Baseline metastatic growth rate is an independent prognostic marker in patients with advanced BRAF V600 mutated melanoma receiving targeted therapy.

Background: Targeted therapy (TT) of BRAF V600 mutated unresectable melanoma with inhibitors of the MAPK pathway achieves response rates of up to 76%, but most patients develop secondary resistance. Albeit TT is strikingly efficacious during the first days of treatment, even in advanced cases, long-term survival is highly unlikely, especially in patients with unfavorable baseline characteristics like elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). In patients treated with anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors, elevated baseline metastatic growth rate (MGR) was the most important prognostic factor.

Scalable Gas Diffusion Electrode Fabrication for Electrochemical CO Reduction Using Physical Vapor Deposition Methods.

Electrochemical CO reduction (ECR) promises the replacement of fossil fuels as the source of feedstock chemicals and seasonal storage of renewable energy. While much progress has been made in catalyst development and electrochemical reactor design, few studies have addressed the effect of catalyst integration on device performance. Using a microfluidic gas diffusion electrolyzer, we systematically studied the effect of thickness and the morphology of electron beam (EB) and magnetron-sputtered (MS) Cu catalyst coatings on ECR performance.

Evaluating the stability and activity of dilute Cu-based alloys for electrochemical CO reduction.

Cu-based catalysts currently offer the most promising route to actively and selectively produce value-added chemicals via electrochemical reduction of CO (eCOR); yet further improvements are required for their wide-scale deployment in carbon mitigation efforts. Here, we systematically investigate a family of dilute Cu-based alloys to explore their viability as active and selective catalysts for eCOR through a combined theoretical-experimental approach. Using a quantum-classical modeling approach that accounts for dynamic solvation effects, we assess the stability and activity of model single-atom catalysts under eCOR conditions.

New pedotransfer approaches to predict soil bulk density using WoSIS soil data and environmental covariates in Mediterranean agro-ecosystems.

For the estimation of the soil organic carbon stocks, bulk density (BD) is a fundamental parameter but measured data are usually not available especially when dealing with legacy soil data. It is possible to estimate BD by applying pedotransfer function (PTF). We applied different estimation methods with the aim to define a suitable PTF for BD of arable land for the Mediterranean Basin, which has peculiar climate features that may influence the soil carbon sequestration.