Tumor volume as a prognostic factor for local control and overall survival in advanced larynx cancer

Objectives/Hypothesis Tumor volume has been postulated to be an important prognostic factor for oncological outcome after radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. This postulate was retrospectively investigated in a consecutively treated cohort of T3-T4 larynx cancer patients. Study Design Retrospective cohort study. Methods For 166 patients with T3-T4 larynx cancer (1999-2008), pretreatment computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans were available for tumor volume delineation. Patients were treated with radiotherapy, chemoradiotherapy, or total laryngectomy with postoperative radiotherapy. Both a dedicated head and neck radiologist and the first author determined all tumor volumes. Statistical analysis was by Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox proportional hazard models. Results Patients with T3 larynx cancer had significantly smaller tumor volumes than patients with T4 larynx cancer (median = 8.1 cm3 and 15.8 cm3, respectively; P < .0001). In the group treated with total laryngectomy and postoperative radiotherapy, no association was found between tumor volume and local or locoregional control or overall survival. In the group treated with radiotherapy, a nonsignificant trend was observed between local control and tumor volume. In the chemoradiotherapy group, however, a significant impact of tumor volume was found on local control (hazard ratio = 1.07; 95% confidence interval = 1.01-1.13; P = .028). Conclusions Tumor volume was not significantly associated with local control, locoregional control, or overall survival in the surgically treated group. In the group treated with radiotherapy, there was no statistically significant association, but a trend was observed between local control and tumor volume. Only in patients treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy was a significant impact of tumor volume on local control found. Level of Evidence 4

Colloquium: Mechanical formalisms for tissue dynamics

The understanding of morphogenesis in living organisms has been renewed by tremendous progressin experimental techniques that provide access to cell-scale, quantitative information both on theshapes of cells within tissues and on the genes being expressed. This information suggests that ourunderstanding of the respective contributions of gene expression and mechanics, and of their crucialentanglement, will soon leap forward. Biomechanics increasingly benefits from models, which assistthe design and interpretation of experiments, point out the main ingredients and assumptions, andultimately lead to predictions. The newly accessible local information thus calls for a reflectionon how to select suitable classes of mechanical models. We review both mechanical ingredientssuggested by the current knowledge of tissue behaviour, and modelling methods that can helpgenerate a rheological diagram or a constitutive equation. We distinguish cell scale ("intra-cell")and tissue scale ("inter-cell") contributions. We recall the mathematical framework developpedfor continuum materials and explain how to transform a constitutive equation into a set of partialdifferential equations amenable to numerical resolution. We show that when plastic behaviour isrelevant, the dissipation function formalism appears appropriate to generate constitutive equations;its variational nature facilitates numerical implementation, and we discuss adaptations needed in thecase of large deformations. The present article gathers theoretical methods that can readily enhancethe significance of the data to be extracted from recent or future high throughput biomechanicalexperiments.Comment: 33 pages, 20 figures. This version (26 Sept. 2015) contains a few corrections to the published version, all in Appendix D.2 devoted to large deformation

A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema

High-resolution sperm typing of meiotic recombination in the mouse MHC E(β) gene

Meiotic crossovers detected by pedigree analysis in the mouse MHC cluster into hotspots. To explore the properties of hotspots, we subjected the class II E(β) gene to high-resolution sperm crossover analysis. We confirm the presence of a highly localized hotspot 1.0–1.6 kb wide in the second intron of E(β) and show that it is flanked by DNA which is almost completely recombinationally inert. Mice heterozygous for haplotype s and another MHC haplotype show major haplotype-dependant variation in crossover rate but always the same hotspot, even in crosses including the highly diverged p haplotype. Crossovers in reciprocal orientations occur at similar rates but show different distributions across the hotspot, with the position of centre points in the two orientations shifted on average by 400 bp. This asymmetry results in crossover products showing biased gene conversion in favour of hotspot markers from the non-initiating haplotype, and supports the double-strand break repair model of recombination, with haplotype s as the most efficient crossover initiator. The detailed behaviour of the E(β) hotspot, including evidence for highly localized recombination initiation, is strikingly similar to human hotspots

Girls' and boys' perceptions of physical education teachers' feedback: Effects on performance and psychological responses

International audienc

Relative bioavailability of bedaquiline tablets suspended in water: Implications for dosing in children

Contains fulltext : 195868.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access