Effectiveness of physiotherapy interventions for improving erectile function and climacturia in men after prostatectomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effectiveness of physiotherapy interventions for postprostatectomy erectile dysfunction and climacturia. DATA SOURCES: Multiple databases were searched from database inception to February 2019. REVIEW METHODS: Randomized controlled trials comparing physiotherapy interventions to control were included. RESULTS: The search yielded 127 potentially relevant articles; seven met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Meta-analysis of two studies revealed a statistically significant effect of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) plus biofeedback compared to the no treatment control group for erectile function at the12-month follow-up period (risk ratio (RR) = 3.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.02-13.05; P = 0.05). Data from one small study (n = 31) identified a greater number of men reporting improved climacturia in the PFMT plus electrical stimulation group compared to the no treatment control group, and the overall effect was significant (RR = 15.60, 95% CI = 0.95-254.91; P = 0.05). Meta-analyses of two studies found no statistically significant differences between groups receiving PFMT and no treatment control for erectile function or climacturia at long-term follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: PFMT augmented with biofeedback improves erectile function after prostatectomy. Data from a single study found PFMT combined with electrical stimulation to be beneficial for postprostatectomy climacturia. However, electrical stimulation is recommended for terminally ill people only. The effect of PFMT alone on postprostatectomy erectile dysfunction and climacturia remains inconclusive. However, this is likely to be affected by the participant adherence and physiotherapy supervision. High-quality trials providing intensive supervision and due consideration of adherence factors are recommended.

Transurethral En Bloc Resection Versus Standard Resection of Bladder Tumour: A Randomised, Multicentre, Phase 3 Trial.

BACKGROUND: Conventionally, standard resection (SR) is performed by resecting the bladder tumour in a piecemeal manner. En bloc resection of the bladder tumour (ERBT) has been proposed as an alternative technique in treating non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether ERBT could improve the 1-yr recurrence rate of NMIBC, as compared with SR. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A multicentre, randomised, phase 3 trial was conducted in Hong Kong. Adults with bladder tumour(s) of ≤3 cm were enrolled from April 2017 to December 2020, and followed up until 1 yr after surgery. INTERVENTION: Patients were randomly assigned to receive either ERBT or SR in a 1:1 ratio. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The primary outcome was 1-yr recurrence rate. A modified intention-to-treat analysis on patients with histologically confirmed NMIBC was performed. The main secondary outcomes included detrusor muscle sampling rate, operative time, hospital stay, 30-d complications, any residual or upstaging of disease upon second-look transurethral resection, and 1-yr progression rate. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: A total of 350 patients underwent randomisation, and 276 patients were histologically confirmed to have NMIBC. At 1 yr, 31 patients in the ERBT group and 46 in the SR group developed recurrence; the Kaplan-Meier estimate of 1-yr recurrence rates were 29% (95% confidence interval, 18-37) in the ERBT group and 38% (95% confidence interval, 28-46) in the SR group (p = 0.007). Upon a subgroup analysis, patients with 1-3 cm tumour, single tumour, Ta disease, or intermediate-risk NMIBC had a significant benefit from ERBT. None of the patients in the ERBT group and three patients in the SR group developed progression to muscle-invasive bladder cancer; the Kaplan-Meier estimates of 1-yr progression rates were 0% in the ERBT group and 2.6% (95% confidence interval, 0-5.5) in the SR group (p = 0.065). The median operative time was 28 min (interquartile range, 20-45) in the ERBT group and 22 min (interquartile range, 15-30) in the SR group (p < 0.001). All other secondary outcomes were similar in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with NMIBC of ≤3 cm, ERBT resulted in a significant reduction in the 1-yr recurrence rate when compared with SR (funded by GRF/ECS, RGC, reference no.: 24116518; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02993211). PATIENT SUMMARY: Conventionally, non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer is treated by resecting the bladder tumour in a piecemeal manner. In this study, we found that en bloc resection, that is, removal of the bladder tumour in one piece, could reduce the 1-yr recurrence rate of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

Covalent immobilization of carbohydrates on sol-gel-coated microplates.

Carbohydrate microarrays have attracted increasing attention in recent years because of their ability to monitor biologically important protein-carbohydrate interactions in a high-throughput manner. Here we have developed an effective approach to immobilizing intact carbohydrates directly on polystyrene microtiter plates coated with amine-functionalized sol-gel monolayers. Lectin binding was monitored by fluorescence spectroscopy using these covalent arrays of carbohydrates that contained six mono- and di-saccharides on the microplates. In addition, binding affinities of lectin to carbohydrates were also quantitatively analyzed by determining IC(50) values of lectin-specific antibody with these arrays. Our results indicate that microplate-based carbohydrate arrays can be efficiently fabricated by covalent immobilization of intact carbohydrates on sol-gel-coated microplates. The microplate-based carbohydrate arrays can be applied for screening of protein-carbohydrate interactions in a high-throughput manner.

Genetic analysis of rice varietal diversity for rice blast control.

Two Indica hybrid rice of Shanyou63 (A) and Shanyou22 (B), two glutinous landraces of Huanghenuo (C) and Zinuo (D) and three improved Japonica rice of Hexi41 (E), Chujing12 (F) and 8126 (G) were selected and their genetic resistance relationship was estimated using resistance gene analogue (RGA). The results showed that there were similar genetic relationships between hybrid varieties at the genetic similarity (GS) of 0.86,and among improved Japonica varieties at the GS of 0.84, while highly genetic diversifications between traditional varieties, Indica and Japonica varieties, traditional and modern variety ( GS:0.45). The results also showed that clustering analysis based on RGA data were generally corresponded to known pedigrees and blast field resistances of the varieties. Based on varietal differences in RGA data and agronomic traits, plot experiments of five mixed-planting combinations of A/C, A/D, B/C, B/D and A/B and two combinations of E/C and E/F/G were conducted in Jianshui and Shiping counties ( Indica rice growing region) and Luxi County (warm Japonica region) in Yunnan Province in past two years, respectively. The results demonstrated that rice blast management was more effective in five mixed-planting combinations of varieties with different genetic backgrounds (GS: 0.45-0.77) than in two combinations with similar genetic relationships (GS: 0.84-0.90), compared with their monocultures. It is evident for the highly susceptible landraces in mixed-planting to achieve disease control, with significant decreases both in incidence and severity. The blast control efficiencies of landraces in different mixture combinations reached to 54.47%-92.18%. The control efficiencies of improved varieties varied from 15.12% to 25.54% in mixture combinations with closed genetic relationship. In addition,the total yield of 5 varietal combinations with distant genetic relationship increased 539.0-904.0 kg/ha in the mixed-planting plots, at increase rates of 5.6%-10.2%. Mixed rice varieties with similar genetic background did not achieve significant yield increase. Otherwise, the yield of E/F/G decreased 2.7%-4.0% compared with pure stand. The results can provide scientific basis of varietal combinations in diversification experiments for blast control.

Trityl-derivatized carbohydrates immobilized on a polystyrene microplate.

Carbohydrate biosensors, including carbohydrate arrays, are attracting increased attention for the comprehensive and high-throughput investigation of protein-carbohydrate interactions. Here, we describe an effective approach to fabricating a robust microplate-based carbohydrate array capable of probing protein binding and screening for inhibitors in a high-throughout manner. This approach involves the derivatization of carbohydrates with a trityl group through an alkyl linker and the immobilization of the trityl-derivatized carbohydrates (mannose and maltose) onto microplates noncovalently to construct carbohydrate arrays. The trityl carbohydrate derivative has very good immobilization efficiency for polystyrene microplates and strong resistance to aqueous washing. The carbohydrate arrays can probe the interactions with the lectin Concanavalin A and screen this protein for the well-known inhibitors methyl alpha-D-mannopyranoside and methyl alpha-D-glucopyranoside in a high-throughput manner. The method described in this paper represents a convenient way of fabricating robust noncovalent carbohydrate arrays on microplates and offers a convenient platform for high-throughput drug screening.

High-throughput determination of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) by a microplate-based biosensor.

The use of the conventional 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) method in BOD determination is greatly hampered by its time-consuming sampling procedure and its technical difficulty in the handling of a large pool of wastewater samples. Thus, it is highly desirable to develop a fast and high-throughput biosensor for BOD measurements. This paper describes the construction of a microplate-based biosensor consisting of an organically modified silica (ORMOSIL) oxygen sensing film for high-throughput determination of BOD in wastewater. The ORMOSIL oxygen sensing film was prepared by reacting tetramethoxysilane with dimethyldimethoxysilane in the presence of the oxygen-sensitive dye tris(4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline)ruthenium-(II) chloride. The silica composite formed a homogeneous, crack-free oxygen sensing film on polystyrene microtiter plates with high stability, and the embedded ruthenium dye interacted with the dissolved oxygen in wastewater according to the Stern-Volmer relation. The bacterium Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was loaded into the ORMOSIL/ PVA composite (deposited on the top of the oxygen sensing film) and used to metabolize the organic compounds in wastewater. This BOD biosensor was found to be able to determine the BOD values of wastewater samples within 20 min by monitoring the dissolved oxygen concentrations. Moreover, the BOD values determined by the BOD biosensor were in good agreement with those obtained by the conventional BOD5 method.

Enhancing the electrochemiluminescence of tris(2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) by ionic surfactants.

The dependence of the electrochemiluminescence of Ru(bpy)3(2+) (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine) with tri-n-propylamine as co-reactant on the anionic surfactant SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate) and the cationic surfactants CTAX (CTA = cetyltrimethylammonium cation, X = bromide, chloride and hydrogensulfate) was studied. Both SDS and CTAX, at low surfactant concentrations below the critical micelle concentrations, enhance the electrochemiluminescence at a platinum working electrode. A further enhancement of the light emission intensity by bromide ions was observed when CTAB (B = bromide) was used-an overall 30-fold increase in electrochemiluminescence efficiency was obtained at a CTAB concentration of 0.08 mM. Voltammetric data support adsorption of surfactant molecules on the electrode surface as the cause of the enhancement of electrochemiluminescence by ionic surfactants.

Electronic spectroscopy, photophysical properties, and emission quenching studies of an oxidatively robust perfluorinated platinum porphyrin.

The highly electron-deficient, beta-octafluorinated meso-tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)-porphyrin (H(2)F(28)TPP) was metalated with platinum to afford the oxidatively robust luminophore [PtF(28)TPP], and its X-ray structure shows that the porphyrin core exists in a slightly saddle-shaped conformation. The absorption spectrum of [PtF(28)TPP] in CH(2)Cl(2) displays a near-UV Soret band (B) at 383 nm (epsilon = 2.85 x 10(5) dm(3) mol(-1) cm(-1)) and two visible Q(1,0) and Q(0,0) bands at 501 (epsilon = 1.45 x 10(4) dm(3) mol(-1) cm(-1)) and 533 (epsilon = 1.36 x 10(4) dm(3) mol(-1) cm(-1)) nm, respectively. These absorption bands of [PtF(28)TPP] are blue-shifted from those in [PtF(20)TPP] (390, 504, and 538 nm, respectively) and [PtTPP] (401, 509, and 539 nm, respectively). Excitation of [PtF(28)TPP] (complex concentration = 1.5 x 10(-6) mol dm(-3)) in dichloromethane at the Soret or Q(1,0) or Q(0,0) band gave a phosphorescence with peak maximum at 650 nm (lifetime = 5.8 micros) and a weak shoulder at 712 nm. Both the emission lifetime and quantum yield vary with solvent polarity, and plots of tau versus E(K) and Phi versus E(K) (where E(K) is the empirical solvent polarity parameter based on the hypsochromic shift of the longest wavelength absorption of the [Mo(CO)(4)[(C(5)H(4)N)HC[double bond]NCH(2)C(6)H(5)]] complex with increasing solvent polarity; see: Kamlet, M. J.; Abboud, J. L. M.; Taft, R. W. Prog. Phys. Org. Chem. 1981, 13, pp 485-630) show linear correlation, indicating that the emission is sensitive to the local environment/medium. Electrochemical studies on [PtF(28)TPP] by cyclic voltammetry showed no porphyrin-centered oxidation at potential < or = 1.5 V versus Ag/AgNO(3), demonstrating that [PtF(28)TPP] is more resistant toward oxidation than [PtF(20)TPP] (E(1/2) = 1.33 V) and [PtTPP] (E(1/2) = 0.97 V). The porphyrin-centered reduction of [PtF(28)TPP] occurs at -0.75 and -1.18 V, which is anodically shifted from those at -1.06 and -1.55 V in [PtF(20)TPP], and -1.51 V in [PtTPP], respectively. The excited-state reduction potential of [PtF(28)TPP] is estimated to be 1.49 V versus Ag/AgNO(3). Over 97% of the emission intensity of [PtF(28)TPP] was retained after irradiation with a high power mercury arc lamp (500 W) for 14 h, compared to 90% and 12% for [PtF(20)TPP] and [PtTPP], respectively; hence, [PtF(28)TPP] exhibits superior photostability. Quenching of the emission of [PtF(28)TPP] by oxygen, alcohol, catechol, and butylamine reveals that [PtF(28)TPP] is an oxidatively robust material with medium-sensitive photoluminescence properties.