Anti epidermal growth factor receptor therapy in small bowel adenocarcinoma

Rationale:Small bowel adenocarcinoma (SBA) is an uncommon gastrointestinal cancer, thus limited data about treatment for advanced disease are available. The lack of specific guidelines has justified the use of therapeutic protocols usually applied in advanced colorectal cancer. Few and preliminary data have suggested possible clinical benefit from the use of target therapy such as bevacizumab and cetuximab.Patient concerns:We present the case of a young woman who was admitted to the emergency department for acute abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting related to a jejunal stenosis.Diagnoses:An enteroscopy with jejunal biopsy showed poorly differentiated cancerous cells suggestive for primary intestinal cancer. There were no signs of metastatic disease at radiological evaluation. A jejunal resection was subsequently carried out and the diagnosis of mucinous adenocarcinoma of the jejunum was confirmed.Interventions:The computed tomography scan performed 1 month after surgery showed metastatic disease. Therefore, the patient received combined protocols of chemotherapy and either bevacizumab or the anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) panitumumab.Outcomes:A partial response (PR) was achieved with Folfox plus panitumumab and a maintenance therapy with panitumumab is being conducted with a mild toxicity and a progression free survival of 19 months since the beginning of panitumumab.Lessons:This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report in the literature of a patient with SBA who has benefitted from panitumumab with an overall survival of 83 months

Permutations of zero-sumsets in a finite vector space

In this paper, we consider a finite-dimensional vector space P over the Galois field GF(p), with p being an odd prime, and the family Bxk of all k-sets of elements of P summing up to a given element x. The main result of the paper is the characterization, for x=0, of the permutations of P inducing permutations of B0k as the invertible linear mappings of the vector space P if p does not divide k, and as the invertible affinities of the affine space P if p divides k. The same question is answered also in the case where the elements of the k-sets are required to be all nonzero, and, in fact, the two cases prove to be intrinsically inseparable

Binary Hamming codes and Boolean designs

In this paper we consider a finite-dimensional vector space P over the Galois field GF(2), and the family Bk (respectively, B 17k) of all the k-sets of elements of P (respectively, of P 17=P 16{0}) summing up to zero. We compute the parameters of the 3-design (P,Bk) for any (necessarily even) k, and of the 2-design (P 17,B 17k) for any k. Also, we find a new proof for the weight distribution of the binary Hamming code. Moreover, we find the automorphism groups of the above designs by characterizing the permutations of P, respectively of P 17, that induce permutations of Bk, respectively of B 17k. In particular, this allows one to relax the definitions of the permutation automorphism groups of the binary Hamming code and of the extended binary Hamming code as the groups of permutations that preserve just the codewords of a given Hamming weight

Clinical and in vitro efficacy of colistin plus vancomycin and rifampin against colistin-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii causing ventilator-associated pneumonia

We present the case of a patient with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) caused by a pan-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii successfully treated with the combination colistin plus vancomycin plus rifampin, whose in vitro activity was investigated by checkerboard method and killing testing. Furthermore, the serum bactericidal activity (SBA) was assessed. Our case shows that an innovative regimen consisting of colistin plus antimicrobials active only against Gram-positive microorganisms might represent a valid therapeutic option for severe infections caused by colistin-resistant A. baumannii

Community-acquired Pneumonia Owing to Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens: A Step toward an Early Identification

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Progetto preliminare di un UAV per impiego civile con l'ausilio del software AVL e sua implementazione in ambiente Matlab per la costruzione del relativo database aerodinamico.

Per affrontare lo studio aerodinamico dell’UAV SCAUT-500 la scelta dello strumento di calcolo aerodinamico è ricaduta su AVL (Athena Vortex Lattice), software open-source sviluppato originariamente dai prof. Mark Drela e Harold Youngren del MIT, che implementa il metodo vortex lattice o “reticolo di vortici” applicato a configurazioni generiche con più superfici portanti, corpi tozzi (come la fusoliera) e superfici di comando multiple. Mediante tale software si sono ricavati i coefficienti aerodinamici CL, CY, CD, Cl, Cm e Cn per variazioni delle variabili Alpha, Beta, p, q, r, deltaA, deltaE, deltaR. AVL necessita di due file di input entrambi scritti in formato testo, uno che descriva la geometria del velivolo oggetto dello studio e l’altro che ne descriva le sue caratteristiche ed i valori aerodinamici della simulazione da eseguire

La continuidad de la empresa familiar, ¿es posible?

Las empresas familiares son de difícil manejo dado que están conformadas por sus fundadores, si todavía siguen con vida, y sus herederos, los cuales no siempre logran acuerdos. Esto se manifiesta en la organización de la empresa, en su desarrollo y en sus posibilidades de continuidad. Por este motivo se busca analizar los factores que inciden en dicha continuidad y la importancia de la profesionalización de la administración. Además se explica la forma en que se realizan las incorporaciones de los herederos.Fil: Gil, Alejandro. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Delegación San Rafael.Fil: Falcone, Cristian. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Delegación San Rafael.Fil: Runco, Leonardo. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Delegación San Rafael.Fil: Bielli, Marco. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Delegación San Rafael

Reply to: "The Possible Role of Anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococus Aureus Antimicrobial Agents in Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis"

Letter answering to a comment about an articl

Healthcare-associated pneumonia: Diagnostic criteria and distinction from community-acquired pneumonia

Summary Background: Traditionally, pneumonia developing in patients who receive healthcare services in the outpatient environment has been classified as community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, recent investigations suggest that this type of infection, known as healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP), is distinct from CAP in terms of its epidemiology, etiology, and risk for infection with multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens. Methods: A Medline literature review of available clinical studies using the term HCAP was conducted to determine outcomes compared to CAP and effective empiric treatment strategies. Results: Analysis of multi-institutional clinical data showed that mortality in hospitalized patients with HCAP is greater than that in CAP, and patients with HCAP received inappropriate initial empiric antibiotic treatment more frequently than CAP patients. The bacterial pathogens associated with HCAP also differed from CAP with potentially MDR Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria being more common in HCAP. Conclusions: All patients hospitalized with suspected HCAP should be evaluated for their underlying risk of infection with MDR pathogens. Because HCAP is similar to hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), both clinically and etiologically, it should be treated as HAP until culture data become available