An Open Source Software Culture in the Undergraduate Computer Science Curriculum

Open source software has made inroads into mainstream computing where it was once the territory of software altruists, and the open source culture of technological collegiality and accountability may benefit education as well as industry. This paper describes the Recourse project, which seeks to transform the computer science undergraduate curriculum through teaching methods based on open source principles, values, ethics, and tools. Recourse differs from similar projects by bringing the open source culture into the curriculum comprehensively, systematically, and institutionally. The current state of the project is described, and initial results from a pilot exercise are presented

The impact of immediate breast reconstruction on the time to delivery of adjuvant therapy: the iBRA-2 study

Background: Immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) is routinely offered to improve quality-of-life for women requiring mastectomy, but there are concerns that more complex surgery may delay adjuvant oncological treatments and compromise long-term outcomes. High-quality evidence is lacking. The iBRA-2 study aimed to investigate the impact of IBR on time to adjuvant therapy. Methods: Consecutive women undergoing mastectomy ± IBR for breast cancer July–December, 2016 were included. Patient demographics, operative, oncological and complication data were collected. Time from last definitive cancer surgery to first adjuvant treatment for patients undergoing mastectomy ± IBR were compared and risk factors associated with delays explored. Results: A total of 2540 patients were recruited from 76 centres; 1008 (39.7%) underwent IBR (implant-only [n = 675, 26.6%]; pedicled flaps [n = 105,4.1%] and free-flaps [n = 228, 8.9%]). Complications requiring re-admission or re-operation were significantly more common in patients undergoing IBR than those receiving mastectomy. Adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy was required by 1235 (48.6%) patients. No clinically significant differences were seen in time to adjuvant therapy between patient groups but major complications irrespective of surgery received were significantly associated with treatment delays. Conclusions: IBR does not result in clinically significant delays to adjuvant therapy, but post-operative complications are associated with treatment delays. Strategies to minimise complications, including careful patient selection, are required to improve outcomes for patients

Breast cancer management pathways during the COVID-19 pandemic: outcomes from the UK ‘Alert Level 4’ phase of the B-MaP-C study

Abstract: Background: The B-MaP-C study aimed to determine alterations to breast cancer (BC) management during the peak transmission period of the UK COVID-19 pandemic and the potential impact of these treatment decisions. Methods: This was a national cohort study of patients with early BC undergoing multidisciplinary team (MDT)-guided treatment recommendations during the pandemic, designated ‘standard’ or ‘COVID-altered’, in the preoperative, operative and post-operative setting. Findings: Of 3776 patients (from 64 UK units) in the study, 2246 (59%) had ‘COVID-altered’ management. ‘Bridging’ endocrine therapy was used (n = 951) where theatre capacity was reduced. There was increasing access to COVID-19 low-risk theatres during the study period (59%). In line with national guidance, immediate breast reconstruction was avoided (n = 299). Where adjuvant chemotherapy was omitted (n = 81), the median benefit was only 3% (IQR 2–9%) using ‘NHS Predict’. There was the rapid adoption of new evidence-based hypofractionated radiotherapy (n = 781, from 46 units). Only 14 patients (1%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during their treatment journey. Conclusions: The majority of ‘COVID-altered’ management decisions were largely in line with pre-COVID evidence-based guidelines, implying that breast cancer survival outcomes are unlikely to be negatively impacted by the pandemic. However, in this study, the potential impact of delays to BC presentation or diagnosis remains unknown

Roommates & Division of the Indivisible

Fair division seeks to find the best way to divide an object or group of objects such that each person in the deal is envy-free. Envy-freeness means that none of the participants would give up their part of the deal for someone else’s. An issue I see prevalent at LMU is how roommates, or a group of roommates, can divide up items that they all shared the cost for such that no roommates walk away feeling like they got the short end of the stick. I’d like to take previous research and apply fair division algorithms to this issue, test the most qualified algorithms in a real-world scenario, and then create a program that can assist roommates in the process of dividing their things. I will do this research with the hope of keeping roommates from having to referee their own decisions about who leaves with what at the end of a year. I aim to make my program that referee

Spatio-temporal thermal kinetics of in situ MWCNT heating in biological tissues under NIR laser irradiation

Carbon nanotubes have many potential applications in life sciences and engineering as they have very high absorbance in the near-infrared (NIR) spectrum, while biological tissues do not. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of 1064 nm NIR laser power levels on the spatial temperature distribution and the temperature kinetics in mammalian tissue at both macroscopic and microscopic scales. The model tissue was the \u27flat\u27 of a chicken wing (the section containing the radius and ulna), which was injected under the skin in the subcutaneous layer of tissue. Specimens were exposed to laser radiation and an infrared thermography system was used to measure and record the temperature distributions in the specimens at both the macroscopic and microscopic scales. Experimental results concluded that power levels of 1536 mW easily achieved hyperthermic temperatures with localized values as high as 172.7 °C. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd