56,571 research outputs found
Post-natalizumab disease reactivation in multiple sclerosis: systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textBackground: Natalizumab (NTZ) is sometimes discontinued in patients with multiple sclerosis, mainly due to concerns about the risk of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. However, NTZ interruption may result in recrudescence of disease activity. Objective: The objective of this study was to summarize the available evidence about NTZ discontinuation and to identify which patients will experience post-NTZ disease reactivation through meta-analysis of existing literature data. Methods: PubMed was searched for articles reporting the effects of NTZ withdrawal in adult patients (⩾18 years) with relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Definition of disease activity following NTZ discontinuation, proportion of patients who experienced post-NTZ disease reactivation, and timing to NTZ discontinuation to disease reactivation were systematically reviewed. A generic inverse variance with random effect was used to calculate the weighted effect of patients’ clinical characteristics on the risk of post-NTZ disease reactivation, defined as the occurrence of at least one relapse. Results: The original search identified 205 publications. Thirty-five articles were included in the systematic review. We found a high level of heterogeneity across studies in terms of sample size (10 to 1866 patients), baseline patient characteristics, follow up (1–24 months), outcome measures (clinical and/or radiological), and definition of post-NTZ disease reactivation or rebound. Clinical relapses were observed in 9–80% of patients and peaked at 4–7 months, whereas radiological disease activity was observed in 7–87% of patients starting at 6 weeks following NTZ discontinuation. The meta-analysis of six articles, yielding a total of 1183 patients, revealed that younger age, higher number of relapses and gadolinium-enhanced lesions before treatment start, and fewer NTZ infusions were associated with increased risk for post-NTZ disease reactivation ( p ⩽ 0.05). Conclusions: Results from the present review and meta-analysis can help to profile patients who are at greater risk of post-NTZ disease reactivation. However, potential reporting bias and variability in selected studies should be taken into account when interpreting our data
A 2 h periodic variation in the low-mass X-ray binary Ser X-1
No full textSpectroscopy of the low-mass X-ray binary Ser X-1 using the Gran Telescopio Canarias have revealed a ?2 h periodic variability that is present in the three strongest emission lines. We tentatively interpret this variability as due to orbital motion, making it the first indication of the orbital period of Ser X-1. Together with the fact that the emission lines are remarkably narrow, but still resolved, we show that a main-sequence K dwarf together with a canonical 1.4 M? neutron star gives a good description of the system. In this scenario, the most likely place for the emission lines to arise is the accretion disc, instead of a localized region in the binary (such as the irradiated surface or the stream-impact point), and their narrowness is due instead to the low inclination (?10°) of Ser X-1
Letter from John P. John to Joseph R. Goodman, 1942
No full textLetter from John P. John to Joseph R. Goodman: "Here are a couple of letters Caleb received concerning the Japanese situation. I have already sent him a condensed record of their general text. Probably more material will be coming in from time to time and we will forward it to you. I guess this is sufficient since Caleb has spoken with you in detail about the problem and where he is to be contacted in the east. Louise Thompson and I are holding things down while Caleb is away and can be contacted here by mail for anything."Personal correspondence, organizational records, government documents, publications, and other papers created or collected by Joseph R. Goodman documenting the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as organized resistance to incarceration. Included in the collection are records of the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association and the Japanese American Citizens' League in San Francisco, including papers of the Japanese YMCA's executive secretary Lincoln Kanai; Sakai family papers; Goodman's correspondence to and from Japanese American incarcerees, organizations opposing forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans, the War Relocation Authority, and others; publications, photographs, and ephemera from the Topaz Relocation Center, where Goodman taught high school; War Relocation Authority records and publications; and newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and reports about forced removal and incarceration created by various government, religious, and civic organizations, in California and nationwide
Longitudinal Characterization of Cortical Lesion Development and Evolution in Multiple Sclerosis with 7.0-T MRI
No full textBackground Cortical lesions develop early in multiple sclerosis (MS) and play a major role in disease progression. MRI at 7.0 T shows high sensitivity for detection of cortical lesions as well as better spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio compared with lower field strengths. Purpose To longitudinally characterize (a) the development and evolution of cortical lesions in multiple sclerosis across the cortical width, sulci, and gyri; (b) their relation with white matter lesion accrual; and (c) the contribution of 7.0-T cortical and white matter lesion load and cortical thickness to neurologic disability. Materials and Methods Twenty participants with relapsing-remitting MS and 13 with secondary progressive MS, along with 10 age-matched healthy controls, were prospectively recruited from 2010 to 2016 to acquire, in two imaging sessions (mean interval, 1.5 years), 7.0-T MRI T2*-weighted gradient-echo images (0.33 × 0.33 × 1.0 mm3) for cortical and white matter lesion segmentation and 3.0-T T1-weighted images for cortical surface reconstruction and cortical thickness estimation. Cortical lesions were sampled through the cortex to quantify cortical lesion distribution. The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) was used to assess neurologic disability. Nonparametric statistics assessed differences between and within groups in MRI metrics of cortical and white matter lesion burden; regression analysis explored associations of disability with MRI metrics. Results Twenty-five of 31 (81%) participants developed new cortical lesions per year (intracortical, 1.3 ± 1.7 vs leukocortical, 0.7 ± 1.9; P = .04), surpassing white matter lesion accrual (cortical, 2.0 ± 2.8 vs white matter, 0.7 ± 0.6; P = .01). In contrast to white matter lesions, cortical lesion accrual was greater in participants with secondary progressive MS than with relapsing-remitting MS (3.6 lesions/year ± 4.2 vs 1.1 lesions/year ± 0.9, respectively; P = .03) and preferentially localized in sulci. Total cortical lesion volume independently predicted baseline EDSS (β = 1.5, P < .001) and EDSS changes at follow-up (β = 0.5, P = .003). Conclusion Cortical lesions predominantly develop intracortically and within sulci, suggesting an inflammatory cerebrospinal fluid-mediated lesion pathogenesis. Cortical lesion accumulation was prominent at 7.0 T and independently predicted neurologic disability progression. © RSNA, 201
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
No full textWe 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
Supplemental material for Use and cost of disease-modifying therapies by Sonya Slifka Study participants: has anything really changed since 2000 and 2009?
No full textSupplemental Material for Use and cost of disease-modifying therapies by Sonya Slifka
Study participants: has anything really changed since 2000 and 2009? by Sarah L Minden, R
Philip Kinkel, Helene T Machado, Jonathan S Levin, Meredith B Rosenthal and Lisa I Iezzoni
in Multiple Sclerosis Journal – Experimental, Translational and Clinical</p
Liftings for noncomplete probability spaces
No full textThe current state of knowledge concerning liftings for noncomplete probability spaces is discussed. This is a somewhat expanded version of the author's talk given at the 1991 Summer Conference on General Topology and Applications in Honor of Mary Ellen Rudin and Her Work.PT: S; CR: BURKE MR, IN PRESS P AM MATH S BURKE MR, 1991, ISRAEL J MATH, V73, P33 BURKE MR, 1992, ISRAEL J MATH, V79, P289 CARLSON T, THEOREM LIFTING CHRISTENSEN JPR, 1974, TOPOLOGY BOREL STRUC FREMLIN DH, 1989, HDB BOOLEAN ALGEBRAS, P877 INOESCUTULCEA A, 1966, 5TH P BERK S MATH ST, V2 IONESCUTULCEA A, 1967, CONTRIBUTIONS PROB 1, P63 IONESCUTULCEA A, 1969, TOPICS THEORY LIFTIN JECH TJ, 1978, SET THEORY JOHNSON RA, 1980, P AM MATH SOC, V80, P234 JUST W, IN PRESS T AM MATH S KUPKA J, 1983, INDIANA U MATH J, V32, P717 LOSERT V, 1983, LNM, V1080, P95 MAHARAM D, 1958, P AM MATH SOC, V9, P987 SHELAH S, 1983, ISRAEL J MATH, V45, P90 TALAGRAND M, 1982, P AM MATH SOC, V84, P379 VONNEUMANN J, 1931, CRELLES J MATH, V165, P109; NR: 18; TC: 0; J9: ANN N Y ACAD SCI; PG: 4; GA: BZ86BSource type: Electronic(1
"Closing the R&D Gap, Evaluating the Sources of R&D Spending"
No full textBoth spending and tax policies have been implemented in the United States with the goal of stimulating private sector research and development (R&D). Karier questions whether current R&D policy, especially the research and experimentation tax credit, can contribute to closing the gap between nondefense expenditures on R&D in the United States and such expenditures in other countries, such as Japan and Germany. He also explores possible changes to our current R&D policy to make it more effective.
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
- …
