1,720,990 research outputs found
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in cancer prevention and therapy
Full text linkLong-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can be regarded as an effective approach for cancer chemoprevention, as demonstrated by a bulk of clinical and experimental evidence. However, the clinical use of these drugs as chemopreventive agents is limited by many open questions about the optimal drug, dose, duration of therapy and knowledge about the mechanism(s) by which these drugs act. In particular, the recent data on cardiovascular toxicity of coxibs has posed some limitations on the use of NSAIDs for cancer chemoprevention in the general population. The situation is different in certain genetically susceptible subgroups, such as in individuals with genetic mutations associated with hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC) or familiar adenomatous polyps (FAP) in whom lifetime risk increases up to 70-90% and in whom the benefit of a chemopreventive drug might justify its use even in the presence of adverse effects
Dynamical properties of different models of elastic polymer rings: Confirming the link between deformation and fragility
Full text linkWe report extensive numerical simulations of different models of 2D polymer rings with internal elasticity. We monitor the dynamical behavior of the rings as a function of the packing fraction to address the effects of particle deformation on the collective response of the system. In particular, we compare three different models: (i) a recently investigated model [N. Gnan and E. Zaccarelli, Nat. Phys. 15, 683 (2019)] where an inner Hertzian field providing the internal elasticity acts on the monomers of the ring, (ii) the same model where the effect of such a field on the center of mass is balanced by opposite forces, and (iii) a semi-flexible model where an angular potential between adjacent monomers induces strong particle deformations. By analyzing the dynamics of the three models, we find that in all cases, there exists a direct link between the system fragility and particle asphericity. Among the three, only the first model displays anomalous dynamics in the form of a super-diffusive behavior of the mean-squared displacement and of a compressed exponential relaxation of the density auto-correlation function. We show that this is due to the combination of internal elasticity and the out-of-equilibrium force self-generated by each ring, both of which are necessary ingredients to induce such a peculiar behavior often observed in experiments of colloidal gels. These findings reinforce the role of particle deformation, connected to internal elasticity, in driving the dynamical response of dense soft particles
Interleukin-2 inhalation therapy in renal cell cancer: a case report and review of the literature
Full text linkRenal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common malignancy of the kidney. One third of RCC presents metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis, usually leading to a fatal outcome. Small response rates were seen with most cytotoxic agents including gemcitabine and vinorelbine, whereas systemic therapy with high doses of interleukin 2 (IL-2) has been shown to provide durable complete remissions. However, in consideration of its severe toxicity, IL-2 immunotherapy is restricted to selected patients. Aerosol IL-2 has been introduced as an alternative therapy in cancer patients. However, only very few data are available on its use in patients with pulmonary metastatic RCC. This paper briefly summarizes current clinical experience with the use of inhaled IL-2 therapy, either as a single therapy or in combination with other treatments. In addition, we report on a male patient with pulmonary metastasized RCC who achieved a durable complete response to combined gemcitabine/vinorelbine and interleukin-2 inhalation therapy
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
Caregiver distress in the early phases of cancer
Full text linkPrincipal caregivers (PCs) of cancer patients experience high levels of stress that may significantly impact their quality of life (QoL). PCs' QoL during early phases of the disease (when patients were still on chemotherapy) were assessed
A novel K-ras mutation in colorectal cancer. A case report and literature review
Full text linkActivating mutations in the K-ras oncogene mainly occur in codons 12 and 13 and may be predictive of response to drugs directly linked to the K-ras signaling pathway, such as panitumumab and cetuximab
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