Quality of life changes during conformal radiation therapy for prostate carcinoma

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to describe prospectively quality of life (QOL) before and after radiotherapy for patients with prostate carcinoma. METHODS: Forty-three patients with T1-T3 prostate carcinoma who underwent conformal external beam radiation therapy were randomized either to the complete European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QOL questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) or the Medical Outcomes Study Group Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) at baseline, at 3 weeks and 6 weeks after initial treatment, and at 6 weeks and 5 months after the completion of radiotherapy. The measures were self-reported patient QOL, and values are given as the mean +/- standard error of the mean. Changes in QOL are described from baseline to the end of treatment in both questionnaire groups. RESULTS: Emotional role functioning, as measured with the SF-36 questionnaire, significantly improved from 68.2 +/- 9.9 at baseline to 93.3 +/- 5.2 at the end of therapy (P = 0.02). The EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire revealed consistent values of emotional functioning during treatment (72.7 +/- 5.9 at baseline) but showed a significant improvement 6 weeks after therapy (89.0 +/- 4.4; P = 0.01). Role functioning deteriorated from 80.1 +/- 6.5 at baseline to 62.5 +/- 8.8 at the end of radiotherapy (P = 0.02). Symptoms of fatigue were shown to increase significantly from 26.9 +/- 6.0 at baseline to 37.7 +/- 7.6 at the end of therapy (P = 0.02). No significant changes in the other dimensions were observed in either questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: After radiotherapy for prostate carcinoma, patients experience a temporary deterioration of fatigue and role functioning, as measured with the EORTC QLQ-C-30. Despite physical deterioration, the authors observed an improvement in emotional functioning scores with both questionnaires. This may have been due to psychological adaptation and coping.

Review of Dr. Richard Shapcott's International Ethics : A Critical Introduction. 2010. London: Polity Press. ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-3142-4.

This work by Richard Shapcott is, as the title provides, an introduction to international ethics. By taking a quick glance at the table of contents (see Figure 1) we see that he has systematically divided this particular discourse into its normative areas of concern (in other words its major areas of argument or research). When reading, we also see that a great deal of work has gone into the publication because the narrative is flowing, the arguments continuous, and because the tone of the work maintained its critical position throughout.

An interview with Dr. Richard Shapcott : the international ethics of 'Basic Democracy'

Dr. Richard Shapcott is the senior lecturer in International Relations at the University of Queensland. His areas of interest in research concern international ethics, cosmopolitan political theory and cultural diversity. He is the author of the recently published book titled International Ethics: A Critical Introduction; and several other pieces, such as, “Anti-Cosmopolitanism, the Cosmopolitan Harm Principle and Global Dialogue,” in Michalis’ and Petito’s book, Civilizational Dialogue and World Order. He’s also the author of “Dialogue and International Ethics: Religion, Cultural Diversity and Universalism, in Patrick Hayden’s, The Ashgate Research Companion to Ethics and International Relations.

Richard Rorty, innovation strategies & movie inspiration

Movie innovation is a conversation between screenwriters and producers in our mixed economy – a concept of innovation supported by Richard Rorty and Aristole's Poetics. During innovation conversations, inspired writers describe fresh movie actions to empathetic producers. Some inspired actions may confuse. Writers and producers use strategies to inquire about confusing actions. This Australian study redescribes 25 writer-producer strategies in the one place for the first time. It adds a new strategy. And, with more evidence than the current literature, it investigates writer inspiration, which drives film innovation. It reports inspiration in pioneering, verifiable detail.

Review of Collaboration and Interdisciplinarity in the Republic of Letters : Essays in Honour of Richard G. Maber, edited by Paul Scott.

This volume brings together a number of essays that seek to explore the nature of early modern scholarship, ostensibly with special regard to the themes of interdisciplinarity and collaboration. As one might expect, the essays thus cover a gamut of topics – political manoeuvring, philosophical debates, gift-giving and dramatic performance – and each study is important and useful in its own right. As a whole, however, this collection serves more as a starting point for an exploration of its themes, than as an authoritative overview of the subject at hand.

Book review : "Carbon Capture and Storage Emerging Legal and Regulatory Issues" edited by Ian Havercroft, Richard Macrory, Richard B Stewart, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2011

As the international community struggles to find a cost-effective solution to mitigate climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, carbon capture and storage (CCS) has emerged as a project mechanism with the potential to assist in transitioning society towards its low carbon future. Being a politically attractive option, legal regimes to promote and approve CCS have proceeded at an accelerated pace in multiple jurisdictions including the European Union and Australia. This acceleration and emphasis on the swift commercial deployment of CCS projects has left the legal community in the undesirable position of having to advise on the strengths and weaknesses of the key features of these regimes once they have been passed and become operational. This is an area where environmental law principles are tested to their very limit. On the one hand, implementation of this new technology should proceed in a precautionary manner to avoid adverse impacts on the atmosphere, local community and broader environment. On the other hand, excessive regulatory restrictions will stifle innovation and act as a barrier to the swift deployment of CCS projects around the world. Finding the balance between precaution and innovation is no easy feat. This is an area where lawyers, academics, regulators and industry representatives can benefit from the sharing of collective experiences, both positive and negative, across the jurisdictions. This exemplary book appears to have been collated with this philosophy in mind and provides an insightful addition to the global dialogue on establishing effective national and international regimes for the implementation of CCS projects...

A symposium of reviews of public criminology? : by Ian Loader and Richard Sparks (Oxford : Key Ideas in Criminology, Routledge, 2010, 196pp.) with contributions from Nils Christie, Elliott Currie, Helena Kennedy, Gloria Laycock, Rod Morgan, Joe Sim, Jacqueline Tombs and Reece Walters

Public or Civic Criminology : A Critique of Loader and Sparks

[Book Review] Urban Maps : Instruments of Narrative and Interpretation in the City by Richard Brook and Nick Dunn, Ashgate, Farham, United Kingdom, 2011, 250pp. ISBN 978-0-754676-5-77.

Urban maps discusses new ways and tools to read and navigate the contemporary city. Each chapter investigates a possible approach to unravel the complexity of contemporary urban forms. Each tool is first defined, introducing its philosophical background, and is then discussed with case studies, showing its relevance for the navigation of the built environment. Urbanism classics such as the work of Lynch, Jacobs, Venuti and Scott-Brown, Lefebrve and Walter Benjamin are fundamental in setting the framework of the volume. In the introduction cities and mapping are first discussed, the former are illustrated as ‘a composite of invisible networks devoid of landmarks and overrun by nodes’ (p. 3), and ‘a series of unbounded spaces where mass production and mass consumption reproduce a standardised quasi-global culture’ (p. 6).

The national railway of Sarah Island : Richard Flanagan's Gould's Book of Fish

In the latter half of the nineteenth century the railway became an emblem of technological advancement, stood for the improvement and progression of European life, and became a recognizable symbol for the achievements of governments and citizens. The implementation and use of the railway became closely linked with notions of national identity and character. The railway became an identifiable artefact in official history but at the same time it became a part of everyday life. Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish retells the life-story of a fictionalized convict sent to Sarah Island and who paints fish, eventually he metamorphoses into one. It could be thought that a novel set in convict times would have little to do with notions of national identity, technological advancement, and railway travel. However, Richard Flanagan, in this very complex, almost surreal, novel, has used the construction of a fictional national railway as one of the ways to explore Australia's complex relationship with history and space. The novel tells of the plans of a history-loving Commandant and his desire to build a national railway on Sarah Island. This paper explores how Sarah Island becomes a metonym for Australia as a whole and Flanagan's novel takes on a metaphysical dimension as he reveals the struggles that emerge when official history collides with non-official versions. The fabulations of the novel contribute to an historical reconstruction of the spatial/architectural history of the Tasmanian colonial project.

Impulse facility simulation of hypervelocity radiating flows

We describe the X-series impulse facilities at The University of Queensland and show that they can produce useful high speed flows of relevance to the study of high temperature radiating flow flields characteristic of atmospheric entry. Two modes of operation are discussed: (a) the expansion tube mode which is useful for subscale aerodynamic testing of vehicles and (b) the non-reflected shock tube mode which can be used to emulate the nonequilibrium radiating region immediately following the bow shock of a flight vehicle.

Book Review : "Statutory Will Applications : A practical Guide by Richard Williams and Sam McCullough"

The jurisdiction of Australian courts to make wills for those lacking testamentary capacity is relatively new, having been granted by legislation progressively enacted across the various states and territories between 1996 and 2010. Given increasing numbers of statutory will applications since the legislative reform, and a growing body of law, the publication of the specialist work, Statutory Will Applications: A Practical Guide, by Richard Williams and Sam McCullough, is timely and valuable. This work will be of great interest to those who act for individual clients, especially wills and estates practitioners, but also personal injury practitioners acting for incapacitated persons who have been awarded substantial damages.