Far from random? The role of homophily in student supervision

The paper studies racial and gender homophily in student supervision relationships in a context of social transformations, South Africa academia. We develop a technique to separate choice homophily from that induced by the system. Comprising two permutation tests repeated at two levels of aggregation, system and departments. We find clear evidence of homophily in student supervision, along racial lines in particular. Roughly half of the observed homophily is induced by the departments composition and stays constant over time. Overall, choice homophily has similar magnitude along racial and gender dimensions. Further, we ask where choice homophily originates in the demographic groups of students and professors. We find that white (male) students have high tendency to form same-type relations, while among professors it is black (female) who display the higher frequency. Group differences show that choice homophily is likely to originate from students in the former majority

The role of early-career university prestige stratification on the future academic performance of scholars

Prestige and mobility are important aspects of academic life that play a critical role during early-career. After PhD graduation scholars have to compete for positions in the labour market. Unfortunately, many of them have few research products such that their inherent ability and skills remain mostly unobserved for hiring committees. Institutional prestige in this context is a key mechanism that signals the quality of candidates, and many studies have shown that a “good” affiliation can confer manyopportunities for future career development. We know little, however, about how changes of scholar’sinstitutional prestige during early-career relate to future academic performance. In this paper, we use an algorithm to rank universities based on hiring networks in Mexico. We distinguish three groups ofscholars that move Up,Down or Stay in the prestige hierarchy between PhD graduation and first job. After controlling for individual characteristics by matching scholars with equal training or the same first job institution, we find that scholars hired by their existing faculty sustain higher performance over their career in comparison to other groups. Interestingly, we find that scholars that move up the hierarchy exhibit, on average, lower academic performance than the other groups. We argue that the negative relation between upward ranking mobility and performance is related to the difficulties in changing research teams at an early-career stage and to the so-called “big-fish-small-pond” effect. We observe a high stratification of universities by prestige and a negative association between mobility and performance that can hinder the flows of knowledge throughout the science syste

Ph.D. research output in STEM: the role of gender and race in supervision

We study whether student-advisor gender and race couples matter for publication productivity of Ph.D. students in South Africa. We consider the sample of all Ph.D.s in STEM graduating between 2000 and 2014, after the recent systematic introduction of doctoral programs in this country. We investigate the joint effects of gender and race for the whole sample and looking separately at the sub-samples of (1) whitewhite; (2) black-black; and (3) black-white student-advisor couples. We find early career productivity differences: while female students publish on average 10% to 20% fewer articles than males, this is true mainly for female students working with a male advisor, not for those working with a female one. These disparities are similar, though more pronounced, when looking at the joint effects of gender and race for the white-white and black-black student-advisor pairs. We also explore whether publication productivity differences change significantly for students with a high, medium, or low “productivity-profile”, and find that they are U-shaped. Female students with a high (or low) “productivity-profile” studying with female advisors are as productive than male students with a high (or low) “productivity-profile” studying with male advisor

Long-Term Use of Cardiovascular Drugs Challenges for Research and for Patient Care

AbstractLittle is known about the benefits and risks of the long-term use of cardiovascular drugs. Evidence from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) rarely goes beyond a few years of follow-up, but patients are often given continuous treatment with multiple drugs well into old age. We focus on 4 commonly used cardiovascular drug classes: aspirin, statins, beta-blockers, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors given to patients after myocardial infarction. However, the issues raised apply more broadly to all long-term medications across cardiovascular diseases and the whole of medicine. The evidence and limitations of RCTs are addressed, as well as current practice in pre-licensing trials, the increasing problems of polypharmacy (especially in the elderly), the lack of trial evidence for withdrawal of drugs, the role of regulatory authorities and other stakeholders in this challenging situation, and the potential educational solutions for the medical profession. We conclude with a set of recommendations on how to improve the situation of long-term drug use

Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis and follow-up of multicentric infantile myofibromatosis: A case report

Myofibromatosis is an uncommon disorder of infancy, characterized by proliferation of myofibroblasts in solitary or multiple nodules. The clinical characteristics depend on the involved sites: Myofibromatosis may develop as a musculoskeletal form, with non-painful swellings and eventual mass effect symptoms, or as a generalized form with visceral involvement and organ failure. Prognosis and therapy vary between the abovementioned patterns. When there is no visceral involvement, the tumors may regress spontaneously; however, the visceral form may represent a lifethreatening condition with poor outcome and it requires aggressive management. Imaging assessment of disease spread is mandatory to determine diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. Due to the young age of the patients, a radiation-free evaluation is recommended. We herein describe a case of musculoskeletal myofibromatosis diagnosed in a 3-month-old male infant, investigated by serial wholebody magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination. The histological analysis and MRI characteristics enabled a correct diagnosis and organ involvement assessment with no radiation exposure. Moreover, whole-body MRI sequences provided a detailed evaluation of the disease within a short time frame, reducing the time of sedation, which is required to perform MRI in very young patients. Therefore, whole-body MRI was found to be accurate and safe in the diagnosis and follow-up of multicentric infantile myofibromatosis.Myofibromatosis is an uncommon disorder of infancy, characterized by proliferation of myofibroblasts in solitary or multiple nodules. The clinical characteristics depend on the involved sites: Myofibromatosis may develop as a musculoskeletal form, with non-painful swellings and eventual mass effect symptoms, or as a generalized form with visceral involvement and organ failure. Prognosis and therapy vary between the abovementioned patterns. When there is no visceral involvement, the tumors may regress spontaneously; however, the visceral form may represent a lifethreatening condition with poor outcome and it requires aggressive management. Imaging assessment of disease spread is mandatory to determine diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. Due to the young age of the patients, a radiation-free evaluation is recommended. We herein describe a case of musculoskeletal myofibromatosis diagnosed in a 3-month-old male infant, investigated by serial wholebody magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination. The histological analysis and MRI characteristics enabled a correct diagnosis and organ involvement assessment with no radiation exposure. Moreover, whole-body MRI sequences provided a detailed evaluation of the disease within a short time frame, reducing the time of sedation, which is required to perform MRI in very young patients. Therefore, whole-body MRI was found to be accurate and safe in the diagnosis and follow-up of multicentric infantile myofibromatosis

Orthorexia nervosa: A cross-sectional study among athletes competing in endurance sports in Northern Italy

Orthorexia Nervosa (ON) is an eating disorder marked by an excessive control over the quality of the food eaten. Some groups present a higher prevalence of ON and people practicing sports seems to be a population at risk. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of ON in endurance athletes and to compare their prevalence with the ones recorded in the sedentary population and in athletes playing other sports. A cross-sectional survey was carried in Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta, among 549 participants in local sports events aged between 18 and 40 years old. The questionnaire assessed socio-demographic characteristics, physical activity, nutrition and diet, the ORTO-15 questionnaire and Eating Habits Questionnaire (EHQ). The sample was stratified according to the minutes of sport practiced in a week and the type of sport played. Crosstab chi-square analyses to determine group differences on categorical variables (e.g. gender), and ANOVAs or t tests to determine group differences on continuous variables were performed. When required, post hoc analyses were performed. Linear and logistic regressions were performed in order to investigate potential predictors of orthorexia. The EHQ mean scores ware significantly higher in people who practice sports >150 minutes/week. EHQ score resulted to be positively correlated with endurance sport practice >150 minutes/week, with a coefficient of 2.407 (I.C.95% [0.27;4.54], p = 0.027). Analyses carried out suggested a correlation between endurance sport practice and ON. Further studies should be performed to identify diagnostic criteria and to compare different questionnaire used to assess them

The Risk of Toxicities from Trastuzumab, Alone or in Combination, in an Elderly Breast Cancer Population

Abstract Background: Breast cancer in the elderly is associated with high recurrence and death rates, due mostly to undertreatment. Human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2) overexpression is infrequent in older patients. Trastuzumab- based chemotherapy is often withheld from elderly patients because of its cardiotoxicity. Patients and Methods: Medical records of consecutive HER2-positive breast cancer patients aged 65 70 years old treated between 2005 and 2010 in the participating centers were retrospectively reviewed. All patients underwent multidimensional geriatric assessment (MGA). Results: Among 59 patients identified, 51 patients were evaluable (median age 76 years). The rate of any adverse event was 20% (10/51). The most relevant cardiac adverse event consisted of symptomatic congestive heart failure (CHF; n = 1, 2%) followed by asymptomatic decreases of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF; n = 6, 12%). Other toxicities included moderate hypersensitivity reactions during trastuzumab infusions (n = 3, 6%). Hypertension, obesity, prior anthracyclines exposure and concurrent chemotherapy were associated with a higher incidence of toxic events. Previous radiotherapy, concurrent endocrine therapy and different trastuzumab-based regimens did not seem to influence toxicity. Conclusions: Our data suggest that trastuzumab has a good safety profile in nonfrail women aged 70 years and older. These favorable findings may be related to a limited number of anthracycline pretreatments, patient selection and a close cardiologic monitoring

Safety and activity of trastuzumab-containing therapies for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer: our long-term clinical experience (GOIM study).

Background: Trastuzumab is widely used as the treatment of choice for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Patients and methods: Seventy patients, median age 57 years and range 31–81 years, were included in our retrospective analysis with the aim to evaluate safety and activity of trastuzumab-containing therapies. Results: We observed for first-line treatment response rate (RR) 41%, stable disease (SD) 47% and time to progression (TTP) 8 months (range 1–44). Corresponding numbers for second line were RR 23%, SD 62% and (TTP) 9 months (range 3–23) and beyond second line RR 22%, SD 78% and (TTP) 9 months (range 4–19). Overall survival was 19.2 months (3–62 months). The median cumulative dose of trastuzumab administrated was 5286 mg (464–17 940 mg). Trastuzumab was well tolerated. Median left ventricular ejection function (LVEF) at baseline was 62% and at the end of treatment was 59%. The more relevant adverse events consisted of an asymptomatic decrease in LVEF to 40% (baseline 60%) and a grade 3 symptomatic increase in bilirubin. Conclusion: Trastuzumab-containing therapies in MBC show a good safety and toxicity profile and a remarkable activity even in heavily pretreated women. Patients should benefit from continued trastuzumab therapy, as shown by the maintenance of (TTP) even beyond second-line treatment