Daily angina documentation versus subsequent recall: development of a symptom smartphone app

Aims: The traditional approach to documenting angina outcomes in clinical trials is to ask the patient to recall their symptoms at the end of a month. With the ubiquitous availability of smartphones and tablets, daily contemporaneous documentation might be possible. Methods and results: The ORBITA-2 symptom smartphone app was developed with a user-centred iterative design and testing cycle involving a focus group of previous ORBITA participants. The feasibility and acceptability were assessed in an internal pilot of participants in the ongoing ORBITA-2 trial. Seven days of app entries by ORBITA-2 participants were compared with subsequent participant recall at the end of the 7-day period. The design focus group tested a prototype app. They reported that the final version captured their symptoms and was easy to use. In the completion assessment group, 141 of 142 (99%) completed the app in full and 47 of 141 (33%) without reminders. In the recall assessment group, 29 of 29 (100%) participants said they could recall the previous day’s symptoms, and 82% of them recalled correctly. For 2 days previously, 88% said they could recall and of those, 87% recalled correctly. The proportion saying they could recall their symptoms fell progressively thereafter: 89, 67, 61, 50%, and at 7 days, 55% (P < 0.001 for trend). The proportion of recalling correctly also fell progressively to 55% at 7 days (P = 0.04 for trend). Conclusion: Episode counts of angina are difficult to recall after a few days. For trials such as ORBITA-2 focusing on angina, daily symptom collection via a smartphone app will increase the validity of the results

Development of a Platform for Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Endoscopy

Surgical resection or ablation remains the primary curative treatment strategy for most early-stage solid cancers and, as such, an enormous amount of effort has been dedicated to technologies that augment the vision of the surgeon to better `see' the margins of the tumor being removed. With our ever-expanding knowledge of the genetic changes which underpin malignancies, the idea of adding `biochemical vision' to the surgeon's decision making process should allow for clearer identification of margins, more complete resections with no residual tissue left in-situ, and consequent improvement in local recurrence rates. By performing such early-stage resections endoscopically, patients may benefit from lower morbidity rates as compared to traditional open approaches. Molecular imaging using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoparticles represents a platform which is well-suited for cancer detection in-vivo. It has already been established that SERS offers the ability to carry out multiplex assays far in excess of what is possible with fluorescence, that the SERS signal is detectable at concentrations far below what is resolvable with similar amounts of fluorophores, and that the SERS signal is temporally stable and does not photobleach over time. The work reported here demonstrates: 1) a method for reliably generating molecularly-targeted SERS nanoparticles suitable for in-vivo use, 2) a framework for detecting these SERS nanoparticles in-vivo, not using slow point-by-point spectroscopic screening, but rather by fast large-area widefield imaging, 3) results from widefield quantitative, multiplexed SERS imaging in-vivo using phantom models, 4) the first reported study showing widefield SERS imaging of antibody-targeted SERS nanoparticles in a murine xenograft tumour model and 5) proof-of-concept data showing widefield SERS imaging in-vitro using two clinically available endoscopy platforms. Together these results have demonstrated the potential utility of SERS endoscopy in cancer imaging and have established a roadmap to future clinical translation in specific oncologic fields.Ph.D.2015-12-18 00:00:0

Transcultural Screenwriting: Telling Stories for a Global World

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Introduction

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Transcultural Screenwriting Telling Stories for a Global World

The world in which we live and work today has created new working conditions where storytellers, screenwriters and filmmakers collaborate with colleagues from other countries and cultures. This involves new challenges regarding the practice of transcultural screenwriting and the study of writing screenplays in a multi-cultural environment. Globalisation and its imperatives have seen the film co-production emerge as a means of sharing production costs and creating stories that reach transnational audiences. Transcultural Screenwriting: Telling Stories for a Global World provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study of screenwriting as a creative process by integrating the fields of film and TV production studies, screenwriting studies, narrative studies, rhetorics, transnational cinema studies, and intercultural communication studies. The book applies the emerging theoretical lens of 'transcultural studies' to open new perspectives in the debate around notions of transnationalism, imperialism and globalisation, particularly in the screenwriting context, and to build stronger links across academic disciplines.This volume combines methods for studying, as well as methods for doing. It draws on case studies and testimonials from writers from all over the globe including South America, Europe and Asia.Transcultural Screenwriting: Telling Stories for a Global World is characterised by its scope, broad relevance, and emphasis on key aspects of screenwriting in an international environment.Intro -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Part 1: The Transcultural Lens -- Chapter One -- Chapter Two -- Chapter Three -- Part 2: Transcultural Case Studies -- Chapter Four -- Chapter Five -- Chapter Six -- Part 3: Transcultural Working Conditions -- Chapter Seven -- Chapter Eight -- Chapter Nine -- List of ContributorsThe world in which we live and work today has created new working conditions where storytellers, screenwriters and filmmakers collaborate with colleagues from other countries and cultures. This involves new challenges regarding the practice of transcultural screenwriting and the study of writing screenplays in a multi-cultural environment. Globalisation and its imperatives have seen the film co-production emerge as a means of sharing production costs and creating stories that reach transnational audiences. Transcultural Screenwriting: Telling Stories for a Global World provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study of screenwriting as a creative process by integrating the fields of film and TV production studies, screenwriting studies, narrative studies, rhetorics, transnational cinema studies, and intercultural communication studies. The book applies the emerging theoretical lens of 'transcultural studies' to open new perspectives in the debate around notions of transnationalism, imperialism and globalisation, particularly in the screenwriting context, and to build stronger links across academic disciplines.This volume combines methods for studying, as well as methods for doing. It draws on case studies and testimonials from writers from all over the globe including South America, Europe and Asia.Transcultural Screenwriting: Telling Stories for a Global World is characterised by its scope, broad relevance, and emphasis on key aspects of screenwriting in an international environment.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries