1,721,030 research outputs found
Efficacy of nicergoline in dementia and other age associated forms of cognitive impairment.
No full textBACKGROUND: Nicergoline is an ergot derivative currently in use in over fifty countries for more than three decades, for the treatment of cognitive, affective, and behavioral disorders of older people. It was initially considered as a vasoactive drug and mainly prescribed for cerebrovascular disorders. Recent findings suggest other actions which has provided a rationale for the use of nicergoline for the treatment of various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer's Disease. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether there is evidence of efficacy of nicergoline in the treatment of dementia and other age-associated forms of cognitive decline,and to assess the safety and tolerability of the drug. SEARCH STRATEGY: 1. Electronic databases search. The Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (which contains citations from the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Psych LIT, and hand searches of geriatric, dementia, psychogeriatric journals, and conference abstracts) was searched using the following terms: 'Nicergoline', 'Sermion'. 2. Reference search. The reference lists of all obtained studies was checked. 3. Pharmaceutical company Pharmacia & Upjohn, owners of the rights to produce and market nicergoline in various different countries, was asked to provide data and reports of clinical trials. In case of unavailability of numerical data in published studies, the authors of each paper, were asked for any published or unpublished data. SELECTION CRITERIA: - All unconfounded, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, published and unpublished trials were sought. Non-randomized trials were excluded. Open trials were considered for inclusion if patients were randomized to the different treatment groups. - All patients diagnosed as having dementia or other cognitive disorder defined according to classification criteria accepted at the time of each study. - Nicergoline given at any dose for more than one day with placebo control. Type of outcome variables: 1. Cognitive function (as measured by psychometric tests). 2. Clinical impression (such as CIBIC or other clinical global measures of change). 3. Functional performance including dependency. 4. Behavioural disturbance. 5. Safety and acceptability as measured by the incidence of adverse effects (including side-effects) leading to withdrawal. 6. Death 7. Effect on carer 8. Use of services 9. Quality of life. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: A comprehensive search of the international literature and the producing company archives has been performed to identify all possible sources of data for this review. Only those trials fulfilling the inclusion criteria of belonging to either category A or B of allocation concealment, as defined by the Cochrane Organisation, were examined for data extraction by one reviewer. If there was doubt then the other reviewer was consulted. Data availability restricted analyses to 'completers' analyses for the outcome measures. Outcomes able to be assessed included: Behaviour, Cognition, Clinical Judgment, Tolerability, EEG. MAIN RESULTS: The Sandoz Clinical Assessment Geriatric Scale (SCAG) was the outcome used in the largest number of patients (814 patients). The results from these studies were homogeneous in nature despite including patients observed for periods of time ranging from 2 months to 12 months. There was a difference in favour of the active treatment in reducing the behavioural symptoms described by this scale, -5.18 points [-8.03, -2.33]. This scale has a maximum of 133 points. The therapeutic effects of nicergoline seem to be evident by 2 months of treatment and maintained for 6 months. In general other behavioural outcome measures which include the GRS, the IADL, and the MACC and were episodically used in few studies, failed to demonstrate statistically significant results although there was a trend favouring treatment. Cognitive assessment has been performed in a moderate number of patients with the MMSE (261 patients) and the ADAS-Cog (342 patients). No significant heterogeneity was found for these trials, despite the trials extending over periods of treatment of 3 to 12 months. There was a difference between treatment and control groups on the MMSE favouring nicergoline treatment. At 12 months the effect size was 2.86 [0.98, 4.74] The effect size for the ADAS-Cog, used exclusively with Alzheimer's disease patients, did not reveal a significant benefit. At 12 months the trend favoured treatment (-1.64 [-4.62, 1.34]). The other results from various cognitive measures tended to favour nicergoline but this was based on a small number of cases. The clinical impression of change obtained from a total of 921 patients was homogeneous across the studies, despite reflecting changes over periods of time ranging from 2 to 12 months. The Peto odd ratio for improvement in the subjects treated with nicergoline over these varying time periods was 3.33 [2.50, 4.43]. Tolerability assessed in 1427 patients was homogeneous across all studies and demonstrated a mildly increased risk of adverse events on treatment, OR 1.51[1.10, 2.07]. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: The clinical studies on nicergoline were carried out with diverse criteria and modalities of evaluation. Despite this, the 14 studies included in this review, have presented generally consistent results. Results of this meta-analysis provide some evidence of positive effects of nicergoline on cognition and behaviour and these effects are supported by an effect on clinical global impression. There was some evidence that there were increased risk of adverse effects associated with nicergoline. These results were obtained on older patients with mild to moderate cognitive and behavioural impairment of various clinical origins, including chronic cerebrovascular disorders and Alzheimer's dementia. The few studies specifically performed on patients with Alzheimer's disease were performed with too few people to give a definitive answer to the questions concerning the use of nicergoline for this form of dementia. This drug has not been evaluated using current diagnostic categories such as MCI or in association with therapeutic agents of different nature such as cholinesterase or antioxidant drugs
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
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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