Providing end-of-life care within the cultural context of a Filipino patient in the United States is a complex process for clinicians, patients, and their families. An inclusive approach is crucial, especially because a significant proportion of patients belong to minority groups such as Filipinos, who represent the fourth largest group of immigrants in the United States as of data available in 2019. The case provided in this paper highlights the importance of family, religion, and finances in guiding the best possible way of providing end-of-life care for Filipino patients with cancer. At the end of this review, we discuss concrete action points that may give a non-Filipino physician a deeper understanding of end-of-life care for Filipinos.

The first demonstration of laser action in ruby was made in 1960 by T. H. Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories, USA. Many laboratories worldwide began the search for lasers using different materials, operating at different wavelengths. In the UK, academia, industry and the central laboratories took up the challenge from the earliest days to develop these systems for a broad range of applications. This historical review looks at the contribution the UK has made to the advancement of the technology, the development of systems and components and their exploitation over the last 60 years.

Several application modes and methods (schemes) of using herbicides are available to control undesirable vegetation on electric transmission line rights-of-way (ROW). Preferential use of a management scheme can be based on its cost effectiveness, i.e., degree of vegetation control and treatment cost. A treatment that increases/maintains desirable plants, decreases/maintains undesirable plants, and has relatively low cost, can be considered cost effective. Three common herbicides, 2,4-D, picloram and triclopyr, were applied in the field to test treatment mode (selective and nonselective) and method (cut stump, basal, and stem-foliar) effects on cost effectiveness during initial clearing and first and second conversion cycles on one electric transmission line ROW in Upstate New York. Clear or selective cutting with no herbicide was most cost effective during initial clearing. Nonselective and selective stem-foliar schemes were most cost effective during the first and second conversion cycles, respectively.

The goal of the present study was to determine whether pre-hospital 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels are associated with the risk of hospital-acquired new-onset delirium (HANOD). We performed a retrospective cohort study of 4508 adult inpatients at two teaching hospitals in Boston from 1993 to 2006. All patients had 25(OH)D levels measured before hospital admission. The main outcome measure was HANOD, defined as the onset of delirium during an acute care hospitalisation. Patients with a history of delirium or dementia, or those with a diagnosis of delirium or dementia upon acute care hospitalisation were excluded from the analysis. To test the association of pre-hospital 25(OH)D levels with HANOD, we constructed a multivariable logistic regression model to adjust for clinically relevant covariates. Among our patient cohort, the mean 25(OH)D level was 22 (sd 13) ng/ml and approximately 4 % of patients met the criteria for HANOD. Following adjustment for age, sex, race (non-white v. white), patient type (medical v. surgical) and Deyo–Charlson Index, patients with 25(OH)D levels < 10, 10–19·9 and 20–29·9 ng/ml had higher odds of HANOD than patients with 25(OH)D levels ≥ 30 ng/ml: OR 2·15 (95 % CI 1·32, 3·50), OR 1·54 (95 % CI 0·98, 2·43) and OR 1·23 (95 % CI, 0·76, 1·99), respectively. These data support the rationale for randomised, controlled trials to test the role of vitamin D supplementation in the prevention of HANOD.

Significant new opportunities for astrophysics and cosmology have been identified at low radio frequencies. The Murchison Widefield Array is the first telescope in the southern hemisphere designed specifically to explore the low-frequency astronomical sky between 80 and 300 MHz with arcminute angular resolution and high survey efficiency. The telescope will enable new advances along four key science themes, including searching for redshifted 21-cm emission from the EoR in the early Universe; Galactic and extragalactic all-sky southern hemisphere surveys; time-domain astrophysics; and solar, heliospheric, and ionospheric science and space weather. The Murchison Widefield Array is located in Western Australia at the site of the planned Square Kilometre Array (SKA) low-band telescope and is the only low-frequency SKA precursor facility. In this paper, we review the performance properties of the Murchison Widefield Array and describe its primary scientific objectives.