Health and cancer prevention: knowledge and beliefs of children and young people

Objective: To collect information from children and young people about their knowledge of and attitudes towards cancer and their understanding of health and health related behaviours to inform future health promotion work. Design: Questionnaire survey of 15-16 year olds, and interviews with play materials with 9-10 year old children. Setting: Six inner city, suburban, and rural schools. Subjects: 226 children aged 15-16 years and 100 aged 9-10 years. Main outcome measures: Knowledge about different types of cancer; beliefs about health; sources of information; quality of research data obtainable from young children about cancer and health. Results: Both samples knew most about lung cancer, but there was also some knowledge of breast and skin cancer and leukaemia. Smoking, together with pollution and other environmental factors, were seen as the dominant causes of cancer. Environmental factors were mentioned more often by the inner city samples. Television and the media were the most important sources of information. Young people were more worried about unemployment than about ill health. More than half the young people did not describe their health as good, and most said they did not have a healthy lifestyle. Children were able to provide detailed information about their knowledge and understanding by using drawings as well as interviews. Conclusions: Children and young people possess considerable knowledge about cancer, especially about lung cancer and smoking, and show considerable awareness of predominant health education messages. Despite this knowledge, many lead less than healthy lifestyles. Health is not seen as the most important goal in life by many young people; the circumstances in which many children and young people live are not experienced as health promoting

Tracking performance with two breathing oxygen concentrations after high altitude rapid decompression

Current military aircraft Liquid Oxygen (LOX) systems supply 99.5 pct. gaseous Aviator's Breathing Oxygen (ABO) to aircrew. Newer Molecular Sieve Oxygen Generation Systems (MSOGS) supply breathing gas concentration of 93 to 95 pct. O2. The margin is compared of hypoxia protection afforded by ABO and MSOGS breathing gas after a 5 psi differential rapid decompression (RD) in a hypobaric research chamber. The barometric pressures equivalent to the altitudes of 46000, 52000, 56000, and 60000 ft were achieved from respective base altitudes in 1 to 1.5 s decompressions. During each exposure, subjects remained at the simulated peak altitude breathing either 100 or 94 pct. O2 with positive pressure for 60 s, followed by a rapid descent to 40000 ft. Subjects used the Tactical Life Support System (TLSS) for high altitude protection. Subcritical tracking task performance on the Performance Evaluation Device (PED) provided psychomotor test measures. Overall tracking task performance results showed no differences between the MSOGS breathing O2 concentration of 94 pct. and ABO. Significance RMS error differences were found between the ground level and base altitude trials compared to peak altitude trials. The high positive breathing pressures occurring at the peak altitudes explained the differences

Implementation of a local principal curves algorithm for neutrino interaction reconstruction in a liquid argon volume

A local principal curve algorithm has been implemented in three dimensions for automated track and shower reconstruction of neutrino interactions in a liquid argon time projection chamber. We present details of the algorithm and characterise its performance on simulated data sets.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures; typing correction to Eq 5, the definition of the local covariance matri

Kinetic and Spectroscopic Characterisation of Highly Reactive Methanesulfonates. Leaving Group Effects for Solvolyses and Comments on Geminal Electronic Effects Influencing SN_N1 Reactivity

Highly reactive methanesulfonates (mesylates, ROMs) have been prepared from 1-phenylethanol. cyclohex-2-en-1-ol, diphenylmethanol and p-methoxybenzyl alcohol by treatment with methanesulfonyl chloride and triethylamine in dichloro- or trichloro-methane at - 20 to 0 °C. The mesylates. characterised in solution by $^1$H and $^{13}$C NMR at -20 °C, were obtained in satisfactory purity (ca. 95%) in cold solutions but they decomposed by reaction with chloride, triethylamine or the parent alcohol. Rate constants for solvolyses in aqueous acetone and aqueous ethanol have been determined by a fast response conductimetric method. Product selectivities for solvolyses of pmethoxybenzyl mesylate in aqueous ethanol and methanol at 0 °C have been determined by HPLC. From additional new or Iiterature kinetic data for solvolyses of corresponding bromides. chlorides and p-nitrobenzoates (OPNB). Br/CI. OMs/Br and OMs/OPNB rate ratios were calculated; the results are consistent with electronic effects stabilising the carbocationic transition states and increasing OMs/Br rate ratios for these SN 1 solvolyses; none of the evidence supports a geminal electronic effect on Br/CI rate ratios (e.g. caused by stabilisation of the initial state in pmethoxybenzyl chloride). Steric effects on ester /halide rate ratios for solvolyses of tertiary substrates are confirmed. Relative rates over a 10$^{16}$ range for ester and halide leaving groups are evaluated for solvolyses of 1-phenylethyl substrates in 80% ethanol-water. updating previous work by Noyce et al. (1972)

Using a model of group psychotherapy to support social research on sensitive topics

This article describes the exploratory use of professional therapeutic support by social researchers working on a sensitive topic. Talking to recently bereaved parents about the financial implications of their child's death was expected to be demanding work, and the research design included access to an independent psychotherapeutic service. Using this kind of professional support is rare within the general social research community, and it is useful to reflect on the process. There are likely to be implications for collection and interpretation of data, research output and the role and experience of the therapist. Here, the primary focus is the potential impact on researcher well-being

Frequencies and patterns of microbiology test requests from primary care in Oxfordshire, UK, 2008-2018: a retrospective cohort study of electronic health records to inform point of care testing

Objectives: To inform point-of-care test (POCT) development, we quantified the primary care demand for laboratory microbiology tests by describing their frequencies overall, frequencies of positives, most common organisms identified, temporal trends in testing and patterns of cotesting on the same and subsequent dates. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Primary care practices in Oxfordshire. Participants :393 905 patients (65% female; 49% aged 18–49). Primary and secondary outcome measures The frequencies of all microbiology tests requested between 2008 and 2018 were quantified. Patterns of cotesting were investigated with heat maps. All analyses were done overall, by sex and age categories. Results: 1 596 752 microbiology tests were requested. Urine culture±microscopy was the most common of all tests (n=673 612, 42%), was mainly requested without other tests and was the most common test requested in follow-up within 7 and 14 days. Of all urine cultures, 180 047 (27%) were positive and 172 651 (26%) showed mixed growth, and Escherichia coli was the most prevalent organism (132 277, 73% of positive urine cultures). Antenatal urine cultures and blood tests in pregnancy (hepatitis B, HIV and syphilis) formed a common test combination, consistent with their use in antenatal screening. Conclusions: The greatest burden of microbiology testing in primary care is attributable to urine culture ± microscopy; genital and routine antenatal urine and blood testing are also significant contributors. Further research should focus on the feasibility and impact of POCTs for these specimen types

Research and theory for nursing and midwifery: Rethinking the nature of evidence

Background and Rationale: The rise in the principles of evidence-based medicine in the 1990s heralded a re-emerging orthodoxy in research methodologies. The view of the randomised controlled trial (RCT) as a “gold standard” for evaluation of medical interventions has extended recently to evaluation of organisational forms and reforms and of change in complex systems—within health care and in other human services. Relatively little attention has been given to the epistemological assumptions underlying such a hierarchy of research evidence. Aims and Methods: Case studies from research in maternity care are used in this article to describe problems and limitations encountered in using RCTs to evaluate some recent policy-driven and consumer-oriented developments. These are discussed in relation to theory of knowledge and the epistemological assumptions, or paradigms, underpinning health services research. The aim in this discussion is not to advocate, or to reject, particular approaches to research but to advocate a more open and critical engagement with questions about the nature of evidence. Findings and Discussion: Experimental approaches are of considerable value in investigating deterministic and probabilistic cause and effect relationships, and in testing often well-established but unevaluated technologies. However, little attention has been paid to contextual and cultural factors in the effects of interventions, in the culturally constructed nature of research questions themselves, or of the data on which much research is based. More complex, and less linear, approaches to methodology are needed to address these issues. A simple hierarchical approach does not represent the complexity of evidence well and should move toward a more cyclical view of knowledge development

Gender and educational leadership in England: a comparison of secondary headteachers' views over time

In the context of gender being a barrier to accessing leadership, this paper presents a comparison of the views of men and women head teacher (principals) of secondary schools in England in the 1990s and in 2004. The same survey instrument was used on both occasions. The perceptions of the head teachers show change in some areas and no change in others. Overall, women are more likely to become head teachers and are now less likely to be categorised into pastoral roles, but in some cases women still meet prejudice from governors and others in the wider community. Women head teachers are more likely to have partners and children than in the 1990s, sharing equally or carrying most of the domestic responsibilities, whereas male colleagues are most likely to have partners who take the majority of responsibility in the home. Essentialist stereotypes about women and men as leaders still prevail, although both the women and men head teachers see themselves as adopting a traditionally ‘feminine’ style of leadership. Women head teachers are likely to see some benefits in being a woman in a role stereotypically associated with men. However, there has been an increase in the proportion of women who feel that they have to prove their worth as a leader, and this may be linked with increased levels of accountability in schools