Phase III randomized trial of induction chemotherapy in patients with N2 or N3 locally advanced head and neck cancer.

Purpose: Induction chemotherapy (IC) before radiotherapy lowers distant failure (DF) rates in locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). The goal of this phase III trial was to determine whether IC before chemoradiotherapy (CRT) further improves survival compared with CRT alone in patients with N2 or N3 disease.

Patients And Methods: Treatment-naive patients with nonmetastatic N2 or N3 SCCHN were randomly assigned to CRT alone (CRT arm; docetaxel, fluorouracil, and hydroxyurea plus radiotherapy 0.

Family caregivers voice their needs: a photovoice study.

Objective: Caregivers often are unprepared for their role yet serve as the frontline in the provision of palliative care services. The aim of our study was to explore family caregivers' experiences from their perspective as they cared for dying relatives.

Method: Using the Photovoice methodology, ten unpaid family caregivers took photographs depicting issues they experienced as informal caregivers of an ill family member who had less than a year to live.

The spiritual environment in New Zealand hospice care: identifying organisational commitment to spiritual care.

Objectives: Spiritual matters naturally arise in many people who have either a serious illness or are nearing end-of-life. The literature shows many examples of spiritual assessments, interventions and care; however, there is a lack of focus on organisational support for spiritual care. We aimed to ascertain the structural and operational capacity of New Zealand's hospices to attend to the spiritual needs and concerns of patients, families and staff.

Management of excess weight in pregnancy in Otago, New Zealand: a qualitative study with lead maternity carers.

Aim: To investigate the knowledge and practice of midwives providing lead maternity care (LMC) in Otago, regarding gestational weight gain (GWG).

Methods: A qualitative study was conducted using three semi-structured focus groups and one in-depth interview. A total of 12 midwives, including one student midwife, were interviewed.

Exogenous spatial attention: evidence for intact functioning in adults with autism spectrum disorder.

Deficits or atypicalities in attention have been reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet no consensus on the nature of these deficits has emerged. We conducted three experiments that paired a peripheral precue with a covert discrimination task, using protocols for which the effects of covert exogenous spatial attention on early vision have been well established in typically developing populations. Experiment 1 assessed changes in contrast sensitivity, using orientation discrimination of a contrast-defined grating; Experiment 2 evaluated the reduction of crowding in the visual periphery, using discrimination of a letter-like figure with flanking stimuli at variable distances; and Experiment 3 assessed improvements in visual search, using discrimination of the same letter-like figure with a variable number of distractor elements.

Cauda equina involvement in Susac's syndrome.

Susac's syndrome is a rare autoimmune microangiopathy characterized by the clinical triad of encephalopathy, branch retinal artery occlusions, and sensorineural hearing loss. In many cases, the clinical triad is not fully present at the onset of symptoms. MRI studies often show characteristic punched out lesions of the central fibers of the corpus callosum, and leptomeningeal enhancement and deep gray matter lesions may also be seen.

Randomized clinical trial of intraoperative superficial cervical plexus block versus incisional local anaesthesia in thyroid and parathyroid surgery.

Background: Moderate wound pain and opiate analgesia requirement is reported following thyroid and parathyroid surgery. A randomized clinical trial was performed to investigate whether intraoperative superficial cervical plexus block (SCPB) would decrease postoperative pain and analgesia use.

Methods: Patients were randomized to incisional local anaesthesia (control) or incisional local anaesthesia plus intraoperative SCPB.

Perspectives on psychosocial and spiritual cancer support services in New Zealand.

In New Zealand, support services have been developed in response to patient need but are variable. The benefits of psycho-social-spiritual care in reducing distress and enhancing quality of life for people with cancer and their families are well established yet unmet needs continue to feature. This project aimed to examine how health care professionals assessed for psycho-social-spiritual distress and unmet need, decisions on appropriate support, and identification of barriers in the referral process.

How spirituality is understood and taught in New Zealand medical schools.

Objectives: The objective of this research was to explore how spirituality is currently understood and taught in New Zealand Medical Schools.

Methods: A mixed methods study was carried out involving interviews (n = 14) and a survey (n = 73). The first stage of the study involved recorded semi-structured interviews of people involved in curriculum development from the Dunedin School of Medicine (n = 14); which then informed a cross-sectional self-reported electronic survey (n = 73).

The role of human ventral visual cortex in motion perception.

Visual motion perception is fundamental to many aspects of visual perception. Visual motion perception has long been associated with the dorsal (parietal) pathway and the involvement of the ventral 'form' (temporal) visual pathway has not been considered critical for normal motion perception. Here, we evaluated this view by examining whether circumscribed damage to ventral visual cortex impaired motion perception.

Essential knowledge for family caregivers: a qualitative study.

Background: Family caregivers are the backbone of the social care delivery system. With cancer and other life-limiting diseases on the rise, the need for well-informed informal/family caregivers has never been greater.

Aim: To uncover the information that palliative care teams routinely provide to family caregivers.

How does the nurse educator measure caring?

The purpose of this article is to advance worldwide scholarship of nursing education by introducing a novel approach to evaluate nursing students' level of human caring. We propose an innovative tool that can be used by nurse educators to measure the construct of caring. Caring encompasses three dimensions: intentionality, relationality, and responsivity.

Tadpole pupil.

Editors' Note: Dr. Egan inquires about the possibility of Tournay phenomenon in Kawasaki and Mayer's "Tadpole pupil." Dr.

Development of a model for teaching manipulation of a distal radial fracture.

Background: Recent reports indicate that there is a trend toward the use of models and simulators to teach basic orthopaedic operative skills. We describe a high-fidelity model for teaching basic orthopaedic fracture manipulation.

Methods: A model of a distal radial fracture was developed and validated by orthopaedic surgeons with different levels of experience, who examined and manipulated the model and then completed a structured questionnaire.

Ethnic minorities have equal access to bariatric surgery in the UK and Ireland.

Under-representation of ethnic minority groups in bariatric surgery rates has been reported in the USA. Ethnic minorities form 7.9 % of the UK population, but comparable data on provision of bariatric surgery for these groups have not previously been reported in the UK.

Endogenous spatial attention: evidence for intact functioning in adults with autism.

Rapid manipulation of the attention field (i.e. the location and spread of visual spatial attention) is a critical aspect of human cognition, and previous research on spatial attention in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has produced inconsistent results.

ALE: a generic assembly likelihood evaluation framework for assessing the accuracy of genome and metagenome assemblies.

Motivation: Researchers need general purpose methods for objectively evaluating the accuracy of single and metagenome assemblies and for automatically detecting any errors they may contain. Current methods do not fully meet this need because they require a reference, only consider one of the many aspects of assembly quality or lack statistical justification, and none are designed to evaluate metagenome assemblies.

Results: In this article, we present an Assembly Likelihood Evaluation (ALE) framework that overcomes these limitations, systematically evaluating the accuracy of an assembly in a reference-independent manner using rigorous statistical methods.

Normal binocular rivalry in autism: implications for the excitation/inhibition imbalance hypothesis.

Autism is characterized by disruption in multiple dimensions of perception, emotion, language and social cognition. Many hypotheses for the underlying neurophysiological basis have been proposed. Among these is the excitation/inhibition (E/I) imbalance hypothesis, which states that levels of cortical excitation and inhibition are disrupted in autism.

Shared medical appointments for bariatric surgery follow-up: a patient satisfaction questionnaire.

Background: Shared medical appointments (SMAs) are group clinics where practitioners see several patients, with common health needs, at once. There is a great financial strain on the National Health Service (NHS) to provide bariatric surgery. The aim of this study was to review patient satisfaction with the SMA that is the default means of following up patients after bariatric surgery at one particular NHS trust.

Promotion and support of physical activity among cancer survivors: a service provider perspective.

Objective: Cancer survivors are a population group at higher risk of a number of adverse health outcomes. Physical activity during and post-treatment is beneficial, yet participation in physical activity tends to be low amongst cancer survivors. There is still much to be learnt about how service providers can successfully translate research evidence about the benefits of physical activity for cancer survivors into effective and widely available interventions to support physical activity participation.