1,720,978 research outputs found
Exploring future perspectives and pipeline progression in vaccine research and development
No full textIntroduction: The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on vaccines' Research and Development, on vaccines' market, and on immunization programmes and policies. The need to promptly respond to the health emergency boostered resources' al-location and innovation, while new technologies were made available. Regulatory procedures were revised and expedited, and global production and distribution capacities significantly increased. Aim of this review is to outline the trajectory of research in vaccinology and vaccines' pipeline, highlighting major challenges and opportunities, and projecting future perspectives in vaccine preventables diseases' prevention and control. Study design: Narrative review. Methods: We comprehensively consulted key biomedical databases including "Medline" and "Embase", preprint platforms, including"MedRxiv" and "BioRxiv", clinical trial registries, selected grey literature sources and scientific reports. Further data and insights were collected from experts in the field. We first reflect on the impact that the COVID-19 had on vaccines' Research and Development, regulatory frameworks, and market, we then present updated figures of vaccines pipeline, by different technologies, comparatively highlighting advantages and disadvantages. We conclude summarizing future perspectives in vaccines' development and immunizations strategies, outlining key challenges, knowledge gaps and opportunities for prevention strategies. Results: COVID-19 vaccines' development has been largely supported by public funding. New technologies and expetited autho-rization and distribution processes allowed to control the pandemic, leading vaccines' market to grow exponentially. In the post-pandemic era investments in prevention are projected to decrease but advancements in technology offer great potential to future immunization strategies. As of 2023, the vaccine pipeline include almost 1,000 candidates, at different Research and Development phase, including innovative recombinant protein vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines and viral vector vaccines. Vaccines' technology platforms development varies by disease. Overall, vaccinology is progressing towards increasingly safe and effective products that are easily manufacturable and swiftly convertible. Conclusions: Vaccine research is rapidly evolving, emerging technologies and new immunization models offer public health new tools and large potential to fight vaccines preventables diseases, with promising new platforms and broadened target populations. Real-life data analysis and operational research is needed to evaluate how such potential is exploited in public health practice to improve population health
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Direct and indirect healthcare costs of ocular diseases in Italy: a literature review on glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration
No full textBackground: Glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration impose substantial economic burdens on healthcare systems due to their high prevalence and chronic nature. Nevertheless, comprehensive Italian data is limited. This study aims to collect Italian evidence on the economic impact of these conditions to support more effective healthcare planning. Study design: Systematic review. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines across PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and EMBASE databases. Studies reporting cost evaluations of managing glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration in Italy were included. Direct, indirect and non-medical costs were considered. Results: The review included 23 studies exhibiting considerable heterogeneity in timeframes, regions, and economic evaluation approaches. For glaucoma, annual direct costs ranged from €788.70 for early-stage cases to €8,368.51 for advanced cases requiring surgery. Annual costs associated with diabetic retinopathy ranged from €4,050 to €5,799 per patient, depending on disease severity and treatment approach. The financial burden of age-related macular degeneration varied considerably, with costs ranging from €1,399.20 for early-stage cases to €3,973.30 for advanced stages. Although non-medical and indirect costs, such as lost productivity and caregiving expenses were less frequently assessed, they represented a significant contributor to the overall financial burden. Conclusions: This study highlights the substantial economic burden ocular diseases place on the Italian healthcare system. Early intervention and preventive strategies could reduce the long-term costs of managing diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. Further research into indirect costs and cost-effective interventions is necessary to support more efficient healthcare resource allocation
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
A critical analysis of national dementia plans:comparison of preventive strategies in five European countries
No full textBACKGROUND: Preventive measures can avert up to 45% of dementia cases worldwide. The aim of the study is to analyse some selected national dementia prevention strategic plans. METHODS: A qualitative comparative analysis was performed between national dementia plans of the European countries with the best healthy life expectancy among the elderly. The national dementia plans of France, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Sweden were included. The consensus on priority actions and key elements of prevention policies was evaluated, according to the World Health Organization recommendations and to an analysis tool designed for evaluating chronic diseases policies. RESULTS: All the countries emphasized the importance of prevention policies within their dementia plans and established monitoring committees. However, not all countries defined timelines for policy implementation and only Spain updated its national plan so far. The integration of dementia prevention with other chronic disease preventive campaigns is still lacking, and also a clear allocation of funds for dementia plans is absent so far. CONCLUSIONS: All countries extensively followed the World Health Organization's recommendations. However, the plans have not been updated. Thus, they do not address all the current known risk factors for dementia, preventing only a fraction of potentially preventable cases. Moreover, the need for financial support in national dementia plans are critical but inadequately addressed, with inconsistent or undefined funding sources to implement their goals
Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer: A systematic review of the impact of COVID-19 on patient care
Get PDFWorldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare services, including cervical cancer management, and an increased burden for this condition is expected. This systematic review synthetizes the available evidence on the impact of the pandemic on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer. Searches were performed on PubMed, Embase, and Scopus for relevant studies on these topics with the purpose of comparing service access and care delivery before and during COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the methodological heterogeneity among the studies, findings were narratively discussed. Of the 715 screened titles and abstracts, 33 articles were included, corresponding to 42 reports that covered the outcomes of interest: vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) (6 reports), cancer screening (19), diagnosis (8), and treatment (8). Seven studies observed reductions in HPV vaccination uptake and coverage during COVID-19. Reports on cervical screening and cancer diagnosis activities showed a substantial impact of the pandemic on access to screening services and diagnostic procedures. All but one study that investigated cervical cancer treatment reported changes in the number of women with cervical lesions who received treatments, as well as treatment delay and interruption. With a major impact during the first wave in 2020, COVID-19 and restriction measures resulted in a substantial disruption in cervical cancer prevention and management, with declines in screening and delays in treatment. Taken together, findings from this systematic review calls for urgent policy interventions for recovering cervical cancer prevention and care
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