A cross-sectional comparison of quality of life between physically active and underactive older men with prostate cancer

Men with prostate cancer experience many side effects and symptoms that may be improved by a physically active lifestyle. It was hypothesized that older men with prostate cancer who were physically active would report significantly higher levels of quality of life (QOL) as assessed by the WHOQOL-BREF and the WHOQOL-OLD. Of the 348 prostate cancer survivors who were invited to participate in the present postal survey, 137 men returned the questionnaires. Those who were physically active had significantly lower prostate specific antigen (PSA) scores and higher social participation than those insufficiently active. These findings offer some support for the benefits of physical activity (PA) within the prostate cancer population in managing the adverse side effects of their treatments on aspects of their QOL. Future research should more closely examine what types of PA best promote improvements in varying aspects of QOL and psychological well-being for prostate cancer survivors

UC-37 Interactive PDF File Editing for Online Classes

This system aims to create an interactive environment for teachers to view/grade/edit student submission in virtual classes. Objectives for this project are to create independent component or logic model that includes the following functions. This component should be integrated with a .net core application easily. -Upload pdf files to the system and save files to the server; -Record audio online and save audio to the system; also, the audio can be played online; -Upload and play video or video link (YouTube); -Split file. When uploading a PDF file, the system will allow to split or crop the file (partial file content) and upload the file; -PDF edit: be able to view the pdf file and leave comments;Advisors(s): Yang Ming - Capstone Professor Derek Shi - Project SponsorTopic(s): Software EngineeringIT 498

Quality of life effects of androgen deprivation therapy in a prostate cancer cohort in New Zealand: Can we minimize effects using a stratification based on the aldo-keto reductase family 1, member C3 rs12529 gene polymorphism?

Background: Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is an effective palliation treatment in men with advanced prostate cancer (PC). However, ADT has well documented side effects that could alter the patient’s health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The current study aims to test whether a genetic stratification could provide better knowledge for optimising ADT options to minimize HRQoL effects. Methods: A cohort of 206 PC survivors (75 treated with and 131 without ADT) was recruited with written consent to collect patient characteristics, clinical data and HRQoL data related to PC management. The primary outcomes were the percentage scores under each HRQoL subscale assessed using the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life questionnaires (QLQ-C30 and PR25) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales developed by the University of Melbourne, Australia. Genotyping of these men was carried out for the aldo-keto reductase family 1, member C3 (AKR1C3) rs12529 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). Analysis of HRQoL scores were carried out against ADT duration and in association with the AKR1C3 rs12529 SNP using the generalised linear model. P-values <0 · 05 were considered significant, and were further tested for restriction with Bonferroni correction. Results: Increase in hormone treatment-related effects were recorded with long-term ADT compared to no ADT. The C and G allele frequencies of the AKR1C3rs12529 SNP were 53·4 % and 46·6 % respectively. Hormone treatmentrelated symptoms showed an increase with ADT when associated with the AKR1C3 rs12529 G allele. Meanwhile, decreasing trends on cancer-specific symptoms and increased sexual interest were recorded with no ADT when associated with the AKR1C3 rs12529 G allele and reverse trends with the C allele. As higher incidence of cancerspecific symptoms relate to cancer retention it is possible that associated with the C allele there could be higher incidence of unresolved cancers under no ADT options

Developing robust and coherent conceptions of chemistry: An integrated model

The process by which students develop conceptions of science has long been an area of science education research. From a constructivist standpoint (Bodner, 1986) the formation of misconceptions and processes of conceptual change are equally interesting, as learners may place unintended interpretations onto instructional materials. Previous studies have identified a myriad of individual misconceptions across the sciences (Azizoğlu, Alkan, and Geban 2006; Boo 1998; Cakmakci, Leach, and Donnelly 2006; Sneider and Ohadi 1998; Taber 1996) and the efficacies of numerous interventions have been investigated (Cakir, Uzuntiryaki, and Geban 2002; Diakidoy and Kendeou 2001; Kalkanis, Hadzidaki, and Stavrou 2003; Yang, Greenbowe and Andre 2004). General theories of conceptual change have also been proposed, attributing the origins of misconceptions to ontological miscategorisations (Chi, Slotta and de Leeuw 1994), conflicts with epistemological presuppositions (Vosniadou 1994; 2002), and inappropriate selections from multiple representations (Hallidén, Petersson, Scheja, Ehrlén, Haglund, Österlind and Stenlund 2002; Spada 1994). Despite this extensive body of research, the practical implementation of recommendations from general conceptual change theories remains problematic. Much of the research is necessarily and appropriately learner-centred and thus individually-focused; however, undergraduate teaching is primarily conducted in groups. Conceptual change theories have also offered comparatively little overt advice for general pedagogical practices to minimise misconception formation. This paper is intended to begin to fill this gap, by offering an integrated model for developing robust conceptions which is applicable at the classroom level. The empirical data presented draw on research in chemistry education, but the model presented is expected to be applicable in other science domains

Students’ perceptions of their understanding in Chemistry 1 for Veterinary Science

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between students’ perceptions of their understanding of chemistry, and their performance as measured by the end of semester examinations. Prior to commencing the study, it was hypothesised that there should be some correlation between students’ perceived understanding and exam performance. Furthermore, experience suggested that high achieving students are generally better able to identify their strengths and weaknesses than are weaker students. It seemed logical, therefore, that the strength of any correlation should vary with exam performance. This study was designed to test this hypothesis, and this paper is the first refereed report of results from this on-going investigation. A search of the literature found no previous studies of direct relevance to this work. However, the literature does offer some background. A number of studies have examined students’ perception of their exam performance after completing an exam (e.g., Beyer, Riesselmann and Warren 2002), and students’ overall expectations of academic performance has also been examined (e.g., de Campos, Grinberg, Garcia, Parise, da Silveira and Dumont 1998). Both are poor predictors of academic performance. Student self-marking has been shown to correlate well with the marks given by their professors for lower-order cognitive skills questions, but not for questions requiring high-order cognitive skills (Zoller, Fastow, Lubezsky and Tsaparlis 1999). Academic self-efficacy (confidence in one’s ability to complete academic tasks) has been shown to be positively correlated with academic performance (Chemers, Hu, and Garcia 2001; Vrugt, Langereis and Hoogstraten 1997). However, the Chemers et al. (2001) study examined generic skills and overall performance in a degree program, and was not linked to a domain. The Vrugt et al. (1997) study examined psychology freshmen, and whilst subject matter understanding was included in their model, they found that ‘self-efficacy and goals accounted for 5% of the variance in exam performance’ (p. 67), and thus their model has a poor predicting power for student achievement. House (2000, 2003) examined self-beliefs (measuring agreement/disagreement with statements such as ‘Science is boring’, ‘I enjoy learning Science’ and ‘Science is important to everyone’s life’) amongst 13-yearolds. These studies found a correlation between self-beliefs and science achievement test scores, but these beliefs were also found to be poor predictors of performance, explaining 6.29% of the variance in test scores in Hong Kong (House 2003, p. 201) and 6.8% in Ireland (House 2000, p. 110)

Exam script analysis—A powerful tool for identifying misconceptions

As part of a wider study of student understanding (Read, George, King and Masters 2004), a detailed analysis of the Semester 1, 2003 CHEM1405 (Chemistry 1 for Veterinary Science) examination was carried out. This analysis used both quantitative (statistical) and qualitative methods. Qualitative analysis focussed on evidence of misconceptions and commonalities in student approaches, both correct and incorrect. While university exams are primarily used for summative assessment purposes, this poster paper is intended to highlight some of the other information available from exam script analysis

Bridging the gap – student understanding and the chemistry bridging course

Students commencing university study come from a diverse range of backgrounds. Some students have substantial prior knowledge in areas they intend to study; others may have essentially no prior knowledge of some of their subjects. Universities may partially resolve this problem with streaming in units where cohorts are large. Nevertheless, it remains inevitable that some students will need to undertake preparatory work if they are to be ready to commence university study, and bridging courses are intended to help students to ‘bridge the gap’. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that bridging courses can effectively help students to address a knowledge deficit, and to explore some of the ways in which such assistance is best provided, by taking the University of Sydney chemistry bridging course as an example. The University of Sydney chemistry bridging course is a seven-day intensive course that covers basic chemical concepts. It consists of thirteen one-hour lectures each followed by a two-hour tutorial session, giving students the opportunity to apply the principles covered in the preceding lecture. The efficacy of this bridging course has been briefly mentioned in previous work (Read, George, Masters, and King 2004). That work showed that the percentage of students who failed the end-of-semester exam (based on raw marks) was three-fold lower for students with weak background knowledge of chemistry (which includes bridging course students), compared with students with no prior knowledge of chemistry. However, that work did not elaborate on this finding. This paper expands upon that previous report, providing additional results from the 2003 student cohort, and extending the work to the 2005 cohort. The aims of this study are two-fold: firstly, to confirm that bridging course participants do perform better in the end-of-semester exam than do students with no prior knowledge who do not participate in the bridging course, and secondly, to explore the reasons for any differences observed

Multidimensional en-face OCT imaging of the retina.

Fast T-scanning (transverse scanning, en-face) was used to build B-scan or C-scan optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of the retina. Several unique signature patterns of en-face (coronal) are reviewed in conjunction with associated confocal images of the fundus and B-scan OCT images. Benefits in combining T-scan OCT with confocal imaging to generate pairs of OCT and confocal images similar to those generated by scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) are discussed in comparison with the spectral OCT systems. The multichannel potential of the OCT/SLO system is demonstrated with the addition of a third hardware channel which acquires and generates indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence images. The OCT, confocal SLO and ICG fluorescence images are simultaneously presented in a two or a three screen format. A fourth channel which displays a live mix of frames of the ICG sequence superimposed on the corresponding coronal OCT slices for immediate multidimensional comparison, is also included. OSA ISP software is employed to illustrate the synergy between the simultaneously provided perspectives. This synergy promotes interpretation of information by enhancing diagnostic comparisons and facilitates internal correction of movement artifacts within C-scan and B-scan OCT images using information provided by the SLO channel