1,720,957 research outputs found
Buprenorphine. Far beyond the “ceiling”
Full text linkChronic pain, including neuropathic pain, represents an untreated disease with important repercussions on the quality of life and huge costs on the national health system. It is well known that opioids are the most powerful analgesic drugs, but they represent the second or third line in neuropathic pain, that remain difficult to manage. Moreover, these drugs show several side effects that limit their use. In addition, opioids possess addictive properties that are associated with misuse and drug abuse. Among available opioids compounds, buprenorphine has been suggested advantageous for a series of clinical reasons, including the effectiveness in neuropathic pain. Some properties are partly explained by its unique pharmacological characteristics. However, questions on the dynamic profile remain to be answered. Pharmacokinetics optimization strategies, and additional potentialities, are still to be explored. In this paper, we attempt to conceptualize the potential undiscovered dynamic profile of buprenorphine
Tapentadol prolonged release for managing moderate to severe chronic neck pain with or without a neuropathic component
No full textBackground: Despite the high prevalence of neck pain, few studies have addressed the pharmacological treatment of this condition. Purpose: We evaluated the effectiveness of tapentadol prolonged-release (PR) in patients with or without a neuropathic pain component, with a focus on functional movements, disability and Quality of Life (QoL). Study design/setting: Observational, retrospective study. Patient sample: Ninety-four adult patients with severe neck pain not responsive to opioid step III treatment. Outcome measures: The primary endpoint was a ≥ 30% improvement of pain intensity at 4 weeks (W4). Several secondary outcomes were evaluated, including neck disability index (NDI), range of motion (ROM), and QoL. Methods: Patients received tapentadol PR at the starting dose of 100 mg/day. Dose titration was allowed in 50 mg increments, up to 500 mg daily. Results: At W4, the primary endpoint of ≥30% improvement of pain was reported in 70% (n = 35; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 55–82%) of patients with a neuropathic pain component and in 69% (n = 20; 95% CI: 49–85%) of those without a neuropathic component. The percentage of patients reporting a neuropathic pain component significantly decreased from baseline (64.2%) to W4 (27.8%). NDI significantly improved in both groups at W12. ROM significantly improved in all three planes of motion (p <.01), with no difference between the two groups. Interference of pain with sleep and QoL also improved. Conclusions: The reduction in pain provided by tapentadol is associated with functional recovery, which may in turn be linked to an improvement in QoL
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
Postoperative opioid consumption after orthopedic surgery using sublingual patient controlled analgesia. Effects of different anesthetic techniques
No full textBackground and Aims: Acute postoperative pain after total hip arthroplasty
(THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has been reported as moderateto-
severe. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different anesthetic
techniques on post-operative analgesic opioid consumption in patients who
underwent THA and TKA and received Sufentanil Sublingual Tablet System
Zalviso® (SSTS) for post-operative pain.
Methods: Adults aged ≥18years, who had undergone THA and TKA, received
SSTS for the first 72 hours after surgery. Patients were grouped according
to the kind of surgery and the type of anesthesia. THAwas performed under
spinal anesthesia (SA) or general balanced anesthesia (GA). TKA was conducted
under SA or single-shot peripheral nerve block (PNB). Data were collected
at baseline (T0) and from day 1-3 after surgery.
Results: Twenty-eight patients were included after THA (n=17; 60.7%) and
TKA (n=11; 39.3%). 3 patients prematurely interrupted treatment. In THA,
SA and GA were associated with a similar postoperative opioid consumption,
25.3 vs 22.5 doses respectively. Similarly, in TKA, no differenceswere observed
in total opioid consumption in patients undergoing PNBs and SA, which resulted
in 32.5 vs 30 doses, respectively (Figure 1). Timing for the first SSTS
dose was similar in patients undergoing SA (75.9 vs 74 min, in THA and
TKA respectively). Conversely, it was significantly shortened by GA in THA
(27.5 min) and delayed in PNB in TKA (216.7 min)
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