bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
High detection rate in [18F]PSMA-1007 PET: interim results focusing on biochemical recurrence in prostate cancer patients
Authors: Watabe Tadashi , Uemura Motohide , Soeda Fumihiko , Naka Sadahiro , Ujike Takeshi , Hatano Koji , Sasaki Hidetaka , Kamiya Takashi , Shimosegawa Eku , Kato Hiroki , Cardinale Jens , Tateishi Ukihide , Nonomura Norio , Giesel Frederik L. 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Objective
18F-labeled prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) ligand, [18F]PSMA-1007, has the benefit of a higher synthetic yield and minimal excretion in the urine. High detection efficacy was reported in biochemical recurrence (BCR) of prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy. Thus, we evaluated the preliminary diagnostic utility of [18F]PSMA-1007 PET in patients with prostate cancer, focusing on the BCR which is not detected on conventional imaging.

Methods
We enrolled a total of 28 patients (age 51–79 years) with BCR of prostate cancer. BCR was defined as a continuous increase in PSA after radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy without any apparent recurrent lesions on conventional diagnostic imaging (CT and bone scintigraphy). PSMA-PET scanning was performed approximately 60 min after intravenous injection of [18F]PSMA-1007 (259 ± 37 MBq). PSMA-PET images were evaluated for lesion detection as well as its relation to PSA values and location.

Results
Abnormal uptake, which was suspected to be recurrence or metastasis, was detected in 92.9% (26/28) of patients with BCR. The SUVmax was 8.4 ± 6.4 in local recurrence, 11.5 ± 11.8 in pelvic lymph nodes (LN), and 4.1 ± 1.6 in bone metastasis. The detection rates were 66.7% in the PSA group-1 (0.1–0.5 ng/mL), 85.7% in the PSA group-2 (0.5–1.0 ng/mL), and 100% in the PSA group-3 (above 1.0 ng/mL). Among the PET-positive BCR patients (n = 26), local recurrence was detected in 57.7% (15/26), pelvic LN in 42.3% (11/26), and bone metastasis in 15.4% (4/26). In 53% (8/15) of BCR patients who were suspected of local recurrence, focal uptake was detected adjacent to the bladder on [18F]PSMA-1007 PET. This suggested the significant advantage of having minimal physiological urine excretion.

Conclusions
[18F]PSMA-1007 PET showed a high detection rate in recurrent and metastatic lesions. In patients with BCR, its high detection led to suitable treatment strategies, such as salvage radiation therapy or surgical removal of recurrent lymph nodes.

Trial registration
(UMIN Clinical Trials Registry) UMIN000037697.
Upper Ordovician (Hirnantian) to Lower Silurian (Telychian, Llandovery) graptolite biostratigraphy of the Tielugou section, Shennongjia anticline, Hubei Province, China
Authors: Maletz Jörg , Wang Chuanshang , Kai Wei , Wang Xiaofeng 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe Tielugou section, Shennongjia Anticline, Hubei Province (China) includes a relatively complete succession of Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) to basal Telychian (Llandovery, early Silurian) graptolite faunas. The section shows the first record of a fauna of the late AeronianStimulograptus halliBiozone from South China, even though the index species was not reported. TheStimulograptus sedgwickiiBiozone may not be represented, indicating a possible gap at the base of theStimulograptus halliBiozone. The interval yields a number of taxa that are elsewhere reported to originate only in theStimulograptus halliBiozone. The youngest graptolitic levels are included in theSpirograptus guerichiBiozone based on specimens ofParapetalolithus dignusandParapetalolithus palmeusnot known from earlier intervals.Spirograptus guerichiis not represented in the section. The Tielugou section provides the first detailed information on the faunas and thickness of the encountered biostratigraphic units for the Shennongija region.
Patient Preferences in Rare Diseases: A Qualitative Study in Neuromuscular Disorders to Inform a Quantitative Preference Study
Authors: Jimenez-Moreno A. Cecilia , van Overbeeke Eline , Pinto Cathy Anne , Smith Ian , Sharpe Jenny , Ormrod James , Whichello Chiara , de Bekker-Grob Esther W. , Bullok Kristin , Levitan Bennett , Huys Isabelle , de Wit G. Ardine , Gorman Grainne 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIntroductionIt has become increasingly important to include patient preference information in decision-making processes for drug development. As neuromuscular disorders represent multisystem, debilitating, and progressive rare diseases with few treatment options, this study aimed to explore unmet health care needs and patient treatment preferences for two neuromuscular disorders, myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) and mitochondrial myopathies (MM) to inform early stages of drug development.MethodsFifteen semi-structured interviews and five focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with DM1 and MM adult patients and caregivers. Topics discussed included (1) reasons for study participation; (2) disease signs/symptoms and their impact on daily lives; (3) top desired benefits; and (4) acceptability of risks and tolerance levels for a hypothetical new treatment. Data were analyzed following a thematic ‘code’ approach.ResultsA total of 52 participants representing a wide range of disease severities participated. ‘Muscle strength’ and ‘energy and endurance’ were the disease-related unmet needs most often mentioned. Additionally, improved ‘balance’, ‘cognition’ and ‘gut function’ were the top desired treatment benefits, while ‘damage to the liver, kidneys or eyes’ was the most concerning risk. Factors influencing their tolerance to risks related to previously having experienced the risk and differentiation between permanent and temporary risks. A few differences were elicited between patients and caregivers.ConclusionsThis qualitative study provided an open forum to elicit treatment-desired benefits and acceptable risks to be established by patients themselves. These findings can inform decisions for developing new treatments and the design of clinical trials for DM1 and MM.
Seismic performance of deep excavation restrained by guardian truss structures system using quasi-static approach
Authors: Maleki Mahdi , Nabizadeh Ali 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe control of deformation and stability of the deep excavation walls under seismic and static loads is one of the most important issues in geotechnical engineering. Therefore, in the present study, using the finite element method and taking into account Hardening soil's behavioural model, the effect of different parameters affecting the performance of the deep excavation walls with the guardian truss structures using quasi-static analysis and its comparison with static analysis has been performed. According to the most important results, increasing in the geotechnical parameters of soil such as cohesion, friction angle and elastic modulus will reduce the maximum horizontal displacement in the vertical trench wall. Besides, the maximum settling in the adjacent ground and the maximum swelling in the bottom of the excavation will be reduced. In this way, the improvement in soil resistance parameters will increase the safety factor. Conversely, by increasing the horizontal distance between the trusses, the maximum horizontal displacement and the maximum settling in the adjacent ground and the maximum swelling in the bottom of the excavation will increase and the safety factor will be reduced. Also, the findings from this research show that by increasing the horizontal seismic acceleration coefficient (Kh) and as the construction stages progress, the maximum horizontal displacement of the wall, the maximum settling of the adjacent ground of the wall and the maximum swelling on the bottom of the trench increase and the safety factor will decrease. As well as, the results obtained from the quasi-static seismic analysis of the vertical trench restrained by the guardian truss structure such as the maximum horizontal displacement of the vertical trench wall and the maximum settling in the adjacent ground and the maximum swelling of the bottom of the excavation are much more than the static analysis.
Study and design of a retrofitted smart water meter solution with energy harvesting integration
Authors: Pimenta Nelson , Chaves Paulo 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe reduction of water resources due to climate change and the increasing demand associated with population growth is a renewed concern. Water distribution monitoring and smart metering are essential tools to improve distribution efficiency. This paper reports on the study, design, and implementation of a smart water meter (SWM) prototype, designed for mechanical water meters that need to undergo a retrofitting process to enable automatic metering readings. Metering data is transmitted through innovative narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) technology with low power, long-range, and effective penetration. A flexible power management design allows the introduction of an energy harvester that recovers energy from the surrounding environment and charges the internal battery. The energy harvesting feasibility was demonstrated with two proof-of-concept configurations, light and water-turbine based. The details on the performance of the proposed solution are presented, including the output voltages and harvested power. Although the energy harvesting technologies have not been integrated yet in commercial SWM applications, the results show that the integration is feasible and, once employed in a controlled environment, it can create business advantages by reducing the size and capacity of the internal batteries, enabling one to reduce the operation cost and mitigate long-term ecological problems associated with the use and disposal of batteries.
Conceptual design and numerical studies of active flow control aerofoil based on shape-memory alloy and macro fibre composites
Authors: Zhang W. , Nie X.T. , Gao X.Y. , Chen W.H. 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACTActive flow control for aerofoils has been proven to be an effective way to improve the aerodynamic performance of aircraft. A conceptual hybrid design with surfaces embedded with Shape-Memory Alloy (SMA) and trailing Macro Fibre Composites (MFC) is proposed to implement active flow control for aerofoils. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model has been built to explore the feasibility and potential performance of the proposed conceptual hybrid design. Accordingly, numerical analysis is carried out to investigate the unsteady flow characteristics by dynamic morphing rather than using classical static simulations and complicated coupling. The results show that camber growth by SMA action could cause an evident rise of Cl and Cd in the take-off/landing phases when the Angle-of-Attack (AoA) is less than 10°. The transient tail vibration behaviour in the cruise period when using MFC actuators is studied over wide ranges of frequency, AoA and vibration amplitude. The buffet frequency is locked in by the vibration frequency, and a decrease of 1.66–2.32% in Cd can be achieved by using a proper vibration frequency and amplitude.
Multi-agent cooperative multi-model adaptive guidance law
Authors: Wang S.B. , Wang S.C. , Liu Z.G. , Zhang S. , Guo Y. 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACTA multi-agent engagement scenario is considered in which a high-value aircraft launches two defenders to intercept two homing missiles aimed at the aircraft. Under the assumption that all aircrafts have first-order linear dynamic characteristics, a combined multiple-mode adaptive estimation (MMAE) and a two-way cooperative optimal guidance law are proposed for the target–defenders team. Considering the full cooperation of the target and both the two defenders, the two-way cooperative strategies provide the analytical expressions for their optimal control input, enabling the target–defenders team to intercept the missiles with minimal control effort. To successfully intercept the missiles, MMAE is used to identify the guidance laws adopted by the missiles and estimate their states. The simulation results show that the target cooperating with the defenders to perform lure manoeuvres for the missiles can improve the guidance performance of the defenders as well as reduce the control effort of the defenders for intercepting the missiles.
A piecewise smooth Fermi–Ulam pingpong with potential
Authors: ZHOU JING 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn this paper we study a Fermi–Ulam model where a pingpong ball bounces elastically against a periodically oscillating platform in a gravity field. We assume that the platform motion
$f(t)$
is 1-periodic and piecewise
$C^3$
with a singularity,
$\dot {f}(0+)\ne \dot {f}(1-)$
. If the second derivative
$\ddot {f}(t)$
of the platform motion is either always positive or always less than
$-g$
, where g is the gravitational constant, then the escaping orbits constitute a null set and the system is recurrent. However, under these assumptions, escaping orbits co-exist with bounded orbits at arbitrarily high energy levels.
The death of Adumissa: a suicide at Cape Coast, Ghana, around 1800
Authors: Parker John 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis article examines the history of voluntary death on the Gold Coast in present-day Ghana. Its focus is the suicide of a young woman named Adwoa Amissa (or Adumissa), who took her own life in dramatic fashion in the town of Cape Coast in the early nineteenth century. Adumissa killed herself in response to the earlier suicide of a thwarted suitor, who declared his own self-destruction to be ‘on her head’, thereby transferring the responsibility to her. These events, which were recorded by Sarah Bowdich, an English resident of Cape Coast in 1816–18, made Adumissa a legendary figure in the Fante region of the Gold Coast and beyond. Despite the interpretive complexities of Bowdich's text, two aspects of the episode reveal themselves as central to an understanding of its cultural context: the impact of the spoken word and the practice of aggressive ‘revenge suicide’ among the Akan and their neighbours. It is within this culturally meaningful and contingent framework that questions about Adumissa's emotional impulses, motivations and agency must be situated.
Public authority and its demons: the Sherbro leopard murders in Sierra Leone
Authors: Richards Paul 
Published: March 2021

AbstractDemonization is a widespread aspect of political discourse. We are familiar with the demonization of Brussels bureaucrats as a tool for pursuing the British exit from the European Union, and we take stories about the compulsory straightening of bananas with a pinch of salt, however frustrating it might be that some disaffected voters choose to accept these canards as true. But somehow, stories about the demonic in Africa have been accorded much greater ontological respect, not only by colonial powers keen to boost their own legitimacy through claims to a civilizing mission, but also by anthropologists anxious to understand their informants’ imaginative concerns, perhaps without fully appreciating the political craft or guile with which these discourses are invested. In seeking to void the charge of delusion, an empathetic reading of demonization risks missing the strategic significance of mythic interventions intended to extract political advantage. This article examines an instance of mythic creativity in the politics of late nineteenth-century interior Sierra Leone as an example of the stagecraft sometimes implicit in African public authority. The case is that of the human leopard, an avatar of commercially compromised chieftaincy. The article asks whether the alleged activities of these leopards were the straight bananas of a certain form of anti-colonial political resistance. In a concluding discussion, some consequences for understanding current forms and practices of local public authority are inferred.
Studies on the population biology of helminth parasites of fish species from the Caspian Sea drainage basin
Authors: Abdybekova A.M. , Assylbekova S.Zh. , Abdibayeva A.A. , Zhaksylykova A.A. , Barbol B.I. , Aubakirov M.Zh. , Torgerson P.R. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe northern section of the Caspian Sea and lower reaches of the Zhaiyk (Ural) River is an important fishery for Kazakhstan. In the present study, a total of 1597 individuals of ten fish species were analysed. The fish were caught over three years, from 2018 to 2020. For each species studied –Abramis brama,Alosa saposchnikowii,Atherina boyeri caspia,Carassius gibelio,Chelon auratus,Cyprinus carpio,Leuciscus aspius,Rutilus caspius,Sander marinusandSander volgensis– between 100 and 200 individuals were examined. A series of generalized linear models (GLMs) were used to examine the association between individual parasite intensity of infection and the Fulton index, age, year the fish was captured, where the fish was captured (northern Caspian or Zhaiyk River) and sex. For each GLM, the best-fitting probability distribution was used –either Poisson, zero-inflated Poisson, negative binomial or zero-inflated negative binomial. For some fish/parasite species, an increased Fulton index was associated with higher intensities of parasite infection, whilst, for others, the Fulton index decreased with the intensity of parasite infection. This was also true of age-related intensity of infection, with some parasites having an increased intensity of infection with age whilst others had a decreased intensity of infection with age. There was also some evidence of variation in intensity of parasite infection between different years when the fish were caught. For some species of fish that are endemic to both the fresh waters of the Zhaiyk River and the low-saline waters of the northern Caspian, there were variations in intensity of parasite infection between the two environments. The best-fitting probability distribution also gave some information about the dynamics of infection. No fish species had a Poisson distribution of parasites, which is consistent with an entirely random infection process, with all fish being potentially exposed. For some parasites, the distribution was a zero-inflated Poisson, which is consistent with either the fish being exposed to parasite infection or not; and, if exposed, infection was a random process. Other parasites had a negative binomial distribution, consistent with the entire fish population being exposed, but the infection process was clumped or there were variations in the susceptibility of infection between fish. Finally, some of the parasites had a zero-inflated negative binomial distribution, which can be interpreted as part of the fish population not being exposed and the remainder of the population being exposed to a clumped or aggregated infection process and/or a variation in individual susceptibility to infection.
Managing narratives, managing identities: Language and credibility in legal consultations with asylum seekers
Authors: Jacobs Marie , Maryns Katrijn 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis study examines interactional management practices and narrative co-construction in lawyer-asylum seeker consultations in Flanders, Belgium. Drawing upon linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork, it presents a case study of a consultation between an Afghan applicant for international protection, his adviser, and his lawyer. The purpose of the consultation is to prepare the applicant for testifying at the upcoming asylum hearing. Data analysis focuses on (i) the reorientation of the asylum narrative from an authentic-experiential towards a more objectified formal-institutional account; (ii) the participants’ positioning work that indexes this reorientation process; and (iii) their fluctuating alignment of local-interactional and translocal-gatekeeping perspectives. In the discussion, we analyse the consultation in terms of competing legal and experiential voices and views on participant roles/responsibilities. We reflect on how this ambiguity of roles and ideologies relates to the constructed character of credibility, which reveals the importance of adequate legal assistance in this linguistically challenging context. (Legal consultations, asylum procedure, linguistic ethnography, narrative performance, credibility assessment)*
The polarization constant of finite dimensional complex spaces is one
Authors: DIMANT VERÓNICA , GALICER DANIEL , RODRÍGUEZ JORGE TOMÁS 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe polarization constant of a Banach spaceXis defined as\[{\text{c}}(X){\text{ }}{\text{ }}\mathop {\lim }\limits_{k \to \infty } {\text{ }}\sup {\text{c}}{(k,X)^{\frac{1}{k}}},\]where\[{\text{c}}(k,X)\]stands for the best constant\[C > 0\]such that\[\mathop P\limits^ \vee \leqslant CP\]for everyk-homogeneous polynomial\[P \in \mathcal{P}{(^k}X)\]. We show that ifXis a finite dimensional complex space then\[{\text{c}}(X) = 1\]. We derive some consequences of this fact regarding the convergence of analytic functions on such spaces.The result is no longer true in the real setting. Here we relate this constant with the so-called Bochnak’s complexification procedure.We also study some other properties connected with polarization. Namely, we provide necessary conditions related to the geometry ofXfor\[c(2,X) = 1\]to hold. Additionally we link polarization constants with certain estimates of the nuclear norm of the product of polynomials.
The effect of content-related and external factors on student retention in LMOOCs
Authors: Friðriksdóttir Kolbrún 
Published: March 2021

AbstractCommonly, low completion rates in massive open online courses have called into question the quality of their learning materials and instruction. This paper attempts to identify crucial factors of engagement and retention in language massive open online courses (LMOOCs) in the context of the open online program of Icelandic Online, a self-guided course for second language learners of Icelandic. The study seeks to explore the impact of factors associated with the course’s instructional design on engagement and retention and reveal crucial determinants of attrition. The study depends on survey and tracking data from 400 learners and qualitative data from 62 informants in one course. It builds on previous studies on student engagement and retention in LMOOCs (Friðriksdóttir, 2018, 2019). The present study identified six content-specific factors that the majority of participants considered to be important for their motivation. Some factors, such as gradual and scaffolded presentation of input, had a positive impact on retention. Furthermore, statements from learners in the study who disengaged before completing show that non-course-related factors, such as time constraints, affect LMOOC retention. The study provides a new framework for how to promote student engagement and suggests specific strategies for other LMOOC developers.
Unusual presentation of mitral prosthetic heart valve thrombosis managed with low dose tenecteplase infusion
Authors: Ahmed A. Shaheer , Gupta Shivank 
Published: March 2021

AbstractA 11-year-old with history of mitral valve replacement presented with low-grade fever, breathlessness and multiple episodes of haemoptysis for 2 days. Detailed echocardiographic evaluation revealed possible prosthetic valve thrombosis, which was confirmed by fluoroscopy. She was thrombolysed with low dose infusion of tenecteplase. Post thrombolysis her symptoms improved, valve mobility was restored, and haemoptysis subsided. Left sided prosthetic valve thrombosis presenting predominantly with haemoptysis is very rare.