A Review of Demographic, Medical, and Treatment Variables Associated with Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in Survivors of Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSCT) and Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) during Childhood.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a standard treatment after disease relapse and failure of conventional treatments for cancer in childhood or as a first line treatment for some high-risk cancers. Since hematopoietic stem cells can be found in the marrow (previously called a bone marrow transplantation) or periphery, we refer to HSCT as inclusive of HSCT regardless of the origin of the stem cells. HSCT is associated with adverse side effects, prolonged hospitalization, and isolation. Previous studies have shown that survivors of HSCT are at particularly high risk for developing late effects and medical complications, and thus, in addition to survival, quality of life in survivors of HSCT is an important outcome. This review summarizes and distills findings on the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of long-term childhood cancer survivors of HSCT and examines significant sociodemographic, medical, disease and treatment correlates of HRQOL, as well as the methodology of the studies (instruments, type of studies, timing of assessment, type of transplantation). Because previous reviews covered the studies published before 2006, this review searched three databases published between January, 2006, and August, 2016. The search identified nine studies, including 2 prospective cohort studies and 7 cross-sectional studies. All studies reported a follow-up time of >5 years. The review found that HRQOL is significantly impacted over time following childhood HSCT, with salient correlates of HRQOL found to be presence of a severe chronic health or major medical condition, graft vs. host disease (GVHD), or pain. Continual evaluation of HRQOL must be integrated into long-term follow-up after childhood HSCT, and intervention should be offered for those survivors with poor HRQOL. Longitudinal studies should be emphasized in future research to allow for predictor models of resilience and poor HRQOL

Breaking the Information Blockade: Labor, the Internet, Social Media and Communication Technology

Labor’s lack of engagement with media, and particularly its failure to create its own media to get its’ message out, to support workers in their struggles, and to educate working people on various issues affecting them have been a major impediment to people’s struggles in this country and elsewhere. Examples are been provided to illustrate some of the things that could be done if aggressively pursued, with a special look at the 2010 lockout of USW workers in Metropolis, Illinois, and these workers’ skillful use of the media

Interacting with virtual worlds

What tools should we provide the user for defining and interacting with objects and agents in virtual environments at varying levels of complexity? Understanding the appropriate simplifications to make is critical for modeling nontrivial environments and agents with varying levels of autonomy. I describe a set of abstraction mechanisms appropriate for constructing and interacting with virtual worlds, and I discuss how programming, and direct manipulation of guiding techniques, can be used to afford users interactive access to graphical simulations at appropriate levels of abstraction

VIRTUAL PHONE NUMBERS FOR TOPIC AND PRIORITY

A system of virtual phone numbers based on topic and priority is disclosed. The system helps the user to anonymously route a call out so that their own information is not exposed to an unknown party. The user may select a virtual phone number relating to a particular context so that he may be called even if he is not ordinarily available for contact. The advantages of the system of virtual phone numbers is the possibility of setting priority by topic to receive calls from even unknown numbers and to anonymously make outgoing calls

Reconstruction of a massive lower limb soft-tissue defect by giant free DIEAP flap

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SECURITY SYSTEM WITH AUTHENTICATION CODE AND ADAPTIVE PHOTO LOG

A security system uses a camera to verify that a user trying to unlock a device with an authentication code is an authorized user and linked to that authentication code. The system receives an authentication code from the user trying to unlock the device. The system also captures an image of the user while the user enters the authentication code. The system compares the captured image of the user with one or more stored images of authorized users linked to the entered authentication code to determine whether the captured image matches one of the stored images of authorized users linked to the entered authentication code. Further, the system provides a notification about an unauthorized unlock attempt when the system is unable to confirm the authenticity of the user based on the image comparisons

Contextually Aware Navigation System

A contextually aware navigation system equipped in a vehicle can be used to identify that the vehicle is deviating from a predetermined route during navigation guidance. The system determines if the deviation is intentional or unintentional based on a combination of various situational factors. Thereafter, if the system determines that the deviation is intentional, the system can suspend the navigation guidance. On the other hand, if the system determines that the deviation is unintentional the system can continue with the navigation guidance