1,720,971 research outputs found
Nesidioblastosis coexisting with non-functioning islet cell tumour in an adult
Full text linkdisorder of persistent hypoglycaemia in infants, it is extremely rare in adults. We present a case of a 59-year-old woman with small neuroendocrine tumour of the tail of the pancreas, diagnosed by CT scans and MRI, and hypoglycaemic syndrome. Laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy was performed, and pathologic examination showed a well-differentiated, non-functioning endocrine tumour of the pancreas and diffuse nesidioblastosis in the remnant gland. In the early postoperative period, recurrent hypoglycaemia occurred in spite of oral diazoxide therapy. Plasma proinsulin levels were extremely high. 18F-DOPA positron emission tomography showed a pathologic uptake of tracer in the head and the uncinate process of the pancreas. Subtotal pancreatectomy was suggested but the patient refused operation: she is taking diazoxide 100 mg three times daily. Coexistence of nesidioblastosis with a neuroendocrine tumour makes preoperative diagnosis and management of severe hypoglycaemia more difficult. Nesidioblastosis should be considered in differential diagnosis of hypoglycaemic syndrome, but histological examination is necessary for a definitive tissue diagnosis. (Endokrynol Pol 2015; 66 (4): 356-360)
Cognitive and emotive state in elderly treatment-naïve patients with advanced cancer compared with an elderly healthy control population
No full textThe elderly may have cognitive impairment due to several physiological and pathological conditions. In cancer
patients cognitive impairment has been related to some anticancer treatments while few data are available
regarding the role of advanced cancer itself. Thus, we planned a prospective study. We evaluated the Mini Mental
State Examination (MMSE) of elderly patients with advanced cancer, before starting anticancer treatments,
compared to a control population. Other causes of cognitive impairment, related to disease or to the treatment,
were investigated and excluded. To investigate the possible influence of depression and Performance Status (PS) on
cognitive status, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and the Instrumental
Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scores were also evaluated. Results: mean MMSE scores of cancer patients (n =
66) and control population (n = 31) were respectively 21.9 and 23.7. The difference was statistically significant (U =
694.5; p < 0.05). A difference between the 2 groups was seen also for ADL and IADL scores (U = 695.5; p < 0.01 and
U = 501.5; p < 0.001 respectively), whilst no significant difference was seen for GDS score. Among cancer patients
there was a correlation between MMSE, ADL and IADL (r = 0.38; p < 0.01 and r = 0.26; p < 0.05 respectively) while
in the control group a negative correlation was found between MMSE and GDS (r = -0.49; p < 0.01). Anticancer
treatment naïve patients with advanced cancer present with cognitive impairment that does not seem to be related
to depression, as in healthy subjects, but to other causes among which the tumour might play a fundamental role
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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