1,720,958 research outputs found
Empagliflozin Improves Cognitive Impairment in Frail Older Adults With Type 2 Diabetes and Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction
No full textOBJECTIVE: To assess whether the sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor empagliflozin improves cognitive impairment in frail older adults with diabetes and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We designed a prospective study to assess cognitive and physical function in consecutive frail older adults with diabetes and HFpEF, comparing the effects of empagliflozin, metformin, and insulin. RESULTS: A total of 162 frail older adults with HFpEF and diabetes successfully completed the study. Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores at baseline and after 1 month were 19.80 ± 3.77 vs. 22.25 ± 3.27 (P < 0.001) in the empagliflozin group, 19.95 ± 3.81 vs. 20.71 ± 3.56 (P = 0.26) in the metformin group, and 19.00 ± 3.71 vs. 19.1 ± 3.56 (P = 0.81) in the insulin group. A multivariable regression analysis confirmed the beneficial effects of empagliflozin. Additionally, we observed a marked amelioration of physical impairment, assessed by the 5-m gait speed test, in the empagliflozin and metformin groups but not in the insulin group. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to show significant beneficial effects of the SGLT2 inhibitor empagliflozin on cognitive and physical impairment in frail older adults with diabetes and HFpEF
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
SGLT2 Inhibition via Empagliflozin Improves Endothelial Function and Reduces Mitochondrial Oxidative Stress: Insights from Frail Hypertensive and Diabetic Patients
No full textBackground: Frailty is a multidimensional condition often diagnosed in older adults with hypertension and diabetes, and both these conditions are associated with endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress. We investigated the functional role of the SGLT2 (sodium glucose cotransporter 2) inhibitor empagliflozin in frail diabetic and hypertensive older adults. Methods: We studied the effects of empagliflozin in consecutive hypertensive and diabetic older patients with frailty presenting at the ASL (local health unit of the Italian Ministry of Health) of Avellino, Italy, from March 2021 to January 2022. Moreover, we performed in vitro experiments in human endothelial cells to measure cell viability, permeability, mitochondrial Ca2+, and oxidative stress. Results: We evaluated 407 patients; 325 frail elders with diabetes successfully completed the study. We propensity-score matched 75 patients treated with empagliflozin and 75 with no empagliflozin. We observed a correlation between glycemia and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score and between glycemia and 5-meter gait speed (5mGS). At 3-month follow-up, we detected a significant improvement in the MoCA score and in the 5mGS in patients receiving empagliflozin compared with non-treated subjects. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that empagliflozin significantly reduces mitochondrial Ca2+overload and reactive oxygen species production triggered by high glucose in human endothelial cells, attenuates cellular permeability, and improves cell viability in response to oxidative stress. Conclusions: Taken together, our data indicate that empagliflozin reduces frailty in diabetic and hypertensive patients, most likely by decreasing the mitochondrial generation of reactive oxygen species in endothelial cells
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
Cognitive impairment in frail hypertensive elderly patients: Role of hyperglycemia
No full textEndothelial dysfunction is a key hallmark of hypertension, which is a leading risk factor for cognitive decline in older adults with or without frailty. Similarly, hyperglycemia is known to impair endothelial function and is a predictor of severe cardiovascular outcomes, independent of the presence of diabetes. On these grounds, we designed a study to assess the effects of high‐glucose and metformin on brain microvascular endothelial cells (ECs) and on cognitive impairment in frail hypertensive patients. We tested the effects of metformin on high‐glucose‐induced cell death, cell permeability, and generation of reactive oxygen species in vitro, in human brain microvascular ECs. To investigate the consequences of hyperglycemia and metformin in the clinical scenario, we recruited frail hypertensive patients and we evaluated their Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores, comparing them according to the glycemic status (normoglycemic vs. hyperglycemic) and the use of metformin. We enrolled 376 patients, of which 209 successfully completed the study. We observed a significant correlation between MoCA score and glycemia. We found that hyperglycemic patients treated with metformin had a significantly better MoCA score than hyperglycemic patients treated with insulin (18.32 ± 3.9 vs. 14.94 ± 3.8; p < 0.001). Our in vitro assays confirmed the beneficial effects of metformin on human brain microvascular ECs. To our knowledge, this is the first study correlating MoCA score and glycemia in frail and hypertensive older adults, showing that hyperglycemia aggravates cognitive impairment
- …
