1,720,981 research outputs found
6 Weeks Monotherapy with Antipsychotic Drug Reduced Inflammatory Markers in Bipolar Disorder Patients
No full textBipolar Disorder (BD) is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and abnormally elevated moods. Recent studies proposed the existence of a correlation between inflammation, disease severity and response to antipsychotic therapy. The present study is aimed to investigate if treatment with second-generation antipsychotic, in monotherapy, influences the inflammatory process in BD patients. In 50 hospitalized BD patients who started monotherapy with second-generation antipsychotic, we investigated, after six-week of treatment, both clinical outcomes and change in inflammatory markers such as C-Reactive Protein (CRP) and Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR). We observed a signif icant improvement of clinical symptoms (measured through MADRAS, YMRS, CGI and BPRS scales) in all treated patients. Moreover, we found that at the time of enrolment BD patients showed higher CRP levels compared to reference value, and that after 6 weeks of antipsychotic treatment CRP (but not ERS) plasma levels were signif icantly reduced returning to reference levels. The present exploratory study indicates that monotherapy with antipsychotic drugs reduces, not only BD symptoms, but also an inflammatory marker such as PCR. The evaluation of relationship between antipsychotic treatment and patients inflammatory conditions could be usefulness in clinical practice, both providing a marker to drug response, and permitting the identif ication of new targets in BD therapy
Seismic analysis of failure mechanisms in adjacent interacting stone masonry buildings via rigid block modeling
No full textGroups of contiguous unreinforced stone masonry buildings are a common type of housing seen in old European downtowns. However, assessing their response to earthquakes poses several challenges to the analysts, especially when the housing units are laid out in compact configurations. In fact, in those circumstances a modeling technique that allows for the dynamic interaction of the units is required. The numerical study carried out in this paper makes use of a rigid block modeling approach implemented into in-house software tools to simulate the static behavior and dynamic response of an aggregate stone masonry building. Said approach is used to reproduce the results of bi-axial shake-table tests that were performed on a building prototype as part of the activities organized within the Adjacent Interacting Masonry Structures project, sponsored by the Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Research Infrastructure Alliance for Europe. The experimental mock-up consisted of two adjacent interacting units with matching layout but different height. Two rigid block models are used to investigate the seismic response of the mock-up: a 3D model allowing for the limit analysis of the building on one hand, and a 2D model allowing for the non-linear static pushover and time-history analysis on the other. The 3D model was built for the blind prediction of the test results, as part of a competition organized to test different modeling approaches that are nowadays available to the analysts. The 2D model was implemented once the experimental data were made available, to deepen the investigation by non-linear static pushover and time-history analysis. In both models, the stonework is idealized into an assemblage of rigid blocks interacting via no-tension frictional interfaces, and mathematical programming is utilized to solve the optimization problems associated to the different types of analysis. Differences between numerical and experimental failure mechanisms, base shears, peak ground accelerations, and displacement histories are discussed. Potentialities and limitations of the adopted rigid block models for limit, pushover and time-history analyses are pointed out on the basis of their comparisons with the experimental results
Vulnerability assessment of monumental artworks using contact time-history analysis
No full textStrategies for the protection of the Cultural Heritage priceless value are highly demanded, being both earthquake and support movement (and a combination of the two of them) severe threats for their safety and integrity. To this scope, computer-based numerical formulations have been representing a powerful tool for the simulation of expected loss in terms of pieces of art damages, with the scope to save them as much as possible. In this framework, the conference paper is devoted to the vulnerability assessment of monumental artworks using dynamic analysis in a rigid block modelling environment. The numerical formulation adopts a discrete rigid block-based model, where the mortar joints contribution is accounted for by frictional, no-tension interfaces between the masonry units. The procedure adopted to solve the formulation is based on a dual variational problem where equilibrium, kinematic and failure conditions equations are involved at the same time, and which is solved via mathematical programming. An application to a system of two blocks vertically stacked, one representing the support and one representing the artefact, subjected to free rocking motion will be proposed in the paper. The main scope is to investigate the seismic response of such a system, which is typical for most of museum's collections (e.g., statues). The computational efficiency and accuracy of the proposed numerical strategy will be discussed
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
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
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
- …
