A new method for addressing parliamentary boundaries shows the extent of Britain’s “safe seat” problem

With the the 2015 election upon us, there is much talk of safe and marginal seats, and the main parties approach to each. In this post, Max Goplerud examines a perennial concern about the British electoral system—the prevalence of safe seats—using historical data and a new method for addressing boundary changes to illustrate the extent of the problem

Patient Factors Limiting Success of Cancer Detection

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has established as one of its goals for the next decade the reduction of mortality from breast and pelvic cancer by 50%. Radiation therapy and surgery are the main modalities of treatment for most genital cancers. These modalities have advanced to the level of diminishing returns. Immunotherapy is in its infancy, and chemotherapy is presently used mainly for palliation and for prolongation of life except for a few malignancies, choriocarcinoma being the classic example

Evaluation and Management of Adnexal Masses

The adnexa are those structures which lie along the uterus, the most important of which are the tubes and ovaries. The portions of the broad ligaments and mesosalpinx which contain embryonic remnant may also, at times, be palpable and therefore must be considered in any differential diagnosis

Money or signatures: which is a larger barrier to new parties trying to contest parliamentary elections?

A crucial part of any democracy is allowing new parties to form and contest elections. However, there is a consensus that the state may set barriers in order to do so. This implies a tricky balancing act between excluding ‘frivolous’ candidates whilst allowing ‘serious’ new parties to run without undue difficulty. Here, Max Goplerud outlines a working paper that examines this issue. It finds that new parties will likely find signature-based barriers harder to overcome and that 60% of British electoral administrators surveyed would prefer a more restrictive regime than the one currently in force

Fear of intra-oral injections among 10-16-year-olds. Assessment, prevalence and treatment

Background: Intra-oral injections are common procedures within dentistry, performed in order to avoid procedural pain. Nevertheless, little is known about the prevalence of high intra-oral injection fear, or treatment of intra-oral injection phobia among children and adolescents. Aims: The overall aims were to gain more knowledge about the prevalence of high intra-oral injection fear among children and adolescents, to validate the novel Intra-Oral Injection Fear scale (IOIF-s), to clarify the overlap between intra-oral injection fear and dental fear, and to explore the possible effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) among children and adolescents with formally diagnosed intra-oral injection phobia (I-OIP). Methods: The study comprised two parts, both carried out in Hordaland County, Norway. Study I was a cross-sectional study among 1460 10- to 16-year old pupils. Data were collected by use of questionnaires, including the novel IOIF-s. Study II was a randomized and controlled treatment study in 67 patients within the same age group, fulfilling the DSM-5 criteria for I-OIP. The patients were randomly assigned to either an immediate treatment group receiving CBT, or a waitlist-control group. The treatment was performed by dentists specially trained in CBT. Subjective and behavioural measures of effectiveness of the treatment were assessed. Results: Crohnbach’s alpha of the IOIF-s was 0.95. Further the IOIF-s was found to discriminate between participants with and without I-OIP. In total 13.9% of the children reported high fear of intra-oral injections based on the IOIF-s. A strong association between fear of intra-oral injections and dental fear was revealed. CBT had significant effect compared to no treatment both measured subjectively by selfreport scales, and behaviourally by receiving intra-oral injections. Conclusions: The IOIF-s has satisfying psychometric properties in terms of reliability and validity. Further, high intra-oral injection fear was found to be prevalent among the targeted age group, and is associated with avoidance of necessary dental treatment. CBT performed by specially trained dentists is an efficient treatment among children and adolescents diagnosed with intra-oral injections