Performance Analysis of Air Cooled Heat Pump Coupled with Horizontal Air Ground Heat Exchanger in the Mediterranean Climate

A concept of Air-Cooled Heat Pump (ACHP) coupled with a Horizontal Air-Ground Heat Exchanger (HAGHE), also called Horizontal Earth-To-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHX), has been proposed. The Air-Cooled Heat Pump is a system which transfers heat from outside source (air) to inside sink (water) and vice versa in summertime. The innovation is to provide a geothermal treatment of pre-heating/cooling of air before meeting the evaporator in winter or the condenser in summer of the heat pump. Besides, it is known that the variations of the ground temperature, respect to the external air one, are mitigated already in the first layers of the ground throughout the year, due to the high thermal inertia of the ground, letting the heat pump work with more mitigated conditions, improving the performances. The behaviour of HAGHE has been investigated by varying the length and the installation depth of the probes, the air flow rate and the ground thermal properties. All the combinations have been implemented using TRNSYS 17 software (Transient System Simulation Program) to obtain the outlet temperatures from HAGHE, resulting from the 54 configurations. The results are compared in terms of Coefficient of Performance (COP) in wintertime and Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) in summertime between configurations with and without the coupling with HAGHE. In addition, two seasonal performance SCOP and SEER coefficients have been calculated considering, not only the inlet air temperatures into the Air-Cooled Heat Pump, but also their frequency of occurrence, the off-set external temperature (16 C), the nominal external temperature and heating and cooling loads

Is There a Role for Multiple Lines of Anti-HER2 Therapies Administered Beyond Progression in HER2-Mutated Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer? A Case Report and Literature Review

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RET Rearrangement as a Predictor of Unresponsiveness to Immunotherapy in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Report of Two Cases with Review of the Literature

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Data from a dynamic simulation in a free-floating and continuous regime of a solar greenhouse modelled in TRNSYS 17 considering simultaneously different thermal phenomena

This dataset supports the research article “Complete green- house dynamic simulation tool to assess the crop thermal well-being and energy needs”[1] . In the agricultural sector, the use of energy can be very intensive [2] and the sim- ulation of solar greenhouses is a very complex work [3] . This dataset provides the results of thermal modeling and dynamic simulation of a solar greenhouse considering si- multaneously several thermal phenomena. The analysis was performed by TRNSYS 17 software (TRaNsient SYstem Sim- ulation)

Kynurenine/Tryptophan Ratio as a Potential Blood-Based Biomarker in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

The enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) degrade tryptophan (Trp) into kynurenine (Kyn) at the initial step of an enzymatic pathway affecting T cell proliferation. IDO1 is highly expressed in various cancer types and associated with poor prognosis. Nevertheless, the serum Kyn/Trp concentration ratio has been suggested as a marker of cancer-associated immune suppression. We measured Kyn and Trp in blood samples of a wide cohort of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, before they underwent surgery, and analyzed possible correlations of the Kyn/Trp ratio with either IDO1 expression or clinical-pathological parameters. Low Kyn/Trp significantly correlated with low IDO1 expression and never-smoker patients; while high Kyn/Trp was significantly associated with older (>= 68 years) patients, advanced tumor stage, and squamous cell carcinoma (Sqcc), rather than the adenocarcinoma (Adc) histotype. Moreover, high Kyn/Trp was associated, among the Adc group, with higher tumor stages (II and III), and, among the Sqcc group, with a high density of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. A trend correlating the high Kyn/Trp ratio with the probability of recurrences from NSCLC was also found. In conclusion, high serum Kyn/Trp ratio, associated with clinical and histopathological parameters, may serve as a serum biomarker to optimize risk stratification and therapy of NSCLC patients

Numerical and experimental analysis of the energy performance of an air-source heat pump (ASHP) coupled with a horizontal earth-to-air heat exchanger (EAHX) in different climates

Geothermal energy has a huge potential in building applications. This paper proposes the use of an Air-Source Heat Pump (ASHP) system coupled with a Horizontal Earth-To-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHX) to reduce energy consumption in buildings. The novelty is to geothermally pre-heat or pre-cool the air source of the ASHP through the EAHX, reducing the electric power needed, keeping constant heating/cooling capacity. The behaviour of ASHP-EAHX system has been investigated by a numerical model implemented in TRNSYS. A total of 54 combinations have been obtained and tested varying ground thermal properties, burial depth, air flow rate and pipe length. The model has been validated with a real case showing a good agreement between simulated and monitored data. The study is focused on the city of Turin (North of Italy), compared with Brindisi (South of Italy), and extremely cold and hot climates like Tromsø (Norway) and Béchar (Algeria), respectively. The ASHP-EAXH performance has been investigated, by the comparison with the traditional ASHP, using different coefficients, such as the Coefficient of Performance (COP), the Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER), the Seasonal Coefficient of Performance (SCOP), and the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER). The paper reveals how the ASHP-EAHX system show higher performance compared to the traditional ASHP, in all seasons. The overall merit is, for cold extremely climate, the reduction of the shutdown periods, when the outside temperature is below the limit operating temperature, and to allow the extension of the use of the heat pump to locations, where it is currently not convenient for the average outside temperature lower than the limit operating temperature of the heat pump.JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewable

Afatinib in the first-line treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer: clinical evidence and experience

Epidermal growth factor receptor ( EGFR) gene mutations identify a molecularly defined subset of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who display an excellent sensitivity to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). First-generation reversible EGFR TKIs, gefitinib and erlotinib have been proven to improve the objective response rate and to prolong the progression-free survival compared with standard chemotherapy in large phase III trials. Unfortunately, virtually all patients develop resistance to treatment, usually within 9–12 months. Afatinib is an irreversible ErbB family inhibitor initially designed to overcome the development of resistance. Compared with gefitinib in a first-line setting, afatinib prolonged progression-free survival and time to treatment failure, without impacting on overall survival in the general population of EGFR -mutant patients. However, afatinib has been shown to prolong overall survival in the subset of patients with an EGFR exon 19 deletion compared with chemotherapy. The aim of this review is to summarize the clinical evidence available to date and to critically discuss the place in therapy of afatinib in the rapidly expanding landscape of EGFR -mutant NSCLC first-line therapy

Osimertinib in patients with advanced epidermal growth factor receptor T790M mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer: rationale, evidence and place in therapy

The identification of epidermal growth factor receptor ( EGFR ) mutations represented a fundamental step forward in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as they define a subset of patients who benefit from the administration of specifically designed targeted therapies. The inhibition of mutant EGFR through EGFR -tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), either reversible, first-generation gefitinib and erlotinib, or irreversible, second-generation afatinib, has dramatically improved the prognosis of patients harboring this specific genetic alteration, leading to unexpected clinical benefit. Unfortunately, virtually all patients who initially respond to treatment develop acquired resistance to EGFR -TKIs within 9–14 months. The EGFR T790M secondary mutation has emerged as a cause of treatment failure in approximately 60% of resistant cases. To date, several compounds designed with the aim to overcome T790M-mediated resistance are under clinical investigation. The aim of this review is to discuss emerging data regarding the third-generation EGFR -TKI, osimertinib, for the treatment of EGFR T790M mutant advanced NSCLC