Oral cancer in the UK: to screen or not to screen.

Although oral squamous cell carcinoma accounts for only a small proportion of malignant neoplasms in the UK, oral cancer incidence and mortality rates have been rising in recent years. The natural history of oral cancer is not adequately understood at present and there is very little information about the epidemiology of precancerous lesions in the UK. There are also insufficient data to provide firm evidence that the percentage of cases arising de novo is greater in the UK and the Western world as compared to the Indian subcontinent. Screening for oral cancer by visual examination is simple, inexpensive and causes little discomfort; however, there is no evidence for the effectiveness of screening for oral cancer either in reducing mortality from the disease or in reducing the incidence of invasive disease by detection and treatment of precancerous lesions. There is currently insufficient evidence to recommend population screening for oral cancer in the UK. Measures aimed at primary prevention of the disease may be a more feasible method of disease control at present

Understanding Disease Heterogeneity and Patient Characteristics in Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

Background: Amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurologic disease that is projected to double in worldwide incidence in the next 20 years. The heterogenic nature of the disease and relatively limited research data, compared to non-rare diseases, have made it difficult for clinician researchers to alter the course of the disease within the short life expectancy after symptom onset. Method: This was a mixed-method retrospective review and live sampling study using three distinct data sources. Retrospective data was abstracted from the electronic medical record systems for a select group of ALS patients seen at the University of California, Irvine Neuromuscular Center (UCI NMC). Additional retrospective datasets curated by the Pooled Resources Open-Access Clinical Trials (PRO-ACT) database were also analyzed. Observational data was collected using a 9-item survey developed on Google Forms and disseminated through the ALS Association Golden West Chapter. The items measured symptom onset, diagnostic journey, and patient demographics.Results: The analyses confirmed current reports of higher disease incidence in Caucasian populations, usually comprising at least 60% of each dataset. The gender prevalence towards males was only observed in the PRO-ACT dataset. There was also a difference in mean age between PRO-ACT (56 years), UCI (61 years), and Online Questionnaire respondents (66 years). Discussion: Ultimately retrospective data analyses were limited by substantial missing, not at random data. Large data repositories can bridge the gap between non-rare and rare disease research, but only with robust and methodologic data collection across all participating sites

View from the Top: How Corporate Boards Can Engage on Sustainability Performance

Corporate boards are responsible for overseeing the interests of shareholders in the long term and have a critical role to play in championing sustainability across the enterprise. Over the years, Wall Street research, academic papers, corporate reports and trends from major investors have all underscored the same message: Companies that adopt sustainable practices deliver superior financial results and can face the future with more resilience.Based on interviews conducted with dozens of corporate directors, senior corporate leaders and governance experts, this Ceres report identifies key strategies for effective board engagement that can produce tangible environmental and social impacts. Specifically, the report recommends two inter-related approaches for weaving sustainability more deeply across board functions:Integrating sustainability into board governance systems, andIntegrating sustainability into board actions.By combining robust systems and meaningful actions, boards will have a far better chance of encouraging substantive performance improvements

Trade induced growth impacts of corporate entry in the food sector: A case study of fruits and vegetables sub sector in the Punjab State of India

Study indicated that the entry of corporate sector in the Punjab State is both in retail and wholesale trade of the fruits & vegetables sub sector. At the organized retail stores these companies have provided its consumers a single window service for the various product assortments while within the fruits & vegetables category (have minuscule scales) widened the product selection choices. Corporate entry in wholesale trade has linked several product specific production belts with medium to high income consumers through various market segments such as organized stores, traditional wholesale/retail markets and the food service. These companies have also provided product variety through imports while opportunities for crop diversification towards higher value crops through exports. In the fruits & vegetables sub sector companies engaged in the retail trade have adopted for short to medium while those in wholesale trade for medium to long-term more sustainable approaches for the sourcing of supplies to build up competitive advantages. This has started generating growth in the Punjab state that has manifested in terms of higher incomes for as the partner farmers and creation of employment for the skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower throughout the supply chain. As the market sizes of these companies expand and diversify in the domestic/global markets it shall enhance growth thereby magnify its impacts. --Fruits & vegetables trade,corporate groups,growth

SU(2) Invariants of Symmetric Qubit States

Density matrix for N-qubit symmetric state or spin-j state (j = N/2) is expressed in terms of the well known Fano statistical tensor parameters. Employing the multiaxial representation [1], wherein a spin-j density matrix is shown to be characterized by j(2j+1) axes and 2j real scalars, we enumerate the number of invariants constructed out of these axes and scalars. These invariants are explicitly calculated in the particular case of pure as well as mixed spin-1 state.Comment: 7 pages, 1 fi

There is nothing honourable about honour killings: gender, violence and the limits of multiculturalism

'Honour killings' are extreme acts of domestic violence culminating in the murder of a woman by her family or community. However only in relation to religious and ethnic communities is the concept of 'honour' invoked as motivation for domestic violence. In this paper we argue that ethnicised women are caught up in a collision of discourses. Women who are victims of honour killings are invisible within the cultural relativism of the British multicultural discourse and the private/public divide which characterises the domestic violence discourse. But since September 11, while ethnicised women have become highly visible, they are now contained and constructed in the public consciousness within a discourse of fear and risk posed by the presence of the Muslim alien 'other'. By developing an effective human rights approach to honour killings it could be possible to move away from the 'gender trap' of cultural relativism within the liberal democratic discourse on multiculturalism

Fragile Human Capital Causes Poverty in North Bihar: Some Empirical Evidences

Various components of human development of poor households have been studied in North Bihar. The data has revealed that a higher proportion of females are chronically energy deficient than of males in the rural areas. The prevalence of chronic energy deficiency (CED) has been reported in both poor and non-poor households. The incidence of illiteracy and non-enrolment in schools have been found higher in the poor households, whereas the rate of completion of schooling has been observed comparatively high in the non-poor households. The study has further indicated low stake of poor households in the management of rural organizations. The analysis of determinants of poverty has suggested that level of poverty could be reduced through higher investments for the improvement of educational and nutritional status of the rural poor as well as launching of more rural development programmes. The study has observed that targeting of rural poor households in formulating strategies and implementing development programmes warrant special attention. These factors need to be addressed immediately for increasing their capability and skill so that they could be able to get out of poverty sphere. The improvement in social and human development aspects has been the per-requisite for implementation of any programme for poverty attenuation in Bihar.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Entangling capabilities of Symmetric two qubit gates

Our work addresses the problem of generating maximally entangled two spin-1/2 (qubit) symmetric states using NMR, NQR, Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick Hamiltonians. Time evolution of such Hamiltonians provides various logic gates which can be used for quantum processing tasks. Pairs of spin-1/2's have modeled a wide range of problems in physics. Here we are interested in two spin-1/2 symmetric states which belong to a subspace spanned by the angular momentum basis {|j = 1, {\mu}>; {\mu} = +1, 0,-1}. Our technique relies on the decomposition of a Hamiltonian in terms of SU(3) generators. In this context, we define a set of linearly independent, traceless, Hermitian operators which provides an alternate set of SU(n) generators. These matrices are constructed out of angular momentum operators Jx,Jy,Jz. We construct and study the properties of perfect entanglers acting on a symmetric subspace i.e., spin-1 operators that can generate maximally entangled states from some suitably chosen initial separable states in terms of their entangling power.Comment: 12 page

Treatment of Anaphylaxis in Adults: A Questionnaire Survey

Objective: To identify the medications that medical students, interns and casualty medical officers are likely to prescribe when treating an adult patient with anaphylaxis, and to ascertain the dose and route of administration of adrenaline they would use. Design: A questionnaire study survey. Setting: Kasturba medical college hospital, Manipal (Udupi District) and public health centers of Udupi district, Karnataka. Subjects: Data collected from 39 second year medical students, 35 interns and 35 casualty medical officers. Main outcome measure: To determine the percentage of use of adrenaline for the treatment of anaphylaxis in the correct dose, strength and route. Results: Majority (73 .3%) of participants correctly opted to use adrenaline. Only 9 participants have written the correct dose, route and concentration of adrenaline. 41.28% and 66.05% participants preferred to use antihistamines and corticosteroids respectively. Conclusion: This study has shown that confusion exists regarding the correct route of administration and dose of adrenaline to be used when treating anaphylaxis. This confusion applied to medical students, interns and medical officers. Therefore doctors must be made aware of the guidelines to treat anaphylaxis effectively