Metrics details The Original Article was published on 30 January 2023 Correction to: Cell Death and Disease https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-023-05612-7 The authors regret that there is a mistake in Fig In the first published version of this manuscript the bioluminescent image of intraperitoneally (i.p) SKOV3-Luc-injected mice for AMB group was accidentally misused during the assembly of the figures We greatly apologize for this error and are now providing a corrected version of the figure (see new Fig The scientific conclusions of our study are not affected by this inadvertent error Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology Unit of Preclinical Models and New Therapeutic Agents IRCCS—Regina Elena National Cancer Institute Sara Maria Giannitelli & Alberto Rainer Dipartimento Universitario Scienze della Vita e Sanità Pubblica-Sezione di Ginecologia ed Ostetricia—Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Dipartimento Scienze della Salute della Donna Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-024-07139-x Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article News release from Vestas Wind Systems A/S Aarhus Vestas is proud to announce the following orders as part of our Q4 order intake: For more information, please contact: Kristian Holmelund Jakobsen Lead Specialist, Communications and Press Mail: krhja@vestas.com   Tel: +45 5221 1467 About Vestas Vestas is the energy industry’s global partner on sustainable energy solutions and service onshore and offshore wind turbines across the globe and with more than 185 GW of wind turbines in 88 countries we have installed more wind power than anyone else Through our industry-leading smart data capabilities and unparalleled more than 154 GW of wind turbines under service and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions Vestas’ more than 33,000 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future For updated Vestas photographs and videos, please visit our media images page on: https://www.vestas.com/en/media/images We invite you to learn more about Vestas by visiting our website at www.vestas.com and following us on our social media channels: This is the first proof of concept concerning the possibility of creating a smart virtual assistant for the MTB. A significant benefit could come from the integration of these automated methods in the collaborative, crucial decision stages. Cancer Imaging and Image-directed Interventions Volume 11 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2021.797454 This article is part of the Research TopicWomen in Cancer Imaging and Image-directed Interventions Vol II: 2022View all 18 articles Aim: The first prototype of the “Multidisciplinary Tumor Board Smart Virtual Assistant” is presented aimed to (i) Automated classification of clinical stage starting from different free-text diagnostic reports; (ii) Resolution of inconsistencies by identifying controversial cases drawing the clinician’s attention to particular cases worthy for multi-disciplinary discussion; (iii) Support environment for education and knowledge transfer to junior staff; (iv) Integrated data-driven decision making and standardized language and interpretation Patients and Method: Data from patients affected by Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer (LACC) treated between 2015 and 2018 were extracted Gynecologic examination under general anesthesia (EAU) and Positron Emission Tomography–Computed Tomography (PET-CT) performed at the time of diagnosis were the items from the Electronic Health Records (eHRs) considered for analysis An automated extraction of eHR that capture the patient’s data before the diagnosis and then analysis and categorization of all data to transform source information into structured data has been performed the system has been used to retrieve all the eHR for the 96 patients with LACC The system has been able to classify all patients belonging to the training set and - through the NLP procedures - the clinical features were analyzed and classified for each patient A second important result was the setup of a predictive model to evaluate the patient’s staging (accuracy of 94%) we created a user-oriented operational tool targeting the MTB who are confronted with the challenge of large volumes of patients to be diagnosed in the most accurate way Conclusion: This is the first proof of concept concerning the possibility of creating a smart virtual assistant for the MTB A significant benefit could come from the integration of these automated methods in the collaborative The huge amount of data created in hospitals and populating complex data-lakes, stays largely unexploited and, in most of the circumstances, not organized at all. These general considerations make it clear that Artificial Intelligence (AI), a general term which covers the use of a computer algorithms to model intelligent processes (2, 3) is a field with potentially limitless applications in medicine and AI enables managing large amounts of data and allows smart data clustering for decision support in several knowledge areas The automated extraction and classification of actionable information from unstructured data (reports) represents a prerequisite for expanding “predictive” abilities and effectively tailoring patient treatments Once unstructured and structured information are integrated and made consistent and predictive methods are introduced to support diagnostic and therapeutic decisions the most appropriate body where these data-driven methods can be exploited is the Multidisciplinary Tumor Board (MTB) MTBs working groups have the main purpose in selecting the most appropriate and effective treatment for cancer patients by taking into account staging of the tumor and its classification along with overall clinical characteristics Several specialists often take part to the multidisciplinary meeting nuclear medicine physicians and research nurses the point of views may be various and sometimes conflicting the discussion of each clinical case is often long and complex especially if there are conflicting exams or if only the reports and not the images are available there are not many cases that can be clearly discussed in a single MTB session AI and Machine Learning have already been used as a decision support tools in the framework of MTBs (4, 5) - yet many unmet needs are still voiced by MTB operators that may be addressed through such innovative approaches The opportunities for more effective decision-making process can be summarized as follows: ● decision-making support by integrating different sources and information (as well as knowing which source is most reliable) ● decision-support systems that allow automated discrimination of simple vs complex cases to help focusing efforts for the latter ● reduce potential inconsistencies and lack of homogeneous criteria for diagnostic assessments by developing data-driven methods and common languages ● enable increased teamwork and effective decision making across clinical expertise ● leverage retrospective analyses from large data set to create methods and knowledge base that can be exported to other hospitals thus creating a standardized approach for scalable methods and multicentric research efforts followed by a machine learning predictive method to support diagnostic decisions to further develop and test the robustness of our automated system we have performed a proof of concept by designing the first prototype of the “MTB Virtual Assistant” with the following goals: Automated classification of clinical stage starting from different free-text diagnostic reports; Resolution of inconsistencies by identifying controversial cases drawing the clinician’s attention to particular cases worthy for thorough multi-disciplinary discussion; Support environment for education and knowledge transfer to junior staff; Integrated data-driven decision making and standardized language and interpretation treated between 2015 and 2018 were extracted from our institutional data-lake The following Electronic Health Records (eHRs) items have been considered for analysis: - Gynecologic examination under general anesthesia (EUA) report; - Staging Positron Emission Tomography–Computed Tomography (PET-CT) report Other patient’s relevant data (e.g. comorbidities etc.) were collected for further analysis A two steps model has been applied to allow the set-up of the MTB Virtual Assistant: Automated extraction of the relevant eHR sets that capture the patient’s data before the diagnosis and then analysis and categorization of all information to transform source information into structured data methods to support the clinical staff in the decision process with regards to tumor staging confirmation and to help in identifying the most complex cases where more complex analyses and discussion are needed (e due to conflicting information coming from different exams) A first subset of patients with pre-validated staging and diagnosis was used as training set for steps one and two Once steps (i) and (ii) have been completed and successfully tested for patients’ subsets with pre-validated staging and diagnosis (the ‘training set’) we developed an integrated toolset to support the MTB diagnostic process Each time a new patient is selected for staging and treatment decision-making and enters the workflow her eHR are automatically processed to provide structured clinical features (e.g presence/absence of specific disease features in the tumor region algorithm then delivers an assessment for the staging of the tumor with a certain degree of reliability reported on the screen as percentage of accuracy The MTB staff can proceed– if needed- to go deeper in the characterization of the information performing further analyses of clinical data patterns from different sources and comparing the content from different eHRs characterized by such a depth and complexity of information empowered multi-dimensional analyses allow a robust consensus on the clinical decision to be taken The first step is represented by the extraction of clinically relevant information from MR The challenge with these data sources was firstly to transform the unstructured information into discrete robust and actionable framework of clinical and pathological features related to the tumor loco-regional morphology The output of this transformation is therefore a pattern of structured clinical features that describe in detail the disease of the patient whose specific data constitute the source information of the integrated A.I In terms of computer algorithm used, the NPL method to transform text into data is based on a hybrid approach using rules and annotations derived from medical guidelines, combined with A.I. (machine learning); in this experience, this was developed using the SAS Visual Text Analytics® environment (12, 13) Pre-processing steps as such as segmentation expansion of abbreviation) were performed to achieve a higher degree of accuracy syntactic and semantic analysis were performed with the support of an algorithm that creates the network of words showing the occurrence of links among two words and providing an enhanced approach to natural language understanding the sequence of steps above gave us the relevant NLP features leading to data extraction from real life medical reports the medical reports were processed and free-text diagnostic information were transformed into categorical or quantitative clinical data that classify the clinical features resulting from each of the three exams MR The selection of the relevant clinical features that characterize the diagnosis – and most importantly tumor staging – was performed by the multidisciplinary clinical team and constitute the basis for the ontology of the study Therefore, the result of this data discovery process for each patient is a table showing how detailed clinical features in the tumor region are diagnosed for each of the three exams – as shown in Table 1A Any clinical feature is then inspected and reported as being or not within the framework of the three types of exams whether or not a specific region is involved) are mostly extracted from MR and EUA while PET-CT clinical features provide additional levels of tumor (metabolic) activity Table 1A Clinical features included in the three diagnostic exams and data types Therefore, after the eHR automated reading and the subsequent NLP step, the patient’s clinical features are collected in a summarized pattern, as shown in Table 1B (specific instance of the table for a patient case); this view shows, for each of the clinical features, whether this has been identified as positive (meaning whether that region is involved in the tumor progression) or not. Examples from Table 1B indicate bladder involvement while rectovaginal septum appears as involved when analyzing the results from the EUA and not from the RM This conflicting outcome may indicate uncertainty in the staging assessment which is typically represented in the predictive model results Table 1B Example of a patient’s pattern with convergent and conflicting features This transformation from unstructured to structured data is the mainstay of the input to the prediction and clustering then executed by A.I To create a system that supports the MTB in disease staging, the first step is to use a supervised learning technique for the training set, where tumor stage was known a priori for each patient in this group. This was achieved by applying clustering methods to classify patients based on similarity in their clinical feature pattern (the summary view as in Figure 1) and in their diagnosed staging When applying clustering algorithms for each of the 3 diagnostic methods separately (MR PET-CT) seven groups for each of the three diagnoses were generated Once the clusters have been created in the training set a machine learning algorithm has then been used to build a predictive model for the staging based on composition of the clusters “Decision Tree” algorithms have been adopted using the SAS Vyia ® analytics and modeling features Figure 1 Example of dashboard showing clinical features from three diagnoses a validation step has been performed on a new set of patients to predict their staging based on the trained Decision Tree model The system has been firstly used to retrieve all the eHR for 96 patients with histological proven LACC This represented and has been used as the training set of the study with validated 2009 FIGO staging classification ranging from IB2 to IVA as output and PET-CT diagnostic reports for all these patients The system resulted to be able to classify all patients belonging to the training set and - through NLP procedures - the clinical features were analyzed and classified for each patient. This analysis provided the patient-specific summary dashboard shown in Figure 1 (desktop MTB team dashboard, which corresponds to Table 1B) This highlights how the different diagnostic methods have identified which areas have been impacted by the tumor progression (i presence/absence of the disease in different regions) and the main activity levels this ‘clinical feature pattern’ also highlights when two different diagnostic methods have provided different outcomes for a given area which is critical to identify patients who require a more thorough analysis during the MTB meetings In addition, the clinical staff can retrieve other clinical parameters of interest directly from the system, such as laboratory exams, biomarkers, risk factors – and it is always possible to get the direct access to medical reports and compare them as shown in Figure 2 Figure 2 Example of dashboard included in Virtual Assistant that compare medical reports we focused on the development of predictive models for the 2009 FIGO staging classification based on the 96-patients worth training set and using a set of Decision Tree machine learning algorithms obtaining a patient’s staging prediction accuracy of 94% The model uses clinical features extracted and classified from the MR and the EUA reports Even higher accuracy (98%) can be achieved integrating the input from the PET-CT Figure 3 Logical view of the Virtual Assistant dashboard and use in Multidisciplinary Tumor Board The flow to support the MTB is designed as follows: ● when a new patient is prepared for the discussion at the MTB the system performs the following processing steps: (i) automatic retrieval of eHR and other clinical data; (ii) NLP based transformation of the free text reports into structured clinical features that characterize the single patient on the basis of the three diagnostic exams (MR; EUA; PET-CT); (iii) clustering of patients according to the clinical features patterns; (iv) machine-learning based prediction of the pre-diagnostic FIGO staging; due to discrepancies in the different diagnostics); ● as already mentioned, from the single panel view of the critical patients, the MTB can get to a deeper view by analyzing the specific clinical features classification from the three exams (Figure 1) This drill-down may highlight clinical features where two exams have led to different interpretations from two specialists (e.g. radiologist and nuclear medicine physician) which in itself would trigger more discussion in the board Figure 4 Entry dashboard that classify incoming patients for the Multidisciplinary Tumor Board session Figure 5 Dashboard view of a patient for the Multidisciplinary Tumor Board Ultimately, the clinical team may want to compare the eHR items that originated the discrepancies, which would be immediately available in the system (Figure 2) In order to test the effectiveness of the overall approach the system has been tested with an independent group of 13 patients (whose features have not been used in the Training Set) After all the medical reports were retrieved the NLP system proceeded in classifying all patients in detail through their patterns of clinical features: the predictive model for FIGO staging has shown an accuracy of 93% substantially confirming the performances observed in the training set A proof-of-concept for an integrated framework for automated classification of disease staging and a Clinical Decision Support System in the multidisciplinary management of LACC is reported we have trained and validated a biomedical imaging report analyzer that performs a smart “automated classification” of the LACC stage PET-CT and EUA reports from the cohort used in the Training Set achieved excellent accuracy when matched with the prediction of the stage The performance compared favorably to clinical staging and was confirmed to the same levels of accuracy when tested in the independent Validation Set the reports were performed by different physicians without using a common template so even though the task for the software was complex and prone to misinterpretation To the best of our knowledge this is the first prototype aimed at supporting effectively a MTB in the prioritization and analysis of the most critical cases The intuitive Graphical User Interface allows an easy detection of discrepancies among the imaging reports rather than focusing on the clinical cases without diagnostic uncertainties whose treatment should be an easy skill the software suggests the specialists to focus their attention on the most critical cases dedicating more quality time to deep discussion and achieving a more robust data-driven consensus In a large-volume scenario as well as in a low- resources setting the implementation of an automatic tool as the one described could have a very relevant impact as supported by the promising results of this proof-of-concept this tool is not intended to replace the tumor board’s discussion of clinical situations even in circumstances when the UAE and MR are in agreement reports frequently underpin parts that aren’t written but are assessed in multidisciplinary meetings (e.g some poor detection of the outer cervical stroma that is not a sure sign of parametrial invasion).It has to be considered as a facilitator of the decisional process and a tool to make MTD meetings go faster even if there are numerous clinical cases to be discussed this proof of concept could be easily adapted and extended to other cancer settings demonstrating the favorable scalability of the provided structure much room for re-use of the many pivotal components: - Extract/Transform/Load (ETL) automated extraction and following NLP clinical features classification; - machine-learning based predictive model for FIGO staging which can be trained on different patient set - overall navigation and drill-down to different layers of information to allow the MTB for a data-supported analysis and discussion (thus promoting collaborative methods and integration of skills) - especially in the Covid 19 era where MTBs are performed increasingly in virtual/online mode this system offers a remote collaborative platform into the hospital and among hospitals Furthermore, as already suggested by Bizzo et al. (16) can help drive the field toward more structured reporting from different specialists which is critical for an effective MTB and serves as the basis for a “virtuous cycle” in creating additional data for A.I a further strength of the proposed approach is represented by the machine-learning and clustering methods - used in connection with NLP and understanding of clinical features from diagnoses – that allowed us to identify patients’ phenotypes which are not characterized only through the FIGO staging and can be especially useful for future prognostic models able to predict the complete pathological response In terms of future developments starting from this proof of concept we consider strategic the following key points: ● enlarge the training and validation cohort by recruiting patients coming from our center as well as other institutions: the increased cohort will allow to further improve the NLP effectiveness and predictive system accuracy; ● use of this setting as a base for an end-to-end model; covering also the re-staging and the pathological response definition; in this way we could be able to provide further insights to the MTB not only at the diagnostics phase but also along the treatment and the follow-up possibly integrating existing NLP system for eHR transformation and then connecting our clustering and predictive methodologies: this transformation could allow a widely dissemination while this prototype should still be considered as first proof of concept of the possibility of creating a Smart Virtual Assistant for MTB we believe that this experience discloses a significant benefit in the integration of these automated methods in the collaborative giving clinicians the opportunity to save time by optimizing the duration of multidisciplinary meetings to consolidate information and leverage data-driven evidence that would be not achievable in the more traditional settings and decisional workflows The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors Ethical approval was not provided for this study on human participants because the project has received approval and has been reviewed by the Scientific Director of IRCCS Policlinico Gemelli The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s) for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article Acquisition of data and patient recruitment Revision of adaptation of and final approval of manuscript All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher Artificial Intelligence With Multi-Functional Machine Learning Platform Development for Better Healthcare and Precision Medicine Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: Today and Tomorrow PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Artificial Intelligence and Lung Cancer Treatment Decision: Agreement With Recommendation of Multidisciplinary Tumor Board Transl Lung Cancer Res (2020) 9(3):507–14 Long-Term Analysis of Clinical Outcome and Complications in Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer Patients Administered Concomitant Chemoradiation Followed by Radical Surgery Prolonged Chemoradiation in Locally Advanced Carcinoma of the Uterine Cervix: Final Results of a Phase II Study (ESTER-1) Concomitant Boost Dose Escalation Plus Large-Field Preoperative Chemoradiation in Locally Advanced Carcinoma of the Uterine Cervix: Results of a Phase I Study (LARA-CC- 1) Concomitant Boost Plus Large-Field Preoperative Chemoradiation in Locally Advanced Uterine Cervix Carcinoma: Phase II Clinical Trial Final Results (LARA-CC-1) Intensity-Modulated Extended-Field Chemoradiation Plus Simultaneous Integrated Boost in the Pre-Operative Treatment of Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer: A Dose-Escalation Study Neo-Adjuvant Platinum-Based Chemotherapy Followed by Chemoradiation and Radical Surgery in Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer (LACC) Patients: A Phase II Study Eur J Surg Oncol (2018) 44(7):1062–8 Natural Language Processing in Radiology: A Systematic Review SAS® Visual Text Analytics 8.4: User’s Guide Google Scholar A Machine-Learning Parsimonious Multivariable Predictive Model of Mortality Risk in Patients With Covid-19 Concordance Study Between IBM Watson for Oncology and Clinical Practice for Patients With Cancer in China Watson for Oncology and Breast Cancer Treatment Recommendations: Agreement With an Expert Multidisciplinary Tumor Board Artificial Intelligence and Clinical Decision Support for Radiologists and Referring Providers J Am Coll Radiol (2019) 16(9 Pt B):1351–6 Diagnosis of Cervical Cancer Based on Ensemble Deep Learning Network Using Colposcopy Images An Observational Study of Deep Learning and Automated Evaluation of Cervical Images for Cancer Screening J Natl Cancer Inst (2019) 111(9):923–32 DCE-MRI Pharmacokinetic Parameter Maps for Cervical Carcinoma Prediction Conization in Early Stage Cervical Cancer: Pattern of Recurrence in a 10-Year Single-Institution Experience Int J Gynecol Cancer (2017) 27(5):1001–8 Keywords: locally advanced cervical cancer multidisciplinary tumor board smart virtual assistant Scambia G and Valentini V (2022) Multidisciplinary Tumor Board Smart Virtual Assistant in Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer: A Proof of Concept Received: 09 November 2021; Accepted: 08 December 2021;Published: 03 January 2022 Copyright © 2022 Macchia, Ferrandina, Patarnello, Autorino, Masciocchi, Pisapia, Calvani, Iacomini, Cesario, Boldrini, Gui, Rufini, Gambacorta, Scambia and Valentini. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Rosa Autorino, cm9zYS5hdXRvcmlub0Bwb2xpY2xpbmljb2dlbWVsbGkuaXQ= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish believed to be the ear­li­est found in Magna Graecia shed­ding light on the ancient olive grow­ing tra­di­tion in the region and prompt­ing fur­ther exca­va­tions to uncover a whole set­tle­ment An ancient olive oil mill dat­ing to the 4th cen­tury B.C has been uncov­ered dur­ing arche­o­log­i­cal exca­va­tions in the province of Matera Located in the Basilicata region in south­ern Italy the archae­ol­o­gists said that the find­ing is sen­sa­tional due to both its struc­ture and age They believe it is the ear­li­est olive oil mill found in Magna Graecia a region that encom­passes most of Italy’s south­ern coast­line where ancient Greek colonists arrived 3,500 years ago The dis­cov­ery was made within the exca­vat­ing site of Ferrandina a town still renowned for its high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil Its sur­round­ings and arche­o­log­i­cal past are highly rel­e­vant for researchers search­ing for the remains of ancient com­mu­ni­ties that set­tled in the area as early as the Iron Age sci­en­tists from the University of Basilicata and the regional arche­o­log­i­cal agency explained that the site’s pri­mary evi­dence includes an olive oil recep­ta­cle built with dry stone walls sev­eral chan­nels branch off and fol­low the nat­ural slope bring­ing them to stone basins which arche­ol­o­gists believe were used for the purifi­ca­tion of the olive oil hor­i­zon­tal beams with mobile coun­ter­weights formed the ancient press under which a rounded sup­port basin was placed to col­lect the olive pulp The cur­rent exca­va­tions were under­taken sev­eral years ago after arche­ol­o­gists found two press­ing bases The researchers also found traces of a press with a wooden frame on the clay floor with a well-com­pacted clay walk­ing sur­face intended for the pro­cess­ing of olives,” the archae­ol­o­gists said some plant macro-fos­sils of Olea europaea were found in excel­lent con­di­tion.” Paleobotany experts will ana­lyze the olives’ car­po­log­i­cal remains to bet­ter under­stand their ori­gin and shed some light on the local ancient cul­ti­var the most com­monly grown vari­ety in Ferrandina The exca­va­tions will con­tinue since a whole set­tle­ment is believed to have arisen in the same loca­tion as the olive oil mill with res­i­den­tial quar­ters and pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties Researchers will also look for the areas ded­i­cated to the press­ing and stor­age of the olives “The dis­cov­ery wit­nesses the ancient incli­na­tion for olive grow­ing in the Ferrandina ter­ri­tory which is renowned for its high-qual­ity olive oil,” said Lucrezia Digilio and Paolo Colonna from Donne in Campo and the orga­ni­za­tion of the Lucano olive oil pro­duc­ers They believe that the arche­ol­o­gists’ work ​“fur­ther strength­ens PGI Olio Lucano a brand that goes beyond the qual­ity and also rec­og­nizes his­tory tra­di­tion and pas­sion of the olive grow­ers on our ter­ri­tory.” Growers and experts are now wait­ing for the results of the pale­ob­otany analy­sis on the uncov­ered olive remains “As it is well-known, the most grown cul­ti­var in Ferrandina is the Majatica, whose ded­i­cated groves extend on 4,250 hectares,” Digilio and Colonna said. ​“This dis­cov­ery encour­ages us to con­tinue build­ing the inter-regional olive oil pro­duc­tion chain an ini­tia­tive that is help­ing local grow­ers to restruc­ture their busi­nesses and be more com­pet­i­tive on the mar­ket.” More articles on:  culture, olive oil history, trending Philippe Starck Reflects on Olive Mill's Bold Design the mill is envisioned as an homage to Andalusian culture and practical space for high-quality olive oil production Extra Virgin Olive Oil Is the Soul of These Classic Italian Winter Dishes A famous Apulian chef shares how to make the best use of fresh extra virgin olive oil in sweet and savory dishes World Olive Oil Competition 2025 Live Updates The world’s most prestigious olive oil quality contest is revealing award winners in the Northern Hemisphere division Italian Producers Grapple with Market Instability Record olive oil imports paired with lowered yields have compounded the worries of the sector Olive Oil Export Ban Sours Table Olive Sales in Turkey While table olive exports soared in the first five months of the 2023/24 campaign the ban on olive oil exports is blamed for holding the sector back Olive Oil Overtakes Wine as Popular Host Gift in Britain to present dinner party hosts with a bottle of extra virgin olive oil instead of wine or chocolates Study Reveals Therapeutic Properties of Extra Virgin Olive Oil Polyphenols on Childhood Cancer Researchers examined oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol for their potential in treating neuroblastoma U.S. Consumers Embrace Olive Oil in Squeeze Bottles Despite the growing popularity of squeeze bottles for their convenience some question the potential impact on olive oil quality and the environmental burden of the packaging Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application 1923 to the late Dominick LoBianco and Antoinette Carone LoBianco.  Along with her parents Rose Pomponio and Josephine Domanico; grandson Cathy Santagata Anderson and son-in-law John Anderson and Mariann Santagata DeRiso and son-in-law Tony DeRiso; grandchildren and Eloise Abygail Jagoe; as well as her sister Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 a.m. Memorial contributions may be made in memory of Phyllis Santagata to Preston House Raymer-Kepner Funeral Home is caring for the Santagata family.  Online condolences and memories may be shared at kepnerfh.com Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors and receive alerts when they’re in the news You will receive alerts when there are new announcements on 80 Mile PLC is an explorer and developer of critical resources in Greenland and Finland Among its 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Terms of use The work will also make it possible to establish long-distance railway connections and to enhance the local public transport offer in the area in terms of frequency and quality The creation of the new line Ferrandina - Matera La Martella takes an important step forward with the approval of the final project by the extraordinary government commissioner for the opera Vera Fiorani The project - underlines a note from the Italian railway network - of the new line will make it possible to connect the city of Matera to the national railway infrastructure through an electrified line of 20 kilometers with single track The Matera La Martella station will be served both by a direct connection with the Ferrandina station and by a connection to the north through the new link road connecting the Battipaglia - Potenza - Metaponto line The project will also make it possible to establish long-distance railway connections between Matera and the High Speed ​​system and to enhance the local public transport offer in the area in terms of frequency and quality The overall investment for the construction of the work is approximately 430 million euros The approval of the final project will be followed in the next few days by the start of the negotiation procedures thus marking an important milestone in the development of the intervention whose activation is expected by 2026 The family of Nicky Fylan (Nicola Filazzola) created this Life Tributes page to make it easy to share your memories a region in Italy known for its grapes and olives is strug­gling to estab­lish its olive oil indus­try due to frag­mented pro­duc­tion and lack of invest­ment despite the region’s ideal cli­mate for olive grow­ing such as Matera being named the 2019 European Capital of Culture there is hope that Basilicata’s olive oil will gain recog­ni­tion and value in the future Basilicata is one of the small­est regions of Italy and its olive oil is not as well known as some oth­ers this region has a per­fect cli­mate for olive grow­ing The most com­mon vari­eties of olives here are: Ogliarola del Vulture While only Ogliarola del Vulture has the PDO des­ig­na­tion all of the local vari­eties pro­duce oils prized for their well-bal­anced and fruity taste Many of the groves in Basilicata are over hills dif­fi­cult to access and to har­vest In gen­eral olive oil pro­duc­tion is less orga­nized — a far cry from the mod­ern sys­tems found in sur­round­ing regions This frag­men­ta­tion of pro­duc­tion is dis­cour­ag­ing invest­ments in the sec­tor Half of the olive oil mills here still use presses often mix­ing olives of widely vary­ing con­di­tion These fac­tors are mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for Basilicata’s olive oil to stand out With 90 per­cent of its pro­duc­tion extra-vir­gin Basilicata oils are still typ­i­cally sold unbranded and hardly any (3 per­cent) is exported the mayor of Matera will meet Siena’s mayor at the national assem­bly of the asso­ci­a­tion of olive oil munic­i­pal­i­ties to tighten the part­ner­ship between these cities in the name of the olive and extra-vir­gin olive oil ready to add value to the liq­uid gold com­ing from this wild land that in the past gave inspi­ra­tion to great artists includ­ing Pasolini and Carlo Levi More articles on:  culture, Italian olive oil, olive varieties Panettone Gets a Healthy Upgrade The beloved Christmas cake is attracting new fans in Italy thanks to a change to its traditional ingredients Spain Bets on Comedy to Boost Olive Oil Sales stand-up stars will be promoting extra virgin olive oil in major cities across Spain Concrete and Water Are Damaging Montenegro's Oldest Olive Tree In their efforts to turn the 2,247-year-old Stara Maslina into a tourist attraction local authorities have inadvertently damaged the iconic olive tree Greeks Celebrate Christmas with Traditional Olive Oil-Based Cookies The season’s fresh olive oil and simple ingredients are used to make melomakarona and kourabiedes Umbria Blazes the Trail of Year-Round Oleotourism Traditionally confined to the harvest season restaurateurs and tourism officials in Umbria are working to turn extra virgin olive oil into a year-round attraction Archaeological Exhibition Explores History of Olive Oil in the Mediterranean displays archaeological discoveries about the trade and production of olive oil in the Mediterranean Rome's Olive Oil Production on Public Farm Supports Community, Sustainability The city's organic production provides community support through donations and funds to maintain a public farm in Lazio L’Olivo di Sant'Emiliano: A 1,800-Year-Old Symbol of Umbria's Olive Tradition The millenary tree symbolizes the resilience of the central Italian region with many of its cohorts damaged by repeated frost over the years Metrics details This article has been updated This study aims at investigating the relationship between cyclooxygenase-2 expression in tumour vs stroma inflammatory compartment and its possible clinical role The study included 99 stage IB-IV cervical cancer patients: immunostaining of tumour tissue sections was performed with rabbit antiserum against cyclooxygenase-2 Mast Cell Tryptase monoclonal antibodies were used to characterise stroma inflammatory cells in nine cervical tumours An inverse relation was found between cyclooxygenase-2 levels (cyclooxygenase-2 IDV) of tumour vs stroma compartment (r=−0.44 The percentage of cases showing high tumour/stromal cyclooxygenase-2 IDV ratio was significantly higher in patients who did not respond to treatment (93.3%) with respect to patients with partial (60.5%) Cases with a high tumour/stroma cyclooxygenase-2 IDV ratio had a shorter overall survival rate than cases with a low tumour/stroma cyclooxygenase-2 IDV (P<0.0001) In the multivariate analysis advanced stage and the status of tumour/stroma cyclooxygenase-2 IDV ratio retained an independent negative prognostic role and CD25+ cells was significantly lower in tumours with high tumour/stroma cyclooxygenase-2 IDV ratio while a higher percentage of mast cells was detected in tumours showing high tumour/stroma cyclooxygenase-2 IDV ratio Our study showed the usefulness of assessing cyclooxygenase-2 status both in tumour and stroma compartment in order to identify cervical cancer patients endowed with a very poor chance of response to neoadjuvant therapy and unfavourable prognosis The potential role of COX-2 expression in stroma cells has been first suggested by Williams et al (2000) who showed a dramatic inhibition of tumour growth and angiogenesis in lung carcinoma cells grafted into homozygous COX-2−/− mice Based on our preliminary observations about the presence of COX-2 staining in the stroma compartment of cervical tumours we were then prompted at providing a more in depth analysis of (i) COX-2 content in the stroma inflammatory cellular elements of this neoplasia (ii) the relationship between COX-2 expression in tumour cells vs stroma inflammatory compartment and (iii) the possible clinical role of COX-2 expression according to the cellular compartment of staining an immunophenotypic characterization of stroma inflammatory cells was carried out in a series of cervical tumours Patients showing clinical no change/progression during neoadjuvant treatment were subjected to exclusive radiotherapy The following monoclonal and policlonal antibodies were used: anti-CD3 (clone PS1; 1:100) Italy); anti-Mast Cell Tryptase (clone AA1 Denmark); anti-COX 2 rabbit policlonal antibody (1:300 Cayman In the studies of phenotyping of stromal inflammatory cells serial sections of representative blocks were cut from patients with either high (>1) or low (⩽1) COX-2 positive tumour/stroma ratio (see below) In order to quantitate the percentage of COX-2 stained cell subpopulations with respect to inflammatory cells of the stroma we used the immunoperoxidase technique performed on consecutive sections since it allows by nuclear counterstaining with hematoxylin to better recognise stromal cells also by their morphological characteristics As positive controls for the other antibodies both lymph-nodes and thymus were used the slide was treated with 3-amino-9 ethylcarbazole (Sigma The slide was rapidly mounted using an aqueous mounting medium and digital images of microscopic fields acquired by Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera (Nikon Instruments Italy) after registering the X-Y coordinate of the acquired field in the slide Then the slide was immersed in Ca2+-Mg2+-free PBS (pH 7.2) The slide was immersed for 10 s in 99.8% (vol/vol) methyl alcohol and then exhaustively washed with PBS The section was treated in microwave owen using the Dako ChemMate detection kit (DAKO) and then incubated with anti-mast cell tryptase antibody The immunoreaction was developed by fast blue and the slide was remounted The exact area on the same slide was acquired by the digital camera and compared with the first image after the first immunostaining with anti-COX-2 antibody and then treated with the streptavidin-biotin-alkaline phosphatase complex kit omitting the anti-mast cell tryptase antibody USA) together with ‘The image processing toolkit’ (CRC Press The integrated density values (IDV) of the immunostaining was calculated as the product of the mean density value of the immunoreactive regions by the percentage of the immunostained tumour or stroma components Inflammatory cell count in the tumour stroma was performed by chosing five corresponding × 20 fields from each of six serial tissue sections (one for each antibody) so as to best reflect the overall immunostaining of the tumour stroma contained in the entire slide acquired with a Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera were opened in Photoshop using a Macintosh G3 workstation (Apple Both immunostained and negative cells within a superimposed grid of 0.022 mm2 were counted Two cell counts for each digital image were done by moving the grid over representative stromal areas The total cell number/stromal area was calculated by averaging cell counts from each section and from the six consecutive sections (n=60) was calculated by averaging cell counts from two grid areas from five × 20 fields (n=10) Wald statistics for coefficient comparison and the Joint significance test were also performed in order to compare the coefficients of relative risk of death for tumour COX-2 positivity vs tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio positivity and to evaluate the weight of the status of tumour COX-2 and tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio in the survival regression model after excluding each of them Statistical analysis was carried out using SOLO (BMDP Statistical Software USA) and Statview survival tools (Abacus Concepts- Inc- Berkeley CA (A) Squamous cervical cancer with intense COX-2 immunoreaction in both cytoplasm and nuclei of tumour cells Scattered cells in the stromal compartment are stained (B) COX-2 negative tumour showing intense COX-2 staining in the stroma inflammatory compartment and tryptase immunoreaction in tumours showing high (C COX-2 integrated density values in the tumour component ranged from 1.2 to 82.3 with mean±s.e COX-2 integrated density values in the stromal component range from 0.9 to 96.0 with mean+s.e A statistically significant inverse relation was found between COX-2 IDV of tumour vs COX-2 IDV in the stroma compartment (r=−0.44 the ratio between COX-2 IDV in the tumour vs COX-2 IDV in the stroma component was used in order to normalise the COX-2 expression in each case and to categorise tumours according to low vs high COX-2 content The tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio range from 0.03 to 48.2 (mean±s.e.=5.1±0.9) The ratio of ⩽1 was used to indicate cervical tumours with COX-2 expression in the tumour component lower or equivalent to COX-2 expression in the stroma 56 out of 99 (56.6%) were scored as having a high (>1) tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio High COX-2 IDV in the tumour compartment were shown to be significantly associated with larger volume of the tumour and more aggressive histotype while COX-2 IDV in the tumour stroma showed the opposite pattern (data not shown) higher tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio was found in stage III-IV with respect to stage I–II cases (P value=0.09) in adenocarcinoma and adenosquamous carcinoma versus squamous cell (P value=0.0005) in tumours ⩾4 cm vs smaller tumours (P value=0.011) Metastatic lymph node involvement was found in 14 out of 69 (20.3%) cases: the percentage of COX-2 tumour positivity was 28.6% in lymph node positive with respect to 35.7% in lymph node negative cases (difference not significant) The percentage of cases showing tumour COX-2 positivity was significantly higher in patients who did not respond to treatment (87.5%) with respect to patients with partial (46.5%) Similar results were found considering COX-2 IDV ratio as covariate according to clinical response (P=0.007) (data not shown) the percentage of cases showing COX-2 IDV positivity in the stroma was not correlated per se with response to treatment (data not shown) The percentage of cases showing high tumour/stromal COX-2 IDV ratio was significantly higher in patients who did not respond to treatment (93.3%) with respect to patients with partial (60.5%), and complete (43.7%) response (P=0.009). Similar results were found considering mean COX-2 IDV ratio according to clinical response (Table 1) In the univariate analysis advanced FIGO stage and high tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio proved to associated with poor chance of response to neoadjuvant therapy (complete/partial vs no response) P=0.008) and tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio (χ2=4.1 P=0.0042) retained an independent role in predicting a poor chance of response to treatment COX-2 status in stroma inflammatory cells was defined according to the cut-off of 20.0 corresponding to mean COX-2 IDV Overall survival rate according to the status of COX-2 in tumour cells (A) and according to the ratio between tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV (C) in 99 cervical cancer patients On the other side, cases showing COX-2 positive reaction in stroma inflammatory cells showed a longer OS than COX-2 negative cases: in particular, the 3-year OS was 91% (CI 95%=79–101) in COX-2 positive with respect to COX-2 negative cases who had a 3-year OS of 59% (CI 95%=46–72) (P=0.010) (Figure 2B) COX-2 IDV in stroma inflammatory cells were inversely associated with risk of death as assessed by COX analysis using COX-2 values as a continuous covariate (χ2=8.2 Plot of the estimate of the relative risk of death as a prediction of COX-2 integrated density values calculated by COX's hazard regression model in cervical cancer patients In multivariate analysis the positivity of tumour COX-2 retained an independent negative prognostic role for OS (P=0.0004) while the positivity of stromal COX-2 showed a trend toward a favourable role (P=0.056) Similar results were obtained when using tumour COX-2 and stromal COX-2 as continuous variables (data not shown) As shown in Table 2 the status of tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio together with advanced stage of disease, retained an independent negative prognostic role for OS (Table 2) Similar results were obtained in multivariate analysis considering the values of tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio as continuous variable in the whole series as well as in LACC patients (data not shown) in order to evaluate the weight of the status of tumour COX-2 and tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio in the survival regression model we tested the significance of excluding either the co-variate tumour COX-2 positivity or tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV positivity from the model only the tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV gave a statistically significant contribution to the model (likelihood ratio: χ2 =7.6 the comparison between the coefficients of relative risk of death for tumour COX-2 positivity vs tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV positivity was also analysed in order to test whether a statistically significant difference exists beween the two coefficients in the Cox's proportional hazard model we found that the relative risk of death in patients having a tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio >1 positivity showed a trend to be higher (relative risk 18.72 95% CI=1.94–181.0) than that of patients with tumour COX-2 (relative risk 1.12 95% CI=0.33–84.0) (Wald statistics: χ2=3.292; d.f.=1 and tryptase positive cells in stroma inflammatory infiltrate of cervical tumours from cases with low (gray columns) vs high (black columns) tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio (results are expressed as mean±s.e.; *significant at P<0.05) Double labelling subtraction consecutive immunostaining of the same COX-2 positive tumour section by anti-COX-2 and anti-tryptase antibodies showed that the vast majority (>70%) of tryptase positive mast cells also express COX-2 (Figure 5, insert). Double labelling subtraction consecutive immunostaining of the same COX-2 positive tumour section by anti-COX-2 and anti-tryptase antibodies showed that the vast majority (>70%) of tryptase positive mast cells also express COX-2 we first reported that in cervical tumours the expression of COX-2 in the stroma inflammatory cells and its relationship with COX-2 expression in tumour cells can be clinically relevant An inverse relationship between COX-2 expression in tumour cells and the amount of the stroma inflammatory infiltrate in the tumour has been detected suggesting that COX-2 expression in stromal elements such as the vasculature could play a major role in tumour biology This issue is relevant in order to understand the role of COX-2 according to different compartments and warrants further investigations also by a thorough characterisation of the various cellular subtypes (lymphocytes This ratio represents a valuable tool to normalise the amount of COX-2 expression in the tumour on the basis of the status of its stromal component and to minimize the bias inherent to the use of an arbitrary cut-off we showed that the ratio between COX-2 in the tumour cells and COX-2 in the stroma cells was very effective in distinguishing patients with low vs high risk of death of disease both in univariate and multivariate analysis a very strong correlation between both tumour COX-2 expression and tumour/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio were shown to be highly correlated with response to chemotherapy while although high COX-2 expression in the stroma was significantly associated with better survival it failed to directly correlate with response to treatment This paper was modified 12 months after initial publication to switch to Creative Commons licence terms Mancuso S (1996) Modified type IV-V radical hysterectomy with systematic pelvic and aortic lymphadenectomy in the treatment of patients with stage III cervical carcinoma Castellanos E (2001) The role of mast cell tryptase in neoangiogenesis of premalignant and malignant lesions of the uterine cervix Yuan CC (1999) Lymphocyte-infiltrated FIGO Stage IIB squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix is a prominent factor for disease-free survival Cox DR (1970) Analysis of binary data London: Methven Cox DR (1972) Regression models and life tables Scambia G (2002a) Increased cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression is associated with chemotherapy resistance and outcome in ovarian cancer patient Ranelletti FO (2002b) Increased cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression is associated with chemotherapy resistance and poor survival in cervical cancer patients Dodson M (2001) Elevated cyclooxygenase-2 expression in cervical carcinoma Reduced cause-specific survival and pelvic control Beaven MA (2001) Elevated levels of Cyclooxygenase-2 in antigen-stimulated mast cells is associated with minimal activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase Fresno M (1999) Induction of cyclooxygenase-2 on activated T lymphocytes: regulation of T cell activation by cyclooxygenase inhibitors Naukkariner A (1997) Quantitative analysis of tryptase and chymase containing mast cells in benign and malignant breast lesions Meyer P (1958) Non parametric estimation from incomplete observations Masferrer JL (2002) Cyclooxygenase 2 inhibition by Celecoxib reduces proliferation and induces apoptosis in angiogenic endothelial cells in vivo Mantel N (1966) Evaluation of survival data and two new rank order statistics arising in its consideration Seibert K (2000) Antiangiogenic and antitumour activities of cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors Prescott SM (2000) Is cyclooxygenase-2 the alpha and the omega in cancer? Lauriola L (2001) Prognostic significance of cyclooxygenase-2 expression in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma Isola J (2002) Prognostic significance of elevated cyclooxygenase-2 expression in breast cancer Hermonat PC (2001) Tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes contain higher numbers of type 1 cytokine expressors and DR+ T cells compared with lymphocytes from tumour draining lymph nodes and peripheral blood in patients with cancer of the uterine cervix Snyderman M (2001) Biologically useful responses of human neoplasia to Celecoxib and Lovastatin Proceedings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (abstract) San Francisco Dubinett SM (2000) Specific inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 restores antitumour reactivity by altering the balance of IL-10 and IL-12 synthesis Nagawa H (2000) Cyclooxygenase-2 overexpression correlates with tumour recurrence especially haematogenous metastasis of colorectal cancer DuBois RN (1995) Alterations in cellular adhesion and apoptosis in epithelial cells overexpressing prostaglandin endoperoxide synthase 2 DuBois RN (1998) Cyclooxygenase-2 regulates angiogenesis induced by colon cancer cells DuBois RN (1996) Prostaglandins endoperoxide synthase: why two isoforms? DuBois RN (2000) Host cyclooxygenase-2 modulates carcinoma growth World Health Organization (1979) WHO handbook for reporting results of cancer treatment WHO Miyazaki K (1998) Localization of vascular endothelial growth factor in synovial membrane mast cells: examination with ‘multi-labelling subtraction immunostaining’ Muller HK (1993) S100 Positive dendritic cells in human lung tumors associated with cell differentiation and enhanced survival Download references This work was financially supported by grants from Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (MURST) and Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC) From twelve months after its original publication this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjc.6600578 Get the hottest Fintech Singapore News once a month in your Inbox Zühlke Group, a Swiss-based IT service management company, has announced the appointment of Eric Cheung as its new CEO for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region Cheung is also a member of the Group Executive Committee now Cheung will oversee the company’s operations across APAC in collaboration with the APAC executive board Cheung joined Zühlke in July 2023 as Managing Director Markets Bringing over twenty years of leadership experience across consulting Cheung had spearheading the development and expansion of a S&P 500 IT consulting firm within the Asia Pacific “Asia-Pacific is a dynamic economic powerhouse and a key pillar of Zühlke Group’s global strategy I feel a great sense of honour and responsibility taking on this role as we advance our global impact in the region I look forward to further collaborating with our teams while further strengthening our global footprint and delivering unparalleled value for the market.” “We’re pleased to congratulate Eric on his new appointment and extend a warm welcome for him within the Group Executive Committee With his brilliant thinking and focused leadership we look forward to collaborating and driving our global business to greater heights together.” Featured image credit: Edited from Freepik Subscribe to the most important Fintech Singapore News 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Zühlke announces the appointment of Eric Cheung as CEO APAC & Member of the Group Executive Committee Under Zühlke's global organisation structure Eric will be responsible for leading and managing the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region together with the APAC Executive Board With over two decades of international leadership experience in consulting Eric is an accomplished leader with a proven track record of success and strategy of a leading S&P 500 IT consulting firm in Asia Pacific Since joining Zühlke in July 2023 as Managing Director Markets Eric has exemplified his visionary leadership and strategic thinking combined with in-depth knowledge of the Asia-Pacific regional markets His strong business acumen and dedication to creating impactful work ensure that Zühlke is well-positioned to deliver continuous value for clients as a partner of choice in the region "Asia Pacific is a dynamic economic powerhouse and a key pillar of Zühlke Group's global strategy while further strengthening our global footprint and delivering unparalleled value for the market." "We're pleased to congratulate Eric on his new appointment and extend a warm welcome for him within the Group Executive Committee we look forward to collaborating and driving our global business to greater heights together," comments Zühlke Group CEO Fabrizio Ferrandina Zühlke is a global innovation service provider We envisage ideas and create new business models for our clients by developing services and products based on new technologies – from the initial vision through development to deployment We specialise in strategy and business innovation and application services – in addition to device and systems engineering Our outstanding solutions provide unique business value and a reliable foundation for sustained success Zühlke was founded in Switzerland in 1968 and is owned by its partners serving clients from a wide range of industries our venture capital arm Zühlke Ventures provides start-up financing in the high-tech sector Lourdes Coffee functions as a cafe and creative space and even something of an art gallery and venue Named for the grandmother of owner Phil Rodrigues, it sits right across from The Stop, and engages in community partnerships with them and other local organizations like the Art for Cancer Foundation Art on display in the 15-seat space changes up every three weeks, pieces by Josh LeClerc on the walls during my visit offset by a neon Chinese food sign obtained from Kijiji A functioning piano promises cool performance opportunities for live musicians and there’s also a monthly live comedy show featuring local stand-ups Beans are sourced from Reunion Island A local roasts beans here a kilo at a time once a week after close and there’s occasionally a one-off pot floating around You won’t find any fancy or confusing Italian on the menu here: choices are listed simply as “espresso with water” ($3) and if it’s an Americano it’ll be gently stirred with filtered water and a little lemon for a traditional take Apparently Lourdes herself used to refrigerate leftover espresso and mix it with lemon water as a refreshing way of reducing waste Flash frozen croissants ($3 - $4.50) are actually imported from France by Ferrandina Foods There’s also homemade banana bread ($2.50) and huge vegan cookies ($3.50) Rodrigues chats with me about the possibility of breakfast sandwiches made with Portuguese buns Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker The appointment reflects the importance of the Asian market to Zuhlke’s global strategy and its development as a global service provider Swiss innovation service provider Zuhlke Group has named Jonas Trindler to the group executive board from January 1 Trindler has been with Zuhlke for the past 16 years and is an integral part of the company's team in Asia building and scaling its presence in Hong Kong and Singapore where it serves international clients in the banking Zuhlke also named Aleksandar Marjanovic, CEO of Zühlke’s Global Delivery Centres The appointments reflect a «new chapter of growth» for the company, Fabrizio Ferrandina, CEO of the Zühlke Group, said in the announcement Zuhlke works closely with many financial services clients on digital transformation and solutions built for rapid business growth It has over 1,200 employees in Austria The company first established a presence in Asia in 2017 which has since grown to include 150 staff with a corresponding portfolio of new customers and revenues Subscribe to the finews.asia WhatsApp channel and receive regular updates with our news and background stories directly to your mobile phone + More on this topic + More on this topic Subscribe to the finews.asia WhatsApp channel and receive regular updates with our news and background stories directly to your mobile phone.