1,720,983 research outputs found
Il Contributo della vitamina D nel rischio di sclerosi multipla attraverso la dieta: studio caso-controllo basato su popolazione
Full text linkAim:Vitamin D has a key role in MS, by preventing and repairing the myelin damage. Its deficiency is due to lack of sun exposure, diet patterns or a low supplementation. An adequate dietary intake of vitD during adolescence is reported to be protective.Methods:The international multicentre case–control study of environmental risk factors in MS (EnvIMS Study) aimed to examine the effect of past exposures (diet, sunlight and lifestyle) on the disease risk. An ad hoc postal self-administered questionnaire was used to record exposure to food items in teenage. The intake of vitD was computed by multiplying the amount in a portion by the frequency of intake.Results:Among 1991 Italian participants (684 cases, 1307 controls) an inverse association was found between MS and consumption of fish/seafood (OR=0.80; 95%IC 0.65-0.97), in particular anchovies and sardines (0.60; 0.40-0.90), mackerel (0.66; 0.48-0.92), and with smoked meat (0.74; 0.58-0.95) and yogurt (0.80; 0.65-0.98) (adjusted for sex, smoke habit, sun exposure and vitD supplementation). A higher estimated overall mean (±SD) intake of vitD was reported in controls vs cases, and through fish consumption.Conclusions:Dietary patterns show differences between MS patients and age-/sex-matched controls. A higher overall intake of vitD was reported in controls than in cases likely reflecting more frequent consumption of vitD rich fish.Acknowledgements:FISM 2007/R/14, 2008/R/19
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
Allelic discrimination in the diagnosis of somatic BRAF V600E mutation on fine-needle aspiration biopsies
No full textMany studies demonstrated that somatic BRAF gene mutation analysis increases diagnostic accuracy for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), even from very small samples. The gold standard for point mutations research is direct sequencing, that implies DNA extraction, PCR with specific primers, sequencing reaction and run on an automatic sequencer. This is an expensive and time consuming method, and the possible contamination with wild-type DNA not coming from the nodule significantly reduces sensitivity. Allelic discrimination is a real-time PCR application that can discriminate between two alleles differing for the insertion, substitution or deletion of a single base, due to the presence of two real time Taqman probes, each labelled with a different fluorochrome (FAM for the mutated allele and VIC for the wild-type allele).
The aim of our study is to verify whether allelic discrimination can be useful in the diagnosis of BRAF somatic mutation, starting from fine needle aspiration biopsies (FNAB). In each allelic discrimination reactions three positive controls are present, one for each possible genotype; omozygous controls are oligonucleotides containining the target sequence (wild-type or mutated), whereas the eterozygous control is a 4:1 mix of wild-type omozygous control and mutated omozygous control, respectively, in order to mimic wild-type contamination. To evaluate the method sensitivity, mutated DNA has been diluted in wild-type DNA at variable concentrations (1:2, 1:4, 1:10, 1:20, 1:100) and analyzed both by direct sequencing and allelic discrimination. Allelic discrimination was more sensitive since it detected the presence of mutated DNA in all dilutions, while direct sequencing detected the mutation until 1:20 dilution.
Five hundred FNAB have been analyzed with both methods; allelic discrimination identified 55 V600E mutated samples, while direct sequencing identified only 50 V600E mutated samples. Post surgical histological examination confirmed 54 PTC and one anaplastic carcinoma. In conclusion, allelic discrimination is more sensitive (P<0.05) and more accurate (P<0.05) than direct sequencing, and its use in diagnostic procedures is very useful, even when samples (i.e. FNAB) are contaminated with wild-type DNA
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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