Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for 3% of all cancers in adults. The indications for Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) for renal carcinomas include T1a (tumor 4 cm or less, limited to the kidney), elderly patients, renal impairment, comorbidities, poor surgical candidate, and multiple bilateral renal masses. We retrospectively reviewed medical records, specifically investigating the indications, complications and outcomes of RFA and nephrectomy for treatment of RCC in a tertiary medical center with a predominantly Hispanic patient population. Forty-nine patients with RCC were evaluated. Nine patients had RFA, 9 had partial nephrectomy and 31 had radical nephrectomy. All patients among the 3 groups had stage T1N0M0 RCC at diagnosis. Tumor recurrence was observed in 2 (22%) patients that had RFA, one (11%) patient that had partial nephrectomy and no patients that had radical nephrectomy. One patient had recurrence of the tumor at the opposite kidney pole from the initial RFA site 4 years later. This particular patient did not have any tumor recurrence at the site of the initial RFA. A second RFA was performed on the recurrent tumor with no recurrence upon subsequent follow up visits. The second patient had recurrence of the RCC on 1 year follow that was discovered to be sarcomatoid RCC, which is an aggressive type with a poor prognosis. Our results support the clinical utility of RFA in patients with stage T1 RCC who are poor surgical candidates or those with reduced renal function. The clinical utility of RFA as an equally effective approach when compared to partial nephrectomy in patients with stage T1 RCC that meet strict indications for the procedure. The treatment choice should be individualized and based on the characteristics of the renal tumor such as size, location and histological type of RCC. We conclude that RFA presents a safe treatment choice for patients with RCC if long term follow up is maintained.

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For decades, women were actively excluded from the political arena. As suffrage expanded around the world, women’s rights activists celebrated a major step toward gender equality in the political arena. Yet the gender gap in political engagement still persists to this day. Although in some countries, women are now found to turn out to vote at rates similar to men (and in industrialized countries, women may even vote at higher rates), they are still less likely to participate in many other types of political activities. Scholars have long investigated the factors influencing women’s political engagement. Early research focused heavily on individual level factors—most often lack of access to resources or informal networks—as determinants of the gender gap. A burgeoning body of literature, however, has identified institutions as an important factor influencing women’s political engagement. Thus this bibliography focuses on those institutional determinants of women’s political engagement defined as any type of political activity that nonelite women take part in. This includes voting, participating in campaigns, and engaging in demonstrations or protests, but also more cognitive aspects of engagement, such as political interest and political knowledge. This bibliography does not focus on the impact of institutions on women’s access or election into political office, as there is extensive literature on institutional determinants and women’s representation, which falls outside of the scope of women’s engagement as nonstate actors. The research outlined here, however, does consider a variety of institutional factors that influence women’s engagement. The bibliography begins by reviewing the literature on how the structures of the political system—including Regime Type, electoral rules, and quotas—impact women’s engagement. It then discusses how institutions can indirectly influence women’s political attitudes and behavior, by reviewing the impact of the composition of institutions on women’s engagement. That section is followed by a set of research that shows how institutional outcomes—namely Policy Outcomes and Institutional Support—influence various forms of political participation, and concludes with examples of nonstate institutions and their impact on women’s engagement.

In this article we identify evidences of inequalities, prejudices and discrimination in the access and utilization of public health services belonging to the Brazilian Unified Health Care System, considering them to be institutional violence and a negation of rights, in order to look at the reactions of the subjects victimized by this process. This research study utilized different methodologies, articulating participant observation, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and dramatization. The results highlight the trajectory in seeking health care as the main expression of inequalities, strengthened by structural factors such as the precarious condition of health care services, which potentiate power asymmetries, and the presence of discrimination derived from stigmas and prejudices. Most patients' reactions to the situation of institutional violence seek an individual solution to the problem, often reaffirming the conditions that generate rights violations. Few patients' reactions question the systemic conditions that determine the continued discrimination.

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