1,720,957 research outputs found
Study on the health status of the population living in Marghera (Venice, Italy) through the use of a longitudinal surveillance system
Full text linkThe aim of this study is to carry out an investigation to evaluate the industrial area of Porto Marghera (the only Site of National Interest – SNI – for clearance operations in the Veneto region) by means of data from the Venetian Epidemiological Surveillance System (SEIVE – Sistema Epidemiologico Integrato di Venezia). In particular, the aim is to assess the extent at which chronic exposure to industrial pollutants contributes to the genesis of non-communicable diseases such as tumors. We have employed healthcare administrative databases to analyze health conditions of the population residing in the area of Marghera, separately from the rest of the mainland. The results obtained highlight a series of critical problems concerning the population residing in Marghera. These issues, such as an excess in the overall cancer mortality rate, have been observed in both genders, as well as in the lung cancer incidence and mortality rate. In addition, we detected an increase in mortality for respiratory diseases only in the male population
Heart failure in frail elderly resident in a nurse house: Prognostic significance of a multimarker approach
No full textBackground: Heart failure (HF) has been defined a modern pandemic. The complex array of physiologic, psychological, social and health care delivery issues makes it a challenging chronic disease to manage. Our study thus aimed to evaluate a multi-marker approach to assess prognosis of HF. Methods: We considered 202 elderly in the nursing home in Chioggia (Venice, Italy). Each subject underwent clinical evaluation, echocardiography, determination of high sensitivity troponin I (hs-TnI), galectin-3 (GAL), cystatin C (CYS) and brain natriuretic peptides (BNP) by routine methods. These subjects were followed for 24 months after their inclusion in the study and during this period overall mortality was recorded. Results: After a 24-month follow-up (FU) the overall mortality was 41.6%. In these patients' series raised biomarkers serum concentration constituted a significant hazard ratio: 3.83 for BNP, 3.24 for CYS, 5.65 for GAL and 5,76 for hs-TnI. A poorest prognosis was observed in subjects with raised concentration for multiple biomarkers. Conclusions: In the considered population, BNP, CYS, GAL and hs-TnI were independently associated with higher risk of negative outcome. In addition, according to our experience, the simultaneous dosage of the four considered biomarkers improves the correlation with the prognosis. Further studies in similar populations are needed to confirm our results
Evaluation of a multimarkers approach in the diagnosis of heart failure in geriatrics subjects
No full textBackground: Heart failure (HF) has been defined a modern pandemic. The complex array of physiologic, psychological, social and health care delivery issues makes it a challenging chronic disease to manage. Our study thus sought to evaluate a multi markers approach in diagnosis of HF. Methods: 68 Italian males with age over 65 years were considered: 25 patients with HF; 18 repeat blood donors and 25 subjects recruited in a medical examination for not competitive sports activities. In these subjects determination of high sensitivity troponin I (HS-TNI), galectin (GAL), cystatin (CYS) and brain natriuretic peptide were performed by using routine methods. Results: Among HF patients with heart failure mean concentration HS-TNI, GAL, CYS and BNP was significantly higher than values observed in blood donors and not competitive sports activities. In this study, for differentiation of HF patients and blood donor or not competitive sports activities subjects, better parameters were GAL (CCI 0.97) and BNP (CCI 0.93). Conclusions: Our study showed the usefulness of a strategy involving multiple biomarkers determination in laboratory diagnosis of heart failure in elderly males
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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