1,721,176 research outputs found
Surgery of the nasal columella in external valve collapse
No full textThe authors describe and discuss their experience with the collapse of the external nasal valve, focusing on the role that surgery of the columella plays in solving this problem. Thirty-seven cases were treated. In all but 1 there had been a previous septorhinoplasty. Seven patients had concomitant internal valve collapse. A modified alarplasty associated with columelloplasty was adopted in the cases with severe collapse. When the reduction of the nostril opening was mild to moderate, the surgical strategy varied depending on the width of the columella base: alarplasty in cases with a narrow to normal columella, and columelloplasty in the presence of a wide columella base. The authors' philosophy tends to minimize intervention on the nasal valve areas. Their results demonstrate that when the collapse and its functional effect are not too severe, a good result can be achieved by working only on the columella, especially if its base is significantly wide
SANDLOS® wheels for desert environments
No full textSand is often used in rainy countries as friction modifier aimed at preventing wheel sliding due to low adhesion. Therefore, in this case it is considered a “friendly” factor. The growing number of railways in the deserts introduces a different point of view, as uncontrolled sand on rails is the new enemy to be tackled by dedicated research on materials and design.
Many metallurgical investigations on full scale wheels tested in the desert have been carried out in the metallurgical laboratories of Lucchini RS in order to discover the main damage mechanisms. An in-depth research programme and laboratory investigations on the effect of desert sand on wear and RCF behaviour of various railway wheel steels has been carried out in cooperation with the University of Brescia, with special attention paid to the following topics:
- optimization of coupling between wheel and rail in the presence of sand through FEM simulation;
- rolling contact tests of various durations on different steel grades using a special two-disc testing machine with sand;
- evaluation of the experimental results by means of elastic-plastic FEM analysis.
The in-depth research and development work conducted by Lucchini RS with the cooperation of the University of Brescia allows to present a new class of steels grades called SANDLOS®, a set of three innovative steel grades for solid wheels able to run in the desert’s high temperatures and sandstorms.
SANDLOS® materials exhibit an excellent performance in terms of resistance to wear in sandy environments, mainly due to their high mechanical properties, which confines extremely huge plasticisation phenomena to a “thin surface layer”, preventing sand penetration and incorporation. In case of interaction and coupling with different rail grades, the SANDLOS® family grades are arguably the best alternative to AAR Class B, C, D steels, not only in presence of sand and wear debris, but also in all the cases in which an increase in mechanical characteristics or a longer wheel life are required
Surgery of the nasal columella in external valve collapse.
No full textThe authors describe and discuss their experience with the collapse of the external nasal valve, focusing on the role that surgery of the columella plays in solving this problem. Thirty-seven cases were treated. In all but I there had been a previous septorhinoplasty. Seven patients had concomitant internal valve collapse. A modified alarplasty associated with columelloplasty was adopted in the cases with severe collapse. When the reduction of the nostril opening was mild to moderate, the surgical strategy varied depending on the width of the columella base: alarplasty in cases with a narrow to normal columella, and columelloplasty in the presence of a wide columella base. The authors' philosophy tends to minimize intervention on the nasal valve areas. Their results demonstrate that when the collapse and its functional effect are not too severe, a good result can be achieved by working only on the columella, especially if its base is significantly wide
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
Outcomes Following Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Treatment of Patients With Microsatellite Instability-High Cancers A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
No full textImportance: The mismatch repair (MMR) pathway plays a crucial role in repairing DNA replication errors in normal and cancer cells. Defects in DNA MMR proteins that determine the microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) condition lead to the accumulation of mutations and the generation of neoantigens, which may stimulate the antitumor immune response. Clinical trials have demonstrated that MSI-H status is associated with long-term benefit in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).
Objective: To evaluate the activity of ICIs in terms of overall response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with MSI-H cancers.
Data sources: Published articles that evaluated ICIs in the treatment of advanced MSI-H tumors from inception to December 2019 were identified by searching the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases.
Study selection: Prospective or retrospective studies, published in the English language, providing outcome data with ICIs in patients with MSI-H cancer were selected.
Data extraction and synthesis: Author and year of publication, type of studies, diseases included, median follow up, type of ICI, median OS ,and PFS, ORR, DCR and 1-, 2-, and 3-year OS were retrieved. Analysis was performed in December 2019.
Main outcome and measures: The primary outcome of interest was ORR. Secondary end points were median PFS, median OS, pooled rate of patients alive at 1, 2 ,and 3 years, and pooled rate of patients that attained disease control rate ([DCR] calculated as the sum of stable disease rate and ORR).
Results: Overall, 939 patients (14 studies) were analyzed mainly in pretreated settings. The pooled ORR was 41.5% (95% CI, 34.9%-48.4%). The pooled DCR was 62.8% (95% CI, 54.5%-70.3%). Pooled median PFS was 4.3 months (95% CI, 3-6.8 months). The pooled median OS was 24 months (95% CI, 20.1-28.5 months). The pooled 1- and 2-year OS were 75.6% (95% CI, 61.8%-85.5%) and 56.5% (95% CI, 46%-66.4%), respectively. Because only 1 study provided 3-year OS data, a formal pooled analysis for 3 years was not possible.
Conclusions and relevance: In this meta-analysis of patients with pretreated MSI-H cancer, ICIs were associated with high activity independent of tumor type and drug used. Among molecular biomarkers for selection of treatment, MMR proteins may have a predictive value for the activity of immunotherapy
Voice therapy in pediatric functional dysphonia: A prospective study
No full textObjective: We evaluated the efficacy of voice therapy according to Borragan's method associated to S. Magnani's vocal counselling in functional dysphonia in children. Patients and methods: We prospectively treated 16 patients with vocal fold nodules (10 males, 6 females). Age ranged from 6 to 11 years with a mean age of 9 years. We performed a full screening phoniatric evaluation. In addition psychological tests were carried out to investigate psychological background. Results: We lost three patients at follow-up; one patient received surgery, eight patients healed (43.75%), four improved (25%). There was no statistical difference in the analysis of electroacoustical parameters while MPT significatively raised after therapy. Conclusion: If patients have motivation voice therapy could improve functional dysphonia in children. It is also important psychological background. Further studies on bigger populations with long-term follow-up are needed. © 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved
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
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