1,721,025 research outputs found
Fish consumption, does it beneficially affect markers of colorectal carcinogenesis?
No full textBackground: Fish consumption is possibly associated with a decreased risk of colorectal cancer, as has been shown in several observational studies. However, most of these studies did not discriminate between the effects of oil-rich and lean fish. To date, no randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have examined the possible beneficial effects of fish intake on colorectal cancer risk. Aim: The aim of this thesis was to investigate whether fish consumption beneficially affects markers of colorectal carcinogenesis. Methods and Results: In a case control study (363 cases, 498 controls), we studied the association of serum n 3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) levels as a marker of oil rich fish intake with colorectal adenomas, a precursor lesion of colorectal cancer. We found that individuals with high serum long chain n 3 PUFA levels had a decreased risk of colorectal adenomas (odds ratio (OR) 0.67, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.46; 0.96), whereas individuals with high serum n 6 PUFA levels had an increased risk of colorectal adenomas (OR 1.68, 95% CI 1.17; 2.42). In an RCT, we studied the effects of 3.5g/d fish oil (~1.5g/d n 3 PUFA) for 12 weeks on 19 serum inflammation markers in 77 healthy subjects and found that serum levels of these cytokines and chemokines were not changed. Finally, we studied the effects of increasing fish consumption compared with no additional fish, on markers of colorectal carcinogenesis in an RCT. Subjects (n=242), at an increased risk of colorectal cancer and those with no macroscopic signs of disease, were randomly allocated to receive dietary advice (DA) plus either two additional weekly portions of oil rich fish (salmon, ~1.4g/d n 3 PUFA) or lean fish (cod, ~0.09 g/d n 3 PUFA), or only DA for six months. We observed no change in apoptotic and mitotic cell numbers after the 6 months intervention with either salmon or cod compared with DA. Furthermore, colorectal genotoxicity, levels of cytokines and chemokines in colonic biopsies and feces, and fecal calprotectin were also not markedly changed after fish consumption. Only serum C reactive protein (CRP) levels were statistically significantly decreased after consumption of salmon ( 0.5 mg/l, 95% CI 0.9; 0.2) and cod ( 0.4 mg/l, 95% CI 0.7; 0.0) compared with DA. Conclusion: The results of this thesis do not provide strong evidence for beneficial effects of fish consumption on markers of colorectal carcinogenesis. <br/
Evaluation of the two non-consecutive 24-h recall instrument for pan-European food consumption surveys
No full text Background: The comparability of food consumption data originating from national nutritional surveys in Europe is currently hampered because of different methodologies used. Therefore, experts in the European Food Consumption Survey Method (EFCOSUM) consortium proposed to use two non-consecutive 24-h recalls for standardised dietary monitoring in European countries. Aim: Within the European Food Consumption Validation (EFCOVAL) consortium (www.efcoval.eu), this thesis aimed to evaluate the data collected with two non-consecutive 24-h recalls using EPIC-Soft for comparisons of dietary intake in adults between countries in future pan-European surveys. Methods: To evaluate the bias in protein and potassium intake as well as the ranking of individuals according to their fish and fruit & vegetable intake collected with two non-consecutive 24-h recalls, we developed a validation study within EFCOVAL. The study included biomarker data of 600 subjects from five European centres in Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, and Norway. To gain further insight into the determinants of the accuracy of the method by using multilevel analysis, we combined EFCOVAL data from one day with similar data from twelve other centres participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) calibration study. Then, we used the EFCOVAL data for assessing the impact of different modes of administration (telephone vs. face-to-face), recall days (1st vs. 2nd) and days of the week (weekdays vs. weekend) on the bias in protein and potassium intake. Finally, data from the Netherlands was used to explore the usefulness of collecting individual dietary data with the 24-h recalls for estimating dietary exposure to flavouring substances. Results: On average, men and women underreported protein intake by 8% in the EFCOVAL study. Underreporting of potassium intake was 7% in men and 4% in women. The coefficient of variation of bias in observed protein and potassium intake between centres ranged from 4 to 7%. The prevalence of subjects with adequate protein and potassium intake according to the observed data at the lower and upper end of the usual intake distribution agreed fairly well ( Conclusion: Two non-consecutive 24-h recalls using EPIC-Soft provides sufficiently valid and suitable data for comparing dietary intake across European populations. </p
The Dutch Healthy Diet Index : development, evaluation, and application
No full textThe Dutch Healthy Diet index – Development, Evaluation, and Application Linde van Lee Abstract Background: Dietary indices evaluate the conformity of an individual’s diet with pre-defined standards. Generally, dietary guidelines are used for this purpose. As no index based on the current dietary guidelines was available in the Netherlands, the aim of the present thesis was to develop, evaluate, and apply a dietary index for use in the country. Methods and results: The Dutch Healthy Diet index (DHD-index) was developed on the basis of the 2006 Dutch dietary guidelines using data relating to 749 young adults who completed two 24-hour recalls in the Dutch national food consumption survey 2003. The index comprises ten components on physical activity, vegetables, fruit, dietary fibre, saturated fatty acids, trans fatty acids, consumption occasions with acidic drinks and foods, sodium, and alcohol. Scores for each component range between 0 (no adherence) and 10 (complete adherence) points. The DHD-index was inversely associated with energy intake and positively associated with most micronutrient intakes when adjusted for energy intake. We compared the DHD-index score based on two 24-hour recalls with the index based on the food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) of 121 adults from the European Food Consumption Validation study. We revealed an acceptable correlation (r=0.48) and absolute agreement between the indices based on the two methods. The prospective relationship with mortality outcomes was studied in 3593 of the Rotterdam Study participants who were followed for 20 years. The DHD-index per 10 points increment was associated with a 9% (95% CI 0.87-0.96) risk reduction for all-cause mortality, and non-significantly associated with risk reductions for cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke mortality. Among women, shared dinners were associated with lower DHD-index scores for that day than solo dinners in 1740 participants who contributed multiple 24-hour recalls in the Nutrition Questionnaires plus study. Among men and women, dinners shared with family members were associated with a higher DHD-index score on that day than dinners shared with others. Furthermore, in a subsample of 1235 participants in the Nutrition Questionnaires plus study, we evaluated the DHD-index based on the newly developed 34-item DHD-FFQ, a short questionnaire to assess diet quality in time-limited settings. The DHD-index based on the DHD-FFQ showed an acceptable correlation (r=0.56) with the index based on a 180-item FFQ, but showed a large variation in bias at individual level. Conclusions: The DHD-index based on an FFQ, on multiple 24-hour recalls, or on the DHD-FFQ was considered a valid tool to rank participants according to their diet quality. The DHD-index was therefore considered useful to monitor populations, study diet–disease associations, and identify subpopulations at risk of poor diet quality
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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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