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    Early knee osteoarthritis

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    Concepts regarding osteoarthritis, the most common joint disease, have dramatically changed in the past decade thanks to the development of new imaging techniques and the widespread use of arthroscopy that permits direct visualisation of intra-articular tissues and structure. MRI and ultrasound allow the early detection of pre-radiographic structural changes not only in the peri-articular bone but also in the cartilage, menisci, synovial membrane, ligaments and fat pad. The significance of MRI findings such as cartilage defects, bone marrow lesions, synovial inflammation/effusions and meniscal tears in patients without radiographic signs of osteoarthritis is not fully understood. Nevertheless, early joint tissue changes are associated with symptoms and, in some cases, with progression of disease. In this short review, we discuss the emerging concept of early osteoarthritis localised to the knee based on recently updated knowledge. We highlight the need for a new definition of early osteoarthritis that will permit the identification of patients at high risk of osteoarthritis progression and to initiate early treatment interventions

    Morphological and ultrastructural analysis of normal, injured and osteoarthritic human knee menisci

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    The human meniscus plays a crucial role for transmission and distribution of load across the knee, as well as shock absorption, joint stability, lubrication, and congruity. The aim of this study was to compare the complex geometry, and unique ultrastructure and tissue composition of the meniscus in healthy (control) and pathological conditions to provide understanding of structural changes that could be helpful in the future design of targetted therapies and improvement of treatment indications. We analyzed meniscus samples collected from 3 healthy multi-organ donors (median age, 66 years), 5 patients with traumatic meniscal tear (median age, 41 years) and 3 patients undergoing total knee replacement (TKR) for end-stage osteoarthritis (OA) (median age, 72 years). We evaluated the extracellular matrix (ECM) organization, the appearance and distribution of areas of calcification, and modifications of cellular organization and structure by electron microscopy and histology. The ECM structure was similar in specimens from traumatic meniscus tears compared to those from patients with late-stage OA, showing disorganization of collagen fibers and increased proteoglycan content. Cells of healthy menisci showed mainly diffuse chromatin and well preserved organelles. Both in traumatic and in OA menisci, we observed increased chromatin condensation, organelle degeneration, and cytoplasmic vacuolization, a portion of which contained markers of autophagic vacuoles. Areas of calcification were also observed in both traumatic and OA menisci, as well as apoptotic-like features that were particularly prominent in traumatic meniscal tear samples. We conclude that meniscal tissue from patients with traumatic meniscal injury demonstrate pathological alterations characteristic of tissue from older patients undergoing TKR, suggesting that they have high susceptibility to develop OA

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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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