1,720,977 research outputs found
Incidence of Parkinson’s disease in a large patient cohort with idiopathic smell and taste loss
No full textIntroduction: Patients with idiopathic smell loss constitute an at-risk population for the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The study aimed to follow up a large number of patients with idiopathic smell and/or taste loss to define the incidence of PD in this population and, further, to assess characteristics of both olfactory and gustatory function and their possible association with PD development.
Methods: In this prospective case–control study, 833 patients diagnosed with an idiopathic smell disorder at our Smell and Taste Center during the last 15 years were contacted for a telephone interview. In 474 patients, a complete data set containing of demographic data, clinical information, retrospective smell and taste testing results, and telephone assessment was obtained.
Results: Out of 474 patients with idiopathic smell loss 45 (9.8%) had been diagnosed with PD, since they received the diagnosis of idiopathic smell and/or taste loss (mean 10.9 years after olfactory loss onset). Thus, with respect to the classification into olfactory/gustatory disorders, 28.6% of the patients with a combined olfactory and gustatory disorder developed
PD, whereas in 9.9% of those with a pure olfactory disorder and in 3.8% of those with a pure gustatory disorder, PD was diagnosed. No association emerged between qualitative smell or taste loss and PD development.
Conclusion: This large patient cohort study extends the previous literature, indicating that risk stratification might be considerably improved by correct diagnostic allocation and emphasizes the need for an exhaustive olfactory and gustatory assessment in specialized centers
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
CORRELATION AMONG OLFACTORY DYSFUNCTION, APATHY AND FATIGUE IN PATIENTS WITH PARKINSON’S DISEASE
No full textAbstract
Objectives: Although Parkinson's disease (PD) is usually described as a movement disorder, it exhibits strong associations with non motor symptoms (NMS), including smell and taste dysfunction, neuropsychiatric symptoms, sleep problems and autonomic dysregulation. The olfactory deficit is considered the most common NMS in PD preceding motor symptoms.
Aim of this study was first to investigate olfactory function, cognitive impairment, apathy and fatigue in subjects with Parkinson's in relation to healthy controls, and subsequently to analyse the correlation among these NMS in subjects with PD.
Methods: One hundred and forty seven subjects (51controls, mean age 65.1 ± 11.8 years and 96 PD subjects with a mean age of 67.8 ± 8.2 years) were enrolled. Olfactory function was evaluated through the Sniffin’ Sticks Extended Test comprised of three different subtests (odor detection threshold, discrimination and identification) and their sum (TDI score). The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test was used to evaluate cognitive impairment. Apathy was examined by self-report version of Starkstein Apathy Scale (SAS) and fatigue was evaluated with the Parkinson’s Disease Fatigue Scale (PFS-16).
Results: PD patients showed severe impairment in odor detection threshold, discrimination and identification compared to healthy controls. Moreover, in PD patients apathy score was significantly increased in respect to controls. A negative correlation was observed among all parameters of olfactory function and apathy score.
Discussion: Our results identified a greater level of apathy in PD patients affected by severe olfactory loss. These findings suggest that possible common pathways might be involved in these two different NMS. Moreover, the present study confirms that alteration of olfactory parameters, such as odor threshold, identification, discrimination and TDI score, should be related to other NMS, influencing negatively the global quality of life in PD patients
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
Molecular and genetic factors involved in olfactory and gustatory deficits and associations with microbiota in parkinson’s disease
Full text linkDeficits in olfaction and taste are among the most frequent non-motor manifestations in Parkinson’s disease (PD) that start very early and frequently precede the PD motor symptoms. The limited data available suggest that the basis of the olfactory and gustatory dysfunction related to PD are likely multifactorial and may include the same determinants responsible for other non-motor symptoms of PD. This review describes the most relevant molecular and genetic factors involved in the PD-related smell and taste impairments, and their associations with the microbiota, which also may represent risk factors associated with the disease
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
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
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