1,721,229 research outputs found

    Evidence-based vs. 'impressionist' medicine: how best to implement guidelines.

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    Implementing clinical practice guidelines improves outcomes. This has been shown by several large scale registries. However, in spite of this, guidelines are poorly implemented in clinical practice for a wide variety of reasons. We examine the reasons behind the low uptake of guidelines into routine medical practice. Many physicians are simply not aware that guidelines exist; or they do not believe in them; or they simply do not care to implement them. Economic and social factors may also influence uptake of guidelines. It is the role of professional societies to disseminate best scientific knowledge, and ensure optimum implementation of guidelines. This can be achieved through educational activities and CME credit. Close collaboration between the profession, health authorities, and maybe even the industry could improve uptake of clinical practice guidelines, and thereby improve patient outcome

    Rationale and design of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of ivabradine in patients with stable coronary artery disease and left ventricular systolic dysfunction: the morBidity-mortality EvAlUaTion of the I-f inhibitor ivabradine in patients with coronary disease and left ventricULar dysfunction (BEAUTIFUL) Study

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    Background Raised resting heart rate (HR) is associated with increased cardiovascular and total mortality. Ivabradine is a new specific HR-reducing agent, which has been shown to have antianginal and anti-ischemic properties in patients with stable angina. Because patients with coronary artery disease and left ventricular dysfunction are at high risk of cardiac events and death, we hypothesized that they could derive particular benefit from a specific HR-lowering agent such as ivabradine. Methods BEAUTIFUL is a multicenter, randomized, international, double-blind placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the superiority of ivabradine over placebo in reducing cardiovascular events in patients with stable coronary artery disease and left ventricular systolic dysfunction (ejection fraction V39%). The primary end point is the composite of cardiovascular mortality and hospital admission for acute myocardial infarction or new onset or worsening of heart failure. This event-driven study will randomize 9650 patients and continue until 950 primary end points have occurred, providing 90% power to detect a 19% reduction in relative risk. In approximately 660 centers, men and women aged z55 years if nondiabetic and z18 years if diabetic are randomized to placebo or oral ivabradine (5 mg twice daily for 2 weeks then target dose of 7.5 mg twice daily). Follow-up is expected to last between 18 and 36 months. Results The first patient was randomized in January 2005. Conclusion BEAUTIFUL will be the first major outcome trial of a specific HR-reducing agent. The study results are expected in 2008

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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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