Survival prognostic factors in patients with colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis treated with cytoreductive surgery and intraoperative hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy: a single institution experience.

Purpose: The aim of this research was to examine overall (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis (CRC-PC), treated with cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and intraoperative hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), as well as to analyse factors of prognostic significance.

Methods: We included 61 patients with pathological/and computerized tomography (CT) confirmation of CRC-PC, treated with CRS+HIPEC from 2005 to 2012. Peritoneal Cancer Index (PCI) score was used for quantitative assessment of the CRC-PC extent.

Influence of uncertainties in pH, pMg, activity coefficients, metabolite concentrations, and other factors on the analysis of the thermodynamic feasibility of metabolic pathways.

Thermodynamic feasibility analysis (TFA) has been used as a tool capable of providing additional constraints to the mass balance-based methods of analysis of metabolic networks (e.g., flux balance analysis).

Enzymatic hydrolysis of organic-core microcapsules to produce aqueous-core microcapsules.

This paper describes the development of a new method to obtain aqueous-core microcapsules from organic-core capsules. The direct production of microcapsules, using tripropionin as organic material, followed by the hydrolysis of the core by a lipase was investigated. The enzymatic study showed that the enzyme obeyed a Michaelis-Menten mechanism and conditions for optimal activity were pH 7.

Immobilization of rapeseed press-cake in an alginate matrix for the sorption of atrazine.

Due to residual oil retained within it, rapeseed press-cake has been shown to be effective for the removal of atrazine from water through an absorption mechanism. However, it is difficult to put this into practice due to the hygroscopic nature of the press-cake resulting in considerable swelling, together with the formation of a thick paste which hinders phase separation. In order to overcome this, press-cake has been immobilized in an alginate matrix.

Kinetic modelling of phenol co-oxidation using horseradish peroxidase.

Phenol is an industrial pollutant and its removal from industrial wastewaters is of great importance. In order to design optimised phenol removal procedures by using horseradish peroxidase-based systems, there are some points that have to be dealt with. One of the most important issues is the need for reliable kinetics as this is one of the difficulties found during process scale-up.