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INTRODUCTION Head and neck cancers (HNC) require high level multidisciplinary care to achieve optimal outcomes. Reporting of quality indicators (QIs) has been instigated by some health services in an effort to improve quality of care. The aim of this study was to determine the quality of care provided to patients with HNC at a single institution by analysing compliance with QIs and to explore the feasibility and utility of collecting this data. METHODS This was a single institution retrospective chart review of all patients with squamous cell HNC at Townsville Hospital who were treated with curative intent between June 2011 and June 2019. Data was entered into a RedCap database and then exported to Stata V16 for analysis. RESULTS A total of 537 patients were included in the overall study, with six patients who had a synchronous non-HNC and two patients who received previous radiotherapy (RT) to the head and neck region excluded from the outcome analysis. Overall, compliance with pre-treatment, treatment and post-treatment QIs was high, with the exception of smoking cessation support (66%), post-treatment dental review and time to post-operative RT (33% of patients within 6 weeks). The 5-year overall survival was 69.4% (CI; 64-73.2%). The cumulative incidence of locoregional relapse for the overall study cohort was 18% (CI; 14.8-21.4%). CONCLUSION Collecting and evaluating quality metrics is feasible and helps identify areas for improvement. Centres treating HNC patients should strive towards monitoring quality against benchmarks and demonstrate transparency in outcome data.

The rise of smart speakers connected to voice-controlled virtual assistants has increased the potential of more elaborate robotic devices to enter personal spaces as evidenced by the number of companies building such products. Of special interest are the so called social robots, which are intended to interact with humans in a manner that resembles more a friendly companion rather than a mere device. We organized controlled, group sessions during which a total of 97 participants of diverse ages and genders interacted with five devices: two smart speakers, two programmable artificially intelligent humanoids, and one social robot. From the analysis of survey data, we report on the opinions of our participants regarding both the usability and security features of these devices, and compare to conclusions from related studies, when applicable. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to look at the user experience with social robots focusing on security and privacy.

Black for a Day takes on “white-to-Black” racial passing through five readings of first-hand accounts. While it would be simple enough to bring up such examples of passing as nothing more than farc...

Unit testing is reported as one of the skills that graduating students lack, yet it is an essential skill for professional software developers. Understanding the challenges students face during testing can help inform practices for software testing education. To that end, we conduct an exploratory study to reveal students' perceptions of unit testing and challenges students encounter when practicing unit testing. We surveyed 54 students from two universities and gave them two testing tasks, one involving black-box test design and one involving white-box test implementation. For the tasks, we used two software projects from prior work in studying test-first development among software developers. We quantitatively analyzed the survey responses and test code properties, and qualitatively identified the mistakes and smells in the test code. We further report on our experience running this study with students. Our results regarding student perceptions show that students believe code coverage is the most important outcome for test suites. For testing practices, most students were ineffective in finding known defects. This may be due to the task design and/or challenges with understanding the source code. For testing pitfalls, we identified six test smells from student-written test code; the most common were ignoring setups in the test code and testing happy path only. These results suggest the students needed more introduction to these common testing concepts and practices in advance of the study activity. Through this experience, we have identified testing concepts that require emphasis for more effective future studies on testing behavior among students.

Debugging compiler errors is essential to programming and can be challenging for novice programmers. In introductory computer science courses, challenging errors can discourage students. One reason these errors are difficult to resolve is that most online help systems do not match a student's code. For example, online reference pages use different variable names, identifiers, and method names compared with a student's particular code. To utilize existing resources, students must wade through other people's code (which is often too advanced for novices to comprehend). This is time-consuming and does not provide novices with solutions. To address this problem, we developed MatchingRef -a reference system that helps novices resolve compiler errors. It is a web-based reference guide that catalogs common Processing/Java compiler errors. MatchingRef integrates with the Processing programming environment to provide users with explanations and that match users' particular code. It includes a list of strategies to fix each error, accompanied by one or more concrete examples. Importantly, the key feature that distinguishes MatchingRef from prior reference systems (e.g., Decaf [1], HelpMeOut [4], CodeWrite [2]) is that MatchingRef examples are all dynamically generated using variable, method, and class names from users' programming environments. There are four guiding design principles behind MatchingRef. First is readability, which is listed as a criterion that good error messages should exhibit [5]. The description from Java documentation is usually technical and causes confusion for novice programmers. Hence, we provide explanations that are less cryptic and more familiar in wording. Second is learning by examples. Examples have been shown to be effective way to learn and fix programming errors, such as in online forum like Stack Overflow [7]. Therefore, we include examples in each suggestion so that users can have a concrete idea on how to fix the problems. Third is familiarity, a common design principle across domains [3]. MatchingRef matches elements in the fixing examples with the original code of the users. Finally, our system is intended to reduce cognitive load by customizing the pages to users' code to show the relevant information. According to Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), humans have a finite ability to efficiently process input [6]. As MatchingRef provide users with matching error messages and matching names, their brain only needs to process useful information such as ways to fix the errors or roots of the errors. Users can avoid reading some information in the page multiple times such as variable names or class names because they are already familiar with them. We conducted a within-subjects pilot study (n = 4) to evaluate whether MatchingRef improved novices' performance and comprehension while debugging compiler errors. Participants interacted with two designs of our system, one with matching variable names in the examples and one without this feature. Otherwise, the systems were identical. The participants were students in introductory computer science courses that use Processing. Due to the small sample size, we could not detect significant differences in task completion time. Although the conclusions we can draw are limited, we are encouraged to evaluate MatchingRef in a more formal study.

Consolidation through mergers and acquisitions is occurring across health care as a strategic move to address the disruptive forces of complexity. While consolidation is improving the overall fitness and viability of health care organizations, it is having the opposite effect on the professionals working within them who are reporting increasing rates of burnout from ongoing complexity in the health care environment. This happens in all organizations that try to respond to complexity with traditional bureaucratic leadership approaches. What is needed is to replace bureaucratic leadership with the networked approach of complexity leadership. The idea is not to "do more with less" but to "do things better." In this article, we show how to do this by applying complexity leadership to the nursing context. Complexity leadership is a framework for enabling people and organizations for adaptability. It views leaders not as managerial implementers of top-down directives but as collaborators who work together to enhance the overall adaptability and fitness of the system. From a complexity leadership perspective, the role of nurse leaders should be not only to help the system run but also to help it run better by increasing organizational adaptability.

This article presents the first systematic review of all the existing peer-reviewed literature (n = 20) on gay and lesbian parents and their children in early childhood education settings. The review includes articles that were empirical or pedagogical practice oriented, focused exclusively on early childhood education (Birth to 5 years), and concentrated on gay and lesbian parents and their children. Considering the date range of the articles (1990–2012) and their similar content, indications are that the field of early childhood has not progressed very far in the thinking and practices in relation to gay and lesbian parents and their children. Recommendations made in 1990 are being put forth as still needed today. Implications for pedagogical change and future research needs are provided.

Children need to develop a variety of skill sets to optimize their development and manage toxic stress. Research demonstrates that developmentally appropriate play with parents and peers is a singular opportunity to promote the social-emotional, cognitive, language, and self-regulation skills that build executive function and a prosocial brain. Furthermore, play supports the formation of the safe, stable, and nurturing relationships with all caregivers that children need to thrive. Play is not frivolous: it enhances brain structure and function and promotes executive function (ie, the process of learning, rather than the content), which allow us to pursue goals and ignore distractions. When play and safe, stable, nurturing relationships are missing in a child’s life, toxic stress can disrupt the development of executive function and the learning of prosocial behavior; in the presence of childhood adversity, play becomes even more important. The mutual joy and shared communication and attunement (harmonious serve and return interactions) that parents and children can experience during play regulate the body’s stress response. This clinical report provides pediatric providers with the information they need to promote the benefits of play and and to write a prescription for play at well visits to complement reach out and read. At a time when early childhood programs are pressured to add more didactic components and less playful learning, pediatricians can play an important role in emphasizing the role of a balanced curriculum that includes the importance of playful learning for the promotion of healthy child development.

Peer-led team learning (PLTL), specifically the model known as ‘Workshops’, has been shown to contribute positively and significantly to student success in STEM courses across subjects (Gosser et al., 2001). Our research adds to the SOTL literature describing the effectiveness of Workshops by reporting on the changes in student leaders. We examine the level to which leaders acquired new skills in effective teaching and describe the pedagogical interactions in the groups they led as a result of the combination of training and experience facilitating first-year Calculus Workshop sections. This was a semester-long study on twenty-two Workshop leaders for two multi-section, introductory calculus courses at a small research university. Our method is a novel overlay of two metrics that allows, with some forethought, a robust analysis of Workshop leader outcomes that would complement any assessment of PLTL implementation faculty might choose to undertake.

Do households react to changes in the distribution of income in their localities by changing their charitable giving? The theoretical prediction of the effects of income inequality on giving is unclear. We study how changes in income inequality measured at the neighbourhood and municipality levels affect charitable giving by households in Canada between 1991 and 2006. We find that increases in inequality increase giving. Results are sensitive to the geographic dispersion of low- and high-income households in neighbourhoods within a municipality. The effect on donations is smaller in areas with high levels of inequality at both neighbourhood and municipality levels.

Open access article The Chart Show was a weekly UK TV programme showcasing music videos from the Media Research Information Bureau (MRIB) Network Chart and a range of independent and specialist pop music charts. It began broadcasting on Friday evenings on Channel 4 in April 1986 and ran for three series until September 1988. Its production company, Video Visuals, subsequently found a new home for The Chart Show with Yorkshire Television on ITV, where it went out on Saturday mornings between January 1989 and August 1998. What made the show unique in the British broadcasting context was that it was the first presenter-less pop chart programme that showcased popular music exclusively in video form. Beginning at a time when MTV was still unavailable in the UK, The Chart Show was innovatory in consolidating music video as the lingua franca of the pop singles market. Drawing on archival sources from Channel 4, and the trade and popular music presses, this article shows how The Chart Show helped shape the form of music video, contributed to its commercial status, boosted singles sales, and drove industry demand and production schedules. It argues that an appreciation of music video is dependent upon the historical specificity of its broadcast context.

In integrated development environments, developers receive compiler error messages through a variety of textual and visual mechanisms, such as popups and wavy red underlines. Although error messages are the primary means of communicating defects to developers, researchers have a limited understanding on how developers actually use these messages to resolve defects. To understand how developers use error messages, we conducted an eye tracking study with 56 participants from undergraduate and graduate software engineering courses at our university. The participants attempted to resolve common, yet problematic defects in a Java code base within the Eclipse development environment. We found that: 1) participants read error messages and the difficulty of reading these messages is comparable to the difficulty of reading source code, 2) difficulty reading error messages significantly predicts participants' task performance, and 3) participants allocate a substantial portion of their total task to reading error messages (13%--25%). The results of our study offer empirical justification for the need to improve compiler error messages for developers.

We investigate short and long-term effects of early childhood education using variation created by a policy experiment in British Columbia, Canada. Our findings imply being in kindergarten longer increases the probability of repeating the third grade, and decreases tenth grade math and reading scores. Effects are highest for low income students and males. Estimates suggest that more time in kindergarten may have a detrimental effect on future outcomes.

Knowledge of the responsibilities of engineers is the foundation for answering ethical questions about the work of engineers. This paper defines the responsibilities of engineers by considering what constitutes the nature of engineering as a particular form of activity. Specifically, this paper focuses on the ethical responsibilities of engineers qua engineers. Such responsibilities refer to the duties acquired in virtue of being a member of a group. We examine the practice of engineering, drawing on the idea of practices developed by philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, and show how the idea of a practice is important for identifying and justifying the responsibilities of engineers. To demonstrate the contribution that knowledge of the responsibilities of engineers makes to engineering ethics, a case study from structural engineering is discussed. The discussion of the failure of the Sleipner A Platform off the coast of Norway in 1991 demonstrates how the responsibilities of engineers can be derived from knowledge of the nature of engineering and its context.

Various security-oriented static analysis tools are designed to detect potential input validation vulnerabilities early in the development process. To verify and resolve these vulnerabilities, developers must retrace problematic data flows through the source code. My thesis proposes that existing tools do not adequately support the navigation of these traces. In this work I will explore the strategies developers use to navigate tainted data flow in source code and work toward solutions that support successful strategies.

Although static analysis tools detect potential code defects early in the development process, they do not fully support developers in resolving those defects. To accurately and efficiently resolve defects, developers must orchestrate several complex tasks, such as determining whether the defect is a false positive and updating the source code without introducing new defects. Without good defect resolution strategies developers may resolve defects erroneously or inefficiently. In this work, I perform a preliminary analysis of the successful and unsuccessful strategies developers use to resolve defects. Based on the successful strategies identified, I then outline a tool to support developers throughout the defect resolution process.

This article charts the history of an experiment, conducted during the autumnand winter of 1986–7, in which Channel 4 trialled an on-screen visual warningsymbol to accompany screenings of a series of international art-house films. Theso-called ‘red triangle’ experiment, though short-lived, will be considered as acase study for exploring a number of related themes. Firstly, it demonstratesChannel 4’s commitment during the 1980s to fulfilling its remit to experimentand innovate in programme form and content, in respect of its acquiredfeature film provision. Channel 4’s acquisitions significantly enlarged the rangeof international classic and art-house cinema broadcast on British television.Secondly, it reflects contemporary tensions between the new broadcaster, itsregulator the IBA, campaigners for stricter censorship of television and policymakers.The mid-1980s was a period when progressive developments in UKfilm and television culture (from the rise of home video to the advent ofChannel 4 itself) polarised opinions about freedom and regulation, which weregreatly exacerbated by the press. Thirdly, it aims to shed light on the paradoxthat, while over thirty years of audience research has consistently revealed thedesire on the part of television viewers for an on-screen ratings system, the UKis not among some forty countries that currently employ such devices on anysystematic basis. In this way the history of a specific advisory experiment maybe seen to have a bearing on current policy trends.

The key difficulty with the appellation ‘cult’ is that it remains in the gift of the giver and not the receiver. Cult is inescapably part of the discourse of reception studies, where it is couched as a floating signifier conferring status through a shared, though seldom well-defined, understanding. Concerns about cult appreciation as subcultural practice have, therefore, tended to overshadow the necessary examination of texts (films, directors, actors). The critical task must be to see if it is possible to find textual evidence for cult affiliation.

Between 1971 and 1983 the British comedy team Monty Python made four feature-length films for the cinema: 'And Now for Something Completely Different' (1971), 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' (1974), 'Monty Python's Life of Brian' (1979) and 'Monty Python's the Meaning of Life' (1983). The first and last of these exploited the sketch format on which their original BBC television show, 'Monty Python's Flying Circus', was based (four series, 1969-74). But from the early 1970s, the cult appeal of their distictive brand of surreal British humour was also marketed through audio recordings, books and live shows, gaining international recognition over 40 years culminating in the recent of the stage musical 'Spamalot'. It is the purpose of this chapter to examine the role of the Monty Python films in transforming the innovative work of a group of comedy writers and performers into worldwide popular comic currency. This affords an oppotunity to reassess the unique contribution of Monty Python to British comedy cinema.

As school leaders, principals can influence student achievement in a number of ways, such as hiring and firing of teachers, monitoring instruction and maintaining student discipline, among many others. We measure the effect of individual principals on gains in math and reading achievement between grades 4 and 7 using a value-added framework. We estimate that a one standard deviation improvement in principal quality can boost student performance by 0.289 to 0.408 standard deviations in reading and math, while the principal at the 75th percentile improves scores by 0.170 to 0.193 relative to the median principal. Our results imply that isolating the most effective principals and allocating them accordingly between schools can have a significant positive effect on reducing achievement gaps.

Single-date school entry systems create large age differences between children in the same grade. Older students have been shown in the literature to outperform younger students along many elementary school outcomes, and some post-schooling outcomes. Little evidence exists about the size of these advantages in high school. Data from British Columbia, Canada are used to estimate the effect of age on test scores in grades 4, 7, and 10. I estimate that older students still have a sizable skill advantage in grade 10 across numeracy, reading, and writing tests. The advantage is strongest for girls and low-income students. The results suggest a certain degree of permanence to age related skill differences, which may spill over and affect adult outcomes.

We explore the effects of local ethnic and religious diversity on individual donations to private charities. Using 10-year neighborhood-level panels derived from personal tax records in Canada, we find that diversity has a detrimental effect on charitable donations. A 10 percentage point increase in ethnic diversity reduces donations by 14%, and a 10 percentage point increase in religious diversity reduces donations by 10%. The ethnic diversity effect is driven by a within-group disposition among non-minorities, and is most evident in high income, but low education areas. The religious diversity effect is driven by a within-group disposition among Catholics, and is concentrated in high income and high education areas. Despite these large effects on amount donated, we find no evidence that increasing diversity affects the fraction of households that donate. Over the period studied, ethnic diversity rises by 6 percentage points and religious diversity rises by 4 percentage points; our results suggest that charities receive about 12% less in total donations. As areas like North America continue to grow more diverse over time, our results imply that these demographic changes may have significant implications for the charitable sector.