Experimental Models as Refined Translational Tools for Breast Cancer Research

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide, which makes it a very impactful malignancy in the society. Breast cancers can be classified through different systems based on the main tumor features and gene, protein, and cell receptors expression, which will determine the most advisable therapeutic course and expected outcomes. Multiple therapeutic options have already been proposed and implemented for breast cancer treatment. Nonetheless, their use and efficacy still greatly depend on the tumor classification, and treatments are commonly associated with invasiveness, pain, discomfort, severe side effects, and poor specificity. This has demanded an investment in the research of the mechanisms behind the disease progression, evolution, and associated risk factors, and on novel diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. However, advances in the understanding and assessment of breast cancer are dependent on the ability to mimic the properties and microenvironment of tumors in vivo, which can be achieved through experimentation on animal models. This review covers an overview of the main animal models used in breast cancer research, namely in vitro models, in vivo models, in silico models, and other models. For each model, the main characteristics, advantages, and challenges associated to their use are highlighted.This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal under the Project Reference UID/DTP/04138/2019 and UIDB/00313/2020. T.F.-G. was supported by FCT, Portugal under the Reference SFRH/BD/147306/2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Digital humanities e culture documentarie: un modello di analisi, valutazione, interpretazione

This contribution focuses on the analysis and interpretation of disciplinary relationships between Digital Humanities and the fields of bibliography, documentation, library and information science. After a discussion of the term and concept of ‘discipline’, some characteristics of the research’s subject fields are examined, and then their points of intersection and contact are examined and compared. The final paragraph, after summarizing the results of the analysis of the literature used, proposes some general considerations, which mainly concern a possible interpretative, panoramic and holistic attitude, referring to the digital mutation in progress. The need for a convincingly transdisciplinary theoretical and methodological perspective is shown, which is able to move in a balanced and conscious way between the breadth of cultural and media studies, philosophy’s theoretical rigor, history’s longue durée, all necessary to understand the elements of novelty, especially anthropological, distributed in the infosphere. The goal is to foster the overcoming of the disturbing perception (weirdness) that the effects of the computational power of machines generate, and to define the basic conditions for new libraries, librarians, library sciences, capable of interpreting the tensions of the post-human Anthropocene.Questo contributo ha per oggetto l’analisi ed interpretazione delle relazioni disciplinari tra digital humanities e culture documentarie (bibliografia, biblioteconomia, documentazione, library and information science). Dopo una discussione del termine e del concetto di ‘disciplina’, vengono prese in esame alcune delle caratteristiche dei campi disciplinari oggetto della ricerca, e successivamente ne vengono valutati comparativamente i punti di intersezione e di contatto. Il paragrafo finale, dopo aver riepilogato gli esiti dell’analisi della letteratura utilizzata, propone alcune considerazioni generali, che riguardano principalmente un possibile atteggiamento interpretativo, panoramico ed olistico, riferito alla mutazione digitale in atto. Viene mostrata la necessità di una prospettiva teorica e metodologica convintamente transdisciplinare, che sappia muoversi in modo equilibrato e consapevole tra ampiezza dei cultural e media studies, rigore teoretico della filosofia e ‘lunga durata’ dei processi storici, tutti necessari per comprendere gli elementi di novità, soprattutto antropologici, distribuiti nell’infosfera. L’obiettivo è quello di favorire il superamento della percezione inquietante (weirdness) che gli effetti del potere computazionale delle macchine generano, e definire le condizioni di fondo per nuovi ambienti biblioteconomici e bibliotecari, capaci di interpretare le tensioni di un Antropocene oramai post-umano.

Forschendes Lernen: Wissenschaftsforschung Jahrbuch 2016

Peer Reviewe

Advances in Nanomaterials in Biomedicine

Advances in Nanomaterials in Biomedicine” provided a platform for more than 110 researchers from different countries to present their latest investigations in various fields of nanotechnology, new methods and nanomaterials intended for medical applications. Modern achievements in the field of nanoparticle-based diagnostics, drug delivery and the use of various nanomaterials in the treatment of diseases are presented in 11 original articles. The published reviews provide a comprehensive analysis of the current information on the use of nanomedicine in the treatment and diagnosis of cancer and liver fibrosis, in the field of solid tissue engineering and in drug delivery systems