The development of undergraduate students’ concepts about the fanfictional genre system

The fanfictional genre has not been extensively investigated in Brazil. In fact, there is very little academic work on this genre in universities (MYERS, 2006, MORLEY, 2007, BLYTHE & SWEET, 2008, HEALEY, 2009 and OBERHOLZER, 2014). Therefore, a Fanfictional Creative Writing in English course (FCWE) was developed and taught at the end of 2016. This course was attended by 5 undergraduate students in Languages and Literatures. Two of the objectives of this course were to 1) identify and 2) develop concepts about fanfictions. For this article, only student A was taken as an example. The methodology applied was the Case Study (DUFF, 2008, 2012; DYSON, 2005; STAKE, 2006). The FCWE course was based on the Vygotskian sociocultural theory (VYGOTSKY, 2004; 2007). As a result, student A demonstrated signs of development regarding social facts, speech acts, genre sets, and genre systems (BAZERMAN, 2012; CURRY & LILLIS, 2016)

The broadening of the concept of creativity in English as a Second Language creative writing classes

ABSTRACT: Creative Writing in English (CWE) has not been extensively researched in Brazil. There are few courses on CWE in Brazilian Languages and Literature universities, and even fewer available publications on this area as well (MYERS, 2006; MORLEY, 2007; BLYTHE and SWEET, 2008; HEALEY, 2009; OBERHOLZER, 2014). For these reasons, the main objective of this research was to investigate the development (VYGOTSKY, 2004; 2007;, M. C.E EINER, A. (2010) 2014. a grammar JOHN-STEINER, CONNERY & MARJANOVIC-SHAN, 2015) of undergraduate students’ concepts about creativity. To achieve that, the researcher investigated the participating students’ initial and final concepts about creativity in a creative writing course in English. This course had 12 Brazilian undergraduate students. The initial results indicated that they all shared a very strict view upon creativity, however, their concepts were all broadened extensively by the end of the course due to the development of the creative writing course as well as the teacher’s pedagogical interventions. Keywords: Creativity; Creative Writing; Broadenin

O APROFUNDAMENTO DOS CONCEITOS DOS ALUNOS DE ESCRITA CRIATIVA SOBRE AS FANFICTIONS

The multimodal gerne fanfictions have been one of the commonest cyberliterary texts produced on the internet. However, the various definitions of fanfictions seem not to be related to the cyberspace (JENKINS, 1992; TUSHNET, 1997; PUGH, 2005; THOMAS, 2006; HELLEKSON, 2014; COPPA, 2017). Therefore, the first objective of this article was to identify the students’ actual concepts about fanfictions (VYGOTSKY, 2004, 2007). The qualitative data was collected in a fanfictional creative writing (FCW) course. This course was organized and taught based on the Vygotskian sociocultural theory. The second objective was then to analyze if the FCW course did help its students broaden their concepts about fanwriting. As a result, the FCW students displayed signs of syncretizing, complexifying and conceptualizing about the fanwriting process.O gênero fanfiction vem se consolidando como um dos textos ciberliterários mais comuns produzidos na internet. No entanto, as várias definições de fanfictions que parecem não estar relacionadas ao ciberespaço. Assim, este artigo abordou os conceitos mais recorrentes sobre fanfictions e o processo de construção de sentido a partir da teoria sociocultural vygotskiana. Portanto, o primeiro objetivo foi o de identificar os conceitos preliminares dos alunos sobre fanfictions. Os dados qualitativos foram coletados em um curso de escrita criativa fanfictional (ECF). Este curso foi organizado e ministrado com base na teoria sociocultural vygotskyana. O segundo objetivo foi, então, o de analisar se o curso ECF ajudou os alunos a aprofundar seus conceitos sobre fanwriting, ou seja, o processo de escrever fanfictions. Como resultado, os alunos do ECF apresentaram sinais de sincretização, complexificação e conceituação sobre o processo de fanwriting

Nab-paclitaxel for the management of triple-negative metastatic breast cancer: a case study

The optimal sequence of systemic chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is unknown. We report the case of a woman who was successfully treated with nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel for triple negative MBC in our institution. In November 2008, a 48-year-old woman underwent surgical treatment for a triple negative invasive ductal breast cancer and subsequently received adjuvant chemotherapy with fluorouracil/epirubicin/cyclophosphamide and radiotherapy. Sixteen months after surgery, she presented with a left chest wall metastatasis. The patient received combination therapy with conventional paclitaxel (90 mg/m² weekly for 3 out of 4 weeks [QW 3/4]) and bevacizumab (10 mg/kg every 2 weeks [Q2W]) as first-line treatment for MBC (six cycles; March to September 2010) and achieved a partial response at the metastatic site. Bevacizumab monotherapy was continued until disease progression (April 2011) with the development of a single infraclavicular lymph node metastasis and an increase in the dimensions of the left chest wall lesion. From May to December 2011, the patient received nab-paclitaxel 260 mg/m² every 3 weeks (Q3W) as second-line treatment (11 cycles). After three cycles, the left chest wall lesion and the infraclavicular lymph node metastasis were undetectable and the patient was considered to have achieved a complete response. Treatment was well tolerated with no significant toxicity or need for dose reduction. Given our case, here we review the clinical evidence and discuss the potential role of nab-paclitaxel for the treatment of triple negative MBC, a subgroup typically characterized as having aggressive disease and limited treatment options

Features of aggressive breast cancer

Aggressive breast cancer is a term commonly used in literature to describe breast cancer with a poor prognosis. Identifying and understanding the factors associated with aggressiveness could be helpful to the management of patients with breast cancer. Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, both clinically and biologically, which may be responsible for the wide range of survival durations for patients with metastatic disease

Nab-paclitaxel for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer: Rationale, clinical data and future perspectives

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for ∼10-20% of breast cancers and is associated with relatively poor prognosis, earlier disease recurrence and higher number of visceral metastases. Despite an increasing understanding of the molecular heterogeneity of TNBC, clinical trials of targeted agents have thus far been disappointing; chemotherapy, in particular with anthracycline and taxanes, remains the backbone medical management for both early and metastatic TNBC. Nab-paclitaxel is a solvent-free, albumin-bound, nanoparticle formulation of paclitaxel and represents a novel formulation of an established, effective chemotherapeutic agent. Nab-paclitaxel has been specifically designed to overcome the limitations of conventional taxane formulations, including the barriers to effective drug delivery of highly lipophilic agents. It has shown significant efficacy and better tolerability than conventional taxanes in metastatic breast cancer and is approved for use in this setting. Increasing evidence suggests that nab-paclitaxel is effective in patients with more aggressive tumours, as seen in TNBC. Indeed, results of Phase II/III studies indicate that nab-paclitaxel may be effective as neoadjuvant treatment of TNBC. This article reviews the rationale and evidence supporting a role for nab-paclitaxel in the treatment of TNBC, including ongoing studies such as ADAPT-TN and tnAcity. In addition, the article reviews ongoing research into targeted therapies and immuno-oncology for the treatment of TNBC, and explores the potential role, current evidence and ongoing studies of nab-paclitaxel as the chemotherapy partner in combination with immunotherapy, where the unique properties of this taxane, including the lack of requirement for steroid pre-medication, may present an advantage

Recurrent Pregnancy Loss and Thrombophilia

Emerging data seem to be available also on the role of active thromboprophylaxis with heparin and pregnancy outcome. In the last decades we found many data concerning the association between a hypercoagulable state and its causes and adverse pregnancy outcome, in particular recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). First studies which focused on the association between thrombophilia and RPL underlined the role of reduced clotting inhibitors and RPL, and subsequent studies underlined a pathogenetic role of gene variant associated to hypercoagulable state in the occurrence of RPL. On the other hand, acquired thrombophilic abnormalities as antiphipsholipid syndrome are a well known cause of RPL and should be considered for a screening. These data are relevant because recent studies suggested a role of an extensive thromprophilaxis in women with RPL that should be addressed only in case of known thrombophilia and high risk of venous thromboembolism

Combination of Cytotoxic Drugs for Patients with HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer

In the last few decades the approach to metastatic breast cancer (MBC) treatment using chemotherapy, either as single or combination agents, has been largely studied and a wide spectrum of therapeutic options is now available. Anthracyclines and taxanes remain the cornerstone of treatment in this setting. The choice of combination chemotherapy versus monochemotherapy is still open to debate since results from clinical trials are, unfortunately, conflicting. Despite improvements in response and disease-free survival rates, there has been no overall survival benefit reported although toxicity is increased. Therefore, based on available data, clinical decision-making for a busy practitioner should consider not only patient/tumor characteristics and the potential benefits of treatments, but also their toxicity profiles and patient preferences. Novel cytotoxic compounds have been approved for clinical use and combination regimens incorporating these agents may bring new treatment opportunities for MBC patients. In this review, we summarize the main achievements and the currently available and future combinations of cytotoxic drugs for patients with HER2-negative MBC