1,720,957 research outputs found
The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hospitalization rate, clinical impairment and mortality of cirrhotic patients
Get PDF: The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread disruption to global healthcare systems, necessitating the reallocation of resources to address the immediate demands. This reorganization had significant repercussions on the management of chronic diseases, including cirrhosis. We sought to provide a comprehensive picture of the COVID-19 impact on monthly hospitalization rates of cirrhotic patients at Local Health Board 1 hospitals in the Abruzzo Region, Italy. Using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, we identified cases of alcohol-related, nonalcohol-related, biliary, and decompensated cirrhosis. We analyzed 957 Hospital Discharge Records from January 1 to December 31, 2019 (pre-pandemic), and from January 1 to December 31, 2022 (post-pandemic). We evaluated patients' clinical impairment, length of stay, and mortality before and after the pandemic. We identified 494 hospitalizations for nonalcohol-related cirrhosis and 310 for alcohol-related cirrhosis. As key findings, hospitalizations for nonalcohol-related cirrhosis decreased (69% vs. 48%; p < .0001), while hospitalizations for alcohol-related cirrhosis increased (31% vs. 52%; p < .0001), in the post-pandemic period. Additionally, there was a significant rise in decompensated patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis post-COVID (77% vs. 65%; p = .0216). Mortality risk increased for both nonalcohol- (11% vs. 18.5%; p = .0176) and alcohol-related cirrhosis (7.7% vs. 18%; p = .0059) in the post-pandemic era. The increase in hospitalizations for alcohol-related cirrhosis is alarming and likely to have a prolonged impact on the natural history of liver diseases. There is an urgent need to reduce alcohol consumption at the population level. Continued awareness and personalized follow-up are essential for guaranteeing the standard of care during health emergencies
Studio delle mutazioni somatiche nella Leucemia Mieloide Acuta e valutazione del loro potere prognostico attraverso l'utilizzo della PCR.
No full textLa definizione di “leucemia mieloide acuta” (LAM) include un ampio gruppo di neoplasie ematologiche che coinvolgono i precursori ematopoietici della linea mieloide, rappresentata da granulociti, monociti, eritrociti e megacariociti.
La LAM è caratterizzata da una proliferazione clonale di tali precursori che presentano una capacità ridotta di differenziarsi in elementi cellulari più maturi. Questo determina un accumulo di forme immature nel midollo osseo, nel sangue periferico e talvolta in altri tessuti, con una riduzione variabile nella produzione di normali globuli rossi (anemia), piastrine (trombocitopenia) e granulociti maturi (neutropenia), con o senza leucocitosi.
La LAM è una patologia complessa: alla base di questa troviamo una estrema varietà di anomalie genetiche ed epigenetiche che influenzano la risposta alla terapia e quindi prognosi ed outcome del paziente.
Oggi infatti una corretta classificazione della LAM non può prescindere dalla valutazione dei parametri citogenetici e molecolari, determinanti la prognosi e l’outcome del paziente affetto. Tra le tecniche molecolari a disposizione, la NGS permette una caratterizzazione accurata, ma l'ottimizzazione è spesso complicata ed inoltre non è una tecnica disponibile ovunque. Così, l’utilizzo della PCR convenzionale si è dimostrato essere un ottimo surrogato per la valutazione del profilo mutazionale del paziente; Nel nostro studio sono stati arruolati 38 pazienti affetti dal LAM, nei quali, usando le piastre per PCR, abbiamo valutato le mutazioni ASXL1, TET2, IDH1, IDH2, ANR, WT1, c-kit, RUNX1, FLT3, NPM1, e DNMT3a. I risultati ottenuti hanno dimostrato che nell'81% dei casi sono presenti mutazioni dei geni presi in esame, con una mediana di 2 mutazioni per paziente: il 60% ha mostrato mutazioni c-kit, il 26% mutazioni di N-RAS, il 16% di IDH2, NPM1, e RUNX1, il 13% di FLT3, il 10% dei IDH1; l’8% di WT1, e DNMT3a, ed infine il 3% di TET2 e ASXL1. La presenza/assenza di mutazioni ha dimostrato avere un impatto significativo sul tasso di risposta (100% per i pazienti non mutati contro il 42% dei mutati). La presenza di almeno 3 mutazioni nei profili studiati si è dimostrata avere un forte impatto negativo su tasso di risposta, OS e PFS, dove il ruolo maggiore è ricoperto dalle mutazioni DNMT3a e FLT3.
In conclusione, le analisi molecolari di base sono ancora fondamentali per la classificazione della LAM, ma la valutazione della eventuale mutazione somatica aggiuntiva sarebbe utile per una più corretta stratificazione dei pazienti nelle classi di rischio
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
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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