Solid Tumors and Kinase Inhibition: Management and Therapy Efficacy Evolution

The increasing numbers of cancer cases worldwide and the exceedingly high mortality rates of some tumor subtypes raise the question about if the current protocols for cancer management are effective and what has been done to improve upon oncologic patients’ prognoses. The traditional chemo-immunotherapy options for cancer treatment focus on the use of cytotoxic agents that are able to overcome neoplastic clones’ survival mechanisms and induce apoptosis, as well as on the ability to capacitate the host’s immune system to hinder the continuous growth of malignant cells. The need to avert the highly toxic profiles of conventional chemo-immunotherapy and to overcome the emerging cases of tumor multidrug resistance has fueled a growing interest in the field of precision medicine and targeted molecular therapies in the last couple of decades, although relatively new alternatives in oncologic practices, the increased specificity, and the positive clinical outcomes achieved through targeted molecular therapies have already consolidated them as promising prospects for the future of cancer management. In recent years, the development and application of targeted drugs as tyrosine kinase inhibitors have enabled cancer treatment to enter the era of specificity. In addition, the combined use of targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and traditional chemotherapy has innovated the standard treatment for many malignancies, bringing new light to patients with recurrent tumors. This article comprises a series of clinical trials that, in the past 5 years, utilized kinase inhibitors (KIs) as a monotherapy or in combination with other cytotoxic agents to treat patients afflicted with solid tumors. The results, with varying degrees of efficacy, are reported.     

Atmospheric emission of reactive nitrogen during biofuel ethanol production

This paper evaluates emissions to the atmosphere of biologically available nitrogen compounds in a region characterized by intensive sugar cane biofuel ethanol production. Large emissions of NH3 and NOx, as well as particulate nitrate and ammonium, occur at the harvest when the crop is burned, with the amount of nitrogen released equivalent to approximately 35% of annual fertilizer-N application. Nitrogen oxides concentrations show a positive association with fire frequency, indicating that biomass burning is a major emission source, with mean concentrations of NOx doubling in the dry season relative to the wetseason. During the dry season biomass burning is a source of NH3, with other sources (wastes, soil, biogenic) predominant during the wet season. Estimated NO2-N, NH3-N, NO3- -N and NH4+ -N emission fluxes from sugar cane burning in a planted area of ca. 2.2 x 10(6) ha are 11.0, 1.1, 0.2, and 1.2 Gg N yr(-1), respectively.     

Tritrichomonas foetus adhere to superhydrophilic vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube surface

For the first time, we show that Tritrichomonas foetus can adhere on superhydrophilic vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNT) films. Scanning electron microscopy shows an unusual adhesion with a higher membrane filopodium projection in all directions, directly attached to superhydrophilic VACNT tips.     

New carbon composite adsorbents for the removal of textile dyes from aqueous solutions: Kinetic,equilibrium, and thermodynamic studies

New carbon composite materials were prepared by pyrolysis of mixture of coffee wastes and red mud at 700 °C with the inorganic: organic ratios of 1.9 (CC-1.9) and 2.2 (CC-2.2). These adsorbents were used to remove reactive orange 16 (RO-16) and reactive red 120 (RR-120) textile dyes from aqueous solution. The CC-1.9 and CC-2.2 materials were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Nitrogen adsorption/desorption curves, scanning electron Microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The kinetic of adsorption data was fitted by general order kinetic model. A three-parameter isotherm model, Liu isotherm model, gave the best fit of the equilibrium data (298 to 323 K). The maximum amounts of dyes removed at 323 K were 144.8 (CC-1.9) and 139.5 mg g^?1 (CC-2.2) for RO-16 dye and 95.76 (CC-1.9) and 93.80 mg g^?1 (CC-2.2) for RR-120 dye. Two simulated dyehouse effluents were used to investigate the application of the adsorbents for effluent treatment.     

Study of hydrogen evolution reaction in acid medium on Pt microelectrodes

This work describes the utilization of a Pt UME in the study of the hydrogen evolution reaction in 0.5 M H₂SO₄. A non-linear fitting procedure was employed in order to analyze polarization curves obtained at several temperatures (25–75 °C). The results revealed that the traditionally accepted model described by a Volmer–Tafel route fails to fit the obtained experimental data. In this sense, a new model was proposed involving the Volmer–Heyrovsky mechanism, being the Heyrovsky reaction rate determining step. To achieve the best fit between experimental and calculated data, the kinetic equations had to be proposed with a small value of the transfer coefficient (β<0.2). This unusual value was associated with an activationless process, which can also justify the limiting kinetic current (not diffusional) observed. Trying to get further insight into this possibility, the polarization studies were also performed on a surface modified by underpotentially deposited copper. With a degree of coverage as high as 0.8, the only observed effect on the polarization curves was a shift towards minor current values. This shift can be completely justified by the blocking of surface area. A change in mechanism was not observed albeit the Cu UPD eliminated the pairs of neighbor active sites necessary to the Volmer–Tafel pathway.     

Dynamics of the deconfinement transition of quarks and gluons in a finite volume

We employ finite elements methods for the approximation of solutions of the Ginzburg-Landau equations describing the deconfinement transition in quantum chromodynamics. These methods seem appropriate for situations where the deconfining transition occurs over a finite volume as in relativistic heavy ion collisions, where in addition expansion of the system and flow of matter are important. Simulation results employing finite elements are presented for a Ginzburg-Landau equation based on a model free energy describing the deconfining transition in pure gauge SU(2) theory. Results for finite and infinite system are compared.     

A single chart with supplementary runs rules for monitoring the mean vector and the covariance matrix of multivariate processes

The MRMAX chart is a single chart based on the standardized sample means and sample ranges for monitoring the mean vector and the covariance matrix of multivariate processes. User’s familiarity with the computation of these statistics is a point in favor of the MRMAX chart. As a single chart, the recently proposed MRMAX chart is very appropriate for supplementary runs rules. In this article, we compare the supplemented MRMAX chart and the synthetic MRMAX chart with the standard MRMAX chart. The supplementary and the synthetic runs rules enhance the performance of the MRMAX chart.