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Biomedical subjects

S Coulson

Publications and source records attributed to S Coulson.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

A survey of current practice with regard to oral care for children being treated for cancer.

The aim of the study was to establish current UK oral care practice for children with cancer. A telephone survey of all 22 United Kingdom Children's Cancer Study Group (UKCCSG) centres was undertaken. Nineteen (86%) of the centres reported using guidelines/protocols for mouth care. The use of routine preventive oral care therapies showed the greatest variation between centres. Four centres (18%) did not use any prophylactic oral care therapy other than basic oral hygiene, whereas seven (32%) routinely used a combination of three or more agents. Chlorhexidine was the most frequently administered prophylactic therapy (17/22 centres, 77%), followed by nystatin (11/22 centres, 50%). There was little variation in advice given to parents/patients on basic oral hygiene. Regarding dental check-ups, 9/22 centres (41%) recommended children to attend a hospital-linked dental clinic. Only at 8/22 centres (36%) did children undergo a dental check-up before commencing cancer treatment. The survey identified significant variation in preventive oral care therapies and dental check-ups at the UKCCSG centres. Attention needs to be given to establishing evidence based, effective strategies.

Cancer Care Facilities↗
PubMed2001

Getting it: human event-related brain response to jokes in good and poor comprehenders.

Joke comprehension has been decomposed into surprise registration followed by a coherence stage, involving frame-shifting (retrieving a new frame from long-term memory to reinterpret information in working memory). We examined this view by recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) from adults reading one-line jokes or non-joke controls with equally unexpected endings. Joke and non-joke ERPs differed in several respects depending on participants' ability to get the joke and contextual constraint. In good joke comprehenders, all jokes elicited a left-lateralized sustained negativity (500-900 ms), indexing frame-shifting, low constraint jokes elicited a frontal positivity (500-900 ms), and high constraint jokes elicited an N400 and later posterior positivity. By contrast, poor joke comprehenders showed only a right frontal negativity (300-700 ms) to jokes. This pattern of effects does not map readily onto a two-stage model of joke comprehension.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Clinical research in paediatric oncology and the role of the research nurse in the UK.

Survival rates for childhood cancer have improved considerably as new drugs, treatment protocols and supportive therapies have developed through clinical trials. Such studies take a considerable amount of time and organization and alongside scientific and medical staff the research nurse plays a vital role. The facets of this role will be outlined in this paper. Involvement begins at an early stage of study development and includes applying for Research Ethics Committee approval of the project. Once the study has opened the research nurse is then responsible for patient recruitment, monitoring and follow-up. The research nurse works within a team but also with a degree of autonomy ensuring that standards of patient care are maintained by adhering to guidelines for clinical research in general and those aimed at children specifically. Providing detailed information and support to the child and family, staff and outside agencies are other notable aspects of the post. The role of the research nurse continues to develop, as clinical trials maintain a significant role in improving the treatment for childhood cancer.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Time course of word identification and semantic integration in spoken language.

The minimum duration signal necessary to identify a set of spoken words was established by the gating technique; most words could be identified before their acoustic offset. Gated words were used as congruous and incongruous sentence completions, and isolation points established in the gating experiment were compared with the time course of semantic integration evident in event-related brain potentials. Differential N400 responses to contextually appropriate and inappropriate words were observed about 200 ms before the isolation point. Semantic processing was evident before the acoustic signal was sufficient to identify the words uniquely. Results indicate that semantic integration can begin to operate with only partial, incomplete information about word identity. Influences of semantic constraint, word frequency, and rate of presentation are described.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Combining a continuous Bayesian approach with grouping information.

When someone breaks glass a number of tiny fragments may be transferred to that person. If the glass is broken in the commission of a crime then these fragments may be used as evidence. A Bayesian interpretation of this evidence relies on, among other things, the forensic scientist's ability to assess the likelihood that the glass recovered from the suspect may have come from more than one source. This paper will examine the effect of including this information in the interpretation. We envisage working towards a system whereby the information loss that occurs during the normal casework activities of sample selection and glass fragment grouping is quantified.

Algorithms↗