James Baglin

Development of a new biochemical test to diagnose and monitor neuroblastoma in Vietnam: Homovanillic and vanillylmandelic acid by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to develop an accurate robust testing method to simultaneously measure urine levels of HVA and VMA using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) and to establish age-specific reference intervals of HVA and VMA in random urines for Vietnamese children. DESIGN AND METHODS The assay for urinary HVA and VMA was developed based on a classical urinary organic acid profiling method. Briefly, this incorporated 3-phenyl butyric acid as the internal standard and liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate followed by derivatization with BSTFA. The Agilent 7890A GC and 5975C Mass Selective Detector in single ion monitoring mode was used for analysis. Reference intervals were developed from random urine samples collected from 634 disease free Vietnamese children and compared to 50 known neuroblastoma patient samples. Results were reported relative to creatinine concentration. Age related 95% reference intervals for urinary HVA and VMA were estimated from sample quantiles. The analytes (expressed as analyte/creatinine ratios) diagnostic values were determined by calculating the related sensitivity, specificity and likelihood ratios. RESULTS HVA and VMA were linear to at least 193 and 221μmol/L, respectively. The limit of quantitation for both analytes was 0.9μmol/L. Using the bi-level control (n=15), the within-batch coefficients of variations (CVs) were less than 3% for both analytes across the assay range. The between-batch CVs (n=20 over three months), were 3.6% at 11μmol/L and 2.1% at 88μmol/L for HVA, 6.6% at 18.2μmol/L and 2.6% at 90.6μmol/L for VMA. Vietnamese age related reference intervals were established for urinary HVA and VMA per creatinine. HVA for children <6months (n=91) was 5.3-37.0μmol/mmol; 6months to <1year (n=141) was 2.7-27.7μmol/mmol; 1 to 5years (n=139) was 3.4-17.9μmol/mmol; 6 to 10years (n=136) was 2.7-8.8μmol/mmol; and 11 to 15years (n=127) was 1.1-9.4μmol/mmol. VMA for children <6months was 1.8-12.2μmol/mmol; 6months to <1year was 1.5-9.3μmol/mmol; 1 to 5years was 1.9-7.8μmol/mmol; 6 to 10years was 1.6-5.1μmol/mmol; and 11 to 15years was <0.9-6.3μmol/mmol. CONCLUSIONS A robust testing method for simultaneous quantitation of urinary HVA and VMA by GCMS was developed. This method is accurate, precise and fit for its clinical purpose and suitable for developing countries. Age-related reference intervals of urinary HVA and VMA were established for Vietnamese children and the intervals declined progressively with increasing age for each analyte.

Examining geography as a predictor of students' university intentions: a logistic regression analysis

ABSTRACT While improving educational aspirations has been positioned by various stakeholders (e.g. governments, researchers, educators) as an important part of increasing higher education participation, there appears to be disagreement in the literature about this relationship. If a key goal of eliciting students’ educational aspirations is to reliably predict future university participation, researchers should choose aspiration measures supported by evidence regarding their predictive validity. In this article, the authors examine students’ university intentions considering past research has demonstrated the relative strength of its predictive validity. The key aim of this article is to investigate if, and to what extent, distance predicts students’ intentions to attend university. Over 9400 Australian students are included in the analysis. Findings indicated students from provincial areas were significantly less likely to report intent to study at university when compared with metropolitan students. Furthermore, remote students were less likely to report an intention to attend university than students in the metropolitan category. Controlling for socio-economic status (SES), as distance increases from an Australian metropolitan area, the likelihood of students reporting intentions to study at university decreases.

Revolutions in teaching and learning statistics: A collection of reflections

In the second set of reflective writings (the first set appears in Chap. 13), another group of prominent statisticians and statistics educators considers the impact of recent and future developments on both the statistics curriculum and the ways in which it is taught and learned. The two connecting themes in this group of writings are the ubiquitous use of technology and the uses of data in decision making. All of these writings acknowledge, to a greater or lesser extent, the differing future needs of two groups. As citizens, today’s students need to be educated to be critical consumers of data but do not need detailed knowledge of statistical techniques. The much smaller group who will go on to be professionally engaged in the production and analysis of data also need the ability to engage with more technical details. A challenge for statistics education, particularly at school level, is to provide a learning environment which is appropriate for both of these needs, since we do not know the future trajectories of our students.

The Global Canopy: Propagating Discipline-Based Global Mobility

As Australian universities welcome significant numbers of inbound international students and increasingly encourage outbound domestic student mobility, the opportunities for global discipline connectedness, cross-cultural understandings, and fertile learning interactions abound. Yet these two “strands” of students rarely engage in deliberately organized discipline-based activities. They are passing “as ships in the night,” with opportunities for long-term relationships, improved discipline-based networks, and global mobility opportunities unrealized or operating coincidently at the margins of their curriculum. This chapter reports upon the outcomes of a range of approaches to discipline-based teaching and learning between these two cohorts at Australian universities, which illustrate how separate cohorts of inbound and outbound students can interrelate to build discipline-based competencies for navigating tomorrow’s world.

The statistical knowledge gap in Higher Degree by Research students: the supervisors' perspective

ABSTRACT This study sought to gain an understanding of the current statistical training and support needs for Australian Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students and their supervisors. The data reported herein are based on the survey responses of 191 (18.7%) eligible supervisors from a single Australian institution. The survey was composed of both forced-choice and open-ended items relating to supervisors’ background and experience, supervisors’ perceptions of their own statistical knowledge, the capabilities of their HDR students and supervisors’ attitudes towards the provision of statistical support for HDR students. Most supervisors described themselves as being at either an intermediate or advanced level of statistical experience (74.4%) and were moderately to very confident (72.3%) supervising students in relation to statistical matters. In contrast, supervisors identified a substantial discordance, or gap, between HDR students’ statistical knowledge, which they rated at an overall introductory or lower level (76.6%), and a requirement to have at least an intermediate level of statistical knowledge to complete their degree (74.5%). The findings suggest that supervisors perceive HDR students’ statistical knowledge to be underdeveloped, that both students and supervisors are likely to benefit from the provision of formal statistics training and that supervisors value access to statistical consultancy services.