1,721,048 research outputs found
Managing cancer-related anorexia/cachexia
No full textCancer-related anorexia/cachexia (CAC) is a complex phenomenon in which metabolic abnormalities, proinflammatory cytokines produced by the host immune system, circulating tumour-derived catabolic factors, decreased food intake, and probably additional unknown factors, all play different roles. This review examines the mechanisms of CAC and its management. All the potential modalities of intervention from nutritional to pharmacological approaches are included with a clear distinction between unproven, investigational and well established treatments. Among the latter, the progestogens are currently considered the most effective and safest drugs for the management of CAC. Agents currently under investigation for CAC include thalidomide, pentoxifylline and melatonin, which most probably act on cytokine release, and clenbuterol, which acts on muscle mass and to antagonise protein wasting. Our personal experience with the synthetic progestogens megestrol and medroxyprogesterone supports their use as first-line agents. In addition, our work on the potential role of antioxidant agents in counteracting the oxidative stress, which appears to be involved in CAC, shows them to be promising agents when used in combination chemotherapy regimens either alone or with other 'biologics'. There is an ongoing need for quality of life questionnaires which specifically address the most significant symptoms present in patients with CAC
Cisplatin induces serotonin release from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells of cancer patients and methylprednisolone inhibits this effect
No full textThe aim of this study was to verify whether cisplatin (CDDP) can induce serotonin (5HT) release from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of cancer patients and determine whether methylprednisolone (MP) can inhibit such release. Ten patients (mean age 61.8 years) with cancer of different sites, all but one in advanced stage of disease were studied. Our study showed that unstimulated PBMC of cancer patients release a higher amount of 5HT than that of healthy subjects (57±5 nM vs 10±1 nM, p<0.001) and that similarly the stimulation with PHA or CDDP induces a higher amount of 5HT release by PBMC of cancer patients than that by PBMC of healthy subjects (74±6 vs 32±3 nM, p<0.001 and 91±8 vs 18±2 nM, p<0.001, respectively). The addition of MP to the culture in the presence of CDDP induced a significant decrease of 5HT levels: from 91±8 to 53±7 nM, p=0.002. This result obtained in cancer patients paralleled that previously obtained by us in healthy subjects. Our data confirm a new mechanism through which CDDP could induce emesis and provide a further possible explanation to the anti- emetic activity of corticosteroids, such as MP
Cancer-related cachexia and oxidative stress: beyond current therapeutic options
No full textCancer-related anorexia/cachexia syndrome is a complex phenomenon in which metabolic abnormalities, proinflammatory cytokines produced by the host immune system, circulating tumor-derived catabolic factors, decreased food intake and probably additional unknown factors all play different roles. This review examines the mechanisms of cancer-related anorexia/cachexia syndrome and the mainstays of its management. The two major options for pharmacological therapy have been progestational agents and corticosteroids. Agents currently under investigation are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, N-3 fatty acids, branched-chain amino acids and thalidomide. On the basis of several previously published studies and clinical experience, an innovative treatment approach, which consists of an integrated nutritional and pharmacological treatment, has been developed. This approach, based upon multiple components each targeted at different factors involved, may be effective in both improving objective clinical symptoms, such as lean body mass, and subjective symptoms such as quality of life. A Phase II study has been initiated and Phase III study designed
Per una cultura delle mostre: Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti e il modello del Gabinetto disegni e stampe pisano (1959-1968)
No full textIl contributo ricostruisce l’impegno di Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti nell’intensa attività espositiva del Gabinetto disegni e stampe, da lui fondato all’interno dell’Istituto di storia dell’arte dell’Università di Pis
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
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