ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this current study is to examine the efficacy of a one-year home-visiting Brazelton program to support at-risk families, that is based on the concept of Touchpoints and anticipatory guidance. METHODS: A single-subject analysis evaluated the treatment of a middle-class family with three children (48, 42 and 11 months) benefited from a one-year home-visiting program with a home visitor certified in the Brazelton method. Inclusion criteria, based on a pre-assessment grid, were: (a) prior use of corporal punishment in the home, (b) unavailability of support from extended family, (c) number of offspring (3). The family was constantly monitored over the course of the treatment program with a Weekly checklist and was assessed at four intervals (T1-baseline, T2-four months after, T3-end, and T4- follow up) using the M-Scale of Perceived Social Support, Protective Factors Survey, and Helping Relationship Inventory. RESULTS: The change over time analyzed by the linear regression model and the C test showed significant increase in the mother's compliance, active participation, and emotional involvement with her children and a Follow-up assessment after six months confirmed the discontinued use of the corporal punishments, indicating future directions for the efficacy of the Brazelton method for assisting at- risk parents. CONCLUSIONS: Results showed that the Brazelton method constitutes an effective approach for improving sensitive parental care and preventing future problems in their children.
ABSTRACT
Factor analysis is a well-known method for describing the covariance structure among a set of manifest variables through a limited number of unobserved factors. When the observed variables are collected at various occasions on the same statistical units, the data have a three-way structure and standard factor analysis may fail. To overcome these limitations, three-way models, such as the Parafac model, can be adopted. It is often seen as an extension of principal component analysis able to discover unique latent components. The structural version, i.e., as a reparameterization of the covariance matrix, has been also formulated but rarely investigated. In this article, such a formulation is studied by discussing under what conditions factor uniqueness is preserved. It is shown that, under mild conditions, such a property holds even if the specific factors are assumed to be within-variable, or within-occasion, correlated and the model is modified to become scale invariant.
Subject(s)
Factor Analysis, Statistical , Psychometrics , Research Design , Principal Component AnalysisABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Preoperative chemoradiation is currently the standard of care in locally advanced rectal carcinoma, even though a subset of rectal tumors does not achieve major clinically meaningful responses upon neoadjuvant chemoradiation. At present, no molecular biomarkers are available to predict response to neoadjuvant chemoradiation and select resistant tumors willing more intense therapeutic strategies. Thus, BRAF mutational status was investigated for its role in favoring resistance to radiation in colorectal carcinoma cell lines and cyclin-dependent kinase 1 as a target to improve radiosensitivity in BRAF V600E colorectal tumor cells. METHODS: Colony-forming assay and apoptotic rates were evaluated to compare the sensitivity of different colon carcinoma cell lines to ionizing radiation and their radiosensitivity upon exposure to BRAF and/or cyclin-dependent kinase 1 inhibitory/silencing strategies. Cyclin-dependent kinase 1 expression/subcellular distribution was studied by immunoblot analysis. RESULTS: Colon carcinoma BRAF V600E HT29 cells exhibited poor response to radiation compared to BRAF wild-type COLO320 and HCT116 cells. Interestingly, neither radiosensitizing doses of 5-fluoruracil nor BRAF inhibition/silencing significantly improved radiosensitivity in HT29 cells. Of note, poor response to radiation correlated with upregulation/relocation of cyclin-dependent kinase 1 in mitochondria. Consistently, cyclin-dependent kinase 1 inhibition/silencing as well as its targeting, through inhibition of HSP90 quality control pathway, significantly inhibited the clonogenic ability and increased apoptotic rates in HT29 cells upon exposure to radiation. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that BRAF V600E colorectal carcinoma cells are poorly responsive to radiation, and cyclin-dependent kinase 1 represents a target to improve radiosensitivity in BRAF V600E colorectal tumor cells.
Subject(s)
CDC2 Protein Kinase/genetics , Colorectal Neoplasms/radiotherapy , Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf/genetics , Radiation Tolerance/genetics , CDC2 Protein Kinase/antagonists & inhibitors , CDC2 Protein Kinase/biosynthesis , Cell Line, Tumor , Chemoradiotherapy/methods , Colorectal Neoplasms/pathology , Fluorouracil/pharmacology , HCT116 Cells , HSP90 Heat-Shock Proteins/antagonists & inhibitors , HT29 Cells , Humans , Mitochondria/metabolism , Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf/antagonists & inhibitors , Radiation Tolerance/drug effects , Radiation, Ionizing , Radiation-Sensitizing Agents/pharmacologyABSTRACT
Malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) usually presents in the extremities or retroperitoneum. Cases involving the kidney are rare and portend a poor prognosis. Although radical nephrectomy is the most beneficial curative choice for this neoplasm, patients are often treated with adjuvant chemotherapy due to high risk of local recurrence and distant metastases. We describe a case of a 68-year-old woman affected by MFH, treated with both nephrectomy and radiotherapy without systemic therapy showing an unexpected twenty-four-month postsurgery survival outcome.
