1,721,040 research outputs found
Patient and prescriber determinants for the choice between amoxicillin and broader-spectrum antibiotics : a nationwide prescription-level analysis
No full textAbstract: Objectives Bacterial resistance to antibiotics, driven by antibiotic consumption, imposes a major threat to the effective treatment of bacterial infections. In addition to reducing the amount of antibiotics prescribed, avoiding broad-spectrum antibiotics could extend the lifetime of the current arsenal of antibiotic substances. Therefore, we documented prescriber and patient characteristics associated with the choice between amoxicillin and broader-spectrum alternatives (co-amoxiclav or moxifloxacin) in recent years in Belgium. Methods Complete reimbursement claims data (200209) for antibiotic prescriptions in outpatient care, including patient and prescriber characteristics, were collected for both young children (15 years) and the adult population (3060 years). A backwards selection procedure within generalized estimating equations retained the most relevant determinants. Results The age, gender and social category of the patient were found to be predictive of the extent to which amoxicillin was prescribed instead of the broader-spectrum alternatives, with female patients generally taking a higher proportion of amoxicillin than male patients. The age category of 4044-year-old prescribers exhibited a preference for broad-spectrum antibiotics compared with both younger and older age groups. Significant interactions between the region and the prescriber's qualification (general practitioner or paediatrician) on the choice of antibiotic for children were found. Conclusions Patient (age, gender and social category) and prescriber characteristics (age, gender, region and qualification) had an influence on whether amoxicillin or the alternative broad-spectrum antibiotics were prescribed. These findings should help policy makers to better target future campaigns to promote prudent prescribing of antibiotics
Appropriate international measures for outpatient antibiotic prescribing and consumption: recommendations from a national data comparison of different measures
No full textAbstract: Objectives: Many European countries have engaged in awareness campaigns to decrease outpatient antibiotic use and several measures have been proposed, e.g. the number of defined daily doses (DDDs) or packages per 1000 inhabitants per day, producing conflicting findings. Therefore, we set out to explore what measure is most appropriate. Methods: Outpatient data on each dispensed and reimbursed medicinal package in Belgium between 2002 and 2009were aggregated at the level of the active substance in accordance with the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification and expressed as the numbers of DDDs (WHO, version 2010), packages, treatments and insured individuals per 1000 inhabitants, insured individuals and patient contacts, per day, and in JulyJune years. Using these measures, time trends of outpatient antibiotic use were compared and explored in detail. Results: Expressed per 1000 inhabitants per day, outpatient antibiotic use increased between 200203 and 200809 in DDDs, whereas in packages, treatments and insured individuals it decreased. The same was true for use expressed per 1000 insured individuals or when allowing for the decreasing number of patient contacts. Increasing numbers of DDDs per package (more items per package and higher doses per unit for amoxicillin and co-amoxiclav) explain these discrepancies. Conclusions: The number of packages is a more appropriate measure than the number of DDDs when assessing outpatient antibiotic use over time and the impact of awareness campaigns in countries dispensing complete packages. We recommended the use of different complementary measures or caution when interpreting trends based only on DDDs
Carbon budget of Pinus sylvestris saplings after four years of exposure to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration
No full textTo study the responses of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), a commercially important tree species in Europe, to future increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration [CO2]), we Grew saplings for 4 years in the ground in open-top chambers in ambient or ambient + 400 [mumol mol(-1) CO2, without supplemental addition of nutrients and water. Carbon (C) budgets were developed for trees in both CO2 treatments based on productivity and biomass data obtained from destructive harvests at the end of the third and fourth years of treatment, and simulations of annual gross photosynthesis (P-tot) and maintenance respiration by the model MAESTRA.
Simulated P-tot was enhanced by elevated [CO2], despite significant down-regulation of photosynthetic capacity. The subsequent increase in C uptake was allocated primarily to tissues with limited longevity (needles and fine roots), which explains why the measured annual increment in woody biomass did not differ between CO, treatments. Thus, our results suggest that accelerated stem growth only occurs in the first 2 years in the presence of elevated [CO2] and that forest rotations will not be shortened significantly in response to increasing [CO2].
In elevated [CO2], a higher proportion of available C was allocated below ground, resulting in altered biomass distribution patterns. In trees of equal size, measured ratios of fine root/ needle biomass and belowground/aboveground biomass were almost twice as large in the elevated [CO2] treatment. Although there are uncertainties in scaling from saplings to mature canopies, the data indicate that, in nutrient-limited Scots pine forests, elevated [CO2] is unlikely to accelerate tree Growth significantly, but is likely to increase C inputs to soil
Chlorophyll **a** fluorescence imaging of ozone-stressed **Brassica napus** L. plants differing in glucosinolate concentrations
No full textBrassicaceae are characterised by glucosinolates (GS), which appear to be involved not only in biotic but also in abiotic stress responses of plants. We investigated the effect of O3 stress on leaf GS concentrations in two lines of Brassica napus L., differing in GS content. Ozone fumigation decreased GS concentrations in leaves of B. napus of one line. In control conditions, chlorophyll content, rates of saturating photosynthesis, and quantum yield of photosystem 2 differed between the two Brassica lines, but differences were smaller in O3‐stress conditions, suggesting that the relationship between leaf GS concentration and sensitivity to abiotic stress merits further research. In agreement with other ecophysiological measurements, chlorophyll fluorescence imaging clearly distinguished both lines and in some cases also treatments. A method for analysis of fluorescence images accounting for the two-dimensional leaf heterogeneity is presented
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
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