Do younger women with non-metastatic and non-inflammatory breast carcinoma have poor prognosis?

BACKGROUND: Controversy abounds over whether breast cancer in younger women is more aggressive than those in older. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of age on long-term survival of women with breast carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with non-metastatic and non-inflammatory invasive breast carcinoma treated at the Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum, Kerala, India during 1990–93 were divided into 4 age groups as < 40 years, 40–49, 50–59, and > 60 years. The overall survival (OS) for each age group was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method in relation to the primary tumor (T) and the axillary node status (N). The OS of the various age groups were compared using the log-rank test. Hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval for each age group was estimated using Cox-regression model after adjusting for T and N. RESULTS: Between 1990–1993, 1701 women (26%, <40 years) reported with non-metastatic and non-inflammatory invasive breast carcinoma. Overall survival (OS) of all the women was 52.6 % (standard error 1%) at 10 years. The OS for women with age < 40 years and with T3 and T4 disease status was 36.6% and 10.4% respectively and for those in 40–49 age group was 41.9% and 33.5%. The 10-year OS for women with node positive (N1) disease was 24.6% in < 40 years and 45.2% in the 40–49 age group (p = 0.0006). After adjusting for tumor and node stage the relative risk for death was 24% lower for women in 40–49 age group as compared to women <40 years of age. CONCLUSION: Women under 40 years with T3/ T4 breast lesions and/or positive axillary nodes were found to have a significantly poorer survival

Tuberculosis and metastatic carcinoma coexistence in axillary lymph node: A case report

BACKGROUND: Coexistence of cancer and tuberculosis in axillary lymph nodes is rare. Only seven cases have been reported in the literature. CASE REPORT: We report here a case of infiltrating ductal carcinoma breast metastasizing to the axillary lymph node along with tubercular granuloma in the same lymph node without primary mammary or pulmonary tuberculosis. CONCLUSION: Primary tuberculosis coexisting with carcinoma is of rare occurrence. A possibility should always be borne in mind especially in patients from endemic areas

Quality of Life determinants in women with breast cancer undergoing treatment with curative intent

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of breast cancer and its subsequent treatment has significant impact on the woman's physical functioning, mental health and her well-being, and thereby causes substantial disruption to quality of life (QOL). Factors like patient education, spousal support and employment status, financial stability etc., have been found to influence QOL in the breast cancer patient. The present study attempts to identify the determinants of QOL in a cohort of Indian breast cancer patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) Version 4 Malayalam was used to assess quality of life in 502 breast cancer patients undergoing treatment with curative intent. The data on social, demographic, disease, treatment, and follow-up were collected from case records. Data was analysed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 47.7 years with 44.6% of the women being pre-menopausal. The FACT-B mean score was 90.6 (Standard Deviation [SD] = 18.4). The mean scores of the subscales were – Physical well-being 19.6 (SD = 4.7), Social well-being 19.9 (SD = 5.3), Emotional well-being 14 (SD = 4.9), Functional well-being 13.0 (SD = 5.7), and the Breast subscale 23.8 (SD = 4.4). Younger women (<45 years), women having unmarried children, nodal and/or metastatic disease, and those currently undergoing active treatment showed significantly poorer QOL scores in the univariate analysis. However multivariate analysis indicated that the religion, stage, pain, spouse education, nodal status, and distance travelled to reach the treatment centre as indicative of patient QOL. CONCLUSION: QOL derangements are common in breast cancer patients necessitating the provisions for patient access to psychosocial services. However, because of the huge patient load, a screening process to identify those meriting intervention over the general population would be a viable solution

A RANDOMIZED CASE–CONTROL PILOT STUDY ON THE NEUROCHEMICAL BASIS OF PAIN MODULATION IN PATIENTS WITH MIGRAINE, WHO PRACTICED INTEGRATED AMRITA MEDITATION TECHNIQUE

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the changes in duration and intensity of headache and associated changes in the plasma levels of neurochemicals, serotonin, glutamate, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), and nitric oxide (NO) in patients with migraine after 6 months of regular practice of integrated Amrita meditation (IAM). Methods: Sixteen patients aged 18–50 with migraine were randomly assigned to 2 groups, one with standard medical care and IAM, and the other only standard medical care. Data were collected before IAM, after 3 and 6 months of IAM practice Results: After 6 months, a significant decrease in the duration of headache from 2.4±0.54 to 1.4±0.54 (p=0.034) hours and intensity of pain from 3.6±0.54 to 2.6±0.89, (p=0.035) was seen in patients who practiced IAM. Plasma levels of serotonin within the IAM group increased (47.29±26.85 to 53.85±29.73ng/ml), where as there was decrease in glutamate (38.47±8.2 to 29.68±12.57μg/ml), VIP (28.01±13.64 to 22.23±7.79pg/ml) and NO levels (642.26±167.42 to 423.18±97.96μmol/L). A correlating trend was seen in comparison with control group after 6 months showing a statistically significant difference in plasma Serotonin (p value 0.007) and NO (p value-0.023) levels. Discussion: The results of our study have been discussed with other migraine and meditation-related studies. Conclusion: Regular practice of IAM reduces the intensity and duration of headache in migraine patients and is associated with alterations in the neurotransmitter levels

Proximity-induced ferromagnetism and chemical reactivity in few-layer VSe2 heterostructures

Among transition-metal dichalcogenides, mono and few-layers thick VSe2 has gained much recent attention following claims of intrinsic room-temperature ferromagnetism in this system, which have nonetheless proved controversial. Here, we address the magnetic and chemical properties of Fe/VSe2 heterostructure by combining element sensitive x-ray absorption spectroscopy and photoemission spectroscopy. Our x-ray magnetic circular dichroism results confirm recent findings that both native mono/few-layer and bulk VSe2 do not show intrinsic ferromagnetic ordering. Nonetheless, we find that ferromagnetism can be induced, even at room temperature, after coupling with a Fe thin film layer, with antiparallel alignment of the moment on the V with respect to Fe. We further consider the chemical reactivity at the Fe/VSe2 interface and its relation with interfacial magnetic coupling

Direct observation of the energy gain underpinning ferromagnetic superexchange in the electronic structure of CrGeTe3

Funding: The Leverhulme Trust (Grant No. RL-2016-006), The Royal Society, and the European Research Council (Grant No. ERC-714193-QUESTDO). Max Planck Research School for Chemistry and Physics of Quantum Materials (IMPRS-CPQM) (I.M. and E.A.M).We investigate the temperature-dependent electronic structure of the van der Waals ferromagnet, CrGeTe3. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we identify atomic- and orbital-specific band shifts upon cooling through TC. From these, together with x-ray absorption spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements, we identify the states created by a covalent bond between the Te 5p and the Cr eg orbitals as the primary driver of the ferromagnetic ordering in this system, while it is the Cr t2g states that carry the majority of the spin moment. The t2g states furthermore exhibit a marked bandwidth increase and a remarkable lifetime enhancement upon entering the ordered phase, pointing to a delicate interplay between localized and itinerant states in this family of layered ferromagnets.PostprintPeer reviewe

Giant valley-Zeeman coupling in the surface layer of an intercalated transition metal dichalcogenide

Funding: We gratefully acknowledge support from the Leverhulme Trust (Grant No. RL-2016-006 [P.D.C.K., B.E., T.A., A.R., C.B.]), the European Research Council (through the QUESTDO project, 714193 [P.D.C.K., G.R.S.]), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant Nos. EP/T02108X/1 [P.D.C.K., P.A.E.M.] and EP/N032128/1 [D.A.M., G.B.]), and the Center for Computational Materials Science at the Institute for Materials Research for allocations on the MASAMUNE-IMR supercomputer system (Project No. 202112-SCKXX-0510 [R.B.V., M.S.B.]). S.B., E.A.M. and A.Z. gratefully acknowledge studentship support from the International Max-Planck Research School for Chemistry and Physics of Quantum Materials. Research conducted at MAX IV, a Swedish national user facility, is supported by the Swedish Research council under contract 2018-07152, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems under contract 2018-04969, and Formas under contract 2019-02496. The research leading to this result has been supported by the project CALIPSOplus under the Grant Agreement 730872 from the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation HORIZON 2020.Spin–valley locking is ubiquitous among transition metal dichalcogenides with local or global inversion asymmetry, in turn stabilizing properties such as Ising superconductivity, and opening routes towards ‘valleytronics’. The underlying valley–spin splitting is set by spin–orbit coupling but can be tuned via the application of external magnetic fields or through proximity coupling. However, only modest changes have been realized to date. Here, we investigate the electronic structure of the V-intercalated transition metal dichalcogenide V1/3NbS2 using microscopic-area spatially resolved and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Our measurements and corresponding density functional theory calculations reveal that the bulk magnetic order induces a giant valley-selective Ising coupling exceeding 50 meV in the surface NbS2 layer, equivalent to application of a ~250 T magnetic field. This energy scale is of comparable magnitude to the intrinsic spin–orbit splittings, and indicates how coupling of local magnetic moments to itinerant states of a transition metal dichalcogenide monolayer provides a powerful route to controlling their valley–spin splittings.PostprintPeer reviewe

Razlike po spolu u nekim motoričkim sposobnostima djece predškolske dobi

The paper presents the results of the investigation of gender differences in motor abilities of preschool boys (n=106) and girls (n=121), 6-7 years of age. Eighteen composite motor tests adapted for preschool children, three for each hypothetical latent motor dimension (coordination, flexibility, strength, agility, accuracy and balance) were used to measure motor performance of the subjects. Statistically significant gender differences in motor variables were established. In the majority of variables better results were achieved by boys, except for the variable assessing flexibility – straddle seated forward bend, in which girls performed better. The results showed that this set of variables had a relatively high discriminant power. The measures influenced by the motion regulation mechanism had the greatest contribution to the discriminant function. The results indicate occurrence of sexual dimorphism in children’s motor abilities even at the age of six and half years.U radu su ispitane moguće razlike po spolu u motoričkim obilježjima dječaka (n=106) i djevojčica (n=121) predškolske dobi, starosti od 6 do 7 godina. U istraživanju je korištena baterija od osamnaest modificiranih testova za uzrast predškolske dobi, od kojih su za svaku latentnu dimenziju motoričkih sposobnosti bila predviđena po tri testa (koordinacija, fleksibilnost, snaga, agilnost, preciznost, ravnoteža). Utvrđene su značajne razlike po spolu između dječaka i djevojčica u mjerenim varijablama motoričkih sposobnosti. U većini varijabla bolje rezultate postizali su dječaci, osim u jednoj varijabli iz skupine procjene fleksibilnosti – pretklon u sjedu, u čemu su djevojčice bile bolje. Rezultati diskriminacijske analize potvrdili su kako taj skup manifestnih varijabli za procjenu motoričkih sposobnosti dobro razlikuje dječake i djevojčice. Najveći doprinos mogućem razlikovanju djece s obzirom na spolnu pripadnost pokazale su one varijable koje su pod utjecajem mehanizma za regulaciju kretanja. Rezultati ukazuju na to kako je već kod djece od šest i pol godina došlo do pojave spolnog dimorfizma u motoričkim sposobnostima

Valorizing the 'Irulas' traditional knowledge of medicinal plants in the Kodiakkarai Reserve Forest, India

A mounting body of critical research is raising the credibility of Traditional Knowledge (TK) in scientific studies. These studies have gained credibility because their claims are supported by methods that are repeatable and provide data for quantitative analyses that can be used to assess confidence in the results. The theoretical importance of our study is to test consensus (reliability/replicable) of TK within one ancient culture; the Irulas of the Kodiakkarai Reserve Forest (KRF), India. We calculated relative frequency (RF) and consensus factor (Fic) of TK from 120 Irulas informants knowledgeable of medicinal plants. Our research indicates a high consensus of the Irulas TK concerning medicinal plants. The Irulas revealed a diversity of plants that have medicinal and nutritional utility in their culture and specific ethnotaxa used to treat a variety of illnesses and promote general good health in their communities. Throughout history aboriginal people have been the custodians of bio-diversity and have sustained healthy life-styles in an environmentally sustainable manner. However this knowledge has not been transferred to modern society. We suggest this may be due to the asymmetry between scientific and TK, which demands a new approach that considers the assemblage of TK and scientific knowledge. A greater understanding of TK is beginning to emerge based on our research with both the Irulas and Malasars; they believe that a healthy lifestyle is founded on a healthy environment. These aboriginal groups chose to share this knowledge with society-at-large in order to promote a global lifestyle of health and environmental sustainability