1,720,996 research outputs found
Tracing mean growth shape in the case of complex growth functions, such as JPPS model : beyond the concept of mean constant curve
No full textGrowth and long-term lung function in cystic fibrosis : a longitudinal study of patients diagnosed by neonatal screening
No full textObjective: So far there is no long-term analysis relating the achievement of growth milestones (such as prepubertal and pubertal take-off and peak velocity) to the course of respiratory function from childhood to adulthood in cystic fibrosis. This study was designed to evaluate linear growth and severity of lung disease, find a correlation between growth and disease severity throughout childhood. Patients: One hundred sixty-three patients from one center were selected according to: diagnosis by neonatal screening, complete follow-up available (four height measurements/year) until the age of 20, respiratory tests available from the age of 5-6 years until adulthood, lung transplantation, or death. Disease was classified as mild or severe according to FEV(1) (group 1 and group 2). A third group of patients (group 3) consisted of those who died or underwent lung transplantation before the age of 18. Methods: Individual growth profiles were fitted with a seven-constant nonlinear growth function. A multivariate linear model was fitted, with gender and severity of disease as covariates, and age, height, and height velocity at growth milestones as dependent variables. Data were compared with those of the normal Italian population. Results: Lung disease severity correlates with delayed prepubertal and pubertal growth milestones. Peak height velocities were significantly reduced in relation to the severity of the disease. Conclusions: Patients with severe forms of cystic fibrosis exhibit reduced growth velocity values at an early age, before a clear decline in pulmonary function
461 Is CF more severe in females (F) than in males (M)? — Survival analysis from the Italian Cystic Fibrosis Registry (ICFR)
No full textAbsence of a gender gap in survival. An analysis of the Italian registry for cystic fibrosis in the paediatric age
No full textAbstractBackgroundThe existence of gender-related differences since childhood in survival of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients has been recently challenged.MethodsWe evaluated the effect of gender on survival of 2293 CF patients born after 01/01/1988, followed up by 29 CF centres until 31/12/2004 and recorded in the Italian Registry for CF (IRCF).ResultsWe observed similar annual mortality rates in females (3.59‰) and males (4.00‰), similar survival curves (log-rank test p=0.64) and similar hazards of death (hazard ratio adjusted for presence of symptoms at diagnosis, meconium ileus, F508del mutation and age at diagnosis: 1.29, 95%CI: 0.60; 2.76). However, excess mortality due to CF was higher for females (5.9) than males (5.1).ConclusionsIn our population CF females do not experience higher mortality than males but, due to the disease, they lose the expected survival advantage occurring in the general population at this age. We do not exclude, however, that differences in mortality will establish after adolescence
Active video game playing in children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis : exercise or just fun?
No full textBACKGROUND:
Xbox Kinect has been proposed as an exercise intervention in cystic fibrosis (CF), but its potential has not been compared with standard training modalities.
METHODS:
Using a crossover design, subjects were randomized to 2 intervention groups: Xbox Kinect and a traditional stationary cycle. Heart rate, SpO2, dyspnea, and fatigue were measured. Subject satisfaction was tested.
RESULTS:
Thirty subjects with CF (11 males, mean ± SD age of 12 ± 2.5 y, mean ± SD FEV1 of 73 ± 16% of predicted) were enrolled. Xbox Kinect provided a cardiovascular demand similar to a stationary cycle, although the modality was different (interval vs. continuous). Maximum heart rates were similar (P = .2). Heart rate target was achieved more frequently with a stationary cycle (P = .02). Xbox Kinect caused less dyspnea (P = .001) and fatigue (P < .001) and was more enjoyable than a stationary cycle (P < .001).
CONCLUSIONS:
Subjects preferred Xbox Kinect for its interactivity. Xbox Kinect has the potential to be employed as an exercise intervention in young subjects with CF, but investigation over longer periods is needed
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
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