Public health and the NHS at 70: Fit enough for the challenge of new enemies in a new landscape? An example of public health measures to address alcohol consumption

The advent of the NHS saw a monumental shift in British policy and influencing attitudes and expectations of health care provision ever since. The NHS heralded a profound change in thinking, that health and the provision of health care were not a commodity that could be bought but a fundamental human right. Health care free at the point of delivery, was radical in its ideology and its consequent impact on British society and population health, particularly of the poor for whom access to health care had been limited or unobtainable. Unsurprisingly, the passage of the Act of Parliament that would invoke the NHS was not easy and there were strong objectors to the NHS initially, not least the medical profession for whom it threatened a loss of income. As Aneurin Bevan, the then Minister for Health, argued, ‘A free health service is a triumphant example of the superiority of the principles of collective action and public initiative against the commercial principle of profit and greed’. Health for the many, and particularly the health of the poorest, has often been vulnerable to the commercial interests of powerful actors such as corporations and industry. This is exemplified by the efforts of the alcohol and tobacco industries to fight public health policies aimed at curbing alcohol and tobacco consumption: through the publishing of poor science, political lobbying and finally through legal action at national and international levels. There is clear evidence that better public health cannot be achieved solely through the promotion of healthy behaviours but also requires active efforts to counter those powerful entities with vested interests in commercial profit. The manner in which the British government’s commitment to introducing a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol in England and Wales saw an extraordinary U turn has been described as a cautionary tale of the power of the alcohol industry to influence public health policy. In Scotland, where the bill was passed, legislative success was followed by a five year legal battle with alcohol industry trade bodies. MUP as a policy exposed just how strategically and earnestly industry will fight to preserve its profits and its interests at the expense of public health. The NHS exists not just as a provider of health services to the masses, but as a policy tool to address health inequalities and safeguard public health. It is needed as much now as it was at its inception

Stem cell mechanobiology

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that are capable of proliferation, self-maintenance and differentiation towards specific cell phenotypes. These processes are controlled by a variety of cues including physicochemical factors associated with the specific mechanical environment in which the cells reside. The control of stem cell biology through mechanical factors remains poorly understood and is the focus of the developing field of mechanobiology. This review provides an insight into the current knowledge of the role of mechanical forces in the induction of differentiation of stem cells. While the details associated with individual studies are complex and typically associated with the stem cell type studied and model system adopted, certain key themes emerge. First, the differentiation process affects the mechanical properties of the cells and of specific subcellular components. Secondly, that stem cells are able to detect and respond to alterations in the stiffness of their surrounding microenvironment via induction of lineage-specific differentiation. Finally, the application of external mechanical forces to stem cells, transduced through a variety of mechanisms, can initiate and drive differentiation processes. The coalescence of these three key concepts permit the introduction of a new theory for the maintenance of stem cells and alternatively their differentiation via the concept of a stem cell 'mechano-niche', defined as a specific combination of cell mechanical properties, extracellular matrix stiffness and external mechanical cues conducive to the maintenance of the stem cell population.<br/

Coherent Imaging Spectroscopy of a Quantum Many-Body Spin System

Quantum simulators, in which well controlled quantum systems are used to reproduce the dynamics of less understood ones, have the potential to explore physics that is inaccessible to modeling with classical computers. However, checking the results of such simulations will also become classically intractable as system sizes increase. In this work, we introduce and implement a coherent imaging spectroscopic technique to validate a quantum simulation, much as magnetic resonance imaging exposes structure in condensed matter. We use this method to determine the energy levels and interaction strengths of a fully-connected quantum many-body system. Additionally, we directly measure the size of the critical energy gap near a quantum phase transition. We expect this general technique to become an important verification tool for quantum simulators once experiments advance beyond proof-of-principle demonstrations and exceed the resources of conventional computers

Hydrogen turbine power conversion system assessment

A three part technical study was conducted whereby parametric technical and economic feasibility data were developed on several power conversion systems suitable for the generation of central station electric power through the combustion of hydrogen and the use of the resulting heat energy in turbogenerator equipment. The study assessed potential applications of hydrogen-fueled power conversion systems and identified the three most promising candidates: (1) Ericsson Cycle, (2) gas turbine, and (3) direct steam injection system for fossil fuel as well as nuclear powerplants. A technical and economic evaluation was performed on the three systems from which the direct injection system (fossil fuel only) was selected for a preliminary conceptual design of an integrated hydrogen-fired power conversion system

Neutrino Mass Effects in a Minimally Extended Supersymmetric Standard Model

We consider an extension of the supersymmetric standard model which includes singlet Higgs superfield representations (in three generations) to generate neutrino masses via the see-saw mechanism. The resulting theory may then exhibit R-parity violation in the couplings of the singlets, inducing $R$-parity violating effective interactions among the standard model superfields, as well as inducing decay of the lightest neutralino, which otherwise would compose a stable LSP. We compute the rates for the resulting neutralino decays, depending on the particular superpotential couplings responsible for the violation of R-parity. We compare to astrophysical constraints on the decay of massive particles.Comment: 12 pages, plain LATEX, 3 non-LATEX figures available in hardcopy on request; one reference corrected; Alberta-THY-2/94, UMN-TH-1237/9

Spatially optimized gene transfection by laser-induced breakdown of optically trapped nanoparticles

We demonstrate laser-induced breakdown of an optically trapped nanoparticle with a nanosecond laser pulse. Controllable cavitation within a microscope sample was achieved, generating shear stress to monolayers of live cells. This efficiently permeabilize their plasma membranes. We show that this technique is an excellent tool for plasmid-DNA transfection of cells with both reduced energy requirements and reduced cell lysis compared to previously reported approaches. Simultaneous multisite targeted nanosurgery of cells is also demonstrated using a spatial light modulator for parallelizing the technique.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Factors contributing to the time taken to consult with symptoms of lung cancer: a cross-sectional study

&lt;b&gt;Objectives&lt;/b&gt;: To determine what factors are associated with the time people take to consult with symptoms of lung cancer, with a focus on those from rural and socially deprived areas. &lt;b&gt;Methods&lt;/b&gt;: A cross-sectional quantitative interview survey was performed of 360 patients with newly diagnosed primary lung cancer in three Scottish hospitals (two in Glasgow, one in NE Scotland). Supplementary data were obtained from medical case notes. The main outcome measures were the number of days from (1) the date participant defined first symptom until date of presentation to a medical practitioner; and (2) the date of earliest symptom from a symptom checklist (derived from clinical guidelines) until date of presentation to a medical practitioner. &lt;b&gt;Results&lt;/b&gt;: 179 participants (50%) had symptoms for more than 14 weeks before presenting to a medical practitioner (median 99 days; interquartile range 31–381). 270 participants (75%) had unrecognised symptoms of lung cancer. There were no significant differences in time taken to consult with symptoms of lung cancer between rural and/or deprived participants compared with urban and/or affluent participants. Factors independently associated with increased time before consulting about symptoms were living alone, a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and longer pack years of smoking. Haemoptysis, new onset of shortness of breath, cough and loss of appetite were significantly associated with earlier consulting, as were a history of chest infection and renal failure. &lt;b&gt;Conclusion&lt;/b&gt;: For many people with lung cancer, regardless of location and socioeconomic status, the time between symptom onset and consultation was long enough to plausibly affect prognosis. Long-term smokers, those with COPD and/or those living alone are at particular risk of taking longer to consult with symptoms of lung cancer and practitioners should be alert to this

Some boundary effects in quantum field theory

We have constructed a quantum field theory in a finite box, with periodic boundary conditions, using the hypothesis that particles living in a finite box are created and/or annihilated by the creation and/or annihilation operators, respectively, of a quantum harmonic oscillator on a circle. An expression for the effective coupling constant is obtained showing explicitly its dependence on the dimension of the box.Comment: 12 pages, Late

Energy gap of the bimodal two-dimensional Ising spin glass

An exact algorithm is used to compute the degeneracies of the excited states of the bimodal Ising spin glass in two dimensions. It is found that the specific heat at arbitrary low temperature is not a self-averaging quantity and has a distribution that is neither normal or lognormal. Nevertheless, it is possible to estimate the most likely value and this is found to scale as L^3 T^(-2) exp(-4J/kT), for a L*L lattice. Our analysis also explains, for the first time, why a correlation length \xi ~ exp(2J/kT) is consistent with an energy gap of 2J. Our method allows us to obtain results for up to 10^5 disorder realizations with L <= 64. Distributions of second and third excitations are also shown.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure