The Emotional Competence Assessment Questionnaire (ECAQ) for Children Aged from 3 to 5 Years : Validity and Reliability Evidence

In order to assess emotional competence in children, it is necessary to have psychometrically sound measures. To the best of our knowledge, there is no available tool to assess emotional competence in children from 3 to 5 years old that assesses the five emotional competences of the Bisquerra model and can be easily and quickly answered in the school environment. The objective of this study is to develop a measure, the Emotional Competence Assessment Questionnaire (ECAQ), and to provide evidence of its psychometric quality. Qualitative evidence was obtained from a systematic review, from two expert committees and from five discussion groups. On the other hand, quantitative validity and reliability evidence was obtained from a sample of 1088 students and other smaller subsamples. The results suggest that the ECAQ is a short and easy-to-use tool, easily understood by administrators. The quantitative results confirm a general factor of emotional competence adjusted for three specific factors. This factor has excellent internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The ECAQ has therefore been shown to be a promising tool for assessing emotional competence in children between 3 and 5 years of age

Expression and Role of MicroRNAs from the miR-200 Family in the Tumor Formation and Metastatic Propensity of Pancreatic Cancer

MicroRNAs from the miR-200 family are commonly associated with the inhibition of the metastatic potential of cancer cells, following inhibition of ZEB transcription factors expression and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. However, previous studies performed in pancreatic adenocarcinoma revealed a more complex picture challenging this canonical model. To gain better insights into the role of miR-200 family members in this disease, we analyzed the expression of miR-200a, miR- 200b, miR-200c, miR-141, miR-429, and miR-205, and ZEB1, ZEB2, and CDH1 in pancreatic tumors and matching normal adjacent parenchyma and patient-derived xenografts. We found that miR-200a, miR-429, and miR-205 are frequently overex- pressed in pancreatic tumors, whereas CDH1 is downregulated, and ZEB1 and ZEB2 levels remain unchanged. Furthermore, we measured a positive correlation between miR-200 family mem- bers and CDH1 expression, and a negative correlation between ZEB1 and miR-200c, miR-141, and miR-205 expression, respec- tively. Interestingly, we identified significant changes in expres- sion of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition regulators and miR-200 members in patient-derived xenografts. Lastly, func- tional studies revealed that miR-141 and miR-429 inhibit the tumorigenic potential of pancreatic cancer cells. Taken together, this comprehensive analysis strongly suggests that miRNAs from the miR-200 family, and in particular miR-429, may act as a tu- mor suppressor gene in pancreatic cancer

Prognostic value and risk stratification of residual disease in patients with incidental gallbladder cancer

Background and aim: given their poor prognosis, patients with residual disease (RD) in the re-resection specimen of an incidental gallbladder carcinoma (IGBC) could benefit from a better selection for surgical treatment. The Gallbladder Cancer Risk Score (GBRS) has been proposed to preoperatively identify RD risk more precisely than T-stage alone. The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of RD and to validate the GBRS in a retrospective series of patients. Material and methods: a prospectively collected database including 59 patients with IGBC diagnosed from December 1996 to November 2015 was retrospectively analyzed. Three locations of RD were established: local, regional, and distant. The effect of RD on overall survival (OS) was analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier method. To identify variables associated with the presence of RD, characteristics of patients with and without RD were compared using Fisher's exact test. The relative risk of RD associated with clinical and pathologic factors was studied with a univariate logistic regression analysis. Results: RD was found in 30 patients (50.8%). The presence of RD in any location was associated with worse OS (29% vs. 74.2%, p = 0.0001), even after an R0 resection (37.7% vs 74.2%, p = 0.003). There was no significant difference in survival between patients without RD and with local RD (74.2% vs 64.3%, p = 0.266), nor between patients with regional RD and distant RD (16.1% vs 20%, p = 0.411). After selecting patients in which R0 resection was achieved (n = 44), 5-year survival rate for patients without RD, local RD, and regional RD was, respectively, 74.2%, 75%, and 13.9% (p = 0.0001). The GBRS could be calculated in 25 cases (42.3%), and its usefulness to predict the presence of regional or distant RD (RDRD) was confirmed (80% in high-risk patients and 30% in intermediate risk p = 0.041). Conclusion: RDRD, but not local RD, represents a negative prognostic factor of OS. The GBRS was useful to preoperatively identify patients with high risk of RDRD. An R0 resection did not improve OS of patients with regional RD