1,720,955 research outputs found
Problemi relativi alla valutazione e all'impiego delle funzioni di trasferimento per la simulazione del comportamento termico degli edifici
No full textMinimally invasive video-assisted thyroid surgery. how can we improve the learning curve?
No full textObiettivo. La tiroidectomia totale mini-invasiva video-assistita è una procedura che richiede chirurghi esperti sia in chirurgia endocrina che endoscopica. All’inizio dell’esperienza con questa metodica è comunque richiesto un periodo di apprendimento e pratica. Lo scopo del nostro lavoro è focalizzare alcuni aspetti della curva di apprendimento di questa procedura attraverso l’analisi della nostra serie preliminare di 36 casi.
Pazienti e metodi. Dal settembre 2004 ad aprile 2005 abbiamo selezionato 36 pazienti per chirurgia mini-invasiva video-assistita della tiroide. I criteri di elegibilità erano: nodulo più grande di dimensioni minori di 35mm di diametro, volume tiroideo totale nei limiti della norma, assenza di segni biochimici ed ecografici di tiroidite. Abbiamo analizzato risultati chirurgici, tasso di conversione, tempo operatorio, complicanze post-operatorie, degenza, risultati estetici.
Risultati. Abbiamo eseguito 36 tiroidectomie totali mini-invasive. La procedura è stata portata a termine con successo in 33 casi su 36. Le complicanze post-operatorie hanno incluso 3 paralisi transitorie ricorrenziali e 2 ipocalcemie. Tutti i pazienti sono stati dimessi due giorni dopo l’intervento. Il risultato estetico è stato considerato eccellente dalla quasi totalità dei pazienti.
Conclusioni. I miglioramenti della tecnologia e dell’esperienza dei chirurghi hanno consentito di riprodurre molte tecniche operatorie “open” con la video-assistenza o laparoscopicamente. L’addestramento pratico è essenziale per acquisire qualsiasi nuova tecnica chirurgica e dovrebbe essere organizzato nel dettaglio per essere espresso con i migliori risultati.Minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy (MIVAT) is a technically demanding procedure and requires a surgical team skilled in both endocrine and endoscopic surgery. A time consuming learning and training period is mandatory at the beginning of the experience. The aim of our report is to focus some aspects of the learning curve of the surgeon who practices video-assisted thyroid procedures for the first time, through the analysis of our preliminary series of 36 cases.
Patients and methods: From September 2004 to April 2005 we selected 36 patients for minimally invasive video-assisted surgery of the thyroid. The patients were considered eligible if they presented with a nodule not exceeding 35 mm in maximum diameter; total thyroid volume within normal range; absence of biochemical and echographic signs of thyroiditis. We analyzed surgical results, conversion rate, operating time, post-operative complications, hospital stay, cosmetic outcome of the series.
Results: We performed 36 total thyroidectomy. The procedure was successfully carried out in 33/36 cases. Post-operative complications included 3 transient recurrent nerve palsies and 2 transient hypocalcemias; no definitive hypoparathyroidism was registered. All patients were discharged 2 days after operation. The cosmetic result was considered excellent by most patients.
Conclusions: Advances in skills and technology have enabled surgeons to reproduce most open surgical techniques with video-assistance or laparoscopically. Training is essential to acquire any new surgical technique and it should be organized in detail to exploit it completely
Radioguided surgery with combined use of gamma probe and hand-held gamma camera for treatment of papillary thyroid cancer locoregional recurrences: a preliminary study
No full textAbstract
BACKGROUND:
Persistent differentiated papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) with metastasis followed by radical locoregional surgery is an indication for limited reoperation. Despite excellent prognosis the major challenge is controlling locoregional recurrences.
AIM:
To evaluate the efficacy of radioguided excision with combined use of gamma probe and an hand-held gamma camera.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
From June 2009 to January 2012, we enrolled twenty-two patients with locoregional PTC recurrences, previously undergone to central and/or lateral neck dissection for PTC. The diagnosis of recurrent PTC was based on thyroglobulin (TG) evaluation [basal and after thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) stimulation], ultrasound (US), iodine-131 (131I) whole body scan (WBS) and fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC). In the morning of surgery, radiotracer was injected directly into the lesions by US guide. Careful dissection was carried out using gamma probe and hand held gamma camera. Metastatic lymph nodes were identified and excised.
RESULTS:
In all the patients recruited, 39 pathologic nodes were injected and 61 nodes were removed. Among the removed nodes, 22 (36.1%) were additional nodes (not injected by radiotracer). Of the additional lymph nodes, 7 (31.8%) were metastatic. Mean radioactive count of the lesion (28.633±9.218 counts/s) was higher than tumor bed (385.73±192.23 counts/s) (p < 0.0001). No complications were observed during radioguided excision, neither on post-operative period.
CONCLUSIONS:
The use of hand-held gamma camera in addition to gamma probe in our preliminary study allows a minimally invasive procedure and safer identifications of the lesions and ensures the completeness of the excision in a difficult surgical field
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
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
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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