1,720,972 research outputs found
T4N0 colon cancer has oncologic outcomes comparable to stage Iii in a specialized center
No full textBackground: National data indicate that patients with T4N0 colon carcinoma have worse oncologic outcomes than other stage II cases. Our hypothesis was that optimized surgical resection and lymph node staging in a specialized center could eliminate discrepancies in oncologic outcomes within stage II colon carcinomas. Methods: Patient characteristics and outcomes after oncologically radical colectomy for pT4N0 were compared to control groups of T1-2N1, T3N1, and T3N0 cases. Group comparisons were adjusted for age, American Society of Anesthesiologists score, tumor location, year of surgery, and duration of follow-up. Cases with at least 12 collected lymph nodes and uninvolved resection margins (R0) were analyzed separately. In addition, the T4a subgroup was compared to both T4b cases with involvement of bowel loops and with infiltration of other organs or structures. Results: T4N0 patients had worse oncologic outcomes than T1-2N1 patients and were comparable to T3N1 patients, regardless of margins status or lymph node collection. When a T4b tumor infiltrated bowel, survival and recurrence rates were similar to T4a cases, while T4b tumors involving other organs were associated with increased recurrence rate and reduced survival. Conclusions: T4N0 colon carcinoma remains associated with poor oncologic outcomes, regardless of treatment in a specialized center. The biologic aggressiveness of T4N0 colon cancers and the different oncologic outcomes according to specific organ infiltration should be taken into consideration in the choice of adjuvant therapies. © 2012 Society of Surgical Oncology
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
Laparoscopic colorectal resection for cancer: Effects of conversion on long-term oncologic outcomes
No full textBackground: The effects of conversion to open surgery during laparoscopic resection for colorectal cancer on longterm oncologic outcomes still are unclear. Methods: All 450 laparoscopic colorectal resections for cancer performed at a single center between 1994 and 2008 and included in a prospectively maintained database were considered. Patients who required conversion to open surgery (CONV) were matched 1:2 with laparoscopically completed cases (LAP) and 1:5 with open surgery cases (OPEN) for age, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, year of surgery, tumor location, and tumor stage. Fisher's exact, chi-square, and Wilcoxon tests were used as appropriate. Kaplan-Meier curves were compared to analyze survival. Results: In this study, 31 CONV cases were independently compared with 62 LAP and 155 OPEN cases. Compared with the LAP and OPEN patients, the CONV patients were characterized by a numerically higher rate of preoperative comorbidity (61.3% vs LAP, 51.6; P = 0.4 and OPEN, 48.4%; P = 0.2), male gender (77.4% vs LAP, 59.7%; P = 0.09 and OPEN, 58.1%; P = 0.05), and a significantly higher mean body mass index (29.6 vs LAP, 26.8; P = 0.012 and OPEN, 28.8; P = 0.3). The pathologic tumor stage, location, and chemotherapy and radiotherapy rates were comparable among the groups. After a median follow-up period of 4.1, 4.2, and 4.6 years, the 5-year disease-free survival rate was significantly lower for the CONV patients (40.2%) than for the LAP (70.7%, P = 0.01) or the OPEN (63.3%, P = 0.04) patients. However, the 5-year cancer-specific survival rates were similar among the CONV (94.4%), LAP (86.1%, P = 0.36), and OPEN (84.9%, P = 0.14) patients. Conclusions: Conversion to open surgery does not affect oncologic outcomes, although CONV patients have increased comorbidity rates affecting long-term mortality. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
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
We-Measure: Toward a low-cost portable posturography for patients with multiple sclerosis using the commercial Wii balance board
Full text linkThis study was aimed at investigating whether postural sway measures derived from a standard force platform were similar to those generated by a custom-written software (“We-Measure”) acquiring and processing data from a commercial Nintendo balance board (BB). For this purpose, 90 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and 50 healthy controls (HC) were tested in a single-day session with a reference standard force platform and a BB-based system.
Despite its acceptable between-device agreement (tested by visual evaluation of Bland–Altman plot), the low-cost BB-based system tended to overestimate postural sway when compared to the reference standard force platform in both MS and HC groups (on average +30% and +54%, respectively). Between-device reliability was just adequate (MS: 66%, HC: 47%), while test–retest reliability was excellent (MS: 84%, HC: 88%). Concurrent validity evaluation showed similar performance between the reference standard force platform and the BB-based system in discriminating fallers and non-fallers among patients with MS. All these findings may encourage the use of this balance board-based new device in longitudinal study, rather than in cross-sectional design, thus providing a potential useful tool for multicenter settings
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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