Donie's Irish daily news BLOG Sunday

Irish Government Ministers close to agreement on abortion legislation

  

Fine Gael and Labour ministers are close to finalising how to deal with a suicidal threat to a woman’s life in forthcoming abortion legislation.

It is understood the clinical assessment will be in two stages but that it will not involve six doctors.

The two parties are expected to reach agreement before Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting on the number of doctors to be involved in each stage.

The legislation will also set out the framework for terminations in medical emergencies and for medical conditions that threaten a woman’s life.

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said Fine Gael is working with the Labour Party to find a compromise on abortion legislation that will command a majority in both parties.

A much clearer picture is likely to emerge at the Cabinet meeting this week, the minister said, but added that legislation should not be rushed.

He told RTE’s The Week in Politics that it could take another week to reach an agreement.

He said that he shared most the of views expressed by Minister of State Lucinda Creighton on this issue.

The Agriculture Minister confirmed that he had a number of “private conversations” with Minister for Heath James Reilly about the legislation in recent days.

Reports in today’s Sunday Independent about the views of two Labour TDs on abortion legislation were attempting “to sow division” between the Government parties, Minister Coveney said.

Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Alan Kelly, has said the secretly taped conversations with his Labour colleagues on abortion legislation “reflect their individual opinions” and will have no impact on how the Government will deal with the issue.

He said Labour was the only party that said it would legislate for the X Case in its manifesto.

The minister said the public are ahead of legislators on this issue, and it needs to be dealth with.

He said he was hopeful that the heads of the bill will be brought to Cabinet on Tuesday.

Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has responded to the report of a secretly taped-conversation he had with a woman at his constituency office in Marino in June of last year about legislating on the abortion issue.

In a statement, Deputy O’Riordain said a recording of the meeting emerged on tape a number of months ago, adding that it took place without his consent or knowledge.

He said it was a pre-arranged appointment with a woman who presented herself as a constituent with a query about third-level fees.

Deputy O’Riordain said his views and those of the Labour Party on the X-case legislation are well known and that they are fully committed to passing legislation which was included in its pre-election manifesto.

The morning after pill should be available under medical card scheme says Irish Pharmacy Union

  

The morning after pill should be available to women under the medical card scheme, pharmacists have claimed.

A survey by the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) found that 18% of women with a medical card chose to get their emergency contraception from a pharmacy as opposed to getting it free on prescription from their GP.

  IPU vice-president Kathy Maher said pharmacists already offer seasonal flu vaccination services without charge to medical card patients – so a service for the morning after pill should be put in place.

“It is important to stress that this medication is for emergencies only,” Ms Maher said.

“Pharmacists offer a thorough confidential consultation with the patient before the medication can be provided.”

She added that women can get timely advice and treatment from community pharmacies since more and more are open throughout the weekend and late in the evening.

Results from the survey were announced today ahead of the IPU National Pharmacy Conference in Maynooth, Co Kildare.

Ms Maher said it was important to urge women to look after their sexual health and use precautions to avoid unwanted pregnancy.

She insisted that anyone who is concerned about their sexual health should ask a pharmacist for advice in the strictest confidence.

The IPU survey also revealed that 78% of consultations with pharmacists for the morning after pill take place within 24 hours of unprotected sex.

Some 33% of those consultations take place within 12 hours of intercourse.

Women aged 18 to 24 accounted for the majority – 47% – of consultations, followed by those aged between 25 and 30 who accounted for 23%.

Among the 18% of women with a medical card who got their emergency contraception from their pharmacy and not their doctor, 70% did so within 24 hours of unprotected sex, and 90% within 48 hours.

Monday was found to be the most common day for patient consultations, and the largest numbers were recorded in large urban areas such as Dublin and Cork.

The morning after pill was made available to patients from pharmacists without a prescription for the first time in February 2011.

Pharmacists advise it is most effective within 24 hours of having unprotected sex, but can work for up to 72 hours.

Court judgments of €44m made for creditors on over half of Irish bank account consumers

       

NEW FIGURES FROM BUSINESS AND CREDIT ANALYSTS VISION-NET SHOW THAT BANKS ACCOUNTED FOR 56PC OF THE TOTAL VALUE OF COURT JUDGMENTS AWARDED AGAINST CONSUMERS LAST MONTH.

Banks have resorted to the courts in a bid to get €23m in debts repaid in just one month, the new figures show.

The other main creditors were the Revenue Commissioners, credit unions and professional services firms which, between them, accounted for more than €13m in judgments, according to the figures.

Last month, the courts awarded more than €44m to creditors for debts unpaid by consumers and firms – the highest amount since last August.

So far this month, commercial judgments amounted to more than €19m – the highest since October 2010.

Vision-net: Vision-net’s figures show 114 Irish firms failed this month – down 16pc on last April . Of the 114, 68 were liquidated, 43 had receivers appointed, and two entered examinership.

The construction sector accounted for almost 17pc of insolvencies this month, closely followed by the wholesale and retail sector with 16pc.

Vision-net’s figures recorded 3,238 company and business start-ups this month – an increase of 16pc on last April.

But firms held 106 meetings of creditors this month, owing almost €28m.

When Vision-net stress-tested the economy, it found that 64pc of firms in the hospitality sector were at high risk of collapse, followed by construction, IT, motor, and the wholesale and retail sectors.

Vision-net’s managing director Christine Cullen said the figures showed the economy was still very fragile. “That fragility is particularly evident in the huge amount owed to banks which are increasingly going to court to have personal debts repaid.”

She said her figures only showed court judgments, so it was likely that the scale of personal debt was higher than what was officially recorded.

“As well as that, a court judgment is no guarantee of payment. It is clear that many people cannot settle their debts, so the new personal insolvency arrangements are an important intervention,” she added.

Nearly 50% of all deaths from Prostate Cancer can be reduced from a new screening type

  

A NEW DESIGN OF SCREENING COULD IMPROVE THE RATIO BETWEEN BENEFIT AND HARMS OF SCREENING TYPE.

Focusing prostate cancer testing on men at highest risk of developing the disease is likely to improve the ratio between benefits and the harms of screening, suggests a paper published this week on bmj.com.

Prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening is widely used for the early detection of prostate cancer, but remains highly controversial, as it became widespread long before evidence to prove its value. There is now evidence that PSA screening can reduce prostate cancer mortality in men who would not otherwise be screened. However, this can come at considerable harm.

As there is little evidence to support many aspects of screening guidelines, researchers from Sweden and the USA carried out a case-control study taking data from the Malmo Preventative Project (MPP) cohort, in an attempt to develop an evidence-based scheme for prostate cancer testing. A previous study from the MPP, published in the BMJ in 2010, demonstrated that PSA level at age 60 is strongly predictive of the risk of death from prostate cancer by age 85.

The Malmo cohort included 21,277 men aged 27 to 52 who participated in the MPP between 1974 and 1984. All these men gave a blood sample. A smaller group of these men were then invited to provide a second blood sample about six years later: 4922 (72%) of those re-invited complied.

The researchers focused their studies on men close to age 40, mid-to-late forties (45-49) and early-to-mid fifties (51-55).

Within 25 to 30 years, 44% of deaths from prostate cancer occurred in those with the top 10% of PSA levels at age 45-49, a PSA of about 1.5 ng / ml or more. The risk of prostate cancer death was more than 10 times greater in this group compared to men with the lowest 25% of PSA levels.

The researchers questioned whether PSA screening should start at age 40, mid-to-late 40s or early 50s: they found that even for men with PSA in the top decile at age 40, the risk of metastatic prostate cancer was very low at 0.6%, after 15 years of follow-up. The researchers say that due to this, it would be difficult to justify initiating PSA testing at age 40 for men with no other significant risk factor.

In contrast, the risk of developing metastatic prostate cancer within 15 years is close to three-fold higher for men in the top level PSA at age 45-49 (1.7%) and close to ten-fold higher at age 51-55 (5.2%). This suggests that initiating PSA screening after age 50 would leave a significant proportion of men at elevated risk of later being diagnosed with an incurable cancer.

The researchers also looked at screening intervals: results showed that the absolute risk of metastatic cancer remains very low within 15 years follow-up for men with PSA in the low deciles and as such, a screening interval less than five years for these men is unnecessary.

Parents should ask their children these four questions every day, says expert

   

A child expert Dr Claire Halsey above left has suggested mums and dads should ask their kids four questions at the end of every day.

Child psychologist Dr Claire Halsey thinks that asking questions can help improve relationships between parents and their children. The average Mum or Dad has about 30 minutes to spend with their children each evening. Over a quarter of parents wish they had more time for this.

Dr Halsey worked on some research with the makers of Ribena Plus. “There is no one as tough on their own parenting skills as a parent – but this study shows there is no need for parents to be so harsh,” she said.

She’s concluded that parents only need to spend about 12 minutes at evening with their kids, as long as they ask the right questions. The questions are meant to help parents find out what’s happened – and going to happen – in their son or daughter’s life.

The questions Dr Halsey has planned for 8 to 14-year-olds are:
1) I’ve got a great story for you but I want one in return … you first!
2) Tell me some school gossip … I’m all ears!
3) What science project are you doing at the moment and can I help with it?
4) Where are you off to with your friends this week?

How leopards get their spots and tigers their stripes

 

WHAT GIVES A TIGER ITS STRIPES? ALAN TURING HAD A FEW IDEAS

Mathematical models enable us to understand many features of a growing embryo. For example, the patterns of hair colour that give leopards their spots and tigers their stripes can be produced by solving a mathematical equation with different inputs.

The information to form a fully-grown animal is encoded in its DNA, so there is a lot of data in a single cell. But there are only about three billion base pairs in DNA and tens of trillions of cells in the body. So minute details, such as the twists and whorls of a fingerprint, cannot be predetermined. Rather, they emerge during embryonic growth as a result of conditions determined by the DNA, following the basic laws of physics and chemistry.

Alan Turing is famous for cracking the Enigma code during the second World War, but he was a polymath, and worked on many other problems. In 1952, Turing published a paper, The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis , presenting a mechanism of pattern formation. He developed a theory of how the chemistry in the cell influences factors such as hair colour.

Turing’s model included two chemical processes: reaction, in which chemicals interact to produce different substances; and diffusion, in which local concentrations spread out over time.

Suppose we have two chemicals, A and B, called morphogens, with A triggering hair colouring and B not doing so. Now suppose that A is a catalyst, stimulating production of further morphogens, whereas B suppresses production of them. Thus, A is called an activator and B an inhibitor.

Where A is abundant, the hair is black; where B is dominant, it is white. Now comes Turing’s crucial assumption: the inhibitor B spreads out faster than the activator A. So B fills a circular region surrounding the initial concentration, forming a barrier where concentration of A is reduced. The end result is an isolated spot of black hair where A is plentiful.

What is going on here is a competition between the reaction and diffusion processes. Many reaction-diffusion models have been proposed. The resulting patterns depend on the reaction rates and diffusion coefficients, and a wide range of geometrical patterns of hair colouring can result from this mechanism.

The figure here shows the concentration of chemical A for varying strengths of reaction and diffusion. High values of A are shaded black, as hair colouring in these regions is expected to be black. For strong diffusion, the regions are large and striped like a tiger. For weak diffusion, the black hair is confined to spots, like the coat of a cheetah.

Many patterns can be generated by varying the parameters. Thin stripes, like those on an angel fish, or thick stripes, like those of a zebra, can be generated, and clusters of spots found on a leopard’s coat can be produced. Biological systems are hugely complex, and simple mathematical models are valuable for elucidating key factors and predicting aspects of behaviour.

Traditionally, the life sciences have attracted young people passionate about science, but who may feel uncomfortable with mathematics. In the future, mathematics will play a vital role in biology and maths skills will be essential for students.