1,721,062 research outputs found
Economic evaluation of a new antiemetic drug - Palonosetron versus ondansetron: Assessment of the drug price ratio in five European countries
No full textObjectives: This study aimed to identify, measure and evaluate expected costs of innovative palonosetron-based antiemetic therapy versus ondansetron-based treatment, the ultimate aim being to measure the drug price ratio (DPR) of the two pharmacological treatments in five different European countries. Methods: A decision model compared two antiemetic treatments - palonosetron and ondansetron - in terms of expected costs of emesis management from a hospital perspective. The model was compiled for 374 patients. The clinical superiority of palonosetron in preventing acute and delayed emesis, measured in terms of: (i) complete response rates, (ii) number of emetic episodes, and (iii) administration of rescue medication, was derived from a previously published clinical trial. The cost data were gathered through economic questionnaires distributed in 11 European hospital centres. The expected costs of emesis management with palonosetron and ondansetron at ondansetron prices were used to calculate the DPR for palonosetron in each of the five European countries. Results: In the baseline analysis, DPR varied from 1.55 (in Russia) to 2.60 (in the UK). The sensitivity analysis of the unit costs of emetic episodes and rescue medication identified a range from 1.39 (in Germany) to 4.09 (in Russia). Even in the least favourable clinical scenario, palonosetron was a preferred antiemetic strategy with a DPR >1 in all five countries. Conclusions: This is the first economic evaluation analysis of palonosetron. The results demonstrate that palonosetron, because of its superior clinical efficacy in controlling emesis, could have a favourable DPR when compared with ondansetron in all five countries considered and still offer lower or equal net treatment costs for the hospital. © 2005 Adis Data Information BV. All rights reserved
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
Coincident chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis: a common autoimmunity?
No full textA 40-year-old male developed swallowing difficulties, loss of strength, and imbalance. On admission, the patient exhibited bifacial, extremity weakness, ataxia, impaired sensation, and areflexia. Electrophysiology and nerve biopsy suggested demyelination. Spinal fluid revealed increased protein content. Plasmapheresis showed benefit, but neuropathy relapsed. At second recurrence, urine analysis showed heavy proteinuria. Renal biopsy revealed focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). Methylprednisolone and oral cyclophosphamide were given. Long-term steroids and immunoglobulin showed steady benefit. Concurrence of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and FSGS suggests synergistic cellular and humoral autoimmune mechanisms related to either cross-reactivity within antigenic targets or mimicry between neural and renal epitopes
Effects of passengers flows on regularity of metro services: case studies of Rome lines A and B
No full textThe regularity is a key performance in the operation of a metro service, because it is normally affecting a large set of secondary performances: e.g. punctuality, energy efficiency, economic efficiency and vehicles availability. Human behaviours are affecting the regularity, by introducing deviations between panned and actual times in various operational phases of metro services: e.g. dwelling times, acceleration/deceleration times, inversion times at terminus, headways themselves. The variability in passengers’ flows is one of the most relevant parameters affecting mainly dwelling times and finally headways themselves. In this framework, this paper is specifically presenting the results of experimental surveys on metro services operated in Rome (Lines A and B).
On these lines, it has been performed a systematic counting of passengers boarding and alighting in the most crowded stations, combined with simultaneous measurement of actual dwelling times and headways. The collected results have been analysed, cleaned by inconsistent data and statistically interrelated looking for significant trends to compare with the most consolidated theoretical models and to quantify the effects in line with the literature developments, including those by the authors themselves. Finally, the focus is on the most relevant quantitative outputs and the main identified and outlined
further research needs
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
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