1,720,963 research outputs found
Alzheimer's Disease Costs: What We Know and What We Should Take into Account
No full textAbstract
Background/Objective: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a very costly pathology. Total costs of AD result from the sum of direct and indirect costs. Intangible costs represent an additional burden that is difficult to quantify. This paper has reviewed the evaluation of the costs of AD and the methodologies to estimate them, and proposes the use of some tools which may be useful in establishing the financial weight of the disease. Method: A systematic literature search was conducted using the Pubmed and Medline databases as a source of published papers. Results: In AD, direct and indirect costs and their sum (total costs) are very high and tend to increase parallel with the evolution of the pathology. The evolution of AD is characterized by the loss of functional autonomy, the onset of behavioral and sleep disorders, and the development of delusions and hallucinations. This requires more frequent medical examinations and hospitalizations resulting in higher direct costs, which become the relevant weight. None of the papers reviewed investigated intangible cost. Conclusion: The calculation of costs of AD is frequently based on cognitive decline and the degree of dependence of patients. The evaluation of intangible costs (psychological pain of the patient and of the unpaid caregivers' and their impaired quality of life) is a missing aspect in all reviewed studies. Due to the complexity of AD, it will be necessary to adopt cost evaluation systems including the different dimensions of the problem and its various aspects
Sea piracy sequelae: assessment according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5
Full text linkAbstrac t
Background: Our previous studies have investigated the psychological consequences of kidnapping in
a group of Italian seafarers assaulted by sea pirates and held in captivity and in their family members by the
criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-4. These studies have shown
that both the victims and the family members showed significant psychological disturbances, corresponding
to a chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), in the victims, and a pattern of anxiety and depression
in their family members. After publication of these studies, an updated edition of the DSM became
available, namely, the DSM-5. The DSM-5 redefines some diagnostic criteria, including those related to
the PTSD. This work was focused on the re-evaluation of the results of our previous studies in the light of
the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria.
Materials and methods: Sixteen Italians including 4 kidnapped seafarers and 12 family members were
examined by a semi-structured interview followed by Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-DX) and
the Cognitive Behaviour al Assessment (CBA 2.0) for victims and by State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) X-1
and X-2 of CBA 2.0 and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) for family members. Data already
obtained were reviewed and re-analysed according to the DSM-5 criteria and the Clinician-Administered
PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5).
Results: The use of the CAPS-5 did not modify the diagnosis for the victims’ group: 3 of 4 had a PTSD
diagnosis performed through the CAPS-5. Seven of 12 family members had PTSD diagnosis performed
through the CAPS-5, with negative cognitions and mood symptoms being those obtaining the highest score.
Conclusions: Using DSM-5 criteria, the diagnosis of PTSD in the direct victims of piracy was confirmed.
The same diagnosis could apply to a group of their family members. Besides anxiety and fear, in fact, we
found in 7 out 12 subjects the presence of symptoms included by the DSM-5 in the PTSD spectrum. These
symptoms were: avoidance, negative alterations in mood and cognition, blame of self or others. The use of
updated diagnostic criteria may enable more correct assessment of the consequences of piracy acts. This
may be also useful for establishing proper compensations for the damage suffered by seafarers, depending
on the degree of disability resulting from the criminal acts they suffered
Resting state connectivity in posterior cingulate and hyppocampus in mild Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment
No full text
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Full text link“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
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe 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
Full text linkWe 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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe 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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