1,720,975 research outputs found
The Cancer Hub Approach for Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery During COVID-19 Pandemic: Outcomes from a UK Cancer Centre
No full textBACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to global healthcare delivery. In England, the majority of elective surgery was postponed or cancelled to increase intensive care capacity. Our unit instituted the ‘RM Partners Cancer Hub’ at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, to deliver ongoing cancer surgery in a ‘COVID-lite’ setting. This article describes the operational set-up and outcomes for upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancer resections performed during this period. METHODS: From April 2020 to April 2021, the Royal Marsden Hospital formed the RM Partners Cancer Hub. This approach was designed to coordinate resources and provide as much oncological treatment as feasible for patients across the RM Partners West London Cancer Alliance. A UGI surgical case prioritisation strategy, along with strict infection control pathways and pre-operative screening protocols, was adopted. RESULTS: A total of 231 patients underwent surgery for confirmed or suspected UGI cancer during the RM Partners Cancer Hub, with 213 completed resections and combined 90-day mortality rate of 3.5%. Good short-term survival outcomes were demonstrated with 2-year disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) for oesophageal (70.8% and 72.9%), gastric (66.7% and 83.3%) and pancreatic cancer resections (68.0% and 88.0%). One patient who developed perioperative COVID-19 during the RM Partners Cancer Hub operation made a full recovery with no lasting clinical sequelae. CONCLUSION: Our experience demonstrates that the RM Partners Cancer Hub approach is a safe strategy for continuing upper gastrointestinal (GI) resectional surgery during future periods of healthcare service disruptio
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
Influence of cancer associated microbiome on volatile organic compound production in oesophago-gastric adenocarcinoma
Full text linkOesophago-gastric cancer is a significant health problem with poor prognosis in Western countries. This is due to a paucity of alarm symptoms in early stages of the disease resulting in late clinical presentation and associated delays in initiation of treatment. The development of non-invasive breath tests using exhaled Volatile Organic compounds (VOCs) to determine oesophago-gastric cancer risk would help facilitate earlier diagnosis and potentially improve patient survival. Whilst many of the biochemical pathways relating to the origin of these VOCs within humans are as yet unknown, it is postulated that that specific VOCs are produced directly by cancer tissues. Contributions from other endogenous sources including the intestinal microbiome and healthy tissues within the intestinal tract as well as other organ systems. The aim of this thesis was to understand the interaction between the upper gastrointestinal microbiome and VOC production in patients with oesophago-gastric cancer and to explore how this onco-microbial axis can be exploited to augment VOC production.
The production of cancer associated VOCs (fatty acids and phenol) were investigated by analysing the ex vivo headspace above un-derivatised tissue samples as well as in vivo mixed breath, isolated bronchial breath and gastric endoluminal air. Increased concentrations of these VOCs were detected in the headspace of cancer tissue samples as well as isolated endoluminal air adjacent to tumours. Findings therefore implicate that the tumour and its local environment are the likely source of upregulated VOCs in oesophago-gastric cancer. The relative contribution of the tumour associated microbiome remains unknown.
16S RNA sequencing analysis for 185 oesophago-gastric tissue samples from cancer and control subjects were performed in order to assess the microbial diversity. Results revealed higher abundance of Firmicutes (e.g. Streptococcus salivarius, Escherichia coli and Streptococcus anginosus) in oesophago-gastric cancer samples compared to controls. The headspace of in vitro and patient derived (ex vivo) cultures of specific targeted bacteria was subsequently found to contain similar VOCs as those previously detected in oesophago-gastric cancer.
To increase the sensitivity of breath testing, further work was performed to augment the diagnostic response using simple metabolic substrates (sugars, proteins, lipids). When added to in vitro cultures of cancer-associated bacteria, these nutrients resulted in upregulated VOC production. Oesophago-gastric cancer patients who were given the same substrates orally were found to have a transient rise in the same VOCs that was greater than observed in healthy controls.
This thesis provides new insight into the biological origin of VOC production in oesophago-gastric cancer. Experiments linking the cancer-associated microbiome, exogenous substrates to upregulated VOC production in cancer patients offers the potential for a future augmented breath test for this disease. The augmented breath test is expected to increase earlier cancer detection leading to improvement in overall survival.Open Acces
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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