Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Nurses call off planned emergency department strike

INMO ACCEPTS PROPOSALS AIMED AT ADDRESSING OVERCROWDING AND ISSUES WITH STAFFING

   

A PLANNED STRIKE BY NURSES IN SEVEN HOSPITAL EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS SCHEDULED FOR THURSDAY HAS BEEN DEFERRED.

The executive council of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation on Monday agreed to accept a series of proposals and clarifications for dealing with emergency department overcrowding and staffing levels which were drawn up following talks with management at the Workplace Relations Commission over the weekend.

The new document in effect builds on an earlier set of proposals drawn up before Christmas which nurses in emergency departments had rejected in a recent ballot.

The new proposals contain a number of “confidence-building measures” as well as more details on additional new posts which are to be established for nurses in emergency units under the terms of the previous deal.

The document says that the parties acknowledged that there was a very significant lack of communication, trust and confidence among emergency department nursing staff with regard to the full implementation of the proposals for tackling overcrowding and understaffing.

“It is accepted that trust and confidence can only be restored by active,visible and constant monitoring and implementation of any agreement involving senior management staff.”

Escalation protocols

The new document provides for the establishment of a new executive forum at hospital group level involving senior management and INMO representatives which will oversee the implementation of the agreement as well as escalation protocols agreed several weeks ago to be put in place at a time of emergency department overcrowding.

There will also be a forum established in hospitals involving senior management and INMO representatives to oversee the implementation of the escalation policies at a local level.

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar said he was pleased the revised proposals had been accpted by the INMO.

“The interests of patients are always best served through negotiation and by avoiding industrial action,” he said in a statement. “I particularly welcome the fact that the proposals contain specific measures to enhance patient safety and delivery of care.”

Mr Varadkar said he expected “a deeper level of trust will develop between hospital management and nursing staff through the active implementation and monitoring of the proposals”.

Ireland’s commercial vacancy rates fell marginally at the end of 2015

TRENDS THROUGHOUT 2013 AND 2014 ‘SEEM TO HAVE SHIFTED’

   

DUBLIN HAD THE LARGEST NUMBER OF UNIQUE COMMERCIAL ADDRESS POINTS FOLLOWED BY CORK AND GALWAY.

Commercial vacancy rates across the State have decreased marginally, according to new research published today.

The total number of occupied commercial premises in Ireland increased throughout 2015 from 194,642 in the last quarter of 2014 to 195,803 in the last quarter of 2015.

IT REPRESENTS A DECREASE OF 0.2% FROM 12.8% TO 12.6%.

The research is from the Q4 2015 edition of GeoView which is published twice a year. It is the third annual review of commercial vacancy rates in the State.

There were 16 counties that recorded a decrease in commercial vacancy rates between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2015.

KERRY RECORDED THE LOWEST COMMERCIAL VACANCY RATE OF ANY COUNTY AT 9.2%, WHILE SLIGO RECORDED THE HIGHEST AT 16.4%. BOTH COUNTIES HELD THE SAME RANKINGS IN THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2014.

The review said a number of counties in Connaught and Ulster have yet to recover and are still showing increases in vacancy rates.

The average commercial vacancy rate in Ulster increased from 12.5% in the last quarter of 2014 to 12.7% in the last quarter of 2015, while the vacancy rate in Connacht went from 14.7% to 14.8% over the same period.

Both Munster (11.9%) and Leinster (12.4%) saw a decrease of 0.2% points each. Leinster’s commercial vacancy rate was unchanged with just two counties, Wexford (10.1%) and Wicklow (12.5%), recording increases over the year.

The data was published by GeoDirectory which was jointly established by An Post and Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) to create and manage Ireland’s only complete database of commercial and residential buildings.

The largest percentage point increase was seen in Leitrim where the vacancy rate increased by 0.6% to 16.1%. Conversely, the largest decrease was seen in Carlow where the vacancy rate fell by 1.2% to 11.9%.

At 49,809, Dublin had the largest number of unique commercial address points followed by Cork (25,627) and Galway (12,877).

In 2015, Leitrim, Longford and Carlow had the lowest number of commercial address points with less than 3,000 units in each county, as was the case throughout 2013 and 2014.

GeoDirectory chief executive Dara Keogh said the trends throughout 2013 and 2014 “seem to have shifted”.

“Where in the past we saw vacancy rates increasing at varying rates, we are now seeing falling vacancy rates in many parts of the country,” he said.

“Connacht and Ulster still seem to be struggling, however there are strong signs of a recovery with just 8 counties across the country showing an increase in commercial vacancy rates year on year.”

Irish building sector sees spike in growth rate

   

The pace of growth in the construction sector quickened in December, according to a new report.

Ulster Bank’s latest purchasing managers’ index for the sector indicates Irish building firms saw a spike in new orders, with the rate of job growth rising also.

The headline figure for the index was 58.6 – up from 55.5 in November. A figure over 50 indicates growth.

Activity has now increased in each of the past 28 months, with the latest expansion the strongest since July.

Simon Barry, Ulster Bank’s chief economist for the Republic of Ireland, said the Irish construction sector closed out 2015 “on a firm footing”.

“Overall activity trends were buoyed by a strong acceleration in both commercial and housing activity, with the pick-up in the residential arena a particularly welcome development given concerns about the housing supply shortfall. Growth in civil engineering continues to lag some way behind the other sectors though it did record a fourth consecutive month of expansion last month,” Mr Barry said.

“Overall, the December survey results indicate that Irish construction firms were reporting solid momentum as a second full year of recovery drew to a close. The new orders index continues to show vibrant expansion, with increasing enquiries for new business pointing to a healthy near-term”.

Most people do not know when fertility declines

MANY INCORRECTLY BELIEVE IT IS AGE 35

     

ALMOST EIGHT IN 10 ADULTS DO NOT KNOW THE AGE AT WHICH FERTILITY BEGINS TO DECLINE, A NEW SURVEY HAS FOUND.

According to the findings, 79% of people are unaware when fertility starts to decline, with 41% believing it starts to decline at the age of 35. However, it actually begins to decline at the age of 30.

A recent Eurostat survey found that first-time mothers in Ireland are among the oldest in Europe, with 52% aged between 30 and 39. Respondents to this latest survey were asked why they believed people were waiting longer to have children.

Some 46% of women said that waiting for the right partner was the main reason for delaying starting a family, compared to just 29% of men. At least one in three men (37%) said financial concerns were the main reason for delaying children.

The survey involved 710 adults aged between 25 and 44 and was carried out on behalf of My Fertility Check, a self-referral fertility assessment service.

According to its head of clinical services, Mary McAuliffe, the proportion of people who are misinformed about fertility decline ‘is of concern’.

“I see so many women and couples attending for fertility treatment and IVF who are surprised that it has proven so difficult to have a baby naturally. A substantial portion of adults think fertility declines at a much later age than it does in reality.

“The results really highlight the need for a nationwide, State-funded education campaign on fertility and reproductive health, particularly targeting students at third level. Young people need to be educated on the lifestyle choices that can affect their fertility, in particular, age, smoking, alcohol and health issues such as sexually transmitted diseases,” she commented.

She added that young people ‘are too optimistic about their chances of conceiving spontaneously after 35′ and they tend to overestimate the effectiveness of IVF, ‘in part due to the number of celebrities giving birth in their 40s and also due to miracle stories in the media’.

Human organs grown in sheep and pigs in US for transplants could get approval in the UK?

     

HUMAN ORGANS ARE BEING GROWN IN DOZENS OF PIGS AND SHEEP IN THE US, AND THE CONTROVERSIAL TECHNIQUE IS LIKELY TO GET APPROVAL FROM THE HOME OFFICE IN THE UK.

In the US, scientists have implanted at least 20 sheep and pigs with human-animal chimera embryos for the first time in pioneering experiments, with the hope that these genetically-modified beasts will develop functioning human body organs that will be fully transplantable into humans. Scientists believe these organs will not be rejected by a human body because the organs will be carrying human genetic material.

The Animals in Science Committee of the Home Office in the UK will publish this week its first legal guidelines on the use of animal-human chimera embryos. These guidelines are expected to heavily regulate this practice in the UK, while also allowing it if it is shown that there would be more benefits of the practice compared to harms.

The UK is currently facing a severe organ donor shortage. More lives are now being saved following accidents, so there are fewer donors for organ transplants. Sometimes, donors are older, and it is not a wise decision to transplant their organs. According to National Health Service (NHS), 429 people died in 2014 in the UK while waiting for an organ transplant. Experts believe the new research could reduce this number by solving the shortage of livers, hearts, and kidneys.

According to the MIT Technology Review, several sheep and pigs have been implanted with animal-human chimera embryos at labs in the University of Minnesota and Salk Institute in California over the past year.

The technique involves removing the genes for a particular organ from an animal embryo, and replacing it with human stem cells which are responsible for creating a human organ inside the animal. The modified embryo is then implanted in the womb of a pig or sheep, where it grows to develop a human organ.

So far, no animal with a human organ has born, and scientists believe it might take several years before such organs are tested for safety for use in humans.

“We can make an animal without a heart. We have engineered pigs that lack skeletal muscles and blood vessels.” said Daniel Garry, a cardiologist who leads a chimera project at the University of Minnesota.

Many animal rights groups have criticized the research, calling it ‘frankenscience’.

“Creating human-animal hybrids is bad for people and worse for animals. These animals have exactly the same capacity to feel pain and suffer as any other animal, including humans.” said Julia Baines, of Peta UK.

Bruce Whitelaw, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, has expressed his interest in the project coming to UK.

“It is scientifically fascinating and of potential commercial interest, and offers much for healthy, productive social debate.” he said.

So far, no scientific paper describing the experiments or initial results has been published in the US.

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Lucinda Creighton (Renua) claims Refugees coming to Ireland should be screened

   

Lucinda Creighton launches her new political party.

REFUGEES BEING RELOCATED TO IRELAND SHOULD BE SCREENED IN LIGHT OF LAST WEEK’S HORRIFIC SEX ATTACKS IN GERMANY, ACCORDING TO RENUA LEADER LUCINDA CREIGHTON.

The Dublin Bay South TD today said it is not “xenophobic” to hold the belief that a screening programme should be in place.

Ireland has committed to accommodate up to 4,000 refugees who have fled war-torn countries such as Syria and Iraq.

However, today’s Sunday Independent/Millward Brown opinion poll reveals that almost three in five people (59pc) are concerned that terrorists could enter Ireland under the guise of the relocation programme.

The poll was conducted prior to shocking incidents in Cologne, Germany last week, which involved a spate of attacks on women.

Speaking on Newstalk today, Ms Creighton called for tough screening rules.

“I don’t think it’s xenophobic or unreasonable to say that there should be screening, and that there should be a process and mechanism in place to ensure that refugees are genuine refugees and not economic migrants,” she said.

I think in a sense there has been an attempt to silence anyone who questions the kind of complete open door policy. It has to be open door, but it has to involve screening in terms of security but also in terms of the kind of cultural issues that are emerging in Germany,” she added.

FF calls on Central Bank to fast-track review of mortgage rules

SINN FÉIN FINANCE SPOKESMAN SAYS BANK SHOULD ‘TREAD CAREFULLY’

   

Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Finance Michael McGrath above left.

Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath has called on the Central Bank to undertake a review of its controversial mortgage rules now rather than wait until the summer to avoid a prolonged period of market disruption.

The Central Bank’s new governor Philip Lane (above right) has promised to review the current raft of mortgage lending restrictions in six months.

His comments in an interview recently mean mortgage applications throughout the spring and early summer – the busiest time for house sales – will continue to be carried out under the current rules.

Prof Lane said the rules could be tightened or loosened and that he remained open-minded at this point.

However, Mr McGrath maintains a six-month wait for the review would have a corrosive effect on an already sluggish market.

“Given the time it takes to assess submissions and implement any revisions decided upon, it is likely to be the end of the year at the earliest before any substantial changes are made,” he said.

“There is a very real risk that this will result in the already sluggish mortgage market grinding to a halt as potential buyers and sellers wait to see the impact of any new regulations.”

Mr McGrath said his party want the Central Bank to examine the potential of allowing 25 per cent of the deposit requirement for a first-time buyer be met by taking in to account rent payments over the previous three years.

Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty urged caution saying the Central Bank should “tread carefully” to not give any impression that the spirit of the rules could be undermined.

“It was always conceived that these reviews would be monitored and altered as the evidence dictated,” Mr Doherty said.

He said Sinn Féin was “acutely aware” of the immediate impact the rules have had on first time buyers and young families wishing to move on to a more suitable home for growing families.

“Review of the rules is welcome and sensible but I hope the Central Bank treads carefully and does not give any hope to those parties who have learned nothing and are calling for a return to the politics and economics of the bubble,” he said.

Ireland heading for a great sugar crash landing

     

There is nothing sweet about Ireland’s sugar statistics. We are the fourth highest consumer of sugar in the world, according to Euromonitor research. Yes, the world, coming in behind the US, Germany and the Netherlands.

“It’s shocking,” says Dr Eva Orsmond, who says she sees the effects of excessive sugar consumption daily at her clinics in Dublin, Kilkenny, and Galway.

“The problem is that most people don’t realise the amount of ‘free’ or added sugar that is lurking in food, even savoury food,” she adds.

In Sugar Crash, a one-off documentary that airs on RTÉ One on Monday, DrEva reveals what our love affair with sugar is costing us in hospital admissions, dental health, long-term illnesses and premature death.

The figures are stark. The average Irish person consumes a whopping 24 teaspoons daily. To put that in context, last year the World Health Organisation revised its guidelines to recommend that adults get no more than 10 per cent of their daily calories from ‘free’ sugars or those added by manufacturers.

Counting in teaspoons, that means adults should limit themselves to 10 teaspoons a day — or six to get health benefits.

“It’s easy to identify some sugars, such as fizzy drinks and the biggest offenders, breakfast cereals,” says Dr Eva. “But people mightn’t realise that a single glass of [some brands of] orange juice might be twice the daily recommended intake for a child.”

She says she was shocked to find that sugar was hiding in all kinds of unexpected foods, such as crackers and bread.

“I found a lot of things hard to swallow, even as a health professional” she tells Feelgood. “For instance, I thought my sons (aged 18 and 19) would not be harmed by a little sugar as they will burn it off, but that is wrong. A high intake of sugar is still a risk factor for disease.”

She says looking at the sugar content on labels was also a salutary lesson. In the documentary, she charts the progress of a Kilkenny family who were stunned to find out how much sugar was in their ‘normal’ healthy diet.

For instance, an average bowl of muesli with a pot of flavoured yoghurt at breakfast sounds like a healthy option but, depending on the brand, that single meal could constitute your entire daily intake of sugar.

Sugar may not always be visible, but its effects are all around us in stark relief. Between 1997 and 2007, obesity levels rose here by a staggering 67 per cent and with them, our love of sugar.

Who can say why sugar consumption rates rose so sharply. Part of it might be explained by the increased disposable income of the Celtic Tiger years which we spent on processed and pre-prepared food, Dr Eva speculates.

The ‘low fat’ fad is partly to blame too, she believes. Manufacturers took the fat out of food, but replaced it with sugar, which has no nutritional value and doesn’t fill you up. “In fact,” Dr Eva says, “foods with high sugar make you want more of them”.

And so the cycle goes on, leading to obesity, high cholesterol, an increased risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and growing dental problems.

The number of teeth extractions among children is also on the rise due to excessive sugar intake.

“No matter how much you brush your teeth, it will not be enough to compensate for the excessive sugar intake,”she says.

One of the most chilling findings is that part of the problem is hidden. Food labels don’t distinguish between added sugars and those that occur naturally. Though, if a product is high in sugar — added or not — it is probably best avoided, Dr Eva says.

And although fruit is not counted as a ‘free’ sugar, it is a good idea to monitor your intake of that too, she adds.

But it is not all doom and gloom. Adopting a healthy diet can very quickly undo much of the damage done by excessive sugar.

“We all need to go back to basics,” says Dr Eva, advocating a return to home-cooking with fresh ingredients. After that, she says, the solution is “education, education, education”.

NASA shares incredible pictures of rippled sand dunes on the planet Mars

    

The beautiful Namib sand dune on Mars left pic. and right a picture of Downwind of the Namib sand dune.

NASA has unveiled spectacular photographs of majestic sand dunes on

It is the first chance scientists have had to examine active sand formations on any planet other than Earth.

The Curiosity Mars rover, NASA’s car-sized reconnaissance robot, has been based on Mars’ surface for more than three years now, and successfully captured the stunning images.

The photographs depict the enormous, segmented Namib dune which stands at a whopping 13 – 17 feet tall.

“One of the first things they want to explore is the grain size and morphology of different parts of the slipface,” Lauren Edgar, a member of the Curiosity team and a USGS Astrogeology Science Centre research geologist said.

The ripples on the dunes change over time due to the prevailing winds on Mars.

After  short period of time, so much sand builds up that the sand at the bottom can’t sustain the weight of the sand on top, and a tiny avalanche occurs

The Namib sand dune is just one of many dunes located in the Bagnold Dunes field on the northwestern side of Mars.

It is situated very near to where Curiosity first touched down back in 2012.

Your Neanderthal DNA may have passed on to you allergies

   

In the American Journal of Human Genetics, two research teams reported that in many people, a group of genes that governs the first line of defense against pathogens was probably inherited from Neanderthals.

If you sneeze when flowers bloom in the spring and tear up in the presence of a cat, your Neanderthal DNA may be to blame.

About 2% of the DNA in most people alive today came from trysts between ancient humans and their Neanderthal neighbours tens of thousands of years ago, recent studies have shown. Scientists are trying to determine what, if any, impact that Neanderthal genetic legacy has on our contemporary lives.

In two papers published last week in the American Journal of Human Genetics, two research teams reported that in many people, a group of genes that governs the first line of defense against pathogens was probably inherited from the Neanderthals.

These same genes also appear to play a role in some people’s allergic reaction to things such as pollen and pet fur, the scientists said.

“It’s a bit speculative, but perhaps this is some kind of trade-off,” said Janet Kelso, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and senior author of one of the new studies. “Increased resistance to bacterial infection was advantageous, but may have resulted in some increased sensitivity to nonpathogenic allergens.”

About 50,000 years ago, the modern humans who left Africa encountered Neanderthal settlements in the Middle East, scientists believe. On some occasions, these meetings led to couplings whose legacy is apparent in the genomes of people with ancestors from Europe and Asia.

Not everyone with Neanderthal DNA inherited the same genes. But the immunity genes appear to be more prevalent than others.

Among some Asian and European populations, researchers found that these particular Neanderthal genes can be found in 50 percent of people.

“That’s huge,” said Lluis Quintana-Murci, an evolutionary geneticist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and senior author of the other study. “It came as a big surprise to us.”

The findings imply that these Neanderthal genes must have served our ancestors well if they are still in our genome today, and especially at such high frequency, said Peter Parham, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford School of Medicine. If the DNA weren’t valuable, it would have been flushed out of the human gene pool.

“It suggests there was a benefit for the migrating modern human and the archaic human to get together,” said Parham, who wasn’t involved in the research. “What has survived is a hybridization of those populations.”

Both of the research groups report on a cluster of three genes — known collectively as TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 — that makes up part of the body’s innate immune response to invading bacteria and viruses.

The innate immune response is different from the acquired immune response that we get through exposure to pathogens, either through vaccines or simply getting sick. Innate immunity kicks in first, and if it’s successful, it can destroy a pathogen in a few hours, before we even know we are sick.

Because this innate immune response is so useful, it has been a strong site of positive selection over time, Quintana-Murci said.

Though both groups of researchers came to the same conclusion that Neanderthal DNA plays an important role in immunity, the teams were asking different questions at the outset of their studies.

Quintana-Murci’s group is trying to understand how microscopic pathogens have influenced the human genome as our species has evolved.

Because infectious diseases have killed so many people throughout history, it makes sense that genes involved in immunity would spread through natural selection.

For their study, Quintana-Murci and his colleagues examined 1,500 innate-immunity genes in people and matched them up with a previously published map of the Neanderthal DNA in the human genome.

The team calculated the percentage of Neanderthal DNA in innate-immunity genes as well as in other genes. When they compared them, they saw that innate-immunity genes had much higher proportions of Neanderthal sequences.

Kelso’s group, on the other hand, is interested in ancient genomes like those of Neanderthals. In particular, her team aims to uncover the functional consequences of long-ago interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals.

The Max Planck Institute scientists analyzed the genomes of thousands of present-day people from all over the world, looking for evidence of extended regions with high similarity to the DNA of Neanderthals. Then they checked how often they saw those Neanderthal-like DNA sequences in humans alive today.

“What emerged was this region containing three genes involved in the innate-immune system,” she said.

Both research groups said there is still much work to be done to determine how this Neanderthal DNA helped humans survive.

However, they are already certain that interbreeding with Neanderthals aided early humans as they faced new dangers after leaving Africa.

“The things we have inherited from Neanderthals are largely things that have allowed us to adapt to our environment,” Kelso said. “This is perhaps not completely surprising.”

Because Neanderthals had lived in Europe and western Asia for about 200,000 years before modern humans got there, they were probably already well adapted to the local climate, foods and pathogens.

“By interbreeding with these archaic people, modern humans could then acquire some of these adaptations,” Kelso said.

Parham of Stanford said the results are convincing, especially since they were made by two independent groups that essentially confirmed each other.

The results add to a growing body of work that highlights our debt to our Neanderthal relatives.