Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Stressed Irish workers should ask for counselling

  

STRESSED IRISH WORKERS WOULD BENEFIT IF COUNSELLING SERVICES WERE OFFERED IN THE WORKPLACE. A THIRD OF ALL IRISH WORKERS COMPLAIN THEY ARE STRESSED BECAUSE OF THEIR JOBS.

And almost three out of four (72pc) workers think there is a need for counselling and psychotherapy in the workplace.

According to research commissioned by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP), stress in the workplace is highest among the 25 to 49 age group, affecting 59pc of workers.

A survey also showed that four in five people under 24 would support such services being available at work.

Overall, the survey found that work was the main cause of stress for 31pc of adults.

Half the adults surveyed said that they would like their employer to offer confidential counselling services and psychotherapy.

Meanwhile, a survey last year by EU research agency Eurofound showed that 46pc of Irish people said they were stressed at work or at home, while 12pc said they were stressed at both.

Work-related stress is estimated to cost the economy €200m a year.

100,000 more pupils in Irish primary school by the next decade

   

Irish primary school pupil enrolments will grow by up to 100,000 by 2021, according to latest projections from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

It means a jump of 20pc on the 2011 figures, with the number of five to 12-year-olds in the population expected to rise from about 500,000 to 600,000 in the decade.

The boom in primary enrolments is expected to remain reasonably stable between 2021 and 2026, before starting to drop.

The surge at primary level will work its way through to second-level, reaching its peak there between 2021 and 2026.

The CSO projects a 31-34pc rise in enrolments at second-level, ranging between 106,00 and 117,000, in the decade to 2021.

While extra enrolments mean more schools and more teachers, in the current economic climate it also means available funds will be stretched further.

The Department of Education is adopting a “robbing Peter to pay Paul” approach to cope with extra demand.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has said the priority is for every school-age child to have a place in a classroom.

The five-year school building programme – which is costing €2bn – is focused on areas of population growth and this year, for instance, there is no budget for maintenance and repairs to existing schools.

The 2013 programme will deliver over 25,000 permanent school places, almost 21,000 of which will be additional, and the remainder will replace temporary or unsatisfactory accommodation.

Professor Alan Barrett, of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), said yesterday that the school-building programme should take account of changing needs.

A department spokesman said that the focus of the five-year programme was on meeting the obvious demand at primary level and second level up to 2016.

Recruitment: She said that Prof Barrett’s proposal was an interesting one and that it was worthy of consideration.

The rising enrolments also have implications for teacher recruitment and the department predicts that about 660 extra primary teachers will be needed each year to cope with growing enrolments.

That is on top of about 870 new appointments annually to replace teachers who retire or leave for other reasons.

But the department has ways of controlling teacher numbers in order to keep within budget.

A series of cuts in recent years in areas such as resource and English language teaching has kept a lid on teacher levels – even though enrolments had started to rise.

At second-level, changes in arrangements for the allocation of career guidance teachers, has removed about 500 jobs from schools.

A change in the pupil-teacher ratio can also see hundreds of jobs disappear from the system in the the stroke of a pen.

The doctor who has harnessed children’s love of Jedward to ease their trauma in hospital.

  

His solution to the pain and anxiety children feel when they’re brought in to hospital is so simple you have to wonder why nobody thought of it before.

The idea by Dr Eoin Fogarty above, has found its way into one of the world’s most respected medical journals.

Dr Fogarty discovered through a scientific experiment that a Jedward-like glove puppet was the most ideal way to divert a sick child’s attention.

“It’s extraordinary how much it’s taken off,” he told the Herald. Dr Fogarty and four of his colleagues tested the famous Jedward quiff on 149 children who were being treated in the emergency department of Tallaght Hospital.

Given the option of the Jedward figure or a Mohawk-type alternative, the majority of the children said they favoured the Dublin pop duo. The doctors involved used latex gloves to create the puppets before using the fingers to create the Jedward quiff. The study found that the glove puppets was successful in distracting children from their acute injuries and meant doctors had to distribute fewer painkillers.

The study featured this week in the UK-based Emergency Medical Journal and has generated worldwide media coverage.

Speaking this evening, Dr Fogarty (32), who now serves in the Mater Hospital, said he hopes the idea is now rolled out in further hospitals.

Physical exercise still very important for people with Heart disease

  

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IS ESSENTIAL FOR PEOPLE WITH CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE, DOCTORS HAVE SAID.

Congenital heart disease refers to structural problems or a defect in the heart that has existed since birth. Between 500 and 600 babies are born every year in Ireland with a heart defect. In most cases, it is unknown why they have occurred.

While some people may assume that those affected should not exert themselves, a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association appears to disagree.

According to the statement, regular physical activity among those with congenital heart defects is essential for their long-term health.

The statement acknowledges that people with some conditions involving an irregular heart beat may have to restrict their activities, however for most of those affected, ‘physical activity can be unlimited and should be strongly promoted’.

The doctors noted that many people with congenital heart disease lead relatively sedentary lives. However, they emphasised the physical, psychological and social benefits of regular physical activity.

Insect like eye lens in new tiny camera lets you look like a bug

 

Device imitates structure of insect eye

The new digital camera uses large arrays of tiny focusing lenses and miniaturized detectors in hemispherical layouts, just like eyes found in insects.

Researchers in the US have borrowed from insects, building a unique camera that copies the multi-facetted eye of a fly. Its bubble-shaped lens features 180 microlenses giving it a 180 degree view of the world.

Not much bigger than a fly itself, the camera could be used for wide-eyed surveillance or to provide very high quality imaging during endoscopic procedures in hospital.

“What we have, in a sense, is many small eyes on one big eye,” said Prof Yonggang Huang of Northwestern University in Illinois who collaborated with Prof John Rogers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and others. They published their findings this evening in the journal Nature.

Each of the 180 elements is a separate imaging system with individual microlenses and microscale photodetectors. When working all together they can take a clear picture with a single snap and give a wide angle window on the world.

The hemispherical camera lens is completely flexible and can twist and bend without breaking. This makes it a promising addition to the technology used for advanced surgery, the authors believe. Two of the lenses can also be put back to back to achieve a full 360 degree view, they add.

The lens acts very much like an insect’s eye, Prof Rogers said. “Nature has developed and refined these concepts over the course of billions of years of evolution.”

The 180 lens camera is comparable to the eyes of fire ants and bark beetles, but can’t yet match a fly eye which has thousands of individual segments, the researchers write.

Building the complex camera lens was an engineering challenge involving optics, electronics, fabrication and modelling.

Donie's Ireland news daily Blog

Dublin Zoo chimp Bossou ‘rescues’three ducklings from danger

It is ”an incredible, truly touching and inspiring story of humanity and compassion shown by a gentle giant.

   

A chimp named Bossou in Dublin Zoo has come to the rescue of three baby ducklings by cradling them close to his chest after he spotted the three-day-old ducks in their nest close to danger .

The ducklings’ mother had built her nest on the edge of the zoo’s Chimp Island.

Days after the chicks hatched, Bossou the chimp – who was said to be worried they were in danger from his island mates – ”rescued” the little ones from the water.

Cradling them to his chest, the nine-year-old 60kg chimp brought the ducklings to safety.

A concerned member of the public contacted zookeepers, saying she had noticed a large chimp holding onto the ducklings.

Zookeeper Yvonne McCann enticed Bossou to the edge of the chimp habitat and traded each duckling for a banana.

The ducklings have been named Paddle, Waddle and Drake by their new home, the Dublin SPCA.

Dublin SPCA spokesperson Miriam Kerins said it is ”an incredible, truly touching and inspiring story of humanity and compassion shown by a gentle giant. Bossou is indeed a hero, I think it’s so touching,” she said. .

”The Dublin SPCA are pleased to announce that Paddle, Waddle and Drake are none the worse for their adventure and are having the time of their lives at the shelter.”

Mother of six children jailed for €229,000 social welfare fraud

       

A mother of six children who claimed nearly €250,000 in social welfare payments, while she had hundreds of thousands of euros in the bank, has been jailed for three years.

Mary Connors (36) claimed the money over the course of 14 years. In that time over €1.2 million from her husband’s business passed through her multiple bank accounts.

Judge Martin Nolan imposed the maximum sentence allowed for the offence, stating he had to send out a message to those who commit social welfare fraud.

The judge rejected Connors’ claim that her husband would not allow her to use the money in the accounts for the family and that she had to claim social welfare to get by.

Noting that the accounts were in Connors’ name, he said: “I don’t think I can accept she was under her husband’s control; she’s responsible for her own actions”

The court heard the money in the accounts came from her husband buying and selling cars but that the accounts were in her name because he couldn’t be trusted due to his chronic alcoholism.

Judge Nolan said such crimes are “by their nature difficult to detect” and that the courts must send a message.

He noted that all the money has since been repaid but said that a custodial sentence must be imposed. Connors wailed and screamed as she was led away by prison officers to begin her sentence.

Connors of Cloonmore Park, Tallaght pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to eight sample counts of failing to notify the Department of Social Protection of an increase in her means between July 1996 and April 2010. She has six previous convictions including burglary and handling stolen property.

Detective Garda Gary Sheridan told prosecuting counsel Fiona Murphy BL that gardai were searching Connors home in connection with a separate matter when they came across documentation showing she had €131,000 in a Permanent TSB account.

An investigation was started and it was found she had another TSB account containing €155,400 as well as an investment bond worth €15,000. Since the first account was opened in 1992, over €1.2 million was lodged into them and €969,000 withdrawn.

Since 1996 Connors claimed social welfare payments for her and her husband totalling €229,453. When she was caught she was claiming €504 a week.

When investigators discovered the fraud her accounts were frozen. Connors attempted to withdraw the cash shortly afterwards but was stopped by the bank.

Defence counsel Kieran Kelly BL said the money in the accounts came from her husband’s car business and that he was not registered as a business owner.

He said Connors used the social welfare money for day to day living as she was not allowed to spend the business money on the family.

Counsel said Connors has been admitted to women’s refuges forty times, sometimes with injuries, because of her husband’s drink problem. He said she is a member of the travelling community and that she married at 17.

Mr Kelly submitted she is extremely remorseful and unlikely to come before the courts again.

Dancing on the streets of Baku:

Jedward celebrate their Euro qualification

 

JEDWARD CELEBRATING IN BAKU TONIGHT.

After qualifying for the Eurovision final last night with their song Waterline, brothers John and Edward Grimes were on the streets of Baku in Azerbaijan today soaking up the sun and the sweet, sweet taste of success.

JOHN AND EDWARD Grimes (Jedward) have won a place in the Eurovision final for the second year in a row.

Following a glittering performance (featuring a waterfall) in Baku this evening, Ireland’s Jedward have been selected to compete in the final of the Eurovision song contest this weekend.

The nine other countries to qualify are: Moldova, Romania, Iceland, Hungary, Denmark, Albania, Cyprus, Greece, and Russia.

Six other countries automatically qualified for the final on Saturday night: the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and hosts Azerbaijan.

The second semi-final is being held on Thursday night to determine the last of the qualifying entrants.

On Saturday, they will be looking to better their performance in last year’s Eurovision by winning the contest for Ireland for the first time in 16 years.

Summer arrives in Ireland as warm spells set to continue into this weekend

    

It’s official – summer’s here. Blue skies and soaring temperatures can be expected across most of the country today, and for the rest of the week.

Met Éireann said it would dry, warm and sunny today with highest temperatures of 18 to 22 degrees.

The unseasonably cold start to the month is set to give way to something of a heatwave, in Irish terms at least, according to the national forecaster.

Forecaster Evelyn Cusack said while temperatures at the beginning of the month were below average they will increase rapidly over the next few days, with daytime temperatures expected to be well into the 20s.

“We have well and truly lost that cold polar air,” she said, referring to the unseasonably cooler weather experienced last month.

However, she warned it may remain slightly cooler along east coast and in the south due to onshore breezes, and there may be some patches of drizzle and sea fog.

While Thursday will be much the same as today, Friday is set to be the hottest day of the current warm spell with temperatures expected to climb as high as 25 or 26 degrees.

The generally dry, sunny weather will continue over the weekend, but there is still the risk of a few thundery showers breaking out, especially in southern parts.

The beginning of next week will also be generally dry, warm and sunny, the forecaster said.

While March was unseasonably warm, April temperatures were colder than they had been for at least a decade.

How whales open their huge mouths and feed

 

A blue whale can consume 500,000 calories in one lunging gulp

Researchers have discovered how very large whales co-ordinate their jaw muscles and bones to take gigantic mouthfuls of prey.

For a blue whale, the largest animal that has ever existed, each mouthful can scoop up 100 tonnes of krill-filled water in less than 10 seconds.

Scientists have now found a sensory organ in whales’ jaws which they say links bones and muscles to the brain, making the vast lunging gulps possible. They report their findings in Nature.

When a rorqual whale, such as a blue whale, senses that there is sufficient prey suspended in the water, it dives. Then at some point in that dive it opens its mouth, rotates its body and accelerates in order to force krill-laden water into its mouth.

A blue whale has separate right and left lower jawbones, allowing them to expand their gape to approximately 3m in width. Pleats of skin and blubber below the mouth, extending to the belly, form a stretchy cavern to accommodate the vast volume of water.

Plates of a comb-like structure called baleen (pictured), which hangs from a rorqual whale’s upper jaw, trap up to 500kg of small marine creatures – that is approximately 500,000 calories in a single mouthful.

Writing in the journal, lead researcher Nicholas Pyenson, from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, explained that the rorqual whales he studied had “one of the most extreme feeding methods in aquatic vertebrates”.

This whale-specific mouth organ seems to facilitate that.

Dr Pyenson said the structure looked like a “gelatinous mess”, which could be the reason it was previously overlooked and assumed simply to be a fluid-filled joint between the two lower jaw bones.

By dissecting whale carcasses in fine detail, the researchers found that the structure was actually far more complex.

Found at the front tip of the lower jaws, the structure is laden with nerve endings. The team says that these are sensors which pick up signals from the jaw as it starts to open. Nerves from the organ then send signals to the brain, triggering the whales’ dramatic and complex feeding lunge.

The study, carried out with colleagues from the University of British Columbia, was possible because the team had access to carcasses landed at a whaling station in Iceland.

The organ, pictured on the right of this image, is at the tip or “chin” of the whales’ lower jaws

“We were able to work with tissue samples that were freshly dead,” explained Dr Pyenson. “It was a unique opportunity to look at these animals’ anatomy in detail.

“And that’s what we’d been missing.”

Dr Pyenson and his colleagues examined the jaws of fin and minke whales, dissecting them and using high resolution medical imaging to examine the carcasses.

Finding this structure, the researcher said, “answered a lot of outstanding questions”.

A rorqual whale’s feeding lunge was “one of the largest biomechanical events on Earth”, said Dr Pyenson.

“This shows us how they do it so quickly, co-ordinating the inflation of the throat pouch with the opening of the jaws… and closing their mouth to prevent prey escaping – all in under 10 seconds.”

Working at a whaling station allowed the team to dissect freshly dead whales

Dr Bill Sellers, a zoologist from the University of Manchester, said that this was an “amazing discovery”.

“They’ve found an organ we didn’t know was there, which is remarkable considering people have been chopping up whales for hundreds of years.”

Dr Gareth Fraser from the University of Sheffield added that the discovery revealed a unique adaptation that mammals had made to an “aquatic lifestyle”.

It showed, he said, “how much we still have much to discover, even from the largest ocean residents”

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Kenny to give EU treaty TV speech the same time as Gerry Adams address to party’s Ard Fheis 

    

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is to address the nation live on TV about the European fiscal treaty.

The speech will take place on Sunday in response to Sinn Fein, which is holding its Ard Fheis at the weekend, when leader Gerry Adams is expected to argue against the treaty in his own live address.

A Government spokesman said the length of the Taoiseach’s speech will depend on how long Mr Adams speaks, in order to ensure both the “Yes” and “No” campaign are given the same airtime.

The referendum to decide whether Ireland will ratify the fiscal compact is due just four days later on May 31.

This will be Mr Kenny’s second State of the Nation speech in just six months. He took to the television in December ahead of the Government’s Budget announcement to prepare the public for a tough year ahead.

It was the first such address in 25 years. Former taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald was the last to make a State of the Nation in the 1980s and only three other taoisigh before him did so in times of grave political importance.

News that Mr Kenny is to give the speech comes after fresh calls from Sinn Fein for him to take part in a televised debate on the fiscal treaty.

The Taoiseach has continued to reject invitations from the opposition party and TV3 to take part, citing previous bad blood with the broadcaster’s resident veteran journalist Vincent Browne.

Why men under pressure to father a baby while partner is most fertile ‘often have affairs’

   

ANY COUPLE TRYING FOR A BABY IS TOLD THAT TIMING IS EVERYTHING.

But pressure to perform when their partner is at her most fertile drives men away, according to research.

One in ten men has had an affair because of the pressure of rigorously timed sessions, while four out of ten claimed it made them impotent.

Trying for a baby is a joyful time for any couple, but it may also be linked to impotency

More than 400 men took part in the study, which found the pressure to conceive a baby caused men acute stress.

Fertility experts routinely tell couples to time intercourse to coincide with the window when a woman is ovulating.

There are even highly sensitive devices designed to help couples work out – down to the minute – when she is at her most fertile.

But as the number of timed sex sessions increased so did the men’s level of stress, according to the research carried out in South Korea. None of the men in the study had ever had sexual problems.

The finding supports several previous studies showing that men who are under stress produce less testosterone, which has an effect on their libido.

The authors suggested couples should be made aware of these risks and attempt timed sessions for no longer than three months at a time, with breaks for a few months in between.

Timed intercourse seems to impose a substantial degree of stress on male partners, inducing erectile dysfunction and, in some cases, causing them to seek extramarital sex,’ they wrote in the Journal Of Andrology. Andrology is the branch of medicine concerned with diseases in men, especially the reproductive organs.

They added: ‘It is clear that the greater instances of timed intercourse trials, the more incidences of erectile dysfunction and extramarital sex and the greater the desire to avoid sex with the intended partner.’

All the couples in the study had been trying to conceive naturally for a year.

Joyful expectations: But trying for a baby can put much stress and strain upon relationships

The authors noted that having to sleep with their partner at a specific time ‘becomes a burden and is carried out as a job to be done, which imposes further stress’. They believe that higher levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, being produced by the body was to blame for lower testosterone.

Professor Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said: ‘I’m glad someone has studied this, as the single biggest concern for men – usually when their partner is not in the room – is that they really find it a struggle when their partners are obsessed with timing.

‘While it is useful for couples to be aware of the fertile window, obsessing about it is not helpful at all. Men are being phoned up at three in the afternoon and told that the green light is on and they have to come home immediately.’

Professor Pacey, also chairman of the British Fertility Society, added: ‘If couples are having regular sex two or three times a week, they will hit the fertile window.’

÷The age limit for free IVF treatment is to be raised to 42, in guidelines to be ­published tomorrow. Currently only women up to 39 are allowed three free rounds of NHS fertility treatment.

Draft guidelines being put out for consultation by the rationing body Nice could allow 8,000 more women in their early 40s to benefit. At present they have to pay up to £5,000 per treatment.

The media’s coverage of suicide in Ireland improves

  

The volume of positive coverage given to suicide and mental health issues in the print media has increased in the past year, according to a new survey.

The Headline study, which assessed 20,600 Irish articles related to mental health and suicide in 2011, found 1,164 were “positive in quality”, representing an increase of 47 per cent on 2010, when 787 articles were positive.

Headline is a national media monitoring programme, working to promote “responsible and accurate” reporting on mental health and suicide issues.

The top three publications for responsible reporting were the Irish Examiner, the Irish Daily Mail and The Irish Times.

Jane Arigho, media project co-ordinator at Headline, said there were still publications “lagging behind on best practice” and she identified certain daily tabloids as among the worst offenders.

She said they failed to recognise that their content could mean the difference between “someone seeking help, continuing to suffer in silence – or, worse, taking their lives”.

Jedward made to sweat but are through to Eurovision final

         

The Jedward’s have made it through to their second Eurovision Song Contest final after being made to wait.

The Dublin-born twins were one of 10 acts and the last act that was announced to get through from the first semi-final and will take to the stage in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Saturday to perform their pop track Waterline.

The former X Factor contestants, real names John and Edward Grimes, are representing Ireland for the second year in a row.

They are hoping to place higher than last year, when they came eighth with Lipstick.

The 20-year-old twins were dressed in silver armour-like costumes with their famous spiky hair worn flat.

Their performance ended with the energetic brothers jumping into a fountain in the middle of the stage.

They will go up against the favourites the Russian Grannies – Buranovskiye Babushki – who also made it through.

The second semi-final will take place on Thursday.

France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the UK and Azerbaijan have already qualified for the final.

Veteran crooner Engelbert Humperdinck will represent the UK with his song Love Will Set You Free.