1,720,994 research outputs found

    Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: A review about its efficacy in the treatment of alcohol, tobacco and cocaine addiction

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    Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a chronic and relapsing disease characterized by craving, loss of control, tolerance and physical dependence. At present, the combination of pharmacotherapy and psychosocial intervention is the most effective management strategy in preventing relapse to reduce dropout rates and promote abstinence in SUD patients. However, only few effective medications are available. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that modulates the cellular activity of the cerebral cortex through a magnetic pulse applied on selected brain areas. Recently, the efficacy of TMS has been investigated in various categories of SUD patients. The present review analyzes the application of repetitive TMS in patients with alcohol, tobacco, and cocaine use disorder. Although the number of clinical studies is still limited, repetitive TMS yields encouraging results in these patients, suggesting a possible role of TMS in the treatment of SUD

    Tonotopic organization of human auditory cortex analyzed by SPET

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    Single photon emission tomography (SPET) was used to map blood flow increases in the temporal and parietal cortex of 16 normally-hearing subjects after auditory stimulation. Eight subjects were stimulated with a multifrequency 40 dB HL pure tone at 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 Hz, each frequency varying every 30 s. Single 500 Hz pure tones at 40 dB HL were delivered to the remainder of the subjects. Five bilaterally deaf subjects were used as controls. Marked cerebral flow increase following acoustic stimulation with a significantly prevalent activation of the contralateral temporal cortex was achieved (p < 0.001). According to the tonotopic organization of the human auditory cortex, low monofrequency stimulation activated the most lateral sagittal tomograms (from 48.75 to 56.25 mm laterally to the brain midline) only, while multifrequency stimuli activated all sagittal tomograms (from 18.75 to 56.25 mm). On the basis of these results, it is likely that SPET is able to give real information on the cortical distribution of the auditory frequency range, taking into account the number and position of the activated slices. Further clinical investigations in order to define the relationships among blood flow cortical increases, stimulus intensity and auditory threshold, are in progress

    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

    The contribution of immunoscintigraphy to the diagnosis of head and neck tumours

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    Immunoscintigraphy with In-111-F(ab')(2)-anti-carcinoembryonic-antigen monoclonal antibody was performed in patients with primary head and neck tumours (n = 14), recurrences (n = 3) and suspected post therapy lymph node metastases (n = 3). No false-positive but two false-negative results were obtained. Single photon emission tomography was performed 24 h after the intravenous administration of the radiopharmaceutical with a positive predictive value of 100% and a sensitivity of 90%. Only two very small (<1 mm diameter) and necrotic primary tumours escaped detection, while the recurrences and lymph node metastases were always correctly diagnosed, in contrast to computerized tomography and ultrasound. Even though highly selective patients only were considered in the present research, the results do suggest that immunoscintigraphy may be usefully applied in all routine protocols for the study of head and neck cancer

    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
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