1,720,955 research outputs found
The value of Technetium-99-Metastable-Ethylenedicysteine-eoxyglucose (⁹⁹ᴹTC-EC-DG) imaging in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
No full textThesis (Ph.D.(Nuclear Medicine))--University of the Free State, 2023Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic inflammatory disease that is usually associated with synovitis that can lead to progressive joint damage if not managed appropriately. Prompt diagnosis and early treatment offer a good prognosis in patients with RA. However, treatment monitoring remains challenging for the rheumatologist as it is sometimes difficult to differentiate true remission from subclinical disease. Several modalities are available for assessing disease activity in patients with RA. This usually involves a combination of the clinical assessment of involved joints, laboratory and imaging investigations. Imaging with ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are considered to be among the most sensitive methods of assessing disease activity. However, these modalities are not without shortcomings. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of technetium-99-metastable ethylenedicysteine-deoxyglucose (⁹⁹ ͫ Tc-EC-DG) in the management of patients with RA. Using ⁹⁹ ͫ Tc-EC-DG to identify synovitis and offer prognostic information was investigated. Its usefulness in assessing treatment response compared to US and the diagnostic accuracy of identifying the disease compared to US was also investigated.
A prospective study was conducted at the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the University of the Free State/Universitas Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Twenty-two participants seen at the Rheumatology Unit of the Department on Internal Medicine, diagnosed with RA, were enrolled according to the American College of Rheumatology/ European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) classification criteria. Participants were injected with 20–25 millicurie (mCi) of ⁹⁹ ͫ Tc-EC-DG. Flow, blood pool, whole body, delayed static, and SPECT/CT images were acquired. Known disease sites were qualitatively assessed for the intensity of uptake, and disease severity was graded (Grade 0–3). On the same day, US imaging of the most affected joints was performed in addition to blood samples being obtained from each participant for baseline C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibody titre. All imaging and laboratory investigations were performed at baseline, six weeks and six months follow-up after baseline findings in 20 of the participants.
The median (interquartile range) age was 59 (49–68) years, and the majority (n=21; 95.5%) of patients were female. An abnormally increased uptake of ⁹⁹ ͫ Tc-EC-DG was noted in the majority of the sites of known disease, including unknown sites. SPECT/CT imaging localised tracer uptake specifically to the synovial space. Fourteen (63.6%) of the 22 participants had elevated RF and anti-CCP antibody titres. A significant correlation between higher grade uptake and increased levels of RF and anti-CCP antibodies (p=0.031) was observed. A total of 404 joints were evaluated by ⁹⁹ ͫ Tc-EC-DG and US imaging. The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and diagnostic accuracy of ⁹⁹ ͫ Tc-EC-DG SPECT/CT imaging were 86%, 60%, 61%, 85% and 73%, respectively, using US as the gold standard. A sensitivity of 100% was noted in the identification of synovitis in the carpal and knee joints. Disease activity in the distal interphalangeal (DIP) joints was not observed with either ⁹⁹ ͫ Tc-EC-DG or US imaging. The level of agreement between US and ⁹⁹ ͫ Tc-EC-DG imaging in assessing therapy response was 33.3 %, 11.6 % and 6.67 % for the knees, hands and wrist joints, respectively.
⁹⁹ ͫ Tc-EC-DG is a safe radiopharmaceutical that can effectively assess disease activity in the joints of patients with RA, with a strong correlation between high-grade disease on imaging and the presence of RF and anti-CCP antibodies. It has a high sensitivity in detecting synovitis when compared to US imaging. However, it has a poor correlation in the assessment of treatment response in comparison to US findings, which might be attributed to its ability to better detect subclinical disease. Using ⁹⁹ ͫ Tc-EC-DG offers facilities with only SPECT or SPECT/CT cameras an opportunity to investigate patients with RA
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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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