1,721,060 research outputs found
Insulin resistance, lipid and fatty acid concentrations in 867 healthy Europeans
No full textBackground Insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia and abnormal nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) metabolism are features of the 'metabolic syndrome', but the mechanisms of these relationships are uncertain.
Materials and methods We studied associations between insulin resistance and lipoprotein concentrations by retrospective analysis of euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp data from 867 normoglycaemic subjects in 21 European centres. Data on NEFA concentrations were available in a subgroup of 541 subjects from 9 clinical centres. These subjects' characteristics do not vary significantly from those of the whole cohort.
Results After adjustment for the effects of age, sex, obesity and intercentre variability, regression analysis showed relationships between triglycerides and markers of insulin sensitivity. There were significant correlations between triglycerides and fasting plasma glucose (P < 0.0001), fasting plasma insulin (P < 0.0001) and mean glucose infusion rate at steady state (M-value, P < 0.0001). Indices of insulin resistance were related to NEFA concentrations. Fasting NEFA were negatively correlated with the M-value (P < 0.0001). Non-esterified fatty acids at steady state were positively correlated with fasting markers of insulin resistance: fasting plasma glucose (P < 0.05), fasting plasma insulin (P < 0.005) and negatively correlated with the M-value (P < 0.0005). There were relationships between fasting concentrations of plasma lipids and of NEFAs. Non-esterified fatty acids at steady state correlated with fasting triglycerides (P < 0.0001), but not with any of the other plasma lipoprotein concentrations. The associations of fasting triglycerides with the M-value and with NEFAs at steady state were independent of each other. All these associations were independent of obesity and geographical location
Conclusion The results in this large cohort of healthy European subjects suggest that triglyceride concentrations depend upon both insulin's gluco-regulation (estimated by glucose uptake) and antilipolytic insulin action (measured by NEFA levels) during an euglycaemic clamp
The EGIR-RISC STUDY (The European group for the study of insulin resistance: relationship between insulin sensitivity and cardiovascular disease risk): I. Methodology and objectives
No full textAims/hypotheses. Insulin resistance is thought to be a key predictor for the development of Type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease (CVD), a leading cause of morbidity and premature mortality in Europe. Insulin resistance is influenced by both genetic and lifestyle factors (e.g. obesity and physical inactivity). The RISC (Relationship between Insulin Sensitivity and Cardiovascular disease) Study is using the infrastructure of an extended European collaborative research group to study insulin resistance and CVD risk in 1500 healthy people aged 30 to 60 years from 20 centres in 13 countries. Methods. Baseline measurements of glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity are made by the oral glucose tolerance test and the euglycaemic insulin clamp, respectively; carotid artery intima-medial thickness (by ultrasound), ankle/brachial pressure index and electrocardiography will enable evaluation of subclinical CVD at baseline and at follow-up. Classic CVD risk factors, as well as socioeconomic and lifestyle factors will be recorded at baseline; samples for measurement of biochemical and genetic markers will be collected and stored for future analyses. Investigations will be repeated after 3 and 10 years to evaluate the relationship between insulin resistance and the development of atherosclerosis as measured by carotid artery intima-media thickness. Development of Type 2 diabetes, dyslipidaemia, obesity, hypertension and cardiovascular events are additional endpoints. Conclusions. This study will evaluate the importance of insulin resistance in the development of CVD and diabetes, and has implications for the development of prevention and treatment strategies
The metabolic syndrome in the European population: The experience of the European group on insulin resistance (EGIR)
No full textInsulin resistance, insulin response, and obesity as indicators of metabolic risk
No full textContext: Insulin resistance (IR) and obesity, especially abdominal obesity, are regarded as central pathophysiological features of a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs), but their relative roles remain undefined. Moreover, the differential impact of IR viz. insulin response has not been evaluated. Objective: The objective of this study was to dissect out the impact of obesity, abdominal obesity, and IR/insulin response on CVRF. Design: This was a cross-sectional study. Setting: The study was conducted at 21 research centers in Europe. Subjects: The study included a cohort of 1308 nondiabetic subjects [ 718 women and 590 men, age 30-60 yr, body mass index (BMI) 17-44 kgm(-2)]. Main Outcome Measures: We measured IR (by a standardized euglycemic insulin clamp), waist girth, insulin response to an oral glucose tolerance test, and major CVRF, and analyzed their associations by multivariate models and factor analysis. Results: BMI was positively related to all CVRFs. Waist circumference was related to higher blood pressure and serum triglycerides and lower high- density lipoprotein- cholesterol, IR to reduced glucose tolerance, higher free fatty acids, triglyceride and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and lower high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and insulin response to higher heart rate, blood pressure and fasting glucose, and the same dyslipidemic profile as IR (P <= 0.05 for all). By factor analysis, three main factors (related to IR, age, and fatness, respectively) appeared to underlie this pattern of associations. Each of BMI, waist girth, IR, and insulin response was independently associated with total CVRF load (all P < 0.001). Conclusions: When IR, fat mass and distribution, and insulin response are measured simultaneously in a large cohort, no one factor stands out as the sole driving force of the CVRF cluster, each being associated with one or more physiological pathways according to known cause-effect relationships
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
- …
