'Education for Sustainability' - The National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development in Ireland, 2014-2020

This National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been developed by the Department of Education and Skills (DES), in consultation with key stakeholders. It provides a framework to support the contribution that the education sector is making and will continue to make towards a more sustainable future at a number of levels: individual, community, local, national and international. This strategy is primarily influenced by the national strategy on sustainable development, Our Sustainable Future - A Framework for Sustainable Development in Ireland (hereafter referred to as Our Sustainable Future), which was published by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in 2012. It is also framed within the current context of limited financial resources. The result is an ESD strategy that seeks to challenge individuals, organisations and society as a whole, but particularly in educational contexts, through recommendations that are pragmatic rather than aspirational in nature.

National Youth Work Development Plan 2003-2007

Irish society today is dramatically different from the one in which youth work services were first provided on a spontaneous and philanthropic basis more than one hundred years ago. At no time has the process of change been more striking than in the last ten to fifteen years. At least four major types of recent change, all clearly interrelated, can be identified: economic, political, technological and cultural. A further important aspect of cultural change in Ireland has been the continuing trend towards urbanisation, and the corresponding impact, largely negative, on rural communities. Particularly significant in the context of a Development Plan for Youth Work is the migration of young people away from rural areas to study or work, with most of them unlikely to return on a permanent basis. This, along with the rapid reduction in farm holdings and other changes in the countryside, has profound sociological and psychological repercussions for rural Ireland and indeed for Irish society as a whole. For young people living in rural areas the challenge is to provide youth work opportunities which are specially tailored to their needs and which take account of the ways in which their circumstances (e.g. regarding transport and access) are different from those of their urban peers

National Fraud Initiative

The Public Health Agency (PHA) is required by law to protect the public funds it administers. This A4 sheet provides information on the National Fraud Initiative.

Report of the Consultation for a National Rare Disease Plan for Ireland

This IPH report (2013) (prepared for the ROI Department of Health) presents findings from the National Consultation on Rare Disease overseen by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland on behalf of the Department of Health to inform the development of Ireland’s first National Rare Disease Plan. In 2009, the Council of the European Union recommended that all member countries develop a national plan for rare diseases with the framework of their health and social systems by the end of 2013. The aim is to ensure that all patients with rare disease in Europe have access to high quality care, including diagnostics, treatments and rehabilitation.

Effect of a national primary care pay for performance scheme on emergency hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions: controlled longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the impact of a national primary care pay for performance scheme, the Quality and Outcomes Framework in England, on emergency hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs). DESIGN: Controlled longitudinal study. SETTING: English National Health Service between 1998/99 and 2010/11. PARTICIPANTS: Populations registered with each of 6975 family practices in England. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Year specific differences between trend adjusted emergency hospital admission rates for incentivised ACSCs before and after the introduction of the Quality and Outcomes Framework scheme and two comparators: non-incentivised ACSCs and non-ACSCs. RESULTS: Incentivised ACSC admissions showed a relative reduction of 2.7% (95% confidence interval 1.6% to 3.8%) in the first year of the Quality and Outcomes Framework compared with ACSCs that were not incentivised. This increased to a relative reduction of 8.0% (6.9% to 9.1%) in 2010/11. Compared with conditions that are not regarded as being influenced by the quality of ambulatory care (non-ACSCs), incentivised ACSCs also showed a relative reduction in rates of emergency admissions of 2.8% (2.0% to 3.6%) in the first year increasing to 10.9% (10.1% to 11.7%) by 2010/11. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of a major national pay for performance scheme for primary care in England was associated with a decrease in emergency admissions for incentivised conditions compared with conditions that were not incentivised. Contemporaneous health service changes seem unlikely to have caused the sharp change in the trajectory of incentivised ACSC admissions immediately after the introduction of the Quality and Outcomes Framework. The decrease seems larger than would be expected from the changes in the process measures that were incentivised, suggesting that the pay for performance scheme may have had impacts on quality of care beyond the directly incentivised activities.

Ecology of Haemagogus sp. and Sabethes sp. (Diptera: Culicidae) in relation to the microclimates of the Caxiuanã National Forest, Pará, Brazil

This study was conducted in a meteorological tower located in the Caxiuanã Forest (municipality of Melgaço, Pará, Brazil) with the aim of assessing the vertical stratification of species of Haemagogus and Sabethes, potential vectors of the yellow fever virus. To investigate the role of microclimates in mosquito stratification, bimonthly collections were conducted at ground level (0 m), 8 m, 16 m and 30 m (canopy level), with the aid of entomological nets and suction tubes, from July 2005-April 2006. A total of 25,498 mosquitoes were collected; specimens of Sabethes sp. and Haemagogus janthinomyswere found mostly at heights of 16 m and 30 m while Hg. leucocelaenus was most frequently observed at ground level. The largest number of vector species was collected during the rainiest months, but this difference between seasons was not statistically significant. However, the number of Hg. janthinomys was positively correlated with variations in temperature and relative humidity.

A large study of androgen receptor germline variants and their relation to sex hormone levels and prostate cancer risk. Results from the National Cancer Institute Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium

Background: Androgens are key regulators of prostate gland maintenance and prostate cancer growth, and androgen deprivation therapy has been the mainstay of treatment for advanced prostate cancer for many years. A long-standing hypothesis has been that inherited variation in the androgen receptor (AR) gene plays a role in prostate cancer initiation. However, studies to date have been inconclusive and often suffered from small sample sizes. Objective and Methods: We investigated the association of AR sequence variants with circulating sex hormone levels and prostate cancer risk in 6058 prostate cancer cases and 6725 controls of Caucasian origin within the Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium. We genotyped a highly polymorphic CAG microsatellite in exon 1 and six haplotype tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms and tested each genetic variant for association with prostate cancer risk and with sex steroid levels. Results: We observed no association between AR genetic variants and prostate cancer risk. However, there was a strong association between longer CAG repeats and higher levels of testosterone (P = 4.73 × 10−5) and estradiol (P = 0.0002), although the amount of variance explained was small (0.4 and 0.7%, respectively). Conclusions: This study is the largest to date investigating AR sequence variants, sex steroid levels, and prostate cancer risk. Although we observed no association between AR sequence variants and prostate cancer risk, our results support earlier findings of a relation between the number of CAG repeats and circulating levels of testosterone and estradiol.