Istribution (male: 83.89 papillary, 8.23 follicular thyroid cancer; female: 89.99 papillary, 5.82 follicular thyroid cancer [6]) is very similar to that in most countries [2, 38, 39], so the results may be generalized to majority of the clinical settings. Second, information regarding individual ultrasound features, risk factors for thyroid cancer, actual needle size and technique (with or without ultrasound guidance) used during thyroid puncture are either unrecorded or not completely distinguishable from the LHID database. Third, the LHID contains the clinical, but not the cytological diagnoses of patients. Methods for cytological preparation, ancillary studies and cytological classification system adopted (Bethesda or others) are not available as well. However, most aspirated thyroid tissues are directly smeared (for Papanicolaou stain or Liu’s stain) without further split sample comparison or ancillary studies in Taiwan, and smears are reviewed by certified cytopathologists. Therefore, although studies have shown inconsistent diagnostic ability of direct smears and liquid-PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0127354 May 28,8 /Thyroid FNA and Thyroid Cancer Diagnosisbased cytology [40?3], and that the classification variety may possibly affect results, the effect should be limited and can be minimized by statistic adjustment in this study. Further primary data analysis is warranted for related investigation. In conclusion, many thyroid cancers can be identified within half a year to one year or after 1? aspirations, although nearly 40 of thyroid cancers may remain undiagnosed after the first aspirations. Hence, it is crucial to remember the limitation of the examinations and stress the importance of regular follow-up.Author ContributionsConceived and designed the experiments: LH DC PC. Performed the experiments: LH. Analyzed the data: LH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LH DC. Wrote the paper: LH DC YL WC.
Science is a human endeavor. As such, it benefits from all virtues and suffers from all paradoxes inherent to humans. Among these are the old problems of appreciating and measuring research achievements [1]. When judging what is and what is not scientifically interesting or important, scientists are not just subjective, but often offer arguments that stem from poor understanding of the academic culture and tradition in fields other than their own. In the age of Big data, science of science is emerging as an attempt to scientifically jir.2014.0227 examine the science 1.07839E+15 Cibinetide manufacturer itself [2, 3]. This young field has potential to answer some of the oldest questions about scientific progress, such as elucidating the sociological mechanisms leading to new discoveries [4?], or ARA290 supplement establishing a platform for objectively quantifying scientific impact [3, 7, 8]. These insights are also useful in building realistic scenarios of future development of science and its impact on our lives [5, 7, 9]. Science of science also receives attention from policy makers [10]. Indeed, being able to fairly evaluate and compare scientific outputs enables the community to improve the funding strategies and target them towards achievable goals. It also provides a framework to quantify the research impact resulting from a given investment [9]. The dynamics of science is articulated through a constant influx of scientific publications, primarily research papers. Appearing in a variety of journals, papers are interrelated in intricatePLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.01273.Istribution (male: 83.89 papillary, 8.23 follicular thyroid cancer; female: 89.99 papillary, 5.82 follicular thyroid cancer [6]) is very similar to that in most countries [2, 38, 39], so the results may be generalized to majority of the clinical settings. Second, information regarding individual ultrasound features, risk factors for thyroid cancer, actual needle size and technique (with or without ultrasound guidance) used during thyroid puncture are either unrecorded or not completely distinguishable from the LHID database. Third, the LHID contains the clinical, but not the cytological diagnoses of patients. Methods for cytological preparation, ancillary studies and cytological classification system adopted (Bethesda or others) are not available as well. However, most aspirated thyroid tissues are directly smeared (for Papanicolaou stain or Liu’s stain) without further split sample comparison or ancillary studies in Taiwan, and smears are reviewed by certified cytopathologists. Therefore, although studies have shown inconsistent diagnostic ability of direct smears and liquid-PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0127354 May 28,8 /Thyroid FNA and Thyroid Cancer Diagnosisbased cytology [40?3], and that the classification variety may possibly affect results, the effect should be limited and can be minimized by statistic adjustment in this study. Further primary data analysis is warranted for related investigation. In conclusion, many thyroid cancers can be identified within half a year to one year or after 1? aspirations, although nearly 40 of thyroid cancers may remain undiagnosed after the first aspirations. Hence, it is crucial to remember the limitation of the examinations and stress the importance of regular follow-up.Author ContributionsConceived and designed the experiments: LH DC PC. Performed the experiments: LH. Analyzed the data: LH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LH DC. Wrote the paper: LH DC YL WC.
Science is a human endeavor. As such, it benefits from all virtues and suffers from all paradoxes inherent to humans. Among these are the old problems of appreciating and measuring research achievements [1]. When judging what is and what is not scientifically interesting or important, scientists are not just subjective, but often offer arguments that stem from poor understanding of the academic culture and tradition in fields other than their own. In the age of Big data, science of science is emerging as an attempt to scientifically jir.2014.0227 examine the science 1.07839E+15 itself [2, 3]. This young field has potential to answer some of the oldest questions about scientific progress, such as elucidating the sociological mechanisms leading to new discoveries [4?], or establishing a platform for objectively quantifying scientific impact [3, 7, 8]. These insights are also useful in building realistic scenarios of future development of science and its impact on our lives [5, 7, 9]. Science of science also receives attention from policy makers [10]. Indeed, being able to fairly evaluate and compare scientific outputs enables the community to improve the funding strategies and target them towards achievable goals. It also provides a framework to quantify the research impact resulting from a given investment [9]. The dynamics of science is articulated through a constant influx of scientific publications, primarily research papers. Appearing in a variety of journals, papers are interrelated in intricatePLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.01273.