BMAT 2014-S1

The table below shows ‘audience numbers’ and ‘time per visit’ for a number of popular social networking sites. A comparison of figures for the month of February is shown for two consecutive years.

There is a tendency to think that carnivores, given their precarious place at the top of the food chain, are the most at risk from extinction. Yet over the course of history it is likely that the opposite has been the case. Herbivores are often more specialist – evolved to suit a particular environment, to eat a particular plant. Carnivores, on the other hand, have tended to retain a more general set of attributes: teeth that could cut as well as chew; physical agility and acute senses, making them less vulnerable to changes in environment. After all, meat remains meat through even the most dramatic of environmental upheavals; whereas grassland might be converted to forest – with serious consequences for the herbivores that are grazing specialists.

A password to open the safe in a hotel room uses an array of five names in a particular order selected from the names of the members of the owner’s family. They are:

Rick, Betty, Oscar, Gavin, Yasmin, Graham and Bertha.

In any password a name can only be used once and no two names with the same starting letter are allowed.

Jeremy is trying to remember the password he set and tries:

Betty Rick Oscar Gavin Yasmin

The safe doesn’t open because whilst the second, fourth and fifth names are correct, the first and third names are wrong.

Since the late 1990s wolves have been seen in the Haute-France region of the Alps. This places them once again in conflict with the shepherds who farm this region. Due to the protected status of the European wolf, French farmers are awarded a compensation payment for the loss of any of their sheep to a wolf. This payment amounts to considerably more than the livestock value of the animal. In addition to this, it is very difficult to distinguish between evidence of a wolf attack and dog attack. France has a population of 8 million dogs; 8 000 of these are estimated to be wild compared to only 200 wolves.

This is part of a tiled floor in my house, surrounding a space where I have removed a broken tile.

Each tile has a pattern of sixteen smaller squares, three of which are black. On each tile, one of the black squares is a corner square, one is an edge square and one is an inner square. No two black squares touch, either edge to edge or corner to corner.

Although I laid the tiles to produce an apparently random pattern, I made sure that no two black squares touched anywhere, either edge to edge or corner to corner.

Perfect pitch – the ability to identify any note of music without inferring it from a reference note – is usually found to be a characteristic only of people who were taught music before the age of 6. So teaching music to children under the age of 6 should become a priority in primary schools. This could mean that in the future the majority of the population would have perfect pitch.

When I buy my favourite brand of coffee from the supermarket I normally have a choice of three jar sizes, as follows:

small – 100 g

medium – 200 g

large – 400 g

At present, all three jars contain 25% extra for the normal price and, in addition, customers who buy a large jar get a small jar free.

A new research study shows that general anaesthesia increases the risk of developing dementia in later life by 35%, regardless of lifestyle. Research from France being presented at a conference of anaesthetists identifies postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), a common delirium-like complication of major surgery in older people, as a likely cause of dementia that develops some years later.

The study examined the health of 9 294 people aged 65 or over in three French cities from 1999 in order to assess the risk of dementia and decline in cognitive function linked to vascular risk factors. Participants were checked two, four, seven and 10 years later. Each time the 7 008 patients originally without dementia were asked if they had had either a general or local anaesthetic since the last check-up. After two years, 2 309 (33%) had undergone one in that time, of which 1 333 (19%) were general and 948 (14%) local. In total 632 participants developed dementia over the eight-year follow-up period.

The statistical model used in the study suggests that if a smoker has undergone general anaesthesia then they have a 27% likelihood of developing dementia in later life, compared to a 19% likelihood for a non-smoker. These results further support previous research findings about the effects of smoking on health.

A summary of the findings, which are being unveiled at the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology, states: “After adjustment, participants with at least one general anaesthesia over the follow-up had a 35% increased risk of developing a dementia compared with participants without anaesthesia.” That risk is for general anaesthesia, not all anaesthesia, they stressed.

Dr Sztark, one of the authors of the study, said that “[t]hese results are in favour of an increased risk for dementia several years after general anaesthesia.” Health professionals should, he said, be aware of the possibility of POCD when deciding how to manage elderly patients who are being fully anaesthetised.

Dementia organisations responded cautiously. Dr Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This is early data and given the complexity of the findings we need to await the full peer-reviewed publication before fully interpreting the results. Research into the impact of anaesthetics on dementia is challenging because it can be very difficult to tease out cause and effect. Dementia is caused by several brain diseases, many of which arise from a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors.”

Dr Doug Brown, director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “The early results from this study support the view that anaesthesia may increase risk of developing dementia but questions still remain about why this is the case and whether other factors could also have a role to play.”

A new research study shows that general anaesthesia increases the risk of developing dementia in later life by 35%, regardless of lifestyle. Research from France being presented at a conference of anaesthetists identifies postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), a common delirium-like complication of major surgery in older people, as a likely cause of dementia that develops some years later.

The study examined the health of 9 294 people aged 65 or over in three French cities from 1999 in order to assess the risk of dementia and decline in cognitive function linked to vascular risk factors. Participants were checked two, four, seven and 10 years later. Each time the 7 008 patients originally without dementia were asked if they had had either a general or local anaesthetic since the last check-up. After two years, 2 309 (33%) had undergone one in that time, of which 1 333 (19%) were general and 948 (14%) local. In total 632 participants developed dementia over the eight-year follow-up period.

The statistical model used in the study suggests that if a smoker has undergone general anaesthesia then they have a 27% likelihood of developing dementia in later life, compared to a 19% likelihood for a non-smoker. These results further support previous research findings about the effects of smoking on health.

A summary of the findings, which are being unveiled at the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology, states: “After adjustment, participants with at least one general anaesthesia over the follow-up had a 35% increased risk of developing a dementia compared with participants without anaesthesia.” That risk is for general anaesthesia, not all anaesthesia, they stressed.

Dr Sztark, one of the authors of the study, said that “[t]hese results are in favour of an increased risk for dementia several years after general anaesthesia.” Health professionals should, he said, be aware of the possibility of POCD when deciding how to manage elderly patients who are being fully anaesthetised.

Dementia organisations responded cautiously. Dr Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This is early data and given the complexity of the findings we need to await the full peer-reviewed publication before fully interpreting the results. Research into the impact of anaesthetics on dementia is challenging because it can be very difficult to tease out cause and effect. Dementia is caused by several brain diseases, many of which arise from a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors.”

Dr Doug Brown, director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “The early results from this study support the view that anaesthesia may increase risk of developing dementia but questions still remain about why this is the case and whether other factors could also have a role to play.”

In the second to last paragraph Dr Karran says it can be “very difficult to tease out cause and effect”.

A new research study shows that general anaesthesia increases the risk of developing dementia in later life by 35%, regardless of lifestyle. Research from France being presented at a conference of anaesthetists identifies postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), a common delirium-like complication of major surgery in older people, as a likely cause of dementia that develops some years later.

The study examined the health of 9 294 people aged 65 or over in three French cities from 1999 in order to assess the risk of dementia and decline in cognitive function linked to vascular risk factors. Participants were checked two, four, seven and 10 years later. Each time the 7 008 patients originally without dementia were asked if they had had either a general or local anaesthetic since the last check-up. After two years, 2 309 (33%) had undergone one in that time, of which 1 333 (19%) were general and 948 (14%) local. In total 632 participants developed dementia over the eight-year follow-up period.

The statistical model used in the study suggests that if a smoker has undergone general anaesthesia then they have a 27% likelihood of developing dementia in later life, compared to a 19% likelihood for a non-smoker. These results further support previous research findings about the effects of smoking on health.

A summary of the findings, which are being unveiled at the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology, states: “After adjustment, participants with at least one general anaesthesia over the follow-up had a 35% increased risk of developing a dementia compared with participants without anaesthesia.” That risk is for general anaesthesia, not all anaesthesia, they stressed.

Dr Sztark, one of the authors of the study, said that “[t]hese results are in favour of an increased risk for dementia several years after general anaesthesia.” Health professionals should, he said, be aware of the possibility of POCD when deciding how to manage elderly patients who are being fully anaesthetised.

Dementia organisations responded cautiously. Dr Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This is early data and given the complexity of the findings we need to await the full peer-reviewed publication before fully interpreting the results. Research into the impact of anaesthetics on dementia is challenging because it can be very difficult to tease out cause and effect. Dementia is caused by several brain diseases, many of which arise from a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors.”

Dr Doug Brown, director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “The early results from this study support the view that anaesthesia may increase risk of developing dementia but questions still remain about why this is the case and whether other factors could also have a role to play.”

A new research study shows that general anaesthesia increases the risk of developing dementia in later life by 35%, regardless of lifestyle. Research from France being presented at a conference of anaesthetists identifies postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), a common delirium-like complication of major surgery in older people, as a likely cause of dementia that develops some years later.

The study examined the health of 9 294 people aged 65 or over in three French cities from 1999 in order to assess the risk of dementia and decline in cognitive function linked to vascular risk factors. Participants were checked two, four, seven and 10 years later. Each time the 7 008 patients originally without dementia were asked if they had had either a general or local anaesthetic since the last check-up. After two years, 2 309 (33%) had undergone one in that time, of which 1 333 (19%) were general and 948 (14%) local. In total 632 participants developed dementia over the eight-year follow-up period.

The statistical model used in the study suggests that if a smoker has undergone general anaesthesia then they have a 27% likelihood of developing dementia in later life, compared to a 19% likelihood for a non-smoker. These results further support previous research findings about the effects of smoking on health.

A summary of the findings, which are being unveiled at the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology, states: “After adjustment, participants with at least one general anaesthesia over the follow-up had a 35% increased risk of developing a dementia compared with participants without anaesthesia.” That risk is for general anaesthesia, not all anaesthesia, they stressed.

Dr Sztark, one of the authors of the study, said that “[t]hese results are in favour of an increased risk for dementia several years after general anaesthesia.” Health professionals should, he said, be aware of the possibility of POCD when deciding how to manage elderly patients who are being fully anaesthetised.

Dementia organisations responded cautiously. Dr Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This is early data and given the complexity of the findings we need to await the full peer-reviewed publication before fully interpreting the results. Research into the impact of anaesthetics on dementia is challenging because it can be very difficult to tease out cause and effect. Dementia is caused by several brain diseases, many of which arise from a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors.”

Dr Doug Brown, director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “The early results from this study support the view that anaesthesia may increase risk of developing dementia but questions still remain about why this is the case and whether other factors could also have a role to play.”

One of the games at a charity fund raising event was ‘Guess How Many Jelly Beans are in the Jar’. Prizes were awarded according to how close the guesses were to the exact number. The results of the game are shown below in the table.

Recorded crime figures – the figures which police authorities produce – have always been a poor way to identify crime trends. They are really a measure of police activity and priorities. A big operation to tackle knife crime, for instance, may uncover and record many more offences involving knives: it does not mean knife crime is rising. Added to that, there is an inbuilt temptation for police officers to ‘adjust’ their crime figures when targets need to be met. As with all recorded activity or performance data, there is always a risk of inaccuracy, confusion and fraud. A much more reliable measure of crime is the Crime Survey of England and Wales which produces figures by asking people if they have been victims of crime.

The drawing below shows a pictorial view of a model for a house.

Plans to share the medical records held by doctors, on a national database, have had to be shelved as a result of public pressure. Yet the public’s hostility to this proposal is misguided. Of course people’s medical records are personal matters, which they might not want divulged. And yet, while it is in everyone’s interests to maintain a degree of privacy, for their own peace of mind, it is also in their interests for medical science to find new treatments for ill-health. If the data were allowed to be shared, medical researchers would have access to an enormous pool of data, which could advance their understanding of illnesses and how they are caused.

Ben designs booklets for companies to use for their marketing. The price that he charges is based on the number of pages in the booklet and whether the booklets are black and white or colour. His prices are summarised in the following table:

Ben also offers a printing service. Printing 100 booklets in black and white costs $20 and printing 100 booklets in colour costs $30.

We are all becoming used to warnings of a shortage of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) recruits. In a world increasingly dominated by careers that involve these fields, organisations and politicians repeatedly state that we really must train more of these people to secure our prosperity. But STEM training is not the only answer: anecdotal evidence shows that the STEM employees who do best are those most skilled in thinking and communicating. Instead of looking to produce scientists or engineers, we should focus on turning out agile minds. The ability to process, synthesise and communicate information efficiently is the premium skill of the future.

The draw for the quarter-finals of the Staveland Cup took place last night.

Eight balls, numbered from 1 to 8, were drawn, one by one, from a bag. The numbers represented the teams involved, as follows:

1 Clefs
2 Crotchets
3 Flats
4 Keys
5 Minims
6 Quavers
7 Semibreves
8 Sharps

The first two teams drawn out of the bag will play each other, as will the third and the fourth, the fifth and the sixth, and the last two.

Although the balls were drawn out at random, they alternated between even and odd numbers, and there was always a difference of at least 3 between one ball and the next.

The first number drawn was 6 (Quavers) and the last number drawn was 5 (Minims).

The information below relates to offences dealt with by courts in England and Wales during 2010.

Table 1: Sentencing rates by region (2010)

Table 2: Occurrence of offences by type (2010)

1 London has the highest crime rate in the country.

2 The number of sentences handed down in Yorkshire was more than twice that of Wales.

3 In the North West more than 6 out of every 1 000 population have been sentenced in 2010.

The information below relates to offences dealt with by courts in England and Wales during 2010.

Table 1: Sentencing rates by region (2010)

Table 2: Occurrence of offences by type (2010)

The information below relates to offences dealt with by courts in England and Wales during 2010.

Table 1: Sentencing rates by region (2010)

Table 1 shows that there were 25 000 sentences handed down in the South West region in 2010. Table 2 shows that 0.4% of recorded offences were arson attacks, revealing that in the South West exactly 100 arson sentences were given for arson in that year.

1 The number of recorded arson attacks in the South West is proportionate to the total number of such attacks across all regions.

2 The number of recorded offences in each region is the same as the number of sentences in that region.

Table 2: Occurrence of offences by type (2010)

There have been various proposals over the years for a system of decimal time.

Under one system the day would remain the same length of time as it is at present, but would be the basic unit of time, divided into 10 decidays each made up of 100 millidays. Clocks would show the time in decidays and millidays instead of hours and minutes. Midday would be 0:00 and midnight would, therefore, be 5:00.

Memory loss and growing mental incapacity used to be seen as inevitable consequences of ageing. Now we talk of dementia as an illness that could possibly be cured or prevented. The incidence of new cases of dementia is falling. A survey in the UK in 1994 revealed roughly 650 000 cases of dementia. With a subsequent increase in the average age at death, a survey in 2013 should have found nearly 900 000 cases, but in  fact the total was less than 700 000. Why should this be so? Over the same period rates of heart disease have fallen, and in general the health of the blood vessels of the elderly has improved. Given that brain function requires the supply of oxygen to the brain from blood vessels, the improvement in the health of blood vessels …

Four friends need to stay in a hotel for one night after a concert. They are working out what it is going to cost them. The prices per room are as follows:

Single: £40, Double: £65, Family: £90 (This is up to a max of 3 adults)

Special offers:
10% discount for four rooms in a single booking
5% discount for three rooms in a single booking

One of them has a voucher for £10 which can be used once for a booking of a double room.

Next time you feel the flu coming on, you should think twice before reaching for painkillers because they could do more harm than good by increasing the transmission of flu. Obviously painkillers can make you feel better by reducing muscle pains and headaches, but they also lower fever. Fever is thought to be an antiviral weapon, because many viruses find it hard to replicate at temperatures higher than the normal human body temperature. Some studies have shown that lowering fever can prolong viral infections and increase the amount of the virus that can be passed on to others.

Most people remember a PIN because it has only four digits and it is used regularly, but few know their bank account number.

I have no trouble remembering my eight-digit account number, however, because squaring each of the four digits of my debit card PIN in turn produces it.

Drivers of motor vehicles are not the only threat to the safety of pedestrians. Official road casualty statistics for 2012 show that, per billion kilometres travelled, cyclists seriously injured 21 pedestrians, compared with 24 pedestrians seriously injured by vehicle drivers. Cyclists who ride on the pavement are regarded as a problem by pedestrians, but statistics show that most collisions between pedestrians and cyclists occur when pedestrians step into the road without seeing a cyclist. Analysis of road casualty data shows that cyclists killed 23 pedestrians in the decade to 2012 and seriously injured 585.

1. A pedestrian is almost as likely to be seriously injured by a cyclist as by a motor vehicle driver.

2. As a proportion of distance travelled, the risk of a cyclist causing serious injury to pedestrians is almost as great as the risk posed by vehicle drivers.

3. Pedestrians are less likely to be seriously injured by a cyclist when walking on a pavement than when stepping into the road.

The drawing below shows the outer surface of the net of a hexagonal package with geometric shaped windows in each side. The inner surface is painted black.

Half a million pregnant women are troubled by morning sickness each year in the UK, but this phenomenon is still not fully understood. One theory is that changing levels of hormones act on the brain to heighten an evolutionary adaptive response that helps prevent women from consuming substances that may be harmful. Although less important in the developed world, in the past this would have helped to protect a foetus during the first three months of pregnancy when it is at the most vulnerable stage of development. If the mother eats less, and sticks to simple foods, she is less likely to accidentally ingest something dangerous.

1. Morning sickness symptoms normally decline after the third month of pregnancy.

2. Pregnant women sometimes have strange food cravings.

3. Women with morning sickness tend to eat less and opt for very simple and bland food.

There are three stations on a single-track railway. The middle station of Laydon has two platforms and two separate tracks, each capable of taking any size train using the track.

The Express leaves Singebourne station at 12:00 noon and travels at an average speed of 60 mph between stations. The Post train leaves Snelling station at 12:00 noon and travels at an average of 30 mph between stations. Each train remains at Laydon station for at least 5 minutes.

The diagram below represents all the ferry routes between the islands in the Kuusi group.

Each ferry runs a shuttle service between two islands. The journeys between the main central island (Nolla) and each of the outer islands take 30 minutes in either direction and all journeys between two of the outer islands take 45 minutes.

All journeys on each route and in both directions start at 6 am and no journey starts at or after 9 pm:

Start times for routes between Nolla and the outer islands: 6:00  6:45  7:30  8:15  9:00 etc. repeating every 3 hours

Start times for routes between the outer islands: 6:00  7:00  8:00  9:00 etc.

It takes between 5 and 10 minutes to walk between ferry docking points on all the islands.

The diagram below represents all the ferry routes between the islands in the Kuusi group.

Each ferry runs a shuttle service between two islands. The journeys between the main central island (Nolla) and each of the outer islands take 30 minutes in either direction and all journeys between two of the outer islands take 45 minutes.

All journeys on each route and in both directions start at 6 am and no journey starts at or after 9 pm:

Start times for routes between Nolla and the outer islands: 6:00  6:45  7:30  8:15  9:00 etc. repeating every 3 hours

Start times for routes between the outer islands: 6:00  7:00  8:00  9:00 etc.

It takes between 5 and 10 minutes to walk between ferry docking points on all the islands.

The diagram below represents all the ferry routes between the islands in the Kuusi group.

Each ferry runs a shuttle service between two islands. The journeys between the main central island (Nolla) and each of the outer islands take 30 minutes in either direction and all journeys between two of the outer islands take 45 minutes.

All journeys on each route and in both directions start at 6 am and no journey starts at or after 9 pm:

Start times for routes between Nolla and the outer islands: 6:00  6:45  7:30  8:15  9:00 etc. repeating every 3 hours

Start times for routes between the outer islands: 6:00  7:00  8:00  9:00 etc.

It takes between 5 and 10 minutes to walk between ferry docking points on all the islands.

The diagram below represents all the ferry routes between the islands in the Kuusi group.

Each ferry runs a shuttle service between two islands. The journeys between the main central island (Nolla) and each of the outer islands take 30 minutes in either direction and all journeys between two of the outer islands take 45 minutes.

All journeys on each route and in both directions start at 6 am and no journey starts at or after 9 pm:

Start times for routes between Nolla and the outer islands: 6:00  6:45  7:30  8:15  9:00 etc. repeating every 3 hours

Start times for routes between the outer islands: 6:00  7:00  8:00  9:00 etc.

It takes between 5 and 10 minutes to walk between ferry docking points on all the islands.

1 Journeys from Kolme to Yksi never take less than 1 hour 15 minutes.

2 Journeys from Kolme to Yksi never take longer than 2 hours.

The diagram below represents all the ferry routes between the islands in the Kuusi group.

Each ferry runs a shuttle service between two islands. The journeys between the main central island (Nolla) and each of the outer islands take 30 minutes in either direction and all journeys between two of the outer islands take 45 minutes.

All journeys on each route and in both directions start at 6 am and no journey starts at or after 9 pm:

Start times for routes between Nolla and the outer islands: 6:00  6:45  7:30  8:15  9:00 etc. repeating every 3 hours

Start times for routes between the outer islands: 6:00  7:00  8:00  9:00 etc.

It takes between 5 and 10 minutes to walk between ferry docking points on all the islands.