1,721,045 research outputs found
Anti-PCSK9 treatment: Is ultra-low LDL always good?
No full textAnti-pcsk9 (proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin 9) monoclonal antibodies (Mab) are novel, potent lipid-lowering drugs. They demonstrated to improve the lipid profile in high cardiovascular risk patients. Anti-pcsk9 Mab inhibit the targeted LDL-receptor degradation induced by pcsk9 protein and are able to reduce LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) levels on top of conventional lipid-lowering therapy.Though these drugs proved to be very safe in the short term, little is known about the possible long term effects, due to the short period of their marketing. The genetic low-cholesterol syndromes (LCS) represent the natural models of the lipid-lowering anti-PCSK9 therapy, and a valuable opportunity to predict the long term effects of these drugs. By looking at the clinical features of such models we could be able to foresee possible drug-induced side effects. In the present review the correspondences and discordances between the side effects of anti-pcsk9 therapy and the corresponding LCS models will be examined in the attempt to forecast possible long term consequences of these novel lipid lowering agents
EFFECTIVENESS AND SAFETY OF LOMITAPIDE IN A PATIENT WITH FAMILIAL CHYLOMICRONEMIA SYNDROME
No full textDecreased plasma soluble RAGE in patients with hypercholesterolemia: effects of statins.
No full textThe receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE) is overexpressed at sites of vascular pathology. A soluble RAGE isoform (sRAGE) neutralizes the ligand-mediated damage by acting as a decoy. We hypothesized that in hypercholesterolemia up-regulation of the ligand-RAGE axis may bridge impairment of nitric oxide biosynthesis with oxidative stress. We measured in 60 hypercholesterolemic patients and 20 controls plasma total sRAGE levels, urinary 8-iso-prostaglandin (PG) F(2alpha) excretion, and plasma levels of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA). The effects of two structurally different statins (pravastatin and atorvastatin) on these parameters were analyzed in 20 hypercholesterolemic subjects free of vascular disease. Plasma sRAGE was significantly lower, ADMA and urinary 8-iso-PGF(2alpha) were higher, in hypercholesterolemic versus normocholesterolemic patients. Patients on statin treatment with previous myocardial infarction had lower 8-iso-PGF(2alpha), higher sRAGE, and unchanged ADMA levels compared to subjects free of vascular disease. On multivariate regression analysis only 8-iso-PGF(2alpha) and ADMA predicted sRAGE levels. An 8-week treatment with either statin was associated with a significant reduction in urinary 8-iso-PGF(2alpha), whereas only atorvastatin raised sRAGE levels near to normal values, with no change in ADMA levels. sRAGE might serve as an endogenous protecting factor for accelerated atherosclerosis mediated by oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction in hypercholesterolemia
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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