322,868 research outputs found

    Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a patient with Steinert myotonic dystrophy. Case report

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    Myotonic dystrophy (MD) is a serious multi-systemic autosomal dominant disease. The estimated incidence is 1 in every 8000 births, with an estimated prevalence of between 2.1 and 14.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Signs and symptoms vary from a severe form of congenital myopathy, present from birth and often fatal, to a classic form and a delayed form, which generally presents after the age of 50 and in which the only sign is a cataract and life expectancy is completely normal. We describe the clinical case of a 40-year-old woman with Steinert myotonic dystrophy who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy (under general anesthesia) for symptomatic gallbladder stones. The conduct of anesthesia in such patients must be carefully considered, as hypothermia, shivering, electrical and mechanical stimulation, and the drugs used can all trigger myotonia

    Diffusive author(s), cohesive author: Analysis of S/N (1994)

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    This study indicates the ways in which various aspects of the author(s) are brought forth in Dumb type’s performance art, the S/N production. Previous research has suggested a non-hierarchical organization of Dumb type and the absence of a “privileged author” in Dumb type’s collaborative work, S/N. However, the results that I have investigated from member’s interviews on the creative process of S/N along with my analysis of the recorded images of S/N, indicate a different aspect of the author(s). First, S/N was created through, so to speak, the collective ideas of the members of Dumb type. Further, S/N has at least nine quotations from previous performances, installations, and printed writings, besides the work-in-progress technique. Explicating one of the “author functions” as given by Michel Foucault, each text has plural subjects of the author. However, it has been revealed from members’ interviews that Teiji Furuhashi had a decision-making role in selecting the members’ ideas within the performance. Since then, S/N has had plural subjects of creation; however, Furuhashi is one of the subjects of creation along with the “privileged author.” S/N has plural authors (diffusive authors) yet at the same time, it has a “privileged author,” Teiji Furuhashi (cohesive author)

    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

    Impact of Diabetes Mellitus and Its Comorbidities on Elderly Patients Hospitalized in Internal Medicine Wards: Data from the RePoSi Registry

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    Background: Currently, diabetes represents the seventh leading cause of death worldwide, with a significant economic burden. The number and severity of comorbidities increase with age, and are identified as important determinants that influence the prognosis. We aimed to investigate comorbidities and outcomes in a cohort of hospitalized elderly patients affected by diabetes. Methods: In this observational study, we retrospectively analyzed data collected from the REgistro dei pazienti per lo studio delle POlipatologie e politerapie in reparti della rete Simi (RePoSi) reg-istry. Socio-demographic, clinical characteristics, and laboratory findings were considered. The association between variables and in-hospital and 1-year follow-up were analyzed. Results: Among 4708 in-patients, 1378 (29.3%) had a diagnosis of diabetes. Patients with diabetes had more previous hospitalization, a clinically significant disability, and more need for a urinary catheter in comparison with subjects without diabetes. Patients affected by diabetes took more drugs, both at admission, at in-hospital stay, at discharge, and at 1-year follow-up. Thirty-five comorbidities were more frequent in patients with diabetes, and the first five were hypertension (57.1%), ischemic heart disease (31.4%), chronic renal failure (28.8%), atrial fibrillation (25.6%), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (22.7%). Heart rate was an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality. At 1-year follow-up, cancer and male sex were strongly independently associated with mortality. Conclusions: Our findings showed the severity of the impact of diabetes and its comorbidities in the real life of internal medicine and geriatric wards, and provide data to be used for a better tailored management of elderly in-patients with diabetes

    Histological findings in direct inguinal hernia : Investigating the histological changes of the herniated groin looking forward to ascertain the pathogenesis of hernia disease.

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    Abstract BACKGROUND: The study is focused on recognizing the histological changes of the structures close to and around the hernia opening in patients having direct inguinal hernia. METHODS: In 15 patients with primary bilateral direct inguinal hernia who underwent a Stoppa open posterior inguinal hernia repair, tissue specimens from the abdominal wall surrounding a direct hernia border were excised for histological examination. These findings in patients with direct inguinal hernia were compared with tissue specimens excised from the fossa inguinalis media of cadavers without hernia. RESULTS: Significant degenerative modifications such as fibrohyaline degeneration and fatty substitution of the muscle fibers were seen in the biopsy samples. Inflammatory infiltration with lympho-histiocitary elements, artery sub-occlusion and vascular congestion were also constantly identified. Noteworthy injuries of the nervous structures such as edema, degenerative fibrosis and atrophy were also detected. No comparable tissue damage was witnessed in the control samples. CONCLUSION: Presence of inflammatory infiltration, vascular damage and regressive nerve lesions, as well as fibrohyaline degeneration and fatty dystrophy of the muscle fibers are the features seen within the examined structures surrounding the direct hernia opening. These findings could represent a reason for a structural and functional weakening of the inguinal region. Consequently, the described results lead the authors to depict these changes as a plausible cause of direct inguinal hernia protrusion

    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's address:

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    Can archives of audiovisual TV interviews be used to make authors more visible to students, and thereby reduce the learning gap between native and non-native language speakers in college classes? We examined students in a college course who learned about one scholar's ideas through watching an audiovisual TV interview (i.e., visible author format) and about another scholar's ideas through reading a formal text description (i.e., invisible author format). For the invisible author, native language speakers scored significantly higher than the non-native language speakers on a corresponding exam question (i.e., a cognitive measure), generated more words on the exam question (i.e., a motivational measure), and mentioned the author's name more often in answering the exam question (i.e., an affective measure). For the visible author, the groups did not differ on any of these measures. These findings provide evidence for the idea that making the author visible through audiovisual TV interviews can eliminate the learning gap between native and non-native language speakers. 3 Universities around the world serve students who are non-native speakers of th
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