1,720,974 research outputs found
Opportunities and challenging issues of nanomaterials in otological fields: An occupational health perspective
No full textNanotechnology may offer innovative solutions to overcome the physiological and anatomical barriers that make the diagnosis and treatment of ear diseases an extremely challenging issue. However, despite the solutions provided by nano-applications, the still little-known toxicological behavior of nanomaterials raised scientific concerns regarding their biosafety for treated patients and exposed workers. Therefore, this review provides an overview on recent developments and upcoming opportunities in nanoscale otological applications, and critically assesses possible adverse effects of nanosized compounds on ear structures and hearing functionality. Although such preliminary data do not allow to draw definite strategies for the evaluation of nanomaterial ototoxicity, they can still be useful to improve scientific community and workforce awareness regarding possible nanomaterial adverse effects on ear
An eighteen-month follow-up study on the effects of intravitreal dexamethasone implant in diabetic macular edema refractory to anti-VEGF therapy
Get PDFAbstract
AIM:
To evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of dexamethasone implants in subjects affected by diabetic macular edema (DME) resistant to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy.
METHODS:
Thirty-two DME patients were enrolled. A 700 microgram slow release Intravitreal Dexamethasone Implant (Ozurdex®) was placed in the vitreous cavity. All patients were followed for 18mo. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) measured with Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) and central macular thickness (CMT) exams were carried out at baseline (T0) and after 1 (T1), 3 (T3), 4 (T4), 6 (T6), 9 (T9), 12 (T12), 15 (T15), and 18mo (T18) post injection.
RESULTS:
Repeated measures ANOVA showed an effect of treatment on ETDRS (P<0.0001). Post hoc analyses revealed that ETDRS values were significantly increased at T1, T3, T4, T9, and T15 (P<0.001) as compared to baseline value (T0). At T6, T12, and T18, ETDRS values were still statistically higher than baseline (P<0.001 vs T0). However, at these time points, we observed a trend to return to baseline conditions. ANOVA also showed an effect of treatment (P<0.0001). CMT decreased significantly at T1, T3, T4, T9, and T15 (P<0.001). At T6 (P<0.01), T12 and T18 (P<0.001) CMT was also significantly lower than T0 although a trend to return to the baseline conditions was also observed.
CONCLUSION:
Our findings demonstrate that Intravitreal Dexamethasone Implant is a good option to improve BCVA and CMT in DME patients resistant to anti-VEGF therapy. Our data also show that the use of drugs administered directly into the vitreous allows achieving appropriate and long-lasting concentration at the site of disease without systemic side effects
Comparative Oral Absorption of Different Citicoline and Homotaurine Formulations: A Single-Dose, Two-Period Crossover Trial in the Dog
Get PDFBackground: Citicoline and homotaurine are compounds with a potent neuroprotective activity
and they have been administered for many years in the treatment of numerous neurodegenerative
and ophthalmological diseases, including glaucoma. Initially available only
as liquid form, through parenteral route, nowadays citicoline can be administered also as
tablet but no data on bioavailability of these different forms are available. In the present
study, pharmacokinetics of citicoline in tablet versus vials, each at the therapeutic dose of
500 mg, in addition to 50 mg of homotaurine was investigated. Materials and methods: Ten
mixed breed dogs received a single dose of 50 mg oral homotaurine and 500 mg citicoline in
tablet and vials with the same dose were administered after a seven days wash-out period.
Parameters assessed for citicoline metabolites (cytidine, uridine and choline) were AUC0−t,
Cmax and Tmax. Results: Citicoline bioavailability appeared to be higher for the tablet compared
to the vial formulation. Cytidine is equivalent in absorption dynamics both for tablet
and liquid form; uridine for tablet reaches its maximum and is reabsorbed more quickly
while choline for the liquid form reaches the maximum first and is reabsorbed more quickly.
Conclusions: Citicoline in tablet and liquid formulation have pharmacokinetic properties
leading to a very similar bioavailability
Machine Learning Models for Predicting "Left Without Being Seen" in Distributed Emergency Departments: A Comparative Study in Naples, Italy
No full textEmergency departments (EDs) are challenged by overcrowding, which affects the quality of care and increases the rate of patients leaving without being seen (LWBS). The study aims to predict LWBS cases in Local Health Authority No. 3 in Naples, Italy, a distributed ED system, using machine learning (ML) models and compare its performance with single-center EDs. Data from 53,761 patients at LHA No. 3, 83,739 at Hospital H1, and 77,607 at Hospital H2 from the year 2022 were analyzed. The dataset included gender, age, triage score, mode of arrival, and time of admission. Machine learning algorithms such as Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naive Bayes (NB), and Logistic Regression (LR) were implemented using the KNIME Analytics platform. The primary outcome was LWBS. All ML models showed high accuracy rates above 90%. The RF model showed the highest accuracy (91.2%) and F-measure (95.3%). The study also revealed patterns in patient flow, most notably a peak in arrivals between 6:00 and 12:00. A balanced age distribution was observed, in contrast to the older patient demographics in previous studies. The ML models, particularly RF, were highly effective in predicting LWBS cases in a distributed ED system. This high predictive accuracy can contribute to the efficient allocation of ED resources and improve patient satisfaction, thereby addressing the problem of overcrowding
Going 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
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
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) micro-elimination in the hospital setting: The results of the HCV Caserta hospital project
No full textBackground: In the present study we evaluated the efficacy of an innovative model of HCV micro-elimination in a hospital setting in an area of high HCV prevalence.Patients and metods: Between January and December 2019, a prospective, interventional study for a program of HCV case-finding and linkage-to-care was performed in S. Anna and S. Sebastiano hospital of Caserta, in Campania, a region in southern Italy. All adult patients who were admitted to the Caserta hospital in the study period and resulted positive for anti-HCV were included in the study. The outcomes evaluated were the number of subjects resulting HCV-RNA-positive, those linked-to-care and treated with a DAA and the subjects whose anti-HCV-status was unknown.Results: In the study period, 14,396 subjects, admitted to the hospital for different reasons, were tested for anti-HCV: 529 (3.7%) subjects resulted positive for anti-HCV. Of the 529 anti-HCV-positive subjects, 10 died during hospitalization and 243 were already treated with a DAA. The remaining 276 subjects were contacted and agreed to be evaluated. Of these 276 subjects, 68 patients resulted HCV- RNA-negative and 194 HCV-RNA-positive and 180 of these were treated with a DAA according to the international guidelines.Discussion: A simple, rapid, inexpensive model of HCV micro-elimination in the hospital setting allowed us to find anti-HCV-positive subjects with unknown anti-HCV status or not linked to a clinical center. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences. CC_BY_NC_ND_4.
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
- …
