1,720,960 research outputs found
Laparoscopic pyeloplasty for repair of pelviureteric junction obstruction in children
Full text linkPurpose: The aim of this study was to report our initial experience with laparoscopic pyeloplasty (LP) in children with pelviureteric junction (PUJ) obstruction and describe the evolution and evaluate the results. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 32 consecutive infants and children with unilateral ureteropelvic junction obstruction and deterioration of renal function on isotope renography, who underwent LP (19 on the right, 13 on the left) between May 2003 and January 2007. Twenty-three were males and 9 females. The mean age was 7.7 years old (range, 2 months to 17 years); the patient was placed in a three quarter lateral position and three ports were used. The PUJ was resected and the anastomosis was made by using absorbable sutures. A JJ stent was inserted by laparoscopy in most patients. Follow-up included clinical and ultrasound assessment, followed by isotopic renography at 6 months. Results: LP was feasible in 29 of 32 patients (91). The procedure could not be completed by laparoscopy in 3 patients; the main reason was difficulty in completing the anastomosis. Only 1 patient with a big redundant renal pelvis underwent a reduction. Stent insertion was successful in all, except 1 patient. An aberrant crossing vessel was found in 12 patients. We held up the aberrant crossing vessel and PUJ with two- or three-point - not absorbable - sutures, without the needed pyeloplasty in 2 of them. The other 10 underwent a LP enabled ureteric transposition. Three patients presented with postoperative complications: pyelonephritis in 2 patients and PUJ leakage in 1 who underwent nephrostomy with a further uneventful course. Mean operative time was 152 minutes (range, 120-270), and average hospital stay was 4.7 days (range, 1-8). In 1 patient, cystoscopy showed that the JJ stent was not in the bladder at the time of removal, and ureteroscopy was used to retrieve it. Mean follow-up was 22 months (range, 2-56). A total of 29 patients (91) were asymptomatic after removal of the double JJ stent, showing a reduction of the degree of hydronephrosis in all patients, and had also improved PUJ drainage on isotope renography or sonography. Conclusions: LP is effective and safe in children with minimal morbidity and gives excellent short-term results. The feasibility is also excellent in patients younger than 1 year. The transabdominal approach revealed good exposition without disadvantages for the patient. © 2009 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2009
Cecostomy button for antegrade enemas: survey of 29 patients
Full text linkObjective: This study evaluated the Trap-door button use (Cook Medical, Bloomington, IL) for antegrade enemas in children. Methods: Since 2002, patients with fecal incontinence or encopresis and constipation underwent percutaneous cecostomy under laparoscopy using a button. Technical details are described. Age at surgery, operative time, hospital stay, diagnosis, indications for cecostomy, and duration of follow-up were recorded. A survey was proposed via a questionnaire that was sent to the patients. Patients wearing the button for less than 1 month were excluded from this evaluation. The survey concerned volume and frequency of enemas, difficulties encountered, benefits and disadvantages of this method, and assessment of the antegrade enemas in continence. Results: Twenty-nine patients, 18 males and 11 females, aged 3 to 21 years (mean, 8.5 years) underwent laparoscopic Trap-door button placement. The indications for all the patients were intractable fecal incontinence in 24 cases and constipation with encopresis in 5 cases. Incontinence was because of myelomeningocele (n = 10), anorectal malformations (n = 11), caudal regression syndrome (n = 1), 22q11 syndrome (n= 1), and Hirschsprung disease with encephalopathy with convulsions (n = 1). Constipation with encopresis was because of sacrococcygeal teratoma (n = 1), cerebral palsy (n = 1), and acquired megarectum with psychiatric and social disorders (n = 3). A total of 26 cecostomy button placements and 3 sigmoidostomy button placements were successful with no intraoperative complication. The mean operative time was 25 minutes (10-40 minutes), and the hospital stay was 2.5 days (1-4 days). Twenty-two parents or patients answered the questionnaire. At the time of this survey, 2 patients had improved their fecal continence and had had the button removed. A mean of 4 weekly enemas was enough to improve fecal continence troubles (range, 1 daily to 1 for 2 weeks). The volume for enemas was 250 to 1000 mL (mean, 700 mL). The time required for the irrigation of the bowel by gravity took from 5 to 60 minutes (mean, 25 minutes) for 20 patients. Before surgery, 14 patients needed a diaper, day and night, and 6 needed sanitary protection. Soiling was a very significant inconvenience for all the patients. After surgery, only 5 patients needed a diaper (cerebral palsy, 22q11, cloacal malformation, myelomeningocele, bladder exstrophy) because of moderate results or urinary incontinence and continued soiling. Patients were asked to give an assessment (null = 0, bad = 1, fair = 2, good = 3, very good = 4). None of the patients felt there had been no changes or a bad result. There were 5 patients who felt they had an average result, 5 a good result, and 12 a very good result. The mean grade was 3.44 (17.2/20). A total of 3 patients had hypertrophic granulation tissue formation around the cecostomy button, and 12 had tiny leakage. Conclusion: Percutaneous placement of a cecostomy button under laparoscopic control is an easy and major complication-free procedure. The use of the Trap-door device by the patients or with the help of the parents for antegrade enemas is effective and satisfactory. It improves the quality of life and is reversible. © 2008
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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