1,721,267 research outputs found
Responding to the challenge of cancer in Europe.
Full text linkThe term “cancer” is commonly used to cover a wide range of diseases which all share
a common feature, namely that cells in affected organs or tissues of the body (e.g. breast,
lung, skin or bone marrow) continue to grow indefinitely, without reference to the needs
of the body. Many cancers have the capacity to spread to other parts of the body and to
kill the patient. With more than 3 million new cases and 1.7 million deaths each year, cancer
currently represents the second most important cause of death and morbidity in Europe.
This volume, published under the Slovenian Presidency of the European Union, is a
review of the current status of cancer control in the European Union. The aim was to
summarize the evidence that should underpin policy for the prevention, management
and palliation of cancer in Europe.
The book has been produced as a collaborative effort between internationally recognized
public health institutes in the European Union, under the umbrella Fighting Against
Cancer Today (FACT). FACT is co-funded by the Government of Slovenia and the
European Commission’s Health and Consumer Protection Directorate, with additional
support from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
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
Survival from acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia (ANLL) and chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) in European children since 1978: a population-based study.
No full textAbstract
We used data supplied by population-based cancer registries, collected and quality controlled using a common protocol, to analyse survival from acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia (ANLL) and chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) among children in 17 European countries. Variations in survival in relation to age, country, histologic subtype and period of diagnosis (1978--1992) were examined. These are rare malignancies and survival can be studied reliably only by examination of data from a very large population (in this case EUROCARE). 5 years after diagnosis, overall survival was 44% (95% CI 33--55) for CML and 37% (95% CI 32--43) for ANLL. For both types of leukaemia, survival was slightly better for girls and worse in children under 5 years of age. Consistent with clinical literature, the ANLL subtypes with poorer prognosis were monocytic, megakaryocytic and erythroleukaemia. For ANLL, 5-year survival was better in Finland, the UK, The Netherlands and Germany (> or =40%); for CML, 5-year survival was highest in Italy, although the 95% CI were wide. The risk of death from ANLL and CML fell by 7% per year and 5% per year, respectively, after adjustment for age, gender and country. Since these rare childhood malignancies were virtually untreatable until 1970, these are very welcome trends
Funnel plots for population-based cancer survival: principles, methods and applications.
No full textFunnel plots are graphical tools designed to detect excessive variation in performance indicators by simple visual inspection of the data. Their main use in the biomedical domain so far has been to detect publication bias in meta-analyses, but they have also been recommended as the most appropriate way to display performance indicators for a vast range of health-related outcomes. Here, we extend the use of funnel plots to population-based cancer survival and several related measures. We present three applications to familiarise the reader with their interpretation. We propose funnel plots for various cancer survival measures, as well as age-standardised survival, trends in survival and excess hazard ratios. We describe the components of a funnel plot and the formulae for the construction of the control limits for each of these survival measures. We include three transformations to construct the control limits for the survival function: complementary log-log, logit and logarithmic transformations. We present applications of funnel plots to explore the following: (i) small-area and temporal variation in cancer survival; (ii) racial and geographical variation in cancer survival; and (iii) geographical variation in the excess hazard of death. Funnel plots provide a simple and informative graphical tool to display geographical variation and trend in a range of cancer survival measures. We recommend their use as a routine instrument for cancer survival comparisons, to inform health policy makers in planning and assessing cancer policies. We advocate the use of the complementary log-log or logit transformation to construct the control limits for the survival function
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
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