1,720,965 research outputs found
Risk of recurrence after nephrectomy: Comparison of predictive ability of validated risk models
No full textObjective: To assess accuracy of University of California Los Angeles Integrated Staging System (UISS), Stage, Size, Grade and Necrosis (SSIGN) score, Leibovich score and GRade, Age, Nodes and Tumor (GRANT) score, the ASSURE (Adjuvant Sunitinib or Sorafenib vs. placebo in resected Unfavorable REnal cell carcinoma) score models and seventh American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)/TNM staging system in predicting recurrence-free survival (RFS) in surgically-treated non-metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients. Materials and methods: Kaplan-Meier curves and the log-rank test tested RFS according to risk groups among the UISS, SSIGN, Leibovich and GRANT models and the AJCC/TNM system. The Heagerty's C-index for survival tested for discrimination of each model at different time points after nephrectomy. Results: Three hundred and fifty-eight M0 ccRCC patients were included. RFS significantly differed among each risk category for all models (P < 0.001). SSIGN showed the highest c-index over time (from 0.89 at 6-month to 0.82 at 60-month), followed by Leibovich (from 0.89–0.82), AJCC/TNM stage (from 0.82–0.77), ASSURE (from 0.81 to 0.76), GRANT (from 0.83–0.73) and UISS (from 0.76–0.72). For all models, peak discriminatory ability was reached before 12 months. The most prominent decline occurred within 24 months and reaches the lowest discriminatory ability at 60 months. Conclusions: Predictive models, with preference for SSIGN and Leibovich scores, are reliable to predict recurrence after nephrectomy and should be recommended to tailor postoperative surveillance protocols
Sexual function in women undergoing hemodialytic treatment assessed using the female sexual function index (FSFI) and the somatic inkblot series (SIS) test
No full textAims: Female sexuality in end-stage renal disease has so far only been explored using non-validated tools. The aim of this study was to compare sexual function among hemodialyzed (HD) patients and healthy controls using validated questionnaires. Material: Two internationally validated tests have been administrated: the female sexual function index (FSFI) questionnaire and a set of tables from the somatic inkblot series (SIS) test which focus specifically on the area of sexuality. Methods: 25 consecutive HD patients were assessed for sexual function using the FSFI. Nine SIS inkblots concerning sexuality were also administered to obtain more detailed information about the psychological component of sexuality. An equal number of control healthy volunteers perfectly matched for age, marital status and educational level underwent the same evaluations, and the results of the two groups were compared. Results: HD patients had significantly lower scores than the controls for all FSFI domains except sexual desire even when stratified by age and marital status. All sexually related thematic areas of the SIS except body perception were significantly affected in the HD group compared to the control group. Conclusions: Chronic renal failure requiring HD treatment adversely affects female sexual function. The psychological impact on patients is significant when compared to an age-matched control group. Both the FSFI questionnaire and the SIS test may be considered useful tools for an integrated medical and psychological screening of FSD
Sexual function in women undergoing hemodialytic treatment assessed using the female sexual function index (FSFI) and the somatic inkblot series (SIS) test
No full textGoing 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
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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