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Development of coastal areas in Japan for various land uses since the 1960s has contributed to industrial upgrades and improved the efficiency of transportation networks. However, there are concerns about the vulnerability of developments on alluvial plains and reclaimed lands to geological events, like ground subsidence due to liquefaction during large earthquakes. Realistic assessment of earthquake and tsunami hazards and evaluation of possible countermeasures require accurate estimation of the amount of subsidence that can be expected from liquefaction at coastal and riverside sites supporting various structures. In this study, to evaluate the amount a river embankment structure might be expected to settle as a result of strong motion from an assumed Nankai Trough great earthquake, we conducted a numerical simulation using the soil–water coupled finite deformation analysis code GEOASIA. We then investigated the effect of the estimated embankment subsidence on tsunami inundation, which was simulated by using nonlinear shallow-water equations and a grid spacing as fine as 3.3 m. The influence of urban structures on the inundated area was taken into account by using a structure-embedded elevation model (SEM). The results showed that subsidence of river embankments and the collapse of parapet walls on top of them would increase both the depth and area of inundation caused by a tsunami triggered by a Nankai Trough scenario earthquake. Our findings underscore the importance of evaluating not only earthquake resistance but also vulnerability of coastal and riverside structures to strong motion in tsunami hazard analyses. Furthermore, the importance of tsunami inundation analysis using a SEM for predicting the behavior of tsunami flotsam in urban areas was demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To examine real‐world characteristics, journey, and outcomes among patients with locoregional, nonmetastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Methods: A retrospective analysis of medical records from the ConcertAI Oncology Dataset was performed on adults in the United States with newly diagnosed nonmetastatic RCC between January 2012–December 2017 who received surgical treatment, and were followed until August 2021. Patients were stratified based on the risk of recurrence after nephrectomy. Recurrence rate and survival outcomes were assessed. Results: The cohort (n = 439) had a median age of 64 years, 66.1% were male, and 76.5% had clear‐cell histology. The median follow‐up time from nephrectomy was 39.3 months overall, 41.0 months for intermediate‐high‐risk patients (n = 377; 85.9%) and 24.1 months for high‐risk patients (n = 62; 14.1%). For intermediate‐high‐ and high‐risk patients, respectively, 68.4% and 56.5% had ≥1 medical oncologist visit after nephrectomy. Of 260 patients with documentation of postoperative imaging assessments, 72% were ordered by medical oncologists, and the median time from initial nephrectomy to the first scan was 110 days (intermediate‐high‐risk) and 51 days (high‐risk). Provider‐documented recurrence occurred in 223 (50.8%) patients, of whom 41.7% had ≥1 medical oncologist visit before the recurrence. Three‐year disease‐free survival (DFS), and overall survival rates were 49.4% and 80.8% (all patients): 27.7% and 64.7% (high‐risk); and 52.9% and 83.3% (intermediate‐high‐risk). Conclusions: Our study reports low DFS after nephrectomy for patients with intermediate‐high‐ and high‐risk RCC. Subsequent approval and use of new and newly approved adjuvant therapeutic options could potentially delay or prevent recurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE: Treatment of non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) is guided by risk stratification using clinical and pathologic criteria. This study aimed to develop a natural language processing (NLP) model for identifying patients with high-risk NMIBC retrospectively from unstructured electronic medical records (EMRs) and to apply the model to describe patient and tumor characteristics. METHODS: We used three independent EMR-derived data sets including adult patients with a bladder cancer diagnosis in 2011-2020 for NLP model development and training (n = 140), validation (n = 697), and application for the retrospective cohort analysis (n = 4,402). Deep learning methods were used to train NLP recognition of medical chart terminology to identify seven high-risk NMIBC criteria; model performance was assessed using the F1 score, weighted across features. An algorithm was then used to classify each patient as high-risk NMIBC (yes/no). Manually reviewed records served as the gold standard. RESULTS: The F1 scores after model training were >0.7 for all but one uncommon feature (prostatic urethral involvement). The highest area under the receiver operating curves (AUC) was observed for Ta (0.897) and T1 (0.897); the lowest AUC was for carcinoma in situ (CIS; 0.617). For high-risk NMIBC classification, positive predictive value was 79.4%, negative predictive value was 93.2%, and false-positive rate was 8.9%. Sensitivity and specificity were 83.7% and 91.1%, respectively. Of 748 patients manually confirmed as having high-risk NMIBC, 196 (26%) had CIS (of whom 19% also had T1 and 23% also had Ta disease); 552 tumors (74%) had no associated CIS. CONCLUSION: The NLP model, combined with a rule-based algorithm, identified high-risk NMIBC with good performance and will enable future work to study real-world treatment patterns and clinical outcomes for high-risk NMIBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) has poor prognosis. A high unmet need exists for novel treatment for those who are unfit for platinumbased chemotherapy. Methods: We aimed to describe real-world temporal changes in patient characteristics and 1L treatment selection for mUC patients in the United States following the approval of anti-PD-1/L1 treatments. This study was a retrospective, observational study using anonymized and structured oncology electronic medical record (EMR) data from IQVIA and the US Oncology Network iKnowMed (USON). Results: After approval of 1L anti-PD-1/L1 treatment for mUC, there is a marked increase in the use of 1L anti-PD-1/L1 monotherapies, accompanied by a proportional decrease in 1L platinum-based treatments and non-guidelinebased therapy; particularly among the elderly (> 75 years) and those with poor ECOG performance status (ECOG PS 2+). Discussion: Anti-PD-1/L1 monotherapies fulfill the prior unmet need of frail mUC patients who are ineligible for platinum-based therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Markov-based cost-effectiveness model was developed to project long-term effectiveness and costs among patients who undergo nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma and receive either adjuvant pembrolizumab, adjuvant sunitinib, or routine surveillance alone (no adjuvant treatment). Over a lifetime horizon, pembrolizumab was estimated to prolong quality-adjusted life expectancy and be cost-effective relative to both comparator treatment strategies. Introduction: Pembrolizumab was recently approved as an adjuvant treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), based on prolonged disease-free survival compared to placebo in the phase III KEYNOTE-564 trial. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of pembrolizumab as monotherapy in the adjuvant treatment of RCC post-nephrectomy, from a US health sector perspective. Patients and Methods: A Markov model with 4 health states (disease-free, locoregional recurrence, distant metastases, and death) was developed to compare the cost and effectiveness of pembrolizumab versus routine surveillance or sunitinib. Transition probabilities were estimated using patient-level KEYNOTE-564 data (cutoff: June 14, 2021), a retrospective study, and published literature. Costs of adjuvant and subsequent treatments, adverse events, disease management, and terminal care were estimated in 2022 US$. Utilities were based on EQ-5D-5L data collected in KEYNOTE-564. Outcomes included costs, life-years (LYs), and quality-adjusted LYs (QALYs). Robustness was assessed through one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Results: Total cost per patient was $549,353 for pembrolizumab, $505,094 for routine surveillance, and $602,065 for sunitinib. Over a lifetime, pembrolizumab provided gains of 0.96 QALYs (1.00 LYs) compared to routine surveillance, yielding an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $46,327/QALY. Pembrolizumab dominated sunitinib with 0.89 QALYs (0.91 LYs) gained while saving costs. At a $150,000/QALY threshold, pembrolizumab was cost-effective versus both routine surveillance and sunitinib in 84.2% of probabilistic simulations. Conclusion: Pembrolizumab is projected to be cost-effective as an adjuvant RCC treatment versus routine surveillance or sunitinib based on a typical willingness-to-pay threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the effects of critical depth of cut and wheel wear were investigated to realize efficient precision grinding of CVD-SiC by ductile mode grinding at low cost. To compare the results under experimental conditions, Vickers indentation tests and grinding experiments were conducted. As a result of the Vickers indentation test at an applied load of 0.015 N, the minimum indentation load in this study, the indentation depth was 1.3 μm, and cracks were observed at the corners of the indentation isotropically. Additionally, the pile-up was observed around the indentation, suggesting that plastic deformation due to shear flow was relatively large. Grinding experiments were conducted using grinding wheels with different grain sizes. All the grinding conditions in this study resulted in a surface with a mixture of brittle and ductile modes. The proportion of ductile modes was larger, and the surface roughness Ra was smaller when a grindstone with a smaller grain size was used. Additionally, the effect of wear was investigated. As wear progressed, the number of protruding grains decreased, resulting in a smaller surface roughness. These results indicate that the amount of protruding abrasive grains must be controlled to achieve stable ductile mode grinding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the ambient temperature and relative humidity on crack propagation behavior during wheel scribing were investigated. A chamber was built to allow dynamic observation of crack propagation behavior in a controlled atmosphere. A developed miniature scriber was installed in the chamber, and the crack propagation behavior was observed from lateral and back sides during wheel scribing under various atmospheric conditions. As a result, the median crack propagation rate increased with relative humidity. We speculated that this was caused by the stress corrosion of glass. Although stress corrosion is considered to be more reactive at higher temperatures, the results of scribing at different temperatures showed that higher temperatures did not necessarily increase median crack propagation. This is due to the formation of lateral cracks before the median cracks have fully propagated. These results suggest that the interaction between multiple cracks should be considered when discussing the effects of temperature and humidity in wheel scribing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, is located in a complex and tectonically active region, and has experienced tsunamis in the past. One of the major earthquake and tsunami events was the 23 February 1969 event that struck the Majene region in western Sulawesi Island. Interpretation of the historical accounts revealed that the Mw 7.0 earthquake generated strong intensity up to VIII on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. The earthquake was followed by an unusually high tsunami of 4 m that rapidly decayed within 25 km from the highest observation site. Hypocentre and earthquake mechanism analyses confirmed that it was an inland earthquake with a thrust mechanism. Ground motion modelling is able to reproduce the earthquake intensity but earthquake scenarios are unable to reconstruct the tsunami observations. A plausible solution to explain the tsunami report is from a combined scenario of an earthquake and a submarine mass failure of 0.5 km 3 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐frequency (HF) radar monitors the sea surface current velocity and provides information for tsunami early warning. SeaSondeR, an HF ocean radar system in the eastern Tsugaru Strait, Japan, measured the tsunami‐induced current velocity during the 2022 Tonga volcanic tsunami. As an air‐coupled tsunami, the generating mechanism was complex, making it difficult to predict coastal tsunamis using traditional early warning methods. We adopted the tsunami data assimilation (DA) approach, which reconstructs the tsunami wavefield using offshore data and does not require source information, to forecast the coastal tsunami waveforms. Observations from the HF radar and offshore bottom pressure gauges (OBPGs) were used as the input for tsunami DA. The assimilation process started at 09:00 (UTC, hereafter) and forecasts were made at 14:00 and 15:00. The surface current velocity recorded by the HF radar reached the maximum (∼0.25 m/s) at 13:00, which corresponded to a negative phase of ∼2 cm sea level variation observed by OBPGs. We compared the forecasted waveforms with the observed waveforms at Hakodate and Shimokita tide gauges. The assimilation results obtained using HF radar showed a better performance in tsunami forecasting than those using OBPG in this case study. At 14:00, the forecasting accuracy indices were 91% and 67% for the next 2 and 6 hr, respectively. At 15:00, it was 63% and 70% for the next 2 and 6 hr, respectively. We suggest that HF radar could be a good supplement to OBPG for tsunami early warning purposes. Plain Language Summary: On 15 January 2022, the eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai volcano generated a tsunami that arrived in Japan. The tsunami was detected by a high‐frequency (HF) ocean radar system in the eastern Tsugaru Strait. The HF radar recorded the velocity of tsunami‐induced sea surface currents. We used these velocity data to forecast the tsunami waveforms at coastal tide gauge stations. The forecast method, called tsunami data assimilation, does not require tsunami source information but accurately forecasts the coastal tsunami waveforms. We demonstrate that the HF radar data can be successfully applied to tsunami early warning systems. Key Points: High‐frequency (HF) radar observed surface current velocity in the eastern Tsugaru Strait during the 2022 Tonga volcanic tsunamiHF radar observations were used for data assimilation to forecast tsunami waveforms at coastal tide gaugesThe assimilation results using HF radar had an accuracy of over 63% for Hakodate and Shimokita tide gauges [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have developed tsunami inundation models based on nonlinear shallow water equations to estimate tsunami propagation and inundation. However, their empirical results are not in perfect agreement with those of other research institutes, even though the same governing equations are used. Therefore, we quantitatively evaluated the variability of tsunami simulations in this study. Several research institutes have conducted tsunami simulations under the same input conditions using tsunami inundation models adopted for tsunami hazard assessment, resulting in a certain degree of variability among them. By examining the spatial and temporal differences in various physical quantities, we identified the characteristic topography where the variability between tsunami simulations increases. A novel method for calculating statistics from the area integrals of physical quantities was proposed to demonstrate the variability in the overall simulation results. In addition, the effects of different setting parameters and computational environments on the simulation results of a single model were evaluated. The findings of this study are expected to not only serve as a basis to verify the reliability of source codes employed by users of the tsunami inundation model, but also contribute useful technical information to advance probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy for pathologic stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with high risk for recurrence. Prospectively collected data from 1278 patients with pathologic stage I NSCLC according to eighth edition staging guidelines who were undergoing lobectomy were retrospectively analyzed. Factors associated with high risk for recurrence were determined using the multivariable Cox proportional hazards model for recurrence-free survival (RFS). Survival was compared between patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy and those who did not. In multivariable analysis, age (≥70 years), invasive component size (>2 cm), visceral pleural invasion, lymphatic invasion, and vascular invasion were identified as independent factors for RFS. In patients with high-risk factors for recurrence such as pathologic T1c or T2a or lymphovascular invasion (high-risk group; n = 641), adjuvant chemotherapy resulted in significantly longer RFS and overall survival (n = 222; 5-year RFS, 81.4%; 5-year overall survival, 92.7%) than in patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 418; 5-year RFS, 73.8%; P =.023; 5-year overall survival, 81.7%; P <.0001). In patients without any high-risk factors for recurrence (low-risk group; n = 637), RFS was not significantly different between those who received adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 83; 5-yeat RFS, 98.1%) and those who did not (n = 554; 5-year RFS, 95.7%; P =.30). Adjuvant chemotherapy may improve survival in patients with pathologic stage I NSCLC who have factors associated with high risk for recurrence, such as pathologic T1c or T2a or lymphovascular invasion. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ocean floor network system for earthquakes and tsunamis is one of the effective tools for the early detection of large earthquakes on plate boundaries and the tsunamis they generate. The Dense Oceanfloor Network system for Earthquakes and Tsunamis (DONET) was installed in the first rupture areas of the 1944 Tonankai and 1946 Nankai earthquakes. The DONET around the Nankai Trough, a site of huge earthquakes that have caused severe damage, has the potential to detect the genesis of a tsunami. We developed a real-time tsunami prediction system for local communities that takes advantage of the features of DONET, and we have already made it available to several local governments and a commercial company. The outputs of the prediction are the tsunami arrival time, its height, its inundation area, and inundation depth. The system makes real-time monitoring of tsunamis possible. The system should be conceptually applicable to the Nankai Trough area, which has characteristics consistent with the assumptions the system makes about tsunami propagation, crustal activities, and coastal communities. Here, we describe the conceptual basis of the system, the features used to ensure the accuracy of predictions, and the policies used to develop and implement them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]