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Purpose: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) aged 15-39 at diagnosis have very low cancer clinical trial accrual rates. To date, no studies have examined attitudes toward clinical trial participation in this age range to determine if certain individuals are less likely to enroll if offered participation. The current study assessed attitudes toward participation using the Cancer Treatment Subscale of the Attitudes toward Cancer Trials Scales. Methods: Data were collected from a sample of leukemia and lymphoma survivors (n=99) and a healthy college student sample (n=397). Following a principal components analysis, two subscales-Personal Barriers/Safety and Personal Benefits-were retained for analysis. Results: In the cancer survivor group, only 14 (13.3%) reported being offered participation in a cancer clinical trial, and only 8 of those 14 (7.6% of survivors) participated. Responses from leukemia and lymphoma survivors revealed no significant relationships between age, gender, race/ethnicity, clinical trial participation, insurance status, or social class with Personal Benefits or Personal Barriers/Safety. Healthy college females had more negative Personal Barriers/Safety attitudes compared to males after adjusting for race/ethnicity and social class (p=0.01), but no associations were present when examining Personal Benefits as an outcome. Conclusion: This preliminary investigation suggests that drivers of attitudes toward clinical trial participation in AYAs are not well understood and may impact cancer trial participation. Future work should focus on defining attitudes toward cancer clinical trials in the AYA population and developing interventions to increase awareness, knowledge, and positive attitudes toward participating in cancer research.

Purpose: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) aged 15-39 at diagnosis have very low cancer clinical trial accrual rates. To date, no studies have examined attitudes toward clinical trial participation in this age range to determine if certain individuals are less likely to enroll if offered participation. The current study assessed attitudes toward participation using the Cancer Treatment Subscale of the Attitudes toward Cancer Trials Scales. Methods: Data were collected from a sample of leukemia and lymphoma survivors (n=99) and a healthy college student sample (n=397). Following a principal components analysis, two subscales-Personal Barriers/Safety and Personal Benefits-were retained for analysis. Results: In the cancer survivor group, only 14 (13.3%) reported being offered participation in a cancer clinical trial, and only 8 of those 14 (7.6% of survivors) participated. Responses from leukemia and lymphoma survivors revealed no significant relationships between age, gender, race/ethnicity, clinical trial participation, insurance status, or social class with Personal Benefits or Personal Barriers/Safety. Healthy college females had more negative Personal Barriers/Safety attitudes compared to males after adjusting for race/ethnicity and social class (p=0.01), but no associations were present when examining Personal Benefits as an outcome. Conclusion: This preliminary investigation suggests that drivers of attitudes toward clinical trial participation in AYAs are not well understood and may impact cancer trial participation. Future work should focus on defining attitudes toward cancer clinical trials in the AYA population and developing interventions to increase awareness, knowledge, and positive attitudes toward participating in cancer research.

The article highlights an international evidence about the factors that will contribute to an increase in teacher retention. Topics mentioned include the impact of school leadership practices and organizational climate on job satisfaction, work environment and mental wellbeing of teachers, the main practices for efficient school principals, the strategies for enhancing leadership practices, and the key characteristics of effective school leaders.

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We present new U-Pb zircon ages, bulk rock chemistry, and field observations for volcanic and plutonic rocks of the Jurassic Bonanza arc of Vancouver Island, Canada, a proposed southern extension of the Talkeetna arc crustal section in Alaska. Rather than a synchronous and contiguous arc crustal section, the new field and geochronological data reveal three distinct periods in the arc development, wherein the oldest, "prima" (205-195 Ma), was built upon by the youngest, "dopo" (<180 Ma), with both preserving their volcanic and plutonic sections of the upper crust. In contrast, the middle "mezza" period of arc construction (195-180 Ma) has no volcanic expression and is represented almost exclusively as plutons in the middle crust emplaced below the brittle-ductile transition, and exhumed mainly along the western and southern coast of Vancouver Island. The new data and structural interpretation refute earlier models suggesting that the deeper, more mafic rocks of the middle crust (West Coast Complex) are either restite or the crystal cumulates that form the more silicic plutonic rocks (Island Plutonic Suite) in the upper crust. Both the middle and upper plutonic components are remarkably similar to average continental crust. The growth and development of the Bonanza arc in an oceanic realm--but on a thick, pre-existing marine plateau--promoted a "continentalization" of its bulk composition within ~10 m.y., similar to what is proposed to have occurred in Costa Rica over the same timescale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oyster reefs have declined globally, impacting ecosystem structure, function, and services. The flat oyster Ostrea angasi was a dominant ecosystem engineer throughout southern Australia, forming extensive reefs now diminished to <1% of historical coverage. Restoration of O. angasi has gained traction over the last decade, exclusively in subtidal habitats. However, O. angasi historically occurred in the intertidal zone, which could broaden restoration opportunities and success. There is little information quantifying factors that influence the performance of O. angasi in intertidal habitats. To test survival of O. angasi under thermal and desiccation stress experienced in intertidal habitats under winter, summer, and heatwave conditions, we emersed individuals from three age classes (1, 4, and 7 months old) at air temperatures of 10, 25, or 40°C in a series of laboratory experiments. Oysters exhibited moderate tolerance to exposure, with survival depending on interactions between emersion duration and temperature, and emersion duration and shell length. Survival broadly increased with shell length, but decreased with temperature and emersion duration. We used model predictions from the laboratory experiments to simulate intertidal survival rates at a potential restoration site in southern Australia. The simulation revealed low survival when low tides coincided with heatwaves. Field validation is needed to understand the effects of repeated tidal cycles and other biotic and abiotic influences. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for extending the restoration range of O. angasi into the low intertidal zone and can be considered when mitigating transport‐related mortality during large‐scale restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 2015 the Department for Education (DfE) permitted a grammar school in Tonbridge, Kent, to open up an annexe in Sevenoaks, 10 miles away. Amidst claims that the annexe was essentially a new grammar school, the decision reignited an old debate about the value of academically-selective "grammar" schools in England. The intensity of feeling is perhaps surprising given that all but a small number of grammar schools have long been replaced by mixed-ability "comprehensive" schools. Yet, the matter taps into longstanding debates around standards, social mobility, opportunity and accessibility. A resurgence of these discussions is now playing out in a changed political and educational landscape characterised by school autonomy, diversity of provision and school choice. This article describes the key shifts that have taken place in English school organisation and policy thinking since the establishment of the tripartite system and the recent emergence of new roles and opportunities for grammar schools. This is followed by a review of the evidence on the effectiveness and wider social impact of selective education. The article concludes by reframing the grammar school debate in light of the evidence and the current system, arguing that issues around system performance and social segregation need to be examined more broadly and that the most fruitful debates to be had are around admissions and accountability mechanisms rather than structures and school types.

PurposeCancer registry survival analyses have shown that adolescent and young adult patients with low socioeconomic status (SES) have reduced survival compared to those with higher SES. The objective of this study was to determine whether neighborhood- (nSES) and/or individual-level SES (iSES) also predicted current quality of life in adolescent and young adult survivors.MethodsThe Socioeconomics and Quality of Life study surveyed adolescent and young adult survivors of leukemia and lymphoma at least one year post-diagnosis using population-based ascertainment. Factor analysis was used to create a multidimensional age-relevant iSES score and compared with a preexisting census-block-group derived nSES score. Four quality of life domains were assessed: physical health, psychological and emotional well-being, social relationships, and life skills. Nested multivariable linear regression models were run to test the associations between both SES measures and quality of life and to compare the explanatory power of nSES and iSES.ResultsData from 110 individuals aged 16-40 were included in the final analysis. After adjustment for sociodemographic confounders, low nSES was associated only with poorer physical health, whereas low iSES was related to poorer quality of life in all four domains with iSES accounting for an additional 14, 12, 25, and 10 % of the variance, respectively.ConclusionsMeasures of SES at the individual as compared to the neighborhood level may be stronger indicators of outcomes in adolescents and young adults, which has important implications for SES measurement in the context of cancer surveillance.

Adolescent and young adult cancer survivors face unique challenges not systematically addressed by cancer clinicians. Four focus groups and two individual interviews were conducted with 19 survivors to profile experiences and identify key concerns for future interventions. The resultant themes reflect cancer care continuum challenges (such as delays in diagnosis, problems with adherence), psychosocial concerns (such as infertility and reproductive concerns, changing social relationships, financial burden), and the paradox of being diagnosed with cancer as a young adult. Future intervention development for adolescent and young adult survivors should involve patient voices at each stage of the research process.

Shorter survival has been associated with low socioeconomic status (SES) among elderly non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients; however it remains unknown whether the same relationship holds for younger patients. We explored the California Cancer Registry (CCR), to investigate this relationship in adolescent and young adult (AYA) NHL patients diagnosed from 1996 to 2005. A case-only survival analysis was conducted to examine demographic and clinical variables hypothesized to be related to survival. Included in the final analysis were 3,489 incident NHL cases. In the multivariate analyses, all-cause mortality (ACM) was higher in individuals who had later stage at diagnosis (P < .05) or did not receive first-course chemotherapy (P < .05). There was also a significant gradient decrease in survival, with higher ACM at each decreasing quintile of SES (P < .001). Overall results were similar for lymphoma-specific mortality. In the race/ethnicity stratified analyses, only non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs) had a significant SES-ACM trend (P < .001). Reduced overall and lymphoma-specific survival was associated with lower SES in AYAs with NHL, although a significant trend was only observed for NHWs.

Advances have been made in treatment and outcomes for pediatric cancer. However adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer have not experienced similar relative improvements. We undertook a study to develop the methodology necessary for epidemiologic cancer research in these age groups. Our goal was to create the Kids, Adolescents, and Young Adults Cancer (KAYAC) project to create a resource to address research questions relevant to this population. We used a combination of clinic and population-based ascertainment to enroll 111 cases aged 0-39 for this methodology development study. The largest groups of cancer types enrolled include: breast cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, and melanoma. The overall participation rate is 69.8% and varies by age and tumor type. The study included patients, mothers, and fathers. The methods used to establish this resource are described, and the values of the resource in studies of childhood and young adult cancer are outlined.

Mathematical proofs are not sequences of arbitrary deductive steps--each deductive step is, to some extent, rational. This paper aims to identify and characterize the particular form of rationality at play in mathematical proofs. The approach adopted consists in viewing mathematical proofs as reports of proof activities--that is, sequences of deductive inferences--and in characterizing the rationality of the former in terms of that of the latter. It is argued that proof activities are governed by specific norms of rational planning agency, and that a deductive step in a mathematical proof qualifies as rational whenever the corresponding deductive inference in the associated proof activity figures in a plan that has been constructed rationally. It is then shown that mathematical proofs whose associated proof activities violate these norms are likely to be judged as defective by mathematical agents, thereby providing evidence that these norms are indeed present in mathematical practice. We conclude that, if mathematical proofs are not mere sequences of deductive steps, if they possess a rational structure, it is because they are the product of rational planning agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]