1,721,033 research outputs found

    The impact of funding on research collaboration: Evidence from a developing country

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    In this paper we evaluate the impact of research grants on the amount of collaboration among scientific researchers in Argentina. We find a positive and significant impact of funding on collaboration which is measured in terms of the number of co-authors for publications in peer-reviewed journals. Our identification strategy is based on comparing collaboration indicators for researchers with financially supported projects with those of a control group of researchers who submitted projects that were accepted in terms of quality, but not supported because of shortage of funds. We obtain consistent results by using different non-experimental techniques including difference-in-differences models combined with propensity score matching algorithms

    Pelvic floor dysfunction in inflammatory bowel disease

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    Advances in tailored medical therapy and introduction of biologic agents for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treatment have ensured long-term disease remission. Some patients, however, still report defecatory symptoms. Patients present with a wide spectrum of conditions - anal incontinence, obstructed defecation and pelvic pain among the most frequent - that have a great impact on their quality of life. Due to IBD diagnosis, little relevance is attributed to this type of symptoms and their epidemiologic distribution is unknown. Pathogenetic hypotheses are currently under investigation. Routine diagnostic workflow and therapeutic options in pelvic floor service are often underused. The evaluation of these disorders starts with an endoscopy to rule out ongoing disease; the following diagnostic workflow is the same as in patients without IBD. For fecal incontinence and obstructed defecation, simple conservative therapy with dietary modifications and appropriate fluid intake is effective in most cases. In non-responding patients, anorectal physiology tests and imaging are required to select patients for pelvic floor muscle training and biofeedback. These treatments have been proven effective in IBD patients. Some new minimally invasive alternative strategies are available for IBD patients, as sacral nerve and posterior tibial nerve stimulation; for other ones (e.g., bulking agent implantation) IBD still remains an exclusion criterion. In order to preserve anatomical areas that could be useful for future reconstructive techniques, surgical options to cure pelvic floor dysfunction are indicated only in a small group of IBD patients, due to the high risk of failure in wound healing and to the possible side effects of surgery, which can lead to anal incontinence or to a possible proctectomy. A particular issue among defecatory symptoms in patients with IBD is paradoxical puborectalis contraction after restorative proctocolectomy: if this disorder is properly diagnosed, a conservative treatment is indicated, thus avoiding unnecessary laparotomy for small bowel occlusion. Pelvic pain management, coordinated by a specialist with expertise in pelvic floor disorders, includes many options, which vary from oral or local therapies to pelvic floor rehabilitation and sacral nerve stimulation. Surgical procedures often have unsatisfactory outcomes. Diagnosis and investigation of anorectal functional disorders in patients with IBD is important in order to implement better-suited diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, so as to avoid unnecessary and potentially detrimental medical and surgical therapies, with the final aim of improving patients' quality of life

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

    Control of the amorphous content in traditional ceramics by means of alternative fluxing agents

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    The role of KOH and NaOH as mineralisers in kaolinite-quartz (KQ) and kaolinite-quartz-feldspar (KQF) systems has been investigated, in order to determine how they affect the phase composition of ceramic bodies, and if they can replace traditional flux to boost formation of amorphous phases. Attention was paid to the effects induced by mineralisers on (i) the fundamental ceramic equilibrium reaction between crystal phases and amorphous phase, and (ii) on the morphology of the final ceramic product in terms of secondary mullite habit. NaOH and KOH turn out to be amorphous content boosters, but their efficiency to promote amorphous phases is related to quartz particle size, too. The amorphous component appears at the expenses of mullite and quartz, and an analysis of the formation Gibbs energy demonstrates that an increase in mineraliser content shifts the fundamental ceramic equilibrium reaction towards amorphous formation, though Na differs from K in affecting such transformation

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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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