The bear in Eurasian plant names: Motivations and models

Ethnolinguistic studies are important for understanding an ethnic group's ideas on the world, expressed in its language. Comparing corresponding aspects of such knowledge might help clarify problems of origin for certain concepts and words, e.g. whether they form common heritage, have an independent origin, are borrowings, or calques. The current study was conducted on the material in Slavonic, Baltic, Germanic, Romance, Finno-Ugrian, Turkic and Albanian languages. The bear was chosen as being a large, dangerous animal, important in traditional culture, whose name is widely reflected in folk plant names. The phytonyms for comparison were mostly obtained from dictionaries and other publications, and supplemented with data from databases, the co-authors' field data, and archival sources (dialect and folklore materials). More than 1200 phytonym use records (combinations of a local name and a meaning) for 364 plant and fungal taxa were recorded to help find out the reasoning behind bear-nomination in various languages, as well as differences and similarities between the patterns among them. Among the most common taxa with bear-related phytonyms were Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng., Heracleum sphondylium L., Acanthus mollis L., and Allium ursinum L., with Latin loan translation contributing a high proportion of the phytonyms. Some plants have many and various bear-related phytonyms, while others have only one or two bear names. Features like form and/or surface generated the richest pool of names, while such features as colour seemed to provoke rather few associations with bears. The unevenness of bear phytonyms in the chosen languages was not related to the size of the language nor the present occurence of the Brown Bear in the region. However, this may, at least to certain extent, be related to the amount of the historical ethnolinguistic research done on the selected languages

Pathological Characteristics of Very Young (≤30 Years) Breast Cancer Patients: A Single-Institution Experience from Turkey

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Nine weeks versus 1 year adjuvant trastuzumab in patients with early breast cancer: an observational study by the Turkish Oncology Group (TOG)

PubMedID: 24338610Background: Optimal duration of adjuvant trastuzumab in early breast cancer is an unresolved issue. In this observational study, we compared the outcome of 9 weeks and 1 year adjuvant trastuzumab in early breast cancer patients in Turkey. Methods: Records of 680 patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer who received adjuvant trastuzumab plus chemotherapy were obtained and patients were followed up to compare the disease-free survival (DFS) outcome of 9 weeks versus 1 year trastuzumab. Results: Nine weeks and 1 year trastuzumab was given to 202 (29.7 %) and 478 (70.3 %) patients, respectively. There was a significantly lower rate of patients with negative lymph nodes in the 9-week trastuzumab group. At median 3 years of follow-up from the date of starting trastuzumab, the DFS rates were 88.6 and 85.6 %, respectively (p = 0.670). When adjusted for all the prognostic factors that were significant on univariate analysis, again there was no significant difference in DFS between the groups (HR 0.675; 95 % CI 0.370–1.231; p = 0.200). Cardiac toxicity defined as a ?15 % decrease in LVEF was significantly higher in the 1-year trastuzumab group (1.88 % versus none for 1-year and 9-week trastuzumab groups, respectively; p = 0.050). Conclusion: The results of this observational study suggest that DFS outcome of 9 weeks of adjuvant trastuzumab may be comparable to 1 year adjuvant trastuzumab: this needs confirmation by randomized trials. © 2013, The Japanese Breast Cancer Society

Serum Chemerin Level in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, and obesity is a causative factor via estrogen exposure. Chemerin is a novel adipokine associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome, and polycystic ovary syndrome. We aimed to investigate serum chemerin levels in breast cancer and to correlate chemerin levels with clinicopathologic parameters of patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer. A total of 117 patients were enrolled the study. Serum chemerin levels were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Ethical approval and informed consents were attained. Thirty-seven of the study population was metastatic and 80 were non-metastatic at the time of diagnosis. The mean chemerin levels were 257.3 +/- 68.7 ng/mL (148.1-526.0 ng/mL). Serum chemerin levels were significantly higher in post -menopausal women and patients with diabetes, hypertension, body mass index (BMI) >= 30 kg/m(2) and age >= 50 years. Chemerin levels were not different in either group (p= 0.435). Multivariate analyses of parameters showed that CA15.3 and CEA levels were associated with metastatic disease. Our results propose that serum chemerin levels are not associated with breast cancer stage. However, further studies need to evaluate its role in carcinogenesis.WoSScopu

Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio predicts postoperative pain after orthognathic surgery.

Postoperative pain is well known and usually disturbing complication of surgery. Inflammation plays an important role in the development and progression of postoperative pain. We aimed to investigate possible relationship between preoperatively measured neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) - as an inflammation marker - and postoperative analgesic demand in patients underwent orthognathic surgery