75 research outputs found
The application of functional imaging parameters as predictive and prognostic biomarkers to guide treatment individualisation in head and neck cancer
No full textDesign and development of an interactive design tutor
No full textThe IT2000 initiative promises to bring high speed internet access to every home and office in Singapore. SingaporeOne (S-One) is the realization of this promise. With it, Singaporeans can access many different products and services as well as interactive applications over the internet using high speed networks. However, public acceptance of these applications has not been encouraging.Master of Engineering (MPE
Using performance assessment in secondary school mathematics: an empirical study in a Singapore classroom
No full textThis article reports an exploratory study on using performance assessment in mathematics instruction in a high-performing secondary school in Singapore. An intact mathematics class participated in the study, and received chapter-based performance tasks as intervention during regular mathematics lessons for about one and a half school years. The performance tasks used included authentic and/or open-ended tasks. The students’ academic achievements and attitudes in mathematics were compared with a comparison class that did not receive the intervention. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected, mainly through questionnaire surveys, performance task tests, conventional school exams, and interviews with students and teachers. The results suggest that the students receiving the intervention performed significantly better than their counterparts in solving conventional exam problems, and in general they also showed more positive changes in attitudes towards mathematics and mathematics learning. The students from the experimental class also expressed positive views about the benefits of using performance tasks in promoting their ability in higher order thinking, though no statistically significant difference was detected between the two classes of students in solving unconventional tasks before and after intervention. Overall, the results appear to support teachers’ using contextualised problems in real life situations and open-ended investigations in students’ learning of mathematic
Transitioning from high school to college: first-generation college students' perceptions of secondary school counselor's role in college preparation
No full textIncludes bibliographical references
Patient experience of head and neck treatment on a 1.5 T MR-Linac: is the ATS-lite adaptive solution tolerable?
No full textIntroduction: Head and neck cancer (HNC) treatment on the Unity MR-Linac (MRL) (Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden) has been developed using the novel adapt-to-shape Lite (ATS-lite) method to create clinically acceptable adaptive treatments clinician-free. Here we investigate patient experience and acceptability of this technique. Methods: Ten HNC patients treated to 65 Gy in 30 fractions with MRI-guided adaptive radiotherapy (MRIgART) within the PERMIT trial (NCT03727698), were included. Data collected comprised patient demographics, treatment time, and patient experience, using an established MRL questionnaire.Back-up plans were created for use on the conventional linac with CT guidance, to prevent missed fractions. The frequency of use was collected and categorised to reflect the cause. Results: The median total treatment time for ATS-lite method was 39 min. The percentage of treatments under 60 mins was 98.8 %.Questionnaire response rate was 85% and individual question response rate was 99%. Ninety-six percent of responses scored 2 or 3 on the Likert scale, a positive answer. The lowest scoring question was “I forced myself to manage the situation,” with a mean (SD) of 2.4 (0.9).The MRL delivered 84.7 % of treatments. The back-up plan was used for 46 fractions, 7 attributed to patient tolerance (n = 2 patients). Conclusion: Average treatment times for the ATS-lite HNC MRIgART are acceptable and faster than reported ATP treatment times. Patient-reported experience was extremely positive. Use of back-up plans attributable to lack of patient tolerance was low. This technique can used with the confidence that patient experience is not negatively impacted
Acute severe hypocalcaemia after initiation of a selective RET-inhibitor in medullary thyroid cancer
No full textMedullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare subtype of thyroid cancer originating from parafollicular C-cells of the thyroid. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors are used to treat patients with advanced MTC. Selpercatinib is a highly selective RET inhibitor used in the treatment of advanced RET-mutated MTC, having shown higher potency and fewer side effects compared to multikinase inhibitors in clinical trials. As a relatively new drug, its toxicity profile continues to be characterised. This report describes a case of severe acute hypocalcaemia in a 64-year-old male with advanced MTC treated with selpercatinib. The patient, who had stable hypoparathyroidism, experienced acute hypocalcaemia (corrected calcium 1.4 mmol/L) 2 weeks after initiating selpercatinib, requiring hospitalisation for calcium supplementation and monitoring. Selpercatinib was temporarily withheld and later reintroduced at a lower dose, successfully preventing recurrence of hypocalcaemia. Investigations excluded other common or important causes of hypocalcaemia, which led us to conclude that this could be a drug-related adverse event. This case highlights the need for careful monitoring of electrolyte disturbances in patients on selpercatinib, particularly those with pre-existing hypoparathyroidism. Although rare, the development of hypocalcaemia with RET inhibitors may necessitate dose interruptions and adjustments. Our experience has also illustrated that re-challenge with selpercatinib is feasible with appropriate management strategies
Population Aging, Productivity, and Growth in Living Standards
No full textPopulation aging creates both a problem (higher taxes on a small group of workers to finance higher public pension and health care costs) and automatic adjustments that help to address that problem. The prospect of longer retirement involves an increased incentive to invest in physical capital, and labour scarcity leads to higher pre-tax wages and an increased incentive to invest in human capital. Thus, productivity growth can be favourably affected by aging. The likely empirical magnitude of this beneficial effect is assessed in this paper.productivity; population aging
A New Bismarckian Regime? Path Dependence and Possible Regime Shifts in Korea’s Evolving Pension System
No full textThis paper sheds light on the current state and the likely future development of Korea’s evolving pension system by analyzing it from a comparative perspective. It shows that, because of its many institutional layers, the Korean pension system could evolve into one of several different types of pension regimes: if the National Pension Scheme (NPS) were to continue to be dominant and occupational pensions continued to be marginal, a classic Bismarckian system would emerge; if the NPS were to be significantly reduced and occupational pensions were to be significantly expanded, a Bismarckian-light system would be the outcome; if other changes were to occur—such as the conversion of the basic pension into a universal, poverty-preventing pension and the partial replacement of the NPS by a mandatory personal or occupational-pension scheme—a mixed regime would emerge. The paper argues that the emergence and consolidation of a Bismarckian-style, single-pillar system is more likely than the shift to one of the variants of the multi-pillar system, such as the Bismarckian-light and the mixed regime type. Since there are many sources of path dependence that reinforce the Bismarckian path of development, a shift to a different pension regime is very difficult. For example, large accumulated entitlements and the strong redistributive role of the NPS make it difficult to reduce the public, earnings-related pension program, and significant accumulated entitlements and the important role of the severance pay scheme in company financing also make it difficult to expand occupational pensions.welfare state, pension systems, path dependence, institutional change, Korea
Integrating new assessment strategies into mathematics classrooms: an exploratory study in Singapore primary and secondary schools
No full textEducational researchers and practitioners have in recent years paid mounting attention to the importance of new assessment (or the so-called alternative assessment) strategies in Mathematics instruction to better reflect the new desired educational goals and shifted values in education. However, research is wanting in this area, particularly in Singapore's educational setting. This project seeks to investigate the influence of using new assessment strategies in Mathematics teaching and learning on students' achievements, in both the cognitive and affective domains, in our local school settings. A quasi-experimental study with about 15-20 teachers at primary and lower secondary levels will be carried out to assess the impact of using a variety of strategies (e.g., projects, journal writing, oral presentation, performance tasks, student self-assessment, classroom observation and interview, etc.) for three school semesters on students' learning. The project will also look into issues concerning how to use new assessment strategies effectively in classrooms in local schools. For this purpose, data will be collected from classroom observation, interviews with teachers and students, and questionnaire surveys. It is hoped that the project will provide research-based evidence and practical suggestions for promoting the effective use of alternative assessment in Singapore Mathematics classrooms. <br/
The 1961 Kampong Bukit Ho Swee fire and the making of modern Singapore
No full textBy 1970, Singapore’s urban landscape was dominated by high-rise blocks of planned public housing built by the People’s Action Party government, signifying the establishment of a high modernist nation-state. A decade earlier, the margins of the City had been dominated by kampongs, home to semi-autonomous communities of low-income Chinese families which freely built, and rebuilt, unauthorised wooden houses. This change was not merely one of housing but belied a more fundamental realignment of state-society relations in the 1960s. Relocated in Housing and Development Board flats, urban kampong families were progressively integrated into the social fabric of the emergent nation-state. This study examines the pivotal role of an event, the great Kampong Bukit Ho Swee fire of 1961, in bringing about this transformation. The redevelopment of the fire site in the aftermath of the calamity brought to completion the British colonial regime’s ‘emergency’ programmes of resettling urban kampong dwellers in planned accommodation, in particular, of building emergency public housing on the sites of major fires in the 1950s. The PAP’s far greater political resolve, and the timing of and state of emergency occasioned by the scale of the 1961 disaster, enabled the government to rehouse the Bukit Ho Swee fire victims in emergency housing in record time. This in turn provided the HDB with a strategic platform for clearing other kampongs and for transforming their residents into model citizens of the nation-state. The 1961 fire’s symbolic usefulness extended into the 1980s and beyond, in sanctioning the PAP’s new housing redevelopment schemes. The official account of the inferno has also become politically useful for the government of today for disciplining a new generation of Singaporeans against taking the nation’s progress for granted. Against these exalted claims of the fire’s role in the Singapore Story, this study also examines the degree of actual change and continuity in the social and economic lives of the people of Bukit Ho Swee after the inferno. In some crucial ways, the residents continued to occupy a marginal place in society while pondering, too, over the unresolved question of the cause of the fire. These continuities of everyday life reflect the ambivalence with which the citizenry regarded the high modernist state in contemporary Singapore
- …
