1,721,050 research outputs found
Body mass index and impact on semen quality of men attending an infertility clinic
No full textBackground: The reproductive consequences of lifestyle factors in men are still controversial. In this prospective study, we verified the impact of body mass index alterations on semen parameters of patients who attended an infertility clinic. Materials and Methods: Semen samples from 156 subjects aged 22 to 53 years were analyzed. Smokers were categorized as mild (≤ 10 cigarettes/day), moderate (10-20 cigarettes/day”) and heavy smokers (> 20 cigarettes/day”). Men were grouped based upon calculated body mass index values (underweight, <18.5 Kg/m2; normal, 18.5-24.9 Kg/m2; overweight, 25-29.9 Kg/m2; obese, ≥ 30 Kg/m2). The data collected included patient height and weight, semen volume, sperm concentration, percent sperm motility, percent sperm morphology (normal forms). Results: Body mass index did not significantly affect ejaculate volume and sperm concentration. Overweight and obese men showed a percentage of progressive motility (medians 20% and 10%, respectively) significantly lower than that reported in normal-weight men (median 30%; p=0.0043). Conclusion: Our results suggest that lifestyle factors as obesity could play a major role in male infertility
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
Erratum: Corrigendum to “Procalcitonin and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children” (Clinica Chimica Acta (2015) 451(Part B) (215–218) (S0009898115004404) (10.1016/j.cca.2015.09.031))
No full textThe authors regret that the authors’ names in the original article appear, as reported, in the wrong form, which follows: Bivona Giulia, Agnello Luisa, Scazzone Concetta, Lo Sasso Bruna, Bellia Chiara, Ciaccio Marcello. The correct form is: Giulia (first name) Bivona (last name), Luisa (first name) Agnello (surname), Concetta (first name) Scazzone (surname), Bruna (first name) Lo Sasso (surname), Chiara (first name) Bellia (surname), Marcello (first name) Ciaccio (last name). The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused
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
Standardized measurement of circulating vitamin D [25(OH)D] and its putative role as a serum biomarker in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease
No full textThe current review provides an overview on the development of 25(OH)D measurement standardization tools over the last three decades and clarifies whether there is a role as a serum biomarker for vitamin D in neurological diseases. In the past, a lack of internationally recognized 25(OH)D reference measurement procedures and reference standard materials led to unstandardized serum total 25(OH)D results among research and clinical care laboratories. The vitamin D Standardization Program (VDSP) has been introduced in 2010 to address this problem, however, vitamin D External Quality Assessment Scheme (DEQAS) reports still show substantial sample- to- sample variability. Further, immunoassays, which are mainly used in clinical care laboratories, display analytical issues, including matrix-effects interferences, which cannot be overcome by the standardization process. Hence, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS-MS) methods should be used to measure 25(OH)D. Low vitamin D serum levels have been found in patients affected by Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, suggesting a role for vitamin D as a serum biomarker in these diseases. However, few studies reported 25(OH)D standardized results, thus, no clear evidence on the potential role of 25(OH)D serum levels in these diseases exists
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
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