as it happened to be.Day after day,she keep having headache and high fever. She keeps coughing a lot and somethimes she can't even breadth..We called our Uncle and aunt, they carried her to the city for a better doctor.I was left with my Ream and aunt..I got so worried and scared..Scared thinking that she will leave me alone and forever..For the whole two weeks i had no one that could nurse me to sleep..My aunt barely comes to me as she got super busy with her shop.All i had as my parent and as my family was Ream..she was all i had.

After two weeks, I hurried outside with joy and excitement to meet my mother once again...I found my father and uncle crying and sobbing until they saw me and my father came running towards me and hugged me..That time i didn't feel the warmth of his body but the cold sorrow that he brought with him..And my first greatest love and laughter was snatched away from me..

Along with my father some of the nurses and doctors came  for check up and took some sample of what my mother use to have and wear..After some days they came again, and this time they has the reason behind why my mother died, the newly found desease NIPHA VIRUS!!.They told us that it was their first time knowing such kind of virus as they never had such desease before..They said they don't have cure right now so all we could do is to prevent it before anything gets wrong..They started going  all around the village in search of infected people..Not many days after my mother died,Someone was also got by that virus and then day after day many poeple got sick and we came to know that this virus can spread though human to human through direct contact. ,many were dead and many were  scared..The doctors can't do anything,they just gave hopes to those who were dying and created awareness to those who were scared and was fully stranger to such kind of desease...

Months passed and the doctors and the researchers got to know more about the virus..They found that the virus can spread among humans and to those who have close contact with infected pigs thus they wanted all the pigs in our village to be killed.Even my  Ream...I told them she was not infected and dangerouse..i told them she had nothing to do with that virus..i told them i need her and I told them she is a part of my family.But no one listened, even my father.They took away all the pigs and killed them without a single mercy..And then  our village has became a cemetry with full of unburied dead body of humans and pigs..people were scared about there unknowing death..They don't want to be captured by that deadly desease and they they don't want to die being a host of that virus..Most of them moved to city and so my uncle and aunt did.They carried my little sister with them and promised my dad to take care of her and raise her well..Our village were under big research and was also in great danger..Half of our poeple were dead and one forth went to city.people like me and my father were left helping the doctors and researcher.

I once dreamed of my own family with my own parents.I once wish for my parents to live long so that  my children will have someone they call as grandparents. I wished to have a wonderful and a happy life.But now all those dreams and my wishes washed away with the endless blood of my poor villagers and the animals.

My father wants me  to go with my aunt,but i don't wanna let  him die alone..i wanted to take care of him until he take his last breath.Day after day my father got worse and he was near his death.All i could do is watch him dying, suffering and crying out in pain so much.I couldn't even guide my  parents well to their death bed.I couldn't get good time to give them a nice farewell and i couldn't get enough time to tell them how much i love them and how much i will miss them..All i could do is cry, cry and cry my lungs out.

People sent by the government gave us food and shelter..They had been very nice to us, specially Dr.Clay.He was with me when i was hopeless and crying endless after my father's death."Thats enough!!"I shouted myself by the river under the full moon."I had this enough of you...you took away all i had..All my poor family and my friend..Now i had no one to rely upon and its all your fault..What have i done to you that you could be so rude to me like this..Why??"I cried talking to myself."Ahem..sorry to interrupt your crying but can I join you??"This was the first time meeting with Dr.Clay.He sat beside me.."This is nobody's fault...And if you really want to blame someone.Then blame him."He pointed to a fruit bad hanging on a tree.."We were first clueless about this dreadful desease..Nobody knows until your mother came.You can't blame yourself or no one..And not only you but most of the villager's lost there loving family..Some are orpan like you,some lost there children..And some are not wanting this sad story of there life..Not only you but all are struggling hard and wanting this to end fast....Listen, you have to be strong and and never let that virus catch you.."He was right after all...I have been only worring about myself and my family..I have been so selfish...I couldn't waste my limited life crying and regreting what happened in past..I have to feel lucky that i am still alive and have to make the best out of it.."Can you please help me??"i asked.And he nodded."I have to go to city...i have to go to my aunt and uncle..Can you please do that for me??"I plead."What about coming with me and being something that could help them...I am unmarried and have no family...You could be a family..what do you say??"He suggested.."Thank you so much for your kindness..I would love to do so.."i agreed and decided to spent my life with him...

Year passed and my village became smaller with healthy people but leaded by hundred death of my poor villagers.That virus has spread among country to country by the time..Thousand were died in Bangladesh, Singapore and India.We still hasn't found any cure for that virus and still many people are dying around the world..And recently there was an outbreak of Nipha virus in a place called Kerela in India.

We still can't stop and eliminate that virus forever.It keeps spreading and spreading killing thousand of innocent poeple.Me and my group went to diffrent part of the world where Nipha has attacked.We help as much as we could and helped as much as we can..

"Dr.Gina, our next visit is Kerela,India"My assistant told me.."Sure...Lets do this thing!....We don't know how many people we will be able to save and how many poeple  will die infront of us....But we still need to help them and do whatever we can to prevent it because.."i shouted.."PREVENTION IS BETTER THEN CURE!!!"we all shouted....

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A disappearing paradise

A disappearing paradise  

Tenzin Tsomo XI A

Rainforests since time reminiscent have been a place of great wonder and curiosity. These places are known to have the most diverse and vibrant forms of living species in the world as, these rich biomes are the natural habitats of about three-fourths of known plant and animal species in the world. Mostly found in Latin America( One fourth in Brazil), Southeast Asia, Africa, and in some Pacific islands, tropical rainforests as well as temperate rainforests found in some continents near the pacific are the most fascinating places of extensive research and adventure for zoologists around the world.

We humans, rely on rainforests for the production and direct consumption of a large variety of organic products. Also a large number of vegetables and staple crops which are prevalent in our daily diet are originally from the rainforests. One of the main attractions in the rainforest resources is the exotic amount and variety of wood found in these places. This accounts to the great demand for logging of rainforest trees for commercial purposes. Other than that rainforests are major contributors to the terrestrial global carbon pool or to  put it more simply the carbon cycle. They are beneficiary for not only humans but for every living organism surviving till now.

Sadly, the human greed for the rainforest resources are causing great changes and are rapidly taking toll on the animals and plant species living in them. In the ancient times these biomes were cleared/or in more literal meaning, ’razed to the ground for farming purposes through the method of shifting cultivation. This practice has destroyed great tracts of rainforest areas.  But the shift to the modern twenty first century has posed a surprising and an even greater threat for the rainforests. Such type of threats, which may eventually lead to the extinction of these great natural habitats.

 With reference to the conservation groups, it is estimated that globally, the equivalent of two football fields of rainforests (about 2.5 acres  or 1 acre ) is destroyed in a passing second and each day amounts to an area larger than New York City or about 214,000 acres of rainforest area! . The destruction is paving the way to the extinction of more than 100 species a day and about 20 percent of the surviving species within a generation. The countermeasures for protecting the rainforests can be performed but if we belittle the action plan, the chances of saving these natural paradise is simply ‘zero’.

 It is in our hands, whether we choose to wait and watch or, do something today that our future world will thank you for. 

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