1,720,960 research outputs found
Will the advent of antileukotriene therapy lead to changes in asthma treatment guidelines?
No full textLeukotrienes are bronchoconstrictor and pro-inflammatory mediators implicated in asthma. Drugs that block leukotriene synthesis or activity are set to become the first major breakthrough in asthma therapy for 25 years. Antileukotriene drugs block bronchoconstriction after challenge with allergen, aspirin or exercise, and in clinical trials in patients with asthma they improve baseline lung function, reduce night-time awakenings, improve daytime symptom scores and halve the number of acute exacerbations. They are likely to be used as oral prophylactic therapy to reduce the dosage of corticosteroids right across the spectrum of asthma severity. Further studies on possible long term anti-inflammatory effects are currently in progress.</p
The relationship between atopic status and IL-10 nasal lavage levels in the acute and persistent inflammatory response to upper respiratory tract infection
No full textWe examined the influence of atopy on virus-induced airway inflammation by comparing the nasal response to naturally acquired upper respiratory tract infection in atopic and nonatopic subjects by measurement of cytokine, chemokine, and mediator levels in nasal lavage from 44 adults (23 atopic) taken during the acute and the convalescent phases of the common cold. Nasal aspirates were examined for the presence of upper respiratory viruses by RT-PCR. In atopic and nonatopic subjects there were increased levels of IL-1, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-, RANTES, sICAM-1, MPO, ECP, IL-10, and IFN- in nasal lavage during the acute compared with the convalescent phase (p < 0.001). During the acute phase histamine levels were significantly higher in the atopic than in the nonatopic subjects (p < 0.05), whereas IL-10 levels were significantly greater in the nonatopic than in the atopic subjects (p < 0.05). At convalescence levels of IL-1, IL-6, sICAM-1, ECP, RANTES and albumin were significantly higher in the atopic group (p < 0.05). An upper respiratory tract virus was found in 27 volunteers (61%) during the acute stage and in two volunteers (4%) at convalescence. We conclude that virus-induced inflammatory changes within the nose are more prolonged in atopic than in nonatopic subjects and that this is associated with reduced IL-10 levels in atopic compared with nonatopic subjects during the acute phase of upper respiratory tract infection. <br/
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
Frequency, severity, and duration of rhinovirus infections in asthmatic and non-asthmatic individuals: a longitudinal cohort study
No full textBackground: Rhinovirus infections cause exacerbations of asthma. We postulated that people with asthma are more susceptible to rhinovirus infection than people without the disease and compared the susceptibility of these groups.Methods: We recruited 76 cohabiting couples. One person in every couple had atopic asthma and one was healthy. Participants completed daily diary cards of upper-respiratory-tract (URT) and lower-respiratory-tract (LRT) symptoms and measured peak expiratory flow twice daily. Every 2 weeks nasal aspirates were taken and examined for rhinovirus. Mixed models were used to compare risks of infection between groups. We also compared the severity and duration of infections.Findings: We analysed 753 samples. Rhinovirus was detected in 10·1% (38/378) of samples from participants with asthma and 8·5% (32/375) of samples from healthy participants. After adjustment for confounding factors, asthma did not significantly increase risk of infection (odds ratio 1·15, 95% CI 0·71–1·87). Groups did not differ in frequency, severity, or duration of URT infections or symptoms associated with rhinovirus infection. First rhinovirus infection was associated more frequently with LRT infection in participants with asthma than in healthy individuals (12 of 28 infections vs four of 23, respectively, p=0·051). Symptoms of LRT associated with rhinovirus infection were significantly more severe (p=0·001) and longer-lasting in participants with asthma than in healthy participants (p=0·005).Interpretation: People with atopic asthma are not at greater risk of rhinovirus infection than healthy individuals but suffer from more frequent LRT infections and have more severe and longer-lasting LRT symptoms
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
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