1,721,075 research outputs found
Nutraceuticals and cholesterol-lowering action
No full textAbstractNutraceuticals play an important role in cardiovascular prevention in patients with dyslipidemia. Many scientific studies support the use of these substances alone or associated with other drugs in clinical practice. Specifically, monacolines, berberine, policosanol and gamma-oryzanol could significantly reduce cholesterolemia. However, there is still an insufficient number of studies demonstrating morbidity and mortality outcomes of nutraceuticals, nor are sufficient data regarding the use of nutraceuticals in different types of patients, on tolerability, safety, target population, modality and duration of use present in the literature
Subjective effects of a combined lipid-lowering nutraceutical or ezetimibe on well-being and sexual performance in patients with perceived worsening of erectile function during statin treatment: a randomised clinical trial
No full textBackground
Beyond clinical trial evidence, the perceived association of statin use and impotence in general practice is not infrequent and the most common associated consequence is the discontinuation of the statin treatment.
Aim of the study
To carry out a randomised clinical trial on Caucasian men refusing to continue statin therapy because of perceived worsening of erectile function in order to test the tolerability of alternative lipid-lowering strategies.
Methods
This is a single-blind, randomised clinical trial carried out on 50 moderately hypercholesterolaemic subjects (mean age: 54±6 years old) who voluntarily interrupted statin treatment because of self-reported erectile dysfunction (ED) during statin treatment, randomised to treatment with ezetimibe 10 mg or a combined lipid-lowering nutraceutical containing red yeast rice and berberine (3 mg monacolins and 500 mg per dose, respectively), to be taken as one dose per evening for 12 weeks. The effects of both treatments on ED and subjective well-being was tested by administrating, before and after 12 weeks of treatment, the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) and the Satisfaction Profile (SAT-P), and comparing the baseline hormonal level with the final one.
Results
After 12 weeks of treatment, both ezetimibe- and nutraceutical-treated patients experienced a significant improvement in low-density lipoprotein cholesterolaemia and triglyceridaemia (both p<0.05) and a significant increase in IIEF-5 score (p<0.05 for both). However, patients taking the nutraceutical experienced a more significant increase than the group taking ezetimibe (1.2±0.7 vs. 0.7±0.3, p=0.04). Both ezetimibe- and nutraceutical-treated subjects experienced a significant improvement in psychological performance-related SAT-P score, but the nutraceutical-treated group’s improvement was larger than that of the ezetimibe-treated group (+8±4 vs. +6±3, p<0.05). Moreover, only the nutraceutical-treated patients experienced a significant improvement in physical and social performance related SAT-P score compared to the baseline (+7±5 and 6±3, both p<0.05).
Conclusion
Our data support the use of alternative lipid-lowering strategies in patients refusing to continue statin consumption because of perceived worsening of erectile function
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
Relationship Between Serum Uric Acid and Electrocardiographic Alterations in a Large Sample of General Population: Data From the Brisighella Heart Study
No full textIntroduction: Serum uric acid (SUA) may contribute to the increased cardiovascular damage through direct injury to the endothelium and alteration of cardiovascular function. Aim: To evaluate the association of SUA with the presence of the most recurrent electrographic alterations and with the length of the main ECG intervals in a large sample of general population. Methods: For this study, on the database of the Brisighella Heart Study, we evaluated the available data of 790 men and 849 women, excluding subjects affected by gout or taking antihyperuricemic agents, those taking drug increasing the QT interval and those using beta-blockers or non-dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers at the moment of the ECG registration. Multiple ascending stepwise regression analyses were carried out to determine the independent predictors of the predefined ECG alterations. Results: The prevalence of predefined ECG alterations was comparable between genders, with the exception of sinus bradicardia, left-anterior fascicular block, atrio-ventricular blocks and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), which appeared to be more frequent in men. The multivariate analysis revealed that SUA was associated to ischaemic alterations, LVH, sinus tachycardia and tachyarrhytmias. Age was associated to all evaluated ECG alterations beyond sinus tachycardia and LVH. Male sex was associated to sinus bradicardia, atrio-ventricular blocks, anterior-left fascicular block and LVH. Blood pressure was associated to different ECG alterations, but with clinically relevant OR with ischaemic alterations and LVH. Conclusion: SUA level is related the prevalence of both organic and rhythm ECG alterations in a wide sample of general population
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