1,720,965 research outputs found
PO087 / #896 BDNF VAL66MET POLYMORPHISM AS A POSSIBLE BIOMARKER OF EFFICACY OF VNS THERAPY IN SUBJECTS WITH DRUG-RESISTANT EPILEPSY
No full textPO089 / #907 ESTIMATED EEG FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY IN RESPONDER AND NON-RESPONDER DRUG-RESISTANT EPILEPTIC SUBJECTS UNDER VAGAL NERVE STIMULATION
No full textEstimated EEG functional connectivity and aperiodic component induced by vagal nerve stimulation in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy
Full text linkBACKGROUND: Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) improves seizure frequency and quality of life in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE), although the exact mechanism is not fully understood. Previous studies have evaluated the effect of VNS on functional connectivity using the phase lag index (PLI), but none has analyzed its effect on EEG aperiodic parameters (offset and exponent), which are highly conserved and related to physiological functions. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of VNS on PLI and aperiodic parameters and infer whether these changes correlate with clinical responses in subjects with DRE. MATERIALS AND METHODS: PLI, exponent, and offset were derived for each epoch (and each frequency band for PLI), on scalp-derived 64-channel EEG traces of 10 subjects with DRE, recorded before and 1 year after VNS. PLI, exponent, and offset were compared before and after VNS for each patient on a global basis, individual scalp regions, and channels and separately in responders and non-responders. A correlation analysis was performed between global changes in PLI and aperiodic parameters and clinical response. RESULTS: PLI (global and regional) decreased after VNS for gamma and delta bands and increased for an alpha band in responders, but it was not modified in non-responders. Aperiodic parameters after VNS showed an opposite trend in responders vs. non-responders: both were reduced in responders after VNS, but they were increased in non-responders. Changes in aperiodic parameters correlated with the clinical response. CONCLUSION: This study explored the action of VNS therapy from a new perspective and identified EEG aperiodic parameters as a new and promising method to analyze the efficacy of neuromodulation
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
Scleroderma-Polymyositis Overlap Syndrome as a Potential Bulbar Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Mimic
No full textGender differences in olfactory dysfunctions in Sardinian patients affected by Parkinson’s disease
No full textIntroduction: In the last years, several studies have identified the presence of gender-related differences
in the burden of non-motor symptoms in patients affected by Parkinson’s disease (PD) [1-2]. In this
context, the role of specific gender-related patterns in olfactory dysfunctions of PD patients has not been
clearly investigated.
Objective: To investigated the presence of specific gender-related patterns in olfactory dysfunctions
among Sardinian PD patients, compared with age and sex-matched healthy controls.
Methods: Fifty-nine male and thirty-two female PD patients with a similar overall age and disease
characteristics were recruited. Olfactory function was evaluated with the odor detection threshold,
the discrimination, the identification tests of the Sniffin’ Sticks (a psychophysical tool developed by
Hummel in 1997 and widely validated) and their sum (TDI score). Cognition was evaluated with
Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Modified Hoehn and Yahr scale and UPDRS were used to
assess motor symptoms. Forty-nine healthy controls matched for age were also enrolled.
Results: Male PD patients showed a significant greater impairment compared to female PD patients in
odor identification (7.4 ± 3.6 vs 9.1 ± 2,7; P ≤ 0.01) and TDI score (17.4 ± 7.7 vs 21.5 ± 6.0;P ≤ 0.01),
while a non significant reduction in male PD patients was noted also in the odor detection threshold
and the discrimination. MOCA mean values among male and female PD were similar (21.4± 5.2 vs
21.4 ± 5.9;P not significant). No gender differences were identified in male and female healthy controls
in any olfactory characteristic of the Sniffin’ Sticks.
Conclusions: We identified a specific gender difference in olfactory dysfunctions in PD patients, with
a more severe impairment in male PD patients with abnormal odor identification and decreased TDI
score. These findings highlighted the possible role of gender differences in the development of associated
PD non motor symptoms.
References
[1] Solla et al. J Neurol Sci. 2012 Dec 15;323(1-2):33-9
[2] Picillo et al. J Neurol. 2013 Nov;260(11):2849-
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
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