1,721,424 research outputs found
Association of cadmium environmental exposure with chronic kidney disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textBackground: Several observational studies investigated the relationship between environmental cadmium exposure and risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, results from epidemiological studies are conflicting and wide variabilities have been reported. Objectives: We conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between environmental cadmium exposure and CKD risk, as assessed by decreased estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) in adults. Methods: PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane library databases were searched for studies published up to July 2023. A random-effects model using the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) method was used to calculate the overall estimate to assess the association between cadmium exposure and eGFR. Subgroup analysis, funnel plot, Egger's test, and the trim-and-fill method were also conducted. Results: Thirty-one articles, 3 cohorts, 2 case-control and 26 cross-sectional studies, across 8 countries, involving 195.015 participants were included. The meta-analysis demonstrated an inverse association between high cadmium exposure and eGFR levels (standardized regression coefficient beta = -0.09; 95 % CI = -0.15, -0.04). The subgroup analysis showed that the inverse association was significantly higher for blood cadmium exposure (beta = -0.12; 95 % CI = -0.18, -0.06) than for urinary concentrations (beta = -0.04; 95 % CI: -0.10, 0.03) or dietary exposure (beta = -0.03; 95 % CI = -0.19, 0.14). Stratified analysis by different study design also showed an inverse association between cadmium exposure and eGFR, more evident in the cross-sectional studies (beta = -0.11; 95 % CI = -0.18, -0.03) than in the cohort (beta = -0.05; 95 % CI = -0.26, 0.17) and in the case-control studies (beta = -0.05; 95 % CI = -0.32, 0.21). Discussion: Our meta-analysis indicated that environmental cadmium exposure is associated with increased risk of CKD, as assessed by decreased eGFR, and this association is more evident for blood cadmium concentrations than for urinary concentrations or dietary exposure. Nevertheless, additional high quality prospective studies are needed to confirm the association between cadmium exposure and risk of CKD
Efficacy, tolerability and cosmetic acceptabilily of Toléderm® in patients with inflammatory cutaneous diseases of the face
No full textWe performed an open-label clinical trial to assess the efficacy, tolerability and cosmetic acceptability of Toléderm® hydra-soothing cream, a new emulsion indicated for sensitive skin, in patients with mild to moderate inflammatory cutaneous diseases of the face. Forty patients (32 females and 8 males), aged 15-80 years (mean age: 38.5 years), with contact dermatitis (8), solar erythema (7), seborrheic dermatitis (6), psoriasis (5), atopic dermatitis (5), acne (5), vitiligo (2) and post-peeling erythema/scaling (2) were enrolled at the Department of Dermatology of the University of L'Aquila. Patients were treated with Toléderm® hydra-soothing cream for facial skin hydration, twice daily, for 4 weeks. The study included a screening visit and a treatment period with regular visits after 2 and 4 weeks. Clinical evaluation of erythema, xerosis, scaling and itching as well as instrumental assessment of cutaneous pH, skin hydration and sebum concentration were performed at each scheduled visit. All subjects completed a self-administered questionnaire for evaluation of cosmetologic characteristics of the study product. After treatment, a significant decrease of erythema, xerosis, scaling and itching was observed. Instrumental assessment showed an increase of skin hydration together with a decrease of erythema while values of cutaneous pH and sebum concentration remained stable during the entire study period. Self-administered questionnaires on cosmetic acceptability revealed an overall judgment of excellent or very good by all patients. In conclusion, our results demonstrate the efficacy, tolerability and cosmetic acceptability of Tolederm® hydra-soothing cream in patients with mild to moderate inflammatory cutaneous diseases of the face
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
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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