1,721,031 research outputs found
Clinical course and prognosis of individuals with severe alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency (PiZZ)
No full textSevere alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is a genetic disorder associated with increases risk of developing of chronic obstructive lung disease and liver disease. The Swedish National Registry for individuals with severe AATD was started 1991.Up to October 2008, a total of 1349 individuals were included in the registry. The aims of the studies in this thesis which bases on AATD registry are to analyse the mortality of PiZZ individuals with respect to smoking habits and mode of identification, to analyse the predictors of mortality and to analyse the most common causes of death, by including a large number of never-smoking individuals. Further aims were to assess whether there is a survival benefit of lung transplantation in PiZZ individuals with severe emphysema. In study I and II, the PiZZ individuals had a significantly increased mortality risk compared with general Swedish population. We found that the smokers had a significantly higher mortality rate than the never-smokers and than the general population. The never-smoking individuals identified by screening did not have an increased mortality risk compared with the general population. Emphysema is still the main underlying cause of death in smoker-and never-smokers. Liver cirrhosis-related mortality seems to be increased in elderly never-smoking individuals, cirrhosis and its complications were the cause of death in 26 of 93 never-smokers. Increasing age, decreasing FEV1 % of predicted value and presence of respiratory symptoms were associated with increased mortality risk in PiZZ individuals. Study III shows a significant survival benefit for lung transplantation in PiZZ individuals with severe emphysema, with an estimated median survival time of 11 years compared to 7 years in the non-transplant patients. Furthermore, in Sweden, patients seem to be referred to the lung transplantation centers late in the disease which may result in an unnecessarily increased mortality for this group of patients. In study IV we did not find any significant differences in age, gender or smoking habits between the index and non-index siblings. Neither was there any significant difference in lung function at inclusion. Our study population was young in both groups with a mean age of 40 years or younger and the majority of both them were identified by screening
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
The risk of burn injury during long-term oxygen therapy : a 17-year longitudinal national study in Sweden
No full textBackground: Long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) improves the survival time in hypoxemic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Despite warnings about potential dangers, a considerable number of patients continue to smoke while on LTOT. The incidence of burn injuries related to LTOT is unknown. The aim of this study was to estimate the rate of burn injury requiring health care contact during LTOT. Methods: Prospective, population-based, consecutive cohort study of people starting LTOT from any cause between January 1, 1992 and December 31, 2009 in the Swedish National Register of Respiratory Failure (Swedevox). Results: In total, 12,497 patients (53% women) were included. The mean (standard deviation) age was 72 +/- 9 years. The main reasons for starting LTOT were chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (75%) and pulmonary fibrosis (15%). Only 269 (2%) were active smokers when LTOT was initiated. The median follow-up time to event was 1.5 years (interquartile range, 0.55-3.1). In total, 17 patients had a diagnosed burn injury during 27,890 person-years of LTOT. The rate of burn injury was 61 (95% confidence interval, 36-98) per 100,000 person-years. There was no statistically significant difference in the rate of burn injury between ever-smokers and never-smokers, or between men and women. Conclusion: The rate of burn injuries in patients on LTOT seems to be low in Sweden. The strict requirements in Sweden for smoking cessation before LTOT initiation may contribute to this finding
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
The Clinical Profile of Subjects Included in the Swedish National Register on Individuals with Severe Alpha 1-Antitrypsin deficiency.
No full textThe Swedish national register of severe alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency was established in 1991. The main aims are to prospectively study the natural history of severe AAT deficiency, and to improve the knowledge of AAT deficiency. The inclusion criteria in the register are age ≥18 years, and the PiZ phenotype diagnosed by isoelectric focusing. The register is kept updated by means of repeated questionnaires providing data to allow analysis of the mode of identification, lung and liver function, smoking-habits, respiratory symptoms and diagnoses as reported by physicians. Until February 2014, a total of 1553 PiZZ individuals had been included in the register. The 1102 subjects still alive constituted about 20% of the adult PiZZ individuals in Sweden. Forty-three percent of the subjects had been identified during investigation of respiratory symptoms, 7% by an investigation of liver disease, 26% in an investigation of other pathological conditions, and 24% in a population or family screening. Forty five percent of the subjects had never smoked, 47% were ex-smokers, and 8% current smokers. Twenty-eight percent of the never-smokers, 72% of the ex-smokers, and 61% of the current smokers fulfilled the criteria for COPD with a FEV1/FVC ratio of <0.70. Among the 451 deceased, the most common cause of death was respiratory diseases (55%), followed by liver diseases (13%). We conclude that the detection rate of severe AAT deficiency is relatively high in Sweden. Large numbers of subjects are identified for other reasons than respiratory symptoms, and the majority of these have never smoked
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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