Evaluation of the quality of the management of cancer of the corpus uteri-Selection of relevant quality indicators and implementation in Belgium

Objective Describe the methodology and selection of quality indicators (QI) to be implemented in the EFFECT (EFFectiveness of Endometrial Cancer Treatment) project. EFFECT aims to monitor the variability in Quality of Care (QoC) of uterine cancer in Belgium, to compare the effectiveness of different treatment strategies to improve the QoC and to check the internal validity of the QI to validate the impact of process indicators on outcome. Methods A QI list was retrieved from literature, recent guidelines and QI databases. The Belgian Healthcare Knowledge Center methodology was used for the selection process and involved an expert's panel rating the QI on 4 criteria. The resulting scores and further discussion resulted in a final QI list. An online EFFECT module was developed by the Belgian Cancer Registry including the list of variables required for measuring the QI. Three test phases were performed to evaluate the relevance, feasibility and understanding of the variables and to test the compatibility of the dataset. Results 138 QI were considered for further discussion and 82 QI were eligible for rating. Based on the rating scores and consensus among the expert's panel, 41 QI were considered measurable and relevant. Testing of the data collection enabled optimization of the content and the user-friendliness of the dataset and online module. Conclusions This first Belgian initiative for monitoring the QoC of uterine cancer indicates that the previously used QI selection methodology is reproducible for uterine cancer. The QI list could be applied by other research groups for comparison. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

Traitement de données issues d'un corpus écrit multilingue. Approche agile pour l'analyse du discours eurorégional

L'article présente quelques éléments de la procédure mise en place pour traiter un corpus écrit comportant 617 textes (près de 500 000 mots) relatifs aux eurorégions. Complexe et hétérogène à plusieurs titres (technique, linguistique, éditorial, générique, énonciatif), le corpus pose la difficulté majeure de l’appréhension de données multilingues (français, italien, espagnol, anglais, allemand, néerlandais). Sa manipulation a nécessité une réflexion adaptée et une démarche de modélisation que nous qualifions d’« agile » en raison de son caractère souple et itératif. La plateforme d’analyse élaborée permet de disposer de résultats utiles à l’analyse qualitative ultérieure du discours eurorégional. Elle articule un logiciel d'analyse morphosyntaxique éprouvé (TreeTagger) à des programmes (Perl) et à une base de données (SQLite) développés pour optimiser les requêtes multilingues simultanées et l’exportation automatique des résultats. Les fonctionnalités liées à la localisation contextualisée de mots- pivots, au recueil de dénominations et à la détection de segments répétés nous servent ici de guides pour exprimer les besoins de la recherche, les problèmes rencontrés et les solutions proposées. L'analyse d'observables récurrents, à savoir les notions de décision et de responsabilité, illustre le propos.

Cellular immune responses in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1-infected children: Is immune restoration by highly active anti-retroviral therapy comparable to non-progression?

The objective of this study was to investigate whether the restored immune functions of vertically human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children who were severely immunodeficient before the initiation of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) are comparable to those of untreated slow progressors. We therefore assessed T cell proliferation and cytokine [interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-5 and IL-13] secretions after mitogen, recall antigens and HIV-1-specific stimulation in 12 untreated slow progressors, 16 untreated progressors and 18 treated patients. Treated children were profoundly immunodeficient before the initiation of HAART and had long-lasting suppression of viral replication on treatment. We demonstrated that slow progressors are characterized not only by the preservation of HIV-1-specific lymphoproliferative responses but also by the fact that these responses are clearly T helper type 1 (Th1)-polarized. Children on HAART had proliferative responses to HIV-1 p24 antigen, purified protein derivative (PPD) and tetanus antigen similar to slow progressors and higher than those of progressors. However, in contrast to slow progressors, most treated children exhibited a release of Th2 cytokines accompanying the IFN-γ secretion in response to the HIV-1 p24 antigen. Moreover, despite higher proliferative responses to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) than the two groups of untreated children, treated children had lower levels of IFN-γ secretion in response to PHA than slow progressors. These data show that in severely immunodeficient vertically HIV-infected children, a long-lasting HAART allows recovering lymphoproliferative responses similar to untreated slow progressors. However, alterations in IFN-γ secretion in response to the mitogen PHA persisted, and their cytokine release after HIV-specific stimulation was biased towards a Th2 response. © 2011 The Authors. Clinical and Experimental Immunology © 2011 British Society for Immunology.

La formation discursive eurorégionale. Articulation et approche sémantique d’un corpus multilingue

L’objectif de cet article est double :il s’agit, d’une part, de présenter un nouveau corpus permettant d’envisager le phénomène émergent de la communication transfrontalière en Europe et, d’autre part, de formuler trois questionnements utiles au cadrage de son analyse sémantique. À partir du corpus eurorégional – multilingue et multigenre - nous posons les questions de la dispersion des discours en ligne, de l’hétérogénéité des données et de la contextualisation de l’analyse. Notre démarche consiste à construire progressivement un modèle d’analyse adapté à l’appréhension, tantôt automatique et tantôt manuelle, de la diversité des textes. Enfin, nous proposons d’illustrer la démarche en l’appliquant à la mobilité, observable récurrent du corpus.

Appréhension du corpus eurorégional, expression privilégiée d'une création territoriale

info:eu-repo/semantics/published