1,721,236 research outputs found
The clinical role of extracellular bioimpedance tomography (Gastro-Midax®) in the diagnosis of colorectal diseases
No full textAim. Gastro-Midax® is a non-invasive diagnostic medical device which carries out an extracellular bioimpedance tomographic analysis of the colorectal region with a neural technique interpretation using artificial neural networks to diagnose colorectal diseases. The aim of this spontaneous study carried out in various centres in Italy was to train Gastro-Mlda x® to distinguish normal patients from those with colorectal diseases. Methods. Patients who were referred to the Endoscopy Units of the 20 centres involved in the study to undergo colonoscopy from September 2002 to December 2003 were included in the study. At least 1 day before colonoscopy, patients underwent Gastro-Midax. The training of the bioimpedance tomography in this study considered patients negative (normal) when the colorectal endoscopy was normal or revealed only the presence of haemorrhoids. Patients were considered positive in the presence of diverticula (diverticulosis or diverticulitis), polyps, cancer. For positive patients with more than one pathology, neoplastic or preneoplastic lesions were considered more important than the others and the final diagnosis was made in accordance with this rule. Results. Overall, the 20 centres enrolled 947 patients (males/females: 477/470; average age±SD: 57.44±13.85 years). The specificity registered after training was 80% (95% CI: 76.5-83.1) and sensitivity was 83.89% (95% CI: 79-5-87.4). The sensitivity of bioimpedance tomography in the subgroup of patients with cancer (N=68) was 88.2% (95% CI: 78.4-93-9). As to polyps, sensitivity was calculated as a whole and according to size classification. The sensitivity of bioimpedance tomography in diagnosing patients witii polyps was therefore 78.3% (95% CI: 71.9-83.4). However, sensitivity increased to 83.7% (95% CI: 74.1-90.2) and 83% (95% CI: 70.7-90.8) when the bioimpedance tomography's ability to identify patients with at least one polyp ≥6 mm and ≥10 mm in size was taken into consideration. Conclusion. Gastro-Mida x® has proven to be a simple, reliable and accurate instrument, once training is completed, in the most common colorectal diseases. The device can therefore be proposed for both diagnosis and screening of colorectal diseases
The clinical role of extracellular bioimpedance tomography (Gastro-Midax®) in the diagnosis of colorectal diseases
No full textAim. Gastro-Midax® is a non-invasive diagnostic medical device which carries out an extracellular bioimpedance tomographic analysis of the colorectal region with a neural technique interpretation using artificial neural networks to diagnose colorectal diseases. The aim of this spontaneous study carried out in various centres in Italy was to train Gastro-Mlda x® to distinguish normal patients from those with colorectal diseases. Methods. Patients who were referred to the Endoscopy Units of the 20 centres involved in the study to undergo colonoscopy from September 2002 to December 2003 were included in the study. At least 1 day before colonoscopy, patients underwent Gastro-Midax. The training of the bioimpedance tomography in this study considered patients negative (normal) when the colorectal endoscopy was normal or revealed only the presence of haemorrhoids. Patients were considered positive in the presence of diverticula (diverticulosis or diverticulitis), polyps, cancer. For positive patients with more than one pathology, neoplastic or preneoplastic lesions were considered more important than the others and the final diagnosis was made in accordance with this rule. Results. Overall, the 20 centres enrolled 947 patients (males/females: 477/470; average age±SD: 57.44±13.85 years). The specificity registered after training was 80% (95% CI: 76.5-83.1) and sensitivity was 83.89% (95% CI: 79-5-87.4). The sensitivity of bioimpedance tomography in the subgroup of patients with cancer (N=68) was 88.2% (95% CI: 78.4-93-9). As to polyps, sensitivity was calculated as a whole and according to size classification. The sensitivity of bioimpedance tomography in diagnosing patients witii polyps was therefore 78.3% (95% CI: 71.9-83.4). However, sensitivity increased to 83.7% (95% CI: 74.1-90.2) and 83% (95% CI: 70.7-90.8) when the bioimpedance tomography's ability to identify patients with at least one polyp ≥6 mm and ≥10 mm in size was taken into consideration. Conclusion. Gastro-Mida x® has proven to be a simple, reliable and accurate instrument, once training is completed, in the most common colorectal diseases. The device can therefore be proposed for both diagnosis and screening of colorectal diseases
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
- …
