bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Phase II Study of Two Weeks on, One Week off Sunitinib Scheduling in Patients With Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma
Authors: Jonasch Eric , Slack Rebecca S. , Geynisman Daniel M. , Hasanov Elshad , Milowsky Matthew I. , Rathmell W. Kimryn , Stovall Summer , Juarez Donna , Gilchrist Troy R. , Pruitt Lisa , Ornstein Moshe C. , Plimack Elizabeth R. , Tannir Nizar M. , Rini Brian I. 
Published: April 2018

Purpose Standard frontline treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma currently includes sunitinib. A barrier to long-term treatment with sunitinib includes the development of significant adverse effects, including diarrhea, hand-foot syndrome (HFS), and fatigue. This trial assessed the effect of an alternate 2 weeks on, 1 week off (2/1) schedule of sunitinib on toxicity and efficacy in previously untreated patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Methods Patients started with oral administration of 50 mg sunitinib on a 2/1 schedule and underwent schedule and dose alterations if toxicity developed. The primary end point was < 15% grade ≥ 3 fatigue, diarrhea, or HFS. With 60 patients, the upper bound of the CI would fall below the published 4/2 schedule grade ≥ 3 toxicity rate of 25% to 30%. Results Fifty-nine patients were treated between August 2014 and March 2016. Seventy-seven percent were intermediate or poor risk per Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center criteria. With a median follow-up of 17 months, 25% of patients experienced grade 3 fatigue, HFS, or diarrhea; 37% required a dose reduction, and 10% discontinued because of toxicity. The overall response rate was 57%, median progression-free survival was 13.7 months, and median overall survival was not reached. At 12 weeks, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–General scores dropped between 0% and 10% from baseline, with less reduction in patients who continued treatment longer. Conclusion The primary end point of decreased grade 3 toxicity was not met; however, treatment with a 2/1 sunitinib schedule is associated with a lack of grade 4 toxicity, a low patient discontinuation rate, and high efficacy.
Disparities in Breast, Lung, and Cervical Cancer Trials Worldwide
Authors: Ramaswami Ramya , Paulino Eduardo , Barrichello Adriana , Nogueira-Rodrigues Angelica , Bukowski Alexandra , St. Louis Jessica , Goss Paul E. 
Published: April 2018

Purpose As cancer burden has risen worldwide, physicians, patients, and their advocates have become aware that the clinical cancer trial research paradigm is not ubiquitous. Furthermore, the number and characteristics of trials that are registered in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with that in high-income countries (HICs) are unknown. Methods We collected retrospective data on trials for breast, lung, and cervical cancer registered in ClinicalTrials.gov or with the WHO International Clinical Trial Registry Platform between 2010 and 2017. The data were then classified as trials within LMICs or HICs using definitions from the World Bank. Results Included in these analyses were 6,710 trials, of which 3,164 (47%) were breast cancer trials, 3,283 (49%) were lung cancer trials, and 263 (4%) were cervical cancer trials. There were 1,951 (29%) trials from LMICs and 4,759 (71%) trials from HICs ( P < .001). Although the proportion of phase III trials in HICs versus LMICs was similar (18% v 17%; P = .66), the number of phase I trials in LMICs was significantly lower than that of HICs (20% v 2%; P < .001). For several LMICs with the highest mortality-to-incidence ratios for breast, lung, or cervical cancer, there were no cancer trials registered in the registration data bases searched for this work. Conclusion There are differences in access to cancer clinical trials in LMICs compared with HICs. Several factors, such as excessive cost and a lack of infrastructure and expertise, may explain these differences.
Monitoring InBaskets With Feedback to Providers Enhances the Timeliness of Patient Care
Authors: Trant Amelia A. , Strait Michael , Kaplan Rory , Dest Vanna , Roshka Adam , Lyons Catherine A. , Vest Kevin A. , Steffen Tessa , Chiang Anne , Adelson Kerin B. 
Published: April 2018

Purpose: Electronic health records have changed providers’ workflow. Epic’s InBasket supplants traditional communication and is a central hub for clinical information. Failure to promptly complete records impairs communication and revenue collection. By tracking providers’ InBasket activities and offering feedback, we hoped to improve InBasket management and interdisciplinary communication. Methods: We created a report to track 273 providers’ InBasket activities, including ambulatory transcriptions, chart cosignatures, order cosignatures, patient calls, results, and billable encounters. The report showed how often and for how long each activity was delinquent. We completed three Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles. During cycle 1 (November to December 2015), we sent all providers automated e-mails with their monthly results. During cycle 2 (January to April 2016), we focused solely on billable encounter closure and sent targeted e-mails to providers with > 50 delinquent encounters. The e-mails stated that providers had 30 days to complete encounters or their practices would be closed to new patients; at 30 days, noncompliant providers had 60 days before practice suspension. During cycle 3 (May to September 2016), we continued to monitor and send targeted e-mails to providers who accumulated > 50 encounters. We modeled the financial impact of the intervention using net closure data, the report’s aging function, and billing logs. Results: InBasket monitoring with structured feedback decreased open encounters by 53.43%. We did not see improvements in the other metrics that the report tracked. We estimate that $231,724 was saved as a result of the intervention and $349,179 was lost to filing deadlines. Conclusion: Automated e-mails did not reduce open encounters; targeted e-mails to providers improved InBasket management.
Older E-bike Users: Demographic, Health, Mobility Characteristics, and Cycling Levels
Authors: VAN CAUWENBERG JELLE , DE BOURDEAUDHUIJ ILSE , CLARYS PETER , DE GEUS BAS , DEFORCHE BENEDICTE 
Published: April 2018

ABSTRACT

Purpose
Electric bicycles (e-bikes) may offer an opportunity to stimulate physical activity among older adults. The current study compared Flemish (Belgian) older e-bike users with those not using an e-bike on sociodemographics, health characteristics, and access to motorized transport. In addition, it examined the association between e-bike use and levels of cycling and the moderating effects of sex, body mass index (BMI), and cycling limitations.

Methods
An online or interview version of the same questionnaire was completed by 1146 participants. Data were analyzed using logistic regression and hurdle models.

Results
Women, those with a higher BMI, and those with one (compared with no) motorized vehicle in the household had higher odds of being an e-bike user. E-bike use was related to higher odds of having cycled for transport in the past week, and this relationship was stronger among those with a higher BMI (low BMI: odds ratio, 1.89; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.24–2.91; high BMI: odds ratio, 3.34; 95% CI, 2.26–5.00). Among those who cycled for transport in the last week, e-bike use was associated with 35% more minutes of cycling for transport (95% CI, 17%–56%). E-bike use was related to 183% higher odds of having biked for recreation (95% CI, 115%–274%). Among women and those with cycling limitations who cycled for recreation in the last week, e-bike use was also related to 57% (95% CI, 18%–109%) and 180% (95% CI, 63%–381%) more minutes of cycling for recreation, respectively.

Conclusion
E-bikes may provide an opportunity to promote cycling among older adults, particularly among subgroups at risk for physical inactivity.
Simple Policies for Managing Flexible Capacity
Authors: Janakiraman Ganesh , Nagarajan Mahesh , Veeraraghavan Senthil 
Published: April 2018

In many scenarios, a fixed capacity is shared flexibly between multiple products. To manage such multiproduct systems, firms need to make two sets of decisions. The first one requires setting an inventory target for each product, and the second requires dynamically allocating the scarce capacity among the products. It is not known how to make these decisions optimally. In this paper, we propose easily implementable policies that have both theoretical and practical appeal. We first suggest simple and intuitive allocation rules that determine how such scarce capacity is shared. Given such rules, we calculate the optimal inventory target for each product. We demonstrate analytically that our policies are optimal under two asymptotic regimes represented by high service levels (i.e., high shortage costs) and heavy traffic (i.e., tight capacity). We also demonstrate that our policies outperform current known policies over a wide range of problem parameters. In particular, the cost savings from our policies become more significant as the capacity gets more restrictive.The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2017.0648 .
Real-Time Ambulance Dispatching and Relocation
Authors: Nasrollahzadeh Amir Ali , Khademi Amin , Mayorga Maria E. 
Published: April 2018

In this study, we develop a flexible optimization framework for real-time ambulance dispatching and relocation. In addition to ambulance redeployment, we consider a general dispatching and relocation strategy by which the decision maker has the option to (i) select any available ambulance to dispatch to a call or to queue the call and (ii) send an idle ambulance to cover the location of an ambulance just dispatched to a call. We formulate the problem as a stochastic dynamic program, and, because the state space is unbounded, an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) framework is developed to generate high-quality solutions. We assess the quality of our solutions by developing a lower bound on the expected response time and computing a lower bound on the expected fraction of late calls of any relocation policy. We test the performance of our policies and available benchmarks on an emergency medical services system in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The results show that our policies are near optimal and significantly outperform available benchmarks. In particular, our ADP policy reduces the expected response time and fraction of high-priority late calls by 12% and 30.6%, respectively, over the best available static benchmarks in the case study. Moreover, the results provide insights on the contribution of each dispatching, redeployment, and reallocation strategy. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2017.0649 .
Cost-effectiveness of an electroceutical device in treating non-healing venous leg ulcers: results of an RCT
Authors: Guest Julian F , Singh Heenal , Rana Karan , Vowden Peter 
Published: April 2018

Objective: To estimate the cost-effectiveness of an externally applied electroceutical (EAE) device, Accel-Heal, in treating non-healing venous leg ulcers (VLUs) in the UK. Method: This was a prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-centre study of patients aged ≥18 years with a non-healing VLU. Patients were randomised in the ratio of 1:1 to receive six units of the EAE (consisting of a self-contained, programmed electric microcurrent generator and two skin contact pads) or an identical-looking placebo device over 12 consecutive days. Patients were followed-up for 24 weeks from randomisation, during which time patients received wound care according to the local standard care pathway, completed health-related quality of life (HRQoL) instruments, and health-care resource use was measured. The cost-effectiveness of the EAE device was estimated at 2015/16 prices in those patients who fulfilled the study's inclusion and exclusion criteria (economic analysis population). Results: At 24 weeks after randomisation, 34% and 30% of VLUs in the EAE and placebo groups in the economic analysis population, respectively, had healed. The time-to-healing was a mean of 2.6 and 3.5 months in the EAE and placebo groups, respectively. The area of the wounds that healed in the EAE group was nearly twice that of those in the placebo group (mean: 13.3 versus 7.7cm2 per VLU). Additionally, the pre-randomised duration of the wounds that healed in the EAE group was double that of those in the placebo group (mean: 2.6 versus 1.2 years per VLU). By the end of the study, EAE-treated patients reported less pain, more social functioning and greater overall wellbeing/satisfaction than placebo-treated patients. None of these differences reached statistical significance, but they may be important to patients. There were no significant differences in health-care resource use between the two groups. The incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained with the EAE device was £4480 at eight weeks, decreasing to £2265 at 16 weeks and −£2388 (dominant) at 24 weeks. The study was confounded by unwarranted variation in patient management between centres and between individual clinicians within each centre. Conclusion: Despite the unwarranted variation in the provision of wound care observed in this study, the use of the EAE device resulted in some improved clinical outcomes and patient-reported outcomes, for the same or less cost as standard care, by 24 weeks. Clinicians managing VLUs may wish to consider the findings from this study when making treatment decisions.
Traditional culture methods fail to detect principle pathogens in necrotising soft tissue infection: a case report
Authors: Zhao-Fleming Hannah H. , Barake Suhaireirene R. Suady , Hand Audrey , Wilkinson Jeremy E. , Sanford Nick , Winn Richard , Dissanaike Sharmila 
Published: April 2018

Objective: Necrotising soft tissue infections (NSTIs) progress rapidly and mortality remains high, ranging from 10% to 30%, representing a significant challenge for health professionals. Early accurate diagnosis is crucial because timely and aggressive surgical intervention remains the number one indicator for a better clinical outcome. Understanding the microbial background of NSTIs would aid early diagnosis. Presentation: We present a case of NSTI, in a seemingly healthy adult male, originating from a tooth abscess. The NSTI progressed rapidly, and eventually covered the patient's chest and abdominal skin and underlying soft tissue. Results: Traditional blood and tissue culture only found Group C Streptococcus where 16S sequencing detected abundant Prevotella spp., a more likely causal organisms of the NSTI. The use of antibiotics with the approriate anaerobe coverage, in combination with timely surgical intervention, contributed to the ultimate successful clinical outcome. Complete wound healing and successful graft was achieved within one month of diagnosis of the microbes present. Conclusion: While surgical intervention remains the most important consideration in treatment of NSTI, correct identifcation of the microbial flora could also contribute to successful treatment.
Predictors of Foreign Language Anxiety: A Study of College-Level L2 Learners of Chinese
Authors: Luo Han 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
This study investigated seven learner variables (i.e., age, motivation, perception of the difficulty of the Chinese language, self-perceived achievement, self-perceived language learning ability, self-expectation in the Chinese class, and perception of the importance of the Chinese language) as potential predictors of Chinese language learning anxiety. Correlation analyses showed that all seven variables were significantly correlated with anxiety level in isolation. Perception of the difficulty of the Chinese language and age were found to have positive relationships with anxiety, whereas the remaining five variables were reported to have negative relationships. Multiple regression analysis revealed that all the variables except self-expectation in the Chinese class and perception of the importance of the Chinese language contributed significantly to the prediction of Chinese language learning anxiety when examined simultaneously. The five significant predictors altogether explained 34.7% of the variance in anxiety. Perception of the difficulty of the Chinese language was found to be the best predictor and self-perceived achievement the second-best predictor, followed by self-perceived foreign language learning ability, age, and motivation.
Generic Variation & Private Intention: A Multi-Dimensional Exploration of Book Reviews and Prefaces
Authors: Xiao Liang , Deng Liming 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
Based on Bhatia’s multi-dimensional analytical framework for discourse analysis, we explore key issues involved in genres construction such as private intention, manipulation of generic value and interdiscursive strategies. Two prefaces and two book reviews by expert linguists were collected and analyzed at great length from both text-internal and text-external perspectives. Meanwhile, four professionals from relevant disciplines were interviewed for their insights into the issues investigated. Through examining textual features, covert interdiscursivity and narrative accounts of the professional writers, the following findings are generated. 1) Generic variation occurs within and between the two genres due to expert writers’ intentional manipulation of generic value. 2) Interdiscursive strategies like “genre embedding”, “genre bending” and “genre mixing” are exploited by expert writers to achieve their particular private intention. Specifically, preface genre can be presented, to some extent, as a research article mixed with some promotional flavor, and features of research article genre, promotional genre and introductory genre are found mixed in the review genre. 3) Representations of the preface and book review genres such as linguistic feature, move structure and interdiscursivity are ultimately affected by generic value, authors’ private intention, professional practice and disciplinary culture. The findings have important implications for ESP/EAP writing practitioners and learners.
Decomposable branching processes with two types of particles
Authors: Vatutin Vladimir A. , Dyakonova Elena E. 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
A two-type critical decomposable branching process with discrete time is considered in which particles of the first type may produce at the death moment offspring of both types while particles of the second type may produce at the death moment offspring of their own type only. Assuming that the offspring distributions of particles of both types may have infinite variance, the asymptotic behavior of the tail distribution of the random variable Ξ
2, the total number of the second type particles ever born in the process is found. Limit theorems are proved describing (as N → ∞) the conditional distribution of the amount of the first type particles in different generations given that either Ξ
2 = N or Ξ
2 > N.
Limit theorem for the size of an image of subset under compositions of random mappings
Authors: Zubkov Andrey M. , Serov Aleksandr A. 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
Let 𝓧𝓝 be a set consisting of N elements and F
1,F
2, … be a sequence of random independent equiprobable mappings 𝓧𝓝 → 𝓧𝓝. For a subset S
0 ⊂ 𝓧𝓝, |S
0| = n, we consider a sequence of its images St
= Ft
(… F
2(F
1(S
0))…), t = 1, 2 … The conditions on n, t, N → ∞ under which the distributions of image sizes |St
| are asymptotically connected with the standard normal distribution are presented.
Influence of Loranthus micranthus on hepatic and renal antioxidant status and impaired glycolytic flux in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats
Authors: Ebokaiwe Azubuike P. , Ijomone Omamuyovwi M. , Edeh Oscar , Oteh Ifebunachi , Ebuka David E. 
Published: April 2018

Abstract

Background
The use of Loranthus micranthus in folklore medicine for treatment of diabetes and its associated complications is a common practice around the world. The present study investigated this traditional affirmation by in vivo investigation into the effect of L. micranthus leaf extract on hepatic and renal, oxidative status and glucose metabolism in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats.

Methods
Diabetes mellitus was induced in adult male Wistar rats by intraperitoneal injection of STZ (60 mg/kg). The diabetic rats were thereafter treated orally once per day with 5 mg/kg gilbenclamide or L. micranthus leaf extract (100 or 200 mg/kg) and monitored for 14 days. Clinical observations, plasma biochemistry, hormonal profile, oxidative stress parameters, glucose metabolism enzymes and histopathologic examination of the liver and kidney were evaluated to monitor treatment-related effects of L. micranthus leaf extract in STZ-induced diabetic rats.

Results

Loranthus micranthus leaf extract administration significantly ameliorated hyperglycemia-mediated damage by decreasing the blood glucose level (45.9% and 84.7% on days 7 and 14 posttreatment, respectively), enhancing the antioxidant status, inhibiting lipid peroxidation and improving the architecture of the liver and kidney in STZ-induced diabetic rats. Furthermore, intervention of L. micranthus leaf extract restored the liver and kidney function biomarkers and increased the plasma levels of triiodothyronine and thyroxine to normal control in STZ-induced diabetic rats.

Conclusions
The findings from this investigation provide credible scientific support for the traditional use of L. micranthus leaf extract in the treatment of diabetes and its associated complications.
Lipschitz stability estimates in inverse source problems for a fractional diffusion equation of half order in time by Carleman estimates
Authors: Kawamoto Atsushi 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
In this article, we consider a fractional diffusion equation of half order in time.
We study inverse problems of determining the space-dependent factor in the source term
from additional data at a fixed time and
interior or boundary data over an appropriate time interval.
We establish the global Lipschitz stability estimates in the inverse source problems.
Our methods are based on Carleman estimates.
Here we prove and use
the Carleman estimates for a fractional diffusion equation of half order in time.
Prediction of Fundamental Modal Field for Graded Index Fiber in the Presence of Kerr Nonlinearity
Authors: Chakraborty Subhalaxmi , Mandal Chintan Kumar , Gangopadhyay Sankar 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
The power series formulation for modal field of single-mode graded index fibers by Chebyshev technique has worked excellently in predicting accurately different propagation characteristics in simple fashion. Here we develop a simple iterative method involving Chebyshev formalism to predict the modal field of single-mode graded index fiber in the presence of Kerr-type nonlinearity. Taking step and parabolic index fibers as typical examples, we show that our results match excellently with the available exact results obtained vigorously. Thus, the reported technique can be considered as an accurate alternative to the existing cumbersome techniques. Accordingly, this formalism will be beneficial to the technologies for evaluation of modal noise in single-mode Kerr-type nonlinear graded index fibers.