From qualitative work to intervention development in pediatric oncology palliative care research

Qualitative methods can be particularly useful approaches to use with individuals who are experiencing a rare disease and thus who comprise a small sample (such as children with cancer) and are at points in care that few experience (such as end of life). This data-based methods article describes how findings from a qualitative study were used to guide and shape a pediatric oncology palliative care intervention. Qualitative data can lay a strong foundation for subsequent pilot intervention work by facilitating the development of an underlying study conceptualization, providing recruitment feasibility estimates, helping establish clinically meaningful inclusion criteria, establishing staff acceptability of a research intervention, and providing support for face validity of newly developed interventions. These benefits of preliminary qualitative research are described in the context of this study on legacy-making, which involves reports of children (7-12 years of age) living with advanced cancer and of their parent caregivers

Ongoing Phase 1/2 Study Of Incb050465, A Selective Pi3kδ Inhibitor, For The Treatment Of Patients (Pts) With Relapsed/Refractory (R/R) B‐Cell Malignancies (Citadel‐101)

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137307/1/hon2438_139.pd

Victims and survivors of rape in late medieval France and Burgundy

This thesis examines victim/survivor experiences of rape and other sexual violations in late medieval France and Burgundy. Though scholars have studied rape in medieval France, few have considered what it was like for the women who endured rape, and none have explored how victims/survivors thought about their own consent. This thesis addresses that gap in the scholarship, proposes new methods for how we might examine victim/survivor experience in medieval documents, and argues that the only ethical study of rape is one that foregrounds such experiences. When rape was violent, women often resisted violently, and understood their ability to consent as something worth physically defending. The discourse of consent had great rhetorical power, and it was used to justify the victim’s/survivor’s violent actions in the face of rape, reinscribing them with personhood. But other, non-violent sex acts could also be harmful, such as marital promises used to coerce women into sex. Women in medieval France understood that their husbands might perpetrate sexual abuse against them, and that these acts were violative, even if they were not termed rapes. Victim/survivor experience was shaped by the community they lived in, and how others responded to the rape. Dijon was a community with a culture of rape and a culture of resistance. Its rape culture was characterized by physical violence, gang rapes, and the victimization of marginalized and/or vulnerable women. The culture of resistance was characterized by the anger and fear that victims/survivors felt and the defence they mounted against the rapists, but also by the community support they received in the form of testimony and direct intervention. Sex workers were extremely vulnerable to rape due to the nature of their employment, their social status, and the manner in which men tended to treat them. But despite this vulnerability they too had community ties and access to the courts. </p

Tunable selectivity strategies for high-speed gas chromatography.

Column bifurcation and tunable selectivity were developed for high-speed gas chromatography. The separation of eleven VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in fifteen seconds is demonstrated using high-speed gas chromatography on serially linked capillary columns with different stationary phases. When carrier gas pressure at the junction of the tandem columns is adjusted, the carrier gas flow rates change in the two columns, resulting in components spending different amounts of time in contact with the stationary phases. Pressure changes result in a new overall selectivity, which is intermediate between the selectivity of each of the tandem columns individually. Adjusting the selectivity of a separation can shift apart the pair of components which were least resolved. A linear tuning model which predicts the retention of components was developed and tested. Window diagrams to predict the optimum tuning pressure were developed. A window diagram is a computer generated model which predicts the separation over a range of tandem column lengths or tuning pressures. Previous work with window diagrams used relative retention to predict resolution which was shown to be inadequate. A new function was developed which was shown to have better predictive power for resolution than relative retention, especially at low capacity factor values. Using temperature as an added tuning parameter resulted in the separation of fifteen VOCs in under twenty seconds on tandem columns. Data were collected to predict the resolution at any temperature and tuning pressure. Three-dimensional window diagrams were produced to describe the optimization of the two tuning parameters, temperature and tuning pressure. Temperature was also shown to have an effect on the overall analysis time. Three-dimensional triangular coordinate window diagrams were produced to predict the optimum column lengths of three columns in tandem. The best possible resolution of fifteen VOCs on the three tandem columns was demonstrated in about one hundred seconds. Column bifurcation, a technique which selectively switches components onto a tandem column, was also developed. This technique separated twenty-one VOCs in under forty-five seconds. The utility of column bifurcation was shown with window diagrams.Ph.D.ChemistryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/103900/1/9423132.pdfDescription of 9423132.pdf : Restricted to UM users only

Measuring fuel contamination using high speed gas chromotography and cone penetration techniques

Decision processes during characterization and cleanup of hazardous waste sites are greatly retarded by the turnaround time and expense incurred through the use of conventional sampling and laboratory analyses. Furthermore, conventional soil and groundwater sampling procedures present many opportunities for loss of volatile organic compounds (VOC) by exposing sample media to the atmosphere during transfers between and among sampling devices and containers. While on-site analysis by conventional gas chromatography (GC) can reduce analytical turnaround time, time-consuming sample preparation procedures are still often required, and the potential for loss of VOC is not reduced

Digital storytelling: An innovative legacy-making intervention for children with cancer.

BACKGROUND: This study examined the feasibility of a legacy-making intervention in children with cancer and the preliminary effects on outcomes related to quality of life. PROCEDURE: Children (N = 28) ages 7–17 years completed a baseline QOL questionnaire (PedsQL) at T1. After baseline, the intervention group (n = 15) completed a randomized intervention that guided children to answer questions about legacy-making and create a digital story about themselves. A final copy of the digital story was provided to the families. A control group (n = 13) received customary care. Children repeated the questionnaire at T2. Parents (N = 22) of children who completed the intervention completed follow-up survey questions regarding intervention effects. RESULTS: Feasibility was strong (78% participation; 1 attrition). While differences between the groups in physical, emotional, social, or school functioning change was not statistically significant, the intervention group showed slightly better emotional and school functioning compared to controls. Parents reported that their child’s digital story provided emotional comfort to them (n = 11, 46%), facilitated communication between parents and children (n = 9, 38%), and was a coping strategy for them (n = 4, 17%). Parents reported that the intervention helped children express their feelings (n = 19, 79%), cope (n = 6, 27%), and feel better emotionally (n = 5, 23%). CONCLUSIONS: Our intervention is feasible for children with cancer, is developmentally appropriate for children 7 to 17 years of age, and demonstrates promise to improve quality of life outcomes for children with cancer and their parents