title: Management of patients with early stage lung cancer - why do some patients not receive treatment with curative intent?

authors: Lawrenson, Ross

subjects: Lung cancer

abstract: BACKGROUNDS: This study aims to understand the factors that influence whether patients receive potentially curative treatment for early stage lung cancer. A key question was whether indigenous Māori patients were less likely to receive treatment. 
METHODS: Patients included those diagnosed with early stage lung cancer in 2011-2018 and resident in the New Zealand Midland Cancer Network region. Logistic regression model was used to estimate the odds ratios of having curative surgery/ treatment. The Kaplan Meier method was used to examine the all-cause survival and Cox proportional hazard model was used to estimate the hazard ratio of death. 
RESULTS: In total 419/583 (71.9%) of patients with Stage I and II disease were treated with curative intent - 272 (46.7%) patients had curative surgery. Patients not receiving potentially curative treatment were older, were less likely to have non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), had poorer lung function and were more likely to have an ECOG performance status of 2+. Current smokers were less likely to be treated with surgery and more likely to receive treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Those who were treated with surgery had a 2-year survival of 87.8% (95% CI: 83.8-91.8%) and 5-year survival of 69.6% (95% CI: 63.2-76.0%). Stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) has equivalent effect on survival compared to curative surgery (hazard ratio: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.37-1.61). After adjustment we could find no difference in treatment and survival between Māori and non-Māori. 
CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients with stage I and II lung cancer are managed with potentially curative treatment - mainly surgery and increasingly with SABR. The outcomes of those being diagnosed with stage I and II disease and receiving treatment is positive with 70% surviving 5 years.

text: Management of patients with early stage lung cancer - why do some patients not receive treatment with curative intent? BACKGROUNDS: This study aims to understand the factors that influence whether patients receive potentially curative treatment for early stage lung cancer. A key question was whether indigenous Māori patients were less likely to receive treatment. 
METHODS: Patients included those diagnosed with early stage lung cancer in 2011-2018 and resident in the New Zealand Midland Cancer Network region. Logistic regression model was used to estimate the odds ratios of having curative surgery/ treatment. The Kaplan Meier method was used to examine the all-cause survival and Cox proportional hazard model was used to estimate the hazard ratio of death. 
RESULTS: In total 419/583 (71.9%) of patients with Stage I and II disease were treated with curative intent - 272 (46.7%) patients had curative surgery. Patients not receiving potentially curative treatment were older, were less likely to have non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), had poorer lung function and were more likely to have an ECOG performance status of 2+. Current smokers were less likely to be treated with surgery and more likely to receive treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Those who were treated with surgery had a 2-year survival of 87.8% (95% CI: 83.8-91.8%) and 5-year survival of 69.6% (95% CI: 63.2-76.0%). Stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) has equivalent effect on survival compared to curative surgery (hazard ratio: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.37-1.61). After adjustment we could find no difference in treatment and survival between Māori and non-Māori. 
CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients with stage I and II lung cancer are managed with potentially curative treatment - mainly surgery and increasingly with SABR. The outcomes of those being diagnosed with stage I and II disease and receiving treatment is positive with 70% surviving 5 years.

year: 2020

title: A life-history analysis of achievement of Māori and Pacific Island students at the Church College of New Zealand

authors: Solomon, Tereapii Elinora

subjects: Church College

abstract: The Church College of New Zealand is a private co-educational secondary school located near Hamilton, New Zealand and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Since its opening in 1958, it has hosted a large population of Polynesian students, in particular Māori.  The questions that this thesis addresses centre on the nature, history and reasons for what seems to be a disproportionately higher level of achievement amongst Māori and Pacific Island students at Church College than in New Zealand more broadly.  Through a life-history approach to research, this thesis provides an overview of the rich history behind the building of the Church College, and highlights the experiences of successful graduates over three particular timeframes - 1951-1969, 1970-1989 and the 1990s.  

A major contributing factor to the success of the students at Church College is an environment where both religious and cultural values of students are reaffirmed and considered normal.  For some students, Church College provided an environment that validated what students were being taught in their own homes.  For others, it provided a refuge from a conflicted home.  With the growing pressures of social problems within the wider community for many Māori and Pacific Island families, the school environment of  the Church College was a key factor in providing stability  and security for some students at the College.

On June 29 2006, an announcement was made by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of the phased out closure of Church College beginning in the year 2007 and eventually closing at the end of the year 2009. With Māori and Pacific Island students so under-represented in achievement and participation in education settings in New Zealand, the announcement of the closure provided an opportunity to highlight some of the successes experienced at the Church College of New Zealand.

text: A life-history analysis of achievement of Māori and Pacific Island students at the Church College of New Zealand The Church College of New Zealand is a private co-educational secondary school located near Hamilton, New Zealand and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Since its opening in 1958, it has hosted a large population of Polynesian students, in particular Māori.  The questions that this thesis addresses centre on the nature, history and reasons for what seems to be a disproportionately higher level of achievement amongst Māori and Pacific Island students at Church College than in New Zealand more broadly.  Through a life-history approach to research, this thesis provides an overview of the rich history behind the building of the Church College, and highlights the experiences of successful graduates over three particular timeframes - 1951-1969, 1970-1989 and the 1990s.  

A major contributing factor to the success of the students at Church College is an environment where both religious and cultural values of students are reaffirmed and considered normal.  For some students, Church College provided an environment that validated what students were being taught in their own homes.  For others, it provided a refuge from a conflicted home.  With the growing pressures of social problems within the wider community for many Māori and Pacific Island families, the school environment of  the Church College was a key factor in providing stability  and security for some students at the College.

On June 29 2006, an announcement was made by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of the phased out closure of Church College beginning in the year 2007 and eventually closing at the end of the year 2009. With Māori and Pacific Island students so under-represented in achievement and participation in education settings in New Zealand, the announcement of the closure provided an opportunity to highlight some of the successes experienced at the Church College of New Zealand.

year: 2008

title: Bundle-driven move analysis: Sentence initial lexical bundles in PhD abstracts

authors: Li, Liang

abstract: Rhetorical moves are discoursal units that perform communicative functions in a given genre. They have been manually identified in many previous studies taking a corpus-based approach, and these studies have provided important contributions to discourse structure theories. However, manual analysis has restricted the scale and quantity of texts under investigation and the identification of moves is likely to be influenced by researchers' prior knowledge. In contrast, a corpus-driven approach, by applying automatic computational technology to process a large number of texts, possibly results in a better representation of the moves in a genre and minimises researcher bias in move identification. This study applies one typical corpus-driven approach, a bundle-driven approach, to analyse rhetorical moves of PhD abstracts, a move-intensive genre. The study focused on 5-word sentence initial bundles. Almost all the generated bundles could be identified as move indicators. The majority of the indicated moves aligned with the moves proposed for research article abstracts in previous studies, and one new move, Structure, was identified. This study indicates the potential of a bundle-driven approach in exploring rhetorical moves and in examining the linguistic features of moves by means of lexical bundles. Pedagogical implications for EAP writing are also suggested.

text: Bundle-driven move analysis: Sentence initial lexical bundles in PhD abstracts Rhetorical moves are discoursal units that perform communicative functions in a given genre. They have been manually identified in many previous studies taking a corpus-based approach, and these studies have provided important contributions to discourse structure theories. However, manual analysis has restricted the scale and quantity of texts under investigation and the identification of moves is likely to be influenced by researchers' prior knowledge. In contrast, a corpus-driven approach, by applying automatic computational technology to process a large number of texts, possibly results in a better representation of the moves in a genre and minimises researcher bias in move identification. This study applies one typical corpus-driven approach, a bundle-driven approach, to analyse rhetorical moves of PhD abstracts, a move-intensive genre. The study focused on 5-word sentence initial bundles. Almost all the generated bundles could be identified as move indicators. The majority of the indicated moves aligned with the moves proposed for research article abstracts in previous studies, and one new move, Structure, was identified. This study indicates the potential of a bundle-driven approach in exploring rhetorical moves and in examining the linguistic features of moves by means of lexical bundles. Pedagogical implications for EAP writing are also suggested.

year: 2020