Biological pre-hydrolysis and thermal pretreatment applied for anaerobic digestion improvement : Kinetic study and statistical variable selection

In the present study, two pretreatment methods (thermal pretreatment and biological pre-hydrolysis) were suggested for food waste (FW) with the aim to enhance biomass conversion and biogas production by anaerobic. The effects of thermal pretreatment (TP), including TP at 60°C and 80°C for 60 min, and TP at 100°C, 120°C and 140°C for 30 min, well as biological pre-hydrolysis (BPH) at 37°C, 55°C, 37°C followed by 55°C and 55°C followed by 37°C for 40 hour on anaerobic digestion performance of FW were evaluated in batch tests. Results were compared with untreated FW. The BPH and TP caused an increase in the soluble chemical oxygen demand and hydrolysis efficiency. The methane yield (MY) increased from 371.17 ml CH4/g VS for untreated FW to 471.95 ml CH4/ g VS. The maximal MY was recorded for BPH at 37°C for 20 h followed by 55°C for 20 h. The pretreatments increased the biogas production rate and reduced the lag phase. The most influential variables on the methane yield were investigated using three statistical methods: Principal component analysis, Mutual Information and R-squared. The results allowed a good modeling of the methane yield and minimized the overfitting effect. For reproduction and solid contribution to the field, we have attached to our article all the necessary material to reproduce the same statistical work as in the paper body

Rituximab plus gemcitabine and oxaliplatin in patients with refractory/relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who are not candidates for high-dose therapy. A phase II lymphoma study Association trial

A previous pilot study with rituximab, gemcitabine and oxaliplatin showed promising activity in patients with refractory/relapsed B-cell lymphoma. We, therefore, conducted a phase II study to determine whether these results could be reproduced in a multi-institutional setting. This phase II study included 49 patients with refractory (n=6) or relapsing (n=43) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The median age of the patients was 69 years. Prior treatment included rituximab in 31 (63%) and autologous transplantation in 17 (35%) patients. International Prognostic Index at enrollment was >2 in 34 patients (71%). The primary endpoint was overall response rate after four cycles of treatment. Patients were planned to receive eight cycles if they reached at least partial remission after four cycles. After four cycles 21 patients (44%) were in complete remission and 8 (17%) in partial remission, resulting in an overall response rate of 61%. Factors significantly affecting overall response rate were early (<1 year) progression/relapse (18% versus 54%; P=0.001) and prior exposure to rituximab (23% versus 65%; P=0.004). Five-year progression-free and overall survival rates were 12.8% and 13.9%, respectively. Rituximab, gemcitabine and oxaliplatin were well tolerated with grade 3-4 infectious episodes in 22% of the cycles. These results are the first confirmation from a multicenter study that rituximab, gemcitabine and oxaliplatin provide a consistent response rate in patients with refractory/relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. This therapy can now be considered as a platform for new combinations with targeted treatments. This trial was registered at clinicaltrial.gov under #NCT00169195. © 2013 Ferrata Storti Foundation