1,721,049 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Elderly oravian cancer patients: treatment options
No full textINTRODUCTION. Ovarian cancer, the main cause of death among gynaecological malignancies, affects half of women in postmenopausal age. With the increase in older population, this tumor will be more frequent in elderly women, but not all the elderly patients can undertake standard treatments, due to comorbidities and less functional organ reserves.
New therapeutic approaches are needed to obtain an amendable overall survival and quality of life in this kind of patients.
OBJECTIVE. Our aim is to propose the best management of elderly ovarian cancer patients, taking account of biological age over chronologic age, with the aim to assure suitable treatments with a better overall survival.
DISCUSSION. Carboplatin-paclitaxel doublet is the standard treatment in patients with ovarian cancer; elderly patients are less treated with this therapy, due both to comorbidities and to the major toxicity. When the standard schedule every 21 days is administered in elderly patients, dose delay or previous stop for toxicity is frequent.
Furthermore, elderly are not candidate for intraperitoneal chemotherapy and HIPEC (hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy), due to highest toxicity. Chemotherapy is often the only possible choice for these patients, because a surgical debulking can be too much aggressive and associated with several morbidities.
Elderly have the same chemosensitivity than younger: geriatric assessment is fundamental to screen elderly population fitting for chemotherapy, and new strategies with less toxicity have to be investigated. Older patients with ovarian cancer have been underrepresented in clinical trials, so the few clinical studies with this kind of population must be evaluated.
It’s not clear whether doublets or single agents are better in the treatment of elderly ovarian cancer patients. Single agent options for elderly patients include liposomal doxorubicin, topotecan, gemcitabine and vinorelbine. Doublet combinations every 21 days have been largerly investigated, but only small clinical trials have been conducted on weekly schedule. Weekly carboplatin and paclitaxel have demonstrated an optimal compliance among elderly patients.
For what concern targeted therapies, there are no elderly-specific data on PARP inhibitors, but they appear to be well tolerated, on the opposite to antiangiogenic agents, which require more caution in the older population.
Metronomic chemotherapy and weekly schedules are the best solutions for elderly patients, for their efficacy and tolerability, contributing to quality of life.
CONCLUSIONS. Metronomic therapy, comprising weekly schedules, can be an optimal option for elderly ovarian cancer patients. Prospective studies are needed to develop further strategies for these women
Molecular alterations chemoresistance-related in ovarian cancer patients and related target therapies
No full textINTRODUCTION. Ovarian cancer has the highest rate of mortality among gynecological malignancies and it is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death in women of developed countries. It is often diagnosed at late stage, therefore, despite optimal cytoreduction by debulking surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, recurrence is frequent.
New therapeutic strategies are needed to treat relapses and advanced stage chemoresistant ovarian
cancer. Ovarian cancer is characterized by different molecular phenotypes, and it can be classified in five tumor types with different clinical, pathologic and prognostic properties, and with different chemosensitivity.
OBJECTIVE. This review will focus on molecular alterations involved in ovarian cancer carcinogenesis, which may become new targets for therapy in the future. Biological therapies can impact on the prognosis, especially in advanced chemoresistant ovarian cancer patients.
DISCUSSION. The most important pathways involved in ovarian cancer chemoresistance are PI3K/AKT/mTOR, KRAS/MAPK/ERK, BRCA1/BRCA2, Notch and Forkhead Box M1 pathways.
The amplification of PI3K is more frequent in high-grade ovarian tumors rather than in low grade ones, together with AKT phosphorylation, contributing to disease progression.
KRAS mutations are frequent in low-grade ovarian tumors, and their expression varies in different histopathological types. Loss of PTEN is frequently present in high-grade serous carcinomas and correlates with a poor prognosis.
Several protein kinases and other signaling molecules, such as KRAS, BRAF, PI3KCA and CTNNB1, have been evaluated and their mutations have been correlated with prognosis. Epigenetic modifications are promising targets for ovarian cancer treatment. Several studies on molecular alterations have been conducted on ovarian cancer tissue, but further studies are needed to tailor every therapy to the specific histotype of ovarian cancer.
Actually, the approved biological therapies currently used in ovarian cancer patients are only three: Bevacizumab (a monoclonal antibodies directed against VEGF, usually utilized in platinum-pretreated patients), Pazopanib (tyrosine kinase inhibitor) and Olaparib (PARP-inhibitor, utilized in BRCA1/2 mutated patients).
Further studies are needed to better evaluate different chemoresistance related pathways, and to find new targets on which to focus clinical research.
CONCLUSIONS. Among the analyzed studies, only molecular alterations of PI3KI seem to have the strongest correlation with prognosis. These mutations could be future targets of therapy for chemoresistant patients, but more studies are required
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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