Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Unhappy Irish doctors planning a protest march on Dail

   

Family doctors are planning to down their stethoscopes and march on the Dail for the first time in their history in protest at funding cuts which they say are putting patients at risk.

The GPs are proposing to hand in a petition to Health Minister Leo Varadkar calling for more investment in general practice in the wake of cuts to fees for treating medical card holders and other services in recent years.

The doctors are to be asked to give free GP visits to children under six and everyone over 70 from the beginning of next year – but the fees they will be paid have yet to be agreed.

Up to now doctors have tended to confine their protests to representation through their membership bodies and public statements, rather than taking to the streets.

It is unclear how large the turnout will be, but the hope is that several hundred will leave their surgeries and take to the streets for the public display of discontent on September 24.

The National Association of General Practitioners said it cannot call on any GP to join the march due to competition law, but it is expected to help in organising the demonstration and transport.

GPs have become increasingly vocal in the last year, with rising numbers with established practices opting to uproot and go abroad to earn a better living.

Meanwhile, the Labour Relations Commission has proposed a committee, chaired by heart surgeon Eilis McGovern, be set up to assess which newly-recruited consultants get higher starting salaries.

The group will also include two Irish Medical Organisation representatives.

Under new proposals recruits are entitled to starting pay of between €120,000 and €155,000. Doctors with experience could get up to €155,000.

The Labour Relations Commission said the committee could assess each doctor’s claim and decide how much they should get on top of the basic €120,000.

If the doctor wants to challenge the salary they are offered they can appeal to the chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission, Kieran Mulvey.

The HSE is to begin a recruitment campaign to secure more new consultants for hospitals in a bid to reduce waiting lists.

Dr Gerard Crotty, president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, said the HSE’s decision to begin advertising jobs, without agreement from doctors’ bodies, had the potential to worsen the recruitment crisis.

US economy expands by 4.2% following contraction

BUSINESS INVESTMENT INCREASED 8.1%, THE MOST SINCE EARLY 2012

  

A surge in demand for airplanes helped push orders for durable goods up at a record pace in July, boosting prospects for sustained growth in US manufacturing,

The US economy expanded more than previously forecast in the second quarter, propelled by the biggest gain in business investment in more than two years that bodes well for the rest of 2014.

Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, rose at a 4.2 per cent annualised rate, up from an initial estimate of 4 per cent and following a first-quarter contraction, according to the latest figures.

Corporate profits climbed by the most in almost four years. The improvement has carried over into the second half with companies such as General Electric seeing more orders for equipment and a strengthening job market underpinning consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 per cent of the economy.

Better prospects for growth signal Federal Reserve officials will continue to wind down monthly asset purchases. “The economy is clearly doing better,” Jim O’Sullivan, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York, said before the report.

“Business spending is picking up. We’ll see stronger consumer spending in coming months.”

Another report today showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits were little changed last week as employers held on to staff in an improving economy. Claims decreased by 1,000 to 298,000 in the week ended August 23rd from 299,000 in the prior period, the Department of Labor reported.

Business investment increased at an 8.1 percent annualised rate, the most since the first three months of 2012. Companies are buying more equipment as earnings improve. Today’s report also offered a first look at corporate profits. Before-tax earnings rose 8 per cent last quarter, the most since the third quarter of 2010, after a 9.4 per cent drop in the prior period. They were still down 0.3 per cent from the same time last year.

Corporate investment data are indicating a pickup. A surge in demand for airplanes helped push orders for durable goods up at a record pace in July, boosting prospects for sustained growth in manufacturing,

Walking a mile each day ‘cuts cancer death risk by 50%

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY DESCRIBED AS ‘WONDER DRUG’ FOR BREAST AND PROSTATE PATIENTS

 

• Patients can cut risk of dying by half by walking one mile a day, study finds
• Those with breast cancer can reduce risk by up to 40% via physical activity
• For bowel cancer patients, doubling walking distance ‘halves risk of dying’
• Research carried out by Walking for Health, run by Macmillan and Ramblers
• Calculations were based on walking one mile at a moderate pace of 3mph

Cancer patients can cut their risk of dying by up to half – simply by walking just one mile a day, according to experts.

A study revealed physical activity as a ‘wonder drug’, with those diagnosed with breast and prostate cancers able to cut their risk of death by up to 40 per cent.

And for bowel cancer patients, doubling the walking distance was found to halve the risk of dying.

The calculations are based on walking one mile at a moderate pace of 3mph, which would take just 20 minutes a day.

The research by Walking for Health, a network of walking groups run by Macmillan Cancer Support and the Ramblers, found physical activity can also reduce the impact of some debilitating side effects of cancer treatment, such as swelling around the arm, anxiety, depression, fatigue, impaired mobility and weight changes.

The charity estimates that 1.6million of the two million people living with cancer in the UK are not active at recommended levels.

Ciarán Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: ‘Today’s research highlights the very simple reality – walking can save lives.

‘We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to what is a very simple and obvious solution. Physical activity is a wonder drug and health care professionals must prescribe physical activity, such as walking, as a standard part of cancer recovery.’

Sandra Sayce, 51, who is married and lives in Middlesex, joined her local Walking for Health group in 2011 following years of treatment for melanoma.

She said ‘I had been ill with cancer for several years, which at its worst had left me unable to walk more than 50 metres.

‘When I joined my local Walking for Health group it gave me the push I needed to make those vital first steps back into physical activity; despite the cold January weather, I was able to take part in the simple, easy-going walk which was crucial to beginning my recovery.

‘Since then I’ve gone from strength, and I’ve started to feel more happy and less tired. I really do think that making the decision to go on that first walk was crucial to getting myself to the position I’m in now.’

It is unclear how activity helps, but the effect goes further than simply weight control, which cuts down on the amount of cancer-promoting hormones produced by body fat.

The latest thinking is exercise may break down oestrogen to produce ‘good’ metabolites that lower the risk of some cancers.

The reduction in risk of death from cancer is based on research review evidence in Macmillan Cancer Support’s Move More report.

It says breast cancer patients cut the risk by 40 per cent if they do recommended levels of activity, compared with those doing less than an hour a week.

The risk is reduced by 30 per cent for men with prostate cancer.

Bowel cancer sufferers who walk 18 miles a week – 2.5 miles or around 50 minutes a day – can cut their risk of dying by 50 per cent.

Walking for 150 minutes a week at 3mph results in total walking of 7.5 miles in a week – just over a mile, or 20 minutes a day.

Government guidelines advise all adults to do 150 minutes of moderate activity such as gardening, dancing or brisk walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise including playing sport, running or aerobics every week.

Just 36 per cent of British women meet the moderate activity target.

Benedict Southworth, chief executive of the Ramblers, said: ‘The benefits of walking are numerous. It is increasingly clear that walking even short distances regularly can make the world of difference for those recovering from and managing cancer or other serious health conditions.

‘Walking for Health offers free, short group walks across England, which are the perfect way to build confidence and fitness in a friendly, supportive space.

‘All walks are led by friendly, knowledgeable people, specially trained for the job. Many of our walkers have long term conditions such as cancer themselves and find the companionship and fresh air a wonderful therapy.

‘We want to put walking at the centre of efforts to tackle physical inactivity and echo Macmillan’s call for health professionals to prescribe walking to those who are recovering from cancer or other health conditions.’

Iceland lowers volcano eruption alert for aviation

  

Iceland reduced its aviation warning level to orange on Friday after concluding that a small eruption in the Bardarbunga volcano system that triggered a hours-long red alert actually posed no threat to aircraft.

No sign of ash like that from the Eyjafjallajokull eruption that shut much of Europe’s air space in 2010 has been detected this time. But the Icelandic Metrological Office said a no-fly zone in a radius of 3 nautical miles just above the Bardarbunga volcano in central Iceland would remain in effect.

“The small eruption is not a threat to aviation and the published aviation warning area has been cancelled,” the Met Office said in a statement.

Iceland’s largest volcanic system, which cuts a 190-km-long and up to 25-km-wide swathe across the North Atlantic island, has been hit by thousands of earthquakes over the last two weeks and scientists have been on high alert in case of an eruption.

Reykjavik’s Met Office said that just after midnight an estimated 1-km-long fissure eruption began in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier, which covers part of the Bardarbunga system.

While the risk of an ash cloud is highest in case of a sub-glacial eruption, Icelandic authorities for a few hours raised the aviation warning level to red, the highest on a five-color scale and indicating that an eruption is imminent or under way, with a risk of spewing ash.

The latest eruption was at the tip of a magma dyke 40 km from the main Bardarbunga crater and activity subsided to relatively low levels after peaking between 0020 and 0200 GMT, Met Office seismologist Martin Hensch said earlier.

He said that it was impossible to say how the eruption would develop.

“One of the concerns is that the fissure opens into the glacier but presently there is no sign of that happening,” he said, adding that the eruption was 6-8 km from the glacier.

Nick Petford, a vulcanology expert at the University of Northampton in Britain, said fissure eruptions were often spectacular, but relatively low key and often died out in a couple of days. But there could be a sting in the tail, he said.

“Exactly the same thing happened in 2010 with the Eyjafjallajokull volcano,” Petford said. “The main eruption was in April, but in March there was a fissure eruption which was a precursor to the much larger eruption.”

The Eyjafjallajokull event was particularly disruptive because it pushed ash up to precisely the elevation used by transatlantic aircraft, while prevailing winds propelled the cloud into European air space. The ash was also particularly sticky due to its chemical composition.

Petford said that if the current eruption subsided, scientists would be looking for signs of more quakes deeper under the volcano, which would suggest more magma was welling up, and for any swelling of the volcano that could be measured using GPS.

“Those are pretty clear evidence that large amounts of magma are being stored within the volcano and that’s a good indication it will explode.”

Whiskey sent into space is coming back to Earth

  

There’s a lot of research happening on the International Space Station that can help us make advancements in science, technology and what we know about our universe. However, they usually don’t seem as fun as this recent research program about to make its way back to Earth.

A Scottish whiskey distillery set up an experiment several years ago to have astronauts develop whiskey particles in space. Now, the whiskey is making its way back home.

Ardbeg, a Scotch whisky distillery in Islay, Scotland, partnered with the Texas-based space research company NanoRacks to get the experiment off the ground. They sent 20 vials of whiskey particles, along with pieces of charred oak that they were treated with, into space in 2011. The vials didn’t contain actual whiskey liquor but microbes that could be later used to brew whiskey.

The particles landed at the International Space Station where they have been orbiting the planet 15 times a day at 17,227 miles per hour. The point of the experiment is to see how the compounds in the vials, technically known as “terpenes,” interact with the charred oak in Earth’s gravity and then in micro-gravity in space. Terpenes can be found inflavorings and paints, in addition to whiskey.

“NASA approved the project since terpenes have never been grown in zero-gravity conditions,” NanoRacks CEO Jeffrey Manber told ABC News.

Manber also told ABC News that the findings of the research won’t just impact future production of alcoholic beverages. The results of the experiment can also impact consumer products in general and help us better understand materials and biologicals.

The vials will be back on Earth on Sept. 12 where they will land in Kazakhstan. There’s a nifty countdown clock featuring a bottle of Ardbeg whiskey soaring through space in case you need to quell your anticipation. Once the specimens are back on Earth, they will be shipped to NanoRack in Texas where the results of the maturation process will be examined. The findings will be revealed in a paper at a later date.

Whiskey particles aren’t even the weirdest objects to have been sent into space. LEGO figurines were launched into space as part of a partnership between NASA and the LEGO Group to encourage children to study science and technology. The original lightsaber Luke Skywalkerused in “Star Wars Episode IV: Return of the Jedi” went out of this world with the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2007. There’s even a company devoted to launching people’s cremated remains into space called Celestis. One of its most famous participants is Gene Roddenberry, the creator of “Star Trek,” whose remains are expected to be launched into space, along with his wife Majel, in 2016.   

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Five-day Irish trade mission to Australia gets underway

MINISTER BRUTON LEADING VISIT BY 32 IRISH COMPANIES TO MELBOURNE, CANBERRA AND SYDNEY

  

Richard Bruton said the economic relationship between Ireland and Australia is stronger now than at any time in our history

A five-day trade and investment mission to Australia by more than 30 Irish companies has begun.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Investment Richard Bruton is leading the joint Enterprise Ireland/IDA mission, which will include more than 40 high-level meetings and events.

A total of 32 companies from the financial services, elearning, telecommunications and IT for Healthcare sectors are participating on the mission to Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.

Australia is the world’s 12th largest economy, with an estimated US$1.5 trillion GDP.

“The economic relationship between Ireland and Australia is stronger now than at any time in our history. It is a relationship based on delivering two-way trade of more than $2.8billion per annum,” said Mr Bruton ahead of the mission.

“There are over 140 Enterprise Ireland client companies actively doing business in Australia as well as 35 Australian companies in Ireland employing over 1,600 people. I am confident that during the intensive programme of activities this week we can build on that strong relationship and support more trade and crucially more jobs in Ireland,” he added.

Irish Distillers Jameson whiskey exports soar but spirits dip at home

  

An employee passes American oak barrels containing Jameson whiskey, produced by Irish Distillers Ltd., at the Pernod-Ricard SA distillery in Midleton, Co Cork

Irish Distillers’ successful Jameson brand is powering ahead in export markets including the US, but the industry is slowing at home.

Sales of Jameson reached 4.7 million cases in the full year 2013-2014, the company said. That is 9pc higher than the previous year, both globally and in the US, its biggest single market. By price, the gain was 12pc.

However, the company said sales of all spirits are down 11.5pc in the home market.

Pub sales, the so-called “on” trade, is down 6pc and off-trade sales have declined by 13.9pc in terms of volume, Irish Distillers said, citing research from Neilson.

“The sustained progress of Jameson within the Pernod Ricard family of brands has been one of the group’s most eminent success stories, growing from 466,000 cases when Irish Distillers joined Pernod Ricard in 1988, to approaching 5 million cases in 2014,” Irish Distillers chairman and chief executive Anna Malmhake said.

But she warned that Ireland is now one of the most expensive countries in the world in which to buy Irish spirits.

“The penal excise increases on alcohol accumulated in the last two budgets endanger the export success of indigenous products such as Irish whiskey as well as the 92,000 jobs being supported by the drinks industry in every county throughout Ireland,” she said.

Meanwhile Pernod Ricard, which owns Irish Distillers, said it plans to cut 900 jobs globally to cut costs following a slump in demand from China.

But the world’s second-largest distiller said the Chinese market is improving following a 23pc slump in sales in the last fiscal year.

International drinks brands were hit last year by a clampdown in China on corporate gift giving and entertainment of government officials.

“The flavor of the start of this year seems better” in China, CEO Pierre Pringuet said.

Mrs Brown makes a right monkey of critics with hit

 

MRS BROWN’S BOYS HAS EMERGED AS THE BIGGEST HIT OF THE SUMMER IN IRISH CINEMAS.

New figures confirm that Brendan O’Carroll’s flick is not only the hit of the summer, but the highest performing box office smash this year to date.

“Its distributor, Universal, expected Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie to do well but I think they were even take aback by the phenomenon it has become,” said Niall Murphy, who is Managing Editor of Scannain, the Irish film blog.

The Irish Film Board has listed the highest grossing films of the year so far, which shows that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was the second most popular film with Irish audiences this summer, bringing in €243,430,803 to date globally.

“It has received much better reviews than Mrs Brown and certainly appears to have benefited from word of mouth, it also brought more in at the box office than its previous instalment, Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” said Mr Murphy.

Other releases that have performed well this summer in a season which is usually the preserve of action-hero flicks, include American comedy 22 Jump Street and British production The Inbetweeners 2.

Unsurprisingly, children’s films were one of the strongest performing genres.

“It has been a huge year for animation in general with two or three animated films appearing in the top 10 every week.”

In terms of flops this year, Mr Murphy highlighted how unreceptive Irish audiences where to superhero offering Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which was a smash in the States but only just made it into the Irish top 20 at 18.

The science-fiction film Edge of Tomorrow, which was released at the end May, under-performed, suggesting that outside of the Mission Impossible franchise, Tom Cruise’s name does not have the same draw it once had.

“Seth McFarlane’s A Million Ways To Die In The West also under-performed when you consider how well his directorial project Ted did, and June’s Transformers 4 did not make nearly as much as the first three instalments,” he added.

Eircom is to expand E-Fibre rollout across the country

  

Eircom is to expand the rollout of its eFibre broadband product to 1.6m homes and businesses, the company has said.

The operator’s previously stated target for its eFibre services was 1.4m premises by the end of 2016.

The telecoms group also said that its revenue has fallen to €1.28bn – down €85m or 6pc – despite having 1.8 million landline and mobile phone customers.

Annual results for the year to the end of June show its operating profit remained stable, down 1pc or €3m to €479m, before storm costs of €10m.

The operator is currently considering a sale or a public flotation.

Herb Hribar, chief executive, said the past twelve months underline real and sustained progress in the transformation of eircom’s financial performance and product offerings.

“We have now had eight consecutive quarters of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) stability, slowing decline in our revenues and an improved cost base,” he said.

The results come as 3 Ireland and Eircom sign a new network sharing agreement, fulfilling one of the commitments 3 Ireland entered into as part of receiving EU Commission approval for its €750m acquisition of O2 in Ireland earlier this year. The new agreement will run to 2030 and commits funding to create a shared network of over 2,000 sites within the next three years.

3 Ireland and Eircom will share site equipment, power supply, towers and transmission throughout the country. Existing sites of both operators will be consolidated and new sites will be jointly built.

In a statement, the companies said that the partnership will help facilitate the introduction of new technologies to roll out 4G services and “provide data coverage to every part of the country”.

Elsewhere, eircom said sales in its fixed telephone line sector fell 8pc for the year to €980m, but its expanding broadband market recorded a 7.5pc increase, with 718,000 broadband connections over the year to the end of June.

Operating profits in its mobile phone business more more than doubled to €36m despite sales dropping by 2pc to €347m.

Bondholders recently approved the company’s proposed corporate re-organisation – easing the way for a sale or stock market floation of the company.

Richard Moat, chief financial officer, said there are early signs of commercial momentum, as more and more fixed and mobile customers are directly and indirectly using its network.

“In addition, the strategic review of the group’s capital structure continues,” he added.

Is any amount of Alcohol good for us or not?

  

TO DRINK OR NOT TO DRINK? THAT IS THE QUESTION THAT IS NOT EASILY ANSWERED, AT LEAST WHEN IT COMES TO OUR HEALTH.

Although we’ve heard for years that moderate drinking is good for our hearts, several recent studies have questioned that long-held belief. And earlier this year, the World Health Organization issued a dire warning about cancer and alcohol. No amount of alcohol is safe, the report said.

So, if any alcohol raises our cancer risk, and if it might not offer a real benefit to our hearts, should we be drinking at all?

Cardiologist Michael Shapiro, DO, is not convinced that any amount of alcohol is good for us.

“It’s a common perception that alcohol, and red wine in particular, is helpful for the heart, but that perception is not based on any particularly good evidence,” Shapiro says. “If there is any benefit from alcohol — and that’s not entirely clear — it’s probably modest.”

Shapiro, who practices at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, says that much of the research touting alcohol’s heart health benefits doesn’t show cause and effect. Does alcohol itself protect against heart attacks, or does the lower risk stem from some other factor or combination of factors? It’s not known.

“People who drink moderately also may have certain socio-economic factors and behavior patterns that promote health, and we’ve never been able to tease that out,” he says.

A recent BMJ review of more than 50 studies on alcohol and heart health supports Shapiro’s view. Researchers found that people with a form of a gene tied to lower levels of drinking had healthier hearts. That suggests that cutting down on drinking — even for light or moderate drinkers — benefits the heart.

Another recent study found that people who have as little as one or two drinks of wine or liquor may raise their odds of atrial fibrillation, a potentially dangerous form of irregular heartbeat.

Bright Side to ‘Healthy’ Drinking?

Like Shapiro, geriatrician Alison Moore, MD, MPH, is skeptical of studies about light to moderate drinking that tout health benefits but don’t show cause and effect. But she says research has shown that this amount of drinking may play a positive role in numerous conditions, from heart health to diabetes to dementia.

Recent studies continue to support alcohol’s benefits. In June, the authors of a study in the journal Circulation reported that men and women who have four to six alcoholic drinks (i.e. 5-ounce glasses of wine or 1.5-ounce cocktails) per week were, respectively, 20% and 44% less likely to develop a potentially fatal ballooning of the aorta.

And in April, early findings presented at a meeting of the National Kidney Foundation suggested that a little wine a day lowers the risk of chronic kidney disease. People who drank less than one glass of wine per day had a 37% lower risk than those who drank no wine at all.

“The data is convincing that truly moderate alcohol [drinking] does offer many health benefits,” says Moore, a professor of medicine and psychiatry at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. She researches alcohol’s effects on older groups of people. “For your average healthy person, it is not a bad thing.”

THE CANCER RISK

There’s less debate among researchers about the role alcohol plays incancer risk. The WHO declared alcohol a carcinogen in 1988, and U.S.government health agencies have reached the same conclusion.

Alcohol is known to cause several types of cancer, including cancers ofthe mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, colon-rectum, liver, and femalebreast. According to the National Cancer Institute, the more you drink,the greater your risk of these types of cancer. For example, people whohave three and a half or more drinks a day double or even triple theirodds of head and neck cancers.

For two cancers, though — renal cell, or kidney, cancer and non-Hodgkinlymphoma — studies have shown that drinking can result in a lower risk.

Still, an estimated 3.5% of U.S. cancer deaths can be traced to alcohol.

Unfortunately, says oncologist Cary Presant, MD, few people get themessage.

“There’s a very low level of awareness of the risk,” says Presant, a clinicalprofessor of medicine at the University of Southern California’s KeckSchool of Medicine. “We have to counsel our patients on the risks ofalcohol. It’s something I talk about with my patients all the time.”

Alcohol requires a balancing act, he says. It may offer some protectionfor the heart, but, because alcohol affects many other organ systems,Presant says, it also raises the risk of other diseases, including cancer.For example, he says, two drinks a day raises a woman’s risk of breastcancer by 15%. The risk is much lower for women who have one or fewerdrinks per day.

Presant advises people who drink to consider potential risk factors, suchas a family history of certain cancers, that may help determine whetheror not to abstain.

“Talk to your doctor about your family health history, your health habits,and, if necessary, about how to correct unhealthy drinking habits,”Presant says. He adds that all forms of alcohol appear to carry the samerisks.

Shapiro says the health benefits are likely to be quite limited, especiallywhen weighed against the potential for abuse. “If you drink, make sureyou know what healthy drinking looks like,” he says.

One drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men is a mostlysafe and potentially healthy way to unwind.

But if you don’t drink now, don’t reach for the bottle.

“The medical community still does not advise people to start drinking,”Moore says.

How your diet can lower the risk of Prostate Cancer

   

TOMATO AND BEAN CONSUMPTION HELPS PREVENT THE DISEASE

Consuming more than ten servings a week of tomatoes and beans lowers the risk of prostate cancer, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Bristol.

The findings expand on previous research and suggest that men should consume foods rich in lycopene and selenium, which are found in tomatoes and beans respectively, to help prevent the onset of a disease that kills about 30,000 men in the United States each year.

The study compared the diets of more than 1,800 men between the ages of 50 and 69 who had prostate cancer to the diets of more than 12,000 of their cancer-free peers.

While the study’s conclusions provide some dietary guidance, researchers say more work needs to be done to develop further dietary guidelines.

“Our findings suggest that tomatoes may be important in prostate cancer prevention. However, further studies need to be conducted to confirm our findings, especially through human trials,” said Vanessa Er, a researcher at the University of Bristol who led the study. “Men should still eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, maintain a healthy weight and stay active.”

Our Sun’s power is stable and steadfast, says scientists

 

Experiment sees energy of the sun being created. Detector deep under an Italian mountain sees neutrinos created deep in the sun in a fusion furnace.
The fusion reaction that powers our sun has been detected in real time for the first time with an instrument buried deep beneath a mountain in Italy detecting the resulting neutrinos.

Before this, measurements of solar energy output relied on photons reaching the earth from the sun from the same kind of fusion reactions, but those reactions happened one hundred thousand years ago — the amount of time the photon energy takes to make its way through the sun’s dense interior to burst from its surface and begin the journey toward Earth.

In the new experiment conducted by an international team of researchers working with the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics, solar energy has been measured almost from the moment of its generation, because the neutrinos detected need just 8 minutes to travel from the very core of the sun to Earth.

The amount of energy produced by the sun today, as measured using the neutrinos, is identical to what was determined by photon measurements which looked a hundred thousand year’s into the sun’s past, proving the energy output has remained the same for all that time, the researchers say.

“This is direct proof of the stability of the sun over the past 100,000 years or so,” says team member Andrea Pocar of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Within the sun’s core, protons of hydrogen atoms, the sun’s major constituent, collide with such force they undergo a fusion reaction, producing a nucleus of heavy hydrogen, an antielectron (a positron) and a neutrino.

Further reactions produce helium and other elements and more kinds of neutrinos, although the majority of neutrinos streaming out of the sun are from that initial proton-proton reaction initiating fusion.

They have proved the hardest of all the various solar neutrinos to detect on Earth, the scientists explain, because they have low energy levels that are similar to that of many radioactive decays that occur on Earth.

This causes detectors to have trouble, confusing a radioactive decay with a solar neutrino event.

That’s why the Italian detector instrument, dubbed Borexino, is buried more than 4,500 feet below the Apennine Mountains.

The overlying rock can shield it from decay energy, while neutrinos pass easily through it and into the detector.

After 18 months of collecting data and a full year of analyzing it “to show it was not background [radiation] or a detector effect,” the team came up with a figure for neutrino flow of 66 billion per square centimeter per second, very close to model predictions of 60 billion, 

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Poorer people in Ireland ‘pay out more of their income in tax’ like VAT

A REPORT SUGGESTS POORER HOUSEHOLDS ARE DISPROPORTIONATELY HIT BY INDIRECT TAXES, 

  

Irish households pay 24% of their income in taxes, both direct and indirect, according to new research from the Nevin Institute.

Poorer people in Ireland pay out a greater share of their income in tax than their richer counterparts, according to new research.

The finding, contained in a report by the Nevin Economic Research Institute, runs counters to the notion that Ireland’s tax code is progressive, in other words, one in which the tax rate rises as income increases.

The institute’s research, which is based on data from Central Statistics Office’s most recent household budget survey, found Irish households pay 24% of their income in taxes, both direct and indirect.

On average, 13.6% of gross income goes in direct taxes (income and social insurance) and 10.36% in indirect taxes (VAT, excise and levies).

VAT was found to be the largest source of indirect taxation, collecting on average €3,360 per annum from households, equivalent to 6.27% of average gross income.

The report found that in nominal terms the tax was progressive but when judged against gross income it becomes regressive, accounting for a higher percentage of income in poorer households.

Specifically, the research showed the poorest 10 per cent of the population shelled out 16% of their income on VAT while the top 10% of earners paid out just 4%.

A similar pattern emerged when it came to the other big indirect tax, excise duty, with the poorer cohort paying 8 per cent of their income on this tariff compared to top earners who pay 1.4 per cent.

The report noted that in contrast to the indirect tax regime, the State’s income tax code is strongly progressive with the top 10 per cent paying an average rate of 23 per cent of their income compared to the bottom tenth who paid out just 0.3 per cent.

However, the report found the combined effect of both direct and indirect taxes accounted for a greater portion of overall income in poorest households than in richest ones.

Specifically, the bottom 10 per cent of the population forked out 30.5 per cent of their income in total tax, while the top 10 per cent paid 29.6 per cent.

The report’s author Dr Micheál Collins said the Irish income tax system is progressive, but the indirect taxation system is regressive – as income increases less tax is paid as a percentage of gross income.

This gives a U-shape to the overall household tax contribution curve – households at the bottom and top of the income distribution contribute the most, he said.

“What this report is really getting at is that the tax code is not simply about income tax…it’s a more complex picture than that,” he said.

Budget 2012 included an increase in the standard rate of VAT from 21 per cent to 23 per cent yielding an additional €670 million to the exchequer.

Projections for the Republic of Ireland’s taxation revenue suggest that just over €50 billion will be collected across all taxation categories during 2014. While corporations and other businesses contribute a sizeable proportion of this sum (principally through profit taxes, local authority charges and employer PRSI) the largest proportion flows from households.

Irish homeowners liable for NPPR (non principal private residence) charges urged to contact their local authorities

  

€200 TAX ON SECOND HOMES WILL ATTRACT PENALTIES IF NOT PAID BY SEPTEMBER 1ST

Those who are liable to pay the non-principal private residence charge have been urged to contact their local authority.

Homeowners who have yet to make arrangements to pay the non principal private residence (NPPR) charge have been urged to make contact with their relevant local authority or the NPPR bureau before the end of the month, to avoid additional penalties which will be imposed from September 1st.

The €200 charge, introduced in 2009, applied to those who owned a property that was not their principal residence, with exemptions allowed for mobile homes and those involved in judicial separation or divorce.

It applies from 2009-2013 and homeowners who have not yet paid are already liable for late payment charges.

If payment is not made in full by Sunday evening, or if settlement terms have not been agreed by then, an additional late payment fee of €120 a year will be applied on September 1st.

In addition, the homeowner’s entire NPPR liability will be increased by a factor of 50 per cent and will then be frozen.

HSE to go ahead & implement new consultant rates

  

The HSE says it will go ahead with the implementation of revised higher pay rates for newly-appointed consultants from next week, despite the collapse of Labour Relations Commission (LRC) talks between health management and the IMO on the matter.

While the new salary rates provide for a substantial pay increase on current new entrant consultant pay rates, the IMO claimed the HSE was ‘not serious’ about tackling the recruitment crisis for consultants in the Irish health services.

The HSE said following three months of negotiations between management and the IMO, the LRC had issued a series of proposals regarding consultant pay and career structure.

The HSE says it now intends to recruit consultant posts based on the new pay scale proposed by the LRC, which comes into effect from September 1. The new pay rates are intended to redress the 30% pay cut for newly-entrant consultants imposed in 2012, which the IMO says has discouraged doctors from taking up consultant posts.

Under the new pay rates, consultants who were appointed after September 2012 and who are appointed in future will receive basic salaries of between €105,000 and €190,000, depending on experience, performance, type of post and level of private practice. The pay rates do not provide for back-pay to September 2012.

Some new entrant consultants with relevant experience could start at around €150,000 under the new rates.

Consultants will receive extra allowances for on-call and emergency work on top of basic salaries.

Under the pay rates for new entrants introduced in September 2012, maximum pay for new entrant consultants was around €120,000. Most consultants appointed prior to that date would earn higher salaries for public hospital work – the new rates for new entrants would considerably close the gap between the pay rates of pre-September 2012 consultants and consultants appointed after that date.

The health executive said the LRC proposals give full regard to the relevant experience of doctors returning from abroad or currently in the Irish health system and ensure that such experience influences where doctors are placed on the new pay scale.

“Health service management believes that the proposals are comprehensive in dealing with and advancing the issue of career structure and associated pay rates for consultants. Implementation of the LRC proposals will help to ensure that the Irish health system is in a position to recruit consultants and ensure it continues to deliver a high quality and safe service for patients.”

However, IMO Industrial Relations Director Steve Tweed said the new pay proposals would not solve current problems.

“The reality is that our doctors see better jobs with better pay and better conditions in various markets across the world and they are voting with their feet.”

He said the IMO would be willing to re-engage in talks if the HSE could demonstrate that it was prepared to work with the IMO to tackle the problem.

The IMO is reported to have had concerns about performance reviews in the proposals.

MEANWHILE:-

A survey shows a rise in the number of young doctors emigrating from Ireland

  

MEDICAL COUNCIL REPORT FINDS SHARP RISE IN ‘BRAIN DRAIN’ AMONG NEWLY QUALIFIED GRADUATES

A Medical Council report has found that the proportion of younger graduates of Irish medical schools appears leaving the State is on the rise.

Emigration among younger doctors increased sharply last year, according to a Medical Council report.

The finding of a 23 per cent increase in the “exit rate” among younger graduates of Irish medical schools appears to bear out claims of a “brain drain” from the medical profession.

The exit rate of 25 to 29-year-old Irish-trained doctors grew from 6.4 per cent in 2012 to 7.9 per cent last year, according to the council’s second annual Medical Workforce Intelligence Report.

One in 20 doctors in this age-group on the medical register was practising outside Ireland, the report found.

The report shows Ireland has a relatively young medical workforce, with just one in five (21.4 per cent) doctors aged 55 or older, compared to an OECD average of one in three.

However, some specialties, such as occupational medicine, public health and psychiatry have a significantly higher proportion of older doctors.

There has been a 12 per cent increase in the number of women on the medical register since 2008, and four in 10 doctors are women.

This is still slightly below the OECD average of 44 per cent.

The council says there is definite “gender patterning” in the role of female doctors, with higher than average proportions practising in areas such as public health, paediatrics, and obstetrics and gynaecology.

There has been a 30 per growth in the number of specialists on the register since 2008, but Ireland still lags behind other countries in this area. Across the OECD, there is an average of two specialists for every general doctor, while in Ireland the ratio of specialists to generalists is 1:1.

Ireland is producing medical graduates faster than any other OECD country apart from Mexico, the survey reveals. Last year, Ireland produced 50 new medical graduates per 1,000 doctors in the workforce, compared to an international average of 33.

Speaking today, Ms Caroline Spillane, chief executive of the Medical Council said: “At a time of health system reform, it’s essential that we continue to focus on developing and retaining doctors with the right mix of skills to meet the changing needs of patients and the health service.

“This report has been developed not only to support our own work but also to inform wider health system planning and reform.”

Ms Spillane continued: “The findings have important implications for how we approach our own work in overseeing doctors’ education, training and practice. The report will also inform wider efforts across the health system to plan and develop a sustainable medical workforce in Ireland.

“Without an informed approach to medical workforce planning, we cannot build a strong health system in Ireland and continue to meet our commitment to fairer recruitment of internationally-qualified doctors in line with WHO best practice.”

Medical Council president Professor Freddie Wood said: “The public’s experience of the patient-doctor relationship is shaped by the healthcare team, the settings where doctors learn and practise, and the wider framework of legislation and strategic policies which set direction for the health system.

“The detailed understanding of the evolving medical workforce provided by this report supports our work in education and training, registration and oversight of continuing practice, while also better informing the individuals and organisations with whom we work across the wider health system.”

New Antarctic sea life atlas offers an index of marine life

  

THE MOST COMPLETE AUDIT EVER ASSEMBLED OF ANTARCTIC SEA LIFE IS TO BE PUBLISHED THIS WEEK.

More than 9,000 species, from single-cell organisms to penguins and whales, are chronicled in the first Antarctic atlas since 1969.

The book will be launched by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research at its Open Science Conference in Auckland, New Zealand.

Across 66 chapters, the atlas contains around 100 colour photos and 800 maps. It is called the Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Ocean.

Maps illustrate data such as the proportion of the year spent under sea ice (left), and the number of species reported across the length and breadth of the ocean (right)

“It’s been an enormous international effort and will serve as a legacy to the dedicated team of scientists who have contributed to it,” said Dr Huw Griffiths, one of the atlas’s authors and editors, from the British Antarctic Survey.

Dr Griffiths said he believed the atlas would appeal to “anyone interested in animals living at the end of the Earth”.

  This Antarctic sea anemone ranges from the shallows to over 3km deep, and has 96 tentacles. 

  Adélie penguins currently inhabit the entire Antarctic coast. 

All together 147 scientists from 91 different institutions around the world contributed to the work, which has taken four years.

They hope the publication will help inform conservation policy, such as the issue of whether marine protected areas should be established in open swathes of the Southern Ocean.

The data include the distribution of different species, insights into their evolution and genetics, their interaction with the physical environment and the impacts of climate change.

Researchers say that compiling the information together can help predict how the habitats and distribution of important species will change in the future.

The community around a hot volcanic vent, more than 2km below the surface, includes vast swarms of yeti crabs feeding on bacteria

The book’s chief editor, Dr Claude De Broyer from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, said: “This is the first time that all the records of the unique Antarctic marine biodiversity, from the very beginnings of Antarctic exploration in the days of Captain Cook, have been compiled, analysed and mapped by the scientific community.”

Dr De Broyer described the atlas as “an accessible database of useful information” for conserving the marine life of the Antarctic.

  This 9cm long, carniverous critter is the giant Antarctic isopod, found in large numbers in coastal waters

  This young southern elephant seal was photographed on Marion Island, one of South Africa’s Prince Edward Islands.