Five-year longitudinal evaluation of quality of life in a cohort of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma

Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) generally has a favorable outcome. Thyroid disease, treatments, stress, and comorbidity can compromise health-related quality of life (QoL) and indirectly weigh upon the outcome. From 2004 to 2008, we evaluated QoL longitudinally in 128 DTC subjects. During scheduled examinations, subjects were asked to undergo a semi-structured psychiatric interview and five rated inventories. The same examination was conducted in 219 subjects after surgery for benign thyroid pathology. Low scores represent a better QoL. DTC and control subjects were similar in terms of age, male/female ratio, concomitant psychopharmacological treatments, and frequency of psychiatric diseases. In DTC subjects, Billewicz scale (BS) scores showed an increasing trend over time, especially among females. The ad hoc thyroid questionnaire (TQ) scores were similar in both groups and did not change over time, but at the end of the study ad hoc TQ and BS were significantly related. Ad hoc TQ scores were also related to age on entry to the study. In both male and female DTC subjects, Hamilton’s tests for anxiety (HAM-A), but not for depression (HAM-D), showed an improving trend. At the end of the study, HAM-A and HAM-D scores were comparable to those of the control group. HAM-A and HAM-D were both positively correlated with the stage of cancer and the time between diagnosis and treatment. Only HAM-D correlated with age on entry to the study. Kellner symptom questionnaire (KSQ) item scores were higher in DTC subjects than in controls. The change over time in the items including anxiety, somatization, depression, and hostility was significant. Somatization and hostility were more significantly reduced in DTC females than in DTC males. Hostility scores were significantly lower in DTC subjects than in controls at the end of the study. Somatization and depression were significantly related to staging on diagnosis and age on entry to the study. Our study confirms a wide variation of illness perception in DTC subjects, which is generally unrelated to the favorable clinical follow-up of the disease. Psychological evaluation during long-term follow-up improved QoL scores, which reached the same levels noted in subjects with a history of thyroid surgery for benign thyroid pathology. Our data indicate that special attention should be paid to QoL in older DTC subjects and those with more severe staging on diagnosis.     

CHARACTERIZING THEMATIZED DERIVATIVE SCHEMA BY THE UNDERLYING EMERGENT STRUCTURES

This paper reports on different underlying structures of the derivative schema of three undergraduate students that were considered to be at the trans level of development of the derivative schema (action–process–object–schema). The derivative schema is characterized in terms of the students’ ability to explicitly transfer the relationship between a function and its first derivative to the derivative function and the second derivative. This conscious shift of properties of derivatives is differently manifested by the students in the trans level of development of the derivative schema and can be considered evidence of the different characteristics of the thematization of derivative schema. From here we suggest that there are different underlying structures in the constructed schema due to the consciousness in which students use the relations between a function and its derivative.     

String formatting considered harmful for novice programmers

In Java, System.out.printf and String.format consume a specialised kind of string commonly known as a format string. In our study of first-year students at the Ateneo de Manila University, we discovered that format strings present a substantial challenge for novice programmers. Focusing on their first laboratory we found that 8% of all the compilation errors and 100% of the exceptional, run-time behaviour they encountered were due to the improper construction of format strings. Format strings are a language unto themselves embedded within Java, and they are difficult for novice programmers to master when learning to program. In this article, we present exemplars of students' problematic interactions with the Java compiler and run-time environment when dealing with format strings, discuss these interactions, and recommend possible instructional interventions based on our observations.     

Students’ Conceptions of Ionisation Energy: A Cross‐cultural Study

Previous studies have indicated that A‐level students in the UK and Singapore have difficulty learning the topic of ionisation energy. A two‐tier multiple‐choice instrument developed in Singapore in an earlier study, the Ionisation Energy Diagnostic Instrument, was administered to A‐level students in the UK, advanced placement high school students in the USA, and first‐year university students in China, New Zealand, and Spain to determine whether the students from different countries and educational systems had similar conceptions and difficulties as the students in Singapore with the concepts assessed in the instrument. The results showed that, in general, the students in all six samples had similar alternative conceptions, which were grouped under the categories of octet rule framework, stable fully‐filled and half‐filled subshell conceptions, and conservation of force thinking. The students also resorted to relation‐based thinking when answering items involving the trend of ionisation energies across Period 3. Implications for teaching and further research are discussed.     

Life under flow: A novel microfluidic device for the assessment of anti-biofilm technologies

In the current study, we have developed and fabricated a novel lab-on-a-chip device for the investigation of biofilm responses, such as attachment kinetics and initial biofilm formation, to different hydrodynamic conditions. The microfluidic flow channels are designed using computational fluid dynamic simulations so as to have a pre-defined, homogeneous wall shear stress in the channels, ranging from 0.03 to 4.30 Pa, which are relevant to in-service conditions on a ship hull, as well as other man-made marine platforms. Temporal variations of biofilm formation in the microfluidic device were assessed using time-lapse microscopy, nucleic acid staining, and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Differences in attachment kinetics were observed with increasing shear stress, i.e., with increasing shear stress there appeared to be a delay in bacterial attachment, i.e., at 55, 120, 150, and 155 min for 0.03, 0.60, 2.15, and 4.30 Pa, respectively. CLSM confirmed marked variations in colony architecture, i.e.,: (i) lower shear stresses resulted in biofilms with distinctive morphologies mainly characterised by mushroom-like structures, interstitial channels, and internal voids, and (ii) for the higher shear stresses compact clusters with large interspaces between them were formed. The key advantage of the developed microfluidic device is the combination of three architectural features in one device, i.e., an open-system design, channel replication, and multiple fully developed shear stresses.     

Effects of temperature and humidity excursions and wind exposure on the arch of Augustus in Aosta

This study presents the results of the microclimate monitoring of the Arch of Augustus. This is a monument from the Roman era, situated in an urban area in the Western Alpine region of Aosta Valley, Italy. Measurements were carried out on different monument positions, corresponding to the four faces and below the vault. The measurements refer to air and surface temperature, air relative humidity, wind speed and direction. The environmental conditions are described in order to underline the differences among the four faces of the monument and to explain the nature of the decay observed on the monument. The damage risk, caused by the occurrence of phenomena like freezing-thawing cycles, thermal stress and water condensation, is estimated by relating microclimatic conditions to the stone damage processes. The results are compared to the decay map and the correlation between damage and microclimate are finally discussed.     

The Development,Implementation, and Evaluation of a Problem Solving Heuristic

Problem-solving is one of the main goals in science teaching and is something many students find difficult. This research reports on the development, implementation and evaluation of a problem-solving heuristic. This heuristic intends to help students to understand the steps involved in problem solving (metacognitive tool), and to provide them with an organized approach to tackling problems in a systematic way. This approach guides students by means of logical reasoning to make a qualitative representation of the solution of a problem before undertaking calculations, using a backwards strategy, which thus comprises a cognitive tool. The findings of the study suggest that students found the heuristic useful in setting up and solving quantitative chemical problems, and helped them to understand the phases of the problem solving process. Possible applications of the heuristic in the classroom include its use in formative assessment, to identify and to overcome student alternative conceptions, problem-solving in a cooperative environment, and to reduce the gender gap in science.     

Assessment of subjective resilience: cross-cultural validity and educational implications / Evaluación de la resiliencia subjetiva: validez transcultural e implicaciones educativas del ‘Cuestionario de Resiliencia Subjetiva’ (SRQ)

Abstract

The objective of this study was to obtain evidence about the cross-cultural validity of the ‘Subjective Resilience Questionnaire’ (SRQ), comparing French and Spanish Secondary and High School students’ results. A total of 750 French students formed the sample. To validate the SRQ, confirmatory factor analyses, reliability and correlation and regression analyses were made. The validation process included the analysis of the generalizability of factor structure, and of relationships of resilience scores with different kinds of protective and vulnerability factors — success expectancies and learning-oriented classroom motivational climate (CMC). French results were similar to Spanish results, underlying the importance of considering variations in resilience as a function of the kinds of adversity experienced. Nevertheless, some differences between French and Spanish students were found in the degree they recognize to act in a resilient way in some of the situations covered by SRQ, differences whose theoretical and practical implications for education are discussed.     

A Mössbauer study of some coloured marbles (cipollino mandolato, rosso antico and fior di pesco): implications on the nature of their colour

⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy permits an explanation of the formation of the iron-bearing species present in three types of coloured marbles, known as cipollino mandolato, rosso antico and fior di pesco. Structural Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ located in silicates, together with the remains of weakly ferromagnetic hematite, arise from primary sediments. Fe²⁺ located in carbonates and anti-ferromagnetic hematite are formed by redox processes during marble formation. The relative contents of the iron species in the three types of marbles depend on the composition of the primary sediments and on local conditions during metamorphism. Knowledge of the type and amount of the iron species in marbles may help in the reconstruction of the redox processes, which took place during marble formation. The deviations of the Morin transition of the hematites play the role of genetic indicator because purity, crystallinity and the red hues of hematites in marbles can be related to the environment of formation.     

Teachers' memories of disciplinary control strategies from their own school days

This article provides a vision of school disciplinary strategies as provided by childhood school memories of practicing or unemployed teachers. This narrative approach allows us to understand the school and its daily routines and rituals from an insiders' point of view, drawing upon the double perspective teachers employ when reflecting on their own experience as school children. The results of the study demonstrate a wide range of disciplinary practices coinciding with a Foucauldian disciplinary structure – a system of micro‐penalty governing time, activity, behavior, speech, the body, and sexuality. Analyzing the systemic regulation of bodies in schools can uncover institutional meanings and make them available for questioning, perhaps even negotiation. Recognizing the ways in which teachers' roles are inextricably bound with the disciplinary power relations of their institutions can help alleviate frustration and burnout and help teachers make more informed pedagogical decisions.