1,721,010 research outputs found
Role of intraoperative 3D TEE in surgical repair of degenerative mitral valve regurgitation
No full textObjective: Segmental analysis of diseased mitral valves is important to predict a successful surgical valve repair. We assessed the comparative accuracy of intra-operative three dimensional (3D) and bi-dimensional (2D) transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) in the evaluation of MV lesions when compared with intraoperative surgical segmental analysis.
Materials and Methods: We enrolled 42 consecutive patients (mean age 70.5± 14 years, 12 female and 30 male) with severe MV regurgitation due to degenerative disease underwent MV repair. Complete 2D TOE and 3D TOE was performed before surgery. The findings obtained by the different echocardiographic techniques were compared with intraoperative segmental analysis performed by a single operating blinded to the 2D and 3D TOE findings until the end of his inspection. The sensitivity and specificity of echocardiographic evaluation of involved scallops were compared with surgical inspection.
Results: 3D TOE allowed an accurate identification of all mitral lesions. Thirty-three patients had simple lesions at 3D TOE and underwent simple surgical procedure, 9 of patients had complex lesions and, in these cases, surgeons performed complex procedure. 3D TOE showed more sensitivity than 2D TOE in the analysis of the anterior leaflet (A), in particular for A3 lesion (100% vs 25%, p-value <0.001) and for complex lesion (100% vs 33.3%, p-value <0.009).
Conclusions: 3D TOE allowed more accurate identification of MV lesions in comparison with 2D TOE. Highest accuracy was reached in the analysis of the anterior leaflet. 3D TOE should be regarded as an important adjunct to standard 2D TOE in decision regarding MV repair
L’Efficacia Operativa delle Fondazioni di Origine Bancaria Italiane: Un’Analisi Empirica
No full textStarting from the mission of Italian banking foundations (FOB), generated from the process of privatization of the Italian public banks, started in 1990, the quality of the work of these institutions has been assessed. To this aim, a model of analysis was applied, considering philanthropic activities, investment of resources gathered from the sale of all or part of the investments in the former public banks, governance and disclosure. Kay findings are summarized in a qualitative rating. A mixed picture emerges, with a clear room for improvement of the effectiveness of Italian banking foundations in favour of local communities, but also with already adopted behaviours so far generally appreciable and sustainable.Partendo dalla missione delle fondazioni di origine bancaria (FOB), frutto delle privatizzazioni delle banche pubbliche italiane avviate nel 1990, si valuta la qualità dell’operato di tali enti, applicando un modello d’analisi che ne considera attività filantropica, attività d’investimento delle risorse derivanti dalla dismissione totale o parziale delle partecipazioni nelle ex banche pubbliche (banche conferitarie), governance e trasparenza. I risultati sono sintetizzati con un rating qualitativo. Ne emerge un quadro variegato, con evidenti margini di miglioramento dell’efficacia dell’attività delle fondazioni di origine bancaria a vantaggio dei territori di riferimento, ma anche con comportamenti finora attuati nel complesso apprezzabili e sostenibili
Mirror writing in MCI patients and normal elderly
No full textBackground: Mirror writing (MW) refers to the production of individual letters, words or word strings in reversed direction [1]. When held to a mirror, these letters or words can be read normally. MW has mainly been observed in left hemisphere damaged patients writing with their left hand [2]. Two theories have been put forward to account for this phenomenon: a perceptual and a motor one.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of MW in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) compared to elderly volunteers
Materials and Methods: 24 MCI and 21 healthy controls underwent a screening for MW.
Results: No group difference emerged. MW of individual letters was observed in 3 MCI patients, but also in 6 controls. However, one individual (F.C.) with MCI showed overt and severe MW when writing with her left hand. She (50 y. old, 7 y. of education) was not an outlier in terms of severity of cognitive impairment or any other clinical or demographic variable. She and a matched control group of 6 women were further assessed with a comprehensive battery of tests aimed at investigating her MW. She was much slower than the controls but as accurate in all tests. In particular, she did not commit more errors in mirror reading and reading backwards text on paper, in executing directional actions (like screwing a lid), and in left-right discrimination, nor did she perform differently when asked to write under the surface of a table or in writing with transparent titles. However, under dictation (8 words) she reversed two individual letters and one whole word, whereas the performance of the controls was flawless.
Conclusions: MW is a rare occurrence in MCI. The case of F.C. cannot be interpreted as resulting from a perceptual impairment, her performance is more easily accounted for by a deficit in the motor transformation of the engrams to be written with the non dominant hand or an impairment of the monitoring of directional errors.
References
[1] McIntosh R.D., Della Sala S. (2012). Mirror-writing. The Psychologist, 25: 742-6
[2] Balfour S, Borthwick S, Cubelli R, and Della Sala S. (2007). Mirror writing and reversing single letters in stroke patients and normal elderly. Journal of Neurology, 254: 436–44
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
Transient involuntary mirror writing triggered by anxiety
No full textMirror writing (MW) has mainly been observed in left-hemisphere-damaged patients writing with the left hand. This study evaluated the presence of MW in 24 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We found that MW is not a typical feature of MCI. However, one woman (FC), mislabeled initially with MCI but in fact affected by anxiety, showed florid MW when writing with her left hand, which resolved as her anxiety receded. This case study supports anecdotal reports of MW triggered by anxiety, and the features of FC's performance indicate a motor rather than a perceptual basis for the phenomenon
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
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