1,720,966 research outputs found
Clinical activity and safety of Pembrolizumab in Ipilimumab pre-treated patients with uveal melanoma
No full textBackground: Untreated metastatic uveal melanoma (“UM”) carries a grave prognosis. Unlike cutaneous melanoma (“CM”) there are no established treatments known to significantly improve outcomes for a meaningful proportion of patients. Inhibition of the PD1-PDL1 axis has shown promise in the management of cutaneous melanoma and we here report a two centre experience of UM patients receiving pembrolizumab.Methods: To assess the efficacy and safety of pembrolizumab we retrospectively analysed outcome data of 25 consecutive UM patients participating in the MK3475 expanded access programme who received pembrolizumab at 2mg/kg 3 weekly. Tumour assessment was evaluated using RECIST 1.1 and immune-related Response Criteria (“irRC”) by CT scanning. Toxicity was recorded utilising Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (“CTCAE”) v4.03.Results: 25 patients were identified receiving a median of 6 cycles of treatment. Two patients achieved a partial response and 6 patients stable disease. After a median follow-up of 225 days median progression free survival was 91 days and overall survival was not reached. There was a significant trend for improved outcomes in patients with extrahepatic disease progression as opposed to liver only progression at the outset. 5 patients experienced grade 3 or 4 adverse events; there were no treatment related deaths.Conclusions: Pembrolizumab 2mg/kg q3w is a safe option in UM patients. Disease control rates, particularly in the subgroup of patients without progressive liver disease at the outset are promising; these results merit further investigation in clinical trials possibly incorporating liver targeted treatment modalities
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
Disentangling the effect of criminal legal system involvement on mental health in the United States
No full textBACKGROUND: Interactions with the criminal legal system (CLS), such as through arrest or incarceration, are relatively common in the United States (US) and are increasingly recognized as social risk factors for poor mental health. Previous studies have reported a positive association between CLS involvement and poor mental health, with some theoretical frameworks, including the ecosocial theory and the stress process paradigm, supporting a plausible causal relationship. However, prior research has significant limitations in providing casual evidence given possible reverse causation in cross-sectional studies and insufficient consideration for the dynamics between CLS exposures, mental health status, and related confounders over time (i.e., potential bias from treatment-confounder feedback). Further, the relationship between CLS involvement and mental health may vary by social position but has been rarely explored using the intersectionality framework. This dissertation was undertaken to address the methodological shortcomings in prior research to examine the effects of CLS involvement on mental health and to further explore the intersectionality of the heterogeneity of the effects.
METHODS: This dissertation comprised three studies analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), an ongoing national cohort of youth in the US who were born between 1980 and 1984. In Aim 1, I implemented sequence analysis to analyze annual measures of CLS involvement status to identify longitudinal patterns of CLS involvement from 12 to 31 years of age. Bivariate associations between the identified patterns and mental health and related risk factors were examined. In Aim 2, I used the parametric g-formula to estimate the effects of CLS involvement on severe depressive symptoms and self-reported mental health problems (primary outcomes) as well as binge drinking (secondary outcome) among a subset of NLSY97 respondents followed every two years between 2000 and 2010. The effects were quantified by the differences in the outcome risks under the natural course of CLS involvement versus an intervention of removing CLS involvement (intervention 1: removing both arrests and incarceration; intervention 2: removing incarceration only). Aim 3 shared a similar methodology as Aim 2. I first conducted latent class analysis to identify intersectional social strata based on baseline indicators for social class, socioeconomic status, and other factors related to experiences of hardships and marginalization. I then conducted stratified parametric g-formula analysis to obtain risk differences resulting from the removal of arrest and incarceration within each of the identified social strata. The effect estimates between the most privileged stratum and each of the other disadvantaged strata were then compared.
RESULTS: In Aim 1, four distinct longitudinal patterns of CLS involvement were identified from sequence analysis among those ever involved, ranging from scattered to heavy involvement. Findings indicate unique mental health profiles by trajectory of CLS involvement. Individuals with moderate or heavy involvement showed higher burden of severe depressive symptoms, especially at adolescence but not at later adulthood, and early-age mental health risk factors than those not or less involved. Findings from Aim 2 indicate negative but modest effects of CLS involvement on mental health. Under a hypothetical intervention of removing arrests and incarcerations from the study population, the risks for severe depressive symptoms and mental health problems decreased by 0.4 (95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.8, -0.04) and 0.6 (95% CI: -1.0, -0.3) percentage points (pp), respectively. The intervention also lowered the risk for binge drinking behaviors by 0.6pp (95% CI: -1.2, -0.04). Such reductions were likely attributable to the removal of arrests given that incarceration was rare in the study population. Removal of incarceration alone did not affect the outcome risks. In Aim 3, latent class analysis identified one relatively privileged stratum comprising mostly White non-Hispanic people of high socioeconomic status (SES) residing in two-parent households and three relatively disadvantaged strata. The disadvantaged stratum of predominantly low-SES mother of color had a 1.9pp (95% CI: -3.3, -0.08) reduction in the risk of mental health problems, and the disadvantaged stratum comprising mostly low-SES Black non-Hispanic people residing in single-parent households had a 1.4pp (95% CI: -2.7, -0.3) reduction in the risk for binge drinking, but no impacts were seen in other strata or outcomes. These risk reductions, however, were not statistically different from the ones observed among the privileged stratum.
DISCUSSION: My findings demonstrate longitudinal variations in CLS involvement among American youth transitioning to early adulthood and indicate an association between longitudinal involvement pattern and early-age mental health-related characteristics, suggesting possible pre-existing mental health risks among people more severely involved with the CLS over the life course and nuanced dynamics between CLS exposures and mental health. The application of the parametric g-formula, which accounted for the dynamic relationships between CLS exposures, mental health status, and related confounders over time, suggest small harms to mental health from CLS involvement via primarily arrests, and some of which may be manifested through binge drinking behaviors. My findings support the hypothesis that there is a causal association between CLS involvement and poorer mental health, highlighting the importance of addressing health disparities experienced by the CLS-involved population through public health programming. This dissertation also offers insight into the heterogeneity of mental health impact from CLS involvement by demonstrating some variation by intersectional social strata and potential inequities among individuals occupying multiple disadvantaged statuses. The lack of statistical evidence about differential impacts of CLS involvement between privileged and more disadvantaged strata warrants further investigation from future studies. Overall, this dissertation underscores poorer mental health experienced by the CLS-involved population and, given the root of CLS involvement in structural racism, adds to the literature of racial equity
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