Canadian and English students' beliefs about waterpipe smoking: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Waterpipe smoking is becoming popular among western students. The aim was to understand the appeal to students of this form of smoking when other forms of smoking are becoming less common. METHODS: Waterpipe smokers were identified by snowball sampling and interviewed following a semi-structured schedule in waterpipe cafes and in their homes. Constant comparative analysis was used to derive themes for the analysis. RESULTS: Waterpipe smokers saw smoking as an alternative to more expensive nights out in bars. The appeal was related to the communal activity and the novelty of the experience. Respondents had not thought deeply about the health risks and reasoned that if no warnings about waterpipe smoking were apparent (unlike cigarette smoking) then it was probably safe. These observations were reinforced by observations about the mildness of the smoke, the fruit flavours, and beliefs about the filtering of the water. Waterpipe smokers felt no pressure to stop smoking and therefore had not tried to do so, but felt it might be something they did not continue after university. Waterpipe smoking was not linked in students' minds to other forms of smoking except in one individual who was using waterpipe smoking to help quit cigarettes. CONCLUSION: In the absence of public health information, students have fallen back on superficial experiences to form views that waterpipe smoking is less harmful than other forms of smoking and it is currently much more acceptable in student society than other forms of smoking

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Presentation of childhood cancers to a paediatric shared care unit

ObjectiveTo describe the pathways by which children with cancer present to a shared care oncology unit.DesignA population-based retrospective cohort study of children diagnosed with cancer between the years 2004 and 2014.SettingDistrict General Hospital with a level 2 Paediatric Oncology Shared Care Unit.Patients93 children aged 0–15 years.Outcome measuresTime to presentation (TTP) was defined as time from initial symptoms to time seen by secondary paediatrics. Time to diagnosis (TTD) was defined as time from initial symptoms to diagnosis at a Principal Treatment Centre. Patient pathways to diagnosis were mapped and routes for different cancers were compared.ResultsOnly 2/93 cases (2.1%) in 10 years were referred via the 2-week pathway. Most presentations were acute via immediate general practitioner (GP) referral or self-referral to the emergency department 62/93 (67%). Leukaemia presented acutely and via the GP more often than via self-presentation to the emergency department 21/28 (75% vs 25%), while solid tumours were self-referred to the emergency department 21/34 (62% vs 38%) more often than via the GP. TTP and TTD were calculated for 87 patients. Wilms’ tumour demonstrated the shortest median TTP of 7 days and TTD of 16 days. Lymphoma had the longest TTD, with TTP 107 days and TTD 120 days. Pathways to diagnosis via other specialties were longer.ConclusionThe majority of children diagnosed with cancer present via acute services, with the route varying between tumour types. Only two cases in 10 years were referred via the 2-week pathway, thus challenging its relevance in the paediatric population.</jats:sec