The stuff that affects you: Fiction, poetry, and doggerel

Inevitably writers write about the stuff that affects them. Maybe the stuff that affects them is life-altering, or in some way profound or sublime, like untimely death, divorce, or being in love. Or maybe it\u27s the mundane stuff, like marbles, cats, crows, weeds, wind, rain, or riding a bike. This thesis includes fiction, poetry, and light verse (which I prefer to call doggerel) triggered by all of that stuff, but I\u27ve twisted and embellished it beyond the literal or whole truth, until what remains is nothing but the truth

Approaches to studying and study tactics of baccalaureate nursing students

This research was designed to describe study approaches and study tactics used by baccalaureate nursing students. Previous inquiry indicates that students will take a Deep, Strategic, or Surface approach to studying and will use specific study tactics to meet the demands of their learning contexts. The Approaches to Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) was administered to 174 students in Anatomy and Physiology, Pathophysiology, and Nursing Care of the Adult Client. Failing students were less likely to participate. The ASSIST bad acceptable internal consistency reliability and construct validity. A majority (55%) of students took a Strategic approach to studying; smaller proportions adopted Deep (26%) and Surface (19%) approaches. Deep and Strategic approach scores were positively correlated with final course grades, GPAs, study hours, and students\u27 ratings of their course performance. Surface approach was negatively correlated with the aforementioned variables. Age was positively correlated with Deep approach, but negatively correlated with Surface approach. Strategic approach was negatively correlated with hours of paid work. Study tactics were identified by interviewing 13 high, medium, and low achieving students. Students had varied conceptions of their learning contexts and what they did to prepare for exams. All students experienced lecture-style teaching methods and fact-based assessment. The predominant in-class activity was note-taking, conceptions of which were related to whether a note-taking handout was provided, year of study, and academic achievement. Year of study and academic achievement were related to what students did to prepare for exams and the number of study tactics they used, which ranged 1-5, the most frequent being notes review. It is concluded that Deep, Strategic, and Surface study approaches are related to academic factors and academic achievement. There are relationships between students\u27 conceptions of their learning contexts, what they do to learn and prepare for exams, year of study, use of study tactics, and academic achievement. Conclusions are limited by an under-representation of failing students. These findings have implications for the assessment and identification of students\u27 study approaches. Additional research is needed to describe the study tactics students choose and to determine how those tactics relate to academic achievement

Cheating Resistant Pedagogies: Applying Insights from “Cheating Lessons” in the Classroom

Our panel discussion will focus on James Lang’s Cheating Lessons. Our goal is to capture the attention of any faculty members who suffer from plagiarism fatigue and think that everything that can be said about cheating in higher education has already been said. Our presentation will demonstrate that Lang breaks new ground. He draws on case studies of cheating, but not primarily to teach his readers about why students plagiarize or commit other academic ethics infractions. Rather, Lang invites his readers to treat each case as a distinct lesson in how students learn. Focusing on contextual rather than dispositional factors linked to cheating and drawing on a body of empirical research, Lang explores powerful pedagogies that come into view in the wake of learning failures to which his case studies attest. Scrutinizing the Olympics of Ancient Greece, civil service tests in China’s dynastic history, and Atlanta’s No Child Left Behind testing scandal, among other examples, Lang establishes that high-stakes testing settings as well as those that focus on performance rather than process offer students only an extrinsic motivation to learn. Most significantly, these environments are highly conducive to cheating. Juxtaposed with these cases are chapters by Lang that describe four distinct cheating-resistant learning environments. These environments will be the primary focus of our panel discussion. These settings promote learning through mastery rather than performance, feature low-stakes assessment, activate students’ intrinsic motivation to learn, and support learners’ self-efficacy. Lang draws his examples from interviews, observations, and teaching materials shared with him by award-winning college and university teachers. In our panel discussion, we will build on the examples in Cheating Lessons as four faculty members illustrate how we implement one of Lang’s teaching-resistant pedagogies in our classes. Lang’s account of powerful pedagogical practices, rich with possibilities for enhancing learning in the classroom, makes Cheating Lessons a valuable resource. But we believe his book will be even more valuable if persons attending the conference are able to engage in discussion with faculty who have implemented Lang’s ideas in the classroom. By demonstrating how Lang’s ideas can be applied in our local context, we hope to encourage other faculty to try his recommendations for creating cheating-resistant learning environments in their classes

An Interprofessional Approach to Plagiarism Prevention

The Graduate Nursing program employs a comprehensive, interprofessional approach to facilitate academic integrity for Master’s of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Nursing Practice students. This panel presentation will address the various facets of this approach, focusing specifically on plagiarism prevention. An Academic Integrity Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) addresses expectations for students in regard to all aspects of academic integrity, including plagiarism. In addition, this SOP establishes a mechanism for dealing with instances of plagiarism when they occur. As a condition of the SOP, students sign the plagiarism policy at program orientation and annually thereafter. During their “Academic Success and Readiness” orientation the Retention Coordinator presents a writing workshop that includes strategies for plagiarism prevention. A required one-credit hour Seminar course taken during the first semester of attendance in the program focuses on graduate-level writing and communication skills. Students complete a “Primer on Plagiarism,” which includes the online Student Lingo Plagiarism Workshop and a Turnitin tutorial that involves practice submitting a paper to Turnitin and reviewing and interpreting originality reports. Each student’s originality report for the course’s academic writing assignment is closely scrutinized, and if plagiarism is detected, students receive individual written and verbal counseling about avoiding plagiarism. At the end of the course, students formally acknowledge their understanding of assignment feedback and the expectation that they paraphrase sufficiently and quote accurately and correctly in future academic writing assignments. The Graduate Nursing Curriculum Committee has also addressed the issue of academic integrity. The Committee established an expectation that all graduate-level academic papers will be submitted through Turnitin as part of the plagiarism screening process. To facilitate student pre-screening of papers, a Blackboard course has been established with a Turnitin link where students submit papers for originality review prior to submission to course faculty for formal evaluation. The Blackboard course also includes additional student resources for plagiarism prevention. This process is managed by the College’s Instructional Designer. Finally, when students do have an occurrence of plagiarism, the approach to dealing with the issue is student-centered and focused on education and prevention of further violations of the Academic Integrity SOP. While the consequences of the violation are spelled out in the Academic Integrity SOP, there is a range of options available so that it is possible to individualize the response for each individual situation. Counseling occurs with a third party present, usually the retention coordinator, as a means to facilitate education and referral for additional writing assistance. The Retention Office provides writing resources for students in face-to-face, telephone, or online formats to further reinforce writing development and prevention of plagiarism. Overall, this Graduate Nursing program is similar to other programs in that first offense academic integrity plagiarism violations occur. The current interprofessional process in place, however, facilitates education for prevention of plagiarism, early detection of such plagiarism, and counseling for prevention of subsequent violations after an initial violation occurs

Impact of the diagnostic label for a low-risk prostate lesion: protocol for two online factorial randomised experiments

INTRODUCTION: Many types of prostate cancer present minimal risk to a man's lifespan or well-being, but existing terminology makes it difficult for men to distinguish these from high-risk prostate cancers. This study aims to explore whether using an alternative label for low-risk prostate cancer influences management choice and anxiety levels among Australian men and their partners.METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will run two separate studies for Australian men and Australian women with a male partner. Both studies are between-subjects factorial (3×2) randomised online hypothetical experiments. Following consent, eligible participants will be randomised 1:1:1 to three labels: 'low-risk prostate cancer, Gleason Group 1', 'low-risk prostate neoplasm' or 'low-risk prostate lesion'. Participants will then undergo a second randomisation step with 1:1 allocation to the provision of detailed information on the benefits and harms of different management choices versus the provision of less detailed information about management choices. The required sample sizes are 1290 men and 1410 women. The primary outcome is the participant choice of their preferred management strategy: no immediate treatment (prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based monitoring or active surveillance using PSA, MRI, biopsy with delayed treatment for disease progression) versus immediate treatment (prostatectomy or radiation therapy). Secondary outcomes include preferred management choice (from the four options listed above), diagnosis anxiety, management choice anxiety and management choice at a later time point (for participants who initially choose a monitoring strategy).ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval has been received from The University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (2023/572). The results of the study will be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal and a plain language summary of the findings will be shared on the Wiser Healthcare publications page http://www.wiserhealthcare.org.au/category/publications/ TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBERS: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ID 386701 and 386889).</p

Bortezomib with standard chemotherapy for children with acute myeloid leukemia does not improve treatment outcomes: a report from the Children’s Oncology Group

New therapeutic strategies are needed for pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) to reduce disease recurrence and treatment-related morbidity. The Children’s Oncology Group Phase III AAML1031 trial tested whether the addition of bortezomib to standard chemotherapy improves survival in pediatric patients with newly diagnosed AML. AAML1031 randomized patients younger than 30 years of age with de novo AML to standard treatment with or without bortezomib. All patients received the identical chemotherapy backbone with either four intensive chemotherapy courses or three courses followed by allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for high-risk patients. For those randomized to the intervention arm, bortezomib 1.3 mg/m2 was given on days 1, 4 and 8 of each chemotherapy course. For those randomized to the control arm, bortezomib was not administered. In total, 1,097 patients were randomized to standard chemotherapy (n=542) or standard chemotherapy with bortezomib (n=555). There was no difference in remission induction rate between the bortezomib and control treatment arms (89% vs. 91%, P=0.531). Bortezomib failed to improve 3-year event-free survival (44.8±4.5% vs. 47.0±4.5%, P=0.236) or overall survival (63.6±4.5 vs. 67.2±4.3, P=0.356) compared with the control arm. However, bortezomib was associated with significantly more peripheral neuropathy (P=0.006) and intensive care unit admissions (P=0.025) during the first course. The addition of bortezomib to standard chemotherapy increased toxicity but did not improve survival. These data do not support the addition of bortezomib to standard chemotherapy in children with de novo AML. (Trial registered at clinicaltrials.gov NCT01371981; https://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/ NCT01371981)

Phenotype in combination with genotype improves outcome prediction in acute myeloid leukemia: a report from Children’s Oncology Group protocol AAML0531

Diagnostic biomarkers can be used to determine relapse risk in acute myeloid leukemia, and certain genetic aberrancies have prognostic relevance. A diagnostic immunophenotypic expression profile, which quantifies the amounts of distinct gene products, not just their presence or absence, was established in order to improve outcome prediction for patients with acute myeloid leukemia. The immunophenotypic expression profile, which defines each patient’s leukemia as a location in 15-dimensional space, was generated for 769 patients enrolled in the Children’s Oncology Group AAML0531 protocol. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering grouped patients with similar immunophenotypic expression profiles into eleven patient cohorts, demonstrating high associations among phenotype, genotype, morphology, and outcome. Of 95 patients with inv(16), 79% segregated in Cluster A. Of 109 patients with t(8;21), 92% segregated in Clusters A and B. Of 152 patients with 11q23 alterations, 78% segregated in Clusters D, E, F, G, or H. For both inv(16) and 11q23 abnormalities, differential phenotypic expression identified patient groups with different survival characteristics (

Comprehensive molecular and clinical characterization of NUP98 fusions in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia

NUP98 fusions comprise a family of rare recurrent alterations in AML, associated with adverse outcomes. In order to define the underlying biology and clinical implications of this family of fusions, we performed comprehensive transcriptome, epigenome, and immunophenotypic profiling of 2,235 children and young adults with AML and identified 160 NUP98 rearrangements (7.2%), including 108 NUP98-NSD1 (4.8%), 32 NUP98-KDM5A (1.4%) and 20 NUP98-X cases (0.9%) with 13 different fusion partners. Fusion partners defined disease characteristics and biology; patients with NUP98-NSD1 or NUP98-KDM5A had distinct immunophenotypic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic profiles. Unlike the two most prevalent NUP98 fusions, NUP98-X variants are typically not cryptic. Furthermore, NUP98-X cases are associated with WT1 mutations, and have epigenomic profiles that resemble either NUP98-NSD1 or NUP98-KDM5A. Cooperating FLT3-ITD and WT1 mutations define NUP98-NSD1, and chromosome 13 aberrations are highly enriched in NUP98-KDM5A. Importantly, we demonstrate that NUP98 fusions portend dismal overall survival, with the noteworthy exception of patients bearing abnormal chromosome 13 (clinicaltrials gov. Identifiers: NCT00002798, NCT00070174, NCT00372593, NCT01371981).</p

Comprehensive molecular and clinical characterization of NUP98 fusions in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia

NUP98 fusions comprise a family of rare recurrent alterations in AML, associated with adverse outcomes. In order to define the underlying biology and clinical implications of this family of fusions, we performed comprehensive transcriptome, epigenome, and immunophenotypic profiling of 2,235 children and young adults with AML and identified 160 NUP98 rearrangements (7.2%), including 108 NUP98-NSD1 (4.8%), 32 NUP98-KDM5A (1.4%) and 20 NUP98-X cases (0.9%) with 13 different fusion partners. Fusion partners defined disease characteristics and biology; patients with NUP98-NSD1 or NUP98-KDM5A had distinct immunophenotypic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic profiles. Unlike the two most prevalent NUP98 fusions, NUP98-X variants are typically not cryptic. Furthermore, NUP98-X cases are associated with WT1 mutations, and have epigenomic profiles that resemble either NUP98-NSD1 or NUP98-KDM5A. Cooperating FLT3-ITD and WT1 mutations define NUP98-NSD1, and chromosome 13 aberrations are highly enriched in NUP98-KDM5A. Importantly, we demonstrate that NUP98 fusions portend dismal overall survival, with the noteworthy exception of patients bearing abnormal chromosome 13 (clinicaltrials gov. Identifiers: NCT00002798, NCT00070174, NCT00372593, NCT01371981).</p