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    Prostatic calculi: Relationship to chronic prostatitis and treatment options. A critical analysis

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    While prostatic calculi are a common ultrasound finding, their exact prevalence of is not known. It has been reported to vary widely, from 7% to 70% with greater incidences occurring in chronic prostatitis patients. However, pathophysiology, clinical relevance and association of prostatic calculi with prostatic diseases remain unclear. Traditionally they considered to be a random finding of no clinical significance probably associated with chronic infection of the prostate. In fact most cases are found incidentally and they are not accompanied by symptoms. However, prostatic calculi associated with chronic prostatitis may be accompanied by chronic pelvic pain and they have been linked with poorer treatment outcome. The relative literature is limited, while knowledge about their treatment is poor. Therefore, it is necessary for specialists to become familiar with this entity Treatment options include monitoring, medication, and surgery if necessary

    Gram-positive microorganisms isolated during Chronic Bacterial Prostatitis investigation.

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    Introduction/Aim: Chronic bacterial prostatitis (CBP) is an inflammatory condition of the prostate that is characterized by pain in the genital or the pelvic area which may accom- pany urinary disorders and may cause sexual dysfunction. It caused by a variety of uropathogens such as Gram-negative and Gram-positive microorganisms. The pathogenicity of most Gram-positive microorganisms has been questioned, since most leading experts restrict the list of CBP pathogens to the sole Enterobacteriaceae plus Enterococcus spp. In order to clarify the role of Gram-positive microorganisms on CBP and investigate the treatment options we reviewed our database of CBP cases from 2008 onwards. Material: The material of this retrospective study consisted in Gram-positive bacterial isolates from urine and/or prostatic secretions or sperm cultures (total ejaculate) obtained from individuals with reported chronic pelvic discomfort and gen- ital pain, with or without lower urinary tract symptoms and sexual dysfunction, and from patients with febrile relapses of CBP, visiting the Urology Department of the Tzaneio Prefecture General Hospital of Piraeus, Greece, from 03/2008 to 11/2018. Demographic, microbiological and clinical history of each as- sessed patient were reviewed. Results/Conclusions: In total, 188 out of 314 Gram-positive bacterial isolates were monomicrobial and the remaining 126 polymicrobial. A vast variety of Gram-positive bacteria was found in positive cultures, with coagulase negative Staphylococci (CoNS, mainly S. haemoliticus, S. hominis, S. epidermidis and rarely S. lugdunensis) being the most frequent pathogens (85 monomicrobial and 43 polymicrobial isolates). As far as the outcomes of follow-up visits are concerned, bacterial eradication was achieved in 213 cases though 135 were completely clinically cured. In the remaining 78 cases bacterial elimination was not accompanied by clinical improvement. Bacterial persistence occurred in 70 cases. 41 out of these were superinfections and the remaining 29 were true persistences. In conclusion, the data from the present study suggest that Gram-positive pathogens can be responsible for prostatic infection. Multidrug resistance for CoNS and Enterococci is an emerging medical problem that may cause important threats to public health in the future

    Prostatic calcifications are associated with a more severe symptom burden in men with type II chronic bacterial prostatitis

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    Introduction/Aim: Although prostatic calculi/calcifications are encountered frequently in the urological practice, little is known about the incidence of such lesions, their mechanism of formation, their relationship to other prostate conditions and their clinical significance. The purpose of this study is to describe the characteristics and to investigate the clinical significance of prostatic calcifications (PCs) in patients with chronic bacterial prostatitis (CBP).Materials and methods: This study was conducted between 01/02/2013 and 20/02/2018. The patient population for this study included subjects with or without PCs and a confirmed diagnosis of NIH category II Chronic Bacterial Prostatitis (CBP). Demographics and clinical history of each assessed patient were reviewed. Eligible patients underwent prostatic ultrasound with post-void residual measurement, and the Meares-Stamey "4-glass" test. Symptom severity was measured using the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI) and the International Prostatic Symptoms Score (IPSS). Antimicrobials were administered to confirmed cases of CBP according to the results of susceptibility tests. After four weeks off-therapy, the NIH-CPSI and IPSS tests were repeated. Variables were compared between patients with and without prostatic calcifications.Results: Ninety-five CBP patients were included in the study. According to the presence of PCs detected by ultrasound examination, patients were divided into two groups: 41 had PCs (group 1) and 54 didn't (group 2). No significant between-group baseline differences were found regarding age, marital status, prostate volume, the proportion of common CBP pathogens. Concerning high-risk sexual behavior, a significantly higher number of men with PCs practiced anal penetration. Moreover, a significantly higher number of men with PCs had a history of chronic prostatitis relapsing episodes. Microbiological eradication and the complete resolution of clinical symptoms occurred in similar proportions between the two groups. However, intergroup analysis resulted in significantly higher scores of the NIH-CPSI test in group 1, both at the pre-therapy and at the post-therapy time points. Conversely, no IPSS score differences between groups 1 and 2 were found at both pre- and post-therapy time points.Conclusions: Prostatic calcifications do not seem to influence the microbiological outcome of antibacterial treatment. However, the CBP symptoms appear to be more severe in carriers of prostatic calcifications, either before or after antibacterial therapy

    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

    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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