322,859 research outputs found
(S)confinamenti. Una conversazione con Sandro Mezzadra. A cura di Serena Guarracini
No full textNell'intervista viene discusso il mio contributo allo sviluppo in Italia degli studi culturali e postcoloniali
Early diagnosis of left ventricular dysfunction in diabetic patients: a possible role for natriuretic peptides
No full textEarly diagnosis of left ventricular dysfunction in diabetic patients: a possible role for natriuretic peptides
No full textEarly diagnosis of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in diabetic patients: a possible role for natriuretic peptides
No full textAbstract Background The aim of the present study was to verify whether BNP might detect pre-clinical diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) in type-2 diabetic patients. Methods One-hundred and twenty-seven consecutive outpatients with type-2 diabetes mellitus were enrolled into the study. Subjects with overt heart failure or NYHA class > 1, history of coronary artery disease, severe valvulopathy or chronic atrial fibrillation were excluded from the study. All patients underwent clinical evaluation, laboratory assessment of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and echocardiographic examination. Results No patients showed systolic impairment of left ventricular function, whereas diastolic dysfunction was detected in 53 (42%) cases (all impaired relaxation). Median BNP was 27 pg/ml without any significant difference between 76 patients with normal left ventricular function and 53 with diastolic dysfunction; in 54 (43%) patients showing HBA1C≥8 (uncontrolled diabetes) normal function was found in 32 and diastolic dysfunction in 22, with a significant difference of BNP at multivariate analysis (OR = 1.02, 95%CI = 1.05-1.09, p = 0.003). In uncontrolled diabetic cohort, BNP was a strong predictor for LVDD (OR = 2.7, 95%CI = 1.3-5.6, p = 0.006) along with the duration of diabetes (OR = 1.6, 95%CI = 1.1-2.9, p = 0.046). BNP > 25 pg/ml was a cut-off value with high accuracy to detect a LVDD. Discussion Early screening of high-risk patients for diabetic cardiomyopathy development might be useful to better control glycemic profile in order to reduce heart disease progression or even to reverse it Conclusions BNP could be a cheap, easy and useful tool to screen those ones with preclinical ventricular diastolic dysfunction in a subset of patients particularly prone to develop cardiovascular complications, like uncontrolled diabetic patients.</p
Diffusive author(s), cohesive author: Analysis of S/N (1994)
No full textThis study indicates the ways in which various aspects of the author(s) are brought forth in Dumb type’s performance art, the S/N production. Previous research has suggested a non-hierarchical organization of Dumb type and the absence of a “privileged author” in Dumb type’s collaborative work, S/N. However, the results that I have investigated from member’s interviews on the creative process of S/N along with my analysis of the recorded images of S/N, indicate a different aspect of the author(s). First, S/N was created through, so to speak, the collective ideas of the members of Dumb type. Further, S/N has at least nine quotations from previous performances, installations, and printed writings, besides the work-in-progress technique. Explicating one of the “author functions” as given by Michel Foucault, each text has plural subjects of the author. However, it has been revealed from members’ interviews that Teiji Furuhashi had a decision-making role in selecting the members’ ideas within the performance. Since then, S/N has had plural subjects of creation; however, Furuhashi is one of the subjects of creation along with the “privileged author.” S/N has plural authors (diffusive authors) yet at the same time, it has a “privileged author,” Teiji Furuhashi (cohesive author)
Accuracy of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide in the identification of left ventricular dysfunction in high-risk asymptomatic patients
No full textObjective The role of natriuretic peptides in the screening
of left ventricular dysfunction is still unclear. The aim of this
study was to assess the usefulness of N-terminal pro-brain
natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) measurement in
asymptomatic patients at high risk of developing left
ventricular dysfunction.
Methods One hundred and thirty-four consecutive
ambulatory patients (mean age 56.1 W 7 years) were
studied and selected on the basis of a history of
hypertension of at least 5 years. Systolic dysfunction
was defined as an ejection fraction of 45% or less.
Statistical analysis was performed by both parametric
and nonparametric approaches. Diagnostic accuracy
was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic
analysis.
Results Echocardiography showed normal left ventricular
function in 40 patients, diastolic dysfunction in 80 patients
and systolic dysfunction in 14 patients. NT-proBNP levels
were significantly higher in patients with systolic
dysfunction (356.1 W 294.8 vs. 85.2 W 85.8 pg/ml; P< 0.05).
Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed a high
value of the area under the curve (0.89) for the detection of
systolic dysfunction with a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 80% for a cut-off value of 114 pg/ml and with a
negative predictive value of 0.98.
Conclusion In asymptomatic patients at high risk for heart
failure because of a history of hypertension, the
measurement of NT-proBNP levels may represent a useful
screening test for left ventricular systolic dysfunction.
Therefore, more expensive examinations, such as
echocardiography, may be restricted only to patients with
higher NT-proBNP levels.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe 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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe 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's address:
No full textCan archives of audiovisual TV interviews be used to make authors more visible to students, and thereby reduce the learning gap between native and non-native language speakers in college classes? We examined students in a college course who learned about one scholar's ideas through watching an audiovisual TV interview (i.e., visible author format) and about another scholar's ideas through reading a formal text description (i.e., invisible author format). For the invisible author, native language speakers scored significantly higher than the non-native language speakers on a corresponding exam question (i.e., a cognitive measure), generated more words on the exam question (i.e., a motivational measure), and mentioned the author's name more often in answering the exam question (i.e., an affective measure). For the visible author, the groups did not differ on any of these measures. These findings provide evidence for the idea that making the author visible through audiovisual TV interviews can eliminate the learning gap between native and non-native language speakers. 3 Universities around the world serve students who are non-native speakers of th
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