title: Surgical treatment of early stage breast cancer in the Auckland and Waikato regions of New Zealand

authors: Campbell, Ian

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Background
The aim of this study was to understand the factors influencing the use of surgical options by New Zealand women with newly diagnosed breast cancer.

Methods
Using data from the Auckland and Waikato breast cancer registers, we included 11 798 women diagnosed with stage I–III breast cancer from June 2000 to May 2013. The characteristics of women receiving different surgical treatments and having immediate breast reconstruction following mastectomy were examined. A logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio of having breast‐conserving surgery (BCS) versus mastectomy and immediate post‐mastectomy reconstruction. Bilateral breast cancer cases and women with unilateral breast cancer, but who had bilateral surgery, were also identified.

Results
Fifty‐two percent of women received BCS and 44% had mastectomy over the study period. Key influences associated with BCS were age, mode of diagnosis, socio‐economic status and public or private treatment. Just under half of the women who underwent bilateral surgery did not have bilateral cancer. Nineteen percent of women undergoing mastectomy underwent immediate reconstruction. Implant use increased slightly over the study period but there was a decrease in the use of autologous flap procedures.

Conclusion
Surgical management of women with localized breast cancer was generally in line with guidelines, but with potential to further increase the use of breast conservation and immediate reconstruction in suitable cases.

text: Surgical treatment of early stage breast cancer in the Auckland and Waikato regions of New Zealand Background
The aim of this study was to understand the factors influencing the use of surgical options by New Zealand women with newly diagnosed breast cancer.

Methods
Using data from the Auckland and Waikato breast cancer registers, we included 11 798 women diagnosed with stage I–III breast cancer from June 2000 to May 2013. The characteristics of women receiving different surgical treatments and having immediate breast reconstruction following mastectomy were examined. A logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio of having breast‐conserving surgery (BCS) versus mastectomy and immediate post‐mastectomy reconstruction. Bilateral breast cancer cases and women with unilateral breast cancer, but who had bilateral surgery, were also identified.

Results
Fifty‐two percent of women received BCS and 44% had mastectomy over the study period. Key influences associated with BCS were age, mode of diagnosis, socio‐economic status and public or private treatment. Just under half of the women who underwent bilateral surgery did not have bilateral cancer. Nineteen percent of women undergoing mastectomy underwent immediate reconstruction. Implant use increased slightly over the study period but there was a decrease in the use of autologous flap procedures.

Conclusion
Surgical management of women with localized breast cancer was generally in line with guidelines, but with potential to further increase the use of breast conservation and immediate reconstruction in suitable cases.

year: 2018

title: Privacy preserving computation by fragmenting individual bits and distributing gates

authors: Will, Mark Antony

subjects: computer science

abstract: Solutions that allow the computation of arbitrary operations over data securely in the cloud are currently impractical. The holy grail of cryptography, fully homomorphic encryption, still requires minutes to compute a single operation. In order to provide a practical solution, this paper proposes taking a different approach to the problem of securely processing data. FRagmenting Individual Bits (FRIBs), a scheme which preserves user privacy by distributing bit fragments across many locations, is presented. Privacy is maintained by each server only receiving a small portion of the actual data, and solving for the rest results in a vast number of possibilities. Functions are defined with NAND logic gates, and are computed quickly as the performance overhead is shifted from computation to network latency. This paper details our proof of concept addition algorithm which took 346ms to add two 32-bit values-paving the way towards further improvements to get computations completed under 100ms.

text: Privacy preserving computation by fragmenting individual bits and distributing gates Solutions that allow the computation of arbitrary operations over data securely in the cloud are currently impractical. The holy grail of cryptography, fully homomorphic encryption, still requires minutes to compute a single operation. In order to provide a practical solution, this paper proposes taking a different approach to the problem of securely processing data. FRagmenting Individual Bits (FRIBs), a scheme which preserves user privacy by distributing bit fragments across many locations, is presented. Privacy is maintained by each server only receiving a small portion of the actual data, and solving for the rest results in a vast number of possibilities. Functions are defined with NAND logic gates, and are computed quickly as the performance overhead is shifted from computation to network latency. This paper details our proof of concept addition algorithm which took 346ms to add two 32-bit values-paving the way towards further improvements to get computations completed under 100ms.

year: 2016

title: Te Tuhirau i Rehu i Ringa: Translating Sacred and Sensitive Texts: An Indigenous Perspective

authors: Tipene, Jillian

subjects: translation

abstract: This thesis centers on translator cognition. Through a series of interviews and think-aloud protocols (Chapters 3 – 5), it explores the ways in which a sample of translators (both Māori and non-Māori) negotiate the complex issues involved in translating between a local, Indigenous language (Māori) and an international one (English) and, in particular, how they approach the definition and translation of texts that could be regarded as being ‘sacred’ and/or ‘sensitive’. In their definitions of ‘sacred’ texts and ‘sensitive’ texts, all of the participants exhibited a peculiarly postmodern positioning, focussing primarily on perspective rather than on any absolute concept of truth or reality. With the exception of the Māori participants’ traditional definition of, and approach to texts deemed to be ‘tapu’ (see Chapter 3), all of the participants expressed beliefs about the translation process which were largely structurally-orientated. They emphasized the importance of respecting the cultural context out of which texts emerged and of attempting, in translation, to reflect the meanings deemed to reside in the source texts by virtue of the intentions of their authors. As witnessed in their think-aloud protocols, however, when involved in the actual process of translation the translators did not always adhere to the views expressed in their interviews, with translation procedures ranging from one that was primarily modernist and structural in orientation (but also reflecting the careful attention to co-text and cohesion that is characteristic of much recent research on discourse analysis) to one that was primarily postmodern and post-structural in orientation, being highly personal, autonomous and individualistic.  

In the absence of any clear agreement about translation theory in the literature on translation (see Chapter 2), and at a time when pre-modern, modern and postmodern positioning and structural and post-structural perspectives vie for acceptance, each of the participants in this research project appears to have found his or her own way of traversing the complex terrain of translation practice without necessarily being fully aware of the way in which the decisions they made positioned them theoretically. What this suggests is the need for a type of training that introduces novice translators in an explicit way to a variety of theories about human language and communication and the ways in which they can impinge upon translation practice, thus creating a context in which translators are able to make critically informed decisions about how they will proceed in any particular instance, why they will proceed in these ways, and what is required in order to ensure that their beliefs about translation are in accord with their actual practices. Critical awareness of these issues is likely to be particularly important in the case of those involved in translating between international languages such as English and more localized, Indigenous languages such as Māori, where discontinuity in the transmission of the language has occurred and where, therefore, texts that are deemed to be of particular significance would otherwise be unavailable to those for whom the texts form part of their cultural heritage.

text: Te Tuhirau i Rehu i Ringa: Translating Sacred and Sensitive Texts: An Indigenous Perspective This thesis centers on translator cognition. Through a series of interviews and think-aloud protocols (Chapters 3 – 5), it explores the ways in which a sample of translators (both Māori and non-Māori) negotiate the complex issues involved in translating between a local, Indigenous language (Māori) and an international one (English) and, in particular, how they approach the definition and translation of texts that could be regarded as being ‘sacred’ and/or ‘sensitive’. In their definitions of ‘sacred’ texts and ‘sensitive’ texts, all of the participants exhibited a peculiarly postmodern positioning, focussing primarily on perspective rather than on any absolute concept of truth or reality. With the exception of the Māori participants’ traditional definition of, and approach to texts deemed to be ‘tapu’ (see Chapter 3), all of the participants expressed beliefs about the translation process which were largely structurally-orientated. They emphasized the importance of respecting the cultural context out of which texts emerged and of attempting, in translation, to reflect the meanings deemed to reside in the source texts by virtue of the intentions of their authors. As witnessed in their think-aloud protocols, however, when involved in the actual process of translation the translators did not always adhere to the views expressed in their interviews, with translation procedures ranging from one that was primarily modernist and structural in orientation (but also reflecting the careful attention to co-text and cohesion that is characteristic of much recent research on discourse analysis) to one that was primarily postmodern and post-structural in orientation, being highly personal, autonomous and individualistic.  

In the absence of any clear agreement about translation theory in the literature on translation (see Chapter 2), and at a time when pre-modern, modern and postmodern positioning and structural and post-structural perspectives vie for acceptance, each of the participants in this research project appears to have found his or her own way of traversing the complex terrain of translation practice without necessarily being fully aware of the way in which the decisions they made positioned them theoretically. What this suggests is the need for a type of training that introduces novice translators in an explicit way to a variety of theories about human language and communication and the ways in which they can impinge upon translation practice, thus creating a context in which translators are able to make critically informed decisions about how they will proceed in any particular instance, why they will proceed in these ways, and what is required in order to ensure that their beliefs about translation are in accord with their actual practices. Critical awareness of these issues is likely to be particularly important in the case of those involved in translating between international languages such as English and more localized, Indigenous languages such as Māori, where discontinuity in the transmission of the language has occurred and where, therefore, texts that are deemed to be of particular significance would otherwise be unavailable to those for whom the texts form part of their cultural heritage.

year: 2014