How good are your testers? An assessment of testing ability

During our previous research conducted in the Sheffield Software Engineering Observatory [11], we found that test first programmers spent a higher percentage of their time testing than those testing after coding. However as the team allocation was based on subjects' academic records and their preference, it was unclear if they were simply better testers. Thus this paper proposes two questionnaires to assess the testing ability of subjects, in order to reveal the factors that contribute to the previous findings. Preliminary results show that the testing ability of subjects, as measured by the survey, varies based on their professional skill level

Institutional quality and the wealth of autocrats

One frequently given explanation for why autocrats maintain corrupt and inefficient institutions is that the autocrats benefit personally even though the citizens of their countries are worse off. The empirical evidence does not support this hypothesis. Autocrats in countries with low-quality institutions do tend to be wealthy, but typically, they were wealthy before they assumed power. A plausible explanation, consistent with the data, is that wealthy individuals in countries with inefficient and corrupt institutions face the threat of having their wealth appropriated by government, so have the incentive to use some of their wealth to seek political power to protect the rest of their wealth from confiscation. While autocrats may use government institutions to increase their wealth, autocrats in countries with low-quality institutions tend to be wealthy when they assume power, because wealthy individuals have the incentive to use their wealth to acquire political power to protect themselves from a potentially predatory government

How do surgeons think they learn about communication? A qualitative study

Context Communication education has become integral to pre‐ and post‐qualification clinical curricula, but it is not informed by research into how practitioners think that good communication arises. Objectives This study was conducted to explore how surgeons conceptualise their communication with patients with breast cancer in order to inform the design and delivery of communication curricula. Methods We carried out 19 interviews with eight breast surgeons. Each interview centred on a specific consultation with a different patient. We analysed the transcripts of the surgeons’ interviews qualitatively using a constant comparative approach. Results All of the surgeons described communication as central to their role. Communication could be learned to some extent, not from formal training, but by selectively incorporating practices they observed in other practitioners and by being mindful in consultations. Surgeons explained that their own values and character shaped how they communicated and what they wanted to achieve, and constrained what could be learned. Conclusions These surgeons’ understanding of communication is consistent with recent suggestions that communication education: (i) should place practitioners’ goals at its centre, and (ii) might be enhanced by approaches that support ‘mindful’ practice. By contrast, surgeons’ understanding diverged markedly from the current emphasis on ‘communication skills’. Research that explores practitioners’ perspectives might help educators to design communication curricula that engage practitioners by seeking to enhance their own ways of learning about communication

Boston Hospitality Review: Fall 2016

The Heart of Successful Hotels: Going Beyond the Monopoly Game Strategy By Joseph Khairallah and Andrea Foster -- Fragments of the Past By Peter Szende and Annie Holcombe -- Hospitality Branding in the Age of the Millennial By Allen Adamson and Chekitan S. Dev -- In 2017 What Will a Restaurant Actually Be? A New Taxonomy By Christopher Muller -- The Unreal Thing: Faux Heritage at Disney By Bradford Hudson -- An Insider’s Look at the 2016 Philadelphia Democratic National Convention: Hospitality and Inclusion at Work By Erin Tucker, Leora Halpern Lanz, and Juan Lesme

Morphomics predicts response to ipilimumab in patients with stage IV melanoma

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113727/1/jso24003.pd

The ethics of responsibility and ownership in decision-making about treatment for breast cancer: Triangulation of consultation with patient and surgeon perspectives

Doctors are widely encouraged to share decision-making with patients. However, the assumption that responsibility for decisions is an objective quantity that can be apportioned between doctors and patients is problematic. We studied treatment decisions from three perspectives simultaneously - observing consultations and exploring patients' and doctors' perspectives on these - to understand how decision-making that we observed related to participants' subjective experience of responsibility. We audio-recorded post-operative consultations in which 20 patients who had undergone initial surgery for breast cancer discussed further treatment with one of eight surgeons in a general hospital serving a socioeconomically diverse urban population in England. We separately interviewed each patient and their surgeon within seven days of consultation to explore their perspectives on decisions that had been made. Qualitative analysis distinguished procedurally different types of decision-making and explored surgeons' and patients' perspectives on each. Surgeons made most decisions for patients, and only explicitly offered choices where treatment options were clinically equivocal. Procedurally, therefore, shared decision-making was absent and surgeons might be regarded as having neglected patients' autonomy. Nevertheless, patients generally felt ownership of decisions that surgeons made for them because surgeons provided justifying reasons and because patients knew that they could refuse. Conversely, faced with choice, patients generally lacked trust in their own decisions and usually sought surgeons' guidance. Therefore, from the perspective of ethical frameworks that conceptualise patient autonomy as relational and subjective, the surgeons were protecting patient autonomy. Studying subjective as well as procedural elements of decision-making can provide a broader perspective from which to evaluate practitioners' decision-making behaviour

Factors associated with adherence to antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected patients in Kathmandu District, Nepal

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Association of oestrogen receptor beta 2 (ERβ2/ERβcx) with outcome of adjuvant endocrine treatment for primary breast cancer – a retrospective study"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/7/131</p><p>BMC Cancer 2007;7():131-131.</p><p>Published online 18 Jul 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1950511.</p><p></p>ses) and dichotomised levels of ERβ2 mRNA in the ERα + tamoxifen-treated cohort and (B, 4 events in 29 ERβ2 high cases and 12 events in 29 ERβ2 low cases). Unbroken green lines represent cases with high levels of ERβ2, dotted blue lines represent cases with low levels. In all cases crosses represent censored data and P values are given for Log Rank tests

Results of a phase I pilot clinical trial examining the effect of plant-derived resveratrol and grape powder on Wnt pathway target gene expression in colonic mucosa and colon cancer

Anthony V Nguyen1, Micaela Martinez1, Michael J Stamos2, Mary P Moyer3, Kestutis Planutis1, Christopher Hope1 Randall F Holcombe11Division of Hematology/Oncology and Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, 2Department of Surgery, University of California, Irvine CA, USA; 3Incell Corporation, San Antonio, TX USAContext: Resveratrol exhibits colon cancer prevention activity in animal models; it is purported to have this activity in humans and inhibit a key signaling pathway involved in colon cancer initiation, the Wnt pathway, in vitro.Design: A phase I pilot study in patients with colon cancer was performed to evaluate the effects of a low dose of plant-derived resveratrol formulation and resveratrol-containing freeze-dried grape powder (GP) on Wnt signaling in the colon. Eight patients were enrolled and normal colonic mucosa and colon cancer tissue were evaluated by Wnt pathway-specific microarray and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) pre- and post-exposure to resveratrol/GP.Results: Based on the expression of a panel of Wnt target genes, resveratrol/GP did not inhibit the Wnt pathway in colon cancer but had significant (p &amp;lt;&amp;nbsp;0.03) activity in inhibiting Wnt target gene expression in normal colonic mucosa. The greatest effect on Wnt target gene expression was seen following ingestion of 80 g of GP per day (p&amp;nbsp;&amp;lt; 0.001). These results were confirmed with qRT-PCR of cyclinD1 and axinII. The inhibitory effect of GP on Wnt signal throughput was confirmed in vitro with a normal colonic mucosa-derived cell line.Conclusions: These data suggest that GP, which contains low dosages of resveratrol in combination with other bioactive components, can inhibit the Wnt pathway in vivo and that this effect is confined to the normal colonic mucosa. Further study of dietary supplementation with resveratrol-containing foods such as whole grapes or GP as a potential colon cancer preventive strategy is warranted.Trial registration: NCT00256334.Keywords: resveratrol, clinical trial, colon cancer, Wnt signaling, grapes, cancer preventio

Short-term safety outcomes of mastectomy and immediate pre-pectoral implant-based breast reconstruction: The Pre-BRA prospective multicentre cohort study

Introduction: Pre-pectoral breast reconstruction (PPBR) has recently been introduced to reduce post-operative pain and improve cosmetic outcomes in women having implant-based procedures. High-quality evidence to support the practice of PPBR, however, is lacking. Pre-BRA is an IDEAL stage 2a/2b study that aimed to establish the safety, effectiveness and stability of PPBR prior to definitive evaluation in a randomised controlled trial (RCT). This manuscript reports the short-term safety endpoints at 3-months following surgery.Methods: Consecutive patients electing to undergo immediate PPBR at participating UK centres between July 2019 - December 2020 were invited to participate. Demographic, operative, oncology and complication data were collected. The primary outcome was implant loss at 3 months. Other outcomes of interest included readmission, reoperation and infection. The study received full ethical approval (Ref:19/SC/0129). Results: 347 women underwent 424 immediate implant-based reconstructions at 40 centres. Most were single-stage direct-to-implant (n=357, 84.2%) biological mesh-assisted procedures (n=341, 80.4%). Conversion to subpectoral reconstruction was necessary in 4 cases (0.9%) due to poor skin-flap quality. Of the 344 women undergoing PPBR, 144 (41.9%) experienced at least one post-operative complication. Implant loss occurred in 8.1% (n=28) women; almost 20% (n=67) experienced an infection; 16% (n=55) were readmitted for a complication and 17% (n=60) required reoperation within 3-months of their reconstruction.Conclusions: Complication rates following pre-pectoral reconstruction are high and implant loss is comparable to subpectoral mesh-assisted implant-based techniques. These findings support the need for a well-designed RCT comparing pre and subpectoral reconstruction to establish best-practice for IBBR.Study registration: ISRCTN1189800