Value of oncologic follow-up of patients operated for colorectal cancer. A prospective study of 1000 patients

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our prospective study was to evaluate the contribution of follow-up in resected colorectal cancer. METHODS: One-thousand patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma who underwent radial resection from January 1975 to January 1990 were prospectively divided into two groups: the first group (n = 442, 42%) entered a 5-year follow-up protocol and the second group (n = 558, 56%) was free to make unscheduled visits in case of symptoms. RESULTS: Recurrence was found in 31.5% of the patients in the first group compared with 33% in the second group. Chorioembryonic antigen was the most accurate test detecting recurrence: 77% of the cases (97% for hepatic metastasis). Surgical resection of recurrent tumors was performed in 37% of the group 1 patients (curative resection in 15%) and in 9% (curative resection in 1.5%) of the group 2 patients (p < 0.001). 5-year survival after recurrence in group 1 was 11.5% versus 1% in group 2 (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: These results emphasize the rational for a follow-up program in patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer.     

Optimisation of a graded-index fibre over a wavelength range

The operation of graded-index fibres can be optimised in the neighbourhood of some wavelength whenever two dopants are available. Under the assumption that the index is a linear function of the dopant concentrations, a class of relations between dopants is found, which is related to that given by Olshansky.4 The case of a fibre doped with germanium and fluorine is treated.     

New method for precise characterisation of multimode optical fibres

It is shown experimentally that short samples (about 1 m) of multimode optical fibres can be characterised by measuring the times of flight of tubular modes. There is fair agreement between measured and calculated values.     

Pulse broadening in near-square-law graded-index fibres

A closed-form expression for pulse broadening in graded-index fibres that have small and circularly symmetric, but otherwise arbitrary, deviations from a square-law, and arbitrary dn/d?, is applied to germania-doped fibres. The range of validity of the theoretical expression is defined by comparison with the results of numerical integration.     

Clinical and psychological factors influencing the efficacy of botulinum toxin in the treatment of hemifacial spasm and blepharospasm

We analyzed the influence of clinical and psychological factors on the long-term efficacy of botulinum toxin A (BTX) injections in 45 patients with blepharospasm and 66 patients with hemifacial spasm. Injections efficacy (respectively 94.3% and 95.7%) and duration of relief (respectively 14.8 and 18.7 weeks) remained stable over seven successive injections. Clinical improvement was not influenced by patients' sex, age, or disease duration but by psychological background (p < 0.001). Patients who failed to respond after repetitive injections had lower inter-injections intervals (p < 0.05). This data shows: (1) the importance of psychological contexte in subjective evaluation of treatment efficacy with BTX, (2) emphasizes the necessity of avoiding close injections.     

First-order spectra with one binary predicate

The spectrum, Sp(), of a sentence is the set of cardinalities of finite structures which satisfy . We prove that any set of integers which is in Func₁^∞, i.e. in the class of spectra of first-order sentences of type containing only unary function symbols, is also in BIN¹, i.e. in the class of spectra of first-order sentences of type involving only a single binary relation.

We give similar results for generalized spectra and some corollaries: in particular, from the fact that the large complexity class _cNTIME_RAM(cn) is included in Func₁^∞ for unary languages (n denotes the input integer), we deduce that the set of primes and many “natural” sets belong to BIN¹.

We also give some consequences for the image of spectra under polynomials of .     

Mona, a novel hematopoietic-specific adaptor interacting with the macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor, is implicated in monocyte/macrophage development

The production, survival and function of monocytes and macrophages are regulated by the macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF or CSF-1) through its tyrosine kinase receptor Fms. Binding of M-CSF results in Fms autophosphorylation on specific tyrosines that act as docking sites for intracellular signaling molecules containing SH2 domains. Using a yeast two-hybrid screen, we cloned a novel adaptor protein which we called 'Mona' for monocytic adaptor. Mona contains one SH2 domain and two SH3 domains related to the Grb2 adaptor. Accordingly, Mona interacts with activated Fms on phosphorylated Tyr697, which is also the Grb2-binding site. Furthermore, Mona contains a unique proline-rich region located between the SH2 domain and the C-terminal SH3 domain, and is apparently devoid of any catalytic domain. Mona expression is restricted to two hematopoietic tissues: the spleen and the peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and is induced rapidly during monocytic differentiation of the myeloid NFS-60 cell line in response to M-CSF. Strikingly, overexpression of Mona in bone marrow cells results in strong reduction of M-CSF-dependent macrophage production in vitro. Taken together, our results suggest an important role for Mona in the regulation of monocyte/macrophage development as controlled by M-CSF.     

Pulse broadening in multimode graded-index fibres

A closed-form expression is obtained for pulse broadening in graded-index fibres with k2(r)=1?r2+?2r4+?+?nr2n. Pulse broadening for k2(r)=1?r2+0.615r4+70r6 and r<0.1 is 12 times smaller than for square-law fibres if material dispersion is neglected.     

Momentum of photons in dielectrics

A confusion is sometimes made in the literature between the mass-carrying momentum of a photon, which is inversely proportional to the refractive index of the medium in which it propagates, and the momentum taken up by an absorber located in a fluid, which is directly proportional to the refractive index of the fluid. The distinction between these two momenta is clarified by considering an artificial dielectric.     

CRAPE DRYING : FROM SAMPLE BEHAVIOUR TO THE DRIER PROJECT

A drier project necessitates the efficient formulation of the behaviour of product samples. When the temperature gap is great, the drying rate must make explicit the influence of the thnc air parameters : temperature, moisture, velocity. The case of the grape demonsnates that the adimensional expression formulated by Van Meel and Keey. must be completed in order to be adjusted to experiments.

The hot air drier model composed of the equations of conservation and thin layer drying rate can sometimes be simplified into a form of analytic integral equation around the drying rate. W e drying can be considered generally as adiabatic.

Two examples of grape driers are presented and show the value of simplified tools for the project. In a tunnel drier with a high air temperature one can speak of the celerity of a drying front which progress along the trolleys. In a short drier connected to an agricultural solar collector, the integration of the drying rate takes into account the variation of the meteorological data.