Creating doorways: finding meaning and growth through art therapy in the face of life-threatening illness.

OBJECTIVES: This article presents the findings of a pilot study situated in a tertiary care cancer centre and examines the impact of an art therapy group on the experiences of women living through breast cancer. STUDY DESIGN: The study design used in this study is a qualitative cross-case comparative case. METHODS: Ten women were interviewed about their experiences making art, many for the first time. Interviews were transcribed and analysed, along with the participants' artist statements. RESULTS: Categories include the following: the significant benefits of art therapy on their sense of self-efficacy; the emotionally enhancing nature of making art for the first time; the power of their artwork to trigger insights about themselves (including subcategories of self-actualization, existential growth, and post-traumatic growth) or in communicating their experiences to loved ones; and how making art changed their worldview and life philosophies, creating doorways of possibilities. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that art therapy provides a safe context to reflect on profound personal changes and to re-story losses following adversity through creative practices as a dimension of care.

Faithful pals and familiar locales: differentiating social and spatial site fidelity during reproduction.

Site fidelity-the tendency to reuse familiar spaces-is expected to improve fitness. Familiarity with the local environment is particularly crucial when resource demands or predation risk are high. Consequently, site fidelity often peaks during reproduction when energetic costs are high and offspring are vulnerable. For many species, the environment they experience is not solely a function of geography but also of the social environment. Social fidelity, the selection for familiar social environments, could constitute an independent or parallel strategy to spatial fidelity when considering behaviour at the spatial-social interface. Using global positioning system locations from caribou across Newfoundland, we tested whether females selected calving sites based on proximity to familiar conspecifics, in addition to geographical (spatial) fidelity. These strategies were synergistic, not alternative, and correlated across the population but more variable within individuals. We also tested whether either form of fidelity affected reproductive success. We failed to detect an effect of spatial or social fidelity on reproductive success in this population. Nevertheless, given the association between social and spatial fidelity and the demonstrated fitness consequences of site fidelity in other systems, familiar conspecifics and the potential benefits these social partners provide may be an underappreciated component driving site fidelity.This article is part of the theme issue 'The spatial-social interface: a theoretical and empirical integration'.

Role of near-field enhancement in plasmonic laser nanoablation using gold nanorods on a silicon substrate: comment.

In this comment, we argue that the conlusion made by Harrisson and Ben-Yakar [Opt. Express 18, 22556 (2010)], which states that nanoablation with plasmonic nanorods depends on the enhancement of the Poynting vector rather than the one of the square of the electric field, is incorrect and not necessarily needed to explain their experimental results.

Folliculin regulates mTORC1/2 and WNT pathways in early human pluripotency.

To reveal how cells exit human pluripotency, we designed a CRISPR-Cas9 screen exploiting the metabolic and epigenetic differences between naïve and primed pluripotent cells. We identify the tumor suppressor, Folliculin(FLCN) as a critical gene required for the exit from human pluripotency. Here we show that FLCN Knock-out (KO) hESCs maintain the naïve pluripotent state but cannot exit the state since the critical transcription factor TFE3 remains active in the nucleus. TFE3 targets up-regulated in FLCN KO exit assay are members of Wnt pathway and ESRRB. Treatment of FLCN KO hESC with a Wnt inhibitor, but not ESRRB/FLCN double mutant, rescues the cells, allowing the exit from the naïve state. Using co-immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry analysis we identify unique FLCN binding partners. The interactions of FLCN with components of the mTOR pathway (mTORC1 and mTORC2) reveal a mechanism of FLCN function during exit from naïve pluripotency.

WNT/ß-catenin signaling regulates mitochondrial activity to alter the oncogenic potential of melanoma in a PTEN-dependent manner.

Aberrant regulation of WNT/ß-catenin signaling has a crucial role in the onset and progression of cancers, where the effects are not always predictable depending on tumor context. In melanoma, for example, models of the disease predict differing effects of the WNT/ß-catenin pathway on metastatic progression. Understanding the processes that underpin the highly context-dependent nature of WNT/ß-catenin signaling in tumors is essential to achieve maximal therapeutic benefit from WNT inhibitory compounds. In this study, we have found that expression of the tumor suppressor, phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN), alters the invasive potential of melanoma cells in response to WNT/ß-catenin signaling, correlating with differing metabolic profiles. This alters the bioenergetic potential and mitochondrial activity of melanoma cells, triggered through regulation of pro-survival autophagy. Thus, WNT/ß-catenin signaling is a regulator of catabolic processes in cancer cells, which varies depending on the metabolic requirements of tumors.

Land district, ecophysiographic units and areas: The landscape mapping of the Ministère des Ressources naturelles du Québec.

In 1985, the Ministère des Ressources naturelles established a Forest Ecological Survey Program for Southern Québec. One component of the program was the mapping of land districts, which provide a physiographically-based territorial reference system. The land districts have an average surface area of between 100 and 300 sq km. Since its inception, the department has further refined the methodologies and standardized the results. The current methodologies are based on inventory and analysis of the geographical distribution of permanent environmental components (e.g., relief, surficial deposits, geology, hydrography). The products include 1:50 000 maps of surficial deposits, 1:250 000 maps of the land districts and physiographic systems, and a computerized data bank.To date, 500 000 km square have been covered, and the estimated completion date for the work is 1999. To facilitate use of the products and to encourage the development of new applications, a guide for forest managers and other users has been recently published. The guide assists with forest management planning strategies based upon the physical environment, in particular the production and use of interpretation grids and maps. The products of the mapping process are, for many regions of Southern Québec, the only source of information on permanent environmental components.Currently, the Ministère des Ressources naturelles is planning to develop landscape maps of Southern Québec which identify ecophysiographic units (1:1 250 000) and ecophysiographic areas (1:2 500 000). These maps are based upon the integration of critical physiographic features and the synthesis of land regions.

HLA frequencies in less common arthropathies.

There was no increased incidence of HLA-B27 in patients suffering from rubella arthropathy, when compared to both the Westminster controls and a group of patients with arthritis secondary to dysentery who nearly all possessed this allele.