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In several cities, bus rapid transit (BRT) systems have begun to experience problems of capacity. Various solutions have been proposed to address these problems, from simple operational modifications to improvements that require modification of the existing infrastructure. Decisions about modification are a challenging undertaking for policy makers; proposals need to be evaluated on the basis of costs (monetary and qualitative or unconventional) and expected returns. For this paper, seven scenarios for Line 1 of the BRT system in Mexico City, Mexico, were structured and modeled to evaluate how operational and level of service improve as a result of (a) operational modifications, (b) investments in infrastructure, and (c) technology acquisitions. Scenarios were modeled by using the simulation tool EMBARQ SimBRT and were ranked by the relative complexity of their execution. Three criteria were used for determining the level of complexity: the cost of implementation, the required time, and the administrative process. Results of the scenarios show positive impacts on operation and level-of-service indicators. The paper also reveals that better results are obtained for implementations requiring infrastructure investment than for those involving operational modifications. However, the impact of the proposed implementation is limited; few implementations show progress on the analyzed indicators in a range of 10% variation, giving evidence of the difficulties of improving service. Finally, the paper provides important insights in the decision-making process for transport upgrading, as it describes a methodology to select a proposed improvement on the basis of tradeoff between expected benefits and required administrative process and financial costs.

Inputs are provided for the decision-making process of transit improvements in developing countries. With an analysis of the willingness of private bus operators to participate in transit improvements, political feasibility can be assessed, and the likelihood of successful implementation can be increased. Data from 156 surveys conducted in cities in Mexico are used to develop probabilistic models that quantify the influence of private bus operators' characteristics, perceptions about business and operating efficiencies, and their relationship with government on their willingness to participate. Evidence shows that several elements can increase the willingness of private operators to participate in government-led proposals. These elements include the level of trust and communication between private bus operators and government authorities, the economic power of private bus operators, and the attachment to the status quo. Several features are shown to limit operators' willingness to participate, including the model of operation, likelihood of lost revenue through taxation, and concerns about the potential modifications of their legal rights to operate. An analysis of Mexico City, Mexico, and surrounding areas demonstrates the need to establish a well-defined strategy for engaging private bus operators in transit improvements; failure to do so has resulted in much less trust of government and led to more conflicts about future projects. The importance of analyzing private bus operators' participative profiles in the assessment of transit improvements is revealed. Selected areas for improvements might present challenges for engaging private bus operators in proposed improvements.

This paper discusses appropriate evaluation techniques for assessing transit proposals in developing countries. With the shift of ownership models in past decades from fully public to fully private and eventually to consolidated franchising models, successful transit projects require the analysis of several indirect costs associated with changing ownership. These indirect costs include (a) the potential loss of personal income for local bus operators if the new investment precludes their continued operation, (b) negative personal impacts on self-worth and changing business dynamics, and (c) long-term impacts on the ability of the government to implement future projects as a result of obstacles that may result from the first two costs. In the proposed methodology these costs are explicitly considered in the evaluation process. The way that various ownership models in current use influence—either positively or negatively—such indirect costs is assessed. The paper concludes that full involvement of local bus operators typically minimizes these indirect costs but may be difficult to achieve, depending on the number and characteristics of the operators in the corridor for which the development is proposed. The paper presents a detailed assessment of the conditions under which full involvement is possible and suggests alternative techniques to advance the idea of local operator involvement.

In this paper, we describe how to design learning activities that dynamically provide thematic Web resources from a linked-data repository. The aim is to enable teachers to share a variable set of resources related to a given subject and postpone the actual resource delivery to the deployment or enactment of the course. We have proposed a Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) tool that provides an interface to automatically select the related resources to be delivered to the students who are running a learning activity. The thematic resource repository was a linked-data extension of the WordPress blog engine. This extension allows enriching text-based and video information contained in blog entries with RDF triples that can be externally managed and exploited. Our approach allows discovering learning resources from external linked data sets and enrich blog contents with linked-data, independently of the underlying conceptual model.

Haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation provides an option for patients with advanced hematologic malignancies lacking a compatible donor. In this prospective phase 1/2 trial, we evaluated the role of reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) followed by early add-backs of CD8-depleted donor lymphocyte infusions (DLIs). The RIC regimen consisted of thiotepa, fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and 2 Gy total body irradiation. Twenty-eight patients with advanced lymphoproliferative diseases (n = 24) or acute myeloid leukemia (n = 4) were enrolled. Ex vivo and in vivo T-cell depletion was carried out by CD34+cell selection and alemtuzumab treatment. The 2-year cumulative incidence of nonrelapse mortality was 26% and the 2-year overall survival (OS) was 44%, with a better outcome for patients with chemosensitive disease (OS, 75%). Overall, 54 CD8-depleted DLIs were administered to 23 patients (82%) at 3 different dose levels without loss of engraftment or acute toxicities. Overall, 6 of 23 patients (26%) developed grade II-IV graft-versus-host disease, mainly at dose level 2. In conclusion, our RIC regimen allowed a stable engraftment with a rather low nonrelapse mortality in poor-risk patients; OS is encouraging with some long-term remissions in lymphoid malignancies. CD8-depleted DLIs are feasible and promote the immune reconstitution.

The article discusses the threat posed to the rare species found in Colonet Mesa, a small village in Baja California, Mexico, by a proposed a large port complex as a solution to the overcrowded ports in the U.S. The proposal by the Mexican government and the state government of Baja California, as well as the private industry, aims to satisfy the demand for imported goods by U.S. consumers. Examples of endangered plants found in the village include the San Diego button-celery, Orcutt's grass and the San Diego ambrosia.

The interaction between human immunoglobulin G (IgG) and sodium perfluorooctanate (SPFO) has been characterized by a combination of UV‐vis and UV‐CD spectroscopies and ion selective electrodes. The study determined that there were true specific unions between SPFO and IgG. The conformational changes at the bulk solution, induced by SPFO, were well characterized by UV‐vis and UV‐CD spectroscopies. Chemical and thermal unfolding were analysed and the thermodynamic parameters were determined.

Chiappella: Servier: Honoraria; Roche: Honoraria; Takeda: Honoraria; Iqone: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria; Gilead-Kite: Honoraria; Celgene: Honoraria. Corradini:Kite: Consultancy, Honoraria; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Incyte: Consultancy; BMS: Other; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other; Servier: Consultancy, Honoraria; Sanofi: Consultancy, Honoraria; F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and accommodations paid by for; KiowaKirin: Consultancy, Honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and accommodations paid by for; AbbVie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and accommodations paid by for; Gilead: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and accommodations paid by for; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and accommodations paid by for.

Tucci: Amgen: Consultancy. Carlo-Stella:Boehringer Ingelheim and Sanofi: Consultancy; Servier, Novartis, Genenta Science srl, ADC Therapeutics, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Karyopharm, Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Janssen Oncology, AstraZeneca: Honoraria; ADC Therapeutics and Rhizen Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding. Corradini:Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other; BMS: Other; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Kite: Consultancy, Honoraria; KiowaKirin: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and accommodations paid by for; F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd: Consultancy, Honoraria; Sanofi: Consultancy, Honoraria; Servier: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and accommodations paid by for; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and accommodations paid by for; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria; Gilead: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and accommodations paid by for; Incyte: Consultancy; AbbVie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and accommodations paid by for. Rossi:Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Other: Advisory board; Abbvie: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Alexion: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Sanofi: Honoraria; Jazz: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Astellas: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Honoraria.

Introduction: We have previously reported short-term efficacy of six courses of R-DA-EPOCH in patients with aggressive B cell lymphomas carrying concomitant MYCand BCL-2and/or BCL-6rearrangement (DHL/THL) or gene increase copy number (ICN) (Tucci et al. Blood S1: 4154, 2017). Further experience with the same program has been described in the meantime in patients with aggressive lymphoma and c-MYCrearrangement, either as single hit or DHL/THL (Dunleavy et al. Lancet Haematol, 2018). We report here long-term results in a larger unselected series of DHL/THL with the aim to confirm our preliminary results and to define the role of consolidation with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) after R-DA-EPOCH remission induction.

Background:Eighty-five percent of PMBCL are cured by standard therapy, but the outcome of refractory/relapsed (R/R) PMBCL is very poor. Checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) have shown promising activity in relapsed PMBCL. Axibactagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) CAR-T cell therapy, can induce durable responses and is currently approved for the treatment of adult patients with R/R PMBCL.

No Abstract

The intrinsic recognition code associated with dsDNA allows either accelerating or retarding of a native chemical ligation reaction between tripyrrole ligands. The rate changes most probably stem from the sequence-dependent characteristics of the dsDNA−ligand complexes.

The article relates the author's experience in traveling to Kansas with her boyfriend. Lawrence, about 40 miles west, is a cute college town, home to the University of Kansas's main campus. The author and her boyfriend go to lunch at Jefferson's, a boisterous diner with dollar bills thumbtacked to the walls. Their evening destination is Cottonwood Falls. The 900-person ranching community is in the Flint Hills, a region of rolling hills in the high prairie. They made a reservation at Clover Cliff Ranch Bed & Breakfast, a 146-year-old ranch/inn in Elmdale, seven miles west.

The synthesis of the new compounds 9-triptycyldimethyltin bromide (2) and 9-triptycyldimethyltin hydride (3) and some of their physical properties are described. The radical addition of 3 to methyl (E)-2,3-diphenylpropenoate gave the threo adducts as the only products. The results obtained in the addition of hydride 3 to mono- and disubstituted alkynes under radical and palladium-catalyzed conditions indicate that these reactions take place with high stereoselectivity. The chemical reactivity of these vinylstannanes is similar to that of vinyltriorganostannanes containing smaller organic ligands. Full ¹H, ¹³C, and ¹¹⁹Sn NMR characteristics are included.

The synthesis of the new bulky tris[(phenyldimethylsilyl)methyl]tin hydride (9), tetrakis[(phenyldimethylsilyl)methyl]tin (5), and hexakis[(phenyldimethylsilyl)methyl]ditin (10) as well as some physical properties are described. The addition of hydride 9 to seven mono- and disubstituted alkynes under radical conditions indicates that these reactions take place with complete stereoselectivity. Full ¹H, ¹³C, ¹¹⁹Sn, and ²⁹Si NMR characteristics are included.

A reduced-intensity conditioning regimen was investigated in 45 patients with hematologic malignancies who were considered poor candidates for conventional myeloablative regimens. Median patient age was 49 years. Twenty-six patients previously failed autologous transplantation, and 18 patients had a refractory disease at the time of transplantation. In order to decrease nonrelapse mortality, and enhance the graft-versus-tumor effect, a program was designed in which a reduced conditioning with thiotepa, fludarabine, and cyclophosphamide was associated with programmed reinfusions of donor lymphocytes for patients without graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), not achieving clinical and molecular remission after transplantation. GVHD prophylaxis consisted of cyclosporine A and methotrexate. Seventeen patients received marrow cells and 28 received mobilized hematopoietic cells. All patients engrafted. The probability of grades II-IV and III-IV acute GVHD were 47% and 13%, respectively. The probability of nonrelapse mortality, progression-free survival, and overall survival were 13%, 57%, and 53%, respectively. Thirteen patients in complete remission had a polymerase chain reaction marker for minimal disease monitoring; 10 achieved molecular remission after transplantation. Nine patients received donor lymphocytes: one patient with mantle cell lymphoma had a minimal response, one patient with refractory anemia with excess of blasts in transformation achieved complete remission, and 7 patients did not respond. At a median follow-up of 385 days (range, 24 to 820 days), 25 patients (55%) were alive in complete remission. Although longer follow-up is needed to evaluate the long-term outcome, the study shows that this regimen is associated with a durable engraftment, has a low nonrelapse mortality rate, and can induce clinical and molecular remissions.

Background:

Introduction.The outcome of relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphomas, not eligible or cured by high dose chemotherapy due to persistent disease, is very unsatisfactory. The introduction of anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) in this setting, showed impressive long-term results in registrative trials. Axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) and tisagenlecleucel (tisa-cel) are registered and reimbursed in Italy by Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) for the treatment of relapsed/refractory (R/R) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) patients after at least 2 lines, with an ECOG 0-1, and an age lower than 71 years. To evaluate in real-life the patients treated in Italy with CAR-T cells, the Italian Society of Hematology (SIE) designed an observational study.

Introduction:Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL) have a 40-50% cure rate when treated with cyclophosphamide-doxorubicin-etoposide-vincristine-prednisone (CHOEP) and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Romidepsin, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, showed promising activity in relapsed or refractory PTCLs.

We describe in this paper a programming paradigm, called pipelined programming, which is applicable to a large class of parallel computations, and we show how such a model can be implemented on top of one of the most popular communication libraries, PVM. PVM ensures portability of the resulting implementation to a large number of installations.

In this two-center, pilot trial we assessed the efficacy of single bedtime doses of 150 mg ranitidine (half dose) and 300 mg ranitidine (full dose) in promoting duodenal ulcer healing by comparing the proportions of healed ulcers after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment. One hundred thirty-nine patients (106 men) were randomly allocated according to a prearranged treatment schedule to either dose and were treated single-blind (endoscopist). One hundred twenty-six patients (63 given 150 mg ranitidine and 63 given 300 mg) completed the trial. In the per-protocol analysis, 55 patients given full doses (81) and 47 given half doses (70) of ranitidine had healed ulcers at 4 weeks. Sixty full-dose and 55 half-dose patients (95 and 87, respectively), had healed ulcers at 8 weeks. The difference was not significant using the X2test (two-tailed), but the 95 confidence limits were in favor of the 300-mg dose. This study had a 75 power to detect a 25 difference in healing rates between the two groups.

The analysis of the temperature effects on the cosmic ray muon component recorded continuously in the «Monte dei Cappuccini» Laboratory at 70 m w.e., is used for obtaining the attenuation length of pions in air. In the energy range (30÷60) GeV we found a mean valueλτ=(142±10) g/cm2. The value ofλτis considerably higher than the corresponding value for λp. Therefore the common assumptionλν⩽λpin the theories of the temperature effects on the muon component is not adequate at least up to 100 GeV. A calculation of the positive and negative temperature coefficients is carried out under the assumptionλτ≠λp. L’analisi degli effetti di temperatura sulla componente muonica dei raggi cosmici registrata in modo continuo nel Laboratorio «Monte dei Cappuccini» a 70 m a.e. ha portato alla determinazione del libero cammino di attenuazione dei pioni nell’aria. Nell’intervallo di energia (30÷60) GeV abbiamo trovato un valor medio diλτ=(142±10) g/cm2. Il valore diλτè più alto del corrispondente valore λpper i protoni. Perciò l’ipotesi comunemente assunta nelle teorie degli effetti di temperatura diλτ⩽λpnon è valida almeno fino ad energie di 100 GeV. Un calcolo dei coefficienti di temperatura positivo e negativo viene presentato per il caso generaleλτ≠λp. Аналиэ температурных воэдействий на мюонную компоненту космических лучей, непрерывно эарегистрированную в Лаборатории «Монте дей Каппучини» («Гора монахов») при 70 m w.e., испольэуется для получения длины поглошения пионов в воэдухе. В области знергий (30÷60) ГзВ мы находим среднюю величинуλτ=(142±10) г/см2. Величинаλτэначительно больще, чем соответствуюшая величина для λp. Следовательно обычное предположениеλτ⩽λpв теориях температурных воэдействий на мюонную компоненту не является адекватным, по крайней мере, вплоть до 100 ГзВ. При предположенииλτ≠λqпроводится вычисление положительных и отрицательных температурных козффициентов.

Background: In a significant number of patients affected by the irritable bowel syndrome, an adverse reaction to food is proposed to be a causative factor. A diet that eliminates the offending foods is the obvious treatment for such adverse reactions. Compliance with a dietetic regimen is often poor and sometimes not completely free from risks. Methods: Since the diarrheic type of irritable bowel syndrome seems mainly affected by food intolerance, and previous observations suggested that oral cromolyn sodium is effective in such patients, a multicenter therapeutic trial in the diarrheic type of irritable bowel syndrome was carried out in 346 of 409 patients with this disease, to evaluate the effects of oral cromolyn sodium and compare its efficacy with that of an elimination diet. Results: Symptoms related to the irritable bowel syndrome improved in 60% of patients treated with elimination diet and in 67% of those treated with oral cromolyn sodium (1500 mg/day) for 1 month. Moreover, in both groups clinical results were significantly better in the patients positive to the skin prick test than in the negative ones. Conclusions: These results confirm the high prevalence of adverse reactions to foods in diarrheic irritable bowel syndrome and the usefulness of cromolyn sodium treatment in these patients.

Immunologic markers associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection (HBsAg, anti‐HBs, HBeAg, anti‐HBe, anti‐HBc, anti‐δ) were tested by radioimmunoassay of serum from chronic hepatitis patients. The corresponding liver biopsy samples were examined for the presence of HBsAg, HBcAg, and δ antigen in the cells by direct immunofluorescence and by electron microscopy. Seventy patients were selected for the presence of both circulating HBsAg and anti‐HBc. Comparison of chronic persistent (CPH) and chronic active (CAH) hepatitis showed a significantly greater frequency of intracytoplasmic HBsAg in CPH, especially in the absence of intranuclear HBsAg, and a greater frequency of intranuclear δ antigen and/or circulating anti‐5 in CAH. The δ/anti‐δ system was almost systematically associated with serum anti‐HBe. At variance with HBeAg/anti‐HBe, δ/anti‐δ was found significantly more frequently in patients originating from Southern rather than from Northern or Central Italy. The prevalence of both these immunologic systems was related to the age of the patients.