1,720,961 research outputs found
Obstructive Sleep Apnoea-Hypopnoea Syndrome (OSAHS): state of the art
No full textObstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS) is an extremely common sleep-related breathing disorder (SRBD) characterised by complete or partial collapse of the upper airways. These nocturnal phenomena cause high-frequency hypoxemic desaturations (or intermittent hypoxia, IH) during sleep and alterations in gas exchange. The result of IH is the development or worsening of cerebro-cardio-vascular, metabolic and other diseases, which cause a high risk of death. Hence, OSAHS is a multifactorial disease affecting several organs and systems and presenting with various clinical manifestations involving different medical branches. Although it has been estimated that about one billion individuals worldwide are affected by OSAHS, this SRBD remains underestimated also due to misinformation regarding both patients and physicians. Therefore, this review aims to provide information on the main symptoms and risk factors for the detection of individuals at risk of OSAHS, as well as to present the diagnostic investigations to be performed and the different therapeutic approaches. The scientific evidence reported suggest that OSAHS is an extremely common and complex disorder that has a large impact on the health and quality of life of individuals, as well as on healthcare expenditure. Moreover, given its multifactorial nature, the design and implementation of diagnostic and therapeutic programmes through a multidisciplinary approach are necessary for a tailor-made therapy for each patient
Exhaled Volatile Organic Compounds analysis by e-nose can detect Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
No full textThe current diagnostic work-up and monitoring of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is often invasive and time consuming. Breath analysis by e-nose technology has shown potential in the diagnosis of numerous respiratory diseases. In this pilot study, we investigated whether exhaled breath analysis by an e-nose could discriminate among patients with IPF, healthy controls and COPD. Second, we verified whether these classification could be repeated in a set of newly recruited patients as external validation. Third, we evaluated any significant relationships between exhaled VOCs and Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in IPF patients
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
Application of machine learning to predict obstructive sleep apnea syndrome severity
Full text linkIntroduction: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome has become an important public health concern. Polysomnography is traditionally considered an established and effective diagnostic tool providing information on the severity of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and the degree of sleep fragmentation. However, the numerous steps in the polysomnography test to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea syndrome are costly and time consuming. This study aimed to test the efficacy and clinical applicability of different machine learning methods based on demographic information and questionnaire data to predict obstructive sleep apnea syndrome severity. Materials and methods: We collected data about demographic characteristics, spirometry values, gas exchange (PaO2, PaCO2) and symptoms (Epworth Sleepiness Scale, snoring, etc.) of 313 patients with previous diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. After principal component analysis, we selected 19 variables which were used for further preprocessing and to eventually train seven types of classification models and five types of regression models to evaluate the prediction ability of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome severity, represented either by class or by apnea–hypopnea index. All models are trained with an increasing number of features and the results are validated through stratified 10-fold cross validation. Results: Comparative results show the superiority of support vector machine and random forest models for classification, while support vector machine and linear regression are better suited to predict apnea–hypopnea index. Also, a limited number of features are enough to achieve the maximum predictive accuracy. The best average classification accuracy on test sets is 44.7 percent, with the same average sensitivity (recall). In only 5.7 percent of cases, a severe obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (class 4) is misclassified as mild (class 2). Regression results show a minimum achieved root mean squared error of 22.17. Conclusion: The problem of predicting apnea–hypopnea index or severity classes for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is very difficult when using only data collected prior to polysomnography test. The results achieved with the available data suggest the use of machine learning methods as tools for providing patients with a priority level for polysomnography test, but they still cannot be used for automated diagnosis
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
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