Non-small cell lung cancer in never smokers: a clinical entity to be identified

OBJECTIVES: It has been recognized that patients with non-small cell lung cancer who are lifelong never-smokers constitute a distinct clinical entity. The aim of this study was to assess clinical risk factors for survival among neversmokers with non-small cell lung cancer. METHODS: All consecutive non-small cell lung cancer patients diagnosed (n = 285) between May 2005 and May 2009 were included. The clinical characteristics of never-smokers and ever-smokers (former and current) were compared using chi-squared or Student's t tests. Survival curves were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and log-rank tests were used for survival comparisons. A Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was evaluated by adjusting for age (continuous variable), gender (female vs. male), smoking status (never- vs. ever-smoker), the Karnofsky Performance Status Scale (continuous variable), histological type (adenocarcinoma vs. non-adenocarcinoma), AJCC staging (early vs. advanced staging), and treatment (chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy vs. the best treatment support). RESULTS: Of the 285 non-small cell lung cancer patients, 56 patients were never-smokers. Univariate analyses indicated that the never-smoker patients were more likely to be female (68% vs. 32%) and have adenocarcinoma (70% vs. 51%). Overall median survival was 15.7 months (95% CI: 13.2 to 18.2). The never-smoker patients had a better survival rate than their counterpart, the ever-smokers. Never-smoker status, higher Karnofsky Performance Status, early staging, and treatment were independent and favorable prognostic factors for survival after adjusting for age, gender, and adenocarcinoma in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Epidemiological differences exist between never- and ever-smokers with lung cancer. Overall survival among never-smokers was found to be higher and independent of gender and histological type

Day case parathyroidectomy: is this the right way for the patients?

Minimally-invasive video-assisted parathyroidectomy (MIVAP) can be considered as the primary treatment of choice for single parathyroid adenoma. Often, this technique is performed in a day surgery setting and is associated with regional anaesthesia (RA). Many studies have already reported the feasibility and safety of MIVAP in day surgery. Here our focus has been on the patient's personal experience with these procedures through an assessment of their recovery at home

Metal and Metal Oxide Transformation and Texturing Using Pulsed Fiber Laser

Thin films of amorphous vanadium metal were deposited on a glass substrate using the electron beam evaporator, these thin films were then exposed to a focused 1064 nm wavelength nanosecond laser pulses. The laser fluence was selected such that it was below the ablation threshold of the films, x-ray diffraction measurement revealed the formation of an oxide phase of vanadium after the laser exposure. The time of flight-secondary ion mass spectrometry data analysis showed a uniform elemental distribution of the elements on the films, whereas the Rutherford backscattering spectrometry results showed that the concentration of oxygen as a function of the laser fluence was increasing, hinting to the incorporation of the oxygen atoms in the films as the laser fluence increases. UV-Vis-NIR percentage reflectance measurements showed small evolution in the visible part of the spectrum due to laser exposure

P15 Anti-carbamylated protein antibodies' levels are negatively correlated with circulating effector T-cells in a cohort of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

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Polycystic ovary syndrome and intervening factors in adolescents from 15 to 18 years old

AbstractObjectiveTo assess the factors related to the presence of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in adolescents.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study, with female adolescents from 15 to 18 years old, divided into: group 1 (with a medical diagnosis of PCOS) and group 2 (not diagnosed with PCOS). The height-for-age index and the body mass index were used for classifying the nutritional status, and a semi-structured questionnaire was applied. The Mann-Whitney test, Fisher's exact test, Spearman correlation coefficients, and logistic regression were used.ResultsThis study evaluated 485 adolescents with an average age of 16.3±0.9 years old. The prevalence of PCOS was 6.2%. No difference was found between the groups regarding anthropometric parameters and period of contraceptive use; however, there were differences regarding the age at menarche (p<0.004). Older age at menarche was a protection factor against the syndrome.ConclusionAn association was found between younger age at menarche and the development of the PCOS in adolescents

3D groundwater flow and deformation modelling of Madrid aquifer

A novel methodological approach to calibrate and validate three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) groundwater flow and geomechanical models has been implemented using Advanced Differential Interferometric SAR (A-DInSAR) data. In particular, we show how A-DInSAR data can be effectively used to (1) constrain the model set-up in evaluating the areal influence of the wellfield and (2) characterise the aquifer system, specifically the storage coefficient values, which represents a fundamental step in managing groundwater resources. The procedure has been tested to reconstruct the surface vertical and horizontal movements caused by the Manzanares-Jarama wellfield located northwest of Madrid (Spain). The wellfield was used to supply freshwater during major droughts over the period between 1994 and 2010. Previous A-DInSAR outcomes obtained by ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT acquisitions clearly revealed the seasonality of the land displacements associated to the withdrawal and recovery cycles that characterized the wellfield development. A time-lag of about one month, which is in the order of the time span between two SAR acquisitions, between the hydraulic head changes and the displacements has been detected in this site by a wavelet analysis of A-DInSAR and piezometer time series. The negligible delay between the forcing factor and the system response and the complete subsidence recovery when piezometric head recovers supported the understanding of a minor role played by the pore pressure propagation within clay layers and the almost perfectly elastic behavior of the system (viscosity is negligible), respectively. The developed geomechanical model satisfactorily reproduces the pumping-induced deformations with a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) between observed and simulated land displacements in the order of 0.1-0.3 mm. The results give insights about the approach benefits in deeply understanding the spatio-temporal aquifer-system response to the management of this strategic water resource for Madrid.The activity has been developed within the scientific collaboration established in the framework of the UNESCO Land Subsidence International Initiative (LaSII - https://www.landsubsidence-unesco.org/). The research was funded by University of Pavia in the framework of a research grant award “assegno di tipo A premiale” for research activities at the Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, within the research project entitled “Sustainable groundwater resources management by integrating A-DInSAR derived monitoring and flow modeling results” assigned to Roberta Bonì in March 2019. This research was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO), the State Agency of Research (AEI), and the European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER) under project TEC2017-85244-C2-1-P

Understanding the dynamic behaviour for the Madrid aquifer (Spain): insights from the integration of A-DInSAR and 3-D groundwater flow and geomechanical models

Advanced Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (A-DInSAR) techniques and 3-D groundwater flow and geomechanical models are integrated to improve our knowledge about the Tertiary detritic aquifer of Madrid (TDAM). In particular, the attention is focused on the Manzanares-Jarama well field, located to the northwest of Madrid, which experienced five cycles of extensive groundwater withdrawal followed by natural recovery, to cope with the droughts occurred in summer 1995, 1999, 2002, 2006, and 2009. Piezometric records and A-DInSAR data acquired by ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT satellites during the periods 1992–2000 and 2002–2010, respectively, have been used to calibrate the groundwater flow and the geomechanical models. A time-lag of about one month between the hydraulic head changes and the displacements of the land surface has been detected by a joint wavelet analysis of A-DInSAR and piezometer head time series. Overall, the results show the effectiveness of the proposed integrated approach composed of A-DInSAR and 3-D geomechanical model to characterize the aquifer-system response during and after the groundwater withdrawal.This research has been supported by the Università degli Studi di Pavia (Assegno di tipo A premiale: “Sustainable groundwater resources management by integrating A-DInSAR derived monitoring and flow modeling results” assigned to Roberta Bonì in March 2019) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO), the State Agency of Research (AEI), and the European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER) (grant no. TEC2017-85244-C2-1-P)

Wavelet analysis of land subsidence time-series: Madrid Tertiary aquifer case study

Interpretation of land subsidence time-series to understand the evolution of the phenomenon and the existing relationships between triggers and measured displacements is a great challenge. Continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is a powerful signal processing method mainly suitable for the analysis of individual nonstationary time-series. CWT expands time-series into the time-frequency space allowing identification of localized nonstationary periodicities. Complementarily, Cross Wavelet Transform (XWT) and Wavelet Coherence (WTC) methods allow the comparison of two time-series that may be expected to be related in order to identify regions in the time-frequency domain that exhibit large common cross-power and wavelet coherence, respectively, and therefore are evocative of causality. In this work we use CWT, XWT and WTC to analyze piezometric and InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar) time-series from the Tertiary aquifer of Madrid (Spain) to illustrate their capabilities for interpreting land subsidence and piezometric time-series information.This research has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the State Agency of Research and the European Funds for Regional Development (grant no. TEC2017-85244-C2-1-P)

Bibliometric Network Analysis on Rapid-Onset Opioids for Breakthrough Cancer Pain Treatment

Background and Objectives. Proper breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP) management is of pivotal importance. Although rapid-acting, oral and nasal transmucosal, fentanyl formulations (rapid-onset opioids, ROOs) are licensed for BTcP treatment, not all guidelines recommend their use. Presumably, some research gaps need to be bridged to produce solid evidence. We present a bibliometric network analysis on ROOs for BTcP treatment.Methods. Documents were retrieved from the Web of Science (WOS) online database. The string was "rapid onset opioids" or "transmucosal fentanyl" and "breakthrough cancer pain". Year of publication, journal metrics (impact factor and quartile), title, document type, topic, and clinical setting (in-patients, outpatients, and palliative care) were extracted. The software tool VOSviewer (version 1.6.17) was used to analyze the semantic network analyzes, bibliographic coupling, journals analysis, and research networks.Results. 502 articles were found in WOS. A declining trend in published articles from 2014 to 2021 was observed. Approximately 50% of documents regard top quartile (Q1) journals. Most articles focused on ROOs efficacy, but abuse and misuse issues are poorly addressed. With respect to article type, we calculated 132 clinical investigations. The semantic network analysis found interconnections between the terms "breakthrough cancer pain," "opioids," and "cancers." The top co-cited article was published in 2000 and addressed pain assessment. The largest number of partnerships regarded the United States, Italy, and England.Conclusion. In this research area, most articles are published in top-ranked journals. Nevertheless, paramount topics should be better addressed, and the implementation of research networks is needed. (C) 2022 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved