Citation analysis of the most influential articles on traumatic spinal cord injury

Objective: We conducted a citation analysis in order to catalog and pay tribute to the 100 most influential clinical research articles in traumatic spinal cord injury.

Design: The Thomson Reuters Web of Science was searched in a two-step process without time period limitations. Review articles were excluded. In the first stage of data extraction, a Boolean query was used to identify the top 100 most cited clinical papers on traumatic spinal cord injury. One hundred and seven keywords were manually chosen and extracted from titles and abstracts. A second Boolean query used these keywords to broaden search results. The top 100 articles from this second stage search comprised the final list.

Outcome Measures: For each article, measures evaluated were number of citations, average number of citations per year, time elapsed before first citation, and time elapsed until the year in which each article received its respective highest number of citations in a one-year period.

Results: 119,991 articles were found in the second stage search. The top 100 most cited articles meeting inclusion criteria were identified within the first 2,104 results. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation was the most represented journal, with 20 of the top 100 articles. The top 100 list averaged 255 citations per article. The most highly cited article was the NASCIS 2 trial by Bracken et al., cited 1500 times, which investigated the efficacy of methylprednisolone or naloxone for spinal cord injury.

Conclusion: Clinical research in traumatic spinal cord injury has grown over time, expanding to encompass rehabilitation and experimental therapies in addition to acute management trials. The list may serve as an archive and reference for further studies in this field.     

Child sexual abuse in Tanzania: much noise,little justice

Every day in Tanzania, newspapers report horrible stories of the sexual abuse of children. This serious situation has aroused calls for stricter punishment of perpetrators, but little is being done to help the abused children. A 1997 analysis of these reports by the Tanzania Legal Human Rights Center has revealed that the majority of the perpetrators are adult males who are close to their victims and who hold positions of respect in society. The sexual abuse of children is fundamentally an expression of power over a child's life, and Tanzanian children have little control over their lives and are usually disciplined with corporeal punishment. Tanzanian children are accustomed to seeing men hurt weaker people without censure, and the children do not have the status to defend themselves against physical, psychological, or sexual abuse. Thus, child sexual abuse is an inevitable consequence in a society where children have no voice. It is impossible to condone physical and verbal abuse while condemning sexual abuse, and punishing the abusers will not solve the problem. Instead, perpetrators must be held accountable and made to understand the seriousness of their actions. In order to make amends to their victims, they should be required to pay for the child's health care and education and to perform mandatory community service to make children safer. Children must be given the opportunity to learn that they can say no to adults and refuse to accept abuse.     

Country watch. Tanzania

The Kuleana Center for Children's Rights in Mwanza, Tanzania, is using peer education, focus group discussions, and individual counseling to decrease high-risk sexual behavior on the part of street children. These program activities seek to raise the children's self-esteem, engage them in trusting and respectful relationships, and teach sex-related negotiation skills. The Center is also involved in advocacy work to build compassion and respect for these children within the community, thereby decreasing their harassment on the streets and isolation. Incidents of street children being held in police custody or prison, where they are frequently sexually assaulted, have significantly decreased as a result. To promote the health of these children at high risk of sexually transmitted diseases, the Center operates a small clinic to address basic health problems and runs training sessions for health workers on the special needs of this population. The Center's future goals include formation of a street children's mobile theater group, activities designed to promote group identity and solidarity, and research on the physical and sexual abuse of young girls working as domestic laborers.     

The perspective of employers/families and care recipients of migrant live‐in caregivers: a scoping review

In high‐income countries, migrant live‐in caregivers are increasingly in demand to provide health and social care in the home. While there is a wide range of research on the perspectives of live‐in caregivers (including domestic workers) in destination countries, few studies address the perspective of families who hire them. The aim of this study was to explore the extent, range and nature of international literature on the needs and experiences of employers/families and care recipients of live‐in caregivers. We undertook a scoping review of the literature on this topic using Arksey and O'Malley's five stages. With the assistance of a health science librarian, a comprehensive search of nine databases was undertaken from April to July 2014. Two research assistants independently reviewed 2493 articles. The data were analysed through data charting, numerical summary and thematic analysis. Thirteen articles met the inclusion criteria for the scoping review. Many of these studies (n = 7) were conducted in Israel, and the majority (n = 8) focus on elderly care recipients. The findings reveal the diverse roles live‐in caregivers perform, including emotional and physical care; changes in family dynamics and roles upon hiring a live‐in caregiver; the negative experiences, including abuse, of live‐in caregivers and elderly care recipients; the positive outcomes for families with a live‐in caregiver; and families’ common perception that live‐in caregivers are like kin, a part of the family. Furthermore, evidence points to some degree of bi‐directional emotional support between caregivers and employers/families, which adds complexity to their relations and the negotiation of power.     

Attenuation of streptozotocin-induced oxidative stress in hepatic and intestinal tissues of wistar rat by methanolic-garlic extract

Diabetes is a major socio-economical burden with serious health consequences. The reactive oxygen species generated in this pathology alters the internal milieu of the cellular systems paving way to metabolic disorders. In the present investigation garlic’s dose-dependent protective action against streptozotocin (STZ)-induced oxidative stress in hepatic and intestinal tissues has been studied. Methanolic garlic extract scavenged the DPPH radical with an IC₅₀ of 424 ± 4.4 μg/ml proving its efficient antioxidant property. Garlic administration at 250 and 500 mg/kg body wt. significantly normalized the blood glucose in the diabetic rats. Biochemical analysis revealed a pronounced oxidative stress in STZ-rats (G-II) consequent to hyperglycemia as seen by a significant (P < 0.05 and 0.01) rise in malondialdehyde, protein carbonyls; accumulation of glycation products; disintegration of protein integrity (tryptophan fluorescence) followed by a decrease in reduced glutathione, antioxidant (GPx and CAT) enzymes culminating in apoptosis. Garlic administration in a dose-dependent manner has been found to restore and normalize significantly the above changes and thus restoring a normal functional integrity. These beneficial effects are prominent with 500 mg/kg body wt. dosage of garlic in comparison with 250 mg/kg body wt. dosage. But, 500 mg/kg body wt. dosage is not totally free from side effects as the decrease in body weight and increased intestinal tissue apoptosis were also found in control rats administered with garlic extract at 500 mg/kg body wt. along with diabetic rats. Based on these findings it is suggested that consumption of garlic at a lower dose is beneficial in terms of defensive action against oxidative stress.     

Massive right atrial myxoma

Right atrial myxomas are uncommon and are often detected incidentally in asymptomatic individuals. We describe a case of a massive right atrial myxoma that was suspected following an abnormal right heart border on a chest X-ray and an abnormal 12 lead electrocardiogram.     

Differential growth of the freshwater mussel, Lamellidens marginalis in relation to certain drugs

The survival and growth rate of the Indian freshwater mussel, Lamellidens marginalis, (Lamarck) was ascertained in cultivation by using certain drugs in CIFA, fish farm, BBSR (India) during June 1998 to February 1999.Two sets of experiments were carried out to evaluate the effects of drugs like Betamethasone, Calcium, Azathioprine, Stanazolol, and Folic acid. Chloramphenicol was added with each treatment as prophylaxis to prevent the bacterial growth. In the first set, the inactiveness and mortality of the mussels in different drugs were studied through two different dosages and in subsequent tests the fixation of dosage was employed. The study in the second set was regarding the survival, increment of shell length, its thickness, and wet weight in response to different drugs therapy. The drugs were administered parenterally in "fixed dosage" at a regular interval of 21-23 days. The survival rate was good with Betamethasone and Azathioprine that is 75%, whereas it was 16.66% in Folic acid treatment. But the mussels originating from the control site had the significant survival rate though the growth rate was average. Calcium treatment had shown a marked increment of shell thickness and luster. The culture was lasted for 160 days. The wet weight gain of mussels in all the treatments were significant, p<0.0001 whereas increment of shell thickness was significant only in treatment B (Calcium) and treatment D (Azathioprine), p<0.0001 but with regard to the increment of length of mussel, treatment E (Stanazolol) was not significant, p>0.05. The regression analysis was adopted to find out the coefficient of determination (R(2)=0.90, being the best) from the relationship between length and weight of mussels and to establish the LWR equation with condition factor k=W/L(b).     

Effect of cholesterol on the release of amphotericin B from PEG-phospholipid micelles

Micelles formed from PEG-DSPE solubilize high levels of the poorly water-soluble antifungal amphotericin B (AmB). AmB release from PEG-DSPE micelles is slow in buffer but remarkably rapid in the presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA). Sequential changes in the absorbance spectrum of AmB in PEG-DSPE micelles point to a rapid dissociation of incorporated drug in the presence of BSA. In this context, we have studied micelles formed from PEG-DSPE which coincorporate cholesterol (PEG-DSPE|cholesterol). (1)H NMR measurements point to a lower mobility of lipid in PEG-DSPE|cholesterol micelles compared to PEG-DSPE micelles. The absorbance spectrum of AmB incorporated in PEG-DSPE|cholesterol micelles is distinct from that in PEG-DSPE micelles, which may point to differences in the drug-micelle interaction. AmB release from PEG-DSPE|cholesterol micelles is slow in buffer and in the presence of BSA. The absorption spectrum of AmB in PEG-DSPE|cholesterol micelles remained unchanged in BSA, further supporting stable incorporation and the slow release from the carrier.