Background : High dose chemotherapy has an established, albeit limited role, in the management of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). In fact, because of its toxicity, in particular mucositis, neutropenia ...and thrombocytopenia, myeloablative regimens with autologous stem cell support can be safely delivered only to clinically fit and younger pts, require prolonged hospitalization, and have a restricted impact in the therapy of NHL. With the primary aim of widening the applicability of myeloablative regimens, we designed a pilot study using high-dose Zevalin with tandem stem-cell support in a prospective cohort of 13 refractory or relapsed NHL patients, unable to safely undergo a BEAM chemotherapy course.
Methods : Prior to Zevalin, all pts received one cycle of high-dose cyclophosphamide plus rituximab, and one cycle of high-dose cytarabine and rituximab, at patient-adapted doses. Hematopoietic stem cells were harvested from the peripheral blood during the post-cyclophosphamide and/or the post-cytarabine recovery phase, and tested for MRD. Zevalin was administered at twice the MTD (0.8 mCi/kg), and followed by tandem autografting of a small amount of CD34+ (0.8–2 x 106/kg) on day +7, and an optimal amount (>=5 x 106 CD34+ cells/kg) on day +14, respectively. The former reinfusion (supportive autografting) was done still in the presence of potentially myelotoxic doses of circulating radioactivity, and its aim was solely to achieve an immediate albeit transient hematopoietic recovery. At the time of the second reinfusion (reconstituting autografting) the calculated radiation dose to the reinfused stem cells was less than 5 cGy, in order to ensure a complete and long lasting hematopoietic reconstitution.
Results: From July 2004 through March 2005, 13 overall NHL patients entered into the study (DLBCL 5, follicular 3, mantle cell 2, marginal zone nodal 1, small lymphocytic 1, lymphoplasmacytoid 1). Median age was 60 yrs (29–69). The number of prior chemotherapy regimes was 1 (4 pts), 2 (5 pts), 3 (3 pts) and 4 (1 pt), respectively. Neutropenia grade 1 or higher was documented in all but 1 patient, and lasted a median of 7 days (1–15), while grade 4 neutropenia was observed in 8 pts, in which lasted a median of 3.5 days only (1–10). Grade >=1 thrombocytopenia was observed in all patients (median 16 days, range 7–30), while grade 4 thrombocytopenia occurred in 10 pts for a median duration (in the thrombocytopenic pts) of 6 days (1–13). Eight patients required platelet transfusions (median 2, range 1–6), and 9 pts received 1 RBC transfusion each. No extra-hematologic toxicity was observed, and all but 4 patients were cared for as outpatients. The 4 hospital admissions lasted 2 (2 pts) and 4 days (2 pts) respectively, and were required for FUO that rapidly resolved upon antibiotic administration. After a median follow-up of 6 months (1–11), 11 pts are alive, of which 10 in continuous CR.
Conclusions : High-dose Zevalin with tandem stem-cell transplantation was minimally toxic in this heavily pretreated patient population, and fully applicable in an outpatient setting. Its administration at 0.8 mCi/kg (and possibly up to 1.2 mCi/kg) as a final consolidation step, warrants prospective comparison with conventional-dose regimens in a minimally selected NHL patient population.
This paper aims to shed new light on †law of one-price†in the United States' gasoline market over the period June-2003-December-2019. Specifically, we test for convergence of the retail prices of ...gasoline in different US PADDs, states and cities using the Local Whittle estimator (LW) and its variants (Robinson 1995, Shimotsu and Phillips 2005). Mean/trend reversion of the relative price of each unit will imply convergence toward the average price in the US thereby offering support for the law of one-price. LW estimators allow us to consider the case where relative gasoline price are fractionally integrated process and may display long memory implying a slow process of convergence. The results obtained generally offer support for the law of one-price albeit with significant differences in the rate of convergence between PADDs, States and Cities.
The in-orbit cultivation of vegetables, fruits, and edible plants is of paramount importance for the development of long-term manned space mission Environmental Control and Life Support Systems ...(ECLSS) and for the improvement of bio-regenerative systems. GreenCube is a 3U CubeSat mission aimed at demonstrating the functionalities of an autonomous cultivation laboratory that stems from a collaboration between the Sapienza University of Rome, the Italian Space Agency, University of Naples "Federico II", and ENEA. The satellite will cultivate microgreens in a pressurized vessel containing support systems and monitoring instrumentation for the plant growth. This paper describes the GreenCube mission and the instrumentation used for the growth support and monitoring.
In this work, we study the evolution of the mass-metallicity relations (MZRs) as predicted by the GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly (GAEA) semi-analytic model. We contrast these predictions with recent ...results from the VANDELS survey, that allows us to expand the accessible redshift range for the stellar MZR up to \(z\sim3.5\). We complement our study by considering the evolution of the gas-phase MZR in the same redshift range. We show that GAEA is able to reproduce the observed evolution of the \(z<3.5\) gas-phase MZR and \(z<0.7\) stellar MZR, while it overpredicts the stellar metallicity at \(z\sim3.5\). Furthermore, GAEA also reproduces the so-called fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) between gas-phase metallicity, stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR). In particular, the gas-phase FMR in GAEA is already in place at \(z\sim5\) and shows almost no evolution at lower redshift. GAEA predicts the existence of a stellar FMR, that is, however, characterized by a relevant redshift evolution, although its shape follows closely the gas-phase FMR. We also report additional unsolved tensions between model and data: the overall normalization of the predicted MZR agrees with observations only within \(\sim\)0.1 dex; the largest discrepancies are seen at \(z\sim3.5\) where models tend to slightly overpredict observed metallicities; the slope of the predicted MZR at fixed SFR is too steep below a few \({\rm M}_\odot\ {\rm yr}^{-1}\). Finally, we provide model predictions for the evolution of the MZRs at higher redshifts, that would be useful in the context of future surveys, like those that will be performed with JWST.
The Italian towns have a cultural heritage that often do not succeed in being
completely en-hanced. The natural, artistic and cultural resources present in the
Italian towns, above all the smallest ...ones, many times remain hidden and are not enjoyed
by the tourists. The experience of a touristic visit is a learning process very
fascinating and interesting. The emotions can change according to the interests of the
individuals, as well as of the physical, personal and social-cultural context. The
objective is to attract the user, introducing to him/her the content filtrated tailored,
opportunely mixed with the context, to determine what part of the information is
sig-nificant respecting the environmental conditions, with the purpose to get a visit
experience more and more rich. In this paper, it is introduced an Adaptive Context-Aware
app able to support a tourist inside a town. The system can guide the tourist in the
discovery of a town proposing him/her resources and services mainly interesting for the
user according to his/her interests and the position where he/she is. The objective is
reached through the use of a system of description of the context with a graphical
formalism named Context Dimension Tree. The App collects in-formation also from social
environments adapting the proposed itinerary taking into account the communities and the
interests of the user. The entire approach has been tested inside the town of Salerno
(Regione Campania, in Italy) with very interesting results.
Qu'est-ce que le funéraire ? C'est un ensemble, nous dit-on ici, de discours, de représentations et de pratiques sociales autour de la mort, des funérailles, du deuil et de la mémoire des disparus. ...Et pourquoi ce funéraire est-il si important ? Parce qu'il perpétue la mémoire d'une communauté, écarte la rupture entre la société des vivants et celle des morts. Pour la première fois, une équipe de chercheurs en sciences humaines et sociales et de conservateurs du patrimoine brasse les sources du funéraire, anciennes et nouvelles, en livre les clés d'accès, dévoile les enjeux et l'importance de ce patrimoine pour les sociétés à venir.
This paper addresses the problem of optimal management of consumer flexibility in an electric distribution system. Aggregation of a number of consumers clustered according to appropriate criteria, is ...one of the most promising approaches for modifying the daily load profile at nodes of an electric distribution network. Modifying the daily load profile is recognized as one of the strongest needs both for safe and efficient operation of the network. The paper proposes an optimization approach allowing the aggregator, i.e., the operator which manages the aggregated consumers, to gather flexibility and generate bids for the energy market, with the aim of maximizing its revenue. It is shown that this problem can be solved through mixed integer linear programming. Numerical simulation results are provided for validating the proposed approach.
Que voit Pétrarque et que lit-il du paysage qui s'offre à lui au sommet du Mont Ventoux, le 26 avril 1336 ? Un panorama géographique qui s'étend, écrit-il, des monts du Lyonnais à la Méditerranée, ou ...bien le trajet d'une destinée personnelle, depuis les dix années écoulées vers un avenir incertain ? Et que raconte son ascension ? Une randonnée pédestre sur les chemins rocailleux, qui en ferait le premier alpiniste de la modernité, ou le douloureux cheminement spirituel d'un des grands allégorètes du Moyen Âge ? Cet épisode bien connu cristallise les tensions entre une saisie sensorielle et phénoménologique du monde et un ordre discursif qui s'impose à lui et le configure, tensions auxquelles est consacré cet ouvrage. Le paysage allégorique, dans la tradition occidentale, oscille entre deux pôles : un paysage mental, proprement « allégorique », qui donne le cadre nécessaire à une figuration et à un déploiement de l'idée ; et un paysage naturel – réel – qui se fait miroir de l'âme, le paysage « symbolique » de la critique post-romantique. Si le premier pôle semble familier plutôt à l'époque médiévale, le second à l'âge romantique, il semble que les choses ne soient pas si tranchées comme le laisse penser le statut indécis que l'on accorde au Mont Ventoux gravi par Pétrarque, entre image mentale et pays transfiguré. Notre appréhension du monde, comme le montrent les diverses contributions réunies ici, est toujours prédéterminée et médiatisée par des cadres de pensée et des textes ; inversement, les constructions rationnelles que sont les paysages allégoriques sont traversées par l'expérience physico-sensorielle du monde.
