1,721,006 research outputs found
Health Targets in the Former Soviet Countries: Responding to the NCD Challenge?
Full text linkThis article examines health target-setting in 12 former Soviet countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. We explored which health targets were set out in national health strategies and within the context of the United Nations initiative on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We found that few former Soviet countries embraced health targets in national health strategies that were quantitative and time-bound. In contrast, measurable and time-bound targets were adopted by almost all countries in the region within the MDG initiative. As the MDG initiative failed to reflect the considerable burden of non-communicable disease in the region, and focussed entirely on communicable disease and mother and child health, this meant that health targets were missing for one of the most severe health challenges in the former Soviet countries. The quality of health data that could guide national health policies is another major challenge for the control of both communicable and non-communicable disease, as well as improvements in mother and child health
Physical activity and insulin sensitivity: the RISC study
No full textOBJECTIVE—Physical activity is a modifiable risk factor for
type 2 diabetes, partly through its action on insulin sensitivity.
We report the relation between insulin sensitivity and physical
activity measured by accelerometry.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—This is a cross-sec-
tional study of 346 men and 455 women, aged 30–60 years,
without cardiovascular disease and not treated by drugs for
diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, or obesity. Participants
were recruited in 18 clinical centers from 13 European countries.
Insulin sensitivity was measured by hyperinsulinemic-euglyce-
mic clamp. Physical activity was recorded by accelerometry for
a median of 6 days. We studied the relationship of insulin
sensitivity with total activity (in counts per minute), percent of
time spent sedentary, percent of time in light activity, and activity
intensity (whether the participant recorded some vigorous or
some moderate activity).
RESULTS—In both men and women, total activity was associ-
ated with insulin sensitivity (P 0.0001). Time spent sedentary,
in light activity, and activity intensity was also associated with
insulin sensitivity (P 0.0004/0.01, 0.002/0.03, and 0.02/0.004,
respectively, for men/women) but lost significance once adjusted
for total activity. Adjustment for confounders such as adiposity
attenuated the relationship with total activity; there were no
interactions with confounders. Even in the 25% most sedentary
individuals, total activity was significantly associated with better
insulin sensitivity (P 0.0001).
CONCLUSIONS—Accumulated daily physical activity is a ma-
jor determinant of insulin sensitivity. Time spent sedentary, time
spent in light-activity, and bouts of moderate or vigorous activity
did not impact insulin sensitivity independently of total activit
Prevalence and Phenotype of Sleep Disorders in 60 Adults With Prader-Willi Syndrome
No full textStudy Objectives: Excessive sleepiness is a common symptom in Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS), and it negatively impacts the quality of life. Obstructive sleep apnea and narcolepsy phenotypes have been reported in PWS. We characterized sleep disorders in a large cohort of adults with PWS.
Methods: All consecutive patients with genetically confirmed PWS unselected for sleep-related symptoms, underwent a clinical interview, polysomnography, and multiple sleep latency tests (MSLT, n = 60), followed by long-term (24 hours) polysomnography (n = 22/60).
Results: Among 60 adults evaluated (57% female, aged 25 ± 10 years, body mass index: 39 ± 12 kg/m2), 67% reported excessive sleepiness. According to the sleep study results, 43% had a previously unrecognized hypersomnia disorder, 15% had an isolated sleep breathing disorder, 12% had combined hypersomnia disorder and untreated breathing sleep disorder, and only 30% had normal sleep. Isolated hypersomnia disorder included narcolepsy in 35% (type 1, n = 1, and type 2, n = 8), hypersomnia in 12% (total sleep time >11 hours, n = 2, and MSLT <8 minutes, n = 1), and borderline phenotype in 53% (≥2 sleep onset in REM periods and MSLT >8 minutes, n = 10, and 8 minutes < MSLT < 10 minutes, n = 4). Sleep breathing disorders, isolated and combined, included obstructive sleep apnea (n = 14, already treated in seven), sleep hypoxemia (n = 1) and previously undiagnosed hypoventilation (n = 5). Modafinil was taken by 16 patients (well tolerated in 10), resulting in improved sleepiness over a mean 5-year follow-up period.
Conclusion: Sleepiness affects more than half of adult patients with PWS, with a variety of hypersomnia disorder (narcolepsy, hypersomnia, and borderline phenotypes) and breathing sleep disorders. Earlier diagnosis and management of sleep disorders may improve sleepiness, cognition, and behavior in these patients
Interdisciplinary European guidelines on metabolic and bariatric surgery.
No full textn 2012, an expert panel composed of presidents of each of the societies, the European Chapter of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity (IFSO-EC), and of the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO), as well as of the chair of EASO Obesity Management Task Force (EASO OMTF) and other key representatives from IFSO-EC and EASO, devoted the joint Medico-Surgical Workshop of both institutions to the topic of metabolic surgery in advance of the 2013 European Congress on Obesity held in Liverpool. This meeting was prompted by the extraordinary advancement made in the field of metabolic and bariatric surgery during the past decade. It was agreed to revise and update the 2008 Interdisciplinary European Guidelines on Surgery of Severe Obesity produced by focusing in particular on the evidence gathered in relation to the effects on diabetes and the changes in the recommendations of patient eligibility criteria. The expert panel allowed the coverage of key disciplines in the comprehensive management of obesity and obesity-associated diseases, aimed specifically at updating the clinical guidelines to reflect current knowledge, expertise and evidence-based data on metabolic and bariatric surgery
Left ventricular dysfunction and sleep apnea syndrome : cause or consequence ?
No full textComment on : Laaban JP, Pascal-Sebaoun S, Bloch E, Orvoën-Frija E, Oppert JM, Huchon G. Left ventricular systolic dysfunction in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Chest. 2002 Oct;122(4):1133-8. doi: 10.1378/chest.122.4.1133. PMID: 12377833
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
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