Planning and conducting focus group research with nurses.

Focus groups are increasingly popular in nursing research. However, proper care and attention are critical to their planning and conduct, particularly those involving nursing staff. This article uses data gleaned from prior research to address the complexities present in clinical settings when conducting focus groups with nurses. Applying their combined experiences of conducting studies with nursing staff, the authors present a data-derived approach to thorough preparation and successful implementation of focus group research, offering a unique contribution to the literature regarding this research strategy.

Cleusonite, (Pb,Sr)(U4+,U6+)(Fe2+ Zn)2(Ti,Fe2+ Fe3+)18(O,OH)38, a new mineral species of the crichtonite group from the western Swiss Alps

Cleusonite, (Pb,Sr)(U4+,U6+) (Fe2+,Zn)(2) (Ti,Fe2+,Fe3+)(18) (O,OH)(38), is a new member of the crichtonite group. It was found at two occurrences in greenschist facies metamorphosed gneissic series of the Mont Fort and Siviez-Mischabel Nappes in Valais, Switzerland (Cleuson and Bella Tolla summit), and named after the type locality. It occurs as black opaque cm-sized tabular crystals with a bright sub-metallic lustre. The crystals consist of multiple rhombohedra and hexagonal prisms that are generally twinned. Measured density is 4.74(4) g/cm(3) and can be corrected to 4.93(12) g/cm(3) for macroscopic swelling due to radiation damage; the calculated density varies from 5.02(6) (untreated) to 5.27(5) (heat-treated crystals); the difference is related to the cell swelling due to the metamictisation. The empirical formula for cleusonite from Cleuson is (Pb0.89Sr0.12)(Sigma=1.01) (U0.79+4U0.30+6)(Sigma=1.09) (Fe1.91+2Zn0.09)(Sigma=2.00) (Ti11.80Fe3.44+2Fe2.33+3V0.19+5Mn0.08Al0.07)(Sigma=17.90) [O-35.37(OH)(2.63)](Sigma=38). Cations were measured by electron microprobe, the presence of structural (OH) was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy and the U6+/U4+ and Fe2+/Fe3+ ratios were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Cleusonite is partly metamict, and untreated crystals only show three major X-ray diffraction peaks. Because of this radiation-damaged state, the mineral appears optically isotropic and shows a light-grey to white colour in reflected polarized light. Cleusonite is trigonal, space group R $(3) over bar $, and unit-cell parameters are varying from a = 10.576(3), c = 21.325(5) angstrom (untreated crystal) to a = 10.4188(6), c = 20.942(1) angstrom (800 degrees C treatment) and to a = 10.385(2), c = 20.900(7) angstrom (1000 degrees C treatment). The three cells give a common axial ratio 2.01 (1), which is identical to the measured morphological one 2.04(6). ne name cleusonite also applies to the previously described ``uranium-rich senaite'' from Alinci (Macedonia) and the ``plumbodavidite'' from Huanglongpu (China).

Access to specialized pediatric cancer care in Switzerland.

BACKGROUND: Specialized pediatric cancer centers (PCCs) are thought to be essential to obtain state-of-the-art care for children and adolescents. We determined the proportion of childhood cancer patients not treated in a PCC, and described their characteristics and place of treatment. PROCEDURE: The Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry (SCCR) registers all children treated in Swiss PCCs. The regional cancer registries (covering 14/26 cantons) register all cancer patients of a region. The children of the SCCR with data from 7 regions (11 cantons) were compared, using specialized software for record linkage. All children <16 years of age at diagnosis with primary malignant tumors, diagnosed between 1990 and 2004, and living in one of these regions were included in the analysis. RESULTS: 22.1% (238/1,077) of patients recorded in regional registries were not registered in the SCCR. Of these, 15.7% (169/1,077) had never been in a PCC while 6.4% (69/1,077) had been in a PCC but were not registered in the SCCR, due to incomplete data flow. In all diagnostic groups and in all age groups, a certain proportion of children was treated outside a PCC, but this proportion was largest in children suffering from malignant bone tumors/soft tissue sarcomas and from malignant epithelial neoplasms, and in older children. The proportion of patients treated in a PCC increased over the study period (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: One in six childhood cancer patients in Switzerland was not treated in a PCC. Whether these patients have different treatment outcomes remained unclear.

Le Groupe Prévention et Traitement des Plaies des Hospices-CHUV [The Hospices-CHUV's Wound Prevention and Treatment Group]

The treatment of wounds is a challenge that caregivers of all specialities encounter daily in the care of an ageing population and chronically ill patients. An interdisciplinary group has been created in recent years within the Hospices-CHUV to assist caregivers in their care of patients with wounds. This group has developed a variety of tools to assist decision-making and offers a range of continuing education for those employees involved in wound care. The authors describe the approach of the group and the documents produced during the first two years of experience.

EORTC Radiation Oncology Group quality assurance platform: establishment of a digital central review facility.

OBJECTIVE: Quality assurance (QA) in clinical trials is essential to ensure treatment is safely and effectively delivered. As QA requirements have increased in complexity in parallel with evolution of radiation therapy (RT) delivery, a need to facilitate digital data exchange emerged. Our objective is to present the platform developed for the integration and standardization of QART activities across all EORTC trials involving RT. METHODS: The following essential requirements were identified: secure and easy access without on-site software installation; integration within the existing EORTC clinical remote data capture system; and the ability to both customize the platform to specific studies and adapt to future needs. After retrospective testing within several clinical trials, the platform was introduced in phases to participating sites and QART study reviewers. RESULTS: The resulting QA platform, integrating RT analysis software installed at EORTC Headquarters, permits timely, secure, and fully digital central DICOM-RT based data review. Participating sites submit data through a standard secure upload webpage. Supplemental information is submitted in parallel through web-based forms. An internal quality check by the QART office verifies data consistency, formatting, and anonymization. QART reviewers have remote access through a terminal server. Reviewers evaluate submissions for protocol compliance through an online evaluation matrix. Comments are collected by the coordinating centre and institutions are informed of the results. CONCLUSIONS: This web-based central review platform facilitates rapid, extensive, and prospective QART review. This reduces the risk that trial outcomes are compromised through inadequate radiotherapy and facilitates correlation of results with clinical outcomes.

Treatment of severe infectious purpura in children with human plasma from donors immunized with Escherichia coli J5: a prospective double-blind study. J5 study Group.

To evaluate the efficacy of anti-J5 serum in the treatment of severe infectious purpura, 73 children were randomized to receive either anti-J5 (40) or control (33) plasma. Age, blood pressure, and biologic risk factors were similar in both groups. At admission, however, tumor necrosis factor serum concentrations were 974 +/- 173 pg/ml compared with 473 +/- 85 pg/ml (P = .023) and interleukin-6 serum concentrations were 129 +/- 45 compared with 19 +/- 5 ng/ml (P = .005) in the control and treated groups, respectively. The duration of shock and the occurrence of complications were similar in both groups. The mortality rate was 36% in the control group and 25% in the treated group (P = .317; odds ratio, 0.76; 95% confidence interval, 0.46-1.26). This trend disappeared after correction for unbalances in risk factors at randomization using a logistic regression model. These results suggest that anti-j5 plasma did not affect the course or mortality of severe infectious purpura in children.

Classification of human astrocytic gliomas on the basis of gene expression: a correlated group of genes with angiogenic activity emerges as a strong predictor of subtypes.

The development of targeted treatment strategies adapted to individual patients requires identification of the different tumor classes according to their biology and prognosis. We focus here on the molecular aspects underlying these differences, in terms of sets of genes that control pathogenesis of the different subtypes of astrocytic glioma. By performing cDNA-array analysis of 53 patient biopsies, comprising low-grade astrocytoma, secondary glioblastoma (respective recurrent high-grade tumors), and newly diagnosed primary glioblastoma, we demonstrate that human gliomas can be differentiated according to their gene expression. We found that low-grade astrocytoma have the most specific and similar expression profiles, whereas primary glioblastoma exhibit much larger variation between tumors. Secondary glioblastoma display features of both other groups. We identified several sets of genes with relatively highly correlated expression within groups that: (a). can be associated with specific biological functions; and (b). effectively differentiate tumor class. One prominent gene cluster discriminating primary versus nonprimary glioblastoma comprises mostly genes involved in angiogenesis, including VEGF fms-related tyrosine kinase 1 but also IGFBP2, that has not yet been directly linked to angiogenesis. In situ hybridization demonstrating coexpression of IGFBP2 and VEGF in pseudopalisading cells surrounding tumor necrosis provided further evidence for a possible involvement of IGFBP2 in angiogenesis. The separating groups of genes were found by the unsupervised coupled two-way clustering method, and their classification power was validated by a supervised construction of a nearly perfect glioma classifier.

The Strength of Promissory Representation : What Makes MPs Change their Positions ?

The paper analyses the positional congruence between pre-election statements in the Swiss voting assistance application "smartvote" and post-election behaviour in the Swiss lower house between 2003 and 2009. For this purpose, we selected 34 smartvote questions which subsequently came up in parliament. Unlike previous studies which assessed the program-to-policy linkage of governments or party groups the paper examines the question at the level of individual MPs which seems appropriate for political systems which follow the idea of power dispersion. While the average rate of political congruence is at some 85 percent, a multivariate analysis detects the underlying factors which push or curb a candidate's propensity to change his or her mind once elections are over. The results show that positional changes are more likely if (1) MPs are freshmen, (2) individual voting behaviour is invisible to the public, (3) the vote is not about a party's core issue, (4) the MP belongs to a party which is located in the political centre, and (5) if the pre-election statement is in disagreement with the majority position of the legislative party group. The last-mentioned factor is paramount: the farer away a candidate's pre-election profile from his or her party is located, the weaker turns out to be the electoral link of promissory representation.

Using group role-playing games with gifted children and adolescents: A psychosocial intervention model

Gifted children develop asynchronously, often advanced for their age cognitively, but at or between their chronological and mental ages socially and emotionally (Robinson, 2008). In order to help gifted children and adolescents develop and practice social and emotional self-regulation skills, we investigated the use of an Adlerian play therapy approach during pen-and-paper role-playing games. Additionally, we used Goffman's (1961, 1974) social role identification and distance to encourage participants to experiment with new identities. Herein, we propose a psychosocial model of interactions during role-playing games based on Goffman's theory and Adlerian play therapy techniques, and suggest that role-playing games are an effective way of intervening with gifted children and adolescents to improve their intra- and interpersonal skills. We specifically targeted intrapersonal skills of exercising creativity, becoming self-aware, and setting individual goals by raising participants' awareness of their privately logical reasons for making decisions and their levels of social interest. We also targeted their needs and means of seeking significance in the group to promote collaboration and interaction skills with other gifted peers through role analysis, embracement, and distancing. We report results from a case study and conclude that role-playing games deserve more attention, both from researchers and clinical practitioners, because they encourage change while improving young clients' social and emotional development.

Etre le frère ou la soeur d'un enfan atteint d'un cancer: un groupe de parole [Being the sibling of a child suffering from cancer: a support group].

This paper offers a reflection on the family life and that of the siblings of a child with cancer. We will present our intervention model developed jointly by the pediatric oncology and the pediatric psychiatry units at the University Hospital CHUV in Lausanne. It is known that siblings show difficulties in dealing with the ambivalent emotions triggered by the sickness of a brother or sister. Their defence mechanisms can be heavy and may have consequences on the child's psycho-affective development and on the dynamics of the whole family. Speech groups allow the siblings to unfold an experience which is often irrepresentable. They also permit remobilization of affects frozen by the illness. This model used since 2006 in our unit responds to the wish to improve the quality of care of heavily sick children.

From Naples 1963 to Rome 2013 - A brief review of how the International Research Group on Ostracoda (IRGO) developed as a social communication system

The 1st International Symposium on Ostracoda (ISO) was held in Naples (1963). The philosophy behind this symposium and the logical outcome of what is now known as the International Research Group on Ostracoda (IRGO) is here reviewed, namely ostracodology over the last 50 years is sociologically analysed. Three different and important historic moments for the scientific achievements of this domain are recognised. The first one, between about 1963-1983, is related to applied research for the oil industry as well as to the great interest in the better description of the marine environment by both zoologists and palaeontologists. Another important aspect during this period was the work by researchers dealing with Palaeozoic ostracods, who had their own discussion group, IRGPO. Gradually, the merger of this latter group with those dealing with post-Palaeozoic ostracods at various meetings improved communication between the two groups of specialists. A second period was approximately delineated between 1983 and 2003. During this time-slice, more emphasis was addressed to environmental research with topics such as the study of global events and long-term climate change. Ostracodologists profited also from the research "politics" within national and international programmes. Large international research teams emerged using new research methods. During the third period (2003-2013), communication and collaborative research reached a global dimension. Amongst the topics of research we cite the reconstruction of palaeoclimate using transfer functions, the building of large datasets of ostracod distributions for regional and intercontinental studies, and the implementation of actions that should lead to taxonomic harmonisation. Projects within which molecular biological techniques are routinely used, combined with sophisticated morphological information, expanded now in their importance. The documentation of the ostracod description improved through new techniques to visualise morphological details, which stimulated also communication between ostracodologists. Efforts of making available ostracod information through newsletters and electronic media are evoked.