A prospective investigation of swallowing, nutrition, and patient-rated functional impact following altered fractionation radiotherapy with concomitant boost for oropharyngeal cancer

Altered fractionation radiotherapy for head and neck cancer has been associated with improved locoregional control, overall survival, and heightened toxicity compared with conventional treatment. Swallowing, nutrition, and patient-perceived function for altered fractionation radiotherapy with concomitant boost (AFRT-CB) for T1–T3 oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) have not been previously reported. Fourteen consecutive patients treated with AFRT-CB for oropharyngeal SCC were recruited from November 2006 to August 2009 in a tertiary hospital in Brisbane, Australia. Swallowing, nutrition, and patient-perceived functional impact assessments were conducted pretreatment, at 4–6 weeks post-treatment, and at 6 months post-treatment. Deterioration from pretreatment to 4–6 weeks post-treatment in swallowing, nutrition, and functional impact was evident, likely due to the heightened toxicity associated with AFRT-CB. There was significant improvement at 6 months post-treatment in functional swallowing, nutritional status, patient-perceived swallowing, and overall function, consistent with recovery from acute toxicity. However, weight and patient perception of physical function and side effects remained significantly worse than pretreatment scores. The ongoing deficits related to weight and patient-perceived outcomes at 6 months revealed that this treatment has a long-term impact on function possibly related to the chronic effects of AFRT-CB

Cholesky decomposition techniques in electronic structure theory

We review recently developed methods to efficiently utilize the Cholesky decomposition technique in electronic structure calculations. The review starts with a brief introduction to the basics of the Cholesky decomposition technique. Subsequently, examples of applications of the technique to ab inito procedures are presented. The technique is demonstrated to be a special type of a resolution-of-identity or density-fitting scheme. This is followed by explicit examples of the Cholesky techniques used in orbital localization, computation of the exchange contributionto the Fock matrix, in MP2, gradient calculations, and so-called method specific Cholesky decomposition. Subsequently, examples of calibration of the method with respect to computed total energies, excitation energies, and auxiliary basis set pruning are presented. In particular, it is demonstrated that the Cholesky method is an unbiased method to derive auxiliary basis sets. Furthermore, details of the implementational considerations are put forward and examples from a parallel Cholesky decomposition scheme is presented. Finally, an outlook and perspectives are presented, followed by a summary and conclusions section. We are of the opinion that the Cholesky decomposition method is a technique that has been overlooked for too long. We have just recently started to understand how to efficiently incorporate the method in existing ab initio programs. The full potential of the Cholesky technique has not yet been fully explored