Regional impact assessment of air quality improvement: The air quality lifecourse assessment tool (AQ-LAT) for the West Midlands combined authority (WMCA) area.

Poor air quality is the largest environmental health risk in England. In the West Midlands, UK, ∼2.9 million people are affected by air pollution with an average loss in life expectancy of up to 6 months.

Temporary Urbanisms as Policy Alternatives to Enhance Health and Well-Being in the Post-Pandemic City.

Purpose Of Review: While there has been extensive discussion on the various forms of temporary uses in urban settings, little is known on the ways in which temporary and health urbanisms connect. Now, a turning point has been reached regarding the interactions between health and the built environment and the contributions made by urban planning and other built environment disciplines. In the context of the post-pandemic city, there is a need to develop a health-led temporary urbanism agenda than can be implemented in various settings both in the Global South and North.

COVID-19 and Alternative Conceptualisations of Value and Risk in GPN Research.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a major disturbance that has rippled across the world's population, states, economy, and central nervous system or global production networks transforming the traditional roles of states, firms, individuals/consumers, and geographies of production. This paper offers a critical and context-based approach to understanding globalization and localization by challenging the conceptualization of 'value' and 'risk' within the current global production networks framework as well as identifying key operational strategies in risk management and national security. An analysis of the adaptation strategies of the GPNs of 91 companies identifies the role played by four different forms of value in configuring production networks.

COVID-19, Virtual Church Services and a New Temporary Geography of Home.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures implemented by the United Kingdom government from 23 March 2020 led to unprecedented adaptations from individuals and communities including places of worship, their clergy and congregations. This paper through a multi-disciplinary dialogue between human geography and theology explores the interrelations between place, space and the spiritual. It identifies the bricolage mechanisms that were developed rapidly by churches to shift towards providing virtual church services.

Factors associated with discharge disposition on an acute palliative care unit.

Purpose: Acute palliative care units (APCUs) admit patients with cancer for symptom control, transition to community palliative care units or hospice (CPCU/H), or end-of-life care. Prognostication early in the course of admission is crucial for decision-making. We retrospectively evaluated factors associated with patients' discharge disposition on an APCU in a cancer center.

Patient-Reported Functional Status in Outpatients With Advanced Cancer: Correlation With Physician-Reported Scores and Survival.

Context: Performance status measures are increasingly completed by patients in outpatient cancer settings, but are not well validated for this use.

Objectives: We assessed performance of a patient-reported functional status measure (PRFS, based on the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group [ECOG]), compared with the physician-completed ECOG, in terms of agreement in ratings and prediction of survival.

Methods: Patients and physicians independently completed five-point PRFS (lay version of ECOG) and ECOG measures on first consultation at an oncology palliative care clinic.

Metallothionein-I/II Promotes Axonal Regeneration in the Central Nervous System.

The adult CNS does not spontaneously regenerate after injury, due in large part to myelin-associated inhibitors such as myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), Nogo-A, and oligodendrocyte-myelin glycoprotein. All three inhibitors can interact with either the Nogo receptor complex or paired immunoglobulin-like receptor B. A conditioning lesion of the sciatic nerve allows the central processes of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons to spontaneously regenerate in vivo after a dorsal column lesion.

Modified Edmonton Symptom Assessment System including constipation and sleep: validation in outpatients with cancer.

Context: The Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) measures the severity of nine symptoms. Constipation and sleep disturbance are common in patients with cancer, but are not currently included in the ESAS.

Objectives: To validate the numerical rating scale (NRS) versions of ESAS and its revised version (ESAS-r), with the additional symptoms of constipation and sleep (CS), and to assess patient preference for either version.

The oncology palliative care clinic at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre: an early intervention model for patients with advanced cancer.

Several recently published randomized controlled trials have demonstrated the benefits of early palliative care involvement for patients with advanced cancer. In the oncology outpatient setting, palliative care clinics are an ideal site for the provision of early, collaborative support, which can be maintained throughout the cancer trajectory. Despite this, access to ambulatory palliative care clinics is limited, even at tertiary cancer centres.

Simple prognostic model for patients with advanced cancer based on performance status.

Purpose: Providing survival estimates is important for decision making in oncology care. The purpose of this study was to provide survival estimates for outpatients with advanced cancer, using the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), Palliative Performance Scale (PPS), and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) scales, and to compare their ability to predict survival.

Methods: ECOG, PPS, and KPS were completed by physicians for each new patient attending the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre outpatient Oncology Palliative Care Clinic (OPCC) from April 2007 to February 2010.

Loss of Prox1 in striated muscle causes slow to fast skeletal muscle fiber conversion and dilated cardiomyopathy.

Correct regulation of troponin and myosin contractile protein gene isoforms is a critical determinant of cardiac and skeletal striated muscle development and function, with misexpression frequently associated with impaired contractility or disease. Here we reveal a novel requirement for Prospero-related homeobox factor 1 (Prox1) during mouse heart development in the direct transcriptional repression of the fast-twitch skeletal muscle genes troponin T3, troponin I2, and myosin light chain 1. A proportion of cardiac-specific Prox1 knockout mice survive beyond birth with hearts characterized by marked overexpression of fast-twitch genes and postnatal development of a fatal dilated cardiomyopathy.

Addition of methadone to another opioid in the management of moderate to severe cancer pain: a case series.

Background: Previous research has reported improved pain after adding methadone to another opioid, but did not quantify this benefit using a validated outcome measure.

Objective: To assess quantitatively the effectiveness of adding methadone to another opioid for moderate to severe cancer-related pain.

Design: All outpatients attending the Oncology Palliative Care Clinic from September 2010-September 2011, who had received methadone, were identified from pharmacy records.

Impact of an oncology palliative care clinic on access to home care services.

Home care (HC) is important for patients with cancer as performance status declines. Our study of 1224 patients at a Canadian cancer center examined the impact of an oncology palliative care clinic (OPCC) on HC referral. The HC referral frequency was calculated before and after the first OPCC consultation, in total and according to performance status (Palliative Performance Scale, PPS).

Working with evaluation stakeholders: A rationale, step-wise approach and toolkit.

In the broad field of evaluation, the importance of stakeholders is often acknowledged and different categories of stakeholders are identified. Far less frequent is careful attention to analysis of stakeholders' interests, needs, concerns, power, priorities, and perspectives and subsequent application of that knowledge to the design of evaluations. This article is meant to help readers understand and apply stakeholder identification and analysis techniques in the design of credible evaluations that enhance primary intended use by primary intended users.

Interconversion of three measures of performance status: an empirical analysis.

Purpose: To construct empirically a conversion table to convert performance status scores among the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) and Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) measures, using a large sample of patients with advanced cancer.

Methods: Seven physicians completed assessments on 1385 consecutive patients attending an oncology palliative care clinic, or admitted to an acute cancer palliative care unit. The three measures were distributed as a questionnaire package; the order in which they were presented was randomly assigned for each week.

Administrative outcomes five years after opening an acute palliative care unit at a comprehensive cancer center.

Purpose: We examined administrative outcomes after opening an oncology acute palliative care unit (APCU), to determine attainment of administrative targets related to the unit's function of acute palliation.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the administrative database for our APCU for the 5 years following its opening in 2003. Data were abstracted on demographic information, as well as source of admission, primary reason for admission, discharge destination, inpatient death rate, and length of stay.

Predictors of symptom severity and response in patients with metastatic cancer.

We examined determinants of symptom severity and response to treatment among 150 patients with cancer participating in a phase II trial of a palliative care team intervention. Patients completed a modified Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) at baseline and 1 week. Women had a worse baseline ESAS Distress Score (EDS; P = .

Nurse and physician inter-rater agreement of three performance status measures in palliative care outpatients.

Introduction: Performance status (PS) scales are used widely in oncology practice and research. We compared inter-rater agreement, between nurses and physicians, for three commonly used PS scales.

Materials And Methods: Patients attending an oncology palliative care clinic were assessed by a physician and nurse who blindly completed Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), Karnofsky PS (KPS), and palliative PS (PPS) scales.

Phase II study of an outpatient palliative care intervention in patients with metastatic cancer.

Purpose: Although there is increasing advocacy for timely symptom control in patients with cancer, few studies have assessed outpatient palliative care clinics. This study assessed prospectively the efficacy of an Oncology Palliative Care Clinic (OPCC) in improving patient symptom distress and satisfaction.

Patients And Methods: Eligible patients were new referrals to an OPCC, had metastatic cancer, were at least 18 years old, and were well enough and able to speak and read English sufficiently to provide informed consent and complete questionnaires.

Methadone for treatment of cancer pain.

Methadone is a unique mu opioid agonist, which also has delta receptor affinity and properties of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonism and monoamine reuptake inhibition. It is mainly used in the setting of uncontrolled pain or dose-limiting toxicity. Caution is advised when switching to methadone, especially from high doses of previous opioid, due to its variable conversion ratio and the potential for delayed toxicity due to its long half-life.