1,720,954 research outputs found
C-reactive protein in predicting survival of patients with colorectal cancer
No full textBackground: Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in
Western Countries. Overall survival is poor and only half patients, of those treated
with curative intent, survive 5 years. Cancer progression depends on a complex interaction
of both tumour’s characteristics and host inflammatory response. Circulating
levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) has been found to be related to survival in cancer
patients. The aim of this study was to analyze whether relationship exists between
age, gender, stage of the disease, and CRP serum levels in patients with colorectal
cancer.
Patients and Methods: Forty-five patients (25 men, 20 women, median age 69 years,
range 49-88 years) who underwent curative surgery for colorectal cancer were enrolled
in the study. The TNM stage was the following: Stage I: 2 (4.5%), Stage II: 24 (53.3%),
Stage III: 19 (42.2%) patients. Overall, preoperative PRC level was 9.737.13 mg/L (median
11, range 1-27 mg/L).
Results: The overall survival was 38.113.0 months (median 41 months, 95% CI: 34.4-
47.6months).Asignificant (c21⁄413.4, Log rank p<0.001) difference between Stage II and
III patients (43.61.7 vs. 38.11.9 months), and between patients with PRC>10 mg/L
and those with PRC<11 mg/L (33.02.9 vs. 44.11.7 mg/L; c21⁄44.8, Log rank
p<0.03) was found, while there was no difference according to gender (c21⁄40.41, Log
rank p<0.52). Using the multivariate Cox model analysis (forward stepwise method), adjusted
for age, both PRC and stage of the disease were independently related to survival.
The relative risk (RR) was 3.5 (95%CI: 1.5-8.2), and 8.1 (95% CI: 3.0-21.3), respectively.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that systemic inflammatory response, as shown by
raised circulating levels of CRP, is an independent prognostic factor in patients with
colorectal cancer, allowing to a better clinical stratification of patients
Does sensitivity of tumor markers CEA and CA 15-3 significantly correlate with any preoperative parameters in breast cancer patients with recurrnece ?
No full textIntroduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the causes of false-negative results using serum tumour markers (TM) CEA and CA 15-3 in treatment options and
breast cancer (BC) patients with recurrence.
Methods: Sixty-two women (median age 55 years, range 35–83) who underwent curative surgery for BC (pT1pN0=21, pT2pN0=14, pT2pN1=24, pT3pN1=3) developed local recurrences (n=36), distant metastases (n=13) or contralateral BC (n=13) during a mean follow-up of 52 months (range 24–148).
Results: TM sensitivity in detection of BC recurrence was 40.3% (CEA) and 41.9% (CA 15–3), with a mean lead time of 5.6±3.1 months (range 3–9). No difference (PNS) was found between the sensitivity of TMin the detection of recurrence and (1) their pre-operative values (Fisher exact test), (2) the site of the recurrence (Chi-squared test), and (3) axillary lymph node (N0/N1) involvement (Chi-squared test) correlates (Student’s t-test) only with the age of the patients (CA 15–3) and the size of the tumor CEA). Conclusions: In BC patients with recurrence the sensitivity of TM during paraffin-embedded specimens follow-up does not correlate with any specific pre-operative parameter
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
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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