From a black to a multicultural school: how to move a system strategy?.

This study examines the way in which a school with exclusively minority children desegregates itself. Given the educational system in Belgium of competitive schools and parental choice, desegregation implies a system approach with differentiated content of education, a process of involving stakeholders and redefining the school's context.Strategy;

Clinical experience with venlafaxine in the treatment of hot flushes in women with a history of breast cancer

OBJECTIVE: To obtain practical experience with venlafaxine for hot flushes in breast cancer patients and incorporate this in a treatment protocol. METHOD: Twenty-two women with a history of breast cancer (mean age 49.2 years, range 35-65) were referred for consideration of treatment with venlafaxine for hot flushes. Patients received extensive information on treatment with venlafaxine and were advised to self-monitor the frequency of their hot flushes. RESULTS: Eight women did not start venlafaxine because they had no postmenopausal complaints, were lost to follow-up, had too low a frequency of hot flushes, or refused treatment. Eventually 14 women started venlafaxine. Two of them did not tolerate venlafaxine, four reported some effect but stopped because of side effects, two women had no effect whatsoever. Six women observed a clear ( > 50%) reduction in their hot flush frequency that was maintained at a median follow-up of 13 months. CONCLUSION: The group of patients referred for treatment was more heterogeneous and more patients dropped out because of side effects than expected. Extensive patient education, patient selection and evaluation of the treatment effect (by self-monitoring of hot flush frequency) are mandatory to avoid useless (continuation of) treatment and to prepare patients for side effects. Under these conditions, a substantial minority of patients benefit from venlafaxine

Consistent description of field theories with non-Hermitian mass terms

We review how to describe a field theory that includes a non-Hermitian mass term in the region of parameter space where the Lagrangian is PT-symmetric. The discrete symmetries of the system are essential for understanding the consistency of the model, and the link between conserved current and variation of the Lagrangian has to be revisited in the case of continuous symmetries

Therapeutische toepassingen van klassieke serotonerge psychedelica: neurobiologische mechanismes en neurale netwerken

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Contralateral breast cancer risk is influenced by the age at onset in BRCA1-associated breast cancer

BRCA1/2 mutation carriers diagnosed with breast cancer have a strongly elevated life-time risk of developing a contralateral tumour. We studied the contralateral breast cancer risk in 164 patients from 83 families with a proven BRCA1 mutation in relation to the age at diagnosis of the first primary breast cancer. In the actuarial outcomes after 10 years’ follow-up, 40% of the 124 BRCA1-patients diagnosed with breast cancer < 50 years had developed contralateral breast cancer, vs 12% of the 40 patients > 50 years at first diagnosis (Plogrank= 0.02). These data suggest that age at diagnosis of the first tumour should be taken into account when prophylactic mastectomy in BRCA1-patients is considered. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Outcomes of First-Line Chemotherapy in Patients with Advanced or Metastatic Leiomyosarcoma of Uterine and Non-Uterine Origin

Although leiomyosarcomas (LMSs) form the largest subgroup of soft tissue sarcomas (STSs), the efficacy of chemotherapy in this group is largely unclear, partly because older studies are contaminated with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). In this retrospective study we investigated the outcome of first line chemotherapy in 65 patients with unresectable or metastatic LMS. The overall response rate (ORR) was 18%; and the median progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 3.8 and 9.7 months respectively. No statistically significant differences in outcomes for uterine and non-uterine LMS were found. In non-uterine LMS, however, the PFS and OS seemed to be longer for females than for males, potentially negatively affecting outcomes in this group. If our observations are confirmed in other series, they would suggest that studies performed in STS patients should not only stratify for histological subtype but also for uterine versus non-uterine LMS and for gender