Exploring the acceptability of two self-sampling devices for human papillomavirus testing in the cervical screening context: a qualitative study of Muslim women in London

Objectives We explored Muslim women's attitudes to self-sampling for human papillomavirus (HPV) in the context of cervical cancer screening and their responses to two self-sampling devices.Setting A Muslim community centre in north-east London.Methods Following a talk given on the subject of cervical cancer and HPV at the community centre, 28 women were recruited to take part in three focus group discussions. The discussion covered cervical screening, self-sampling and HPV testing. Women were also asked for their responses to a swab self-sampling kit and a cervico-vaginal lavage device. Discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim and the qualitative data were analysed using Framework Analysis.Results Participants were generally positive about cervical screening but acknowledged that some women in their community were reluctant to offend because of embarrassment, language difficulties, fear or because they were unmarried and did not want to communicate implicit messages about being sexually active. Self-sampling met a mixed response - women were concerned about not doing the test correctly, but thought that it might overcome barriers to screening for some women. HPV testing itself was thought to raise potentially difficult issues relating to trust and fidelity within marriages. Although most women said they would prefer to continue to have screening by a health professional, if they were to perform self-sampling, there was overwhelming preference for the swab over the lavage kit.Conclusions There was limited enthusiasm for self-sampling in this group of Muslim women who had mostly attended for cervical screening, but a clear preference for a swab rather than a cervico-vaginal lavage

A deconvolution map-making method for experiments with circular scanning strategies

Aims. To investigate the performance of a deconvolution map-making algorithm for an experiment with a circular scanning strategy, specifically in this case for the analysis of Planck data, and to quantify the effects of making maps using simplified approximations to the true beams. Methods. We present an implementation of a map-making algorithm which allows the combined treatment of temperature and polarisation data, and removal of instrumental effects, such as detector time constants and finite sampling intervals, as well as the deconvolution of arbitrarily complex beams from the maps. This method may be applied to any experiment with a circular scanning-strategy. Results. Low-resolution experiments were used to demonstrate the ability of this method to remove the effects of arbitrary beams from the maps and to demonstrate the effects on the maps of ignoring beam asymmetries. Additionally, results are presented of an analysis of a realistic full-scale simulated data-set for the Planck LFI 30 GHz channel. Conclusions. Our method successfully removes the effects of the beams from the maps, and although it is computationally expensive, the analysis of the Planck LFI data should be feasible with this approach.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, accepte

Complete clinical responses to cancer therapy caused by multiple divergent approaches: a repeating theme lost in translation

Over 50 years of cancer therapy history reveals complete clinical responses (CRs) from remarkably divergent forms of therapies (eg, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, vaccines, autologous cell transfers, cytokines, monoclonal antibodies) for advanced solid malignancies occur with an approximately similar frequency of 5%–10%. This has remained frustratingly almost static. However, CRs usually underpin strong durable 5-year patient survival. How can this apparent paradox be explained? Over some 20 years, realization that (1) chronic inflammation is intricately associated with cancer, and (2) the immune system is delicately balanced between responsiveness and tolerance of cancer, provides a greatly significant insight into ways cancer might be more effectively treated. In this review, divergent aspects from the largely segmented literature and recent conferences are drawn together to provide observations revealing some emerging reasoning, in terms of “final common pathways” of cancer cell damage, immune stimulation, and auto-vaccination events, ultimately leading to cancer cell destruction. Created from this is a unifying overarching concept to explain why multiple approaches to cancer therapy can provide complete responses at almost equivalent rates. This “missing” aspect provides a reasoned explanation for what has, and is being, increasingly reported in the mainstream literature – that inflammatory and immune responses appear intricately associated with, if not causative of, complete responses induced by divergent forms of cancer therapy. Curiously, whether by chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, or other means, therapy-induced cell injury results, leaving inflammation and immune system stimulation as a final common denominator across all of these mechanisms of cancer therapy. This aspect has been somewhat obscured and has been “lost in translation” to date

Written evidence submitted to Commons Select Committee Animal Welfare Inquiry

• While it is believed that the Animal Welfare Act is a valuable document, enforcement of its remits need to be strengthened • A range of recommendations are made focusing on the following areas: • The effectiveness of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 with regard to domestic pets • Regulation surrounding the sale of domestic pets, including online sales and advertising • Enforcement of current animal welfare legislation, including prosecution of offences by the police, local authorities, the RSPCA and others • Recommendations include • Introduction of an effective licensing system (for breeders and dog owners) • Bans on selling and advertising dogs on the internet • Community education events for dog owners • Introduction of a competitive system to decide on the authorised animal welfare enforcement agency • Greater investment in ground services such as number of inspector

Integrating Lethal and Nonlethal Approaches for Management of Suburban Deer

Evaluations of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) population management in suburban landscapes has included debate over lethal control (e.g., sharp-shooting and hunting). These management techniques are often stymied by political impediments, safety concerns, and public attitudes. We are implementing the novel use of surgical sterilization in combination with hunting to mitigate deer-related impacts on Cornell University lands near Ithaca, New York. The project lands are composed of 2 zones: a suburban core campus area (446 ha) and adjacent outlying areas that contain agricultural fields and natural areas where deer hunting is permitted (582 ha). Surgical sterilization will be the primary technique used to reduce deer abundance and associated impacts in the core campus zone. Population reduction in the hunting zone will focus on increased harvest of female deer. During 2007 to 2009, project staff sterilized 58 female deer; 39 adult does were marked with radio transmitters to monitor movement and survival. Ten additional control deer have been captured and radio-collared for a comparison of fawning rates and survival. Hunters harvested 69 deer in the first hunting season (Fall 2008). In spring 2009, infrared-triggered cameras (IRCs) were used to estimate deer abundance in the sterilization zone, which resulted in a density of 21 deer/km2 (56 deer per square mile). In the hunting zone, deer populations will be monitored using a deer sighting log and by data collected at a mandatory deer check station. In both zones, ongoing deer browse and deer-vehicle accident (OVA) studies will ascertain changes in deer impacts throughout the study. Our goal is to determine if deer fertility control integrated with a controlled hunting program on adjacent lands can maximize the efficiency of both techniques. If this integrated management program is successful, it may have additional applications in other communities in New York State and the Northeast

Map-making in small field modulated CMB polarisation experiments: approximating the maximum-likelihood method

Map-making presents a significant computational challenge to the next generation of kilopixel CMB polarisation experiments. Years worth of time ordered data (TOD) from thousands of detectors will need to be compressed into maps of the T, Q and U Stokes parameters. Fundamental to the science goal of these experiments, the observation of B-modes, is the ability to control noise and systematics. In this paper, we consider an alternative to the maximum-likelihood method, called destriping, where the noise is modelled as a set of discrete offset functions and then subtracted from the time-stream. We compare our destriping code (Descart: the DEStriping CARTographer) to a full maximum-likelihood map-maker, applying them to 200 Monte-Carlo simulations of time-ordered data from a ground based, partial-sky polarisation modulation experiment. In these simulations, the noise is dominated by either detector or atmospheric 1/f noise. Using prior information of the power spectrum of this noise, we produce destriped maps of T, Q and U which are negligibly different from optimal. The method does not filter the signal or bias the E or B-mode power spectra. Depending on the length of the destriping baseline, the method delivers between 5 and 22 times improvement in computation time over the maximum-likelihood algorithm. We find that, for the specific case of single detector maps, it is essential to destripe the atmospheric 1/f in order to detect B-modes, even though the Q and U signals are modulated by a half-wave plate spinning at 5-Hz.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, MNRAS accepted v2: content added (inc: table 2), typos correcte

A mixed methods systematic review on the effects of arts interventions for children and young people at-risk of offending, or who have offended on behavioural, psychosocial, cognitive and offending outcomes: A systematic review

Background Young people who enter the justice system experience complex health and social needs, and offending behaviour is increasingly recognised as a public health problem. Arts interventions can be used with the aim of preventing or reducing offending or reoffending. Objectives 1. To evaluate evidence on the effectiveness and impact of arts interventions on keeping children and young people safe from involvement in violence and crime. 2. To explore factors impacting the implementation of arts interventions, and barriers and facilitators to participation and achievement of intended outcomes. 3. To develop a logic model of the processes by which arts interventions might work in preventing offending behaviours. Search Methods We searched AMED, Academic Search Complete; APA PsycInfo; CINAHL Plus; ERIC; SocIndex; SportDiscus, Medline, CENTRAL, Web of Science, Scopus, PTSDPubs and Performing Arts Periodicals Database, Sage, the US National Criminal Justice Reference Service, the Global Policing and British Library EThOS databases, and the National Police Library from inception to January 2023 without language restrictions. Selection Criteria We included randomised and non-randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental study designs. We included qualitative studies conducted alongside intervention trials investigating experiences and perceptions of participants, and offering insight into the barriers and facilitators to delivering and receiving arts interventions. We included qualitative and mixed methods studies focused on delivery of arts interventions. We included studies from any global setting. We included studies with CYP (8–25 years) who were identified as at-risk of offending behaviour (secondary populations) or already in the criminal justice system (tertiary populations). We included studies of interventions involving arts participation as an intervention on its own or alongside other interventions. Primary outcomes were: (i) offending behaviour and (ii) anti-pro-social behaviours. Secondary outcomes were: participation/attendance at arts interventions, educational attainment, school attendance and engagement and exclusions, workplace engagement, wellbeing, costs and associated economic outcomes and adverse events. Data Collection and Analysis We included 43 studies (3 quantitative, 38 qualitative and 2 mixed methods). We used standard methodological procedures expected by The Campbell Collaboration. We used GRADE and GRADE CERQual to assess the certainty of and confidence in the evidence for quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Main Results We found insufficient evidence from quantitative studies to support or refute the effectiveness of arts interventions for CYP at-risk of or who have offended for any outcome. Qualitative evidence suggested that arts interventions may lead to positive emotions, the development of a sense of self, successful engagement in creative practices, and development of positive personal relationships. Arts interventions may need accessible and flexible delivery and are likely to be engaging if they have support from staff, family and community members, are delivered by professional artists, involve culturally relevant activity, a youth focus, regularity and a sustainable strategy. We found limited evidence that a lack of advocacy, low funding, insufficient wider support from key personnel in adjacent services could act as barriers to success. Methodological limitations resulted in a judgement of very low confidence in these findings. Authors' Conclusions We found insufficient evidence from quantitative studies to support or refute the effectiveness of arts interventions for CYP at-risk of offending or who have offended for any outcome. We report very low confidence about the evidence for understanding the processes influencing the successful design and delivery of arts interventions in this population of CYP and their impact on behavioural, psychosocial, cognitive and offending outcomes.Brunel University London Information Services, UK | Youth Endowment Foundation, UK | Arts Council England, U

Portuguese firefighters’ boots: obtaining user input for an ergonomic redesign

Firefighters are the first responders to a wide variety of situations which require them to perform an array of movements. Firefighters’ personal protective equipment is designed to protect against hazardous conditions and must allow the accomplishment of firefighting job tasks with maximum safety and minimal limitations. Fire boots are made to protect firefighters’ feet, ankles, and lower legs from high heat, slippery surfaces, standing water, punctures, cuts, abrasions, and so on. However, literature shows the impacts of fire boots on firefighters’ performance. This paper presents preliminary results of an ongoing study which main goal is to propose solutions for an Ergonomic redesign of personal protective equipment used by Portuguese firefighters. In order to obtain first insights, identifying firefighters’ perceptions and specific needs, a pilot study was conducted in a fire brigade located in the North of Portugal. For qualitative data collection, both an online survey and an in-person semi-structured interview were administered. The responses and specific considerations about the structural fire boots obtained from 49 firefighters who participated in the pilot study are described and discussed. Findings from this study allowed a better understanding of the main issues encountered by Portuguese firefighters in wearing their fire boots and provided valuable inputs for developing the next phases of the study.FEDER funds through the Competitive Factors Operational Program (COMPETE) POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136 and by national funds through FCT-Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UID/CTM/000264

Quadratic Lagrangians and Topology in Gauge Theory Gravity

We consider topological contributions to the action integral in a gauge theory formulation of gravity. Two topological invariants are found and are shown to arise from the scalar and pseudoscalar parts of a single integral. Neither of these action integrals contribute to the classical field equations. An identity is found for the invariants that is valid for non-symmetric Riemann tensors, generalizing the usual GR expression for the topological invariants. The link with Yang-Mills instantons in Euclidean gravity is also explored. Ten independent quadratic terms are constructed from the Riemann tensor, and the topological invariants reduce these to eight possible independent terms for a quadratic Lagrangian. The resulting field equations for the parity non-violating terms are presented. Our derivations of these results are considerably simpler that those found in the literature