To develop a vulvar cancer-specific quality of life (QOL) subscale to accompany the Functional Assessment of Cancer-General (FACT-G) questionnaire, semistructured interviews were performed with 15 patients treated for vulvar cancer (FIGO stage 0-3). All but one patient, who received chemoradiotherapy, were treated by radical vulvectomy and six patients received a groin lymph node dissection. Patients experienced reductions in several aspects of QOL including emotional functioning, physical functioning, social functioning, sexuality, and body image. Six patients suffered from lymphedema of the legs with a mean severity of 3.5 on a 10-point scale. Four patients reported pruritus (severity rating 8.5). Seven patients expressed a need for more information about the illness and treatment. Only four patients returned to employment after treatment, and all of these patients reported work-related problems. Reductions in sexual functioning were a major concern for five patients, all younger than 65 years. Other topics were groin discomfort after removal of the lymph nodes and disturbance by odor from the vulva. Results of this study revealed vulvar cancer-specific reductions in QOL for inclusion in the newly developed vulvar cancer-specific subscale.

To develop a vulvar cancer-specific quality of life (QOL) subscale to accompany the Functional Assessment of Cancer–General (FACT-G) questionnaire, semistructured interviews were performed with 15 patients treated for vulvar cancer (FIGO stage 0–3). All but one patient, who received chemoradiotherapy, were treated by radical vulvectomy and six patients received a groin lymph node dissection. Patients experienced reductions in several aspects of QOL including emotional functioning, physical functioning, social functioning, sexuality, and body image. Six patients suffered from lymphedema of the legs with a mean severity of 3.5 on a 10-point scale. Four patients reported pruritus (severity rating 8.5). Seven patients expressed a need for more information about the illness and treatment. Only four patients returned to employment after treatment, and all of these patients reported work-related problems. Reductions in sexual functioning were a major concern for five patients, all younger than 65 years. Other topics were groin discomfort after removal of the lymph nodes and disturbance by odor from the vulva. Results of this study revealed vulvar cancer-specific reductions in QOL for inclusion in the newly developed vulvar cancer-specific subscale.

Effects on cognitive performance, social atmosphere, communication, motivation and aspects of strain were investigated when laptops were integrated in classrooms. According to a quasi-experimental design 27 laptop students were compared with 22 non-laptop students from the same high school, aged 17-18 years. Results of tests and questionnaires showed that laptop students had better spatial abilities and computer skills, furthermore higher participation, learning interest, motivation and pressure to perform were found in laptop classrooms. However, laptop students experienced greater physical discomfort, particularly in their arms, but concerning creativity, social intelligence and mental stress no group differences occurred. Results indicate that laptops integrated in teaching can enhance learning and motivation in schools, at least after 1.7 years of introduction, but health risks must be considered. Psychometric evaluations in laptop classroomsIn a time characterized by rapid technological developments, our society is becoming increasingly more dependent on information technology, and particularly on computers. As a result the effective use of computers and computer applications becomes an essential requirement in a modern society. It is assumed that computer implementation in education will foster not only the acquisition of cross curricular and media competencies but also of team and cooperation skills as well as of meaningful learning in complex and authentic environments. In the recent international debate about the necessity of innovated classroom instruction mobile computers, such as laptops, are seen as especially beneficial to initiate lasting changes in the nature of learning and teaching. Over the past decade the presence of computers in schools has exploded and laptops have become a daily learning and working tool for many students all over the world. At the beginning laptop programs were not attended by systematic research studies. Not until the last few years, longitudinal studies in the area of educational computering took place. Most of the existing evaluations are based on written and oral surveys, just in particular cases, observations and standardized achievement tests to measure changes concerning performance in certain school subjects were used. Several studies suggest educational benefits related to laptop use, others reported inconsistent results. Schaumburg (2001) gives an overview of recent empirical findings of international evaluation studies, which are mostly focusing on changes in student learning, instructional practices, student achievement and cross-curricular competencies. The wide range of recent studies can be summarized under the following four areas: effects on cognitive, social and Correspondence: M. Trimmel,

The newly developed FACT-V provides a reliable and valid assessment of the quality of life of women with vulvar cancer. It can be used as a short measure of quality of life within research studies, and to facilitate communication about quality of life issues in clinical practice.

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Background noise is often discussed in terms of mental costs. In this study the effect of background noise on brain activity as reflected by the direct coupled (DC) potential was investigated by a within design in ten participants. During two successive blocks of 7 min each, participants performed 156 trials of a visual display terminal (VDT)-based visual-spatial attention task without noise and two blocks with a mixture of the environmental noises of barking dogs, traffic noise and irrelevant speech of 60 dBA. Brain DC potentials were recorded along the midline and analysed for change by time on task. For noise conditions, reaction time was prolonged and the DC-potential shifted towards positivity, contrary to control condition, independent of block and location. Results suggest reduced cortical resources by widespread inhibitory activation through background noise. It can be concluded that even low intensity background noise is associated with energy consumption and with impaired performance in spatial attention.