Activity of eribulin mesylate in brain metastasis from breast cancer. a stone in a pond?

Background: Brain metastases develop in approximately 10-25% of patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and are associated with a very poor prognosis. Case Report: We report the case of a 40-year-old woman with MBC and associated lung, bone, liver, and brain metastases, who experienced a time to progression of several months with eribulin after whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT), 2 lines of chemotherapy, and 1 line of hormonal therapy, maintaining a good toxicity profile. Discussion: Eribulin, in association with local treatment such as WBRT, can be well tolerated and effective in achieving a long progression-free survival and a good control of brain metastases in patients with MBC who have received multiple lines of treatment. The vascular remodeling properties of eribulin, combined with brain radiotherapy, might facilitate the passage of eribulin across the blood brain barrier, improving brain response. Conclusion: Our anecdotal experience suggests that eribulin may have a potentially beneficial effect on brain metastases while maintaining a good systemic control of the disease in patients with MBC

Evaluation of the vibrations transmitted to the hand-arm system in the use of portable harvesters for olives

The use of portable harvesters in olives harvesting is presently widely diffused in Sicily, south Italy, both to reduce the costs of production and to assure the olive oil quality. Nevertheless, it's well known that the use of such tools may involve risk of exposure to vibration transmitted to the hand-arm system which is a potential cause of muscular/skeletal pains, and specific pathologies such as Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS), Vibration-Induced White Finger (VWF) and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). The aim of this study was to assess the level of exposure to vibration transmitted to the hand-arm system of the operators during the use of portable harvesters for olives. Two different commonly used types of tools were evaluated performing both laboratory and field tests. One was a hook type harvester provided with an internal combustion engine; the other an electric portable harvester consisting of a bar ending with a comb, equipped with an electric motor. The daily action value established by the European Directive 2002/44/EC was always considerably exceeded by the two harvesters for both hands both in the laboratory and in the field tests; however, the electric comb showed A(8) values about halved with respect to the hook type, equal to 20.79 and 18.69 m s-2 respectively for right and left hand in the field tests against 42.07 and 30.03 m s-2 obtained with the hook type harvester

The role of hydropower in decarbonisation scenarios

An increased penetration of renewable energy sources is essential for the energy transition. A major role will be played by wind and solar, as they are widely available. Hydropower is another crucial resource, currently covering large shares of power generation (e.g., Norway, Italy, Brazil). Despite little expected growth, in a context of increasing electrification, improved integration of hydropower can play a critical role thanks to programmable operation. This work addresses the modelling of hydropower flexibility in energy system models and analyses the impact of hydropower operation on CO2 emission-constrained scenarios. To implement the study, a detailed dataset of the Italian programmable hydroelectric plants is created, using open-source information, covering location, rated power, and storage capacity. Inflow timeseries are derived from historical operational data. These new sets of data are employed in OMNI-ES (a multi-node, multi-sector, and multi-vector energy system model) to study optimal configurations and operation of the Italian energy system in decarbonisation scenarios, such as net-zero-CO2 and Fit-for-55 targets. Considering different operational strategies and multiple historical reference years (impacting the inflow), results demonstrate significant changes in hydropower behaviour and highlight its relevance as zero-carbon resource in terms of both power and energy output, influencing the installation of other technologies

Nosocomial Candida infections: epidemiology of candidaemia

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Acceleration assessment during mechanical harvest of grapes using a non commercial instrumented sphere

The use of the harvesting machine for grape wine has the limit of the production of must coming out from the detachment of the berries that could reflect negatively on the quality of the final product. It depends on many factors including grapes variety, ripeness and frequency of the harvesting machine shakers. The shaking frequency generally adopted is the one that achieves the maximum harvest efficiency, that means high work capacity and low grape juice production. In this paper, the authors present a new system to measure the accelerations received by grapevine during mechanical harvest with the aim of evaluating the influence of the shaking frequency on the quality of the must obtained. The device is an instrumented sphere designed and implemented by the Agricultural Mechanics Section of the Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Palermo, Italy. It contains a triaxial Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensor capable of acquiring acceleration from a few mg to 400 g (where g is the gravitational acceleration). The field tests were carried out in September 2015 on Viognier and Grillo grapes. They allowed to measure the accelerations on the plants during mechanical grape harvest with three different shaking frequencies: 7.6, 7.9 and 8 Hz, and then to evaluate their influence on the main quality characteristics of the musts obtained. The results showed that the number of vibrations on the plants linearly increases with the increasing frequency. With reference to the quality of the musts obtained, polyphenols and catechins increased as the shaking frequency increased both for Viognier and Grillo varieties