Reynoldsclements2799

In the early 2000s, cytoreductive nephrectomy in addition to systemic cytokines became standard of care for treating metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Since that time, the development of novel systemic targeted therapies and immuno-oncologic agents have challenged the utility of cytoreductive nephrectomy in clinical practice. In 2019, the controversial CARMENA study was published, providing the first level one evidence suggesting that cytoreductive nephrectomy combined with targeted therapy yielded no survival advantage over targeted therapy alone in intermediate and poor risk metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients. Later that year, the SURTIME trial demonstrated that patients undergoing targeted therapy with delayed nephrectomy maintained a survival advantage over those that underwent upfront cytoreductive nephrectomy followed by targeted therapy. Both of these studies underscored the importance of patient selection and timing of cytoreductive nephrectomy and systemic therapy. As new immuno-oncologic agents are trialed, particularly in combination, the role of cytoreductive nephrectomy will continue to be questioned. In this narrative review, we discuss the evolution of the role of cytoreductive nephrectomy in treating metastatic renal cell carcinoma through the context of the ever-changing landscape of targeted therapies and immuno-oncologic agents. We assess the evidence for cytoreductive nephrectomy with respect to patient factors, timing of surgery, and combination with other therapies.Cold Atmospheric Plasma is a non-thermal processing technology with great potential for application to food products as it can effectively reduce the microbial load, leading to substantial shelf-life extension. Herein, we present an easy-to-build and cost-effective Surface Dielectric Barrier Discharge (SDBD) plasma source adjusted to the plastic lid of a common commercial food container made of transparent glass. Implementation and evaluation of plasma treatment in real perishable food products such as sea bream fillets, fresh-cut rocket salads and fresh whole strawberries showed that such device might be efficiently used in-storage for the extension of their shelf-life.•Easy-to-build and cost-effective SDBD plasma source adjusted in a food container for generation of antimicrobial RONS in proximity to treated food product•Treatment of perishable food products by reducing their initial microbial load•In-storage treatment efficient for perishable food products shelf-life extension.The integration of the inverter interfaced distributed generation (IIDG) challenges the conventional fault current calculation methods. The existing fault current calculation methods for distribution networks with IIDG connection generally use nodal admittance matrix and its implicit inverse, which take a longer calculation time and are not suitable for electrical engineering. To simplify the calculation process and reduce the calculation time, a new method was proposed. The new method can estimate fault currents of the feeders with IIDG connection with a higher computation speed, using fault current values obtained in networks without IIDG connection as the initial values in the procedure. The proposed method can obtain results without modifying the node impedance matrix and the calculation time was not affected by the nodes number, which can be used for fast short-circuit current calculation in radial distribution networks with IIDG connection. this website The new method can be conveniently integrated into software packages for power system analysis and relay protection evaluation.•The proposed method can estimate fault currents of the feeders with IIDG connection with a higher computation speed, which is beneficial for electrical engineering.•The new method has advantages in calculation time and accuracy of the results in comparison with the conventional bus-oriented methods.•The method proposed in this paper can be conveniently integrated into software packages for power system analysis and relay protection evaluation.Plastic pollution has become one of the most emergent issues threating aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. However, it is still challenging to rapidly detect small microplastics. Here, we present a method to rapidly detect microplastics using hyperspectral imaging in which we optimized a commercially available hyperspectral imaging system (Pika NIR-640, Resonon Inc., USA). The optimizations included (1) changing the four-lamp assembly to a symmetrical set of converged-light near-infrared lamps that are placed sideways instead of above the sample stage; (2) adopting a macro-photography technique by applying an extension tube between the camera and the lens, and moving the lens of the hyperspectral camera to the imaging target (working distance of ~3 cm); (3) adjusting the exposure and aspect ratio by tuning the frame rate and scan speed of the imaging system. After optimization, the detection resolution of each pixel improved from 250 µm to 14.8 µm. With the optimized system, microplastics down to 100 µm in size were rapidly detected. This result is promising for the application of our new method in the accelerated detection of microplastics and will contribute to a better understanding of the microplastic pollution situation.The vegetation water status is a crucial variable for modelling of drought impact, vegetation productivity and water fluxes. Methods for spatial estimation of this variable still need to be improved. The integration of remotely sensed data of land surface temperature (LST) and water vegetation indices based on near-infrared (NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) reflectance for estimation of vegetation water content and water available for evapotranspiration require more analysis. This study contains a detailed method and measurements of LST, NIR and SWIR reflectance of soybean, corn and barley taken in field campaigns in central Argentine Pampas and laboratory with a ST PRO Raytek (8-14 µm) and a spectrometer SVC HR-1024i (0.35 and 2.5 µm). Also, relative water content of leaves was measured in laboratory during the dehydration process. This method and dataset could be also used for researching other wavelengths between 0.35 and 2.5 µm as indicator of water vegetation status (e.g. solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, photosynthesis).