Durvalumab with or without bevacizumab with transarterial chemoembolisation in hepatocellular carcinoma (EMERALD-1): a multiregional, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study.

Background: Transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) is standard of care for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma that is amenable to embolisation; however, median progression-free survival is still approximately 7 months. We aimed to assess whether adding durvalumab, with or without bevacizumab, might improve progression-free survival.

Methods: In this multiregional, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study (EMERALD-1), adults aged 18 years or older with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma amenable to embolisation, an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1 at enrolment, and at least one measurable intrahepatic lesion per modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours (RECIST) were enrolled at 157 medical sites including research centres and general and specialist hospitals in 18 countries.

Relations Between Executive Functions and Reading Comprehension: A Study of Fourth-Grade Students with and Without Reading Comprehension Difficulties.

Background: The role of non-linguistic factors, such as executive functions, in the reading comprehension process has been analyzed. The present research sought to investigate the relationship between executive functions and reading comprehension.

Methods: In an exploratory cross-sectional study, a group of 89 fourth-grade students were evaluated, considering a balanced number of children with and without reading comprehension difficulties.

Force of adhesion between droplets and super-hydrophobic surfaces: Closed-form analytical expressions.

Super-hydrophobic and liquid-repellent surfaces can be characterized experimentally in tensile adhesion experiments with the force (FAdh) required to detach a droplet from such surfaces, but analytical expressions that relate FAdh to the surface energy, w, are still missing. In this work, we derive analytical expressions for FAdh between droplets or radius r and super-hydrophobic surfaces on which the contact angle is greater than 150°. By applying the general condition for the onset of instability in different mechanical configurations, we find FAdh = -πwr and FAdh ≈ -(4/5)πwr, for the fixed-force and fixed-grip configurations, respectively, as well as other expressions that depend on the ratio of the spring constant of a generic force measuring apparatus to the surface tension of the liquid composing the droplet.

SPA14 liposomes combining saponin with fully synthetic TLR4 agonist provide adjuvanticity to hCMV vaccine candidate.

In the aim of designing and developing a novel saponin-based adjuvant system, we combined the QS21 saponin with low microgram amounts of the fully synthetic TLR4 agonist, E6020, in cholesterol-containing liposomes. The resulting adjuvant system, termed SPA14, appeared as a long-term stable and homogeneous suspension of mostly unilamellar and a few multilamellar vesicles, with an average hydrodynamic diameter of 93 nm, when formulated in citrate buffer at pH 6.0-6.