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Crizotinib is a multikinase inhibitor, effective in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring mesenchymal-epidermal transition (MET) alterations. Although small prospective studies showed efficacy and safety of crizotinib in NSCLC with MET alterations, there is limited real-life data. Aim of this study is to investigate real-life efficacy and safety of crizotinib in patients with advanced NSCLC harboring MET alterations. This was a retrospective, multicenter (17 centers) study of Turkish Oncology Group. Patients' demographic, histological data, treatment, response rates, survival outcomes, and toxicity data were collected. Outcomes were presented for the study population and compared between MET alteration types. Total of 62 patients were included with a median age of 58.5 (range, 26-78). Major histological type was adenocarcinoma, and 3 patients (4.8%) had sarcomatoid component. The most common MET analyzing method was next generation sequencing (90.3%). MET amplification and mutation frequencies were 53.2% (n?=?33) and 46.8% (n?=?29), respectively. Overall response rate and disease control rate were 56.5% and 74.2% in whole study population, respectively. Median progression free survival (PFS) was 7.2 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.8-10.5), and median overall survival (OS) was 18.7 months (95% CI: 13.7-23.7), regardless of treatment line. Median PFS was 6.1 months (95% CI: 5.6-6.4) for patients with MET amplification, whereas 14.3 months (95% CI: 6.7-21.7) for patients with MET mutation (P?=?.217). Median PFS was significantly longer in patients who have never smoked (P?=?.040), have good performance score (P?

Background: The rate of surgical site infection (SSI) after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) is high and insertion of preoperative bile duct catheterization (PBDC) predispose a high risk of SSI with multidrug resistant (MDR) microorganisms. Aim: To describe the effects of PBDC and the prophylaxis in development of SSI. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study between January 01, 2010 and December 2018 including the patients with PD and total pancreatectomy. Findings: In total 214 consecutive patients were included. The PBDC was inserted to 63 (29%) patients. The rate of intraoperative bile fluid culture positivity was higher among the patients with PBDC (84% vs. 17% respectively, p < 0.001). The SSI was detected in 52 patients (24%). In multivariate analysis, the rate of SSI was found to be higher among the patients with PBDC (OR: 2.33, 95% Cl: 1.14–4.76, p = 0.02). As the etiologic agents of SSI, Pseudomonas spp. and MDR pathogens were mainly detected in PBDC group. The resistance to ampicillin-sulbactam was significantly higher in the PBDC group (87.5% vs. 25%, p = 0.012). The similar bacterial species both in bile fluid and the surgical site were detected in 11 (21%) patients with SSI. Among 8 patients (15%), antimicrobial susceptibility was the same. Only in five out of 52 (10%) patients, the SSI pathogens was susceptible to the agent that was used for surgical prophylaxis. Conclusion: Unnecessary catheterizations should be avoided. By considering the increasing prevalence of resistant bacteria as the cause of SSI, the clinicians should closely follow-up their patients for choosing the proper antimicrobials., NA

The higher education sector as a bastion of sustainability research has embarked in continual efforts to make its buildings more sustainable. Besides being environmentally friendly and economically feasible in the long run, there are perceptions that sustainable buildings are more user friendly and that their occupants are more satisfied than those in conventional buildings. However, research findings in this particular aspect of sustainability are inconclusive and even conflicting. Therefore, this research aims to study the occupant satisfaction of sustainable and conventional buildings in a higher education institution in Australia. The results show that generally there is no significant difference in occupant satisfaction between sustainable and conventional buildings. A goal of sustainable buildings to improve the wellbeing of building occupants apparently has not been achieved based on the findings of this research. There is a possibility that the development of sustainable buildings mainly focuses on the environmental aspect while the social aspect tends to be neglected. The results further show that focusing on thermal comfort is the most effective way to improve occupant satisfaction. Future developments of sustainable buildings should evolve further and find the right balance among the triple bottom line of sustainability so that they truly are sustainable buildings.

Alibaba Group is the world biggest global electronic marketplace(GEM) in relation tousers and the main Chinese e-Commerce company operating in B2B. It offers a virtual marketplace and connects medium and small size enterprises (SMEs) in China and around the world. Before the company came along, B2B electronic markets in China were not developed. Some obstacles prevent the company to grow. Business structures were very costly and inadequate for local SME in China, the corporate culture did not promote the innovation of IT and trust and confidence were obstacles to the promotion of e-business in China. Equally, since 1990 the population of internet has raised thanks to ITC. The Chinese economic Reform and the new policy increased foreign direct investments. E-Business was an opportunity to have success. In this scenery, Alibaba looked the necessities of the SMEs and supported them to compete domestically and globally. In this paper, we firstly analyze Alibaba’s development and its Business model. Next, I will show through a qualitative research method, the factors of Alibaba’s success over time and its main business strategies.

The research looks at the possible advantages of which Italian companies and public entities could benefit looking at Islamic finance as a viable alternative to conventional finance, in a context characterized by a growing presence of Islamic citizens throughout Europe and Italy and by increasing interest in investing in Italy by Islamic investors. The research investigates the possibility for an Italian entity (corporate or sovereign) to issue a sukuk with a national real-estate underlying, under the current legal, fiscal and technical framework. The aim is to concretely contribute to the awareness about the opportunities that Islamic finance could bring with it and to promote fiscal, normative and regulatory obstacles removal, in order to create a level playing field-as the United Kingdom did-that would allow Islamic finance to develop also in Italy

Sustainability matters along with attention to a company’s social and environmental commitment and the related (complex) performance is far from new in the literature, but the last years have pressed both academics and managers by urgent issues such as climate changes and disasters, poverty, economic and social crisis in many countries, human rights violations, health concerns and so on. Also, the end of twentieth century saw unprecedented changes in corporate strategy and management towards sustainable thinking-the emergence of sustainability as corporate strategy, and making sustainability an integral part of a company’s business strategy in order to gain bottom-line benefits and to accomplish new law requirements. In such a global, unstable, market, sustainability becomes an investable concept, crucial in driving interest and investments to the mutual benefit of companies and investors. Toyota’s commitment for a sustainable management has been developed since decades ago and continues nowadays, representing a perfect example for the whole market, and witnessing the urgency of an integrated approach along the supply chain, in order to gain competitive advantage through ‘sustainability’.