1,720,965 research outputs found
Re: indwelling ureteral stents and sexual health: a prospective multivariate analysis . MC Sighinolfi et al. J.Urol 2007, 178 229-31
No full textWe read with interest the article by Sighinolfi et al. who prospectively assessed the impact of indwelling ureteral stents on sexual function using the IIEF-5 and Female SFI. At 45 and 60 days after stent insertion 83% of men reported some grade of sexual dysfunction, and 30% of women reported no sexual activity due to stent related anxiety.
In recent years there has been an increasing awareness of the need for validated tools to measure objectively the considerable morbidity associated with ureteral stenting, and to address its influence on daily activities. These tools have remained elusive. In this respect the present study significantly adds to the existing literature. Nevertheless we would like to address some issues that we believe deserve scrutiny.
Although the authors recognize the robustness of the USSQ developed by Joshi et al. they failed to use it in their study. The USSQ is a validated self-administered instrument with good evaluative and discriminant properties, which explores stent related morbility in 6 areas. The questionnaire has been adopted in several clinical trials and has recently been validated by our group in Italian in a prospective cohort of 66 patients of box sexes with indwelling stents.
In the USSQ sexual function for both sexes is investigated with 3 questions evaluating transient but complete sexual dysfunction , pain during intercourse and overall satisfaction for those subjects with a pre-stent active sex life.
The 2 specific questionnaires on sexual dysfunction were chosen by Sighinolfi et al. for a more thorough assessment. However one has to recognize that they have not been formally validated in Italian and thus a bias may have been introduced. Moreover with the IEEF-5 the evaluation of pain during intercourse, commonly reported complaint (64% and 45% of men at 1 and 4 weeks after stent insertion, respectively in our series) remains unexplored.
Finally a single multidimensional questionnaire with a separate index score for each domain such as the USSQ, would have allowed an easier and more reliable correlation between sexual dysfunction and all other symptoms.
Within the same cohort used for our validation study we perform a multivariate analysis to identify predictors of stent related morbidity, including patient age, gender and BMI and stent length, size and location of distal extremity with respect to the midline has determined on abdominal X-ray. Stent distal loop crossing the midline, which was previously shown to impact symptoms negatively , proved to be an independent predictor of morbidity for all USSQ domains including sexual matters. In particular 82% and 100% of original active male and female patients with this condition, respectively reported impaired sexual function at 1 week, compared to 43%and 80% respectively with the stent not crossing the midline (p<0,01).
This easily determinable parameter was not investigated by the authors
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
Predictors of morbidity in patients with indwelling ureteric stents: results of a prospective study using the validated Ureteric Stent Symptoms Questionnaire
No full textOBJECTIVE:
To assess the predictors of morbidity in patients with indwelling ureteric stents using a validated questionnaire.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
Eighty-six consecutive patients with indwelling double-J ureteric stent of different length and size enrolled at an Italian tertiary academic centre were prospectively evaluated with the Italian-validated Ureteric Stent Symptoms Questionnaire (USSQ), which explores the stent-related symptoms in six domains. Ureteric stents were placed for benign ureteric obstruction or after uncomplicated ureterorenoscopy, and were all removed after 28 days. The questionnaire was administered on days 7 and 28 after stent placement and on day 28 after removal. A plain abdominal X-ray was performed on days 7 and 28 after placement to determine stent location. Univariable and multivariable analyses tested the association of patient age, sex and body mass index (BMI), and stent side, length, calibre and distal loop location, with the index score of the various domains on days 7 and 28.
RESULTS:
All patients completed the study. At multivariable analysis, on day 7, sex, BMI and stent calibre were significantly associated with one domain (general health, body pain and work performance, respectively), while location of stent distal loop was significantly associated with five domains (urinary symptoms, body pain, general health, work performanc, and sexual matters). On day 28, body mass index was significantly associated with two domains (body pain and general health), while location of stent distal loop remained significantly associated with the same five domains (urinary symptoms, body pain, general health, work performance and sexual matters).
CONCLUSION:
Location of stent distal loop with respect to midline had the strongest association with most domains of the USSQ on both days 7 and 28 after stent placement. The visualization of stent distal loop crossing the midline may therefore identify patients at higher risk of post-procedural morbidity requiring early management
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
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