Search

Until recently, cancer registries have only collected cancer clinical stage at diagnosis, before any therapy, and pathological stage after surgical resection, provided no treatment has been given before the surgery, but they have not collected stage data after neoadjuvant therapy (NAT). Because NAT is increasingly being used to treat a variety of tumors, it has become important to make the distinction between both the clinical and the pathological assessment without NAT and the assessment after NAT to avoid any misunderstanding of the significance of the clinical and pathological findings. It also is important that cancer registries collect data after NAT to assess response and effectiveness of this treatment approach on a population basis. The prefix y is used to denote stage after NAT. Currently, cancer registries of the American College of Surgeons' Commission on Cancer only partially collect y stage data, and data on the clinical response to NAT (yc or posttherapy clinical information) are not collected or recorded in a standardized fashion. In addition to NAT, nonoperative management after radiation and chemotherapy is being used with increasing frequency in rectal cancer and may be expanded to other treatment sites. Using examples from breast, rectal, and esophageal cancers, the pathological and imaging changes seen after NAT are reviewed to demonstrate appropriate staging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher candidates need to be provided with opportunities to develop their professional knowledge throughout their teacher education programs. This exploration and knowledge development do not necessarily need to happen in the university classroom but could occur in other authentic experiences. We used a phenomenological approach to examine the lived experiences of three pre-service teachers as they developed culturally authentic teaching materials in a culture different than their own. Our goal was to describe how, or if, their professional knowledge developed during the creation of the teaching materials. Using grounded theory to guide the analysis, as the researchers looked at journals, interviews, journal reflections, and philosophy statements, two predominant themes were identified. The results indicate that a materials development project provided fertile ground outside the traditional teacher education program for teacher candidates to consider how they will approach their future teaching situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Lymphedema is a potential complication of breast cancer treatment. This longitudinal substudy aimed to prospectively assess arm measurements and symptoms following neoadjuvant chemotherapy and axillary dissection in the ACOSOG/Alliance Z1071 trial to characterize the optimal approach to define lymphedema.Methods: Z1071 enrolled patients with cT0-4, N1-2, M0 disease treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. All patients underwent axillary dissection. Bilateral limb volumes, circumferences, and related symptoms were assessed pre-surgery, 1-2 weeks post-surgery, and semiannually for 36 months. Lymphedema definitions included volume increase ≥ 10% or limb circumference increase ≥ 2 cm. Symptoms were assessed by the Lymphedema Breast Cancer Questionnaire.Results: In 488 evaluable patients, lymphedema incidence at 3 years by ≥ 10%-volume-increase was 60.3% (95% CI 55.0-66.2%) and by ≥ 2 cm-circumference increase was 75.4% (95% CI 70.8-80.2%). Symptoms of arm swelling and heaviness decreased from post-surgery for the first 18 months and then were relatively stable. The 3-year cumulative incidence of arm swelling and heaviness was 26.0% (95% CI 21.7-31.1%) and 30.9% (95% CI 26.3-36.3%), respectively. There was limited agreement between the two measurements (kappa 0.27) and between symptoms and measurements (kappa coefficients ranging from 0.05-0.09).Conclusions: Lymphedema incidence by limb volume and circumference gradually increased over 36 months post-surgery, whereas lymphedema symptoms were much lower. These findings underscore the importance of prospective surveillance and evaluation of both limb measurements and symptom assessment. Lymphedema incidence rates varied by definition. We recommend that ≥ 10% volume change criterion be used for lymphedema evaluation for referral for specialist care.Trial Registration: NCT00881361. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act requires that students with special needs be educated in the ‘least restrictive environment,’ which demands that all educators interact frequently. Previous research has suggested that educators outside of special education still struggle to work effectively with this unique student population. Using a transcendental phenomenological approach, the present study examined the lived experiences as revealed in interviews of 60 special and general educators and school administrators. The object was to describe the dispositions and skills that can make a good special educator an excellent one and how the expression of these abilities can affect relationships among these groups of professionals. A process of horizontalization and reduction was used to analyze the data, identifying five themes from the data set. The results revealed that the lived experiences among the respondents indicate that more opportunities need to be made available to educators to help them learn to interact more effectively with students with special needs in the general education classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies on task-based language learning focus on the oral performance of advanced level learners of English as a second language (ESL), while little research examines the written performance of beginning language learners in non-ESL contexts. This exploratory study aims to address this gap, by examining the effect of pre-writing tasks on second language (L2) writing among 24 first-semester learners of German. One group completed collaborative, meaningfocused pre-writing tasks, while the comparison group completed grammar-focused activities, also in pairs. In line with task-based language research, learners' performance was analysed in terms of complexity, accuracy, fluency, and lexical richness, as well as a global measure of quality, to reflect the multi-componential nature of L2 performance. The results suggest that collaborative, meaning-focused pre-writing tasks improved grammatical accuracy and lexical richness, as well as the overall quality of learners' writing. The findings also offer insights into the effectiveness of using CAF and measures of communicative adequacy for analysing beginning L2 performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded in scholarship on task-based language learning (Ellis, 2003; Robinson & Gilabert, 2007; Skehan & Foster, 2001; Skehan, 2003) and second language (L2) writing (Byrnes & Manchón, 2014; Ojima, 2006), this quasi-experimental study examines the performance of 26 first-year learners of German on three written summary tasks with different levels of complexity. The first task served to establish a baseline for subsequent analyses. For the second and third tasks, participants completed either a mind-mapping pre-task or a chronological sequencing pre-task, using a counterbalanced design. All essays were analyzed for complexity, grammatical accuracy, fluency, lexical choice, lexical accuracy and propositional content. Results from non-parametric Friedman's ANOVAs indicated several significant differences between participants' performance on the baseline task compared to both treatments, but no significant differences between the pre-task types. Further analyses revealed significant correlations between the amount of ideas learners generated on the pre-task and on the subsequent writing tasks. These findings offer new insights into the role of pre-tasks in the L2 writing process, especially among first-year learners, a population in need of further study (Adams, Amani, Newton, & Alwi, 2014; Manchón & de Haan, 2008; Nitta & Baba, 2014; O'Brien, 2004). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The population of English learners (ELs) is increasing dramatically and teachers need to learn how advocate for these often marginalized students. This study investigates various syllabi from English as a second language pre-service teacher course work that are aimed at preparing future teachers to advocate for ELs. The researchers employed constant comparison methodology to examine 14 syllabi to ascertain in which courses and how preservice teachers are prepared to advocate for their future students. Findings indicate that prospective teachers are being exposed to advocacy in many types of courses and with a variety of readings and assignments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]