1,720,966 research outputs found
Readmission after pancreatic resection: causes, costs and cost-effectiveness analysis of high versus low quality hospitals using the Nationwide Readmission Database
No full textBackground: Objectives were to determine the causes of readmission and assess the cost-effectiveness of high (HQ) and low quality (LQ) hospitals in performing pancreatic resection, by using readmission rates as the measure of quality. Methods: We identified 53,572 pancreatic resection cases from National Readmission Database from 2010 through 2014. Hospitals were risk adjusted and ranked based on readmission. Top 20% HQ hospitals having the lowest readmission rates were compared to the bottom 20% LQ hospitals with the highest readmission rates. Results: The 90-day readmission rate was 27.2% (HQ: 25.7%, LQ: 30.9%, p < 0.001). Compared to LQ, HQ hospitals had lower mortality (2.1% vs 10.2%, p < 0.001) and major complication (10.5% vs 53%, p < 0.001). Major complication during index operation was a major predictor of readmission (RR: 1.6, 95% CI: 1.6–1.7, p < 0.001). The optimal cut point of hospital volume associated with low mortality was 70 or more cases/year. Per year of survival benefit at HQ hospitals, the costs were lower by 6.98 million/year. Conclusion: HQ hospitals were cost-effective at performing pancreatic resection and achieved substantial cost-savings by avoiding major complications during index operation and having lower rates of readmissions. Hospital readmission rate is a strong marker of quality of care
Trends in centralization of surgical care and compliance with National Cancer Center Network guidelines for resected cholangiocarcinoma
No full textBackground: A retrospective study was performed to characterize trends in centralization of care and compliance with National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines for resected cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), and their impact on overall survival (OS). Methods: Using the National Cancer Database (NCDB) 2004–2015 we identified patients undergoing resection for CCA. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses identified time periods and hospital volume groups for comparison. Propensity score matching provided case-mix adjusted patient cohorts. Cox hazard analysis identified risk factors for OS. Results: Among the 40,338 patients undergoing resection for CCA, the proportion of patients undergoing surgery at high volume hospitals increased over time (25%–44%, p < 0.001), while the proportion of patients undergoing surgery at low volume hospitals decreased (30%–15%, p < 0.001). Using ROC analyses, a hospital volume of 14 operations/year was the most sensitive and specific value associated with mortality. Surgery at high volume hospitals [HR] = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.88–0.97, p < 0.001) and receipt of care compliant with NCCN guidelines (HR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.83–0.91, p < 0.001) were independently associated with improved OS. Conclusions: Both centralization of surgery for CCA to high volume hospitals and increased compliance with NCCN guidelines were associated with significant improvements in overall survival
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
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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