1,720,969 research outputs found
Retinal degeneration in MOG antibody Associated Disease (MOGAD): a longitudinal OCT study
Full text linkBackground and aims.Since in MOGAD(MOG antibody Associated Disease)data about prognostic meaning of MOG ab titres and retinal degeneration are still lacking, we analysed longitudinal dynamics of MOG antibodies and of GCL and RNFL thicknesses, acquired through OCT scans in a cohort of MOGAD patients. We compared GCL and RNFL thicknesses and dynamics between MOGAD patients and a cohort of multiple sclerosis(MS) patients. Methods.Prospective and retrospective interventistic monocentric study. MOGAD and MS patients referring to Mondino Foundation underwent periodic clinical and serological follow-up(FU)and OCT scans. Results.MOGAD cohort was made up of 16 patients, with mean age of 38 years, mean EDSS of 1.8, mean FU duration of 49 months. 8/16 patients showed a relapsing form of disease.MOG ab titres dynamics were similar between monophasic and relapsing patients. However, in 5/8 relapsing patients clinical relapse occurred in concomitance with increasing in MOGab titres. We didn’t find correlation between MOG antibody titres at baseline and mean GCL-RNFL thicknesses,and between MOG ab titres and OCT thicknesses variation rates. Patients were divided in groups according to history of optic neuritis(ON): MOG-ON+(N=11) and MOG-ON-(N=5). Mean MOG antibody titres at baseline were similar between groups, as baseline OCT thicknesses. We didn’t find differences in GCL-RNFL variation rates between groups.We didn’t find correlations between MOG dynamics and GCL-RNFL thinning rates considering eyes with and without ON. Considering whole cohort of MOGAD, we found association between annualized GCL variation rate and relapsing course of disease(p=0.01). This result also applied when splitting our cohort into MOG-ON+and MOG-ON-subgroups. Considering EDSS variation at FU, annualized CGL variation rate was higher in patients with disability progression(p=0.03). MS cohort was made up of 21 patients, with mean age of 34 years,mean EDSS of 1,mean FU duration of 40 months. Demographic features were similar between MOGAD and MS,except for baseline EDSS, which was higher in MOGAD and sex(F/M ratio was higher in RRMS cohort). Considering patients with ON, GCL-RNFL baseline thicknesses and thinning rates were similar between MOGAD and MS.Considering eyes without history of ON, we found a higher annualized GCL variation rate in MOGAD(p=0.03). This result applied when considering group of unaffected eyes(p=0.05), but didn’t apply when considering group of fellow eyes.
Discussion and conclusions. Even if MOG ab titres dynamics didn’t differ between monophasic and relapsing patients, the occurrence of clinical relapses is preceded by an increasing in MOG ab titres. Thus, monitoring MOG-ab titres could have a prognostic utility. In MOGAD cohort, retinal degeneration was higher in relapsing patients, independently of the occurrence of ON. Thus, retinal degeneration could be accelerated by inflammatory events, independently of the district in which they occur. MOG ab titres didn’t correlate with retinal degeneration. Thus, monitoring MOG ab titres might not reflect severity of retinal degeneration, even in eyes with history of ON. All patients experiencing disability progression show increased MOG ab titres at FU and faster GCL thinning rates. As titres increased during relapses and retinal degeneration accelerates after inflammatory episodes, these data highlight the concept that retinal degeneration and disability progression could be result of recurrent relapses. Retinal degeneration is similar in MOGAD and MS eyes with ON as in fellow eyes. Thus, we could infer that retinal degeneration is independent of the triggering ON. Moreover, in fellow eyes, a similar physiopathological mechanism could occur. In eyes without ON retinal degeneration is higher in MOGAD than in MS.This data question if, even in MOGAD, a pure neurodegenerative process could exist thus considering that disability progression could not be caused only by clinical relapses
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
Beyond Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein and Aquaporin-4 Antibodies: Alternative Causes of Optic Neuritis
No full textOptic neuritis (ON) is the most common cause of vision loss in young adults. It manifests as acute or subacute vision loss, often accompanied by retrobulbar discomfort or pain during eye movements. Typical ON is associated with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and is generally mild and steroid-responsive. Atypical forms are characterized by unusual features, such as prominent optic disc edema, poor treatment response, and bilateral involvement, and they are often associated with autoantibodies against aquaporin-4 (AQP4) or Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein (MOG). However, in some cases, AQP4 and MOG antibodies will return as negative, plunging the clinician into a diagnostic conundrum. AQP4- and MOG-seronegative ON warrants a broad differential diagnosis, including autoantibody-associated, granulomatous, and systemic disorders. These rare forms need to be identified promptly, as their management and prognosis are greatly different. The aim of this review is to describe the possible rarer etiologies of non-MS-related and AQP4- and MOG-IgG-seronegative inflammatory ON and discuss their diagnoses and treatments
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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