Factors Influencing the Progression Trend of Early Lung Cancer and CT Findings

Background and objective It has been known that the volume doubling time (VDT) of different lung nodule types is different. At present, there is still a lack of studies about the volume doubling time of lung cancer with different pathological types. The purpose of the study is to explore the factors influencing the progression of the early-stage adenocarcinoma, and provide some reference for the follow-up strategy of lung nodules by retrospective analysis of the image data of 143 early-stage adenocarcinoma. Methods 143 cases of the early adenocarcinoma were classified according to the 2015 World Health Organization Classification of Lung Tumors and the Eighth edition of the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) classification of lung cancer. The volume doubling time was calculated with reference to the revised Schwartz formula. Results Among the 143 cases of the early adenocarcinoma, 50 cases (34.97%) were in progression. By multivarIate analysis, there were several factors associated with the progression of the early adenocarcinoma: the follow-up time, the dimension of nodule, the pathological type, the nodule type and the pathological stage. The VDT of lepidic predominant adenocarcinoma (LPA) is (594±272) d. The VDT of the invasive adenocarcinoma with lepidic part, but not predominant, is (520±285) d. The VDT of the invasive adenocarcinoma without lepidic part is (371±183) d. Conclusion About 35% of the early adenocarcinoma is in progress. Whether with the lepidic component is a positive factor to the speed of tumor progression

Analysis on the Prognostic and Survival Factors of Synchronous Multiple Primary Lung Cancer

Background and objective Synchronous multiple primary lung cancer (sMPLC) is a sparse disease in the past, but there has been a gradual increase in the morbidity of sMPLC recently. However, studies on large sample have never been undertaken. The purpose of this study is to investigate the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of sMPLC through analyzing the clinical data, and provide supports for the management of sMPLC. Methods According to Martini-Melamed criteria, 357 patients were diagnosed sMPLC. The pathological staging is on the basis of the 8th edition tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging from International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). Results There were 269 patients with double primary lung cancer, 65 patients with triple primary lung cancer and 23 patients with four or more primary lung cancer. Lesions (68.55%, 571/833) were frequently in upper lobe, especially the right upper lobe. Adenocarcinoma (95.56%, 796/833) was the mainly pathological type, followed by squamous cell carcinoma (2.40%, 20/833). The acinar predominant subtype was the main part (70.81%, 313/442) of the all adenocarcinoma specimens. Most of the lesions (68.35%, 244/357) were stage Ib or low. Among the initial lesion and the following lesions ,patients who had the same pathological type (92.72%, 331/357) were more than the different (7.28%, 26/357), of which adenocarcinoma-adenocarcinoma occupied the major proportion (99.40%, 329/331). The 3-year overall survival (OS) and 5-year overall survival were respective 91.93% and 84.37%. Multivariate analysis found that smoking history (P=0.012), the diameter of the maximum lesion (P=0.027), lymph node metastasis (P=0.015) and pleural invasion (P<0.001) were the independent risk factors for prognosis. Conclusion Tumours in patients with sMPLC are more frequently in the right upper lobe. Adenocarcinoma was the mainly pathological type. Smoking history, the diameter of the maximum lesion, lymph node metastasis and pleural invasion were the independent risk factors for prognosis. Early diagnosis and active operation can obtain better prognosis

Anti-Wetting Performance of an Electrospun PVDF/PVP Membrane Modified by Solvothermal Treatment in Membrane Distillation

Membrane distillation (MD) is attractive for water reclamation due to the fact of its unique characteristics. However, membrane wetting becomes an obstacle to its further application. In this paper, a novel hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride/poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVDF/PVP) membrane was fabricated by electrospinning and solvothermal treatment. The electrospun membranes prepared by electrospinning showed a multilevel interconnected nanofibrous structure. Then, a solvothermal treatment introduced the micro/nanostructure to the membrane with high roughness (Ra = 598 nm), thereby the water contact angle of the membrane increased to 158.3 ± 2.2°. Owing to the superior hydrophobicity, the membrane presented high resistance to wetting in both NaCl and SDS solutions. Compared to the pristine PVDF membrane, which showed wetting with a flux decline (120 min for 0.05 mM surfactant solution treatment), the prepared membrane showed outstanding stability over 600 min, even in 0.2 mM surfactant solutions. These results confirm a simple method for anti-wetting hydrophobic membrane preparation, which presented universal significance to direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) for industrial application

Preparation of N,N,N-trimethyl-1-adamantylammonium hydroxide with high purity via bipolar membrane electrodialysis

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. N,N,N-trimethyl-1-adamantylammonium hydroxide (TMAdaOH) is an organic alkali compound with important applications in the catalyst industry. In this study, bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED) was employed for the preparation of TMAdaOH from its halide with a BP-C1-A1-C2-BP four-compartment configuration. The effects of operating conditions (feed concentration and current density) on the performance of BMED were investigated. The results indicated that at optimum operational conditions (feed concentration of 0.3 mol/L and current density of 8 mA·cm−2), a conversion rate of 76.8% can be obtained, with an energy consumption of only 3.22 kWh/kg. The purity of product is extremely high and Cl− content in the TMAdaOH solution can reach as low as 68 ppm. Due to the importance of cation-exchange membrane to the process, different types of cation membrane were compared. In addition, repeated experiments were conducted to prove the stability of BMED process.status: publishe

Symmetrically recombined nanofibers in a high-selectivity membrane for cation separation in high temperature and organic solvent

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Maternal cigarette smoking before and during pregnancy and the risk of preterm birth: A dose-response analysis of 25 million mother-infant pairs.

BackgroundMost of the women who smoke before pregnancy continue smoking during pregnancy, and some start to quit smoking after being pregnant, although existing guidelines for pregnancy recommend that women who smoke should quit smoking before pregnancy. Findings about the timing and intensity of maternal smoking, especially low-intensity smoking (1-9 cigarettes per day), and preterm birth are still inconsistent and ambiguous. This study aimed to examine the association of the timing of smoking and doses of smoking before pregnancy and during the first or second trimester of pregnancy with preterm birth in a large-scale population-based retrospective cohort study.Methods and findingsWe used nationwide birth certificate data from singleton mother-infant pairs in the United States National Vital Statistics System, 2011-2018. All adult women with live singleton births, without preexisting hypertension or diabetes, and with complete data on smoking and gestational age at delivery were included. Participants reported their smoking status (yes or no) and daily number of cigarettes consumed before and during each trimester of pregnancy. The outcome of interest was preterm birth, defined as a birth before 37 weeks of gestation. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of preterm birth associated with smoking status and the number of cigarettes consumed, adjusting for maternal age, race/ethnicity, parity, education levels, prepregnancy BMI, previous history of preterm birth, marital status, infant sex, and initiation of prenatal care. This study included 25,623,479 women, with a mean age of 29 years (range 20-50 years); 13,742,486 (53.6%) participants were of non-Hispanic white ancestry, 5,971,598 (23.3%) of Hispanic ancestry, and 3,417,456 (13.34%) of non-Hispanic black ancestry. The prevalence of preterm birth was 9.3% (n = 2,378,398). We found that maternal smoking during pregnancy, even at a very low level of intensity, was associated with an increased risk of preterm delivery. The adjusted ORs (95% CI) of preterm birth for mothers who smoked 1-2, 3-5, 6-9, 10-19, and ≥20 cigarettes per day during the first trimester compared with mothers who did not smoke were 1.31 (1.29-1.33), 1.31 (1.30-1.32), 1.33 (1.31-1.35), 1.44 (1.43-1.45), and 1.53 (1.52-1.55), respectively (all P values ConclusionsIn this study, we observed that low-intensity cigarette consumption during either the first or second trimester of pregnancy, even as low as 1-2 cigarettes per day, was associated with an increased risk of preterm birth. These findings suggest that there is no safe level or safe trimester for maternal smoking during pregnancy. Women of reproductive age who smoke should be strongly encouraged and supported to quit smoking before pregnancy