1,720,972 research outputs found
Is microsurgical technique really necessary in inguinal or sub-inguinal surgical treatment of varicocele?
No full textThe ideal method for treatment of varicocele is still controversial. The techniques of inguinal and sub-inguinal ligation, although less invasive than "high" abdominal ligations (Palomo, Ivanissevich), have been less popular than the former ones. Up to now most authors have considered as mandatory microsurgical techniques for the ligation of spermatic veins at inguinal or sub-inguinal level, or at least instruments of optical magnification in order to preserve testicular arterial supply of the spermatic and cremasteric artery at groin and to prevent testicular atrophia or gonadic ischemia. The aim of this study was to assess clinical outcomes of open surgical technique of varicocele repair compared to results derived from microsurgical series. A retrospective study included 45 patients of mean age 31 years (range 18-39) that underwent open surgical technique of inguinal ligation of spermatic veins in the period 2004-2009; clinical results of this series were compared with those obtained in five relevant studies derived from systematic review of the literature on microsurgical techniques. The pre-operatory evaluation in our series included a physical examination, a minimum of two semen analysis and scrotal color Doppler ultrasound. Post-operative pain, complication rates, days of hospitalization and time to return to work were considered as main outcomes. All patients were evaluated at 1 week, at 3 and 6 months after the operation by means of a physical examination, scrotal Doppler ultrasound and sperm analysis. Most patients (39/45) presented no pain in the first week, 6/45 mild to moderate pain (mean VAS score 2). None of the patients reported pain in the weeks thereafter The hospitalization (1.8 +/- 0.7 days) and the time for return to work (7.2 +/- 3.2 days) were not significantly different in microsurgical and open groups. During follow-up no complications like hydrocele or testicular atrophy were observed. Doppler ultrasound carried out 3 and 6 months after surgery, pointed out no reflux in testicular veins in 41/45 cases while in 4/45 it showed a persistence of reflux grade I, less than the grade before the treatment. Comparing pre-and post-operatory sperm analysis allowed us to observe a significant improvement either in spermatozoa concentration (22 +/- 4 40_+/- 6 millions/ml, p < 0.01), either in motility (33 +/- 4% and 48 +/- 4%, p < 0.05), without significant changes in morphology. No significant differences were recorded comparing these data with those coming from microsurgical series. Our study reported positive clinical outcomes using the technique of sub-inguinal surgical ligature of varicocele without using microsurgical techniques or instruments of optical magnification. The operative time, complication and relapse rates, Doppler flow parameters and semen parameters were not significantly different from those reported in the literature of microsurgical techniques, with the advantage of such a simple surgical technique combined with cost savings and patient's comfort
Stone composition and vascular calcifications in patients with nephrolithiasis
No full textKidney stone disease is associated with cardiovascular outcomes; it is unclear whether stone composition is associated with differential cardiovascular risk. To analyze such association, we performed a cross-sectional study in which data were collected for patients who underwent at least one stone composition analysis from January 01 2015 to May 30 2018. The original dataset was linked with the imaging database to identify those patients with at least one abdominal CT scan examination during the period of interest. In total, 180 patients were included. The outcome of interest was the presence of any abdominal aortic calcifications (AAC) computed from CT scans. There were 108 (60.0%) patients with AAC. Calcium phosphate content was associated directly with eGFR, inversely with age, and was higher among females. Uric acid content was associated directly with age and inversely with eGFR, was higher among males, patients with diabetes and high blood pressure. After adjustment for age and gender, there was a significant association between calcium phosphate content and AAC (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.00, 1.56, p=0.045). No interaction by gender was found between calcium phosphate content and AAC (p=0.84). In conclusion, we demonstrated a significant direct association of AAC and the amount of calcium phosphate was found, suggesting an increased cardiovascular risk. Our study suggests that some subtypes of kidney stone disease deserve a closer cardiovascular risk assessment
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
Methylation study of the Paris system for reporting urinary (TPS) categories
No full textAimsBladder EpiCheck is one of several urinary tests studied to identify bladder tumours and analyses 15 methylation biomarkers determining bladder cancer presence on the basis of methylation profile.Methods374 patients diagnosed with high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer were treated and followed for 1 year with voided urine cytology and white-light cystoscopy and biopsies according to European Association of Urology Guidelines. 268 cases were diagnosed with high-grade papillary carcinoma, while 106 cases were carcinoma in situ. Bladder EpiCheck test was performed together with cytology in all cases.ResultsComparing cytological categories of negative for high-grade urothelial carcinoma (NHGUC) and atypical urothelial cells (AUCs), we found that an EpiScore = 60 correlates with SHGUC and HGUC, respectively (p=0.0031 and p=0.0027, Fisher's exact test). In each TPS category, we found that sensitivity, specificity, Positive Predicitve Value (PPV) and Negative Predictive Value (NPV) of the Bladder EpiCheck test in HGUC category were higher than those observed in SHGUC group (sensitivity=98%, specificity=100%, NPV=85.7%, PPV=100% vs sensitivity=86.6%, specificity=52.3%, NPV=84.6%, PPV=56.5%).ConclusionsAnalysing methylation study results, we demonstrated that different TPS cytological categories also carry a distinct molecular signature. Moreover, our results confirm that cytological categories SHGUC and HGUC are different entities also from a molecular point of view and should continue to represent distinct groups in TPS
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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