Using online adverts to increase the uptake of cervical screening amongst "real Eastenders": an opportunistic controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Cervical screening uptake has increased as a result of occurrences of cervical cancer in TV 'soap operas' and in real life celebrities such as Jade Goody. Media analysis at the time of Jade Goody's death suggested the NHS did not take sufficient advantage of this opportunity to improve cervical screening rates. Google AdWords has been used to recruit and raise awareness of health but we were not aware of its use to supplement media events. METHODS: This was an opportunistic service evaluation to accompany a cervical cancer storyline in Eastenders (a TV 'soap opera'). We ran an AdWords campaign based on keywords such as 'Eastenders', and 'cervical cancer' in a one mile radius in East London, linked to one webpage giving details of 10 practices and other links on cervical cancer. We recorded costs of adverts and setting up the webpage. We used routine statistics from Tower Hamlets, City and Hackney, and Newham Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) of the number of smears, eligible populations, and coverage by practice by month from September 2010 to January 2012 to compare the ten intervention practices with controls. RESULTS: Eight people per day in the target area viewed the project webpage. The cost of setting up the website and running Google AdWords was £1320 or £1.88 per person viewing the webpage. Unlike Jade Goody's death, there was no major impact from the Eastenders' storyline on Google searches for cervical cancer. There was considerable monthly variation in the number of smear tests in the 3 PCTs. The AdWords campaign may have had some effect on smear rates but this showed, at best, a marginal statistical difference. Assuming a 'real' effect, the intervention may have resulted in 110 'extra' women being screened but there was no change in coverage. CONCLUSIONS: Although the Eastenders storyline seemed to have no effect on interest in cervical cancer or screening, the AdWords campaign may have had some effect. Given the small scale exploratory nature of the study this was not statistically significant but the relatively modest cost of advertising suggests a larger study may be worthwhile. An outline of a possible study is described

The Eastern Origins of the Rise of the West and the “Return” of Asia

With the current interest in China (and India) proliferating within the Western Academy, this article claims that what we are witnessing today is not the rise but the “return” of China (and India). Many academics assume that the West has been the dominant civilization in the world economy in the last 500 years and that the current “rise” of China threatens to knock the West off its perch. However, this article provides an alternative take to this cherished axiom of Eurocentric world history by inverting the standard belief that the West pioneered modernity and then expanded outwards to remake the world. Thus, I argue not only that globalization preceded the rise of the West but that it was Eastern-led on the one hand and that it enabled the Western breakthrough into modernity on the other. This, in turn, rests on my claim that Chinese development stems back not to 1978 but to 960 ce as the Sung Dynasty emerged and subsequently undertook a quasi-industrial miracle. Moreover, between 1450/1492 and ca. 1830 China lay at the centre of the nascent global economy, fanning the integration process alongside other key non-Western regions such as India and West Asia/North Africa. And, while the West was the dominant player after ca. 1830 down to the turn of the third millennium, nevertheless, what we witness today is the return of China to the centre of the global economy whence it came

Normalizing single-cell RNA sequencing data: challenges and opportunities

Single-cell transcriptomics is becoming an important component of the molecular biologist's toolkit. A critical step when analyzing data generated using this technology is normalization. However, normalization is typically performed using methods developed for bulk RNA sequencing or even microarray data, and the suitability of these methods for single-cell transcriptomics has not been assessed. We here discuss commonly used normalization approaches and illustrate how these can produce misleading results. Finally, we present alternative approaches and provide recommendations for single-cell RNA sequencing users

Seasonal Differences and Variability of Concentrations, Chemical Composition, and Cloud Condensation Nuclei of Marine Aerosol Over the North Atlantic

The majority of the aerosol particle number (condensation nuclei or CN) in the marine boundary layer (MBL) consists of sulfate and organic compounds that have been shown to provide a large fraction of the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Here we use submicron non‐refractory Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) and filter measurements of organic and sulfate components of aerosol particles measured during four North Atlantic Aerosol and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) research cruises to assess the sources and contributions of submicron organic and sulfate components for CCN concentrations in the MBL during four different seasons. Submicron hydroxyl group organic mass (OM) correlated strongly to sodium concentrations during clean marine periods (R ¼ 0.9), indicating that hydroxyl group OM can serve as a proxy for sea‐spray OM in ambient measurements. Sea‐spray OM contributed 45% of the sum of sea‐spray OM and sea salt during late spring (biomass climax phase) compared to <20% for other seasons, but the seasonal difference was not statistically significant. The contribution of non‐combustion sources during clean marine periods to submicron OM was 47 to 88% and to non‐sea‐salt sulfate31 to 86%, with likely sources being marine and biogenic. The remaining submicron OM and sulfate were likely associated with ship or continental sources, including biomass burning, even during clean marine periods. The seasonal contribution from secondary sulfate and OM components to submicron aerosol mass was highest during late spring (60%), when biogenic emissions are expected to be highest, and lowest during winter (18%). Removing submicron sea‐spray OM decreased CCN concentrations by <10% because of competing effects from increased hygroscopicity and decreased particle size. During all seasons, adding biogenic secondary sulfate increased hygroscopicity, particle size, and CCN concentrations at 0.1–0.3% supersaturations by 5–66%. The largest change was during early spring when the fraction of hygroscopic sulfate components in the 0.1–0.2 μm size range was highest (80%). During continental periods, the increased contribution from low‐hygroscopicity organic components to 0.1–0.2 μm diameter particles reduces the CCN/CN by 20–100% for three seasons despite the increased CN and mass concentrations. These results illustrate the important role of the chemical composition of particles with diameters 0.1–0.2 μm for controlling CCN in the MB

Anti-Inflammatory properties of Salograviolide A purified from Lebanese plant Centaurea ainetensis

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Mechanisms of Hearing Loss after Blast Injury to the Ear

Given the frequent use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) around the world, the study of traumatic blast injuries is of increasing interest. The ear is the most common organ affected by blast injury because it is the bodyﾒs most sensitive pressure transducer. We fabricated a blast chamber to re-create blast profiles similar to that of IEDs and used it to develop a reproducible mouse model to study blast-induced hearing loss. The tympanic membrane was perforated in all mice after blast exposure and found to heal spontaneously. Micro-computed tomography demonstrated no evidence for middle ear or otic capsule injuries; however, the healed tympanic membrane was thickened. Auditory brainstem response and distortion product otoacoustic emission threshold shifts were found to be correlated with blast intensity. As well, these threshold shifts were larger than those found in control mice that underwent surgical perforation of their tympanic membranes, indicating cochlear trauma. Histological studies one week and three months after the blast demonstrated no disruption or damage to the intra-cochlear membranes. However, there was loss of outer hair cells (OHCs) within the basal turn of the cochlea and decreased spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) and afferent nerve synapses. Using our mouse model that recapitulates human IED exposure, our results identify that the mechanisms underlying blast-induced hearing loss does not include gross membranous rupture as is commonly believed. Instead, there is both OHC and SGN loss that produce auditory dysfunction