Evaluation of Lateral Temporal Bone Resection in Locally Advanced Tumours of the Parotid Gland
INDIAN JOURNAL OF OTOLARYNGOLOGY AND HEAD & NECK SURGERY
Authors: Aslier, Mustafa; Dogan, Ersoy; Ikiz, Ahmet Omer; Sarioglu, Sulen; Akman, Fadime; Guneri, Enis Alpin
Abstract
This study evaluated the effects of lateral temporal bone resection (LTBR) on local tumour control in patients with locally advanced parotid gland tumours. The medical records of seven patients treated with radical parotidectomy combined with LTBR for locally advanced primary parotid tumour at the Otolaryngology Department of Dokuz Eylul University between January 1995 and December 2016 were retrospectively evaluated. Demographic variables, tumour characteristics, treatment properties, postoperative complications, follow-up durations and local, regional and distant recurrences were analysed. Before referral to our clinic, four patients had de novo primary parotid tumours, and three patients had a recurrence of primary parotid tumours. The histopathologic diagnoses were squamous cell carcinoma in two patients, and adenosquamous carcinoma, malignant myoepithelial carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma and spindle cell sarcoma in the other patients. During the follow-up period, one patient died due to postoperative pulmonary embolism in the first month, and four patients died due to distant metastasis without local or regional recurrences. LTBR combined with radical parotidectomy in locally advanced primary malignant parotid gland tumours is a feasible surgical technique for local tumour control. However, the most common cause of death in these cases is distant metastases, despite appropriate resection.
Peasant coffee in the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, Mexico: A critical evaluation of sustainable intensification and market integration potential
ELEMENTA-SCIENCE OF THE ANTHROPOCENE
Authors: de la Vega-Leinert, Anne Cristina; Brenner, Ludger; Stoll-Kleemann, Susanne
Abstract
Production of low-input, shaded coffee in the Los Tuxtlas UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (LTBR), Veracruz, Mexico, an economically marginalized but ecologically rich region, was strongly affected by the collapse in international prices and the reconfiguration of the Mexican coffee sector in the 1990s. This place-based study used qualitative methods to investigate local strategies to reactivate coffee cultivation and improve market integration. Ninety-five producers, processors and cooperative representatives were interviewed to: 1) characterize the different actors in the local coffee commodity chain; 2) explore how producers, organized or not, shape and are constrained by the local coffee sector, and 3) evaluate whether producers' land use strategies may be compatible with conservation in the LTBR. We combine the Land Sparing and Sharing framework with the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve zonation system to conceptualize how coffee plantations can be spatially integrated in protected areas and facilitate synergies between local livelihoods and conservation. Our empirical study illustrates the complexity and dynamism of the LTBR coffee sector. It highlights the resourcefulness of producers in adapting their cultivation systems, but also the narrow maneuvering room farmers have to exploit textbook synergies between conservation and fair trade and / or "certified organic" markets. In principle, coffee cultivation can be expanded and intensified without affecting remaining primary forest (Land Sparing) and contribute to maintain a diverse landscape matrix in productive agroforestry systems (Land Sharing). However, few producers have the means required to successfully achieve profitable and long-term market integration. Future research on sustainable land use management in, and around, protected areas needs to explicitly address local, sectoral and market dynamics as drivers of land use at the local level. Although these dynamics may create windows of opportunity for the biggest and best-connected producers, they exacerbate asymmetries inside peasant farming communities and weaken producers' cooperatives.