Self-perception of fatigue in individuals diagnosed with head and neck cancer.

PURPOSE: Head and neck cancer (HNCa) presents numerous challenges secondary to treatment. While there is substantial clinical awareness to the range of challenges demonstrated in this population, information on the impact of post-treatment fatigue is limited. This study investigated the degree of perceived fatigue in those treated for HNCa. METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional, self-report, survey design. Adult participants (n = 47) completed a series of three questionnaires; two validated fatigue measures - the Fatigue Screening Inventory (FSI) and the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) and a general health-related quality of life measure the European Organisation of Research on the Treatment of Cancer - Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC-QLQC30) and the head and neck site specific module (QLQ - H&N 35) were administered. RESULTS: Of the 47 participants, more than half (55%) were identified as having clinically significant self-reported levels of fatigue. Correlational analysis revealed an inverse relationship between fatigue and overall health-related quality of life (HRQOL) implying that as fatigue increases, one's perceived HRQOL decreases. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that efforts to proactively screen for and index fatigue and seek anticipatory interventions may benefit both short- and long-term HRQOL outcomes in those diagnosed with HNCa. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV.

Room temperature self-assembly of mixed nanoparticles into photonic structures.

Manufacturing complex composites and structures using incompatible materials is central to next-generation technologies. In photonics, silica offers passivity, low loss and robustness, making it the ideal material platform for optical transport. However, these properties partly stem from the high-temperature processing conditions necessary for silica waveguide fabrication, restricting the functionalisation of waveguides to robust inorganic dopants. This means for many sensor and active device applications, large numbers of materials are excluded. These include many organic and carbon systems such as dyes and diamond. Here we propose using intermolecular forces to bind nanoparticles together at room temperature and demonstrate the room-temperature self-assembly of long microwires (length ~7 cm, width ~10 µm) with and without rhodamine B. Further we report on mixed self-assembly of silica and single-photon-emitting nitrogen-vacancy-containing diamond nanoparticles, opening up a new direction in material science.