1,720,961 research outputs found
Epidemiological association between some dietary habits and the increasing incidence of Type 1 diabetes worldwide
Abstract
BACKGROUND/AIMS:
The variation in incidence of type 1 diabetes (T1D) worldwide is genetically based. However, its increasing incidence is environmentally determined. Our aim was to describe the role of nutritional habits and of gene-nutrient interactions in the rising incidence of TID.
METHODS:
We did an ecological study in the 37 world areas were a 3% yearly increase of T1D incidence had been reported, and we calculated through the FAO's Food Balance Sheets the per caput daily supply of milk, meat and cereals from 1961 to 2000 and its correlation with the TID incidence.
RESULTS:
The supply of milk and cereals remained almost unchanged, whereas that of meat increased by over 31%. The absolute mean TID increase (number of cases per 100,000 per year) was + 0.32. A significant positive correlation with supply of milk was present from 1961 to 2000, while that with meat and cereals became significant in 1983 and 2000.
CONCLUSION:
Our ecological analysis indicates that nutritional factors, and in particular meat consumption, play a role in the incidence of T1D and its increase worldwide. Further experimental and case-control studies are warranted in order to assess the gene-nutrient interactions
Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase C677T gene polymorphism and homocysteine levels in the Sardinian population
Caratterizzazione prognostica del soggetto a rischio coronarico: ruolo della riserva di flusso coronarico e dello spessore medio-intimale carotideo in prevenzione primaria
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The 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
“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
We 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
We 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
Serum lipoproteins and cancer
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS:
In haematological and solid tumours the blood lipoprotein profile has been reported to be altered; while decreased levels of total cholesterol and increased values of triglycerides have been observed. The mechanism and meaning of these changes are, however, not fully understood. The aim of the present study was to determine relationships between cancer progression and serum lipoproteins.
METHODS AND RESULTS:
We performed a case-control study. We included cancer patients admitted to the 1st Division of Medical Oncology, Businco Hospital of Cagliari, Italy, between 1984 and 1998; 519 patients with any type of solid tumours and 928 healthy controls. We considered total cholesterol (C), high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-C, low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-C, triglycerides and apolipoprotein A-1; other parameters examined were glycaemia, insulinaemia, body mass index (BMI), homeostasis model assessment-estimated insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), C reactive protein (CRP) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). In the cancer group HDL-C and apolipoprotein A-1 were lower (p<0.05) and triglycerides were higher (p<0.05) than in controls; HDL-C (mg/dl) females: 48 vs. 64; males, 40 vs. 52; Apo-A-1 (mg/dl) females: 125 vs. 173; males, 120 vs. 152; triglycerides (mg/dl) females: 133 vs. 96; males, 152 vs. 117. Glucose (mg/dl) was lower in the cancer group (p<0.05); females, 72.3 vs. 80.0; males, 75.7 vs. 78.4.
CONCLUSION:
Using multivariate analysis we were able to rule out cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases as causes of low HDL-C, and also demonstrate that these alterations can be shown as a specific consequence of the presence of a malignant tumour with a diagnostic and prognostic significance
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