177,133 research outputs found
Serum ovalbumin-specific immunoglobulin G responses during pregnancy reflect maternal intake of dietary egg and relate to the development of allergy in early infancy
No full textBackground: The value of allergen elimination diets during pregnancy for primary prevention of infant allergy has been questioned. However, dietary compliance may influence effectiveness.Objectives: To monitor egg intake during a randomized controlled trial of egg avoidance throughout pregnancy and lactation by serial measurements of serum ovalbumin (OVA) IgG concentration in conjunction with dietary diary record and also, to analyse specific IgG concentrations at birth in relation to infant allergic outcome.Methods: Pregnant women, with personal or partner atopy, were randomized to complete dietary egg exclusion or an unmodified healthy diet before 20 weeks gestation. The infants were evaluated for atopy at 6 months of age. Serum food-specific IgG concentrations were determined by ELISA in maternal samples collected at study recruitment and during labour, and in infant samples at birth (umbilical cord).Results: Serum-specific IgG to OVA, but not the unrelated allergen, cow's milk ?-lactoglobulin, decreased over pregnancy in egg-avoiding women only (P<0.001). Cord OVA IgG concentration correlated with maternal IgG at delivery (r=0.944; P<0.001), and for infants born to atopic women, cord concentration was higher than that of their mother's (P<0.001). Infants with the lowest and highest cord IgG concentrations were the least likely, and those with mid-range concentrations were the most likely, to be atopic by 6 months of age (P=0.008).Conclusion: Serum OVA IgG concentration reflects egg consumption, thereby indicating dietary allergen doses to which the developing immune system might be exposed. Trans-placental maternal IgG must be considered among early life factors that regulate infant atopic programming
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
No full textWe 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
An evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of booklet-based self-management of dizziness in primary care, with and without expert telephone support
No full textBackground: dizziness is a very common symptom that often leads to reduced quality of life, anxiety and emotional distress, loss of fitness, lack of confidence in balance, unsteadiness and an increased risk of falling. Most dizzy patients are managed in primary care by reassurance and medication to suppress symptoms. Trials have shown that chronic dizziness can be treated effectively in primary care using a self-help booklet to teach patients vestibular rehabilitation exercises that promote neurological adaptation and skill and confidence in balance. However, brief support from a trained nurse was provided in these trials, and this model of managing dizzy patients has not been taken up due to a lack of skills and resources in primary care. The aim of this trial is to evaluate two new alternative models of delivery that may be more feasible and cost-effective.Methods/Design: in a single blind two-centre pragmatic controlled trial, we will randomise 330 patients from 30 practices to a) self-help booklet with telephone support from a vestibular therapist, b) self-help booklet alone, c) routine medical care. Symptoms, disability, handicap and quality of life will be assessed by validated questionnaires administered by post at baseline, immediately post-treatment (3 months), and at one year follow-up. The study is powered to test our primary hypothesis, that the self-help booklet with telephone support will be more effective than routine care. We will also explore the effectiveness of the booklet without any support, and calculate the costs of treatment in each arm.Discussion: if our trial indicates that patients can cost-effectively manage their dizziness in primary care, then it can be easily rolled out to relieve the symptoms of the many patients in primary care who currently have chronic, untreated, disabling dizziness. Treatment in primary care may reduce the development of psychological and physical sequelae that cause handicap and require treatment. There is also the potential to reduce the cost to the NHS of treating dizziness by reducing demand for referral to secondary care for specialist assessment and treatment.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov trial registration ID number: NCT0073279
"Closing the R&D Gap, Evaluating the Sources of R&D Spending"
No full textBoth spending and tax policies have been implemented in the United States with the goal of stimulating private sector research and development (R&D). Karier questions whether current R&D policy, especially the research and experimentation tax credit, can contribute to closing the gap between nondefense expenditures on R&D in the United States and such expenditures in other countries, such as Japan and Germany. He also explores possible changes to our current R&D policy to make it more effective.
Technical and measurement report. Simple anatomical information improves the accuracy of locating specific spinous processes during manual examination of the low back
No full textThe objective of the study was to test whether a teaching protocol including simple anatomical information on the surface anatomy of spinous processes, improves physiotherapy students' ability to accurately locate selected thoracic and lumbar spinal segments - T12 and L3. First year physiotherapy students were allocated to Group 1 (n=35) and Group 2 (n=34). Both groups were taught to identify spinous processes by counting up from the sacrum, but Group 2 received supplementary anatomical information on the shapes and vertical length of the tips of L5 to T12 spinous processes. The spinous processes of L3 and T12 were located by two experienced physiotherapists and marked on a model using an invisible skin marker. Volunteer students were asked to locate these spinous processes and accuracy was confirmed using an ultraviolet lamp. Students with supplementary anatomical information (Group 2) were significantly better at locating T12 (difference in proportions 36% (95% confidence interval 14 to 51%)) and both T12 and L3 (difference in proportions 33% (11 to 48%)). Group 2 students were also better than Group 1 students at locating L3 (difference in proportions 28% (4 to 48%)), but the difference was not significant. Including simple anatomical information when teaching manual examination skills improved the accuracy of locating specific low back spinal levels
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe 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
Letter from R. R. Zellick, Assistant Trust Officer, Anglo California National Bank of San Francisco, to Joseph R. Goodman, October 2, 1942
No full textLetter from R. R. Zellick, Assistant Trust Officer at The Anglo California National Bank of San Francisco, to Joseph R. Goodman, regarding property owned by Dave Tatsuno. Zellick mentions a dispute between current tenants and Tatsuno, and that Tatsuno has asked Goodman to help locate trustworthy tenants.Personal correspondence, organizational records, government documents, publications, and other papers created or collected by Joseph R. Goodman documenting the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as organized resistance to incarceration. Included in the collection are records of the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association and the Japanese American Citizens' League in San Francisco, including papers of the Japanese YMCA's executive secretary Lincoln Kanai; Sakai family papers; Goodman's correspondence to and from Japanese American incarcerees, organizations opposing forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans, the War Relocation Authority, and others; publications, photographs, and ephemera from the Topaz Relocation Center, where Goodman taught high school; War Relocation Authority records and publications; and newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and reports about forced removal and incarceration created by various government, religious, and civic organizations, in California and nationwide
Patient characteristics and outcomes of cardiac rehabilitation
No full textPURPOSE: To investigate changes in physical fitness and psychological characteristics of patients after cardiac rehabilitation, and to assess predictors of defaulting from the program.METHODS: A prospective study of 1902 consecutive patients admitted to a community-based, hospital-linked cardiac rehabilitation program was conducted over a period of 6 years and 7 months. The cardiac rehabilitation program centered on a 2-to 6-month circuit training course with education, stress management, relaxation, and risk factor monitoring. Before and after the program, measures of physical fitness and of hospital anxiety and depression were performed.RESULTS: The course was completed by 1443 patients (76%), with 240 patients (13%) defaulting. For those who completed the course, peak oxygen consumption per minute increased by 3.2 mL/min/kg (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.1-3.4) or 19% (95% CI, 17.7%-20.3%). According to the hospital anxiety and depression scores, anxiety fell by 1.1 (95% CI, -1.3 to -0.98) and depression by 1.3 (95% CI, -1.4 to -1.2). The main predictors of defaulting were depression (patients with depression were twice as likely to default as nondepressed patients) and diagnosis (patients who had experienced angina or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty were twice as likely to default as those who had experienced infarct or coronary artery bypass graft).CONCLUSIONS: The identification of depressed coronary patients known to be at increased risk should be a priority for cardiac rehabilitation coordinators. Every effort should be made to keep them in the cardiac rehabilitation program
Clinical outcome and bromodeoxyuridine derived proliferation indices in 75 invasive breast carcinomas
No full textINTRODUCTION: In vivo labelling of human breast tumours with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) and analysis by flow cytometry (FCM) allows the labelling index (LI), S phase duration (t(s)) and the potential doubling time (t(pot)) of the tumour to be estimated.METHODS: The data for a series of tumour specimens from 75 patients with invasive breast carcinoma were reported in 1991, correlated with their lymph-node status, tumour size and grade.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: This study reports the follow-up data over 10 years in respect of time to recurrence and death from the disease. There were no significant correlations between proliferation data and outcome measures. No adverse events were identified which could be attributed to the use of the halogenated pyrimidine label in vivo
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