Authors' Reply To the Letters to the Editor by Puklin et al and by Iyengar and Ligibel

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Avaliação econômica de sistemas de produção de arroz irrigado em regiões selecionadas do Rio Grande do Sul, safras 2007/2008 a 2009/2010.

O presente trabalho objetivou o levantamento e avaliação da viabilidade dos Sistemas de produção modais de arroz irrigado praticados na Fronteira Oeste e na região Sul do RS

Evaluating Software-based Hardening Techniques for General-Purpose Registers on a GPGPU

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are considered a promising solution for high-performance safety-critical applications, such as self-driving cars. In this application domain, the use of fault tolerance techniques is mandatory to detect or correct faults, since they must work properly even in the presence of faults. GPUs are designed with aggressive technology scaling, which makes them susceptible to faults caused by radiation interference, such as the Single Event Upsets (SEUs), which can lead the system to fail, and that is unacceptable in safety-critical applications. In this paper, we evaluate different software-based hardening techniques developed to detect SEUs in GPUs general-purpose registers and propose optimizations to improve performance and memory utilization. The techniques are implemented in three case-study applications and evaluated in a general-purpose soft-core GPU based on the NVIDIA G80 architecture. A fault injection campaign is performed at register transfer level to assess the fault detection potential of the implemented techniques. Results show that the proposed improvements can be tailored for different scenarios, helping engineers in navigating the design space of hardened GPGPU applications

Analyzing the Sensitivity of GPU Pipeline Registers to Single Events Upsets

Graphics processing units are available solutions for high-performance safety-critical applications, such as self-driving cars. In this application domain, functional-safety and reliability are major concerns. Thus, the adoption of fault tolerance techniques is mandatory to detect or correct faults, since these devices must work properly, even when faults are present. GPUs are designed and implemented with cutting-edge technologies, which makes them sensitive to faults caused by radiation interference, such as single event upsets. These effects can lead the system to a failure, which is unacceptable in safety-critical applications. Therefore, effective detection and mitigation strategies must be adopted to harden the GPU operation. In this paper, we analyze transient effects in the pipeline registers of a GPU architecture. We run four applications at three GPU configurations, considering the source of the fault, its effect on the GPU, and the use of software-based hardening techniques. The evaluation was performed using a general-purpose soft-core GPU based on the NVIDIA G80 architecture. Results can guide designers in building more resilient GPU architectures

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and trastuzumab versus neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by post-operative trastuzumab for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus trastuzumab (NCT) increases the rate of pathological complete response (pCR) and event-free survival (EFS) compared to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NC) alone in women with HER2 positive breast cancer (BC). pCR in this setting is associated with improved EFS. Whether NCT preferentially improves EFS in comparison to NC followed by adjuvant trastuzumab initiated postoperatively (NCAT) has not been addressed. Using clinical data from women with HER2 positive BC treated at 7 European institutions between 2007 and 2010 we sought to investigate the impact on breast cancer outcomes of concomitant (NCT) versus sequential (NCAT) treatment in HER2 positive early BC. The unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) for event free survival with NCT compared with NCAT was 0.63 (95% CI 0.37–1.08; p = 0.091). Multivariable analysis revealed that treatment group, tumour size and ER status were significantly associated with EFS from diagnosis. In the whole group NCT was associated with a reduced risk of an event relative to NCAT, an effect that was confined to ER negative (HR: 0.25; 95% CI, 0.10–0.62; p = 0.003) as opposed to ER positive tumours (HR: 1.07; 95% CI, 0.46–2.52; p = 0.869). HER2 positive/ER negative BC treated with NC gain greatest survival benefit when trastuzumab is administered in both the neoadjuvant and adjuvant period rather than in the adjuvant period alone. These data support the early introduction of targeted combination therapy in HER2 positive/ER negative BC

Cardiovascular toxicity induced by chemotherapy, targeted agents and radiotherapy: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines

Cardiovascular (CV) toxicity is a potential short- or long-term complication of various anticancer therapies. Some drugs, such as anthracyclines or other biological agents, have been implicated in causing potentially irreversible clinically important cardiac dysfunction. Although targeted therapies are considered less toxic and better tolerated by patients compared with classic chemotherapy agents, rare but serious complications have been described, and longer follow-up is needed to determine the exact profile and outcomes of related cardiac side-effects. Some of these side-effects are irreversible, leading to progressive CV disease, and some others induce reversible dysfunction with no long-term cardiac damage to the patient. Assessment of the prevalence, type and severity of cardiac toxicity caused by various cancer treatments is a breakthrough topic for patient management. Guidelines for preventing, monitoring and treating cardiac side-effects are a major medical need. Efforts are needed to promote strategies for cardiac risk prevention, detection and management, avoiding unintended consequences that can impede development, regulatory approval and patient access to novel therapy. These new ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines are the result of a multidisciplinary cardio-oncology review of current evidence with the ultimate goal of providing strict criteria-based recommendations on CV risk prevention, assessment, monitoring and management during anticancer treatmen

Platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: The role of platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients is highly controversial and it is not endorsed by current guidelines. Our meta-analysis aimed to better elucidate its activity, efficacy and safety. Material and methods: A systematic search of Medline, Web of Science and conferences proceedings up to 30 October 2017 was carried out to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating platinum-based versus platinum-free neoadjuvant chemotherapy in TNBC patients. Using the fixed and random effects models, pooled odds ratios (ORs) and hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for pathological complete response (pCR, defined as ypT0/is pN0), event-free survival (EFS), overall survival (OS) and grade 3 and 4 adverse events (AEs: neutropenia, anemia, thrombocytopenia and neuropathy). Results: Nine RCTs (N \ubc 2109) were included. Overall, platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly increased pCR rate from 37.0% to 52.1% (OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.46\u20132.62, P < 0.001). Platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy remained significantly associated with increased pCR rate also after restricting the analysis to the three RCTs (N \ubc 611) that used the same standard regimen in both groups of weekly paclitaxel (with or without carboplatin) followed by anthracycline and cyclophosphamide (OR 2.53, 95% CI 1.37\u20134.66, P \ubc 0.003). Conversely, among the 96 BRCA-mutated patients included in two RCTs, the addition of carboplatin was not associated with significantly increased pCR rate (OR 1.17, 95% CI 0.51\u20132.67, P \ubc 0.711). Two RCTs (N \ubc 748) reported survival outcomes: no significant difference in EFS (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.49\u20131.06, P \ubc 0.094) and OS (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.46\u20131.63, P \ubc 0.651) was observed. A significant higher risk of grade 3 and 4 hematological AEs, with no increased risk of grade 3 and 4 neuropathy was observed with platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Conclusion: In TNBC patients, platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy is associated with significantly increased pCR rates at the cost of worse hematological toxicities. Platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be considered an option in TNBC patients

The role of dose-dense (DD) adjuvant chemotherapy (CT) in HER2-positive (HER2+) early breast cancer (BC) patients (pts) before and after the introduction of trastuzumab (T): Exploratory analysis of the GIM2 trial

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