DISTINCT TEMPORALITIES IN THE BREAST CANCER DISEASE PROCESS

Comprehensive approach study aimed understanding the reflections and contrasts between personal time and medical therapy protocol time in the life of a young woman with breast cancer. Addressed as a situational study and grounded in Beth’s life story about getting sick and dying of cancer at age 34, the study’s data collection process employed interviews, observation and medical record analysis. The construction of the analytic-synthetic box based on the chronology of Beth’s clinical progression, treatment phases and temporal perception of occurrences enabled us to point out a linear medical therapy protocol time identified by the diagnosis and treatment sequencing process. On the other hand, Beth’s experienced time was marked by simultaneous and non-linear events that generated suffering resulting from the disease. Such comprehension highlights the need for healthcare professionals to take into account the time experienced by the patient, thus providing an indispensable cancer therapeutic protocol with a personal character.

Sexualidade Juvenil de Classes Populares em Cabo Verde: Os Caminhos para a Prostituiçao de Jovens Urbanas Pobres

O artigo apresenta apontamentos sobre comportamento de jovens marginalizados em Cabo Verde e busca integrar essas notas etnográficas a teorias da masculinidade. Explorando os caminhos que levam à prostituição entre meninas pobres, o artigo focaliza como mudanças nas experiências da sexualidade conduziram a uma reversão de arranjos sociais prévios nos quais os homens eram ‘caçadores de saia’ e provedores, para este novo regime em que as mulheres buscam seus parceiros com base no desejo e buscam, inclusive na prostituição, os meios econômicos para sustentar tais relações. O artigo usa dados de entrevistas detalhadas, algumas discussões de grupo focais e observação participante para examinar percepções masculinas de caminhos femininos para a prostituição.

La promotion de la langue française dans les classes terminales de l’enseignement de base intégré

Nous voulons, avec ce mémoire, défendre une nouvelle idée pour promouvoir la langue française au Cap-Vert plus précisément auprès des enfants. Pour cela, dans la première partie nous définissons la promotion d’une langue et l’enseignement de base intégré. Egalement dans cette partie, nous abordons les théories sur l’acquisition d’une langue étrangère chez les enfants et aussi les rapports entre la promotion de la langue et la spécificité de son acquisition chez le public cible. Ces points vont nous permettre de mettre en contexte le thème que nous défendons et ils seront la source d’inspiration aux activités que nous proposons pour la promotion du français dans les classes terminales de l’enseignement de base intégré. Dans la deuxième partie, nous faisons l’abordage historique du français dans le primaire, avant et après l’indépendance. Nous focalisons nos recherches sur la période qui va de 1968 à nos jours. L’objectif est de déterminer sur la base de recherches sur le terrain : la date de l’introduction du français dans le primaire, le profil des enseignants, les enseignements dispensés dans les écoles primaires et les méthodes utilisées. Dans cette partie, l’objectif est également de montrer les principales structures étrangères et nationales chargées de divulguer la langue française au Cap-Vert. C’est dans cette perspective, que nous essayons d’identifier les actions développées par ces structures et voir leur adéquation avec notre public cible.Et pour compléter cette deuxième partie, nous proposons deux projets qui ont été mis en place dans certaines écoles primaires : dans un premier temps, il s’agit du projet de réintroduction du français à l’école primaire mené par le centre d’appui pour l’enseignement du français « CAPEF » avec l’aval du Ministère de l’Education et, dans un autre contexte, il y a le projet « opération théâtres et chansons » élaboré et mis en oeuvre par le professeur José Rui Rodrigues Soares1 avec la collaboration de quelques élèves de la septième année du lycée Cónego Jacinto.Dans la troisième partie de notre travail, nous proposons deux projets pour promouvoir la langue française dans les classes terminales de l’enseignement de base intégré : « les écoliers en action » et « une soirée culturelle ».

Multiparametric brainstem segmentation using a modified multivariate mixture of Gaussians

The human brainstem is a densely packed, complex but highly organised structure. It not only serves as a conduit for long projecting axons conveying motor and sensory information, but also is the location of multiple primary nuclei that control or modulate a vast array of functions, including homeostasis, consciousness, locomotion, and reflexive and emotive behaviours. Despite its importance, both in understanding normal brain function as well as neurodegenerative processes, it remains a sparsely studied structure in the neuroimaging literature. In part, this is due to the difficulties in imaging the internal architecture of the brainstem in vivo in a reliable and repeatable fashion. A modified multivariate mixture of Gaussians (mmMoG) was applied to the problem of multichannel tissue segmentation. By using quantitative magnetisation transfer and proton density maps acquired at 3 T with 0.8 mm isotropic resolution, tissue probability maps for four distinct tissue classes within the human brainstem were created. These were compared against an ex vivo fixated human brain, imaged at 0.5 mm, with excellent anatomical correspondence. These probability maps were used within SPM8 to create accurate individual subject segmentations, which were then used for further quantitative analysis. As an example, brainstem asymmetries were assessed across 34 right-handed individuals using voxel based morphometry (VBM) and tensor based morphometry (TBM), demonstrating highly significant differences within localised regions that corresponded to motor and vocalisation networks. This method may have important implications for future research into MRI biomarkers of pre-clinical neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

Gut symbionts from distinct hosts exhibit genotoxic activity via divergent colibactin biosynthetic pathways.

Secondary metabolites produced by nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) or polyketide synthase (PKS) pathways are chemical mediators of microbial interactions in diverse environments. However, little is known about their distribution, evolution, and functional roles in bacterial symbionts associated with animals. A prominent example is "colibactin", a largely unknown family of secondary metabolites produced by Escherichia coli via a hybrid NRPS-PKS biosynthetic pathway, inflicting DNA damage upon eukaryotic cells and contributing to colorectal cancer and tumor formation in the mammalian gut. Thus far, homologs of this pathway have only been found in closely related Enterobacteriaceae, while a divergent variant of this gene cluster was recently discovered in a marine alphaproteobacterial Pseudovibrio strain. Herein, we sequenced the genome of Frischella perrara PEB0191, a bacterial gut symbiont of honey bees, and identified a homologous colibactin biosynthetic pathway related to those found in Enterobacteriaceae. We show that the colibactin genomic island (GI) has conserved gene synteny and biosynthetic module architecture across F. perrara, Enterobacteriaceae and the Pseudovibrio strain. Comparative metabolomics analyses of F. perrara and E. coli further reveal that these two bacteria produce related colibactin pathway-dependent metabolites. Finally, we demonstrate that F. perrara, like E. coli, causes DNA damage in eukaryotic cells in vitro in a colibactin pathway-dependent manner. Together, these results support that divergent variants of the colibactin biosynthetic pathway are widely distributed among bacterial symbionts, producing related secondary metabolites and likely endowing its producer with functional capabilities important for diverse symbiotic associations.

Contractual resolutions of financial distress

In a financial contracting model, we study the optimal debt structure to resolve financial distress. Weshow that a debt structure where two distinct debt classes co-exist - one class fully concentrated andwith control rights upon default, the other dispersed and without control rights - removes the controllingcreditor's liquidation bias when investor protection is strong. These results rationalize the use and theperformance of floating charge financing, debt financing where the controlling creditor takes the entirebusiness as collateral, in countries with strong investor protection. Our theory predicts that the efficiency ofcontractual resolutions of financial distress should increase with investor protection.

On some geometry and equivalence classes of normal form games

Equivalence classes of normal form games are defined using the geometryof correspondences of standard equilibiurm concepts like correlated, Nash,and robust equilibrium or risk dominance and rationalizability. Resultingequivalence classes are fully characterized and compared across differentequilibrium concepts for 2 x 2 games. It is argued that the procedure canlead to broad and game-theoretically meaningful distinctions of games aswell as to alternative ways of viewing and testing equilibrium concepts.Larger games are also briefly considered.

Variant ionotropic glutamate receptors as chemosensory receptors in Drosophila.

Ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) mediate neuronal communication at synapses throughout vertebrate and invertebrate nervous systems. We have characterized a family of iGluR-related genes in Drosophila, which we name ionotropic receptors (IRs). These receptors do not belong to the well-described kainate, AMPA, or NMDA classes of iGluRs, and they have divergent ligand-binding domains that lack their characteristic glutamate-interacting residues. IRs are expressed in a combinatorial fashion in sensory neurons that respond to many distinct odors but do not express either insect odorant receptors (ORs) or gustatory receptors (GRs). IR proteins accumulate in sensory dendrites and not at synapses. Misexpression of IRs in different olfactory neurons is sufficient to confer ectopic odor responsiveness. Together, these results lead us to propose that the IRs comprise a novel family of chemosensory receptors. Conservation of IR/iGluR-related proteins in bacteria, plants, and animals suggests that this receptor family represents an evolutionarily ancient mechanism for sensing both internal and external chemical cues.

Definition of clinically distinct molecular subtypes in estrogen receptor-positive breast carcinomas through genomic grade.

PURPOSE: A number of microarray studies have reported distinct molecular profiles of breast cancers (BC), such as basal-like, ErbB2-like, and two to three luminal-like subtypes. These were associated with different clinical outcomes. However, although the basal and the ErbB2 subtypes are repeatedly recognized, identification of estrogen receptor (ER) -positive subtypes has been inconsistent. Therefore, refinement of their molecular definition is needed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We have previously reported a gene expression grade index (GGI), which defines histologic grade based on gene expression profiles. Using this algorithm, we assigned ER-positive BC to either high-or low-genomic grade subgroups and compared these with previously reported ER-positive molecular classifications. As further validation, we classified 666 ER-positive samples into subtypes and assessed their clinical outcome. RESULTS: Two ER-positive molecular subgroups (high and low genomic grade) could be defined using the GGI. Despite tracking a single biologic pathway, these were highly comparable to the previously described luminal A and B classification and significantly correlated to the risk groups produced using the 21-gene recurrence score. The two subtypes were associated with statistically distinct clinical outcome in both systemically untreated and tamoxifen-treated populations. CONCLUSION: The use of genomic grade can identify two clinically distinct ER-positive molecular subtypes in a simple and highly reproducible manner across multiple data sets. This study emphasizes the important role of proliferation-related genes in predicting prognosis in ER-positive BC.