Cell-free synthesis of silver nanoparticles in spent media of different species.

The recovery and valorization of metals and rare earth metals from wastewater are of great importance to prevent environmental pollution and recover valuable resources. Certain bacterial and fungal species are capable of removing metal ions from the environment by facilitating their reduction and precipitation. Even though the phenomenon is well documented, little is known about the mechanism.

TP53 Mutational Status and Prediction of Benefit from Adjuvant 5-Fluorouracil in Stage III Colon Cancer Patients.

We investigated the hypothesis that the varying treatment efficacy of adjuvant 5-fluorouracil (5FU) in stage III colon cancer is linked to the TP53 mutational status. ABCSG-90 was a prospective randomized trial in which effect of adjuvant 5FU was studied in stage III colon cancer patients. Tumor material of 70% of these patients (389/572) was available for analysis of the biomarker TP53 using a TP53-gene-specific Sanger sequencing protocol.

Differential survival trends of stage II colorectal cancer patients relate to promoter methylation status of PCDH10, SPARC, and UCHL1.

Surgical excision of colorectal cancer at early clinical stages is highly effective, but 20-30% of patients relapse. Therefore, it is of clinical relevance to identify patients at high risk for recurrence, who would benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. The objective of this study was to identify prognostic and/or predictive methylation markers in stage II colorectal cancer patients.

Efficacy of tamoxifen ± aminoglutethimide in normal weight and overweight postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer: an analysis of 1509 patients of the ABCSG-06 trial.

Background: There exists evidence that body mass index (BMI) impacts on the efficacy of aromatase inhibitors in patients with breast cancer. The relationship between BMI and the efficacy of tamoxifen is conflicting. We investigated the impact of BMI on the efficacy of single tamoxifen and tamoxifen plus an aromatase inhibitor in the well-defined prospective study population of the ABCSG-06 trial.

CPMD simulation of a bimolecular chemical reaction: nucleophilic attack of a disulfide bond under mechanical stress.

Previous single-molecule atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments showed a change in the reactivity of a bimolecular substitution reaction with a definite force acting on a protein containing disulfide bonds. Using Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics (CPMD) simulations, we analyse the relevant reaction pathways for the breaking of a disulfide bond in the presence of nucleophiles.

First-in-man experience with a new 7F vascular closure device (EXOSEAL™): the 7F ECLIPSE study.

Objective: This feasibility study examined safety and effectiveness of the new EXOSEAL™ Vascular Closure Device (VCD) designed to promote hemostasis and early ambulation after percutaneous procedures.

Background: Most VCDs currently approved by the United States FDA have been associated with significantly shorter time-to-hemostasis (TTH) and time-to-ambulation (TTA) compared to standard manual or mechanical compression, but their ease of use, patient comfort during deployment, and safety profiles are variable.

Methods: Patients underwent diagnostic or interventional procedures using 7F introducer sheaths.

Electrolysis of water in the diffusion layer: first-principles molecular dynamics simulation.

With Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations the elementary reaction steps of the electrolysis of bulk water are investigated. To simulate the reactions occurring near the anode and near the cathode, electrons are removed or added, respectively. The study focuses on the reactions in pure water.

Disulfide bond cleavage: a redox reaction without electron transfer.

By using Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics (CPMD) simulations we have simulated a mechanically induced redox reaction. Previous single-molecule atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments demonstrated that the reduction of disulfide bonds in proteins with the weak reducing agent dithiothreitol depends on a mechanical destabilization of the breaking bond. With reactive molecular dynamics simulations the single steps of the reaction mechanism can be elucidated and the motion of the electrons can be monitored.

Delayed Chylothorax Following Blunt Chest Trauma.

Chylothorax is a very rare disease, and its diagnosis following blunt chest trauma is exceptional. Only a small number of cases have been reported in the literature. We report a case of a male patient involved in a car accident presenting a delayed chylothorax after blunt chest trauma with a bilateral serial rib fracture and fracture of the ninth thoracic vertebrae.

Dephasing of exciton polaritons in photoexcited InGaAs quantum dots in GaAs nanocavities.

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of the emission spectrum of zero dimensional nanocavity polaritons in electrically tunable single dot nanocavities. Such devices allow us to vary the dot-cavity detuning in situ and probe the emission spectrum under well-controlled conditions of lattice temperature and incoherent excitation level. Our results show that the observation of a double peak in the emission spectrum is not an unequivocal signature of strong coupling.

Extended adjuvant therapy with anastrozole among postmenopausal breast cancer patients: results from the randomized Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group Trial 6a.

Background: Clinical trial data have shown that among breast cancer patients who were disease free after 5 years of adjuvant treatment with tamoxifen, further extended treatment with the nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor letrozole reduces breast cancer recurrence. We examined the efficacy and tolerability of extended adjuvant therapy with another aromatase inhibitor, anastrozole, for 3 years among women who had completed 5 years of adjuvant therapy.

Methods: Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group (ABCSG) Trial 6a is an extension of ABCSG Trial 6, in which hormone receptor-positive postmenopausal patients received 5 years of adjuvant tamoxifen, with or without the aromatase inhibitor aminoglutethimide, for the first 2 years of therapy.

A prospective randomised phase III trial of adjuvant chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin in patients with stage II colon cancer.

The purpose of this trial was to investigate the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and leucovorin (LV) in stage II colon cancer. Patients with stage II colon cancer were randomised to either adjuvant chemotherapy with 5-FU/LV (100 mg m(-2) LV+450 mg m(-2) 5-FU weekly, weeks 1-6, in 8 weeks cycles x 7) or surveillance only. Five hundred patients were evaluable for analyses.

Electrophilicity parameters for 2-benzylidene-indan-1,3-diones--a systematic extension of the benzhydrylium based electrophilicity scale.

Kinetics of the reactions of four 2-benzylidene-indan-1,3-diones (1a-d) with carbanions (2a-I) have been studied photometrically in dimethyl sulfoxide solution at 20 degrees C, and the electrophilicity parameters E were determined by the linear free energy relationship log k(2)(20 degrees C) = s(N + E) (eqn (1)). The rate-determining step of these reactions is the nucleophilic attack of the carbon nucleophile at the double bond of the Michael acceptor. Comparisons with literature data show that the linear free energy relationship (eqn (1)) allows the semiquantitative prediction of the reactivities of 2-benzylidene-indan-1,3-diones towards various nucleophiles.

Lumpectomy plus tamoxifen or anastrozole with or without whole breast irradiation in women with favorable early breast cancer.

Purpose: In women with favorable early breast cancer treated by lumpectomy plus tamoxifen or anastrazole, it remains unclear whether whole breast radiotherapy is beneficial.

Methods And Material: Between January 1996 and June 2004, the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group (ABCSG) randomly assigned 869 women to receive breast radiotherapy +/- boost (n = 414) or not (n = 417) after breast-conserving surgery (ABCSG Study 8A). Favorable early breast cancer was specified as tumor size <3 cm, Grading 1 or 2, negative lymph nodes, positive estrogen and/or progesterone receptor status, and manageable by breast-conserving surgery.

Oxacalix[3]arene complexes with the ReI(CO)3 fragment.

Oxacalix[3]arenes p-methyloxacalix[3]arene (L(1)), p-isopropyloxacalix[3]arene (L2), and p-ethoxycarbonyloxacalix[3]arene (L3) are able to bind the Re(I)(CO)3 moiety with two of their three phenol-O atoms and one of their ether-O atoms. The monoanionic complexes were isolated in the salts (DBUH)[Re(CO)3(L1H-2)].L1 (1) and (NEt4)[Re(CO)3(L2H-2)].

Towards carbohydrate derivatives of the ReI(CO)3 fragment.

With the [Re(CO)(3)Br(3)](2-) ion as a precursor for the Re(I)(CO)(3) fragment, the diols (1R,2R)-cyclohexane-1,2-diol [(1R,2R)-Chxd], anhydroerythritol (AnEryt), and (1S,2S)-cyclopentane-1,2-diol [(1S,2S)-Cptd] form dinuclear monoanions in the salts (NBu(4))[(Re(2)(CO)(6){mu-(1R,2R)-ChxdH(-1)}(3)] (1), [K([18]crown-6)][Re(2)(CO)(6)(mu-OMe)(2)(mu-AnErytH(-1))] (2) and (NBu(4))[Re(2)(CO)(6){mu-(1S,2S)-CptdH(-1)}(3)] (3). The monoanionic diolato ligands in these triply bridged dirhenates(I) are monodentate. Bridging triolato ligation in the trirhenates(I) is supported by the anions of glycerol (Glyc) and methyl beta-D-ribopyranoside (Me-beta-D-Ribp), the latter binding in its (1)C(4) conformation, in (DBUH)(2)[Re(3)(CO)(9)(mu(3)-O)(mu(3)-GlycH(-3))]0.

A prospective randomised trial to study the role of levamisole and interferon alfa in an adjuvant therapy with 5-FU for stage III colon cancer.

The purpose of this trial was to examine the efficacy of the addition of levamisole (LEV) or interferon alfa (IFN) to an adjuvant chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in patients with stage III colon cancer. According to a 2 x 2 factorial study design, 598 patients were randomly assigned to one of four adjuvant treatment arms. Patients in arm one received 5-FU weekly for 1 year, patients in arm two 5-FU plus LEV, in arm three 5-FU plus IFN and patients in arm four 5-FU, LEV and IFN.

Intermingled basins in a two species system.

We present simple examples of (competitive) two species systems with complicated dynamic behaviour. From almost all initial conditions one of the two species dies out. But the survivor is unpredictable: The basins of the two chaotic one-species attractors are everywhere dense and intermingled.

[Poisoning with a podophyllin-containing wart-treating tincture].

History And Admission Findings: A 57-year-old depressive and alcohol-dependent man was admitted because of frequent nausea and vomiting and abdominal complaints after he had ingested 40 ml of a tincture for treating warts. He was under the influence of alcohol, but normally oriented and without contributory findings other than his gastrointestinal complaints and tachypnea.

Investigations: Transaminases were raised (GOT 1197 U/l, GPT 170 U/l, gammaGT 150 U/l, LDH 2047 U/l), as were creatine phosphokinase (426 U/l) and ferritin (12 200 ng/ml).

TP53 genotype but not p53 immunohistochemical result predicts response to preoperative short-term radiotherapy in rectal cancer.

Objective: To evaluate and compare the predictive power of p53 gene analysis versus p53 immunohistochemical staining in terms of response to preoperative short-term radiotherapy using 25 Gy in operable rectal cancer.

Summary Background Data: Recent studies show that p53 may be a determinant of radiosensitivity being required for induction of apoptosis in case of radiation-induced DNA damage.

Methods: Preirradiation biopsy samples of 64 patients with rectal carcinoma were analyzed.

[Therapy studies of the Austrian Breast Cancer Group (ABC)].

The Austrian Breast Cancer Group (ABC) consisting of more than 60 participating centers in Austria has randomized more than 5800 patients in 11 randomized trials since 1984. At present, roughly 30% of all patients with the diagnosis primary breast cancer are accrued in protocols throughout the country. Due to specific activities, the breast conservation rate raised from an initial 20% to more than 60% in the last years.

Adjuvant intraperitoneal cisplatin chemotherapy does not improve long-term survival after surgery for advanced gastric cancer.

Purpose: The long-term survival probability of patients who undergo surgery for stage 3 and 4 gastric cancer is poor, predominantly due to metastatic spread of the tumor. Depending on the type of tumor histology, the pathway of metastases is mainly peritoneal or hepatic dissemination. Interruption of this mechanism may be possible by intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IPT).