1,720,958 research outputs found

    Hydromorphone does not influence the immune response in patients affected by chronic pain.

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    Hydromorphone (HMP) is a semisynthetic opioid that has been widely used over many years in the treatment of chronic moderate-severe pain. A number of studies have demonstrated the use of HMP in patients with cancer pain as safe and affective, and more recently HMP has been also utilised in the treatment of chronic degenerative pain (CDP). Then, some opioids are able to influence several immune parameters. Aim of our study was to assess HMP in patients with CDP in terms of safety and efficacy, to evaluate effects of HMP, within 2 months of observation, on cutaneous cell-mediated immunity (CCMI) as well as other basic immune parameters, and the production of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). Results have shown that HMP does not influence CCMI nor the sieric levels of immunoglobulins or other immune parameters. Furthermore, it also has no effects on the 3rd and 4th complement fractions, on white blood cells count and T-lymphocyte subpopulations, on presence of seric autoantibodies, nor on production of IL-2 and IL-6. Therapy with HMP has not effects on the studied parameters of the immune system and does not seem to have any influence on the immune competence and immune response in patients with chronic pain

    Dolore cronico nell'obesità: studio osservazionale quali-quantitativo.

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    Introduction. Obesity (Ob) is one of the major issues for the public health care system with a constantly increasing prevalence. Chronic Pain (CP), on the other hand, is a pathological condition as severe and prevalent as the former. Ob and CP are not only pathological conditions, they also are important factors of risk for the onset of a number of morbid conditions. Materials and Methods. In our study we have enrolled 182 patients with Ob, to whom we have asked to fill a brief questionnaire with the purpose of evaluating prevalence and characteristics of CP, therapeutic attitude and its results, as well as the knowledge of the Law n. 38 - 15/03/2010. Results. From the analysis of gathered data, CP is present in the 39% of subjects with Ob (73.2% of females and 23.9% of males) and proportionally increases as BMI increases. The majority of patients (48%) shows pain at articular level, and a "pin" and a "gripping" pain are the two types of pain that are mostly described. Almost all the subjects enrolled (90%) suffer of a pain reported at a moderate to intense level. 15% circa of the patients do not take any therapy, while FANS have resulted to be the most used drugs among them (over 50% of the patients) and the 45% of the subjects have currently reported not to have a good control over the pain. The Law n. 38 has been reported unknown by the 8.2% of the investigated sample. Conclusions. The study has demonstrated a substantial association between the Ob and CP, particularly in the female gender, the clinical relevance of pain, its BMI-dependent tendency, the inadequacy of the therapy and the widespread lack of awareness and attention to the themes and issues of pain

    Alendronate soluble solution: a higher adherence rate in the treatment of osteoporosis.

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    Introduction. Since low adherence to a long-term therapy results in a poor clinical outcome and significantly increases healthcare costs, adherence to the treatment of chronic disorders is an issue of great interest. This is particularly true of the treatment of osteoporosis (OP). Purpose of study. Adherence to the osteoporosis therapy in patients treated with bisphosphonates in tablet form has been evaluated in comparison with the adherence of those taking alendronate in soluble solution. Methods and materials. Here we present a retrospective study of 245 patients treated with alendronate, risedronate and ibandronate tablets and a prospective study of 118 patients treated with soluble alendronate. In both studies, patients have been observed for a period of 12 months. Results. The analysis of patients’ persistence with the treatment plan, assessed at three, six and 12 months, revealed a significantly higher adherence (p < 0.005) in the cohort of patients treated with soluble alendronate (92.37% at 12 months) compared with those who followed the course of treatment with tablets (65.4 %, 12 months). Conclusions. The investigation showed higher adherence to the oral therapy with soluble alendronate, demonstrating that a formulation obtained by this method can contribute to a higher level of persistence with the treatment of a disease such as osteoporosis, which requires a long-term therapeutic plan

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

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    We 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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