Philanthropy and Irish music education: performance music education in Ireland

Music Generation is the title of one of the most significant national initiatives in music education in Ireland. It seeks to put in place a countrywide infrastructure for instrumental and vocal music education. It has long been awaited. Over the last 30 years numerous reports and initiatives have highlighted the geographic inequity of the lack of access to high quality and affordable music tuition outside major urban centers.(1) In the ensuing years many ambitious plans and proposals have been made, including those commissioned by Government.(2) Funding to realize these plans however was always elusive. It is significant that they are now made possible not by a national government-led initiative, but as the result of philanthropy. This essay examines the context in which a philanthropic gift by the Irish rock group U2 and the philanthropic organization The Ireland Funds has enabled the development of a much needed nationals system of vocal and instrumental music education. Furthermore, it explores how philanthropy has shaped the development of this new national infrastructure and influenced the guiding principles

Cultural Value Orientations, Attributions, and Breast Cancer Screening Behaviors

Discrepancies in breast cancer screening behavior exist among various ethnic groups in the United States (Jacobs & Lauderdale, 2001), with Latino American women reporting particularly low screening rates in comparison to Anglo American women (ACS, 2002). Research indicates that behavior is in part influenced by aspects of culture and relevant psychological processes (Betancourt & Lopez, 1993; Betancourt & Fuentes, 2001). This study was designed to investigate the relations among cultural values, attributional processes, and breast cancer screening behavior among Anglo and Latino women. This study also investigated the influence of acculturation among Latino women in relation to the other study variables. The Value Orientation Scale (Betancourt & McMillin- Williams, 2003), the Revised Causal Dimension Scale (McAuley, Duncan, & Russel, 1992), the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System Questionnaire (CDC, 1997), and Stephenson\u27s Multigroup Acculturation Scale (Stephenson, 2001) were used for the study. Bentler\u27s (1995) analysis of structural equations (EQS) program was used to test a model of the relations among culture, attributions, and breast cancer screening behaviors resulting in a good fit of the data. Level of acculturation had little effect on the study variables

Polyclonal outbreak of bacteremia caused by Burkholderia cepacia complex and the presumptive role of ultrasound gel

AbstractA nosocomial polyclonal outbreak associated to bacteremia caused by different Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) species and clones is reported. Molecular characterization identified Burkholderia stabilis, Burkholderia contaminans, and Burkholderia ambifaria among BCC isolates obtained from patients in neonatal and adult intensive care units. BCC was also isolated from an intrinsically contaminated ultrasound gel, which constituted the presumptive BCC source. Prior BCC outbreak related to contaminated ultrasound gels have been described in the setting of transrectal prostate biopsy. Outbreak caused strains and/or clones of BCC have been reported, probably because BCC are commonly found in the natural environment; most BCC species are biofilm producers, and different species may contaminate an environmental source. The finding of multiple species or clones during the analysis of nosocomial BCC cases might not be enough to reject an outbreak from a common source

iSupport for Young Carers:An Adaptation of an e-Health Intervention for Young Dementia Carers

Young dementia carers need to be recognised and supported in their role. They need help to understand the illness, what changes are expected and how it can affect their family member. Many support services, partly due to the COVID pandemic, have moved online and have been shown to be acceptable as they are low cost and reduce access barriers. iSupport is an evidence-informed e-health training programme developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to support adult dementia carers. This paper reports on the co-design of an adapted version of iSupport for young carers. A theoretically driven co-design approach, drawing on the lived experiences of young dementia carers and experts who work with this target group was followed. As a result of this study iSupport for Young Carers was created. It is the first e-health intervention of its kind and aims to support the mental health, knowledge and skills of young dementia carers. In turn, it could improve the quality of the support that service providers can offer, and this can result in increased levels of identification of these young people. The work presented also provides opportunities for other countries and demographic groups to translate and adapt iSupport for Young Carers to their specific cultural context

Polyclonal outbreak of bacteremia caused by Burkholderia cepacia complex and the presumptive role of ultrasound gel

AbstractA nosocomial polyclonal outbreak associated to bacteremia caused by different Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) species and clones is reported. Molecular characterization identified Burkholderia stabilis, Burkholderia contaminans, and Burkholderia ambifaria among BCC isolates obtained from patients in neonatal and adult intensive care units. BCC was also isolated from an intrinsically contaminated ultrasound gel, which constituted the presumptive BCC source. Prior BCC outbreak related to contaminated ultrasound gels have been described in the setting of transrectal prostate biopsy. Outbreak caused strains and/or clones of BCC have been reported, probably because BCC are commonly found in the natural environment; most BCC species are biofilm producers, and different species may contaminate an environmental source. The finding of multiple species or clones during the analysis of nosocomial BCC cases might not be enough to reject an outbreak from a common source

A Comparison of NAL and DSL Prescriptive Methods for Paediatric Hearing-Aid Fitting: Predicted Speech Intelligibility and Loudness

Objective: To examine the impact of prescription on predicted speech intelligibility and loudness for children. Design: A between-group comparison of speech intelligibility index (SII) and loudness, based on hearing aids fitted according to NAL-NL1, DSL v4.1, or DSL m[i/o] prescriptions. A within-group comparison of gains prescribed by DSL m[i/o] and NAL-NL2 for children in terms of SII and loudness. Study sample: Participants were 200 children, who were randomly assigned to first hearing-aid fitting with either NAL-NL1, DSL v4.1, or DSL m[i/o]. Audiometric data and hearing-aid data at 3 years of age were used. Results: On average, SII calculated on the basis of hearing-aid gains were higher for DSL than for NAL-NL1 at low input level, equivalent at medium input level, and higher for NAL-NL1 than DSL at high input level. Greater loudness was associated with DSL than with NAL-NL1, across a range of input levels. Comparing NAL-NL2 and DSL m[i/o] target gains revealed higher SII for the latter at low input level. SII was higher for NAL-NL2 than for DSL m[i/o] at medium- and high-input levels despite greater loudness for gains prescribed by DSL m[i/o] than by NAL-NL2. Conclusion: The choice of prescription has minimal effects on speech intelligibility predictions but marked effects on loudness predictions

Testing QCD Sum Rules on the Light-Cone in D->(pi,K) l nu Decays

We compare the predictions for the form factors f_+^{D->pi,K}(0) from QCD sum rules on the light-cone with recent experimental results. We find f_+^{D->pi}(0) = 0.63\pm 0.11, f_+^{D->K}(0) = 0.75\pm 0.12 and f_+^{D->pi}(0)/f_+^{D->K}(0)= 0.84\pm 0.04 in very good agreement with experiment. Although the uncertainties of the form factors themselves are larger than the current experimental errors and difficult to reduce, their ratio is determined much more accurately and with an accuracy that matches that of experiment.Comment: 12 page

Prescribing Patterns of Codeine and Alternative Medicines in Children in Europe

INTRODUCTION: Concerns over serious respiratory depression in children led to two European Union (EU) referral procedures (in 2013 and 2015) to review the benefit–risk balance of codeine in this population when used for pain relief, cough or cold. Consequently, codeine should no longer be used in children aged < 12 years and restrictions were introduced for treatment in children ≥ 12 years. OBJECTIVE: This multinational collaborative study aimed to assess the effectiveness of these risk minimisation measures by evaluating changes in prescribing of codeine and alternative treatments. METHOD: Children under 12 and 12–18 years old were followed between 2010 and 2017 to analyse quarterly trends in prescribing of codeine and alternative treatments in electronic health records from France, Germany, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom using interrupted time series analysis. RESULTS: Overall prescribing of codeine in children decreased in all five countries, reaching near zero prevalence in children under 12 years of age. This was accompanied by an increase in use of other opioid analgesics in France (from 0.15 to 0.56 prevalence per 100 person-years immediately after the first referral), Norway (from 0.0006 to 0.0013 at the end of the study), the United Kingdom (from 0.018 to 0.05 at the end of the study), and an increase in non-opioid analgesics in Norway (from 0.045 to 0.075 at the end of the study) after the referral on pain relief indication. The referral on cough/cold indication led to a decrease in use of opioid and non-opioid antitussives in children aged < 12 years in France (from 10 to 7 and 20 to 16, respectively) and had no impact in other countries. Overall prescribing trends for codeine and alternatives were similar across both age groups within each country. CONCLUSION: The decrease in use of codeine shows that healthcare professionals followed the adopted measures and switched prescribing practices for pain management in children aged < 18 years towards opioid or non-opioid analgesics depending on national clinical and reimbursement settings. Whist the magnitude of the first referral on pain differed between countries, the second referral on cough/cold had only a minimal impact on the use of codeine and antitussives. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40264-022-01214-y