PEDOT/PVC-modified amperometric carbon electrodes for acetylcholine detection.

We present here new amperometric electrodes for the selective and quantitative detection of acetylcholine. The detection was achieved based on the electrodeposition of a carbon electrode with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) followed by the drop-casting of an ionophore-doped poly(vinyl) chloride (PVC) membrane. This work paves the way for future applied research to study neurological disorders.

A predictive analysis of CO2 emissions, environmental policy stringency, and economic growth in China.

This study takes environmental policy stringency and economic activity as the controlling variables and forecasts the CO2 emissions in China up to 2022. In doing so, an application of corrected grey model with convolution is used over the annual time series data between 1990 and 2012. The simulation results show that (1) between 2012 and 2022, CO2 emissions in China is expected to increase at an average rate of 17.46% annually, raising the emissions intensity from 7.04 in 2012 to 25.461 metric tons per capita by 2022; (2) stringent environmental policies reduce CO2 emissions-whereas, GDP tends to increase the emissions intensity in China; (3) stringent environmental policies are found to have a negative impact on GDP in China. Based on the empirical findings, the study also provides some policy suggestions to reduce emissions intensity in China.

Nonsurgical management of oropharyngeal, laryngeal, and hypopharyngeal cancer: the Fox Chase Cancer Center experience.

BACKGROUND: Oropharyngeal, laryngeal, and hypopharyngeal cancer treatment has changed at our institution, but survival outcomes have not been evaluated. METHODS: We approached the evaluation by a retrospective single-institution cohort study. RESULTS: Review of 180 patient records from 1993 to 2004 revealed that the number of patients with oropharyngeal cancer treated nearly doubled, whereas the number of patients with laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers declined (p = .006). Since 2000, concurrent chemotherapeutic regimens rather than radiation alone became the dominant treatment approach, with associated improvements in recurrence-free and overall survival (p = .009 and p = .006, respectively). Stratification by tumor site, however, revealed the survival of patients with oropharyngeal cancer improved markedly, whereas the survival of patients with laryngeal cancer did not change. In the multivariate analysis, T classification (p = .0001) and chemotherapy use (p = .0001) were associated with improved survival. The recurrence-free survival of nonsmokers was better than that for former or current smokers (p = .01), but was accounted for by earlier T classification on presentation in the multivariate analysis (p = .0001). The predominant initial site of failure remained at the primary site for oropharyngeal cancer (14 of 17 relapses or 82%), but not laryngeal cancer (3 of 7 relapses or 42%). As a result, an increasing number of patients with recurrent oropharyngeal cancer, and a decreasing number of recurrent laryngeal cancer patients were evaluated for salvage surgery. Patients with oropharyngeal recurrences, however, were less likely to undergo surgery with curative intent (p = .02) and were less likely to achieve locoregional control after disease recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: The survival of patients with oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers treated at our institution has improved over the last 15 years, which is likely related to changes in treatment and tumor biology. The improvement was not observed in patients with laryngeal cancer. A subset of patients with oropharyngeal cancer remain subject to local failure and disease-related death.