For Publishers
DiscoveryMetadataPeer reviewHostingPublishing
For Researchers
JoinPublishReviewCollect
Register
Blog
About
Search
Advanced search
My ScienceOpen
Search
For Publishers
For Researchers
Blog
About
27
views
6
references
 Top references
cited by
6
    
0 reviews
 Review
0
comments
 Comment
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      40
      similar
       All similar
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Visualizing Clinical Evidence: Citation Networks for the Incubation Periods of Respiratory Viral Infections

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Simply by repetition, medical facts can become enshrined as truth even when there is little empirical evidence supporting them. We present an intuitive and clear visual design for tracking the citation history of a particular scientific fact over time. We apply this method to data from a previously published literature review on the incubation period of nine respiratory viral infections. The resulting citation networks reveal that the conventional wisdom about the incubation period for these diseases was based on a small fraction of available data and in one case, on no retrievable empirical evidence. Overall, 50% of all incubation period statements did not provide a source for their estimate and 65% of original sources for incubation period data were not incorporated into subsequent publications. More standardized and widely available methods for visualizing these histories of medical evidence are needed to ensure that conventional wisdom cannot stray too far from empirically supported knowledge.

          Related collections

          Most cited references6

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          An outbreak of influenza aboard a commercial airliner.

          Jeffrey H Margolis, A P Kendal, Jeffrey Bender … (1979)
          A jet airliner with 54 persons aboard was delayed on the ground for three hours because of engine failure during a takeoff attempt. Most passengers stayed on the airplane during the delay. Within 72 hours, 72 per cent of the passengers became ill with symptoms of cough, fever, fatigue, headache, sore throat and myalgia. One passenger, the apparent index case, was ill on the airplane, and the clinical attack rate among the others varied with the amount of time spent aboard. Virus antigenically similar to A/Texas/1/77(H3N2) was isolated from 8 of 31 passengers cultured, and 20 of 22 ill persons tested had serologic evidence of infection with this virus. The airplane ventilation system was inoperative during the delay and this may account for the high attack rate.
          Article 0 comments Cited 155 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            "Drink at least eight glasses of water a day." Really? Is there scientific evidence for "8 x 8"?

            H Valtin (2002)
            Despite the seemingly ubiquitous admonition to "drink at least eight 8-oz glasses of water a day" (with an accompanying reminder that beverages containing caffeine and alcohol do not count), rigorous proof for this counsel appears to be lacking. This review sought to find the origin of this advice (called "8 x 8" for short) and to examine the scientific evidence, if any, that might support it. The search included not only electronic modes but also a cursory examination of the older literature that is not covered in electronic databases and, most importantly and fruitfully, extensive consultation with several nutritionists who specialize in the field of thirst and drinking fluids. No scientific studies were found in support of 8 x 8. Rather, surveys of food and fluid intake on thousands of adults of both genders, analyses of which have been published in peer-reviewed journals, strongly suggest that such large amounts are not needed because the surveyed persons were presumably healthy and certainly not overtly ill. This conclusion is supported by published studies showing that caffeinated drinks (and, to a lesser extent, mild alcoholic beverages like beer in moderation) may indeed be counted toward the daily total, as well as by the large body of published experiments that attest to the precision and effectiveness of the osmoregulatory system for maintaining water balance. It is to be emphasized that the conclusion is limited to healthy adults in a temperate climate leading a largely sedentary existence, precisely the population and conditions that the "at least" in 8 x 8 refers to. Equally to be emphasized, lest the message of this review be misconstrued, is the fact (based on published evidence) that large intakes of fluid, equal to and greater than 8 x 8, are advisable for the treatment or prevention of some diseases and certainly are called for under special circumstances, such as vigorous work and exercise, especially in hot climates. Since it is difficult or impossible to prove a negative-in this instance, the absence of scientific literature supporting the 8 x 8 recommendation-the author invites communications from readers who are aware of pertinent publications.
            Article 0 comments Cited 40 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Determination of the appropriate quarantine period following smallpox exposure: an objective approach using the incubation period distribution.

              Hiroshi Nishiura (2008)
              Determination of the most appropriate quarantine period for those exposed to smallpox is crucial to the construction of an effective preparedness program against a potential bioterrorist attack. This study reanalyzed data on the incubation period distribution of smallpox to allow the optimal quarantine period to be objectively calculated. In total, 131 cases of smallpox were examined; incubation periods were extracted from four different sets of historical data and only cases arising from exposure for a single day were considered. The mean (median and standard deviation (SD)) incubation period was 12.5 (12.0, 2.2) days. Assuming lognormal and gamma distributions for the incubation period, maximum likelihood estimates (and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI)) of the 95th percentile were 16.4 (95% CI: 15.6, 17.9) and 16.2 (95% CI: 15.5, 17.4) days, respectively. Using a non-parametric method, the 95th percentile point was estimated as 16 (95% CI: 15, 17) days. The upper 95% CIs of the incubation periods at the 90th, 95th and 99th percentiles were shorter than 17, 18 and 23 days, respectively, using both parametric and non-parametric methods. These results suggest that quarantine measures can ensure non-infection among those exposed to smallpox with probabilities higher than 95-99%, if the exposed individuals are quarantined for 18-23 days after the date of contact tracing.
              Article 0 comments Cited 21 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
                Bookmark
                All references

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                : Role: Editor
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One
                Journal ID (publisher-id): plos
                Journal ID (pmc): plosone
                Title: PLoS ONE
                Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203
                Publication date Collection: 2011
                Publication date (Electronic): 29 April 2011
                Volume: 6
                Issue: 4
                Electronic Location Identifier: e19496
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
                [2 ]Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
                University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
                Author notes

                Conceived and designed the experiments: JL NGR DATC. Analyzed the data: NGR. Wrote the paper: JL NGR TMP DATC. Designed and created the citation network graphics: JL.

                Article
                Publisher ID: PONE-D-10-04524
                DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019496
                PMC ID: 3084881
                PubMed ID: 21559339
                SO-VID: 10f7453c-a05f-4eeb-a804-0bfb7d32f25a
                Copyright statement: Reich et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
                History
                Date received : 2 November 2010
                Date accepted : 8 April 2011
                Page count
                Pages: 6
                Categories
                Subject: Research Article
                Subject: Medicine
                Subject: Epidemiology
                Subject: Clinical Epidemiology
                Subject: Disease Informatics
                Subject: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
                Subject: Infectious Diseases
                Subject: Viral Diseases
                Subject: Common Cold
                Subject: Human Metapneumovirus Infection
                Subject: Human Parainfluenza Virus Infection
                Subject: Influenza
                Subject: Rhinovirus Infection
                Subject: SARS
                Subject: Science Policy
                Subject: Research Assessment
                Subject: Research Validity
                Subject: Reproducibility
                Subject: Research Errors
                Subject: Publication Practices

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized

                Comments

                Comment on this article

                scite_

                Similar content40

                See all similar

                Cited by6

                See all cited by

                Most referenced authors167

                See all reference authors