1,721,004 research outputs found
Reduced estriol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate plasma levels in methadone-addicted pregnant women.
No full textThe plasma levels of human chorionic somatomammotropin (hCS), estriol (E3), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHA-S), cortisol and the circadian changes of the two last adrenal hormones were studied in 25 pregnant methadone-addicted women (MA) and 21 pregnant drug-naive controls (C) at different periods of gestation and in 13 non-pregnant women (7 MA and 6 drug-naive). MA pregnant women showed normal plasma levels of hCS both at the second (6.9 +/- 0.1 vs. 7.2 +/- 0.1 micrograms/ml) and third (9.6 +/- 0.2 vs. 9.3 +/- 0.2) trimester, while plasma concentrations of E3 at term were lower than normal (MA: 4.4 +/- 0.8; C: 8.2 +/- 1.0 ng/ml, P less than 0.05). DHA-S plasma levels of MA pregnant women were half the normal values in three trimesters of gestation, while there were no differences in non-pregnant subjects. Circadian variations of cortisol and DHA-S plasma levels were present in both MA and C. The blunted DHA-S but normal cortisol plasma levels found in MA pregnant women indicate that opiate abuse interferes with adrenal function, mainly of the fetus. Due to the scarce availability of adrenal precursors, these data suggest that E3 measurements should not be considered as a useful index of fetal well-being in the presence of opiate addiction
Mixed chorangioma and leiomyoma of the placenta, with a brief review of nontrophoblastic placental lesions
No full textCervical length changes during preterm cervical ripening: effects of 17-α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate
No full textOBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17P) treatment affect changes in cervical length. STUDY DESIGN: Women with singleton pregnancy, between 25 and 33 + 6 weeks of gestation, who were hospitalized for preterm labor were included. Patients with rupture of membranes and/or signs of chorioamnionitis were excluded. Sixty undelivered patients were allocated randomly to either observation or to receive 341 mg of 17P intramuscularly, twice each week until gestational week 36. Cervical length was measured by transvaginal ultrasound scanning at discharge and at day 7 and 21 after discharge. Statistical comparisons were done with analysis of variance and chi-square test. RESULTS: Shortening of the cervix in the observation group (30 cases) was higher than in the 17P group (30 cases) both at day 7 (2.37 +/- 2.0 mm vs 0.83 +/- 1.74 mm; P = .002) and day 21 (4.60 +/- 2.73 mm vs 2.40 +/- 2.46 mm; P = .002). Treatment with 17P was associated with both a reduction in the risk of cervical shortening of > or = 4 mm (odds ratio, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.04-0.66) and in the risk of preterm delivery (odds ratio, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.04-0.58). CONCLUSION: Undelivered patients after preterm labor undergo progressive shortening of the cervix, which is attenuated by 17P treatmen
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
Seminal fluid androgen levels in infertile patients.
No full textSeminal fluid concentrations of testosterone (T), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), androstenedione (A), and 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol (3 alpha-diol) were measured in 34 male patients of infertile couples. Patients were subdivided into oligospermic (less than 20 X 10(6)/mL) and asthenospermic (typical motility less than 20%; total motility less than 40%) groups. Steroids were measured by specific radioimmunoassay after ether extraction and celite column chromatography. 3 alpha-Diol was present in seminal fluid, and its concentration was significantly correlated with DHT (r = .49, P less than .05). In oligospermic patients, seminal levels of T (78 +/- 29 pg/mL, mean +/- SD) and DHT (323 +/- 132 pg/mL) were significantly reduced in comparison with normospermic men (T, 119 +/- 56, P less than .05; DHT, 557 +/- 255, P less than .01), while A and 3 alpha-diol concentrations were similar in the two groups. Seminal T and DHT levels were also reduced in asthenospermic specimens, which showed increased 3 alpha-diol concentrations (75 +/- 44 pg/mL) with respect to normokinetic samples (45 +/- 20, P less than .05). Finally, a positive linear relationship was observed between DHT and both sperm density (P less than .01) and total motility (P less than .01). These data demonstrate the existence of a significant amount of 3 alpha-diol in seminal plasma and suggest DHT as the androgen most closely related to sperm quality
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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