Predictive Role Of Body Composition Parameters In Operable Breast Cancer Patients Treated With Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Fat tissue is strongly involved in BC tumorigenesis inducing insulin resistance, chronic inflammation and hormonal changes. Computed tomography (CT) imaging instead of body mass index (BMI) gives a reliable measure of skeletal muscle mass and body fat distribution. The impact of body composition parameters (BCPs) on chemosensitivity is still debated. We examined the associations between BCPs and tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NC) in patients treated for operable breast cancer (BC). METHODS: A retrospective review of BC patients treated with NC in Modena Cancer Center between 2005 and 2017 was performed. BCPs, such as subcutaneous fat area (SFA), visceral fat area (VFA), lumbar skeletal muscle index (LSMI) and liver-to-spleen (L/S) ratio were calculated by Advance workstation (General Electric), software ADW server 3.2 or 4.7. BMI and BCPs were correlated with pathological complete response (pCR) and survival outcomes. RESULTS: 407 patients were included in the study: 55% with BMI < 25 and 45% with BMI 65 25. 137 of them had pre-treatment CT scan imagines. Overweight was significantly associated with postmenopausal status and older age. Hormonal receptor positive BC was more frequent in overweight patients (p<0.05). Postmenopausal women had higher VFA, fatty liver disease and obesity compared to premenopausal patients. No association between BMI classes and tumor response was detected. High VFA and liver steatosis were negative predictive factors for pCR (pCR rate: 36% normal VFA vs 20% high VFA, p= 0.048; no steatosis 32% vs steatosis 13%, p=0.056). Neither BMI classes nor BCPs significantly influenced overall survival and relapse-free survival. CONCLUSION: Visceral adiposity as well as steatosis were closely involved in chemosensitivity in BC patients treated with NC. Their measures from clinically acquired CT scans provide significant predictive information that outperform BMI value. More research is required to evaluate the relationship among adiposity site and survival outcomes

Seven HCI Grand Challenges

This article aims to investigate the Grand Challenges which arise in the current and emerging landscape of rapid technological evolution towards more intelligent interactive technologies, coupled with increased and widened societal needs, as well as individual and collective expectations that HCI, as a discipline, is called upon to address. A perspective oriented to humane and social values is adopted, formulating the challenges in terms of the impact of emerging intelligent interactive technologies on human life both at the individual and societal levels. Seven Grand Challenges are identified and presented in this article: Human-Technology Symbiosis; Human-Environment Interactions; Ethics, Privacy and Security; Well-being, Health and Eudaimonia; Accessibility and Universal Access; Learning and Creativity; and Social Organization and Democracy. Although not exhaustive, they summarize the views and research priorities of an international interdisciplinary group of experts, reflecting different scientific perspectives, methodological approaches and application domains. Each identified Grand Challenge is analyzed in terms of: concept and problem definition; main research issues involved and state of the art; and associated emerging requirements

Motor simulation in a memory task: Evidence from rock climbing

IL lavoro tratta della percezione e ricordo di affordance multiple da parte di scalatori esperti e non

When affordances climb into your mind: Advantages of Motor Simulation in a Memory Task Performed by Novice and Expert Rock Climbers.

Does the sight of multiple climbing holds laid along a path activate motor simulation of climbing that path? One way of testing whether multiple affordances and their displacement influence the formation of a motor simulation is to study acquired motor skills. We used a behavioural task in which expert and novice rock climbers were shown three routes: an easy route, a route impossible to climb but perceptually salient, and a difficult route. After a distraction task, they were then given a recall test in which they had to write down the sequence of holds composing each route. We found no difference between experts and novices on the easy and impossible routes, whereas on the difficult route, the performance of experts was better than that of novices. This suggests that seeing a climbing wall activates a motor, embodied simulation, which relies not on perceptual salience, but on motor competence. More importantly, our results show that the capability to form this simulation is modulated by individuals’ motor repertoire and expertise, and that this strongly impacts recall

Survey of self-employment and alternative work arrangements 2018

This survey intends to fill a gap by carefully documenting the characteristics of the workers engaged in alternative work arrangements and the gig economy in the United Kingdom. We collected the data via an online survey of 20,000 respondents representative of the UK working-age population (18-65 years old). Alternative work arrangements, such as independent contractors, zero hours contract workers, temporary help agency workers and contract company workers, are a growing and increasingly important feature of the labour markets of many developed economies. However, little is known about the nature and variety of these new types of jobs in terms of employment conditions (e.g. pay, hours worked, patterns of work), workers’ characteristics including workers’ preferences for different working arrangements, and employment rights.1) Developing Skills: Strengths and Weaknesses in the System, and What can be Done. The new Industrial Strategy must consider how the education system can create the general and specific skills needed by businesses today and in the future. CEP will synthesise evidence on strengths and weaknesses in the current education system at all levels (schools, colleges and universities), and highlight where improvements can be made. This might be within the current system, or through the design of new mechanisms to incentivise individuals and firms to invest in training. In conjunction with researchers from the Centre for Vocational Education Research (CVER), we can produce a synthesis of findings on technical and vocational education. We will also be able to study in more depth firm-level relationships with higher education institutions, with the aim of better understanding how they impact on local economies. 2) Driving Growth across the Country: Mapping the Data on Firms and Labour Markets. The starting point for developing appropriate regionally focused growth policies is to understand the status quo, to carefully document how this has changed over time, and to better understand the factors underlying and driving geographic differences. The CEP is developing better data to describe the geographic spread of industry, and associated variation in labour market patterns like problems of real wage stagnation and the rise of new types of work arrangements, including the gig economy. As well as analysis of the digital economy, and the opportunities and threats it poses for the labour market and implications for the future. We will seek to release reports describing the data, map the relevant metrics (including productivity, investment, employment and pay) so that policymakers and stakeholders could benchmark their own regions/sectors. 3) Supporting Businesses to Start and Grow: Drivers of Innovation and Diffusion. The Industrial Strategy should be focused on addressing market failures which cause barriers to investment in innovation, technologies or organisational practices that drive productivity growth. One strand of work using patents will analyse the innovation spill overs between technologies and places, and the types of policy that stimulate business RD and innovation. The spill over analysis would also be linked with new measures of regional Total Factor Productivity (TFP) to understand the local economic impact of innovation. This work will help guide policymakers to where the payoffs of RD investment might be greatest for the UK. In this context, we would consider payoffs both in terms of economic growth but also in terms of achieving non-economic objectives such as lower greenhouse gas emissions and more secure energy supply. We also plan to produce a report together with the LSE's Grantham Institute on clean growth. Another strand of work will consider the role of financial constraints on firm growth, and the extent to which these have contributed to recent poor productivity performance in the UK. And finally, we will explore the relationships between management practices and investment efficiency. 4) Encouraging Trade and Inward Investment: Brexit and Industrial Strategy. Many UK firms (particularly SMEs) face longstanding barriers to exporting, and Brexit will create new challenges in this area. At the same time, while UK Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) performance has been stronger to date, there are concerns that Brexit will induce multinationals to relocate in order to maintain access to the single market. CEP will seek to understand the likely trade and FDI impacts of Brexit, and the implications for labour markets and consumers. This will include a deeper analysis of the sectoral and regional dimensions, and should be useful to inform the scope and form of industrial policy response.</p

Latest culture techniques: Cracking the secrets of bone marrow to mass-produce erythrocytes and platelets ex vivo

Since the dawn of medicine, scientists have carefully observed, modeled and interpreted the human body to improve healthcare. At the beginning there were drawings and paintings, now there is three-dimensional modeling. Moving from two-dimensional cultures and towards complex and relevant biomaterials, tissue-engineering approaches have been developed in order to create three-dimensional functional mimics of native organs. The bone marrow represents a challenging organ to reproduce because of its structure and composition that confer it unique biochemical and mechanical features to control hematopoiesis. Reproducing the human bone marrow niche is instrumental to answer the growing demand for human erythrocytes and platelets for fundamental studies and clinical applications in transfusion medicine. In this review, we discuss the latest culture techniques and technological approaches to obtain functional platelets and erythrocytes ex vivo. This is a rapidly evolving field that will define the future of targeted therapies for thrombocytopenia and anemia, but also a long-term promise for new approaches to the understanding and cure of hematologic diseases