Identifying governance strategies that effectively support ecosystem services, resource sustainability, and biodiversity.

Conservation scientists, national governments, and international conservation groups seek to devise, and implement, governance strategies that mitigate human impact on the environment. However, few studies to date have systematically investigated the performance of different systems of governance in achieving successful conservation outcomes. Here, we use a newly-developed analytic framework to conduct analyses of a suite of case studies, linking different governance strategies to standardized scores for delivering ecosystem services, achieving sustainable use of natural resources, and conserving biodiversity, at both local and international levels. Our results: (i) confirm the benefits of adaptive management; and (ii) reveal strong associations for the role of leadership. Our work provides a critical step toward implementing empirically justified governance strategies that are capable of improving the management of human-altered environments, with benefits for both biodiversity and people.

Cancer reoccurrence in the conserved breast - diagnostic features in a consecutive series of 102 cases.

Diagnostic features of 102 consecutive cases of cancer reoccurrence in the conserved breast are reported. The sensitivity of palpation, mammography, cytology or ultrasonography was 75.5%, 58.7%, 77.4% and 77.8%, respectively. Mammography failures were not due to natural breast density and could probably be explained by the masking effect of surgical scar and distortion. Most failures at cytology were due to inadequate sampling. Palpation should always be associated with mammography in the follow-up of the conserved breast. Aspiration cytology should.be performed incase of any abnormality seen at palpation or mammography.

Histological pattern of benign breast disease as a risk factor for invasive breast cancer.

Morphological criteria for histologic diagnosis of both typical and atypical breast epithelial hyperplasias have recently been thoroughly reviewed. Typical epithelial hyperplasia ranges from mild to florid and is characterized by a lack of cytologic atypia. Atypical hyperplasia (AH) is a borderline epithelial lesion between typical hyperplasia and carcinoma in situ. AH represents the most important histopathologic predictor of future breast cancer (BC) according to a case-control study we have recently carried out in a cohort of women previously treated for histologically confirmed benign breast disease (BBD). The use of histologically defined categories in order to predict BC risk depends on the utilization of strict and uniform diagnostic criteria that are currently far from being defined and widely accepted as shown in studies of inter-observer variability among pathologists. Further studies are needed to evaluate inter-observer reproducibility and to assess BC risk among women with different BBD types.

Intraductal breast cancer: review of 183 consecutive cases.

The aim was to review a series of 183 intraductal breast cancer to define the diagnostic features and therapeutic outcome. Patients' average age was 54 years. Diagnostic procedures employed were clinical examination, mammography in 173 cases and fine-needle aspiration cytology in 98 cases. The sensitivity of clinical examination was 0.61, of mammography 0.74, of fine needle aspiration cytology 0.70. The sensitivity of clinical examination and mammography associated was 0.93. The surgical options adopted were: conservative surgery 80 cases, mastectomy 103 cases. Conservative surgery was followed by breast irradiation in 34 cases. Axillary dissection was performed in 122. 97 cases have been reviewed histologically. 60% of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) were multifocal and 22% multicentric. Local recurrence, all infiltrating, occurred in the same breast after conservative surgery in 8 cases, 3 of which had received postoperative radiotherapy, and in 3 patients after mastectomy. Contralateral breast cancer was recorded in 13 cases, being synchronous in 4 (infiltrating in 3, DCIS in 1) and metachronous in 8 (all infiltrating). 3 patients died of breast cancer. The present series confirms the risk of ipsilateral cancer recurrence after conservative surgery but there are no significant differences relating to mammographic pattern, size, histological type, margin involvement and radiotherapy.

Benign breast disease and breast cancer: a case-control study in a cohort in Italy.

Sixty-two cases of invasive breast cancer were identified in a large cohort of women previously treated for biopsy-proven benign breast disease (BBD) at the Breast Unit of CSPO, in Florence, along with a group of 315 controls, strictly matched by age and year of diagnosis. A pathologist reviewed and reclassified all the original BBD slides according to recently proposed criteria (no evidence of epithelial proliferation, epithelial proliferation without or with atypia). Information about potential confounding factors was collected during personal interviews. In comparison to the women with "non-proliferative" BBD, women classified as having "proliferative disease without atypia" showed a weak and non-significant increase in risk (OR 1.3; 95% CI: 0.5-3.5). In contrast, women with "atypical hyperplasia" were at very high risk of developing breast cancer (OR 13.0; 95% CI: 4.1-41.7). When planning mammography screening or other large-scale early-diagnosis programmes for breast cancer in the general female population, follow-up of high-risk subgroups of BBD patients should be considered.

[Impact of diagnostic imaging on: staging, results and follow-up of rhinopharyngeal carcinoma]. / Impatto della diagnostica per immagini su: stadiazione, risultati e follow-up nel carcinoma rinofaringeo.

Ninety-seven patients affected with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) were examined with both conventional and Computed Tomography (CT) to evaluate the involved sites with both methods. CT staging was more accurate, showing involvement in more locations than conventional tomography, so that staging was modified in 23 of 97 patients. Two hundred and seventeen patients treated from 1970 to 1985 were subdivided into group A (111 patients who underwent conventional tomography only) and group B (106 patients examined with CT, from 1978 on). A trend toward more advanced stages at presentation was observed in group B; nevertheless, local control at 5 years was higher in group B (59%) than in group A (42%). The role of Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging in NPC staging was also evaluated in 30 patients: there was disagreement in 2 cases. Involvement of different structures was shown in 10 of 28 cases with the same CT and MR staging. MR imaging proved a valuable tool in the follow-up as well: in fact, it clarified 12 questionable opacities on CT in a group of 35 followed patients as inflammatory lesions in 10 patients and tumors in 2.

Association between testicular cancer and spina bifida occulta.

Data are reported suggesting a high incidence of spina bifida occulta among testicular cancer patients. The relevance of a diagnosis of spina bifida occulta as a risk factor for testicular cancer is discussed, also considering the background information available on a common genetic origin for some urogenital malignancies which are often associated with different types of malformations.

Veno-venous bypass in experimental liver transplantation: portal-jugular versus caval-portal-jugular.

This study was undertaken to compare the changes in physiologic variables caused by the use of two different types of pump-assisted veno-venous bypass during experimental liver transplantation. The experiments, performed on female pigs weighing 30 +/- 2 kg, were divided into two groups depending on the bypass used. During the anhepatic phase a pump-assisted portal-jugular (PJ) bypass was used in Group 1 (n = 8) at a flow rate of 15 ml kg-1-min-1, while a pump-assisted caval-portal-jugular (CPJ) bypass was used in Group 2 (n = 8) at a flow rate of 20 ml kg-1-min-1. Intraoperative haemodynamics, pulmonary gas exchange, haematological and serum biochemical parameters were evaluated. Postoperative animal survival rate and complications associated with the bypass used were evaluated. Mean pulmonary artery pressure (Ppa) and pulmonary vascular resistance (Pvr) showed significantly different behaviour in the two groups, whereas the remaining parameters all showed the same trend. Thus an earlier and more substantial increase in Ppa and Pvr values was found in Group 1 when compared to Group 2 during the anhepatic phase. The different behaviour shown by Group 1 may depend on the release of circulating vasoactive substances generated following pelvic venous congestion caused by the temporary clamping of the inferior vena cava. In conclusion, this study indicates that the pump-assisted CPJ bypass is more suitable than the pump-assisted PJ bypass. Furthermore, in order to obtain better results it should be used routinely in porcine liver transplantation.