1,720,981 research outputs found
Il fototest iterativo con ultravioletti nella diagnosi di dermatite polimorfa solare: valutazione di 94 casi
No full textBackground: polymorphous light eruption (PLE) is a common photosensitivity disorder with an estimated prevalence of 10-20%. It is characterized by non-scarring pruritic erythematous papules, vesicles and/or plaques that develop on light-exposed skin. The principal action spectrum of PLE is mainly in the UVA region, although some subjects exhibit sensitivity to UVB alone or to both UVA and UVB radiation at the same time. Diagnosis is based on clinical history, clinical manifestations and phototest. Objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of the phototest in patients with a relevant history for PLE. Materials and methods: from December 2003 to September 2005 a total of 94 patients were recruited and all were phototested for the reproduction of skin lesions. The minimal erythema dose (MED) for UVB and an irradiation with UVB and UVA, were administered for five consecutive days. Results: a positive response was seen in 35.1% of this population. The main positive reactions were seen in the areas stimulated with both UVB and UVA (15.9%). The average MED value was similar in all examined patients (73.88 mJ/cm2). Conclusions: although phototesting with UVA and UVB lamps remains a useful method, it is not decisive for the diagnosis of PLE
Imaging of autoimmune diseases
No full textAutoimmune diseases represent a heterogeneous group of pathologies with a wide range of immunological changes and clinical presentations. The clinical onset of the disease commonly occurs when signs and symptoms of target tissue hypofunction appear; complications can also be present. The aim of an imaging diagnostic technique in this context is to correctly evaluate the disease extent and severity for appropriate treatment and to follow up the efficacy of therapy. In addition, identification of subjects at risk and the preclinical diagnosis may allow disease prevention. Ultrasound (US), conventional radiology and computed tomography (CT) are often used for a detailed morphological study of tissues involved; magnetic resonance (MRI) may also demonstrate biochemical and structural tissue changes. Nuclear medicine techniques are known for their sensitivity and specificity and in recent years an expanding field is represented by the development of radiolabelled receptor ligands. New radiopharmaceuticals able to bind in vivo to specific receptors have been introduced allowing the non invasive detection of changes in affected tissues. The relevant criteria to choose different diagnostic approaches in several autoimmune diseases are discussed in this review. In particular the role and contribution of nuclear medicine for the study of autoimmune diseases have been described
Il fototest iterativo con ultravioletti nella diagnosi di dermatite polimorfa solare: valutazione di 94 casi
No full textBackground: polymorphous light eruption (PLE) is a common photosensitivity disorder with an estimated prevalence of 10-20%. It is characterized by non-scarring pruritic erythematous papules, vesicles and/or plaques that develop on light-exposed skin. The principal action spectrum of PLE is mainly in the UVA region, although some subjects exhibit sensitivity to UVB alone or to both UVA and UVB radiation at the same time. Diagnosis is based on clinical history, clinical manifestations and phototest. Objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of the phototest in patients with a relevant history for PLE. Materials and methods: from December 2003 to September 2005 a total of 94 patients were recruited and all were phototested for the reproduction of skin lesions. The minimal erythema dose (MED) for UVB and an irradiation with UVB and UVA, were administered for five consecutive days. Results: a positive response was seen in 35.1% of this population. The main positive reactions were seen in the areas stimulated with both UVB and UVA (15.9%). The average MED value was similar in all examined patients (73.88 mJ/cm2). Conclusions: although phototesting with UVA and UVB lamps remains a useful method, it is not decisive for the diagnosis of PLE
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
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