1,720,958 research outputs found
Oral contraceptive use and prevalence of vulvodynia: Are genital-specific side effects of OC use early signs of risk?
No full textBackground Past research suggests that oral contraceptive (OC) use increases the risk for vulvodynia/vestibulodynia, although results are often mixed or inconsistent.Aim To test whether OC use is associated with having a diagnosis of vulvodynia/vestibulodynia, whether the observed association varies across the type of OC, and whether side effects associated with OC use (ie, genital specific, negative affect, non-genital physical symptoms) are associated with having a diagnosis of vulvodynia/vestibulodynia.Methods A sample of n = 2171 adult females completed a questionnaire regarding OC use and associated side effects, and provided information on having a diagnosis of vulvodynia or vestibulodynia. Recruitment oversampled for women with genitopelvic pain, which provided n = 582 women (26.8% of overall sample) who had a diagnosis of vulvodynia or vestibulodynia. Binary logistic regressions were conducted to test for associations.Outcome Self-report of having received a diagnosis of vulvodynia or vestibulodynia.Results Results showed that all types of OCs were significantly associated with having a diagnosis, and that genital-specific side effects (vulvar/genital pain and vaginal dryness), but not affective or non-genital physical side effects, were associated with having a diagnosis of vulvodynia/vestibulodynia, with the strongest and most consistent effect being for vulvar/genital pain. Specifically, participants who reported vulvar/genital pain as a side effect of OC use were 3-5 times more likely than those without this side effect to have a diagnosis of vulvodynia/vestibulodynia. Analyses also controlled for 23 potential comorbid diagnoses with no or very little change to the associations between vulvodynia/vestibulodynia and the OC-use variables.Clinical Implications Early recognition and identification of genital-specific side effects of OC use may provide an opportunity for preventing genital pain from becoming chronic and difficult to manage.Strengths and Limitations This study uses a large sample, assesses unique associations with combined and progestin-only OCs, and for the first time addresses diverse OC-related side effects as potential risk indicators of vulvodynia. Limitations are the lack of prospective data, reliance on self-report measures, recruitment through social media outlets that may result in overestimating the effect sizes, and a lack of information on specific OCs used.Conclusions The present study provides evidence that OC use and genital-specific side effects of OC use are associated with having a diagnosis of vulvodynia/vestibulodynia and provides important information for managing potential OC-related risk for vulvodynia/vestibulodynia
Sexual Desire in Women: Paradoxical and Non-Linear Associations with Depression and Anxiety
Full text linkABSTRACT
Introduction
Previous studies aimed at defining the relationship between high levels of negative mood and sexual desire have shown that, in addition to people describing an expected decrease in sexual desire, some people report an unexpected increase in sexual desire when depressed or anxious (referred to as a “paradoxical effect”, Bancroft et al., 2003). However, these past findings are based on self-inferred causal attributions and retrospective, one-time measurements. Moreover, tests of these associations at the low extreme of negative mood have not been previously conducted.
Objective
The aim of the present study was to replicate and expand previous findings regarding paradoxical effects of negative mood on sexual desire (Bancroft et al., 2003; Lykins, Janssen & Graham, 2006), by analyzing the associations between negative mood and sexual desire across the entire range of depression and anxiety symptoms. Moreover, to address previous limitations, we sought to test for replication using methods that are unaffected by recall bias, and that don't require participants to infer causal associations between their mood and sexual desire.
Methods
A sample of n=213 university-aged women completed daily questionnaires for two full menstrual cycles (M = 58 daily reports per participant). Measurement included changes in sexual desire, as well as psychological changes (anxiety and depression) and other symptoms associated with the menstrual cycle. Multilevel modeling with random intercepts and slopes, were used to test for individual differences in linear and non-linear associations between mood symptoms and changes in sexual desire. Cluster analyses were used to identify different patterns of change in sexual desire associated with different levels of mood.
Results
Previous findings were successfully replicated. Specifically, high levels of depression were associated with increased sexual desire in 12% of the sample (paradoxical association), and high levels of anxiety were associated with increased sexual desire in 20% of the sample (paradoxical association). Thus, in addition to women who showed either no significant changes or a decrease in sexual desire when depressed or anxious, results confirmed the presence of paradoxical associations between high levels of negative mood and sexual desire (see shaded area on Fig.1). Interestingly, these between-group paradoxical effects were also present at low levels of negative mood. That is, at low levels of negative mood some women reported increased sexual desire while others reported decreased sexual desire. Moreover, for both depression and anxiety, analyses revealed three clusters of women presenting different patterns of change in sexual desire across different levels of mood symptoms. Specifically, results demonstrated the presence of within-person paradoxical associations, whereby, there are some women for whom both low and high levels of negative mood are associated with the same change (an increase or a decrease) in sexual desire. These groups are labeled "Positive Paradoxical" and "Negative Paradoxical" in Fig.1.
Conclusions
Results from the present study underline the importance of considering individual variability when studying sexual desire. Multiple mechanisms, based on personality traits, learning, autonomic activity, or situational factors, might moderate the relationship between mood and sexual desire. A new integrative theoretical framework is proposed to interpret these results (see Figure 2).
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Sexual Desire in Women: Paradoxical and Nonlinear Associations with Anxiety and Depressed Mood
Full text linkThe aim of the present study was to expand previous findings regarding paradoxical effects of negative mood on sexual desire. This was done by considering the full range of depressed mood and anxiety symptoms and using methods that are unaffected by recall bias and that don’t require participants to infer causal associations between their mood and sexual desire. A convenience sample of 213 university students completed daily questionnaires for approximately two months. Multilevel random-effects models were used to estimate average effects for the entire sample and to test for variability across participants in the associations between negative mood and sexual desire, controlling also for potential influences of the menstrual cycle. Previous findings showing that some women report decreased sexual desire and others increased sexual desire when depressed or anxious were confirmed. More importantly, for both depressed mood and anxiety, results demonstrated the presence of within-person paradoxical associations, whereby there were some women for whom both low and high levels of negative mood were associated with the same change (an increase or a decrease) in sexual desire. Related to these diverse response patterns, paradoxical associations between negative mood and sexual desire were also present at low levels of negative mood. The discussion underlines the importance of considering individual variability and multifactorial nonlinear models when studying sexual desire
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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