This one's got a phobia of doctors. Thankfully, you can do the bowel cancer test at home

This poster highlights the bowel cancer screening programme is being introduced for all 60 to 71 year olds. If you are in this age group a kit will be sent by post so you can do the test at home. You are encouraged to look out for the kit as it could save your life.

Taking speed can really bring you down

This poster informs about the effects of taking speed stating: 'The more speed you take, the more exhausted you are when it wears off and the more likely you are to keep taking more. And that's called addiction'. It also provides contact details for the National Drugs Helpline. Tel: 0800 776600.

Can Science of Religion Render Service to Islamic Studies?

(Résumé de l'ouvrage) Der international renommierte Religionswissenschaftler Michael Pye, seit 1982 Professor für Religionswissenschaft an der Philipps-Universität Marburg, hat die moderne, konfessionell unabhängige Religionsforschung maßgeblich mitgeprägt und dazu beigetragen, das Profil der Religionswissenschaft als einer autonomen akademischen Disziplin zu schärfen. In der vorliegenden Festschrift, die aus Anlaß des 65. Geburtstages Michael Pyes von zweien seiner Schüler bzw. Schülerinnen und einer ehemaligen Mitarbeiterin herausgegeben wurde, würdigen über 30 Religionswissenschaftler und Religionswissenschaftlerinnen aus Finnland, Großbritannien, Dänemark, Deutschland, Italien, Japan, Kanada, den Niederlanden, Norwegen, Schweden, der Schweiz, Tschechien und den USA mit ihren Beiträgen die Person und das Werk des Jubilars. Darüber hinaus enthält die Festschrift Porträts und eine Bibliographie der Arbeiten Michael Pyes. Die große thematische und methodische Bandbreite, die das Oevre dieses maßgebenden Religionswissenschaftlers kennzeichnet, spiegelt sich in der Vielfalt der Beiträge wider. So gibt dieses Buch zugleich einen guten Überblick über die Themen und Methoden der gegenwärtigen Religionswissenschaft.

How can industry engage with the NICRN?

The Northern Ireland Clinical Research Network (NICRN) undertakes research in a range of medical fields. The NICRN is part of a UK-wide initiative to provide opportunities for patients and clinicians to participate in high-quality clinical research. This leaflet is targeted towards commercial partners who may wish to conduct clinical trials within Health and Social Care (HSC). The NICRN offers a range of supports for commercial partners, which allow clinical trials to get underway quickly and ensure they run smoothly.� Increasing opportunities for HSC service users to participate in clinical research and trials has the potential to bring benefits for the patients themselves and longer-term benefits to the HSC system in Northern Ireland as a whole.

Brain dysfunction in sepsis: what can we learn from cerebral perfusion studies?

Investigations on the relationship between sepsis, brain dysfunction, and cerebral perfusion are methodologically very difficult to perform. It is important to interpret the results of such studies in view of our limited ability to diagnose and quantify brain dysfunction and to consider our limited understanding of the mechanisms that lead to or are associated with brain dysfunction in sepsis.

Patterns of tuberculosis in the Americas: how can modern biomedicine inform the ancient past?

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that continues to take its toll on human lives. Paleopathological research indicates that it has been a significant cause of death among humans for at least five thousand years. Because of the devastating consequences to human health, social systems, and endangered primate species, TB has been the subject of many and varied research efforts throughout the world, efforts that are amassing an enormous amount of data concerning the causative agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Despite sequencing of the M. tuberculosis genome and numerous molecular epidemiological studies, many questions remain regarding the origin, evolution, and future co-evolutionary trajectory of M. tuberculosis and humans. Indeed, the origin of pre-Columbian New World TB has been and remains hotly debated, and resolution of this controversy will likely only come with integration of data and theory from multiple disciplines. In this paper, we discuss the pre-Columbian TB controversy, and then use research from biological and biomedical sciences to help inform paleopathological and archaeological studies of this ubiquitous disease that plagued our ancient forbears.

Transgenic Arabidopsis plants can accumulate polyhydroxybutyrate to up to 4% of their fresh weight.

Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. plants expressing the three enzymes encoding the biosynthetic route to polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) are described. These plants accumulated more than 4% of their fresh weight (approximately 40% of their dry weight) in the form of PHB in leaf chloroplasts. These very high producers were obtained and identified following a novel strategy consisting of a rapid GC-MS analysis of a large number of transgenic Arabidopsis plants generated using a triple construct, thus allowing the parallel transfer of all three genes necessary for PHB synthesis in a single transformation event. The level of PHB produced was 4-fold greater than previously published values, thus demonstrating the large potential of plants to produce this renewable resource. However, the high levels of the polymer produced had severe effects on both plant development and metabolism. Stunted growth and a loss of fertility were observed in the high-producing lines. Analysis of the metabolite composition of these lines using a GC-MS method that we have newly developed showed that the accumulation of high levels of PHB was not accompanied by an appreciable change in either the composition or the amount of fatty acids. Substantial changes were, however, observed in the levels of various organic acids, amino acids, sugars and sugar alcohols.

Can health beliefs help in explaining attendance to follow-up care? The Swiss childhood cancer survivor study.

Objective: Improved treatment has increased the survival of childhood cancer patients in recent decades, but follow-up care is recommended to detect and treat late effects. We investigated relationships between health beliefs and follow-up attendance in adult childhood cancer survivors.Methods: Childhood cancer survivors aged younger than 16 years when diagnosed between 1976 and 2003, who had survived for more than 5 years and were currently aged 20+ years, received a postal questionnaire. We asked survivors whether they attended follow-up in the past year. Concepts from the Health Belief Model (perceived susceptibility and severity of future late effects, potential benefits and barriers to follow-up, general health value and cues to action) were assessed. Medical information was extracted from the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry.Results: Of 1075 survivors (response rate 72.3%), 250 (23.3%) still attended regular follow-up care. In unadjusted analyses, all health belief concepts were significantly associated with follow-up (p < 0.05). Adjusting for other health beliefs, demographic, and medical variables, only barriers (OR = 0.59; 95% CI: 0.43-0.82) remained significant. Younger survivors, those with lower educational background, diagnosed at an older age, treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or bone marrow transplantation and with a relapse were more likely to attend follow-up care.Conclusions: Our study showed that more survivors at high risk of cancer-and treatment-related late effects attend follow-up care in Switzerland. Patient-perceived barriers hinder attendance even after accounting for medical variables. Information about the potential effectiveness and value of follow-up needs to be available to increase the attendance among childhood cancer survivors. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Active antiviral T-lymphocyte response can be redirected against tumor cells by antitumor antibody x MHC/viral peptide conjugates.

PURPOSE: To redirect an ongoing antiviral T-cell response against tumor cells in vivo, we evaluated conjugates consisting of antitumor antibody fragments coupled to class I MHC molecules loaded with immunodominant viral peptides. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: First, lymphochoriomeningitis virus (LCMV)-infected C57BL/6 mice were s.c. grafted on the right flank with carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-transfected MC38 colon carcinoma cells precoated with anti-CEA x H-2D(b)/GP33 LCMV peptide conjugate and on the left flank with the same cells precoated with control anti-CEA F(ab')(2) fragments. Second, influenza virus-infected mice were injected i.v., to induce lung metastases, with HER2-transfected B16F10 cells, coated with either anti-HER2 x H-2D(b)/NP366 influenza peptide conjugates, or anti-HER2 F(ab')(2) fragments alone, or intact anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody. Third, systemic injections of anti-CEA x H-2D(b) conjugates with covalently cross-linked GP33 peptides were tested for the growth inhibition of MC38-CEA(+) cells, s.c. grafted in LCMV-infected mice. RESULTS: In the LCMV-infected mice, five of the six grafts with conjugate-precoated MC38-CEA(+) cells did not develop into tumors, whereas all grafts with F(ab')(2)-precoated MC38-CEA(+) cells did so (P = 0.0022). In influenza virus-infected mice, the group injected with cells precoated with specific conjugate had seven times less lung metastases than control groups (P = 0.0022 and P = 0.013). Most importantly, systemic injection in LCMV-infected mice of anti-CEA x H-2D(b)/cross-linked GP33 conjugates completely abolished tumor growth in four of five mice, whereas the same tumor grew in all five control mice (P = 0.016). CONCLUSION: The results show that a physiologic T-cell antiviral response in immunocompetent mice can be redirected against tumor cells by the use of antitumor antibody x MHC/viral peptide conjugates.

El paper del capital social en l'organització d'esdeveniments

La intenció d'aquest article és detallar l'abast del capital social als esdeveniments culturals celebrats a Catalunya i analitzar la influència sobre l'atracció turística dels mateixos. Es pretén determinar també quin és l'impacte que tres elements de capital social que intervenen en l'organització d'esdeveniments (elements de motivació, creació de xarxes internes i lideratge) tenen sobre el sector turístic local. L'estudi parteix d'una mostra de 263 esdeveniments als quals s'ha adreçat una enquesta per determinar la presència i pes dels factors de capital social. Aquesta informació s'ha creuat amb dades sobre impactes i atracció turística obtingudes també a partir de la mateixa enquesta i, a partir de l'aplicació del test del chi quadrat, s'ha contrastat si les diferències existents entre els diferents factors del capital social són estadísticament significatives. Les conclusions principals obtingudes indiquen que els esdeveniments que tenen elements de capital social que els reforça la seva cohesió social entenen i justifiquen la celebració com a fet socialitzador, independentment del seu abast turístic. A més es detecta que la creació de xarxes de relació enforteix la cohesió interna, la representativitat i el sentit d'identitat de la comunitat. Finalment es constata que la presència d'elements de lideratge que donen visibilitat i vinculen l'esdeveniment amb xarxes externes explica la diferència existent en la capacitat d'atracció i impactes turístics dels esdeveniments. La principal aportació del treball és posar de manifest el paper del capital social com a factor que incideix en la repercussió social i turística dels esdeveniments catalans. La diagnosi efectuada permet recomanar la incorporació del capital social com un actiu estratègic per a la gestió i per a la creació de nous productes i polítiques turístiques centrades en els esdeveniments culturals.

Can we measure accurately the prevalence of doping?

Questionnaires are used in the majority of the studies ondoping prevalence in sport. Nevertheless, prevalence is noteasy to evaluate and previous epidemiologic studies demonstrateda wide variance. This variance has mostly beenexplained by sample differences. The way to evaluate dopingprevalence in the survey is questioned in this paper. Aquestionnaire was administered to 1810 amateur athletes(993 males, 817 females). Doping use was ascertained invarious ways, using different definitions of doping and typesof question in the survey. Depending on the definition ofdoping and the type of question used, the prevalence ofdoping obtained can differ enormously, between 1.3 and39.2% of athletes. Marijuana and drugs for asthma were thetwo banned substances most used. The majority of athletesoften ignored the banned list and did not use prohibitedsubstances to dope. Using various ways to question athletes,observing the usage of substances, cross checking the data,taking into account the aim of substances uses and thevarious definitions of doping are necessary to give morereliable prevalence of doping. Moreover, doping at anamateur level seems to be less of a sport problem than asocial problem.