Frankophonie im Wandel : Alphabetisierung für frankophone Kanadier oder Migranten aus französischsprachigen Ländern?

Kanada ist ein offiziell zweisprachiges Land, in dem der Dualismus von Englisch und Französisch Geschichte hat. Die Frankophonie in Kanada ist in den letzten 20 Jahren in Bewegung geraten: Wirtschaftswandel und Migration aus französischsprachigen Ländern haben ihre soziale Struktur deutlich verändert. Damit einher geht auch ein Wandel in der Politik: Die Basis-Alphabetisierung für frankophone Erwachsene hat Priorität, um damit die Voraussetzung für bessere ökonomische Chancen zu schaffen. Dagegen rücken kulturelle Interessen, wie sie noch in den 1980er Jahren eine wesentliche Rolle für die "Selbstidentifikation" der Frankophonen spielten, in den Hintergrund

Adjuvant radiotherapy improves progression-free survival in intracranial atypical meningioma

BACKGROUND: Meningiomas are the most common primary tumors of the central nervous system. In patients with WHO grade I meningiomas no adjuvant therapy is recommended after resection. In case of anaplastic meningiomas (WHO grade III), adjuvant fractionated radiotherapy is generally recommended, regardless of the extent of surgical resection. For atypical meningiomas (WHO grade II) optimal postoperative management has not been clearly defined yet. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients treated for intracranial atypical meningioma at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin from March 1999 to October 2018. Considering the individual circumstances (risk of recurrence, anatomical location, etc.), patients were either advised to follow a wait-and-see approach or to undergo adjuvant radiotherapy. Primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). RESULTS: This analysis included 99 patients with atypical meningioma (WHO grade II). Nineteen patients received adjuvant RT after primary tumor resection (intervention group). The remaining 80 patients did not receive any further adjuvant therapy after surgical resection (control group). Median follow-up was 37 months. Median PFS after primary resection was significantly longer in the intervention group than in the control group (64 m vs. 37 m, p = 0.009, HR = 0.204, 95% CI = 0.062-0.668). The influence of adjuvant RT was confirmed in multivariable analysis (p = 0.041, HR = 0.192, 95% CI = 0.039-0.932). CONCLUSIONS: Our study adds to the evidence that RT can improve PFS in patients with atypical meningioma

A Study of 100 Cases

Introduction. Incidence of meningioma increases with age. Surgery has been the mainstay treatment. Elderly patients, however, are at risk of severe morbidity. Therefore, we conducted this study to analyze long-term outcomes of linac-based fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) for older adults (aged ≥65 years) with meningioma and determine prognostic factors. Materials and Methods. Between October 1998 and March 2009, 100 patients (≥65, median age, 71 years) were treated with FSRT for meningioma. Two patients were lost to follow-up. Eight patients each had grade I and grade II meningiomas, and five patients had grade III meningiomas. The histology was unknown in 77 cases (grade 0). Results. The median follow-up was 37 months, and 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 93.7%, 91.1%, and 82%. Patients with grade 0/I meningioma showed 3- and 5-year PFS rates of 98.4% and 95.6%. Patients with grade II or III meningiomas showed 3-year PFS rates of 36%. 93.8% of patients showed local tumor control. Multivariate analysis did not indicate any significant prognostic factors. Conclusion. FSRT may play an important role as a noninvasive and safe method in the clinical management of older patients with meningioma

CCI-779 (Temsirolimus) exhibits increased anti-tumor activity in low EGFR expressing HNSCC cell lines and is effective in cells with acquired resistance to cisplatin or cetuximab

Background: The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway plays a pivotal role in numerous cellular processes involving growth, proliferation and survival. The purpose of this study was to investigate the anti-tumoral effect of the mTOR inhibitor (mTORi) CCI-779 in HNSCC cell lines and its potency in cisplatin- and cetuximab-resistant cells. Methods: A panel of 10 HNSCC cell lines with differences in TP53 mutational status and basal cisplatin sensitivity and two isogenic models of acquired resistance to cisplatin and cetuximab, respectively were studied. Cell survival after treatment with CCI-779, cisplatin and cetuximab alone or in combination was determined by MTT assays. Potential predictive biomarkers for tumor cell sensitivity to CCI-779 were evaluated. Results: We observed considerable heterogeneity in sensitivity of HNSCC cell lines to CCI-779 monotherapy. Sensitivity was observed in TP53 mutated as well as wild-type cell lines. Total and p-EGFR expression levels but not the basal activity of the mTOR and MAPK signaling pathways were correlated with sensitivity to CCI-779. Resistant cells with increased EGFR activation could be sensitized by the combination of CCI-779 with cetuximab. Interestingly, cell lines with acquired resistance to cisplatin displayed a higher sensitivity to CCI-779 whereas cetuximab-resistant cells were less sensitive to the drug, but could be sensitized to CCI-779 by EGFR blockade. Conclusions: Activity of CCI-779 in HNSCC cells harboring TP53 mutations and displaying a phenotype of cisplatin resistance suggests its clinical potential even in patients with dismal outcome after current standard treatment. Cetuximab/mTORi combinations might be useful for treatment of tumors with high expression of EGFR/p-EGFR and/or acquired cetuximab resistance. This combinatorial treatment modality needs further evaluation in future translational and clinical studies

Prognostic indices in stereotactic radiotherapy of brain metastases of non- small cell lung cancer

Background Our purpose was to analyze the long-term clinical outcome and to identify prognostic factors after Linac-based stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) on patients with brain metastases (BM) from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Materials and Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of survival on 90 patients who underwent SRS or FSRT of intracranial NSCLC metastases between 04/2004 and 05/2014 that had not undergone prior surgery or whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) for BM. Follow-up data was analyzed until May 2015. Potential prognostic factors were examined in univariable and multivariable analyses. The Golden Grading System (GGS), the disease-specific graded prognostic assessment (DS-GPA), the RADES II prognostic index as well as the NSCLC-specific index proposed by Rades et al. in 2013 (NSCLC-RADES) were calculated and their predictive values were tested in univariable analysis. Results The median follow-up time of the surviving patients was 14 months. The overall survival (OS) rate was 51 % after 6 months and 29.9 % after 12 months. Statistically significant factors of better OS after univariable analysis were lower International Union Against Cancer (UICC) stage at first diagnosis, histology of adenocarcinoma, prior surgery of the primary tumor and lower total BM volume. After multivariable analysis adenocarcinoma histology remained a significant factor; higher Karnofsky Performance Score (KPS) and the presence of extracranial metastases (ECM) were also significant. The RADES II and the NSCLC-RADES indices were significant predictors of OS. However, the NSCLC-RADES failed to differentiate between intermediate- and low-risk patients. The DS-GPA and GGS were not statistically significant predictors of survival in univariable analysis. Conclusion The ideal prognostic index has not been defined yet. We believe that more specific indices will be developed in the future. Our results indicate that the histologic subtype of NSCLC could add to the prognostic value of specialized future indices. The RADES II index had the highest predictive value in the examined patient cohort

Binomial Ideals and Congruences on Nn

Producción CientíficaA congruence on Nn is an equivalence relation on Nn that is compatible with the additive structure. If k is a field, and I is a binomial ideal in k[X1,…,Xn] (that is, an ideal generated by polynomials with at most two terms), then I induces a congruence on Nn by declaring u and v to be equivalent if there is a linear combination with nonzero coefficients of Xu and Xv that belongs to I. While every congruence on Nn arises this way, this is not a one-to-one correspondence, as many binomial ideals may induce the same congruence. Nevertheless, the link between a binomial ideal and its corresponding congruence is strong, and one may think of congruences as the underlying combinatorial structures of binomial ideals. In the current literature, the theories of binomial ideals and congruences on Nn are developed separately. The aim of this survey paper is to provide a detailed parallel exposition, that provides algebraic intuition for the combinatorial analysis of congruences. For the elaboration of this survey paper, we followed mainly (Kahle and Miller Algebra Number Theory 8(6):1297–1364, 2014) with an eye on Eisenbud and Sturmfels (Duke Math J 84(1):1–45, 1996) and Ojeda and Piedra Sánchez (J Symbolic Comput 30(4):383–400, 2000).National Science Foundation (grant DMS-1500832)Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (project MTM2015-65764-C3-1)Junta de Extremadura (grupo de investigación FQM-024

Modern radiation therapy and potential fertility preservation strategies in patients with cervical cancer undergoing chemoradiation

Young patients with cervical cancer who undergo chemoradiation might be interested in fertility preservation, not only dependent upon the use of a gestational carrier as maybe achieved by the use of ovarian transposition and cryo-conservation of oocytes or ovarian tissue, but may prefer to carry pregnancy to term after cancer treatment. The latter approach is a non- established concept needing both modern radiation therapy approaches as well as modifications -if at all possible- in current recommendations for target volume delineation to spare dose to the unaffected uterus. Future strategies to serve selected patients in this respect should only be conducted in prospective clinical evaluations and are critically discussed in this article

Koszul incidence algebras, affine semigroups, and Stanley-Reisner ideals

We prove a theorem unifying three results from combinatorial homological and commutative algebra, characterizing the Koszul property for incidence algebras of posets and affine semigroup rings, and characterizing linear resolutions of squarefree monomial ideals. The characterization in the graded setting is via the Cohen-Macaulay property of certain posets or simplicial complexes, and in the more general nongraded setting, via the sequential Cohen-Macaulay property.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure. Minor changes from previous version. To appear in Advances in Mathematic