1,720,970 research outputs found
An exploratory pilot study on the involvement of APOE, HFE, C9ORF72 variants and comorbidities in neurocognitive and physical performance in a group of HIV-infected people
Full text linkCognitive decline of aging is modulated by chronic inflammation and comorbidities. In people with HIV-infection (PWH) it may also be affected by HIV-induced inflammation, lifestyle and long-term effects of antiretroviral therapies (ART). The role of genetics in the susceptibility to HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) is not fully understood. Here we explored the possible relations among variants in 3 genes involved in inflammation and neurodegenerative disorders (APOE: epsilon 2/epsilon 3/epsilon 4; HFE: H63D; C9ORF72: hexanucleotide expansions >= 9 repeats), cognitive/functional impairment (MiniMental State Examination MMSE, Clock Drawing Test CDT, Short Physical Performance Battery SPPB), comorbidities and HIV-related variables in a cohort of > 50 years old PWH (n = 60) with at least 10 years efficient ART. Patients with diabetes or hypertension showed significantly lower MMSE (p = .031) or SPPB (p = .010) scores, respectively, while no relations between HIV-related variables and cognitive/functional scores were observed. Patients with at least one APOE epsilon 3 allele had higher CDT scores (p = .019), APOE epsilon 2/epsilon 4 patients showing the lowest scores in all tests. Patients with HFE-H63D variant showed more frequently hypertriglyceridemia (p = .023) and those harboring C9ORF72 expansions > 9 repeats had higher CD4(+)-cell counts (p = .032) and CD4% (p = .041). Multiple linear regression analysis computed to verify possible associations among cognitive/functional scores and all variables further suggested positive association between higher CDT scores and the presence of at least one APOE epsilon 3 allele (2,2; 95% CI [0,03 0,8]; p = .037), independent of other variables, although the model did not reach the statistical significance (p = .14). These data suggest that in PWH on efficient ART cognitive abilities and physical performances may be partly associated with comorbidities and genetic background. However, further analyses are needed to establish whether they could be also dependent and influenced by comorbidities and genetic background
Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in breast cancer mimicking SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia during pandemic
No full textPneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) is one of the most common HIV-related opportunistic infection. Apart from HIV patients, subjects treated with an associated therapy of high doses glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive drugs should be considered at risk. SARS-CoV-2 has become worldly known as the responsible of the pandemic that hit the world in late 2019 and that is still ongoing. Italy, and especially Brescia, was one of the area most struck by the pandemic, with a significant number of cases being reported (more than 112,648 as of October 2021). The diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 is mainly based on RT-PCR assays performed on nasopharyngeal swab, X-ray of the chest and clinical manifestations. We describe two cases of PJP in two immunocompromised patients with breast cancer who were admitted at Spedali Civili of Brescia hospital, Italy, with an initial diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, despite testing negative to RT-PCR on nasopharyngeal swabs. We also retrospectively reassessed all cases of pneumonia deemed as SARS-CoV-2-related upon admission and then converted to PJP as the final diagnosis. We describe the two following cases to emphasize that clinicians should always be alert about PJP, even during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and avoid focusing on COVID-19 exclusively. PJP should always be considered as a differential diagnosis in patients, particularly if immunosuppressed, with an X-ray or TC of the chest suggestive of interstitial pneumonia and a negative SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR on nasopharyngeal swabs
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on HIV viremia: a single-center cohort study in northern Italy
No full textBackground Brescia Province, northern Italy, was one of the worst epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic. The division of infectious diseases of ASST (Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale) Spedali Civili Hospital of Brescia had to face a great number of inpatients with severe COVID-19 infection and to ensure the continuum of care for almost 4000 outpatients with HIV infection actively followed by us. In a recent manuscript we described the impact of the pandemic on continuum of care in our HIV cohort expressed as number of missed visits, number of new HIV diagnosis, drop in ART (antiretroviral therapy) dispensation and number of hospitalized HIV patients due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this short communication, we completed the previous article with data of HIV plasmatic viremia of the same cohort before and during pandemic. Methods We considered all HIV-patients in stable ART for at least 6 months and with at least 1 available HIV viremia in the time window March 01-November 30, 2019, and another group of HIV patients with the same two requisites but in different time windows of the COVID-19 period (March 01-May 31, 2020, and June 01-November 30, 2020). For patients with positive viremia (PV) during COVID-19 period, we reported also the values of viral load (VL) just before and after PV. Results: the percentage of patients with PV during COVID-19 period was lower than the previous year (2.8% vs 7%). Only 1% of our outpatients surely suffered from pandemic in term of loss of previous viral suppression. Conclusions Our efforts to limit the impact of pandemic on our HIV outpatients were effective to ensure HIV continuum of care
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
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