Evaluating the Impact of Absorber Geometry on Solar Still Efficiency: A Comparative Study of Square and Round Absorbers

Solar stills have been used for many years in areas with limited access to fresh water, such as desert regions or remote locations. They are simple to construct using readily available materials and require no energy input other than sunlight. Additionally, solar stills are low-maintenance and can produce a significant amount of pure water with relatively little effort. Two solar stills are exposed to the sun, the first is a single solar still and the other is a hemispherical sender. Both stills have similar absorber. The purpose of this experiment is to compare the pure water output of the two devices. The finding shows that hemispherical solar still is more efficient than the simple solar still by 54.30 % in terms of pure water output. This suggests that the hemispherical still is better at capturing and utilizing solar energy to evaporate and condense water

COVID-19 lung injury as a primer for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs)-related pneumonia in a patient affected by squamous head and neck carcinoma treated with PD-L1 blockade: a case report

By the beginning of the global pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 infection has dramatically impacted on oncology daily practice. In the current oncological landscape, where immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of several malignancies, distinguishing between COVID-19 and immune-mediated pneumonitis can be hard because of shared clinical, radiological and pathological features. Indeed, their common mechanism of aberrant inflammation could lead to a mutual and amplifying interaction.We describe the case of a 65–year-old patient affected by metastatic squamous head and neck cancer and candidate to an experimental therapy including an anti-PD-L1 agent. COVID-19 ground-glass opacities under resolution were an incidental finding during screening procedures and worsened after starting immunotherapy. The diagnostic work-up was consistent with ICIs-related pneumonia and it is conceivable that lung injury by SARS-CoV-2 has acted as an inflammatory primer for the development of the immune-related adverse event.Patients recovered from COVID-19 starting ICIs could be at greater risk of recall immune-mediated pneumonitis. Nasopharyngeal swab and chest CT scan are recommended before starting immunotherapy. The awareness of the phenomenon could allow an easier interpretation of radiological changes under treatment and a faster diagnostic work-up to resume ICIs. In the presence of clinical benefit, for asymptomatic ICIs-related pneumonia a watchful-waiting approach and immunotherapy prosecution are suggested

Spontaneous splenic rupture due to extramedullary haematopoiesis in a patient with inherited thrombocytopenia

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Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma presenting both ALK rearrangement and PD-L1 high positivity: A case report on the therapeutic regimen

Rationale: Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma (PSC) represents <1% of all lung cancers and is characterized by a very poor prognosis. The optimal therapeutic regimen remains unclear. We describe a rare case of PSC with both anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-arranged and high levels of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression.Patient concerns: A 46-year-old woman, nonsmoker, came to our attention due to uncontrolled pain in the lower left limb.Diagnosis: PSC with both ALK rearrangement and high levels of PD-L1 expression.Interventions: The patient started first-line systemic treatment with pembrolizumab reporting stable disease; at progression, she received second-line treatment with crizotinib. The treatment was not well-tolerated, and the patient then underwent 5 cycles of ceritinib treatment.Outcomes: The patient showed a partial response to targeted therapy. At progression, brigatinib was initiated, but the patients reported liver progression soon after the initiation of this therapy.Lessons: Molecular-driven investigation is necessary in PSC for treatment selection

Primary Large B-Cell Lymphoma of Immune-Privileged Sites of the Cerebellum: A Case Series and Review of the Literature

Primary large B-cell lymphoma of immune-privileged sites (IP-LBCL) is a rare malignant hematological neoplasm. Involvement of the cerebellum is even rarer and its diagnosis is often difficult to make due to its non-specific clinical and radiological presentation. Methods: We reported 3 cases of cerebellar IP-LBCL followed at our hospital and reviewed the medical literature to unravel the peculiarities of this poorly studied entity. Outcomes: Analyzing our cases and reviewing the literature, we could collect and study 26 cases of cerebellar IP-LBCL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest cohort of such patients currently published. Conclusion: Cerebellar IP-LBCL presents more often in adult females with cerebellum-related focal neurological signs such as ataxia, headache, and nausea. Histological confirmation is mandatory for a correct diagnosis and treatment and all cases feature diffuse large B-cell lymphoma histopathology. Compared to other encephalic IP-LBCL, cerebellar cases seem to include a higher number of cases with germinal center B-cell phenotype and better survival. These differences may be related to a different immune microenvironment and especially immunoregulation that distinguishes the cerebellum from other areas of the CNS

Interobserver agreement among expert pathologists on through-the-needle microforceps biopsy samples for evaluation of pancreatic cystic lesions

The recent development of microforceps for endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) through-the-needle biopsy (TTNB) of the wall of pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs) allows to acquire histological specimens, which pathologists never handled and evaluated before. We aimed to estimate the interobserver agreement among pathologists in evaluating such samples