Optimal interval to surgery after chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer: A protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Rectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the Western world. Preoperative neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) has been widely performed in the treatment of rectal cancer patients. However, there is no consensus on the length of waiting interval between the end of preoperative nCRT and surgery. Present network meta-analysis (NMA) aims to compare the differences of effect between all available interval to surgery after nCRT in rectal cancer in improving overall survival, disease-free survival and pathologic complete response (pCR) rate, and to rate the certainty of evidence from present NMA. METHOD: We will systematically search PubMed, EMBASE, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) databases to identify studies assessing the interval to surgery after CRT in rectal cancer. We will conduct this systematic review and meta-analysis using Bayesian method and report the full-text according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) Extension Vision statement (PRISMA-NMA). We will assess the risk of bias of individual study using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and Cochrane Handbook V.5.1.0. We will also use the advance of GRADE to rate the certainty of NMA. Data will be analyzed by using R software V.3.4.1. RESULTS: The results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this systematic review and NMA will first use both direct and indirect evidence to compare the differences of all available interval to surgery after CRT in rectal cancer. This is a protocol of systematic review and meta-analysis, so the ethical approval and patient consent are not required.

Synthesis, Characterization and Adsorption Properties of Magnetic γ-Fe2O3/C Nanocomposite.

γ-Fe2O3/C nanocomposite was prepared through a convenient method by which one-pot synthesized Fe3O4/Starch was oxidized and carbonized by calcining at 250 °C. The γ-Fe2O3/C displayed strong magnetism and could adsorb organic molecules from aqueous solution effectively, thus it showed promising application in the dislodgement of organic pollutants in sewage. Adsorption isotherms and kinetics of methylene blue (MB) onto γ-Fe2O3/C were studied in a batch system. The adsorption process reached equilibrium in about 15 min, and the maximum adsorption capacity of MB was found to be 64.9 mg g-1 at 303 K. Adsorption isotherms were well fitted to Langmuir model and the adsorption kinetics could be described by the pseudo-second order kinetic equation. The findings of the present work highlight a new facile method to fabricate magnetic carbon-based composites and the obtained γ-Fe2O3/C with excellent magnetic property and adsorption performance hold great promise for practical application in water treatment.

Monocrystalline mesoporous metal oxide with perovskite structure: a facile solid-state transformation of a coordination polymer.

Monocrystalline mesoporous BiFeO3 crystals were obtained via a multi-step single-crystal to single-crystal transformation of a coordination polymer, Bi[Fe(CN)6]·4H2O. This unique transformation process significantly decreased the crystallization temperature of perovskite oxide without losing high crystallinity.

One-step hydrothermal synthesis of Fe3O4@C nanoparticles with great performance in biomedicine.

Core-shell structured Fe3O4@C nanoparticles were fabricated by a facile one-pot hydrothermal route. The structure and component of the nanoparticles were fully characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, magnetometry and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface area measurements. The obtained Fe3O4@C nanoparticles possessed favorable dispersibility, high saturation magnetization (61.4 emu g-1) that could quickly respond to external magnetic field and excellent biocompatibility. Excitingly, the experiments of the Fe3O4@C nanoparticles as drug carriers revealed an efficient drug-loading as high as 1.08 mg mg-1. More importantly, the drug loading composite exhibited pH-responsive release profiles and the duration was as long as 200 h; at the pH value of 5.8 and 7.4, the release rate was 93.7% and 33.6%, respectively. Furthermore, the obtained Fe3O4@C nanoparticles had good magneto-thermal ability. All these positive attributes make the as-prepared Fe3O4@C nanoparticles a promising platform for further biomedical evaluations.

Microfluidic devices with disposable enzyme electrode for electrochemical monitoring of glucose concentrations.

This article describes the fabrication of tube-like microchannels made of UV curable polymer on a glass substrate and the device assembling with a disposable enzyme-working electrode for high-sensitivity electrochemical detection. While both reference and counter electrodes are patterned on the surface of the glass substrate, the working electrode is flipped on the top of the channel with an open access, providing a face-to-face probing configuration. When the enzyme electrode is contaminated or degraded, it can be easily replaced by a new one, keeping the main body of the device and the detection schema unchanged. Using glucose oxidase-coated gold electrodes, we were able to determine a linear amperometry response to the glucose concentrations in the range of 2-16 mM. By replacing the as-prepared working electrode by the one after thermal treatments, we showed a much more degraded enzyme electrode activity, enabling efficient determination of the electrode quality as well as the whole process optimization.