1,720,961 research outputs found
Old and new drugs for treatment of advanced heart failure
No full textBackground: Advanced heart failure (HF) is a progressive disease with high mortality and limited medical therapeutic options. Long-term mechanical circulatory support and heart transplantation remain gold-standard treatments for these patients; however, access to these therapies is limited by the advanced age and multiple comorbidities of affected patients, as well as the limited number of donor organs available. Methods: Traditional and new drugs available for the treatment of advanced HF have been researched. Results: To date, the cornerstone for the treatment of patients with advanced HF remains water restriction, intravenous loop diuretic therapy and inotropic support. However, many patients with advanced HF experience loop diuretics resistance and alternative therapeutic strategies to overcome this problem have been developed, including sequential nephron blockade or use of the hypertonic saline solution in combination with high-doses of furosemide. As classic inotropes augment myocardial oxygen consumption, new promising drugs have been introduced, including levosimendan, istaroxime and omecamtiv mecarbil. However, pharmacological agents still remain mainly short-term or palliative options in patients with acute decompensation or excluded from mechanical therapy. Conclusion: Traditional drugs, especially when administered in combination, and new medicaments represent important therapeutic options in advanced HF. However, their impact on prognosis remains unclear. Large trials are necessary to clarify their therapeutic potential and prognostic role in these fragile patients
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
Impaired circadian heart rate variability in Parkinson's disease: A time-domain analysis in ambulatory setting
Full text linkBackground: Heart rate variability (HRV) decreases in Parkinson's disease (PD) and it can be considered a marker for cardiovascular dysautonomia. The purpose of this pilot study is to evaluate long-term time-domain analysis of HRV of PD patients and compare the results with those of matched healthy individuals. Methods: Idiopathic PD patients without comorbidity impairing HRV, and age-matched healthy individuals were recruited in a pilot study. A long-term time domain analysis of HRV using 24-h ambulatory ECG was performed. Results: Overall, 18 PD patients fulfilling inclusion criteria completed the evaluation (mean age was 55.6 ± 8.8, disease duration: 5.0 ± 4.7). Mean SCOPA-AUT score was 10.1 ± 7.3. Patients were on Hoehn & Yahr stage 1-2 and mean Levodopa Equivalent Dose (LED) was 311 ± 239.9. Mean of the 5-min standard deviation (SD) of R-R intervals distribution (SDNN) for all 5 min segments of the entire recording (ISDNN) was significantly lower in patients compared to controls. ISDNN was significantly different between Parkinson's disease patients and healthy controls. Conclusions: In our population characterized by mild to moderate disease severity, time-domain assessment of HRV seemed to be a potential tool to characterize cardiovascular dysautonomia. Decrease of ISDNN in PD may reflect an autonomic derangement extending all day and night long
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
Relationship between HRV measurements and demographic and clinical variables in a population of patients with atrial fibrillation
No full textLittle is known about the role of HRV in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients. Aim of our study was to assess the relationship between HRV measurements and demographic and clinical variables in a population of 274 AF patients. We selected all consecutive patients with persistent/permanent AF among whom had performed a Holter ECG in our Department from April 2010 to April 2015. Time-domain analysis of HRV was evaluated. Demographic and clinical variables were collected for each patient. At multivariable logistic regression, a higher pNN50 was associated with ACE inhibitors/ARBs (p = 0.016) and a lower pNN50 with obesity (p = 0.037) and higher heart rate (HR) (p < 0.0005). A higher RMSSD was associated with ACE inhibitors/ARBs (p = 0.001), digitalis (p < 0.0005) and beta-blockers (p = 0.002) and a lower RMSSD with a higher HR (p < 0.0005). A higher SDNNi was associated with ACE inhibitors/ARBs (p < 0.0005), digitalis (p < 0.0005) and beta-blockers (p = 0.002) and a lower SDNNi with dysthyroidism (p = 0.048) and higher HR (p < 0.0005). A higher SDANN was associated with non-dihydropyiridine calcium-channel-blockers (p = 0.002) and ACE inhibitors/ARBs (p = 0.002) and a lower SDANN with hypertension (p = 0.034), obesity (p = 0.011), stroke (p = 0.031), pneumonia (p = 0.005) and higher HR (p < 0.0005). A higher SDNN was associated with ACE inhibitors/ARBs (p < 0.0005), digitalis (p < 0.0005) and beta-blockers (p = 0.022) and a lower SDNN with obesity (p = 0.012), pneumonia (p = 0.049) and higher HR (p < 0.0005). Our study showed that, in AF patients, there is a direct relationship between some clinical variables and HRV measurements; as for patients with sinus rhythm, even in AF patients this relationship seemed to reflect the autonomic nervous system activity
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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