1,720,961 research outputs found
Use of antiosteoporotic drugs and calcium/vitamin D in patients with fragility fractures: impact on re-fracture and mortality risk
No full textTo evaluate the impact of pharmacological treatment in osteoporosis patients with recent fracture and to assess the incidence of subsequent fracture and all-cause mortality
Pharmacoutilization of epoetins in naà ̄ve patients with hematological malignancies in an unselected italian population under clinical practice setting: A comparative analysis between originator and biosimilars
Full text linkAim: The purpose of this study was to assess the prescription of epoetins and consumption of health care resources (in terms of drug treatments) in naà ̄ve patients with hematological malignancies in a real-world setting; in particular, we compared the results between reference product and biosimilar products. Methods: An observational retrospective study based on administrative and laboratory databases of three local health units was conducted. All adults diagnosed with hematological malignancies and who had received at least one epoetin (either reference product or biosimilars) prescription for the first time between 1 January 2010 and 30 April 2012 (enrollment period) were included. The date of the first prescription of epoetin within the enrollment period was defined as index date (ID). Patients were followed up for 4 weeks after ID (follow-up period) and were investigated for the 1-year period before the ID. The difference between the last hemoglobin (Hb) measurement after ID and the one prior to ID (ÎHb) was evaluated. The drug cost analysis was conducted from the perspective of the Italian National Health System. Results: Overall, 69 patients were included in the study; 48 of them received reference epoetin product and 21 received biosimilars as first prescription. Among reference product users, the mean ± standard deviation (SD) age was 62.5±14.7 years; this cohort of patients was slightly significantly younger than the biosimilar users (71.8±11.8 years). The mean ±SD overall Hb level prior to treatment was lower among patients who started with biosimilar products (9.6±1.1 g/dL) compared to those who started with a reference product (10.1±2.1 g/dL). No significant differences in ÎHb were observed between biosimilar and originator groups during the followup period. The mean ïï1⁄2ï SD cost per patient was â¬667.98±573.93 and â¬340.85±235.73 for the reference product and biosimilar users, respectively (p=0.065). Conclusion: Our study showed that the use of biosimilar products might contribute to controlling health care costs (in terms of drug treatments) for patients with hematological malignancies being maintained by high-quality anemia therapy. Our findings also showed some discordances regarding the most appropriate therapeutic approach in daily clinical practice
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
Economic Burden of Osteoporotic Patients with Fracture: Effect of Treatment With or Without Calcium/Vitamin D Supplements
Full text linkBackground: Fractures represent the most important complication of osteoporosis, in terms of loss of independency, chronic pain, increased risk of mortality, but also high healthcare costs.Objective: To assess healthcare costs in an Italian cohort of osteoporotic patients with a fracture with and without specific osteoporosis treatment and supplementation with calcium/vitamin D.Methods: This retrospective observational study used data from administrative databases of five Local Health Units in Italy. Patients >= 50 years of age and hospitalized for vertebral or hip fracture occurring from 01/01/2011 to 31/12/2015 were included. Patients were then classified as "untreated" and "treated" if they had been treated or not with drugs for fracture prevention after the index fracture. We also identified subjects that were only treated with drugs for fracture prevention, "osteoporosis drug only" group, compared to the "osteoporosis drug plus calcium/vitamin D" group, in which calcium and/or vitamin D were also in combination. Healthcare cost analysis included drug expenditure, hospitalization costs (excluding costs related to the hospitalization for the index fracture) and outpatient service costs.Results: Three thousand four hundred and seventy-five patients were included in the present study, most of whom (58.5%) had received specific osteoporosis treatment after index fracture. Among treated patients, the vast majority (83.6%) received supplementation with calcium/vitamin D. Mean annual healthcare cost per patient was (sic)9,289.85 in the untreated group and (sic)4,428.26 for treated subjects (p < 0.001); mean annual healthcare cost for the osteoporosis drug-only group was higher compared to the osteoporosis drug plus calcium/ vitamin D group (sic)5,976.88 vs (sic)4,124.74, respectively, p < 0.001). Hospitalization costs accounted for the majority of total costs in all groups of patients.Conclusion: Healthcare costs in patients with osteoporotic fractures were significantly lower in those receiving osteoporosis treatment compared to untreated patients with even lower costs observed in patients that were also receiving calcium/vitamin D supplements
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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