OPEN DOORS AND OPEN MINDS: WHAT FACULTY AUTHORS CAN DO TO ENSURE OPEN ACCESS TO THEIR WORK THROUGH THEIR INSTITUTION

The Internet has brought unparalleled opportunities for expanding availability of research by bringing down economic and physical barriers to sharing. The digitally networked environment promises to democratize access, carry knowledge beyond traditional research niches, accelerate discovery, encourage new and interdisciplinary approaches to ever more complex research challenges, and enable new computational research strategies. However, despite these opportunities for increasing access to knowledge, the prices of scholarly journals have risen sharply over the past two decades, often forcing libraries to cancel subscriptions. Today even the wealthiest institutions cannot afford to sustain all of the journals needed by their faculties and students. To take advantage of the opportunities created by the Internet and to further their mission of creating, preserving, and disseminating knowledge, many academic institutions are taking steps to capture the benefits of more open research sharing. Colleges and universities have built digital repositories to preserve and distribute faculty scholarly articles and other research outputs. Many individual authors have taken steps to retain the rights they need, under copyright law, to allow their work to be made freely available on the Internet and in their institutionâ s repository. And, faculties at some institutions have adopted resolutions endorsing more open access to scholarly articles. Most recently, on February 12, 2008, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) at Harvard University took a landmark step. The faculty voted to adopt a policy requiring that faculty authors send an electronic copy of their scholarly articles to the universityâ s digital repository and that faculty authors automatically grant copyright permission to the university to archive and to distribute these articles unless a faculty member has waived the policy for a particular article. Essentially, the faculty voted to make open access to the results of their published journal articles the default policy for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University. As of March 2008, a proposal is also under consideration in the University of California system by which faculty authors would commit routinely to grant copyright permission to the university to make copies of the facultyâ s scholarly work openly accessible over the Internet. Inspired by the example set by the Harvard faculty, this White Paper is addressed to the faculty and administrators of academic institutions who support equitable access to scholarly research and knowledge, and who believe that the institution can play an important role as steward of the scholarly literature produced by its faculty. This paper discusses both the motivation and the process for establishing a binding institutional policy that automatically grants a copyright license from each faculty member to permit deposit of his or her peer-reviewed scholarly articles in institutional repositories, from which the works become available for others to read and cite.

Constructive notice and independent legal advice: a study of lending institution practice

Cases on when lending institutions will be put on inquiry as to circumstances giving rise to presumption of undue influence, and results of research on lending practice of residential mortgage lenders in light of case law. [From Legal Journals Index]

Voodoo Institution or Entrepreneurial University? Spin-off Companies, the Entrepreneurial System and Regional Development in the UK

University spin-off companies occupy a prominent position in both government and university policies and aspirations for the commercialization of university research for economic benefit at regional and national levels. However, most university spin-off companies start small and remain small, reflecting founder aspirations, capabilities, and resource endowments. Based on detailed analysis of university spin-offs in Northern Ireland, it is concluded that these companies are technology lifestyle businesses not dynamic high-growth potential start-ups, and it is suggested that the prominence given to spin-offs in the analysis of technology transfer and in discussions of the economic impacts of universities is misplaced.

Neoadjuvant hormone therapy for radical prostate radiotherapy:bicalutamide monotherapy vs. luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist monotherapy: a single-institution matched-pair analysis

The purpose of this study was to compare the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response to either neoadjuvant bicalutamide (BC) monotherapy or neoadjuvant luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist (LHRHa) monotherapy and the subsequent effect on biochemical failure-free survival (BFFS) in men receiving radical radiotherapy (RT) for localized prostate cancer.

A study to evaluate the introduction of simulation as a teaching strategy for the mental health and learning disability fields of nursing, in an undergraduate nursing curriculum within one higher education institution

High Fidelity Simulation or Human Patient Simulation is an educational strategy embedded within nursing curricula throughout many healthcare educational institutions. This paper reports on an evaluative study that investigated the views of a group of Year 2 undergraduate nursing students from the mental health and the learning disability fields of nursing (n = 75) in relation to simulation as a teaching pedagogy. The study took place in the simulation suite within a School of Nursing and Midwifery in the UK. Two patient scenarios were used for the session and participants completed a 22-item questionnaire consisting of three biographical information questions and a 19-item Likert scale. Descriptive statistics were employed to illustrate the data and non-parametric testing (Mann-Whitney U test) was employed to test a number of hypotheses. Overall students were positive about the introduction of patient scenarios using the human patient simulator into the undergraduate nursing curriculum. This study used a small, convenience sample in one institution and therefore the results obtained cannot be generalised to nursing education before further research can be conducted with larger samples and a mixed-method research approach. However these results provide encouraging evidence to support the use of simulation within the mental health and the learning disability fields of nursing, and the development and implementation of further simulations to complement the students’ practicum.

Context, institution, or accountability? Exploring the factors that shape the performance of national human rights and equality bodies

The past two decades witnessed a global proliferation of national human rights and equality bodies. Yet the research literature remains critical of their performance, positing a series of explanations for the gap between the expectations of civil society and the contribution they make. Through a comparative analysis of six statutory human rights and equality bodies in the United Kingdom and Ireland, this article explores the range of factors that shape their performance.

Predictive Factors for Local Control in Primary and Metastatic Lung Tumours after Four to Five Fraction Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy: A Single Institution's Comprehensive Experience

AIMS: We report the outcomes of a large lung stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) programme for primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and pulmonary metastases. The primary study aim was to identify factors predictive for local control.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In total, 311 pulmonary tumours in 254 patients were treated between 2008 and 2011 with SABR using 48-60 Gy in four to five fractions. Local, regional and distant failure data were collected prospectively, whereas other end points were collected retrospectively. Potential clinical and dosimetric predictors of local control were evaluated using univariate and multivariate analyses.

RESULTS: Of the 311 tumours, 240 were NSCLC and 71 were other histologies. The 2 year local control rate was 96% in stage I NSCLC, 76% in colorectal cancer (CRC) metastases and 91% in non-lung/non-CRC metastases. Predictors of better local control on multivariate analysis were non-CRC tumours and a larger proportion of the planning target volume (PTV) receiving ≥100% of the prescribed dose (higher PTV V100). Among the 45 CRC metastases, a higher PTV V100 and previous chemotherapy predicted for better local control.

CONCLUSIONS: Lung SABR of 48-60 Gy/four to five fractions resulted in high local control rates for all tumours except CRC metastases. Covering more of the PTV with the prescription dose (a higher PTV V100) also resulted in superior local control.

Achieving optimal dose intensity with adjuvant chemotherapy in elderly breast cancer patients:A 10-year retrospective study in a UK institution

The study was to determine if breast cancer patients aged 65 and above could be given adjuvant chemotherapy safely while achieving an acceptable relative dose intensity of at least 85%. We identified all patients aged 65 and over who received adjuvant chemotherapy over the 10 year period, November 1999 to October 2009, and determined the proportion that achieved a relative dose intensity of at least 85% as well as the tolerability of their treatment. A total of 101 patients were identified, with a median age of 69 years (range 65-78).Of these, 25.7% of patients had at least one major comorbidity, 84.2% had a tumor size of 5 cm or less, 73.3% were node positive and 58.4% were hormone receptor positive. The chemotherapy regimens used were AC (Doxorubicin and Cyclophosphamide), FEC (Fluorouracil, Epirubicin, and Cyclophosphamide), CMF (Cyclophosphamide, Methotrexate, and Fluorouracil) and ECMF (Epirubicin followed by CMF). Seventy-nine patients (78.2%) achieved the relative dose intensity of at least 85%. With respect to toxicity, 11.9% of patients developed febrile neutropenia and 23.8% of patients required hospital admission during the treatment period, but there were no treatment-related deaths in the group. A significant proportion of patients aged 65 and above achieved the intended dose intensity of at least 85% over this 10-year period, with manageable toxicity levels. This supports the use of these regimens as adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer in this age group. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Prognostic value of sentinel node biopsy in 327 prospective melanoma patients from a single institution

AIM: To confirm the accuracy of sentinel node biopsy (SNB) procedure and its morbidity, and to investigate predictive factors for SN status and prognostic factors for disease-free survival (DFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between October 1997 and December 2004, 327 consecutive patients in one centre with clinically node-negative primary skin melanoma underwent an SNB by the triple technique, i.e. lymphoscintigraphy, blue-dye and gamma-probe. Multivariate logistic regression analyses as well as the Kaplan-Meier were performed. RESULTS: Twenty-three percent of the patients had at least one metastatic SN, which was significantly associated with Breslow thickness (p<0.001). The success rate of SNB was 99.1% and its morbidity was 7.6%. With a median follow-up of 33 months, the 5-year DFS/DSS were 43%/49% for patients with positive SN and 83.5%/87.4% for patients with negative SN, respectively. The false-negative rate of SNB was 8.6% and sensitivity 91.4%. On multivariate analysis, DFS was significantly worsened by Breslow thickness (RR=5.6, p<0.001), positive SN (RR=5.0, p<0.001) and male sex (RR=2.9, p=0.001). The presence of a metastatic SN (RR=8.4, p<0.001), male sex (RR=6.1, p<0.001), Breslow thickness (RR=3.2, p=0.013) and ulceration (RR=2.6, p=0.015) were significantly associated with a poorer DSS. CONCLUSION: SNB is a reliable procedure with high sensitivity (91.4%) and low morbidity. Breslow thickness was the only statistically significant parameter predictive of SN status. DFS was worsened in decreasing order by Breslow thickness, metastatic SN and male gender. Similarly DSS was significantly worsened by a metastatic SN, male gender, Breslow thickness and ulceration. These data reinforce the SN status as a powerful staging procedure