Clinical trial designs for rare diseases: Studies developed and discussed by the International Rare Cancers Initiative

BACKGROUND: The past three decades have seen rapid improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of most cancers and the most important contributor has been research. Progress in rare cancers has been slower, not least because of the challenges of undertaking research.

SETTINGS: The International Rare Cancers Initiative (IRCI) is a partnership which aims to stimulate and facilitate the development of international clinical trials for patients with rare cancers. It is focused on interventional--usually randomized--clinical trials with the clear goal of improving outcomes for patients. The key challenges are organisational and methodological. A multi-disciplinary workshop to review the methods used in ICRI portfolio trials was held in Amsterdam in September 2013. Other as-yet unrealised methods were also discussed.

RESULTS: The IRCI trials are each presented to exemplify possible approaches to designing credible trials in rare cancers. Researchers may consider these for use in future trials and understand the choices made for each design.

INTERPRETATION: Trials can be designed using a wide array of possibilities. There is no 'one size fits all' solution. In order to make progress in the rare diseases, decisions to change practice will have to be based on less direct evidence from clinical trials than in more common diseases.

Learning about probability from text and tables: Do color coding and labeling through an interactive-user interface help?

Learning from visual representations is enhanced when learners appropriately integrate corresponding visual and verbal information. This study examined the effects of two methods of promoting integration, color coding and labeling, on learning about probabilistic reasoning from a table and text. Undergraduate students (N = 98) were randomly assigned to learn about probabilistic reasoning from one of 4 computer-based lessons generated from a 2 (color coding/no color coding) by 2 (labeling/no labeling) between-subjects design. Learners added the labels or color coding at their own pace by clicking buttons in a computer-based lesson. Participants' eye movements were recorded while viewing the lesson. Labeling was beneficial for learning, but color coding was not. In addition, labeling, but not color coding, increased attention to important information in the table and time with the lesson. Both labeling and color coding increased looks between the text and corresponding information in the table. The findings provide support for the multimedia principle, and they suggest that providing labeling enhances learning about probabilistic reasoning from text and tables

The new suburban history, New Urbanism and the spaces in between

A review article of three recent books on suburbanization and suburbia in the USA: Andrew Friedman, Covert Capital: Landscapes of Denial and the Making of the US Empire in the Suburbs of Northern Virginia. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2013. 416pp. £19.95 pbk. Elaine Lewinnek, The Working Man's Reward: Chicago's Early Suburbs and the Roots of American Sprawl. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 239pp. 20 b&w illustrations. £30.99 hbk. Benjamin Ross, Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 249pp. £20.99 hbk.

Overstock and stock-out in Volkswagen Autoeuropa

The following work is a case study of overstock and stock-out problems at Volkswagen Autoeuropa (VWAE). It introduces the supply chain of Autoeuropa and specializes then on failures connected to inventory problems. Having a successful supply chain is important in a world where products become more and more similar as it can give to companies an edge over their competitors. The case shows three practices that VWAE uses to prevent and to overcome stock problems. Information was gathered by doing interviews with different managers, by analyzing the company’s key processes and by literature research related to the topics of supply chain management and flexibility in the supply chain. Three practices were further investigated: the use of alternative parts, support of the supplier and a rating system of suppliers. In the question section of this work the importance of flexibility and Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) when connected to supply chain management are explained. The described different practices are numerically analyzed and it is concluded that each practice brings both cost savings and the possibility of achieving target numbers to the company, showing the company’s flexibility to react to supply chain disturbances. Because of confidentiality reasons, persons in the case are fictionalized and numbers are wherever possible equalized to 100 in order to display true proportions.

Public health assessment : Railroad Avenue groundwater contamination, West Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa EPA facility ID: IA0001610963 (2004)

The Railroad Avenue groundwater contamination site (the site) is in West Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa. Located on approximately 120 acres. The site comprises mixed residential, industrial and commercial properties. Underneath the site, chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have contaminatcd the shallow (i.e., 30-50 feet deep) groundwater. These compounds have compromised several shallow wells within the West Des Moines water works system. A contamination source, however, has not yet been identified. In 1993, routine water analysis by the City of West Des Moines identified 1, 2 cis-dichlorocthylcne (1, 2 cis-DCE) at a concentration of 1.2 μg/L (micrograms) per liter of water) in the water supply. Subsequently. several shallow municipal wells were found to be contaminated by VOCs, including 1. 2 cis-DCE, trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and benzene. Five of these wells have been taken out of service. Because of the impact on the West Des Moines water supply, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has assigned the site to the National Priorities List. Surface water und sediment at the site have not been impacted by the VOCs. Testing for VOCs in surface soils has not revealed any significant VOC contamination. Subsurface soils -- generally 8 feet or greater in depth -- are contaminated with VOCs, but at levels which should not present a health hazard. The past, present, and future health hazard category chosen for this site is no apparent public health hazard. This category is used when exposure to toxins might be occurring or might have occurrcd in the past, but at levels below any known health hazard. Analysis of available environmental data has not revealed that residental or commercial water customers are or have been exposed to VOCs at concentrations that might cause any adverse health effects.

The Canada Southern Railway, extending from Detroit and Toledo to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, forms the quickest and most attractive route between the west and the east.

Includes routes and rates: p.33-64.

Active living in municipal parks and recreation : a case study

If quality of life is an important recreation outcome, then municipal parks and recreation management's efforts have to change because:· Over one-third of all the little kids in schools will be diabetic in their lifetime if the trends we are looking at continue. The average loss of life is about 15 years, and there is an average reduction in quality oflife by about 20 years (Jackson, 2007). This thesis is about municipal parks and recreation, an agency that controls and limits physical activity opportunity. It is also about active living; from an ecological perspective, a multi-disciplinary approach to incorporate physical activity into more 111 people's daily lives. In particular, this thesis examines one case --'. the Donutville Case - . with the intent of providing an explanation of how municipal parks and recreation can advance its management efforts to improve health outcomes of people suffering from daily physical activity deficits. More specifically, how can the tension between external and internal environments to municipal parks and recreation be better balanced to affect the change needed? Given that changing the current social reality is through making decisions, decision-making functions connected with systems theory helps identify how recreation authorities can more effectively influence environmental physical activity determinants. , Sallis et al.' (2006) ·social ecological model provides the a priori focus on active living decision-making. An integrated analogous emerging logic model is developed and presented as an efficacious strategy for how municipal parks and recreation decisionmakers can affect change. Keywords: physical activity, benefits outcomes, healthy livable community, quality of life, systems thinking, social ecological model, deci~ion-making, logic modeling, municipal parks and recreation, active living.

Rick Bell Family fonds, 1874-1875, 1879, 1884, 1886, 1888-1889, 1896, 1898, 1909-1910, 1939, 1945, n.d.

Lewis Tyrell married Jane Gains on August 31, 1849 in Culpeper Court House, Virginia. Jane Gains was a spinster. Lewis Tyrell died September 25, 1908 at his late residence, Vine St. and Welland Ave., St. Catharines, Ont. at the age of 81 years, 5 months. Jane Tyrell died March 1, 1886, age 64 years. Their son? William C. Tyrell died January 15, 1898, by accident in Albany, NY, age 33 years, 3 months. John William Taylor married Susan Jones were married in St. Catharines, Ont. on August 10, 1851 by William Wilkinson, a Baptist minister. On August 9, 1894 Charles Henry Bell (1871-1916), son of Stephen (1835?-1876) and Susan Bell, married Mary E. Tyrell (b. 1869?) daughter of Lewis and Alice Tyrell, in St. Catharines Ontario. By 1895 the Bell’s were living in Erie, Pennsylvania where children Delbert Otto (b. 1895) and Edna Beatrice (b. 1897) were born. By 1897 the family was back in St. Catharines where children Lewis Tyrell (b. 1899), Gertrude Cora (b. 1901), Bessie Jane (b. 1902), Charles Henry (b. 1906), Richard Nelson (b. 1911) and William Willoughby (b. 1912) were born. Charles Henry Bell operated a coal and ice business on Geneva Street. In the 1901 Census for St. Catharines, the Bell family includes the lodger Charles Henry Hall. Charles Henry Hall was born ca. 1824 in Maryland, he died in St. Catharines on November 11, 1916 at the age of 92. On October 24, 1889 Charles Hall married Susan Bell (1829-1898). The 1911 Census of Canada records Charles Henry Hall residing in the same household as Charles Henry and Mary Bell. The relationship to the householder is step-father. It is likely that after Stephen Bell’s death in 1876, his widow, Susan Bell married Hall. In 1939, Richard Nelson Bell, son of Charles Henry and Mary Tyrell Bell, married Iris Sloman. Iris (b. 22 May 1912 in Biddulph Township, Middlesex, Ontario) was the daughter of Albert (son of Joseph b. 1870 and Elizabeth Sloman, b. 1872) and Josie (Josephine Ellen) Butler Sloman of London, Ont. Josie (b. 1891) was the daughter of Everett Richard and Elizabeth McCarthy (or McCarty) Butler, of Lucan Village, Middlesex North. According to the 1911 Census of Canada, Albert, a Methodist, was a porter on the railroad. His wife, Josephine, was a Roman Catholic. Residing with Albert and Josie were Sanford and Sadie Butler and Sidney Sloman, likely siblings of Albert and Josephine. The Butler family is descended from Peter Butler, a former slave, who had settled in the Wilberforce Colony in the 1830s. Rick Bell b. 1949 in Niagara Falls, Ont. is the son of Richard Nelson Bell. In 1979, after working seven years as an orderly at the St. Catharines General Hospital while also attending night school at Niagara College, Rick Bell was hired by the Thorold Fire Dept. He became the first Black professional firefighter in Niagara. He is a founding member of the St. Catharines Junior Symphony; attended the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1966 and also performed with the Lincoln & Welland Regimental Band and several other popular local groups. Upon the discovery of this rich archive in his mothers’ attic he became passionate about sharing his Black ancestry and the contributions of fugitive slaves to the heritage Niagara with local school children. He currently resides in London, Ont.

Second Welland Canal - Book 1, Survey Map 2 - Lock 1 and Port Dalhousie

Survey map of the Second Welland Canal created by the Welland Canal Company showing the areas in and around Port Dalhousie and Grantham Township. Identified structures associated with the Canal include Lock 1, East and West Piers, Collector's Office, Lock Tender's House and the new towing path. The surveyors' measurements and notes can be seen in red and black ink and pencil. Local area landmarks and businesses are also identified and include streets and roads (ex. Road to St. Catharines, Side Line, Old Road to Port Dalhousie, Road to Niagara), the Welland Railway and its structures (ex. freight sheds, wood shed, raised platform, elevator, cranes, water tank, turn table, and passenger station), G. A. Clark's Wood Yard, Clark's Wood Office, Alex Muir's Dry Dock, Donald, Andrews and Ross' Dry Dock, RandJ Laurie Flouring Mill, R. Laurie and Company Grist Mill and A. Morrison Saw Mill. A New Road to St. Catharines is featured in red ink. Properties and property owners of note are: Concession 1 Lots 19, 20 and 21, John Christie, and John Clark.

Second Welland Canal - Book 2, Survey Map 4 - Locks 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 in Grantham

Survey map of the Second Welland Canal created by the Welland Canal Company showing the Grantham Township along the outskirts of Merritton. Identified structures associated with the Canal include Locks 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, Lock House Lot, and the towing path. The surveyors' measurements and notes can be seen in red and black ink and pencil. Several stones likely used in the measurements are identified on the map. Local area landmarks are also identified and include streets and roads(ex. Hartzel Road and Macadamized Road), the Great Western Railroad, Swing Bridge, Thorold Station and its structures (ex. freight house, office, water tank, and wood house), Gordon and Mackay Houses, Gordon and Mackay's Cotton Mill, hydraulic race, a wharf, pond, and an unnamed bridge. Properties and property owners of note are: Concession 9 Lots 12 and 13, A. Bradley, John O'Coner, G. Grant, J. Bradley, J. Vanderburgh, O. Clifford and a parcel of land leased Gordon and Mackay.

Appleton's northern and eastern Traveller's guide

Full Title: Appleton's northern and eastern Traveller's guide : with new and authentic maps, illustrating those divisions of the country; forming likewise a complete guide to the Middle States, Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, the White Mountains, Catskill Mountains, Niagara and Trenton Falls, Saratoga and Virginia Springs andc.; with the fashionable and healthful resort, and full and accurate descriptions of the principal cities, towns, villages; with distances, fares, andc.; illustrated with numerous maps and plans of cities, engraved on steel, and several wood engravings

Message from the President of the United States, in relation to the claim of Virginia, an account of interest paid by that State, on moneys borrowed for the payment of the militia thereof, for services rendered the United States

April 13, 1824. Printed by order of the Senate of the United States. At head of title: 18th congress, 1st session. [64]. Printed by Cales and Seaton

Papers and Practical Illustrations of Public Works of Recent Construction, both British and American (1856)

Memoirs of the late Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Bentham, with an account of his inventions -- The Paddock Viaduct / by John Hawkshaw -- Lockwood Viaduct / by John Hawkshaw -- Denby Dale Viaduct / by John Hawkshaw -- Tithebarn Street Viaduct, Liverpool / by John Hawkshaw -- Newark Dyke Bridge on the Great Northern Railway / by Joseph Cubitt -- Mountain top track in the state of Virginia / by Charles Ellet -- Preliminaries to good building / by Edward Lacy Garbett / Suggestions for increasing the circulating medium in aid of commerce and mechanical enterprise