1,720,987 research outputs found
Methodological aspects of lung cancer clinical trials in the era of targeted agents
No full textMethodology of clinical trials conducted in lung cancer, similarly to other tumours, has been recently
challenged by the particular characteristics of new targeted agents. Traditional methodology of phase II trials has been questioned, both for the choice of the endpoint and for the study design itself. Due to the mechanism of action of new drugs, cytostatic more than cytotoxic at least in principle, the usual
endpoint of phase II trials, objective response rate, is now often replaced by alternative event-related
endpoints, such as progression-free survival or progression-free rate at a fixed time-point. Randomized
phase II trials, considered in the past the exception rather than the rule, have been encouraged, as the only
design useful to give clear information on the activity of experimental treatments. Conduction of phase III
trials remains mandatory to demonstrate treatment efficacy, but their endpoints and design are currently
object of discussion. With targeted agents, great efforts have been made to identify predictive factors of
treatment efficacy, but this aspect appears to be more complicated than hypothesized in principle. The history of clinical trials with epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors in advanced NSCLC is a good
example of the uncertainty about predictive factors and selection criteria. Moreover, non-inferiority design has been used for several phase III trials comparing targeted agents with chemotherapy. In this review, recent aspects of clinical trials methodology in lung cancer are described, and examples of their application are discussed
Combination of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors and antiangiogenic drugs: a model for treatment
No full textGoing Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Potentiality and Boundaries of Use of Sorafenib in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Awaiting the Results of Ongoing Clinical Trials
No full texthepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) until 2007, when a large randomized trial with sorafenib demonstrated a clinically relevant longation of survival. Currently, sorafenib represents standard treatment for patients with advanced HCC and well-preserved liver function,
whilst the evidence about its effectiveness in patients with more severe liver impairment is less robust. A randomized trial to monstrate the efficacy of sorafenib in Child-Pugh B patients with advanced HCC is currently ongoing. In the meantime, several trials are testing the role of sorafenib in early HCC (as adjuvant traatment after potentially curative loco-regional therapies) and in intermediate stage (exploring different modalities of
integration of sorafenib with trans-arterial chemo-embolization). The results of all these trials will better define the potentiality and the boundaries of use of sorafenib in HCC patients
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
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