1,720,963 research outputs found
Gamma camera imaging of inflammatory bowel diseases
No full textInflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) include Crohn's disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), heterogeneous diseases characterized by a misfunction of the immune system and a chronic inflammation of bowel, often invalidating and requiring life-long treatment.
It is crucial to early diagnose these conditions and to promptly start an appropriate treatment that aims at resolving symptoms and preventing/delaying complications.
Diagnosis relies on endoscopic methods, but also imaging by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Nuclear medicine techniques are not first line diagnostic tools despite they are very sensitive modalities for the evaluation of the state of activity of the disease. To this purpose, specific radiopharmaceuticals have been developed as probes to detect specific molecular antigens, to obtain information on the activity of the disease but also on the nature of the process to tailor treatment and for follow-up. Among the many radiopharmaceuticals available, we will concentrate in particular, on the use of radiolabeled white blood cell scintigraphy
Associations between immune biomarkers and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and insomnia in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease: A preliminary longitudinal analysis
No full textInnate immunity may influence the onset of affective symptoms and alter sleep patterns in chronic inflammatory conditions. Here, we tested the prospective associations between baseline serum C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin, and CRP/albumin ratio (CAR, i.e., an emerging biomarker of disease activity), and self-reported symptoms of anxiety, depression, and insomnia at 1-year follow up in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease (n = 17). After controlling for baseline values, CAR (ρ = 0.591, p = 0.026) predicted anxiety symptoms, while albumin predicted both anxiety (ρ = -0.687, p = 0.007) and insomnia symptoms (ρ = -0.648, p = 0.012). Current findings preliminarily suggest that inflammation may influence anxiety and sleep disturbance in paediatric IBD
Magnetic-Assisted Capsule Endoscopy in Children With Crohn Disease. Feasibility and Impact on Gastric Transit Time
No full textObjectives: Standard capsule endoscopy (CE) is ineffective for upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract examination because it does not allow operator-controlled navigation of the capsule. Magnetically assisted capsule endoscopy (MACE) may offer a solution to these problems. This pilot study is aimed to evaluate the feasibility of MACE system in pediatric Crohn disease (CD) and if magnetic steering could enhance capsule gastric emptying when compared with standard CE. Methods: Pediatric CD patients already studied by standard small bowel CE were enrolled. All participants swallowed a magnetically assisted CE and an external magnetic field navigator was used to guide the capsule through the upper GI tract. Maneuverability, completeness of the MACE examination, differences in the esophageal transit time (ETT), gastric transit time (GTT), and pyloric transit time (PTT) between standard CE and MACE were assessed. Results: Ten patients [mean age 11.4 years (range 6-15); 60% male] were enrolled. Maneuverability was defined as good and fair in 60% and 40% of participants, respectively. Completeness of MACE examination was 95%, 65%, and 92.5% in the esophagus, proximal, and distal stomach, respectively. Transpyloric passage of the capsule under magnetic control was successfully performed in 80% of patients. Magnetic intervention significantly increased ETT ( P < 0.001) and reduced GTT and PTT ( P = 0.002). No significant adverse events occurred. Conclusions: MACE is a safe and feasible technique in children. Magnetic steering enhances capsule gastric emptying and facilitates capsule transpyloric passage when compared with standard CE
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
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