1,721,148 research outputs found
Adherence to the European Association of Urology Guidelines: A National Survey among Italian Urologists
No full text<b><i>Objective:</i></b> The study aimed to explore adherence to the European Urological Association (EAU) Guidelines (GLs) grade A recommendation among Italian urologists. <b><i>Materials and Methods:</i></b> A 13-item multiple-choice questionnaire covering oncological and non-oncological urological diseases was e-mailed to all Italian Urologist Society (Società Italiana di Urologia or SIU) members. We asked members to provide an explanation for their answer choice where needed. The quantitative data were tested using the Pearson’s chi-square test. For all statistical comparisons, significance was considered as <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.05. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Of the 2011 invited SIU members, 210 (10.4%) completed the survey. The sample was composed of 22 (10.5%) Academic Urologists (AcUs), 110 (52.4%) Attending Urologists (AtUs), 32 (15.2%) Private Practice Urologists (PPUs), and 41 (19.5%) Residents in Urology (RUs). The mean adherence to the EAU Oncologic GLs ranged from 54.5 to 97.1%, while the adherence to the non-oncologic GLs ranged from 45 to 87.6%. We found that adherence differed across the working categories assessed. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Our survey showed that professional role, updates, and local facilities seem to be the drivers that influence the non-adherence to the GLs. Urologists who work in university hospital would be more inclined to adopt the GLs compared to those who practice in non-academic centers.</jats:p
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
90-DAY MORTALITY AFTER RADICAL CYSTECTOMY FOR BLADDER CANCER
No full textIntroduction/Aim: Radical cystectomy represents the gold standard treatment in muscle-invasive bladder cancer and is one of the most challenging procedures in urologic surgery. This procedure is associated with significant perioperative morbidity and mortality, ranging from 20 to 64% and from 0.3 to 5.7%, respectively. The considerable inter-individual variability of perioperative mortality has led to the development of several models of individual perioperative mortality prediction for patients undergoing radical cystectomy. The aim of our study was to evaluate the predictive accuracy of the nomograms of Isbarn and Aziz and the identification of perioperative mortality risk factors in a series of patients undergoing radical cystectomy for muscle invasive bladder cancer at our institution. Patients and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data regarding 145 consecutive patients who underwent radical cystectomy and urinary diversion for urothelial bladder cancer at our Institute between 2002 and 2012. The following pre-operative variables, such as age at intervention, gender, body mass index (BMI), operative volume, Charlson comorbidity index, presence of carcinoma in situ (CIS) to endoscopic resection bladder (TURV), American society of anesthesiologists (ASA) score, clinical stage according to the TNM and 90-day mortality, were collected and analyzed. The Isbarn and Aziz nomograms were, moreover, applied to our cohort. Results: Median age at radical cystectomy was 68 years and 85% of patients were male, with a median BMI of 26 (IQR=25-27). The most represented ASA score was 2, whereas the most frequent Charlson score (62.76%) was 0. Median in-hospital stay was 15 days, with a range between 7 and 35 days. Median follow-up was 26 months (IQR=11-45); five deaths were registered within 90 days (3.4%). Applying the nomograms of Aziz and Isbarn to our patients, we obtained an average mortality risk <10% and of 2.4%, respectively. At multivariate analysis, no variable was independently related to perioperative mortality risk. Evaluating the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, the Aziz nomogram showed the highest predictive accuracy, while ASA score was found to be the single variable with the highest accuracy in predicting 90 days mortality. Results: In our series, at the multivariate analysis, none of the variables resulted as an independent risk factor for 90-day mortality; however, only ASA score seemed to have a trend in this sense. This retrospective study has a small number of participants with few events, thus making the multivariate analysis unreliable. Conclusion: In our series, 90- day mortality after radical cystectomy was 3.4% (5/145 patients). On univariate analysis, only Charlson comorbidity index (ref. 0-2; p= 0.019; 0.013), ASA score ( p= 0.004) and the adjusted ICC age (0.022) were indipendent risk factors of 90- day perioperative mortality, whereas at multivariate analysis, no variable was independently related to mortality risk. The Aziz nomogram presents the highest accuracy in predicting a 90-day mortality of patients undergoing radical cystectomy
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
Transitioning from "Dr. Google" to "Dr. ChatGPT": the advent of artificial intelligence chatbots
Get PDFIn the era of digital data, the Internet has emerged as a central source from which people obtain healthcare information. Patients seek information from the Internet both prior to and following the diagnosis of urological conditions, making web-based health data an integral part of the decision-making process (1). This trend of utilizing online health information is on a rapid rise, significantly influencing healthcare choices. In the last 2 years of the previous decade, the unprecedented impact of web-based research on patients’ choices and orientation culminated in the term “Dr. Google” (2)
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
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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