Node-positive breast cancer: Which are the best chemotherapy regimens?

Breast cancer-associated mortality has been significantly reduced since the 1990s, mainly because of early diagnosis and systemic therapeutic interventions. All three therapy components-cytostatic therapy, endocrine therapy and targeted antibody therapy-are at present necessary tools for the curative treatment of primary breast cancer. This article reviews the evidence base for the use of various chemotherapy schedules in patients with primary, node-positive breast cancer, including schedules in combination with targeted HER2/neu therapy

L'injonction de faire: une procédure efficace ?

En ligne sur le site du ministère de la justice : http://www.justice.gouv.fr/art_pix/1_stat_infostat120_20130304.pdfEntrée en application il y a plus de vingt ans, la procédure d'injonction de faire avait vocation à régler nombre de petits litiges de la vie quotidienne, permettant notamment aux consommateurs d'obtenir en nature l'exécution des obligations résultant d'un contrat. Cette procédure, dont le nombre dépasse à peine 7 000 en 2011, n'est utilisée que par 7% des usagers non professionnels de la justice. Ces derniers recourent plus fréquemment aux voies procédurales ordinaires, notamment aux procédures au fond introduites par déclaration au greffe (43%) et par assignation (41%) dont l'efficacité est bien supérieure : les chances pour les demandeurs de parvenir à un accord ou d'obtenir une décision leur donnant gain de cause sont en effet bien plus grandes. La procédure d'injonction de faire est souvent vouée à l'échec n'ayant une issue favorable que pour quatre requérants sur dix. Les procédures au fond ont quant à elles une issue positive pour près de sept demandeurs sur dix lorsque la demande a été formée par déclaration au greffe, pour les trois quart des demandeurs quand ils ont saisi le tribunal par assignation

Coral community decline at Bonaire, Southern Caribbean

We assessed the status of coral reef benthic communities at Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles, in December 2008 and January 2009 through ∼5 km of photo transects taken at depths of 5, 10, and 20 m at 14 locations around the island. Univariate and multivariate analyses detected significant variation in benthic communities among depths and locations, as well as between leeward and windward sides of the island. Mean percentage cover of scleractinian corals ranged between 0.2% and 43.6% at the study sites and tended to be lowest at 5-m depth. The survey recorded 40 scleractinian coral species from 19 genera, within 10 families. Faviidae were by far the most abundant scleractinian family at all depths (predominantly Montastraea spp.), followed by Agariciidae at 20 and 10 m, and by Astrocoeniidae at 5-m depth. Macroalgal cover exceeded scleractinian coral cover at nearly all sites, averaging 34.9% (all samples pooled), compared with a pooled mean coral cover of 15.4%. Windward reefs were characterized by prolific growth of the brown algae Sargassum spp., and leeward reefs by growth of turf algae, Dictyota spp., Trichogloeopsis pedicellata (Howe) I. A. Abbott & Doty, and Lobophora variegata (Lamouroux) Womersley ex Oliveira. Damage from recent hurricanes was evident from the presence of toppled and fragmented corals, the movement of sand, and exposure of cemented Acropora cervicornis (Lamarck, 1816) rubble on the shallow reef platform. The combination of algal dominance and low to moderate coral cover are symptomatic of partly degraded reef systems, particularly as they coincide with elevated nutrients and reduced herbivory

Decadal demographic shifts and size-dependent disturbance responses of corals in a subtropical warming hotspot

Funding supporting this research was provided by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE230100141) and a University of Sydney Fellowship to BS, by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CE140100020) to JMP and others, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CE110001014) and the Winifred Violet Scott Charitable Trust to MB, the Royal Geographical Society’s Ralph Brown Expedition Grant to MB and JC, the Natural Environment Research Council’s Sphere Doctoral Training Partnership to JC and the Natural Environment Research Council’s ONE Planet Doctoral Training Partnership (NE/S007512/1) and the European Commission’s Erasmus Traineeship to LL. This project has further received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant agreement TRIM-DLV-747102 to MB.Long-term demographic studies at biogeographic transition zones can elucidate how body size mediates disturbance responses. Focusing on subtropical reefs in eastern Australia, we examine trends in the size-structure of corals with contrasting life-histories and zoogeographies surrounding the 2016 coral bleaching event (2010–2019) to determine their resilience and recovery capacity. We document demographic shifts, with disproportionate declines in the number of small corals and long-term persistence of larger corals. The incidence of bleaching (Pocillopora, Turbinaria) and partial mortality (Acropora, Pocillopora) increased with coral size, and bleached corals had greater risk of partial mortality. While endemic Pocillopora experienced marked declines, decadal stability of Turbinaria despite bleaching, coupled with abundance increase and bleaching resistance in Acropora indicate remarkable resilience of these taxa in the subtropics. Declines in the number of small corals and variable associations with environmental drivers indicate bottlenecks to recovery mediated by inhibitory effects of thermal extremes for Pocillopora (heat stress) and Acropora (heat and cold stress), and stimulatory effects of chlorophyll-a for Turbinaria. Although our study reveals signs of resilience, it foreshadows the vulnerability of subtropical corals to changing disturbance regimes that include marine heatwaves. Disparity in population dynamics suggest that subtropical reefs are ecologically distinct from tropical coral reefs.Peer reviewe

Scope for latitudinal extension of reef corals is species specific

In their recent paper, Muir et al. (Science, 2015, 348, 1135-1138) demonstrate that the maximum depths of staghorn coral assemblages are shallower at higher latitudes, a trend that correlates with winter light levels. Based on these findings, the authors hypothesize that light availability limits the current latitudinal extent of the group and will constrain future range expansion. Here we reanalyze their data and show that depth-latitude relationships vary substantially among species, and that most species show either no significant pattern or the opposite pattern. In so doing, our reanalysis highlights a common misinterpretation of mixed-effects models: the fallacy of the average. Our findings are also consistent with fossil and contemporary observations of coral range-shifts. The factors that limit the current range extent of corals remain elusive, but they are likely speciesspecific and will require much further research to elucidate

Coral assemblages at higher latitudes favor short-term potential over long-term performance

Funding for this research was provided by a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Doctoral Training Programme Scholarship to JC, a Royal Geographical Society Ralph Brown Expedition Award (RBEA 03/19) to MB and JC, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CE140100020) to JMP and others, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CE110001014), a British Ecological Society small grant, the Winifred Violet Scott Charitable Trust, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement TRIM-DLV-747102 to MB. BS was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early CareerResearch Award (DE230100141), a University of Sydney Fellowship and a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the University of Technology Sydney.The persistent exposure of coral assemblages to more variable abiotic regimes is assumed to augment their resilience to future climatic variability. Yet, while the determinants of coral population resilience across species remain unknown, we are unable to predict the winners and losers across reef ecosystems exposed to increasingly variable conditions. Using annual surveys of 3171 coral individuals across Australia and Japan (2016-2019), we explore spatial variation across the short- and long-term dynamics of competitive, stress-tolerant, and weedy assemblages to evaluate how abiotic variability mediates the structural composition of coral assemblages. We illustrate how, by promoting short-term potential over long-term performance, coral assemblages can reduce their vulnerability to stochastic environments. However, compared to stress-tolerant, and weedy assemblages, competitive coral taxa display a reduced capacity for elevating their short-term potential. Accordingly, future climatic shifts threaten the structural complexity of coral assemblages in variable environments, emulating the degradation expected across global tropical reefs.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Search for supersymmetry with a dominant R-parity violating LQDbar couplings in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130GeV to 172 GeV

A search for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a dominant LQDbar coupling has been performed using the data collected by ALEPH at centre-of-mass energies of 130-172 GeV. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. This result is translated into lower limits on the masses of charginos, neutralinos, sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks. For instance, for m_0=500 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=sqrt(2) charginos with masses smaller than 81 GeV/c^2 and neutralinos with masses smaller than 29 GeV/c^2 are excluded at the 95% confidence level for any generation structure of the LQDbar coupling.Comment: 32 pages, 30 figure

Global warming and recurrent mass bleaching of corals

During 2015–2016, record temperatures triggered a pan-tropical episode of coral bleaching, the third global-scale event since mass bleaching was first documented in the 1980s. Here we examine how and why the severity of recurrent major bleaching events has varied at multiple scales, using aerial and underwater surveys of Australian reefs combined with satellite-derived sea surface temperatures. The distinctive geographic footprints of recurrent bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in 1998, 2002 and 2016 were determined by the spatial pattern of sea temperatures in each year. Water quality and fishing pressure had minimal effect on the unprecedented bleaching in 2016, suggesting that local protection of reefs affords little or no resistance to extreme heat. Similarly, past exposure to bleaching in 1998 and 2002 did not lessen the severity of bleaching in 2016. Consequently, immediate global action to curb future warming is essential to secure a future for coral reefs

Search for Bs0B^{0}_{s} oscillations using inclusive lepton events

A search for Bs oscillations is performed using a sample of semileptonic b-hadron decays collected by the ALEPH experiment during 1991-1995. Compared to previous inclusive lepton analyses, the prop er time resolution and b-flavour mistag rate are significantly improved. Additional sensitivity to Bs mixing is obtained by identifying subsamples of events having a Bs purity which is higher than the average for the whole data sample. Unbinned maximum likelihood amplitude fits are performed to derive a lower limit of Dms>9.5 ps-1 at 95% CL. Combining with the ALEPH Ds based analyses yields Dms>9.6 ps-1 at 95% CL.A search for B0s oscillations is performed using a sample of semileptonic b-hadron decays collected by the ALEPH experiment during 1991-1995. Compared to previous inclusive lepton analyses, the proper time resolution and b-flavour mistag rate are significantly improved. Additional sensitivity to B0s mixing is obtained by identifying subsamples of events having a B0s purity which is higher than the average for the whole data sample. Unbinned maximum likelihood amplitude fits are performed to derive a lower limit of Deltam_s>9.5ps^-1 at 95% CL. Combining with the ALEPH D-s based analyses yields Deltam_s>9.6ps^-1 at 95% CL