1,720,988 research outputs found

    Porto-pulmonary arterial hypertension. translation of pathophysiological concepts to the bedside

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    Porto-pulmonary arterial hypertension (PoPAH) is a form of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) that affects patients with cirrhosis, and - to a lesser extent - patients with non-cirrhotic liver diseases. Compared with other forms of PAH, PoPAH is more prevalent in male, in older subjects, and is characterized by lower mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) and lower pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) with higher cardiac output. Despite more favorable hemodynamics and functional class, patients with PoPAH have a significantly worse survival than patients with other forms of PAH, likely because of liver-related events and therapeutic barriers to PAH-specific therapy. Furthermore, here cardiopulmonary and hepatic complications may affect treatment efficacy. These patients have been excluded from most randomized clinical trials testing PAH-specific treatments. To date, there is only one study investigating efficacy, safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of PAH-specific therapy in patients with PoPAH in a randomized placebo-controlled setting. In this trial the use of the endothelin1 receptor antagonist macitentan showed clear hemodynamic benefit without safety concerns. However, the drug effects on functional capacity and mortality remain unclear. Here we review the current knowledge on the pathophysiology and management of PoPAH and report a case vignette of a patient with PoPAH due to hepatorenal polycystic disease

    Case Study: IBM Watson Analytics Cloud Platform as Analytics-as-a-Service System for Heart Failure Early Detection

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    In the recent years the progress in technology and the increasing availability of fast connections have produced a migration of functionalities in Information Technologies services, from static servers to distributed technologies. This article describes the main tools available on the market to perform Analytics as a Service (AaaS) using a cloud platform. It is also described a use case of IBM Watson Analytics, a cloud system for data analytics, applied to the following research scope: detecting the presence or absence of Heart Failure disease using nothing more than the electrocardiographic signal, in particular through the analysis of Heart Rate Variability. The obtained results are comparable with those coming from the literature, in terms of accuracy and predictive power. Advantages and drawbacks of cloud versus static approaches are discussed in the last sections

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    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

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    “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

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    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

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    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

    Transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography for tricuspid transcatheter edge-to-edge repair: a step-by-step protocol

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    Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) carries an unfavourable prognosis and often leads to progressive right ventricular (RV) failure. Secondary TR accounts for over 90% of cases and is caused by RV and/or tricuspid annulus dilation, in the setting of left heart disease or pulmonary hypertension. Surgical treatment for isolated TR entails a high operative risk and is seldom performed. Recently, transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) has emerged as a low-risk alternative treatment in selected patients. Although the experience gained from mitral TEER has paved the way for the technique's adaptation to the tricuspid valve (TV), its anatomical complexity necessitates precise imaging. To this end, a comprehensive protocol integrating 2D and 3D imaging from both transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) plays a crucial role. TTE allows for an initial morphological assessment of the TV, quantification of TR severity, evaluation of biventricular function, and non-invasive haemodynamic evaluation of pulmonary circulation. TOE, conversely, provides a detailed evaluation of TV morphology, enabling precise assessment of TR mechanism and severity, and represents the primary method for determining eligibility for TEER. Once a patient is considered eligible for TEER, TOE, alongside fluoroscopy, will guide the procedure in the catheterization lab. High-quality TOE imaging is crucial for patient selection and to achieve procedural success. The present review examines the roles of TTE and TOE in managing patients with severe TR eligible for TEER, proposing the step-by-step protocol successfully adopted in our centre

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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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