1,720,975 research outputs found
Significance of IgM antibody to hepatitis C virus in patients with chronic hepatitis C
No full textWe assessed the correlation between the positivity for serum IgM antibody to hepatitis C virus and the activity of liver disease in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection. Serum samples were taken from 10 antibody to hepatitis C virus‐positive asymptomatic patients with normal serum ALT levels, from 14 untreated patients with clinically and histologically proven chronic hepatitis C and from 26 patients with clinically and histologically proven chronic hepatitis C assigned to receive recombinant interferon α‐2a (6 million IU three times a week for 6 mo). Each serum specimen was tested for IgM antibody to hepatitis C virus‐associated C 100‐3 antigen by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Patients were observed for at least 12 mo. All 10 patients with normal ALT values tested negative for IgM antibody to hepatitis C virus. In contrast, 33 of 40 (82%) patients with chronic hepatitis C had IgM antibody to hepatitis C virus, and a positive correlation was seen between the ALT level and the level of IgM antibody to hepatitis C virus (r = 0.803, p < 0.001). During interferon treatment, ALT levels declined into the normal range in 18 of 26 treated patients (69%) and remained normal after stopping treatment in 8 patients (31%). In untreated patients, in treated patients who did not respond to interferon treatment and in responder patients who relapsed, no significant changes in IgM antibody to hepatitis C virus levels were seen during the study period. In contrast, IgM antibody to hepatitis C virus became undetectable by the end of interferon treatment in seven of eight patients with a sustained response. In conclusion, we found a positive correlation between the presence of serum IgM antibody to hepatitis C virus and the activity of the hepatitis C‐induced liver disease. In patients with chronic hepatitis C showing a response to α‐interferon treatment, the disappearance of IgM antibody to hepatitis C virus predicted that the response would be sustained. (HEPATOLOGY 1992;15:998–1001). Copyright © 1992 American Association for the Study of Liver Disease
Italian guidelines for intestinal transplantation: potential candidates among the adult patients managed by a medical referral center for chronic intestinal failure.
No full textSerological and histological aspects of hepatitis C virus infection in alcoholic patients
No full textThe recent cloning of the genome of hepatitis C virus (HCV) has allowed the detection of antibodies to HCV (anti-HCV) in human serum. The presence of serum antibodies to HCV often indicates active infection with HCV. We have assessed the serological and histological features in a group of alcoholic patients with chronic liver disease and have evaluated the possible etiologic rote of HCV infection in the development of liver damage. Serum samples and liver biopsy specimens were obtained from 41 consecutive patients, all having a definite history of alcohol abuse and evidence of chronic hypertransaminasemia. Fifteen patients (37%) were positive for anti-HCV by ELISA, and 13 (86.6%) of them were also positive by RIBA. Eleven of these patients had histologic features of chronic active hepatitis (CAH), a lesion which is not known to be induced by excessive alcohol intake. No other possible causes of CAH were found, and CAH was not present in any of the anti-HCV negative patients. In patients with CAH, mean AST to ALT ratio was less than 1 (0.6), a finding which is characteristic of viral rather than alcoholic chronic liver disease. In conclusion, our study suggests that sporadic hepatitis C virus infection plays an etiologic role in the development of chronic active liver disease in a subgroup of alcoholic patients. © 1991
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
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