1,721,303 research outputs found
Diet, Lifestyle, Smoking
No full textCardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally The past few decades have shown that especially low- and middle-income countries have undergone rapid industrialization, urbanization, economic development and market globalization. Although these developments led to many positive changes in health outcomes and increased life expectancies, they all also caused inappropriate dietary patterns, physical inactivity and obesity. Evidence shows that a large proportion of the cardiovascular disease burden can be explained by behavioural factors such as low physical activity, unhealthy diet and smoking. Controlling these risk factors from early ages is important for maintaining cardiovascular health. Even in patients with genetic susceptibility to cardiovascular disease, risk factor modification is beneficial. Despite the tremendous advances in the medical treatment of cardiovascular risk factors to reduce overall cardiovascular risk, the modern lifestyle which has led to greater sedentary time, lower participation in active transport and time spent in leisure or purposeful physical activity, unhealthy diets and increased exposure to stress, noise and pollution have diminished the beneficial effects of contemporary medical cardiovascular prevention strategies. Therefore attenuating or eliminating these health risk behaviours and risk factors is imperative in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases
TRILOGY-ACS and ACCOAST trial from an expert's perspective
No full textIn patients with acute coronary syndromes not undergoing revascularisation, it is important to decrease ischemic and bleeding complications. TRILOGY-ACS study randomised patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndromes not undergoing revascularisation to clopidogrel or prasugrel. The primary endpoint of 30 day cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction or stroke was not different between the two groups in a median follow up of 17 months. A prespecified subgroup analysis showed that the subgroup with angiographically confirmed coronary artery disease benefited from prasugrel more. It was also shown that titrating dose according to patient characteristics decreased bleeding. To clarify the optimal timing of thienopyridine administration, ACCOAST study compared the effects of prasugrel administration at the time of diagnosis and after angiography in patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndromes. Prasugrel pretreatment did not decrease the 30-day rate of major ischemic events but increased major bleeding in patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndromes and those undergoing catheterization. These results support the guidelines recommending prasugrel administration after the coronary anatomy is defined
Dyslipidemia, atherosclerosis, and vulnerable plaques: the effect of atorvastatin on atherosclerosis and plaque structure
No full textAtherosclerotic vascular disease is characterized by inflammation and lipid accumulation resulting from detrimental effects of several risk factors on vascular structure, including dyslipidemia. The disease progresses slowly and insidiously resulting in acute coronary syndromes when the plaque ruptures. The plaques having a high propensity to rupture are defined as vulnerable. The vulnerability of the plaque is determined by several factors such as its lipid content, degree of inflammation, strength of the fibrous cap, degree of apoptosis, necrosis, and neovascularization. The patient's risk profile and characteristics are also related to the vulnerability of plaques. The main aim in preventive cardiology is to prevent the formation of atherosclerotic plaques or to stabilize the existing plaques to decrease cardiovascular events. Lifestyle modifications, reduction in risk factors, and some pharmacologic measures can improve plaque stabilization. Statins contribute to plaque stabilization by their lipid lowering and pleiotropic effects. Several studies have shown that, with statin treatment, the plaque becomes more stable, resulting in a decrease in cardiovascular events. This review summarizes the studies about plaque-stabilizing effects of atorvastatin
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
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