1,720,965 research outputs found
CONSTITUTIONAL AND ENVIROMENTAL RISK FACTORS FOR CUTANEOUS MELANOMA IN ITALIAN POPULATION. A CASE-CONTROL STUDY
No full textThe aim of this study was to determine the relative risk for cutaneous melanoma associated with phenotypic and environmental variables in a population in central Italy and to assess how the combination of the different risk factors contributes to the overall risk for melanoma. We performed a case-control study of 100 patients with sporadic cutaneous melanoma and 200 controls matched for sex, age, ethnicity and residential area. Individuals were interviewed concerning pigmentary traits and sun exposure, and underwent a total body skin examination. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between cutaneous melanoma and constitutional and environmental variables. The strongest risk factors were prolonged recreational sun exposure (odds ratio [OR] 5.010, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.110-11.891), the presence of clinically atypical naevi (OR 4.916, 95% CI 2.496-9.995) and the presence of >50 common melanocytlc naevi (OR 4.684, 95% CI 2.442-9.231). In addition, occupational sun exposure (OR 2.573, 95% CI 1.399-4.732), light brown hair (OR 2.336, 95% CI 1.328-4.138), high density of solar lentigos and/or actinic keratoses (OR 1.824, 95% CI 1.0-3.510) and type II, fair skin (OR 1.815, 95% CI 1.031-3.193) and blue eyes (OR 1.757, 95% CI 1.0-3.477) were each significantly associated with cutaneous melanoma risk. The combination of individual strong risk factors was associated with up to a 46-fold increase in the risk for cutaneous melanoma. Selected pigmentary traits, sun exposure and melanocytic naevi, individually and in combination, are important risk factors for cutaneous melanoma in an Italian population
Cutaneous manifestations in Italian kidney transplant recipients
No full textSeveral cutaneous disorders may occur in organ transplant recipients. We examined the incidence and the clinical spectrum of cutaneous manifestations among kidney transplant recipients. One hundred nine patients (70 males and 39 females), aged 19 to 69 years (mean: 42.5 years), were consecutively examined as outpatients between June 2000 and August 2004. The mean interval after kidney transplantation was 61 months (range: 2 to 120 months). The immunosuppressive regimen consisted of combinations including cyclosporine, systemic corticosteroids, azathioprine, tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, antivirals, and antibiotics. Ninety-one cutaneous manifestations were identified in 60 of 109 (55.0%) kidney transplant patients over a 4-year period. Sixteen (17.5%) cutaneous viral infections identified in 11 patients (10.0%) included verruca vulgaris (n = 9), herpes zoster (n = 5) and herpes simplex (n = 2). Thirteen (11.9%) patients showed 19 (20.8%) superficial fungal infections, consisting of dermatophytosis (n = 6), onycomycosis (n = 6), pityriasis versicolor (n = 5) and mucocutaneous candidiasis (n = 2). Twenty (22%) nonmelanoma skin cancers were identified in seven (6.4%) patients, six basal cell carcinomas (BCC) in four patients, two squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) in two patients, and 11 BCCs in addition to one SCC in one patient. Twenty-six (23.8%) patients developed 32 (35.4%) drug-related manifestations, including acneiform eruption (n = 14), gingival hypertrophy (n = 6), hypertrichosis (n = 6), ecchymosis (n = 3), and plantar hyperkeratosis (n = 3). In addition, psoriasis and seborrheic dermatitis, which had been diagnosed before kidney transplantation, were observed in five and three patients, respectively. Our results emphasize the importance of dermatologic examinations and monitoring kidney transplant recipients to obtain an early diagnosis and treatment of cutaneous manifestations
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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