The utility of the 21-gene Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score assay in node-negative breast cancer patients - the final analysis of the Polish real-life survey PONDx.

Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is among the most frequently diagnosed malignant tumours in females. The optimal treatment of early HR+, HER2-, and lymph node-negative (N0) BC remains challenging. Since individual assessment of recurrence risk and expected benefits from adjuvant chemotherapy (CT) based on clinicopathological features alone appear inadequate, gene expression profiling tests have been developed.

Novel 3D textile structures and geometries for electrofluidics.

The integration of microfluidics with electric field control, commonly referred to as electrofluidics, has led to new opportunities for biomedical analysis. The requirement for closed microcapillary channels in microfluidics, typically formed via complex microlithographic fabrication approaches, limits the direct accessibility to the separation processes during conventional electrofluidic devices. Textile structures provide an alternative and low-cost approach to overcome these limitations via providing open and surface-accessible capillary channels.

Electrofluidic control for textile-based cell culture: Identification of appropriate conditions required to integrate cell culture with electrofluidics.

Electric field-driven microfluidics, known as electrofluidics, is a novel attractive analytical tool when it is integrated with low-cost textile substrate. Textile-based electrofluidics, primarily explored on yarn substrates, is in its early stages, with few studies on 3D structures. Further, textile structures have rarely been used in cellular analysis as a low-cost alternative.

A UK prospective multicentre decision impact, decision conflict and economic evaluation of the 21-gene assay in women with node+ve, hormone receptor+ve, HER2-ve breast cancer.

Background: For a tumour profiling test to be of value, it needs to demonstrate that it is changing clinical decisions, improving clinical confidence, and of economic benefit. This trial evaluated the use of the Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score® assay against these criteria in 680 women with hormone receptor-positive (HR+), HER2-negative early breast cancer with 1-3 lymph nodes positive (LN+) in the UK National Health Service (NHS).

Methods: Prior to receipt of the Recurrence Score (RS) result, both the physician and the patient were asked to state their preference for or against chemotherapy and their level of confidence on a scale of 1-5.

Toward Three-Dimensional Printed Thermal Conductive Polymeric Composites Using a Binary-Composite Hybrid Based on Boron Nitride Nanoparticles and Micro-Diamonds.

Thermally conductive polymeric composites are promising for heat management in microelectronic devices. This work presents a binary-hybrid composite of boron nitride (BN) nanoparticles and micro-diamond (D) fillers in an elastomeric polyurethane (PU) matrix which can be three- dimensionally printed to produce a highly flexible and self-supporting structure. The research shows that a combination of 16.

Tuning the electrophoretic separations on a surface-accessible and flexible fibre-based microfluidic devices.

Electrophoresis on textile fiber substrates provides a unique surface-accessible platform for the movement, separation and concentration of charged analytes. The method employs the inherently inbuilt capillary channels existing within textile structures, which can support electroosmotic and electrophoretic transport processes upon applying an electric field. Unlike confined microchannels in classical chip-based electrofluidic devices, the capillaries formed by the roughly oriented fibers within textile substrates can impact the reproducibility of the separation process.

Nanomaterial-assisted thread-based isotachophoresis with on-thread solute trapping.

This research describes a nanomaterial-assisted thread-based isotachophoresis (TB-ITP) setup for the clean-up, preconcentration, and trapping of alkaloids (coptisine, berberine, and palmatine) in biological fluids, followed by their on-thread desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) determination. The reusable TB-ITP setup and a DESI compatible thread holder were 3D printed. A single nylon thread was employed as the ITP substrate for solute isolation and enrichment, and a short piece of graphene oxide (GO) functionalized nylon thread was tied around the main 'separation' thread as the 'trap' for the trapping of ITP focused alkaloids.

Thread-based isotachophoresis coupled with desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry for clean-up, preconcentration, and determination of alkaloids in biological fluids.

A thread-based isotachophoresis method coupled with desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (TB-ITP-DESI-MS) was developed and applied for clean-up, preconcentration, and determination of alkaloids in biological fluids. This simple approach enables the focusing and rapid analysis of analytes of interest in complex matrices that are otherwise challenging using direct ambient mass spectrometry. The TB-ITP platform components were rapidly and reproducibly fabricated at low-cost using 3D printing.

Wireless bipolar electrode-based textile electrofluidics: towards novel micro-total-analysis systems.

Point of care testing using micro-total-analysis systems (μTAS) is critical to emergent healthcare devices with rapid and robust responses. However, two major barriers to the success of this approach are the prohibitive cost of microchip fabrication and poor sensitivity due to small sample volumes in a microfluidic format. Here, we aimed to replace the complex microchip format with a low-cost textile substrate with inherently built microchannels using the fibers' spaces.

Fused filament fabrication 3D printed polylactic acid electroosmotic pumps.

Additive manufacturing (3D printing) offers a flexible approach for the production of bespoke microfluidic structures such as the electroosmotic pump. Here a readily accessible fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing technique has been employed for the first time to produce microcapillary structures using low cost thermoplastics in a scalable electroosmotic pump application. Capillary structures were formed using a negative space 3D printing approach to deposit longitudinal filament arrangements with polylactic acid (PLA) in either "face-centre cubic" or "body-centre cubic" arrangements, where the voids deliberately formed within the deposited structure act as functional micro-capillaries.

The impact of insufficient time resolution on dye regeneration lifetime determined using transient absorption spectroscopy.

Dye regeneration lifetimes of a combination of dyes and redox mediators were determined by two transient absorption (TA) spectrometers with 0.5 ns (sub-ns) and 6 ns (ns) time resolutions to elucidate the impact of insufficient time resolution on the measurements of dye regeneration kinetics in dye-sensitised semiconductor electrodes. Due to the disordered nature of the dye-sensitised electrodes, the dye regeneration lifetime is often characterised by half-decay time (τ1/2) of the initial signal magnitude.

Substrate-Dependent Electron-Transfer Rate of Mixed-Ligand Electrolytes: Tuning Electron-Transfer Rate without Changing Driving Force.

To meet various requirements for electron transfer (ET) at the substrate/electrolyte interface, mixed redox couples assigned to different functions have been applied. While in all studies the mixed redox species had different redox potentials, such redox systems inherently lose energy by ET between the species. We report interfacial ET kinetics employing mixed-ligand electrolytes based on Co complexes with mixtures of dimethyl- and dinonyl-substituted bipyridyl (bpy) ligands with the same redox potential.

Thermally drawn biodegradable fibers with tailored topography for biomedical applications.

There is a growing demand for polymer fiber scaffolds for biomedical applications and tissue engineering. Biodegradable polymers such as polycaprolactone have attracted particular attention due to their applicability to tissue engineering and optical neural interfacing. Here we report on a scalable and inexpensive fiber fabrication technique, which enables the drawing of PCL fibers in a single process without the use of auxiliary cladding.

Novel Approach toward Electrofluidic Substrates Utilizing Textile-Based Braided Structure.

Electrofluidics is the unique combination of electrophoresis and microfluidics, which has opened up broad opportunities for bioanalysis and multiplexed assay. These systems typically comprise inaccessible and fully enclosed microcapillary or microchannels, with limited sample loading capacities and no direct access to the solutes within. Here, we investigate the application of multiyarn textile assemblies which provides an open and surface accessible electrophoretic separation platform.

Thread-based isoelectric focusing coupled with desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

The combination of a thread-based electrofluidic analytical device and desorption electrospray ionization mass-spectrometry (DESI-MS) was investigated for the separation and concentration of proteins. The combination delivered a low-cost novel approach for sample pretreatment and target focusing, with direct "on-thread" ambient mass spectrometry detection. For this purpose, a platform for thread-based isoelectric focusing (TB-IEF) was 3D-printed, optimised, and applied to the separation and focusing of three model proteins.

Facile Development of a Fiber-Based Electrode for Highly Selective and Sensitive Detection of Dopamine.

A facile one-step method was used to create a selective and sensitive electrode for dopamine (DA) detection based upon a stainless steel (SS) filament substrate and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The electrode successfully and selectively detects DA in the presence of uric acid and ascorbic acid without the need for a Nafion coating. The proposed electrode is easy to fabricate, low-cost, flexible, and strong.

Life-Saving Threads: Advances in Textile-Based Analytical Devices.

Novel approaches that incorporate electrofluidic and microfluidic technologies are reviewed to illustrate the translation of traditional enclosed structures into open and accessible textile based platforms. Through the utilization of on-fiber and on-textile microfluidics, it is possible to invert the typical enclosed capillary column or microfluidic "chip" platform, to achieve surface accessible efficient separations and fluid handling, while maintaining a microfluidic environment. The open fiber/textile based fluidics approach immediately provides new possibilities to interrogate, manipulate, redirect, extract, characterize, and quantify solutes and target species at any point in time during such processes as on-fiber electrodriven separations.

Three-Dimensional Printing of Abrasive, Hard, and Thermally Conductive Synthetic Microdiamond-Polymer Composite Using Low-Cost Fused Deposition Modeling Printer.

A relative lack of printable materials with tailored functional properties limits the applicability of three-dimensional (3D) printing. In this work, a diamond-acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) composite filament for use in 3D printing was created through incorporation of high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) synthetic microdiamonds as a filler. Homogenously distributed diamond composite filaments, containing either 37.

Exploiting Intermolecular Interactions between Alkyl-Functionalized Redox-Active Molecule Pairs to Enhance Interfacial Electron Transfer.

The strategies to enhance electron transfer rates between redox-active, light-harvesting molecules attached to semiconductor surfaces and redox mediators in solution by modifying molecular structure are not fully investigated yet. Therefore, the design of molecules with controlled electron transfer rates remains a challenge. The aims of this work are to quantify the effect of long alkyl chain substitution on the electron transfer from cobalt(II/III) tris(2,2'-bipyridine) to organic molecules containing carbazole and thiophene and to demonstrate that alkyl chains can be used to enhance electron transfer between donor-acceptor pairs.

Enhanced physicochemical properties of polydimethylsiloxane based microfluidic devices and thin films by incorporating synthetic micro-diamond.

Synthetic micro-diamond-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite microfluidic chips and thin films were produced using indirect 3D printing and spin coating fabrication techniques. Microfluidic chips containing up to 60 wt% micro-diamond were successfully cast and bonded. Physicochemical properties, including the dispersion pattern, hydrophobicity, chemical structure, elasticity and thermal characteristics of both chip and films were investigated.

Suture-Button Device Stabilization Following Ring Finger Ray Amputation: A Comparative Cadaver Study.

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine whether placing the suture-button device between the long and small finger metacarpals following ring finger ray amputation may better close the intermetacarpal gap and allow early range of motion without increasing the risk of malrotation than soft tissue repair alone.

Methods: We performed ray amputation of the ring finger of 14 cadaver specimens by performing an osteotomy of the base of the ring finger metacarpal and then excising the remainder of the digit. We first performed a soft tissue repair of the transverse metacarpal ligaments and then cycled the fingers in simulated active flexion and extension on a custom computer-controlled device to re-create 6 weeks of range of motion.

Characterisation of graphene fibres and graphene coated fibres using capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detector.

The use of capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C(4)D) for the characterisation of thin conductive graphene fibres, graphene composite fibres, and graphene coated fibrous materials is demonstrated for the first time. Within a few seconds, the non-destructive C(4)D detector provides a profile of the longetudinal physical homogeneity of the fibre, as well as extra information regarding fibre mophology and composition. In addition to the theoretical considerations related to the factors affect the output signal, this work evaluates the properties of graphene fibres using scanning C(4)D following the manufacturing process of wet-spinning.

Knitted Strain Sensor Textiles of Highly Conductive All-Polymeric Fibers.

A scaled-up fiber wet-spinning production of electrically conductive and highly stretchable PU/PEDOT:PSS fibers is demonstrated for the first time. The PU/PEDOT:PSS fibers possess the mechanical properties appropriate for knitting various textile structures. The knitted textiles exhibit strain sensing properties that were dependent upon the number of PU/PEDOT:PSS fibers used in knitting.

Wholly printed polypyrrole nanoparticle-based biosensors on flexible substrate.

Printing has been widely used in the sensor industry for its speed, low cost and production scalability. In this work we present a wholly-printed polypyrrole (PPy) based biosensor produced by inkjet printing bioinks composed of dispersions of PPy nanoparticles and enzymes onto screen-printed carbon electrodes. Two enzymes, horseradish peroxidase (HRP) or glucose oxidase (GoD) were incorporated into the PPy nanoparticle dispersions to impart biosensing functionality and selectivity into the conducting polymer ink.

High-performance multifunctional graphene yarns: toward wearable all-carbon energy storage textiles.

The successful commercialization of smart wearable garments is hindered by the lack of fully integrated carbon-based energy storage devices into smart wearables. Since electrodes are the active components that determine the performance of energy storage systems, it is important to rationally design and engineer hierarchical architectures atboth the nano- and macroscale that can enjoy all of the necessary requirements for a perfect electrode. Here we demonstrate a large-scale flexible fabrication of highly porous high-performance multifunctional graphene oxide (GO) and rGO fibers and yarns by taking advantage of the intrinsic soft self-assembly behavior of ultralarge graphene oxide liquid crystalline dispersions.