1,721,108 research outputs found
Is Moderate Alcohol Consumption a Risk Factor for Kidney Function Decline? A Systematic Review of Observational Studies.
No full textOBJECTIVE:
The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review of published observational studies on the association between alcohol consumption and renal functional impairment.
METHODS:
A search of Medline and Scopus (1985 through June 2013) was performed and supplemented with manual searches of bibliographies. Of the 430 studies considered, 15 were judged eligible for this systematic review. The quality of the studies was scored using a checklist of 22 items recommended by the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines.
RESULTS:
Among 12 studies on the adjusted association between moderate alcohol consumption and renal function decline, most of the studies with higher quality scores found no such association. This systematic review indicates that moderate alcohol consumption has not been demonstrated to be a risk factor for kidney function decline.
CONCLUSION:
Although alcohol consumption in selected populations was inversely associated with renal impairment, a beneficial role of alcohol consumption on renal function has not been consistently demonstrated
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
The undertreatment of alcohol-related liver diseases among people with alcohol use disorder
No full textHarmful and hazardous alcohol consumption is one of the most significant public health problems in Italy and Europe. Habitual excessive consumption and occasional excessive consumption, known as binge drinking, are the two main risk behaviours related to alcohol. Harmful drinking and alcohol dependence have strong social repercussions in terms of their social and economic impact and contribution to productivity losses. In addition, the terms alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence have been recently substituted by the only term of alcohol use disorder (AUD). The issues presented in this review demonstrate that excessive alcohol consumption is a growing public health concern and an appropriate national action plan is needed to increase the prevention of harmful and hazardous consumption and encourage patients to seek healthcare. To date, the main problem is the under-treatment of the population at risk, manifested as the time-lag between the onset of AUD and the first clinical detection. In order to address this, the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) strategy has been shared across countries in Europe and is supported by a Systematic Review of Reviews on SBIRT in primary healthcare. Unfortunately, there are still obstacles in the implementation of this approach. The main problem would appear to be general practitioners’ difficulty in carrying out accurate and widespread screening, because they may minimize the problem. A more concerted effort in the training of healthcare professionals could address this by enabling the creation of renewed networks for the early identification of harmful and hazardous drinkers. These networks could prevent the occurrence of avoidable alcohol-related conditions, such as alcohol-related liver disease (ALD), while allowing for the timely implementation of evidence-based brief interventions. © 2020 Verduci Editore s.r.l. All rights reserved
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
Moderato consumo di alcol nell’anziano: dal metabolismo alla patologia
No full textIntroduzione. Esistono evidenze di associazione tra fattori di rischio
metabolici, sindrome metabolica e disfunzione renale negli
anziani.Tuttavia non è stato ancora stabilito definitivamente
il ruolo del consumo di alcol nei confronti di questi fattori di
rischio e, quindi, dell’insorgenza di patologia.
Obiettivi. Scopo dello studio è individuare la relazione tra consumo
alcolico e i principali fattori di rischio cardiovascolari, la
sindrome metabolica e, infine, l’insufficienza renale nei soggetti
anziani maschi.
Metodi. Studio prospettico multicentrico riferito a un campione
di soggetti italiani di età compresa tra 65 e 84 anni reclutati
nel “Italian longitudinal study on aging – ILSA” che
consisteva in una fase di prevalenza riferita al 1992 e una fase
di incidenza dal 1995 al 1996. La lunghezza media del followup
è stata di 3.5 anni. In questo studio sono stati inclusi 1 321
uomini raggruppati in classi di consumo alcolico. Sono stati
calcolati gli odds ratio (OR), aggiustati per i confondenti, per
le caratteristiche metaboliche al basale e su casi incidenti per
sindrome metabolica (definita secondo i criteri dell’ATP III)
e per disfunzione renale (definita da una GFR <60 mL/min,
formula MDRF, “Modification of diet in renal diseases formula”).
In quest’ultimo caso, gli OR aggiustati sono stati utilizzati
per calcolare un valore approssimato di rischio relativo
(Zhang Jun &Yu Kai F, 1998).
Risultati.Gli OR e RR aggiustati per categorie di consumo di
alcol (categoria-reference: astemi) ottenuti sono riportati nella
seguente tabella:Conclusioni. Lo studio non ha dimostrato un’associazione tra
consumo di alcolici e sindrome metabolica, anche se esso è correlato
ai singoli fattori che la determinano negli uomini anziani.
Nei bevitori moderati infatti i dati mostrano un miglioramento
del profilo glicemico e infiammatorio, ma anche un modesto
effetto ipertensivante. Sembra inoltre sia presente una relazione
lineare inversa tra moderato consumo di alcolici e
rischio di lieve disfunzione renale. Questi risultati quindi
suggeriscono che il consumo di moderate quantità di alcol
potrebbe modificare l’assetto metabolico-funzionale dei soggetti
anziani in senso complessivamente protettivo nei confronti
delle malattie aterosclerotiche. E’ tuttavia necessario ricordare
che tali evidenze devono essere interpretate con
prudenza, visti i noti effetti nocivi che il consumo di alcol ha
nell’anziano per l’interazione con l’eventuale farmacoterapia
assunta e poiché può aumentare il rischio di caduta
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