A phase II study of cyclophosphamide followed by PIXY321 as a means of mobilizing peripheral blood hematopoietic progenitor cells

Fourteen patients with stage II-IV breast cancer were enrolled in a phase II study of cyclophosphamide followed by PIXY321 as a means of mobilizing peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC). All 14 women tolerated PIXY321 well, with the predominant toxicities being erythema at the injection site, fever, and arthralgias. A median of two aphereses yielded a mean of 1.3 x 10(8) mononuclear cells/kg, 8.9 x 10(4) colony-forming units-granulocyte/macrophage (CFU-GM)/kg, and 4.5 x 10(6) CD34+ cells/kg. All 14 patients underwent high-dose chemotherapy with PBPC support, the median day to ANC >500 cells/microliter was 10.6, and the median day to platelets >20,000 cells/microliter was 13. The day of 90th percentile platelet recovery was 15. When compared to PBPCs mobilized by cyclophosphamide followed by GM-CSF, the use of PIXY321 may confer an advantage of enhanced platelet recovery.     

The thermal protection of a specific experimental instrument for monitoring of combustion conditions on the grate of municipal solid waste incinerators

The thermal protection of the specific experimental instrument for monitoring of combustion conditions on the grate of municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWI) represents a very important part of the assembled measuring system. The inner part of the instrument with control electronics and diverse sensors (temperature and flue gas concentration measurements) requires sufficient thermal protection against the high temperature environment of the combustion process with a surrounding temperature higher than 1200 °C. The influence of the high temperature environment is limited, but not fully eliminated, by thermal protection. The thermal protection is applied in two different ways. The standard thermal insulation with low thermal conductivity represents passive protection. The optimal thickness of the insulation itself partially defines the heat flux to the central part of the measuring system and its impacts upon increase of the inner temperature. The second type of protection, in an active mode, in addition to low conductivity, also provides heat storage. The full-scale thermal protection is designed by means of computer calculations with boundary and initial conditions or laboratory measurements within a similar environment to that on the grate of the MSWI. An additional aim of the sufficient thermal protection development is also to minimize the final size of the experimental instrument. The experimental trials have approved the functionality of the measuring instrument in high temperatures by keeping the inner temperature at the very low level.     

Effective abatement of VOC and CO from acrylic acid and related production waste gas by catalytic oxidation

Waste gasses containing volatile organic compounds (VOC) are arising mainly form industrial production in which organic materials are processed. These VOC must be treated to levels so that they meet the local applicable legislation limits. Momentive specialty chemicals is a company which produces acrylic acid, acrylic acid esters, and acrylate polymers in Sokolov (Czech Republic). A mixed waste stream which contains 6,000–10,000 mg TOC/Nm³ of VOC is treated. The management would like to lower the operating costs of the thermal incineration unit used. It seems suitable in this case to replace the existing incinerator with a catalytic oxidation unit with use of a Pt–Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst for VOC abatement. A full-scale unit was designed according to the waste gas composition and flow. Mass and energy balances were carried out, and it was discovered that the catalytic bed must be divided into two parts to prevent the reactor overheating and irreversible damage to the catalyst. A pilot plant was designed and implemented due to the potential threat of catalyst fouling by solid impurities and to confirm the expected conversion of VOC and CO. It also proves the long-term reliability of the catalytic reactor. The performed pilot tests confirmed that catalytic oxidation is suitable for the disposal of waste gas from acrylic acid and acrylates production (for this application and treated inlet concentration of VOC). VOC and CO removal efficiencies during pilot trials were 98.3 and 98.5 %, respectively.     

Her2/neu overexpression is associated with treatment failure in women with high-risk stage II and stage IIIA breast cancer (>10 involved lymph nodes) treated with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic progenitor cell support following standard-dose adjuvant chemotherapy

Twenty-five patients with high-risk stage II and IIIA breast cancer (>10 or more involved lymph nodes) were treated with six cycles of standard-dose chemotherapy (5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide) followed by high-dose chemotherapy (2.5 g/m2 cyclophosphamide for 3 days and 225 mg/m2 thiotepa for 3 days) with autologous hematopoietic progenitor cell support. The actuarial relapse free survival at 3 years is 80%; the actuarial survival at 3 years is 96%. Four patients relapsed systemically between 6 and 18 months; all four patients who relapsed had breast cancers that overexpressed Her2/neu. In contrast, none of the 21 patients who had no or borderline overexpression of Her2/neu relapsed (P = 0.00004, Fisher's exact test). Patients with high-risk stage II and IIIA breast cancer who have overexpression of Her2/neu appear to be at a high risk for relapse, even when treated with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic progenitor cell support.     

Toward Snowmelt Runoff Forecast Based on Multisensor Remote-Sensing Informnation

Snow-cover mapping is a prerequisite for deriving the main input variable for a deterministic snowmelt runoff model (SRM). Operational forecasting of snowmelt runoff has to rely on "guaranteed snow cover information" for a specific area and time. Remote sensing can provide the necessary data, especially when different sensor systems are available for combined interpretations. It has been shown already how remote-sensing information from Landsat-MSS and NOAA/AVHRR supplement each other. It is important, though, that when using coarse spatial sensor resolution, special attention to the area, its topography, and the amount of snow coverage must be taken.     

Effects of pulsating water jet impact on aluminium surface

It is well known that the collision of a high-velocity liquid mass with a solid generates short high-pressure transients which can cause serious damage to the surface and interior of the target material. To take advantage of this fact in the high-speed water jet technology, a special method of the generation of the high-speed pulsating water jet was developed recently and tested extensively under laboratory conditions. The method is based on the generation of acoustic waves by the action of the acoustic transducer on the pressure liquid and their transmission via pressure system to the nozzle. In this paper, results of investigation of the process of interaction of the pulsating jet and the aluminium sample are presented. Aluminium samples were exposed to pulsating jets generated under various operating conditions (such as operating pressure, stand-off distance and excitation amplitude of the acoustic generator). The effects of pulsating water jet impact on the aluminium surface were studied using methods of optical microscopy and image analysis. Topography of the surface created by the action of pulsating jet and characteristics of the surface were measured by the optical surface measuring system. Based on the analysis of obtained results, likely mechanism of the aluminium surface erosion and disintegration by the action of the pulsating water jet is discussed in the paper.     

The potential of immersive virtual reality for representations in design education

Virtual Reality - This paper examines the potential of immersive virtual reality technology for design education. A quasi-experimental study has been conducted with 40 students of different...     

Pretreatment and feeding of biomass for pressurized entrained flow gasification

In our contribution we have compared advantages and disadvantages of four different methods for biomass (wood) thermal pretreatment and grinding for feeding of the biomass-fuel to pressurized entrained flow gasifier. The four methods of pretreatment and feeding involve drying, torrefaction, flash pyrolysis and dissolution of wood in organic solvents.