1,721,030 research outputs found
PAIR vs conservative surgery for uncomplicated echinococcal cysts: evaluation of costs in Italy
No full textThere is no consensus about the best treatment (surgery, chemotherapy and percutaneous treatments) for hepatic cystic echinococcosis (CE). Retrospective studies have addressed the pros and cons of each option, but costs of treatments have never been studied extensively. Aim of this paper is to compare the cost of PAIR and conservative surgery for non-complicated echinococcal cysts of the liver in Italy.
Materials and Methods. Costs of hospital stay, operating theatre, disposable items, salaries for health personnel and sonograms, were obtained from the S.Matteo Hospital Administration and pharmacy. The institution is a large tertiary care teaching hospital in Lombardy, a region in Northern Italy. Costs of 1-year follow-up were included. The costs were calculated for a 3-day hospital stay for PAIR procedure and 4-day hospital stay for surgery, both without complications.
Results and Discussion. The 2006 mean specific cost of a PAIR treatment for a 3-day hospital stay and 1 year follow-up was 2,072 EUR (average exchange rate: 1 EUR = 1.26 USD). Main cost entries were the following:
a) hospital stay (net cost): € 1,500 (72.4% of the total cost);
b) disposable items (needles, catheters) € 239 (11.5%);
c) personnel: € 156 (7.5%);
d) drugs (30-days albendazole administration as prophylaxis of secondary echinococcosis): € 72 (3.5%);
e) ultrasound scans (paid by patient): € 105 (5.1%).
In the same year and same hospital, the specific cost of a surgical conservative intervention and 1-year follow-up was 3,267 EUR. Main cost entries were the following:
a) hospital stay (net cost): € 2,000 (61,2% of the total cost);
b) operating theatre (2 hours): € 140 (4,3%);
c) disposable items: e.g. :Fibrin Glue € 500 (15,3%);
d) personnel: € 300 (9,2%);
e) pre-operative tests (Labs, ECG, Chest X-ray, anesthesiological evaluation): € 150 (4,6%);
f) drugs (30-days albendazole administration as prophylaxis of secondary echinococcosis): € 72 (2,2%);
g) ultrasound scans (paid by patient): € 105 (3,2%).
Conclusion
PAIR is significantly less expensive than conservative surgery for uncomplicated echinococcal cysts of the liver.
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Nutrition of the kidney transplant recipients
No full textThe outcome of kidney transplantation can be influenced by the nutritional status of the patient. Malnutrition, obesity and other metabolic complications can be prevented or corrected with correct nutritional interventions. There are currently few randomized clinical trials of nutrition interventions after kidney transplantation. However nutritional guidelines have been developed in order to optimize the nutritional status of patients with chronic kidney disease at all stages and for the nutritional management of kidney transplant recipients. The present chapter summarizes the key recommendations of the available evidence-based guidelines. The recommended nutritional intakes in adult and pediatric transplanted patients are reported in tables 1 and 3. The nutritional suggestions to prevent or to manage metabolic-related complications are summarized in table 2. Large multicenter trials are underway to assess the effect of nutritional interventions in kidney transplant recipients and to provide data for a structured dietetic and multidisciplinary approach to nutritional post-transplant care
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
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
Alterazione della risposta emodinamica all'ipovolemia acuta sperimentale in corso di anestesia
No full text- …
