Epidermal growth factor receptor gene copy number in 101 advanced colorectal cancer patients treated with chemotherapy plus cetuximab

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Responsiveness to Cetuximab alone can be mediated by an increase of Epidermal Growth factor Receptor (EGFR) Gene Copy Number (GCN). Aim of this study was to assess the role of EGFR-GCN in advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) patients receiving chemotherapy plus Cetuximab.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>One hundred and one advanced CRC patients (43 untreated- and 58 pre-treated) were retrospectively studied by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to assess EGFR-GCN and by immunohistochemistry (IHC) to determine EGFR expression. Sixty-one out of 101 patients were evaluated also for k-ras status by direct sequencing. Clinical end-points were response rate (RR), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Increased EGFR-GCN was found in 60/101 (59%) tumor samples. There was no correlation between intensity of EGFR-IHC and EGFR-GCN (p = 0.43). Patients receiving chemotherapy plus Cetuximab as first line treatment had a RR of 70% (30/43) while it was 18% (10/56) in the group with previous lines of therapy (p < 0.0001). RR was observed in 29/60 (48%) of patients with increased EGFR-GCN and in 6/28 (21%) in those without (p = 0.02). At multivariate analyses, number of chemotherapy lines and increased EGFR-GCN were predictive of response; EGFR-IHC score, increased EGFR-GCN and number of chemotherapy lines were significantly associated with a significant better PFS. Response to therapy was the only prognostic predictive factor for OS. In the 60 patients analyzed for k-ras mutations, number of chemotherapy lines, increased EGFR-GCN and k-ras wild type status predicted a better PFS.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In metastatic CRC patients treated with chemotherapy plus Cetuximab number of chemotherapy lines and increased EGFR-GCN were significantly associated with a better clinical outcome, independent of k-ras status.</p

Behavioural signs of pain in cats: an expert consensus

To identify where a consensus can be reached between veterinary experts in feline medicine on the core signs sufficient for pain (sufficient to indicate pain when they occur, but not necessarily present in all painful conditions) and necessary for pain (necessary in the presence of pain, but not always indicative of pain). Methods A modified Delphi technique was used, consisting of four rounds of questions and evaluation using nineteen participants during the period December 2014 and May 2015. Agreement was considered to be established when 80% of the experts concurred with the same opinion. Results Twenty-five signs were considered sufficient to indicate pain, but no single sign was considered necessary for it. Discussion Further studies are needed to evaluate the validity of these 25 behavioural signs if a specific pain assessment tool is to be developed that is capable of assessing pain in cats based on observational methods alone. The signs reported here may nonetheless help both vets and owners form an initial evaluation of the pain status of cats in their care

How future surgery will benefit from SARS-COV-2-related measures: a SPIGC survey conveying the perspective of Italian surgeons

COVID-19 negatively affected surgical activity, but the potential benefits resulting from adopted measures remain unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the change in surgical activity and potential benefit from COVID-19 measures in perspective of Italian surgeons on behalf of SPIGC. A nationwide online survey on surgical practice before, during, and after COVID-19 pandemic was conducted in March-April 2022 (NCT:05323851). Effects of COVID-19 hospital-related measures on surgical patients' management and personal professional development across surgical specialties were explored. Data on demographics, pre-operative/peri-operative/post-operative management, and professional development were collected. Outcomes were matched with the corresponding volume. Four hundred and seventy-three respondents were included in final analysis across 14 surgical specialties. Since SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, application of telematic consultations (4.1% vs. 21.6%; p &lt; 0.0001) and diagnostic evaluations (16.4% vs. 42.2%; p &lt; 0.0001) increased. Elective surgical activities significantly reduced and surgeons opted more frequently for conservative management with a possible indication for elective (26.3% vs. 35.7%; p &lt; 0.0001) or urgent (20.4% vs. 38.5%; p &lt; 0.0001) surgery. All new COVID-related measures are perceived to be maintained in the future. Surgeons' personal education online increased from 12.6% (pre-COVID) to 86.6% (post-COVID; p &lt; 0.0001). Online educational activities are considered a beneficial effect from COVID pandemic (56.4%). COVID-19 had a great impact on surgical specialties, with significant reduction of operation volume. However, some forced changes turned out to be benefits. Isolation measures pushed the use of telemedicine and telemetric devices for outpatient practice and favored communication for educational purposes and surgeon-patient/family communication. From the Italian surgeons' perspective, COVID-related measures will continue to influence future surgical clinical practice

L'entusiasmo e il suo contagio nello sport e nella scuola

La ricerca evidenzia l'analisi da un punto di vista teorico dell'entusiasmo avvertito dagli individui in un duplice ambito, sportivo e scolastic

Diagram of the number of signs per Round and number of agreed upon signs per Round.

<p>Diagram of the number of signs per Round and number of agreed upon signs per Round.</p

Behaviours considered by participants as sufficient (reliable) for pain and their presence in high and/or low level pain.

<p>Behaviours considered by participants as sufficient (reliable) for pain and their presence in high and/or low level pain.</p

Social referencing and cat–human communication

Cats’ (Felis catus) communicative behaviour towards humans was explored using a social referencing paradigm in the presence of a potentially frightening object. One group of cats observed their owner delivering a positive emotional message, whereas another group received a negative emotional message. The aim was to evaluate whether cats use the emotional information provided by their owners about a novel/unfamiliar object to guide their own behaviour towards it. We assessed the presence of social referencing, in terms of referential looking towards the owner (defined as looking to the owner immediately before or after looking at the object), the behavioural regulation based on the owner’s emotional (positive vs negative) message (vocal and facial), and the observational conditioning following the owner’s actions towards the object. Most cats (79 %) exhibited referential looking between the owner and the object, and also to some extent changed their behaviour in line with the emotional message given by the owner. Results are discussed in relation to social referencing in other species (dogs in particular) and cats’ social organization and domestication history

Social referencing: Water rescue trained dogs are less affected than pet dogs by the stranger’s message

Recent studies provide evidence of social referencing in dog–human interactions indicating that dogs use the emotional information provided by a human informant about a novel object/stimulus to guide their own behaviour towards it. Water rescue training is a type of educational activity aimed at creating human–dog dyads specialized in rescuing people who are drowning. A central aspect of the training programme is to strengthen the dogowner bond whilst at the same time engendering in dogs a strong positive attitude towards strangers. In this study 11 water rescue dogs with the SICS Water Rescue Certificate® (Water rescue trained group) were tested and compared with 11 pet dogs (Pet group) of the same breed in a Social referencing paradigm, to assess the potential influence of the specific training received by water rescue dogs on referential looking and behavioural regulation with a stranger acting as the informant. Almost all pet and water rescue trained dogs showed referential looking towards the stranger, however only pet dogs approached the object more, following the stranger’s positive emotional message (p = 0.03). Results provide further evidence that Social Referencing occurs in dogs even when the human informant is an unfamiliar person. Furthermore, they suggest that the specific training experience of water rescue trained dogs affected their reaction to the stranger’s message, reducing their inclination to follow it when compared to pet dogs

Dogs' Social Referencing towards Owners and Strangers

<div><p>Social referencing is a process whereby an individual uses the emotional information provided by an informant about a novel object/stimulus to guide his/her own future behaviour towards it. In this study adult dogs were tested in a social referencing paradigm involving a potentially scary object with either their owner or a stranger acting as the informant and delivering either a positive or negative emotional message. The aim was to evaluate the influence of the informant's identity on the dogs' referential looking behaviour and behavioural regulation when the message was delivered using only vocal and facial emotional expressions. Results show that most dogs looked referentially at the informant, regardless of his/her identity. Furthermore, when the owner acted as the informant dogs that received a positive emotional message changed their behaviour, looking at him/her more often and spending more time approaching the object and close to it; conversely, dogs that were given a negative message took longer to approach the object and to interact with it. Fewer differences in the dog's behaviour emerged when the informant was the stranger, suggesting that the dog-informant relationship may influence the dog's behavioural regulation. Results are discussed in relation to studies on human-dog communication, attachment, mood modification and joint attention.</p> </div

Multimodal Score: an ANVIL based Annotation scheme for multimodal audio-video analysis

The paper presents the ANVIL Score, an annotation scheme that allows to transcribe, analyse and classify multimodal data. Some fragments of communication by TV Speakers, politicians and advertisment actors are analyse to show the potentialities of the tool