Temporal and spatial analysis of the media spotlight

Items featured in the news usually have a particular novelty or describe events which result in severe impact. Here, the length of time that a story remains in the media spotlight is investigated as well as the scaling with population size of the amount of attention that the media gives to stories from different cities. Based on Twitter feeds, the media coverage from the major online newspapers in Mexico is analysed over a period either side of a recent powerful earthquake. The amount of coverage given to earthquake-related stories had an initial peak and then exhibited an exponential decay, dropping by half every eight days. Furthermore, the coverage per person usually exhibits a superlinear scaling with population size, so that stories about larger cities are more likely to appear in the news. However, during the immediate post-earthquake weeks, the scaling was no longer superlinear. The observed trends can be interpreted as a fundamental switch in the emergent collective behaviour of media producers and consumers

A promoting early presentation intervention increases breast cancer awareness in older women after 2 years: a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: We have developed the Promoting Early Presentation (PEP) Intervention to equip older women with the knowledge, skills, confidence and motivation to present promptly with breast symptoms, and thereby improve survival from breast cancer. The PEP Intervention consists of a 10-min interaction between a radiographer and an older woman, supported by a booklet. Our previous report showed that at 1 year, the PEP intervention increased the proportion who were breast cancer aware compared with usual care.METHODS: We randomised 867 women aged 67-70 years attending for their final routine appointment on the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme to receive the PEP Intervention, a booklet alone or usual care. The primary outcome was breast cancer awareness measured using a validated questionnaire asking about knowledge of breast cancer symptoms, knowledge that the risk of breast cancer increases with age and breast checking behaviour.RESULTS: At 2 years, the PEP Intervention increased the proportion who were breast cancer aware compared with usual care (21 vs 6%; odds ratio 8.1, 95% confidence interval 2.7-25.0).CONCLUSIONS: The uniquely large and sustained effect of the PEP Intervention on breast cancer awareness increases the likelihood that a woman will present promptly should she develop breast cancer symptoms up to many years later. British Journal of Cancer (2011) 105, 18-21. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2011.205 www.bjcancer.com Published online 7 June 2011 (C) 2011 Cancer Research U

The MHC and body odors: arbitrary effects caused by shifts of mean pleasantness

The main conclusions of the study by Jacob et al.1 published in February's issue of Nature Genetics differ from those of most previous studies of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and mate or odor preference in any animal2. It is therefore important to understand what may have caused these differences

Promoting early presentation of breast cancer in older women: sustained effect of an intervention to promote breast cancer awareness in routine clinical practice

Abstract Background Older women have poorer survival from breast cancer, which may be at least partly due to poor breast cancer awareness leading to delayed presentation and more advanced stage at diagnosis. In a randomised trial, an intervention to promote early presentation of breast cancer in older women increased breast cancer awareness at 1 year compared with usual care (24 versus 4%). We examined its effectiveness in routine clinical practice. Methods We piloted the intervention delivered by practising health professionals to women aged about 70 in four breast screening services. We measured the effect on breast cancer awareness at 1 year compared with comparison services, where women did not receive the intervention. Results At 1 year, 25% of women in pilot services were breast cancer aware compared with 4% in comparison services (p = 0.001). The components of breast cancer awareness were knowledge of breast cancer non-lump symptoms (pilot: 63% vs comparison: 82% at 1 year; OR = 2.56, 95% CI 1.92-3.42), knowledge of age related risk (pilot: 8% vs comparison: 36% at 1 year; OR = 5.56, 95% CI 4.0-7.74) and reported breast checking (pilot: 70% vs comparison: 78% at 1 year; OR = 1.49, 95% CI 1.13-1.96). Conclusion The intervention may be as effective in routine clinical practice as in a randomised controlled trial. This intervention has the potential to reduce patient delay in the diagnosis of breast cancer in older women. Trial registration The PEP trial was registered with the International Standard Registered Clinical/soCial sTudy Number (ISRCTN) as a clinical trial ( ISRCTN31994827 ) on 3rd October 2007

Women's knowledge and beliefs regarding breast cancer

Approximately 20–30% of women delay for 12 weeks or more from self-discovery of a breast symptom to presentation to a health care provider, and such delay intervals are associated with poorer survival. Understanding the factors that influence patient delay is important for the development of an effective, targeted health intervention programme to shorten patient delay. The aim of the study was to elicit knowledge and beliefs about breast cancer among a sample of the general female population, and examine age and socio-economic variations in responses. Participants were randomly selected through the Postal Address File, and data were collected through the Office of National Statistics. Geographically distributed throughout the UK, 996 women participated in a short structured interview to elicit their knowledge of breast cancer risk, breast cancer symptoms, and their perceptions of the management and outcomes associated with breast cancer. Women had limited knowledge of their relative risk of developing breast cancer, of associated risk factors and of the diversity of potential breast cancer-related symptoms. Older women were particularly poor at identifying symptoms of breast cancer, risk factors associated with breast cancer and their personal risk of developing the disease. Poorer knowledge of symptoms and risks among older women may help to explain the strong association between older age and delay in help-seeking. If these findings are confirmed they suggest that any intervention programme should target older women in particular, given that advancing age is a risk factor for both developing breast cancer and for subsequent delayed presentation

Risk factors for delayed presentation and referral of symptomatic cancer: Evidence for common cancers

Background:It has been suggested that the known poorer survival from cancer in the United Kingdom, compared with other European countries, can be attributed to more advanced cancer stage at presentation. There is, therefore, a need to understand the diagnostic process, and to ascertain the risk factors for increased time to presentation.Methods:We report the results from two worldwide systematic reviews of the literature on patient-mediated and practitioner-mediated delays, identifying the factors that may influence these.Results:Across cancer sites, non-recognition of symptom seriousness is the main patient-mediated factor resulting in increased time to presentation. There is strong evidence of an association between older age and patient delay for breast cancer, between lower socio-economic status and delay for upper gastrointestinal and urological cancers and between lower education level and delay for breast and colorectal cancers. Fear of cancer is a contributor to delayed presentation, while sanctioning of help seeking by others can be a powerful mediator of reduced time to presentation. For practitioner delay, ‘misdiagnosis’ occurring either through treating patients symptomatically or relating symptoms to a health problem other than cancer, was an important theme across cancer sites. For some cancers, this could also be linked to inadequate patient examination, use of inappropriate tests or failing to follow-up negative or inconclusive test results.Conclusion:Having sought help for potential cancer symptoms, it is therefore important that practitioners recognise these symptoms, and examine, investigate and refer appropriately. © 2009 Cancer Research UK All rights reserved

Feeding the Worlth Healthily: the Challenge of Measuring the effects of Agriculture on Health

Agricultural production, food systems and population health are intimately linked. While there is a strong evidence base to inform our knowledge of what constitutes a healthy human diet, we know little about actual food production or consumption in many populations and how developments in the food and agricultural system will affect dietary intake patterns and health. The paucity of information on food production and consumption is arguably most acute in low- and middle-income countries, where it is most urgently needed to monitor levels of under-nutrition, the health impacts of rapid dietary transition and the increasing ‘double burden’ of nutrition-related disease. Food availability statistics based on food commodity production data are currently widely used as a proxy measure of national-level food consumption, but using data from the UK and Mexico we highlight the potential pitfalls of this approach. Despite limited resources for data collection, better systems of measurement are possible. Important drivers to improve collection systems may include efforts to meet international development goals and partnership with the private sector. A clearer understanding of the links between the agriculture and food system and population health will ensure that health becomes a critical driver of agricultural change

Cancer symptom awareness and barriers to symptomatic presentation in England – Are we clear on cancer?

Background: Low cancer awareness may contribute to delayed diagnosis and poor cancer survival. We aimed to quantify socio-demographic differences in cancer symptom awareness and barriers to symptomatic presentation in the English population. Methods: Using a uniquely large data set (n=49?270), we examined the association of cancer symptom awareness and barriers to presentation with age, gender, marital status and socio-economic position (SEP), using logistic regression models to control for confounders. Results: The youngest and oldest, the single and participants with the lowest SEP recognised the fewest cancer symptoms, and reported most barriers to presentation. Recognition of nine common cancer symptoms was significantly lower, and embarrassment, fear and difficulties in arranging transport to the doctor’s surgery were significantly more common in participants living in the most deprived areas than in the most affluent areas. Women were significantly more likely than men to both recognise common cancer symptoms and to report barriers. Women were much more likely compared with men to report that fear would put them off from going to the doctor. Conclusions: Large and robust socio-demographic differences in recognition of some cancer symptoms, and perception of some barriers to presentation, highlight the need for targeted campaigns to encourage early presentation and improve cancer outcomes

Tissue MicroArray (TMA) analysis of normal and persistent Chlamydophila pneumoniae infection

BACKGROUND: Chlamydophila pneumoniae infection has been implicated as a potential risk factor for atherosclerosis, however the mechanism leading to persistent infection and its role in the disease process remains to be elucidated. METHODS: We validated the use of tissue microarray (TMA) technology, in combination with immunohistochemistry (IHC), to test antibodies (GroEL, GroES, GspD, Ndk and Pyk) raised against differentially expressed proteins under an interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) induced model of chlamydial persistence. RESULTS: In the cell pellet array, we were able to identify differences in protein expression patterns between untreated and IFN-γ treated samples. Typical, large chlamydial inclusions could be observed in the untreated samples with all antibodies, whereas the number of inclusions were decreased and were smaller and atypical in shape in the IFN-γ treated samples. The staining results obtained with the TMA method were generally similar to the changes observed between normal and IFN-γ persistence using proteomic analysis. Subsequently, it was shown in a second TMA including archival atheromatous heart tissues from 12 patients undergoing heart transplantation, that GroEL, GroES, GspD and Pyk were expressed in atheromatous heart tissue specimens as well, and were detectable morphologically within lesions by IHC. CONCLUSION: TMA technology proved useful in documenting functional proteomics data with the morphologic distribution of GroEL, GroES, GspD, Ndk and Pyk within formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded cell pellets and tissues from patients with severe coronary atherosclerosis. The antibodies GroEL and GroES, which were upregulated under persistence in proteomic analysis, displayed positive reaction in atheromatous heart tissue from 10 out of 12 patients. These may be useful markers for the detection of persistent infection in vitro and in vivo