1,720,981 research outputs found
Evaluation of Adjuvant Antibiotic Loaded Injectable Bio-Composite Material in Diabetic Foot Osteomyelitis and Charcot Foot Reconstruction
No full textThe management of diabetic foot osteomyelitis (DFO) is extremely challenging with high amputation rates reported alongside a five-year mortality risk of more than fifty percent. We describe our experience in using adjuvant antibiotic-loaded bio-composite material (Cerament) in the surgical management of DFO and infected Charcot foot reconstruction. We undertook a retrospective evaluation of 53 consecutive patients (54 feet) who underwent Gentamicin or Vancomycin-loaded Cerament application during surgery. The feet were categorised into two groups: Group 1, with infected ulcer and DFO, managed with radical debridement only (n = 17), and Group 2, requiring reconstruction surgery for infected and deformed Charcot foot. Group 2 was further subdivided into 2a, with feet previously cleared of infection and undergoing a single-stage reconstruction (n = 19), and 2b, with feet having an active infection managed with a two-stage reconstruction (n = 18). The mean age was 56 years (27–83) and 59% (31/53) were males. The mean BMI was 30.2 kg/m2 (20.8–45.5). Foot ulcers were present in 69% (37/54) feet. At a mean follow-up of 30 months (12–98), there were two patients lost to follow up and the mortality rate was 11% (n = 5). The mean duration of post-operative systemic antibiotic administration was 20 days (4–42). Thirteen out of fifteen feet (87%) in group 1 achieved complete eradication of infection. There was a 100% primary ulcer resolution, 100% limb salvage and 76% bony union rate within Group 2. However, five patients, all in group 2, required reoperations due to problems with bone union. The use of antibiotic-loaded Cerament resulted in a high proportion of patients achieving infection clearance, functional limb salvage and decrease in the duration of postoperative antibiotic therapy. Larger, preferably randomised, studies are required to further validate these observations
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Laser Doppler Imager Flare (LDIflare) small fibre function
Get PDFDistal sensorimotor peripheral neuropathy (DSPN), the classical length dependent symmetrical neuropathy of diabetes, can affect up to 50% of those with diabetes leading to significant morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. There is increasing recognition that small nerve fibres, mediating pain, temperature and autonomic function, are involved early in the course of diabetic neuropathy, preceding large fibre involvement. However, assessment small fibre neuropathy (SFN), continues to be a significant challenge. The currently available options are either invasive, subjective with poor reproducibility, may not directly assess the region of interest or are still in a research phase. Thus, there is an ongoing need for simple, non-invasive and reproducible techniques for the evaluation of SFN.
The laser Doppler imager flare (LDIflare) is one such novel, non-invasive technique of assessing small fibre function. It has been shown to be a reliable indicator of small fibre neuropathy, even when other SFN markers are either inconclusive or normal. However, the original methodology, took over an hour to complete, which limited its use as a clinical tool. The LDIflare methodology was therefore modified to overcome this limitation by incorporating an accelerated acclimatisation phase and a shorter duration of skin heating but at a higher final temperature reducing the total procedure time to under 30 minutes. The size of the resultant flares was nearly twice as large compared to the older method while demonstrating similar group differences in those with and without clinical neuropathy. Assessment of the LDIflare in healthy volunteers (n=94) demonstrated significant inverse relationship of LDIflare size to age (r=-0.42, p<0.0001) but not with other anthropometric or metabolic factors except for fasting triglycerides (r=-0.36, p<0.0001). Furthermore, the LDIflare possessed a sensitivity of 77%, specificity of 90%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 82% and negative predictive value of (NPV) 87% for the detection of clinical neuropathy.
Recent observations, exploring into the aetiopathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy, have suggested that triggers for neuropathy development in the two main forms of diabetes may be different. Small fibre function (SFF) in individuals with type 1 diabetes with (MV+, n=24) and without (MV-, n=24) renal and retinal microvascular disease, but all without clinical neuropathy was assessed using the LDIflare. The finding of abnormal SFF only in the MV- group suggests that direct microvascular damage is an early aetiopathogenic factor in type 1 diabetes. Furthermore, in another study of normal glucose tolerant individuals not meeting the criteria for metabolic syndrome, SFF was observed to be abnormal with increasing fasting triglyceride concentrations. This is suggestive that hypertriglyceridaemia may play a pathogenic role in the development of neural dysfunction, and may partly explain the presence of neuropathy early in the course of type 2 diabetes, when significant hyperglycaemia is not a factor.
The LDIflare in its current modification is a novel, reliable, non-invasive measure and objective method of detecting small fibre neuropathy. It has good reproducibility and offers excellent accuracy for the detection of clinical neuropathy. The age based normative values allow for a clear distinction of abnormal results. While further comparative studies between the LDIflare and modern markers of SFN are desired, the studies included in this submission support the use of the LDIflare technique to investigate abnormalities in the peripheral nervous system, in particular small nerve fibres, in research but also in clinical domains
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe 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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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