The aim was to achieve a detailed prospective registration of symptoms experienced by patients using validated questionnaires in addition to documentation of surgical details, clinical examinations,

medical facts and resource use. Four patient questionnaires and six case-report forms were especially designed to collect data before, during and after selleck chemicals llc surgery with a follow-up time of 2 years. The primary endpoint is urinary leakage 1 year after surgery. Secondary endpoints include erectile dysfunction, oncological outcome, quality of life and cost-effectiveness at 3, 12 and 24 months after surgery. Results. The study started in September 2008 with accrual continuing to October 2011. Twelve urological departments in Sweden well established in performing radical prostatectomy are participating. Personal contact with the participating departments and patients was established to ascertain a high response rate. To reach 80% statistical power to detect a difference of 5 absolute per cent in incidence

of urinary leakage, 700 men in the retropubic group and 1400 in the SNX-5422 cell line robotic group are needed. Conclusions. The Swedish healthcare context is well suited to performing multicentre long-term prospective clinical trials. The similar care protocols and congruent specialist training are particularly favourable. The LAPPRO trial aims to compare the two surgical techniques in aspects of short- and long-term functional and oncological outcome, cost effectiveness and quality of life, supplying new knowledge to support future decisions in treatment

strategies for prostate cancer.”
“Thermal degradation of GaAs(001) surfaces has been studied using spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), optical microscopy, ex situ atomic force microscopy (AFM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and photoluminescence (PL) techniques. The SE data suggest that thermal annealing causes no or little influence on the surface native oxide layer at temperatures T <= 500 degrees C. Microscopic roughening starts to occur on GaAs surface at T>500 degrees C, giving maximum AFM roughness (rms similar to 14 nm) at 540 degrees C, and then tends to smoothened at T>540 degrees C (rms similar to 2.5 nm at 580 degrees C). Macroscopically roughened surfaces are observed at T>500 degrees C, becoming more pronounced at higher annealing temperature. The Ga droplets are also selleck inhibitor observed at T >= 600 degrees C that lead to catastrophically damaged surfaces and make SE measurement impossible. The XPS data indicate thinning of the native GaAs oxide in the limited temperature range 450 < T < 580 degrees C; however, annealing at T >= 580 degrees C leads to coverage with thermal oxides (Ga2O and As2O3). The naturally grown GaAs oxide is also found to act as a good passivation film against annealing-induced PL degradation.”
“BACKGROUND: The case-fatality rate for tuberculosis (TB) remains high in China, whereas risk factors for deaths among TB cases are still unclear.