1,720,957 research outputs found

    Treatment of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis with voriconazole: review of a case series

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    Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is a rare disease that primarily affects subjects with moderate immunodepression and/or structural alterations in the lung.METHODS:Data for patients with probable CPA were collected over 24 months. Patients with probable CPA received oral voriconazole, and clinical, laboratory and radiological follow-up was performed at 3, 6 and 12 months.RESULTS:21 patients (mean age 52.4 years) were evaluated. Factors predisposing to CPA were tuberculosis (n = 8), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n = 7), corticosteroids (n = 14), chemo- or radio-therapy (n = 6), tracheostomy or endotracheal prosthesis (n = 5), smoking (n = 4), asthma (n = 3), and chronic liver disease (n = 3). Sputum or bronchial aspirate cultures were positive for Aspergillus spp. in 14 cases (66.6 %). (1,3)-β-D-glucan on serum was positive in 16 cases (76.2 %). Excavated pulmonary thickening was evident in 14 patients (66.6 %) and in 9 of these cases (64.2 %) aspergilloma was present. [18F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose-PET-CT was positive in 13/15 patients, and simple aspergilloma was diagnosed after surgical excision in one of the negative cases. All patients were treated with oral voriconazole. Therapy was discontinued due to skin toxicity (n = 3), liver toxicity (n = 2) and severe mental disorder (n = 1). At 12 months' follow-up, nine patients (42.9 %) were considered cured or improved. Seven patients (33.3 %) died during follow-up, mainly due to underlying disease.CONCLUSIONS:A reasonable proportion of patients achieved cure or improvement with voriconazole, but 28.5 % of treated patients had to discontinue therapy because of toxicity. The high mortality makes it difficult to fully assess the real efficacy of voriconazole and to establish the correct duration of therapy

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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

    Humanization of care in pediatrics and built-in psychological support in nuclear medicine [Umanizzazione delle cure in età pediatrica e assistenza psicologica integrata in Medicina nucleare]

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    Objectives Aim of the present research is to detect anxiety and fear of examination in children and their parents during diagnostic procedures in nuclear medicine considering also other variables as knowledge of both procedures and diagnosis. Methods In 2010 an observational study with 132 children and 132 parents started through a semi structured survey and a non verbal observation of behavior. Results Study evidenced the association between anxiety and fear of examination in both groups. Furthermore at a higher level of knowledge in parents corresponds a higher level of knowledge in children. Children's anxiety level results higher in respect to their parents. Conclusions In consideration of such results a specific training of all operators has taken place in order to improve the practice of acceptance and support and achieve a complete humanization of care integrated with a psychological support
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