1,720,960 research outputs found
Remote Ischemic Conditioning in Ischemic Stroke and Myocardial Infarction: Similarities and Differences
No full textAcute myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke are leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although reperfusion therapies have greatly improved the outcomes of patients with these conditions, many patients die or are severely disabled despite complete reperfusion. It is therefore important to identify interventions that can prevent progression to ischemic necrosis and limit ischemia-reperfusion injury. A possible strategy is ischemic conditioning, which consists of inducing ischemia – either in the ischemic organ or in another body site [i.e., remote ischemic conditioning (RIC), e.g., by inflating a cuff around the patient's arm or leg]. The effects of ischemic conditioning have been studied, alone or in combination with revascularization techniques. Based on the timing (before, during, or after ischemia), RIC is classified as pre-, per-/peri-, or post-conditioning, respectively. In this review, we first highlight some pathophysiological and clinical similarities and differences between cardiac and cerebral ischemia. We report evidence that RIC reduces circulating biomarkers of myocardial necrosis, infarct size, and edema, although this effect appears not to translate into a better prognosis. We then review cutting-edge applications of RIC for the treatment of ischemic stroke. We also highlight that, although RIC is a safe procedure that can easily be implemented in hospital and pre-hospital settings, its efficacy in patients with ischemic stroke remains to be proven. We then discuss possible methodological issues of previous studies. We finish by highlighting some perspectives for future research, aimed at increasing the efficacy of ischemic conditioning for improving tissue protection and clinical outcomes, and stratifying myocardial infarction and brain ischemia patients to enhance treatment feasibility
Portable technologies for digital phenotyping of bipolar disorder: A systematic review
No full textBackground: Bias-prone psychiatric interviews remain the mainstay of bipolar disorder (BD) assessment. The development of digital phenotyping promises to improve BD management. We present a systematic review of the evidence about the use of portable digital devices for the identification of BD, BD types and BD mood states and for symptom assessment. Methods: We searched Web of KnowledgeSM, Scopus ®, IEEE Xplore, and ACM Digital Library databases (until 5/1/2021) for articles evaluating the use of portable/wearable digital devices, such as smartphone apps, wearable sensors, audio and/or visual recordings, and multimodal tools. The protocol is registered in PROSPERO (CRD42020200086). Results: We included 62 studies (2325 BD; 724 healthy controls, HC): 27 using smartphone apps, either for recording self-assessments (n = 10) or for passively gathering metadata (n = 7) or both (n = 10); 15 using wearable sensors for physiological parameters; 17 analysing audio and/or video recordings; 3 using multiple technologies. Two thirds of the included studies applied artificial intelligence (AI)-based approaches. They achieved fair to excellent classification performances. Limitations: The included studies had small sample sizes and marked heterogeneity. Evidence of overfitting emerged, limiting generalizability. The absence of clear guidelines about reporting classification performances, with no shared standard metrics, makes results hardly interpretable and comparable. Conclusions: New technologies offer a noteworthy opportunity to BD digital phenotyping with objectivity and high granularity. AI-based models could deliver important support in clinical decision-making. Further research and cooperation between different stakeholders are needed for addressing methodological, ethical and socio-economic considerations
The role of Locus Coeruleus in neuroinflammation occurring in Alzheimer's disease
No full textAlzheimer's Disease (AD) represents the main degenerative dementia. Its neuropathological hallmarks are β-amyloid plaques (APs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), which lead to neuronal loss and brain atrophy. Recent data show that, early in the course of AD, hyperphosphorylated Tau proteins accumulate in Locus Coeruleus (LC) neuronal bodies. The fact that similar alterations have been found also in the entorhinal cortex suggests a causal relationship, although no final causal evidence exists. Later on, in the course of the disease, frank LC neuronal loss occurs, which is associated with marked cerebral NE reduction. In AD, neuroinflammation plays a pivotal role early in the process of APs deposition. LC degeneration is likely to play a key role in AD pathogenesis. In fact, NE modulates growth factors expression as well as integrity and functioning of the blood-brain barrier, and it also directly affects neuroinflammation. For instance, LC modulates microglia and astrocyte function, and this is evident following damage to LC, which induces astro- and micro-gliosis around APs, as well as interleukins secretion. These phenomena are dependent on the activation of beta-adrenergic receptors. The present review provides evidence about immune-mediated mechanisms through which LC may impact the course of AD. Some findings are consolidated in animal models. Should these data be confirmed in humans, adrenergic agents might represent potential therapeutic approaches acting on neuroinflammation to slow down the progression of AD
Oxidative stress and inflammation in the evolution of heart failure: From pathophysiology to therapeutic strategies
No full textBoth oxidative stress and inflammation are enhanced in chronic heart failure. Dysfunction of cardiac mitochondria is a hallmark of heart failure and a leading cause of oxidative stress, which in turn exerts detrimental effects on cellular components, including mitochondria themselves, thus generating a vicious circle. Oxidative stress also causes myocardial tissue damage and inflammation, contributing to heart failure progression. Furthermore, a subclinical inflammatory state may be caused by heart failure comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes mellitus or sleep apnoeas. Some markers of both oxidative stress and inflammation are enhanced in chronic heart failure and hold prognostic significance. For all these reasons, antioxidants or anti-inflammatory drugs may represent interesting additional therapies for subjects either at high risk or with established heart failure. Nonetheless, only a few clinical trials on antioxidants have been carried out so far, with several disappointing results except for vitamin C, elamipretide and coenzyme Q10. With regard to anti-inflammatory drugs, only preliminary data on the interleukin-1 antagonist anakinra are currently available. Therefore, a comprehensive, deep understanding of our current knowledge on oxidative stress and inflammation in chronic heart failure is key to providing some suggestions for future research on this topic
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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