131,127 research outputs found
Overall cancer incidence and mortality trends among elderly and adult Europeans
No full textOverall cancer incidence and mortality trends among elderly and adul
MeSH term explosion and author rank improve expert recommendations
No full textInformation overload is an often-cited phenomenon that reduces the productivity, efficiency and efficacy of scientists. One challenge for scientists is to find appropriate collaborators in their research. The literature describes various solutions to the problem of expertise location, but most current approaches do not appear to be very suitable for expert recommendations in biomedical research. In this study, we present the development and initial evaluation of a vector space model-based algorithm to calculate researcher similarity using four inputs: 1) MeSH terms of publications; 2) MeSH terms and author rank; 3) exploded MeSH terms; and 4) exploded MeSH terms and author rank. We developed and evaluated the algorithm using a data set of 17,525 authors and their 22,542 papers. On average, our algorithms correctly predicted 2.5 of the top 5/10 coauthors of individual scientists. Exploded MeSH and author rank outperformed all other algorithms in accuracy, followed closely by MeSH and author rank. Our results show that the accuracy of MeSH term-based matching can be enhanced with other metadata such as author rank
Assistenza di fine vita e cure palliative : l'esempio della Regione Toscana
No full textThis paper summarizes a research of the Regional Agency for Health in Tuscany (Florence, Italy) on end-of-life and palliative care. The evolving concepts and definitions at the international level as well as some relevant experiences of research and intervention are reported. The national context is described through recent legislation and the state-of-the art of health services. The experience of Tuscany is discussed with respect to regulation, health services and significant experiences in epidemiological research, education, and cultural promotion. The population needs for palliative care are estimated on the basis of mortality rates and hospital admissions in the last year of life. Seventy-five percent of people dying in 2003 had at least one hospital admission in the 12 previous months, while 42.1 percent of deaths occurred in hospital (more than half of them in Internal Medicine or Intensive Care Units)
Dietary Factors and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: A Case-Control Study in the Nort heastern Part of Italy
No full textThe role of various life style factors, including dietary habits, in the etiology of non-Hodgkin‘s lymphoma was investigated using data from a case-control study conducted in the northeastern part of Italy. This study was done on 208 histologically confirmed non-Hodgkin‘s lymphomas and 401 control subjects who were in the hospital for acute, nonimmunologic, or neoplastic conditions. Dietary histories concerned the frequency of consumption per week of alcohol, beverages that contain methylxanthine, and 14 select food items or groups of foods (including major sources of proteins, fat, fibers, and vitamin A in the Italian diet). The consumption of milk, liver, butter, oil (chiefly polyunsaturated oils), coffee, tea, and cola was positively related with non-Hodgkin‘s lymphoma risk. The consumption of whole-grain bread and pasta showed a protective effect. When a logistic model was fitted that included the aforementioned food items in addition to major nondietary covariates, all of the foods, except liver and beverages that contain methylxanthine, remained significant. Interestingly, these associations are in agreement with the positive correlation that is emerging internationally between the consumption of fat and proteins and non-Hodgkin‘s lymphoma
Occupation and soft-tissue sarcoma in northeastern Italy
No full textThe influence of occupation and exposure to different agents on the risk of developing soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) was assessed in a case-control study based on 93 cases of STS (53 men and 40 women) and 721 controls (371 men and 350 women), conducted in northeastern Italy. No risk elevation was found in subjects employed in agriculture (odds ratio [OR] for greater than 10 years = 0.8, 95 percent confidence interval [CI] = 0.4-1.5), nor in those who reported exposure to pesticides or herbicides (OR = 0.4, CI = 0.1-1.2). Similarly, neither occupation in the furniture, upholstery, and mechanics industries, nor exposure to livestock or meat processing, wood dust, metal dust, and dyes or paints were associated with STS risk. Workers who reported exposure to chemical agents or to benzene or other solvents for more than 10 years had, respectively, a 1.8-fold (CI = 0.7-4.4) and a 2.2-fold (CI = 0.9-5.5) higher risk of developing STS. Although the small number of STS cases limits the interpretation of the study results, these findings weigh against the hypothesis that pesticides, herbicides, or other exposures related to agriculture, play an important role in the etiology of STS. The direct associations with exposure to chemical agents and benzene or other solvents, albiet not statistically significant, may provide a useful hint for future investigations
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe 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
Invasive cervical cancer as an AIDS-defining illness in Europe
No full textObjective(s): To evaluate the frequency and correlates of invasive cervical cancer (ICC) as an AIDS-defining illness (ADI) in Europe. Design: Statistical analysis of data from: national AIDS surveillance systems of 15 European countries with ≥ 50 female AIDS cases; and from population-based cancer registries of the same nations. Methods: AIDS cases notified between 1993 (when ICC was included among ADI) and 1999 in women aged 20-49 years were taken into consideration. The association between the presence of ICC as an ADI and potential determinants was assessed by calculation of odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Country-specific incidence rates of ICC in women aged 20-49 years were correlated with selected AIDS-associated variables by means of the Pearson correlation coefficient (r). Results: The OR of having ICC as an ADI increased with age and was significantly elevated in southern (3.1) and central (2.5) compared with northern Europe. It was also increased among injecting drug users (IDU; 1.5). The proportion of ICC as ADI was inversely correlated with incidence rates of ICC in the general female population, but directly correlated with the proportion of IDU among female AIDS cases. Conclusions: The frequency of ICC as an ADI in Europe was independent from the background risk of ICC in the general population. It was higher where IDU predominated among female AIDS cases and where population-based ICC screening programs were less effective
SMOKING-HABITS AND NON-HODGKINS-LYMPHOMA - A CASE-CONTROL STUDY IN NORTHERN ITALY
No full textBackground. A potential relationship between nonHodgkin's lymphoma and tobacco smoking has been reported. This was further considered in a case-control study conducted in northern Italy in the provinces of Milan and Pordenone. Methods. A total of 429 cases of incident, histologically confirmed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and 1,157 controls in hospital for acute, nonneoplastic, nonimmunological, non-tobacco-related diseases were interviewed during their hospital stay. Relative risk (RR) estimates and their 95% confidence intervals (CI), according to various measures of tobacco smoking, were derived from multiple logistic regression equations including terms for age, sex, study center, body mass index, and alcohol and coffee drinking. Results. Compared with that for never smokers, the multivariate RR was 1.0 (95% Cl, 0.8 to 1.4) for both current smokers and ex-smokers. No trend in risk emerged with the number of cigarettes smoked per day (RR = 0.9, 95% Cl, 0.7 to 1.3 for less than 20 cigarettes/day, and RR = 1.2, 95% Cl, 0.8 to 1.8, for 20 or more cigarettes/day), or tar yield (RR = 1.2 for less than 17 mg, 1.0 for 17-20 mg, and 0.9 for more than 20 mg). Similarly, no trend in risk was observed with duration of smoking (RR = 1.0 for less than 30 years, 1.0 for 30-39 years, and 1.1 for 40 or more years) or age at starting smoking (RR = 1.1 for less than 20 years, 1. 0 for 20-29 years, and 1.1 for 30 years or over) and, for ex-smokers, with time since quitting (RR = 1.1 for less than 10 years and 1.0 for 10 or more years of smoking cessation). Conclusions. The present study found no association between various measures of tobacco smoking and nonHodgkin' s lymphoma. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc
Trends di incidenza e mortalità dei tumori negli anziani e negli adulti in Europa e in Italia.
No full textTrends di incidenza e mortalità dei tumori negli anziani e negli adult
Screening patterns within organized programs and survival of Italian women with invasive cervixal cancer.
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