Meningiomas occurring during long-term survival after treatment for childhood cancer

Childhood cancer is rare but improvements in treatment over the past five decades have resulted in a cohort of more than 30,000 long-term survivors of childhood cancer in the UK with more added annually. These long-term survivors are at risk of late effects of cancer treatment which replace original tumour recurrence as the leading cause of premature death. Second neoplasms are a particular risk and in the central nervous system meningiomas occur increasingly with increased radiation dose to central nervous system tissue and length of time after exposure, resulting in a 500-fold increase above that expected in the normal population by 40 years of follow up. This multidisciplinary author group and others met to discuss the issue. Our pooled information, and consensus that screening should only follow symptoms, was published online by the Royal College of Radiologists in 2013. We outline here the current knowledge and management of these neoplasms secondary to childhood cancer treatment

The Preservation of Cued Recall in the Acute Mentally Fatigued State: A Randomised Crossover Study.

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of acute mental fatigue on the recall of clinical information in the non-sleep-deprived state. Acute mental fatigue in the non-sleep-deprived subject is rarely studied in the medical workforce. Patient handover has been highlighted as an area of high risk especially in fatigued subjects. This study evaluates the deterioration in recall of clinical information over 2 h with cognitively demanding work in non-sleep-deprived subjects.A randomised crossover study involving twenty medical students assessed free (presentation) and cued (MCQ) recall of clinical case histories at 0 and 2 h under low and high cognitive load using the N-Back task. Acute mental fatigue was assessed through the Visual Analogue Scale, Stanford Scale and NASA-TLX Mental Workload Rating Scale.Free recall is significantly impaired by increased cognitive load (p < 0.05) with subjects demonstrating perceived mental fatigue during the high cognitive load assessment. There was no significant difference in the amount of information retrieved by cued recall under high and low cognitive load conditions (p = 1).This study demonstrates the loss of clinical information over a short time period involving a mentally fatiguing, high cognitive load task. Free recall for the handover of clinical information is unreliable. Memory cues maintain recall of clinical information. This study provides evidence towards the requirement for standardisation of a structured patient handover. The use of memory cues (involving recognition memory and cued recall methodology) would be beneficial in a handover checklist to aid recall of clinical information and supports evidence for their adoption into clinical practice

A brief history of outbreaks of the Douglas-fir tussock moth, Hemerocampa pseudotsugata McD., in British Columbia

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Annotated list of forest insects of British Columbia, Part XIV, Polygonia, Nymphalis, and Limenitis (Nymphalidae)

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Annotated list of forest insects of British Columbia Part XII. Boarmiini and Melanolophiini (Geometridae)

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Teacher Workload: A Formula for Maximizing Teacher Performance and Well-Being

Research has shown that teacher workload is intensifying and teachers are increasingly leaving the profession prior to having taught for 35 years. The purpose of this mixed method, sequential, phenomenological study was to determine (a) how workload intensification impacts teacher performance and well-being, (b) whether or not workload intensification was a primary factor in teachers’ choosing to leave the profession early, and (c) a formula for maximizing teacher performance and well-being. Apple’s workload intensification thesis was the theoretical framework for this study. Quantitative data obtained via a survey (N=484), together with qualitative data collected via four focus group sessions and individual interviews with 15 teachers who had left the profession early, were utilized to determine if there is a problem with workload intensification in this east coast Canadian province. Quantitative data were analyzed using the chi-square test to determine the relationship between the independent variable (workload intensification) and each of the two dependent variables (performance and well-being). Qualitative data were analyzed to determine emergent themes with respect to workload intensification. Findings from this study indicated that there is a significant relationship between the independent variable and each of the two dependent variables. Qualitative data substantiated the quantitative findings that indicated (a) the presence of a problem with workload intensification and (b) that workload intensification is a primary factor in teachers’ choosing to leave the profession early. Recommendations include having administrators address identified current teacher workload issues. Positive social change may result if administrators utilize the derived formula for maximizing teacher performance and well-being when assigning teaching and nonteaching duties to teachers

Annotated list of forest insects of British Columbia Part XIV, Ennominae (Geometridae)

The mature larvae of 57 species of forest geometrids are described briefly and their distribution and hosts, as determined from samples collected by personnel of the Forest Insect and Disease Survey, are given

Annotated list of forest insects of British Columbia Part XI Papilio spp. (Papilionidae)

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Proposal and design of airy-based rocket pulses for invariant propagation in lossy dispersive media

A novel kind of Airy-based pulse with an invariant propagation in lossy dispersive media is proposed. The basic principle is based on an optical energy trade-off between different parts of the pulse caused by the chromatic dispersion, which is used to compensate the attenuation losses of the propagation medium. Although the ideal concept of the proposed pulses implies infinite pulse energy, the numerical simulations show that practical finite energy pulses can be designed to obtain a partially invariant propagation over a finite distance of propagation