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Recycling of catalysts is often performed. Additive manufacturing (AM) received increasing attention in recent years in various fields such as engineering and medicine, among others. More recently, the fabrication of three-dimensional objects used as scaffolds in heterogeneous catalysis has shown innumerable advantages, such as easier handling and waste reduction, both leading to a reduction in times and costs. In this work, the fabrication and use of 3D-printed recyclable polylactic acid (PLA) scaffolds coated with an iron oxide active catalyst for Fenton reactions applied to aromatic model molecules, is presented. These molecules are representative of a wider class of intractable organic compounds, often present in industrial wastewater. The 3D-printed PLA-coated scaffolds were also tested using an industrial wastewater, determining the chemical oxygen demand (COD). The catalyst is characterized using electron microscopy coupled to elemental analysis (SEM/EDX) and thermogravimetry, demonstrating that coating leach is very limited, and it can be easily recovered and reused many times.

Background: Prognostic and predictive factors for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) treated with immunotherapy are highly warranted, and the immune tumor microenvironment (I-TME) is under investigation. Methods: The Meet-URO 18 was a multicentric retrospective study assessing the I-TME in mRCC patients treated with ≥2nd-line nivolumab, dichotomized into responders and non-responders according to progression-free survival (≥12 months and ≤3 months, respectively). The primary objective was to identify differential immunohistochemical (IHC) patterns between the two groups. Lymphocyte infiltration and the expressions of different proteins on tumor cells (CD56, CD15, CD68, and ph-mTOR) were analyzed. The expression of PD-L1 was also assessed. Results: A total of 116 tumor tissue samples from 84 patients (59% were primary tumors and 41% were metastases) were evaluated. Samples from responders (N = 55) were significantly associated with lower expression of CD4+ T lymphocytes and higher levels of ph-mTOR and CD56+ compared with samples from non-responders (N = 61). Responders also showed a higher CD3+ expression (p = 0.059) and CD8+/CD4+ ratio (p = 0.084). Non-responders were significantly associated with a higher percentage of clear cell histology and grading. Conclusions: Differential IHC patterns between the tumors in patients who were responders and non-responders to nivolumab were identified. Further investigation with genomic analyses is planned.

Supplemental material, sj-doc-1-tct-10.1177_15330338231159753 for Upper Tract Urinary Carcinoma: A Unique Immuno-Molecular Entity and a Clinical Challenge in the Current Therapeutic Scenario by Giulia Mazzaschi, Giulia Claire Giudice, Matilde Corianò, Davide Campobasso, Fabiana Perrone, Michele Maffezzoli, Irene Testi, Luca Isella, Umberto Maestroni and Sebastiano Buti in Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment

The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing a shift from daily tablet regimens to long-acting medications that can be injected monthly allowing patients to spend less time actively treating their disease, bettering patient mental health. The barrier to development of long-acting injectable medications is the high drug concentration required, which results in highly viscous medications that are difficult to administer in standard syringes. In this report, we describe the invention of a device that enables clinicians to inject highly viscous fluids through 3ml syringes with standard needles to aid clinical evaluation of long-acting injectable drugs. Our device works via a mechanism similar to that of a caulk gun: the user squeezes the handle and a cam-lock lever amplifies this force, which then pushes a drive rod onto the syringe plunger. The drive rod runs through a tab connected to the output of the handle, and the tab can rotate about the handle. The rotation causes the drive tab to put force on the drive rod when the user actuates the handle. This system ensured that the device passed our high priority requirement to require less than 53N of force to inject the medication, requiring only 33.6N of force to actuate during testing. The device will allow clinicians to inject 300cP medication from a standard 3ml syringe through multiple actuations of the device. This work represents a vital stepping stone to help reduce the time to develop long-acting injectables by enabling manual injection of these high-viscosity medications without the need for additional development of autoinjectors for patient testing. Our prototype meets Gilead's initial specification, but to facilitate use in clinical settings, manufacturing the device in a sterilizable material, and redesigning a simpler cover for the syringe would be a priority.

In the last years, bistable composite structures are finding interest in several aeronautical applications such as power harvesting devices or morphing applications on very small aircraft/drones, not needing servo-activated control systems. Residual stresses, developed upon cooling after curing, leads to warped the composite laminates. Several batches of unsymmetrical and unbalanced [0°/90°] laminates were cured in an autoclave according to a standard temperature cycle, following the pre-preg supplier suggested curing cycle. In order to increase the thermal stresses (and hence the bistability phenomenon), these laminates were removed from the autoclave immediately after the curing reaction and rapidly cooled down at room temperature not applying the indicated cool rate between 2 and 5 °C min−1. During storage at room temperature, thermal stresses changed over time, indicating that asymptotic stress relaxation occurs. The first part of this work looks at residual stress characterization of bistable composite plates measuring the changes of shape observed during room temperature annealing. Rectangular plates were produced and the bistable geometric shapes were accurately assessed using a laser scanner system over several days, in order to monitor the curvature changes due to stress relaxation. Then phenomenological viscoelastic predicting models were proposed for a quick estimate for the strain/stress relaxation phenomenon. The loss of bistability was demonstrated with the help of numerical simulation and experimental testing. The final goal was to gain a better knowledge of the relation between processing and final shape of bistable laminates, in order to make them suitable for application on small air vehicles.

Composite materials, in addition to the high specific mechanical properties, have properties enabling their applications in high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) and corrosive environment as occurs in deep water. Their use for manufacturing pipelines and offshore risers can provide relevant performance advantages over steel such as lower weight, improved fatigue capacity, corrosion resistance and higher strain limits. However, composite materials are more complex to use in design than metallic materials due to their anisotropic properties and lack of accurate failure prediction models. Thus, a continuous in-situ and in real-time Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of composite components would be necessary and useful to promote their use in a wider range of operational conditions. In this work, an FRP pipe sample was instrumented with Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensors (PWAS) used either as passive receivers or as transmitters of guided waves for active health monitoring in pitch-catch configuration. The propagation properties of guided waves in glass fibres reinforced composites were studied by developing MATLAB scripts, running FE simulation and experiments. The numerical and experimental signals were post-processed in MATLAB by Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) in order to evaluate their frequency and time-frequency content. Furthermore, the guided waves were used to detect artificial defects imposed on the structure identifying their location. Several testcases were studied to find out the limitations and the most suitable conditions of using guided waves for defects monitoring in a composite pipe. The work proposes effective methods for pipe structural health evaluation by non-destructive techniques and ultrasonic guided waves.

A good idea can't always be a good deal! This is the key phrase that permeates this case for teaching. Where a businessman changes his field of activity betting on an innovative idea, but invests in the business, partially unaware of the market he will operate due to lack of diagnosis and planning, which causes misfortunes that could have been identified even before its conception and thus avoided. The case tells the story of the owner of the Divino Gol establishment, a football themed pub that, in order to survive in the face of competition, will have to be able to adapt to the rapid changes that current scenarios present and have the creativity to create strategies to innovate and reinvent itself. In this case, the objective is to put the student in the role of manager or entrepreneur when faced with a decision to make in the face of business decline. The case was developed with the aim of exploring and practicing various concepts related to administration, provoking student creativity. Nem sempre uma boa ideia pode ser um bom negócio! Essa é a frase chave que permeia este caso para ensino. Onde um empresário muda de ramo de atividade apostando em uma ideia inovadora, mas investe no negócio desconhecendo parcialmente o mercado que irá atuar devido à falta de diagnóstico e planejamento, o que ocasiona infortúnios que poderiam ter sido identificados antes mesmo de sua concepção e assim evitados. O caso conta a trajetória do proprietário do estabelecimento Divino Gol, um pub temático futebolístico que para sobreviver diante da concorrência terá́ que ser capaz a se adaptar as mudanças rápidas que os cenários atuais apresentam e ter criatividade de criar estratégias para inovar e se reinventar. Neste caso o objetivo é colocar o aluno no papel do gerente ou empreendedor diante de uma decisão a tomar frente ao declínio do negócio. O caso foi desenvolvido com o objetivo de explorar e praticar vários conceitos relacionados a administração, provocando a criatividade do aluno.

We report the case of a patient with metastatic renal cell carcinoma who developed Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) 6 days after starting pembrolizumab plus axitinib as first-line treatment. Coronary angiogram was negative for obstructive coronary artery disease and echocardiogram revealed a depressed left ventricular ejection fraction with apical akinesis. Axitinib was discontinued and myocardial contractile function fully recovered 23 days after the initial presentation. The treatment was safely resumed and granted a partial response of disease. A literature review regarding TTS in patients receiving VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors and/or immune checkpoint inhibitors was performed. TTS is reported as a rare adverse event and the possible causal relationship between TTS and antineoplastic therapy is still unclear. Further research is warranted to better understand cardiotoxicity mechanisms and their management.We report the case of a patient with metastatic renal cell carcinoma who developed a rare cardiac adverse event called Takotsubo syndrome 6 days after starting antineoplastic therapy with pembrolizumab plus axitinib. Axitinib was discontinued and cardiac function fully recovered 23 days after the initial presentation. The treatment was safely resumed and granted a partial response of disease. Takotsubo syndrome is reported as a rare adverse event and the possible causal relationship with antineoplastic therapy is still unclear. Further research is warranted to better understand cardiotoxicity mechanisms and their management.

9 pags., 5 figs., 2 tabs., Sea ice decline in the North Atlantic and Nordic Seas has been proposed to contribute to the repeated abrupt atmospheric warmings recorded in Greenland ice cores during the last glacial period, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events. However, the understanding of how sea ice changes were coupled with abrupt climate changes during D-O events has remained incomplete due to a lack of suitable high-resolution sea ice proxy records from northwestern North Atlantic regions. Here, we present a subdecadal-scale bromine enrichment (Brenr) record from the NEEM ice core (Northwest Greenland) and sediment core biomarker records to reconstruct the variability of seasonal sea ice in the Baffin Bay and Labrador Sea over a suite of D-O events between 34 and 42 ka. Our results reveal repeated shifts between stable, multiyear sea ice (MYSI) conditions during cold stadials and unstable, seasonal sea ice conditions during warmer interstadials. The shift from stadial to interstadial sea ice conditions occurred rapidly and synchronously with the atmospheric warming over Greenland, while the amplitude of high-frequency sea ice fluctuations increased through interstadials. Our findings suggest that the rapid replacement of widespread MYSI with seasonal sea ice amplified the abrupt climate warming over the course of D-O events and highlight the role of feedbacks associated with late-interstadial seasonal sea ice expansion in driving the North Atlantic ocean-climate system back to stadial conditions., The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) grant agreements #243908 “Past4Future. Climate change—Learning from the past climate” and #610055 “Ice2ice”. We thank our colleagues at Centre for Ice and Climate (Copenhagen, Denmark) for their generous contribution and providing the NEEM ice core samples. NEEM is directed and organized by the Center of Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute and US NSF, Office of Polar Programs. It is supported by funding agencies and institutions in Belgium (FNRS-CFB and FWO), Canada (NRCan/GSC), China (CAS), Denmark (FIST), France (IPEV, CNRS/INSU, CEA and ANR), Germany (AWI), Iceland (RannIs), Japan (NIPR), Korea (KOPRI), The Netherlands (NWO/ALW), Sweden (VR), Switzerland (SNF), United Kingdom (NERC), and the USA (US NSF, Office of Polar Programs).

This work contributes to fill one of the gaps regarding nanoplastic interactions with biological systems by producing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) model nanoplastics, similar to those found in the marine environment, by means of a fast top-down approach based on mechanical fragmentation. Their size distribution and morphology were characterized by laser diffraction and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Their autofluorescence was studied by spectrofluorimetry and fluorescence imaging, being a key property for the evaluation of their interaction with biota. The emission spectra of label-free nanoplastics were comparable with those of PET nanoplastics labeled with Nile red. Finally, the suitability of label-free nanoplastics for biological studies was assessed by in vitro exposure with Mytilus galloprovincialis hemolymphatic cells in a time interval up to 6 h. The nanoplastic internalization into these cells, known to be provided with phagocytic activity, was assessed by fluorescence microscopy. The obtained results underlined that the autofluorescence of the model PET nanoplastics produced in the laboratory was adequate for biological studies having the potential to overcome the disadvantages commonly associated with several fluorescent dyes, such as the tendency to also stain other organic materials different from plastics, to form aggregates due to intermolecular interactions at high concentrations with a consequent decrease in fluorescence intensity, and to dye desorption from nanoparticles. The results of the autofluorescence study provide an innovative approach for plastic risk assessment.

Liquid composite molding (LCM) is a class of fast and cheap processes suitable for the fabrication of large parts with good geometrical and mechanical properties. One of the main steps in an LCM process is represented by the filling stage, during which a reinforcing fiber preform is impregnated with a low-viscosity resin. Darcy’s permeability is the key property for the filling stage, not usually available and depending on several factors. Permeability is also essential in computational modeling to reduce costly trial-and-error procedures during composite manufacturing. This review aims to present the most used and recent methods for permeability measurement. Several solutions, introduced to monitor resin flow within the preform and to calculate the in-plane and out-of-plane permeability, will be presented. Finally, the new trends toward reliable methods based mainly on non-invasive and possibly integrated sensors will be described.