1,721,803 research outputs found
Self-reported ill health in male UK Gulf War veterans: a retrospective cohort study.
Full text linkBACKGROUND: Forces deployed to the first Gulf War report more ill health than veterans who did not serve there. Many studies of post-Gulf morbidity are based on relatively small sample sizes and selection bias is often a concern. In a setting where selection bias relating to the ill health of veterans may be reduced, we: i) examined self-reported adult ill health in a large sample of male UK Gulf War veterans and a demographically similar non-deployed comparison group; and ii) explored self-reported ill health among veterans who believed that they had Gulf War syndrome. METHODS: This study uses data from a retrospective cohort study of reproduction and child health in which a validated postal questionnaire was sent to all UK Gulf War veterans (GWV) and a comparison cohort of Armed Service personnel who were not deployed to the Gulf (NGWV). The cohort for analysis comprises 42,818 males who responded to the questionnaire. RESULTS: We confirmed that GWV report higher rates of general ill health. GWV were significantly more likely to have reported at least one new medical symptom or disease since 1990 than NGWV (61% versus 37%, OR 2.7, 95% CI 2.5-2.8). They were also more likely to report higher numbers of symptoms. The strongest associations were for mood swings (OR 20.9, 95%CI 16.2-27.0), memory loss/lack of concentration (OR 19.6, 95% CI 15.5-24.8), night sweats (OR 9.9, 95% CI 6.5-15.2), general fatigue (OR 9.6, 95% CI 8.3-11.1) and sexual dysfunction (OR 4.6, 95%CI 3.2-6.6). 6% of GWV believed they had Gulf War syndrome (GWS), and this was associated with the highest symptom reporting. CONCLUSIONS: Increased levels of reported ill health among GWV were confirmed. This study was the first to use a questionnaire which did not focus specifically on the veterans' symptoms themselves. Nevertheless, the results are consistent with those of other studies of post-Gulf war illness and thus strengthen overall findings in this area of research. Further examination of the mechanisms underlying the reporting of ill health is required
Diurnal patterns of salivary cortisol and cortisone output in chronic fatigue syndrome
No full textBackground
The aim of the present study was to obtain a naturalistic measure of diurnal hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis output in CFS patients unaffected by medication or comorbid psychiatric disorder likely to influence the axis.Method
Cortisol and cortisone levels were measured in saliva samples collected from 0600 h to 2100 h at 3-h intervals in CFS patients and healthy controls.Results
Mean cortisol and cortisone concentrations were significantly lower in patients than controls across the whole day, as were levels at each individual time point except 2100 h. Cosinor analysis showed a significant diurnal rhythm of cortisol and cortisone that was not phase-shifted in CFS compared to controls. However, there was a lower rhythm-adjusted mean and a lower amplitude in CFS patients. The cortisol/cortisone ratio showed no diurnal rhythm and did not differ between CFS subjects and controls.Limitations
The sample size was relatively small, and drawn from specialist referral patients who had been ill for some time; generalisation of these results to other populations is therefore unwarranted.Conclusion
The main findings of this study are to provide further evidence for reduced basal HPA axis function in at least some patients with CFS and to show for the first time that salivary cortisone is also reduced in CFS and has a diurnal rhythm similar to that of cortisol. We have also demonstrated that the cortisol/cortisone ratio remains unchanged in CFS, suggesting that increased conversion of cortisol to cortisone cannot account for the observed lowering of salivary cortisol. <br/
Dramatic reduction in triplet and higher order births in England and Wales.
No full textThe proportion of multiple births has increased markedly since 1980 in England and Wales. A major contribution to this trend is thought to be the widespread introduction of assisted reproductive technologies. Despite a continuing (but slower) upward trend in twin maternities, analysis of recent data shows that the rate of triplet and higher order births in England and Wales has declined by one-quarter since 1998. This probably reflects both voluntary and statutory regulation of treatment regimes. This downward trend will help alleviate the high burden of perinatal morbidity and mortality associated with multiple births
Experience of miscarriage in the UK: qualitative findings from the National Women's Health Study.
No full textMiscarriage is the most common adverse outcome in pregnancy. For many women it is a traumatic experience. Previous research has identified shortcomings in the emotional and social support provided for miscarriage sufferers but personal accounts of pregnancy loss remain relatively under-explored. The UK National Women's Health Study (NWHS) is a nationally representative survey of women's reproductive histories. It provided an opportunity to study accounts of miscarriage written in response to an invitation for further comments on the survey questionnaire. In conjunction with quantitative findings from the NWHS, we thematically analysed 172 detailed narratives that facilitated qualitative exploration of a characteristically private event. Analysis of the narratives suggested that few women who had planned their pregnancy were satisfied with fatalistic explanations of miscarriage. Those who were not given medical explanations for their loss engaged in complex searches for meaning, often linked to accounts of their moral deservedness as mothers. The narratives highlighted tensions between biomedical and lay understandings of pregnancy loss. There were reports of inappropriate medicalisation and a perceived lack of emotional support, but also a desire for medical validation of the reality of miscarriage and investigations to identify medical causes. Professionals' reported behaviour played a key role in women's accounts. These findings remind providers that: women do not experience miscarriage as a routine complication; medicalisation is both resisted and desired; and, for some women, more support and information is needed to assist their search for meaning
La psichiatria tra ricerca "theory enhancing", ricerca "change promoting" e pratica clinica. Una sfida sostenibile
No full textPsychiatr
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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