1,721,013 research outputs found
Pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics of anti-tubercular drugs: a tool for treatment optimization?
Full text linkWHO global strategy is to end tuberculosis epidemic by 2035. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic studies are increasingly performed and might confirm their potential role in optimizing treatment outcome in specific settings and populations. Insufficient drug exposure seems to be a relevant factor in tuberculosis outcome and for the risk of phenotypic resistance. Areas covered: This review discusses available pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic data of first and second-line antitubercular agents in relation to efficacy and toxicity. Pharmacodynamic implications of optimized drugs and new options regimens are reviewed. Moreover a specific session describes innovative investigations on drug penetration. Expert opinion: The optimal use of available antitubercular drugs is paramount for tuberculosis control and eradication. Whilst trials are still on-going, higher rifampicin doses should be reserved to treatment for tubercular meningitis. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring with limiting sampling strategies is advised in patients at risk of failure or with slow treatment response. Further studies are needed in order to provide definitive recommendations of pharmacogenetic-based individualization: however lower isoniazid doses in NAT2 slow acetylators and higher rifampicin doses in individuals with SLCO1B1 loss of function genes are promising strategies. Finally in order to inform tailored strategies we need more data on tissue drug penetration and pharmacological modelling
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
A probable drug-to-drug interaction between voriconazole and haloperidol in a slow metabolizer of CYP2C19
No full textWe present a case of Aspergillus fumigatus renal abscess treated with voriconazole of a HIV-positive 43-year-old male patient. Following haloperidol treatment we observed an unexpected increase in voriconazole through concentrations and liver function tests. CYP2C19*2 loss of function allele was stated, an interaction probably explained by the introduction of haloperidol, a weak CYP3A4 inhibitor. Therapeutic drug monitoring and CYP2C19 genotyping may be suggested when administering voriconazole to complex patients
Tuberculosis transmission among children and adolescents in schools and other congregate settings: a systematic review
No full textChildren, especially those aged <5 years, and adolescents are at increased risk of progression to active TB disease when infected. Management of childhood TB outbreaks is crucial for TB elimination especially in low burden countries. We searched the electronic databases MEDLINE-CINHAL-EMBASE up to July 2017 for primary studies reporting on TB incidents which involved teacher/child-caregiver, relative or students diagnosed with TB in a school/childcare setting or in other congregate settings attended by children and adolescents. Out of 10,481 citations, 74 studies, published mostly in low TB burden countries from 1950 to 2017, describing 128 incident investigations, were included. Overall 5025 (14.2%) LTBI and 811 (2.3%) TB cases were diagnosed among 35,331 screened individuals. Incidents occurred mainly in schools (89.1%) where index cases were more frequently students (63.3%) than teachers/caregivers; almost all of the incidents exposing children aged 2-5 were attributable to a teacher/caregiver index case. In 68 individual contact investigations the pooled proportions of TB and LTBI among those exposed were 0.03 (95%CI 0.02-0.04) and 0.15 (95%CI 0.13- 0.18). The overall risk of developing TB disease in school-congregate settings seems slightly lower than in high-income country household settings. Public health interventions targeting school-congregate settings may be critical to overall TB control and towards TB elimination in low-burden countries
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