Design, building and testing of a transplanting mechanism for strawberry plants of bare root on mulched soil

In order to reduce costs of hand-transplanting of strawberry crop, a transplanting mechanism (module) was designed, built and tested, as a main component of the transplanter for bare root plants on mulched soils, which design is carried on. The transplanter should be used with an existing irrigation system, that must be able to supply water by sections and allows to irrigate as soon as the transplanting operation finishes. The principle of operation of proposed machine is based on the transplanting module, which remains in a short contact with the ground and comprises mechanisms such as a cutter, a hook and a clamp to make automatically operations of cutting the plastic, hide the cut plastic and insert the plant in the ground. Relative movement between module and main frame of the transplanter is used as a sequential actuation source for its mechanisms. A prototype of the transplanting module and a testing device were built to evaluate the performance of the module main components in laboratory conditions. A 100% of plastic cuts made by the cutter were correct. Plastic hiding activity was satisfactory in 95% of repetitions. Placement of the plants by clamp, was satisfactory in 95% of the tests, that means a good plant insertion (crown covered by soil), and 85% of transplanted plants were correctly oriented. The module showed a satisfactory general performance, which allowed to prove the technical feasibility of the proposed concept as a principle of design of the transplanter for bare-root strawberry plants on mulch soil.Para reducir los costos del trasplante manual de la fresa, se diseña, construye y ensaya un mecanismo de trasplante (módulo) como componente principal de una trasplantadora de plantas a raíz desnuda sobre suelos acolchados, en fase de diseño. La trasplantadora se utilizaría en suelos con un sistema de riego sectorizado, que permita irrigar de forma inmediata al concluir el trasplante. El principio de funcionamiento de la máquina se basa en el módulo, que permanece en contacto con el suelo un tiempo determinado y que cuenta con los mecanismos, que de manera automática cortan y ocultan el plástico cortado e insertan la planta en el suelo. El movimiento relativo entre el módulo y el bastidor de la máquina se emplea como fuente de accionamiento secuencial de sus mecanismos. Se construyó un prototipo de módulo de trasplante y un dispositivo para ensayarlo, evaluándose el desempeño del los componentes principales del módulo. El 100% de los cortes de plástico realizados fueron correctos. La actividad de ocultar el plástico fue satisfactoria en 95% de los casos. La colocación de la planta por la pinza resultó correcta en 95% de los ensayos en cuanto a la posición de la planta en el suelo (enterrado de la corona), y en 85% en cuanto a la verticalidad de la misma. El módulo presenta un comportamiento satisfactorio en términos generales, comprobando la viabilidad técnica del concepto propuesto, como solución técnica para la construcción de la trasplantadora de plantas de fresa a raíz desnuda sobre suelo acolchado

Phase III Study Comparing Cisplatin Plus Gemcitabine With Cisplatin Plus Pemetrexed in Chemotherapy-Naive Patients With Advanced-Stage Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

PURPOSECisplatin plus gemcitabine is a standard regimen for first-line treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Phase II studies of pemetrexed plus platinum compounds have also shown activity in this setting.PATIENTS AND METHODSThis noninferiority, phase III, randomized study compared the overall survival between treatment arms using a fixed margin method (hazard ratio [HR] 1.176) in 1,725 chemotherapy-naive patients with stage IIIB or IV NSCLC and an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 to 1. Patients received cisplatin 75 mg/mon day 1 and gemcitabine 1,250 mg/mon days 1 and 8 (n = 863) or cisplatin 75 mg/mand pemetrexed 500 mg/mon day 1 (n = 862) every 3 weeks for up to six cycles.RESULTSOverall survival for cisplatin/pemetrexed was noninferior to cisplatin/gemcitabine (median survival, 10.3 v 10.3 months, respectively; HR = 0.94; 95% CI, 0.84 to 1.05). Overall survival was statistically superior for cisplatin/pemetrexed versus cisplatin/gemcitabine in patients with adenocarcinoma (n = 847; 12.6 v 10.9 months, respectively) and large-cell carcinoma histology (n = 153; 10.4 v 6.7 months, respectively). In contrast, in patients with squamous cell histology, there was a significant improvement in survival with cisplatin/gemcitabine versus cisplatin/pemetrexed (n = 473; 10.8 v 9.4 months, respectively). For cisplatin/pemetrexed, rates of grade 3 or 4 neutropenia, anemia, and thrombocytopenia (P - febrile neutropenia (P =.002); and alopecia (P .001) were significantly lower, whereas grade 3 or 4 nausea (P =.004) was more common.CONCLUSIONIn advanced NSCLC, cisplatin/pemetrexed provides similar efficacy with better tolerability and more convenient administration than cisplatin/gemcitabine. This is the first prospective phase III study in NSCLC to show survival differences based on histologic type. © 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology. All rights reserved

C6-01: Correlations of biomarker expression and clinical outcome in a large phase III trial of pemetrexed plus cisplatin or gemcitabine plus cisplatin in chemonaive patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

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