1,721,113 research outputs found
Food modelling systems to assess menus in well population groups: Not all black and white.
No full textDetermining entry level competency of new graduates, as they transition from university to practice is not always black and white. Holistic competency emerges as acculturation and experience develops in the workplace. This project, funded by the Dietitians Association Australia (DAA), aimed to develop tools to guide the assessment process. Range variable statements and evidence guides were developed to inform the assessment of DAA Entry Level Competency Standards (ELCS) at university and to define the core fields of study required in Australian university curricula for university accreditation and international benchmarking purposes. Range variables contextualise competency by defining the boundaries for competency and the associated performance criteria. Evidence guides provide the range of contexts and critical aspects of competency which would usually be assessed together. Core fields of study defi ne the underpinning knowledge and skills required in the curriculum to achieve competency. Draft range variable statements and evidence guides were developed against each of the units and elements of the ELCS. Two rounds of consultation occurred with the fourteen Australian universities undertaking dietetic education and the project management committee, via teleconference and email. Core fi elds of study were informed by these consultations, as well as interviews of new graduates about core activities undertaken in their workplace. The final versions of these documents were presented to the project management committee, the Australian Dietetic Council and the DAA Board to be integrated into the DAA Accreditation Manual and website information
New insights into medical nutrition therapy for cancer cachexia
No full textThe development of cachexia is common in people with solid tumours such as pancreatic, lung, gastric and colorectal cancer. Cancer cachexia has been implicated in the deaths of 30 to 50 percent of all cancer patients, as many die from the wasting associated with the condition. Nutritional support in patients with cancer whether in the form of oral feeding, enteral or parenteral nutrition has generally failed to either prolong survival, improve the outcome of conventional anti-neoplastic therapy, weight, lean body mass or functional outcomes. For many years there have been attempts to find novel ways of managing the nutritional issues facing these patients.\ud
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The studies provide valuable new insights and evidence regarding the effectiveness of medical nutrition therapy in patients with cancer. A theoretical model depicting a four step cascade of events leading to evidence of the effectiveness of medical nutrition therapy developed by Splett (1996) was used as the framework for the research. New insights have been provided into valid and reliable nutrition screening and assessment tools (appropriate access to necessary care), nutrition intervention in terms of prescription and intensity of service (quality nutrition care), improvement in dietary intake, nutritional status, quality of life and body composition (intermediate, clinical and patient outcomes).\ud
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The studies have shown that the screening tool developed by the malnutrition advisory group of the British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition should not be used to identify hospitalised patients with cancer who are at risk of malnutrition due to low sensitivity and specificity. The nutrition screening tool of choice remains the malnutrition screening tool (MST) which has previously been shown to be a valid and reliable nutrition screening tool for identification of patients with cancer who are at risk of malnutrition. Once identified, the patient generated subjective global assessment {PG-SGA) rather than subjective global assessment (SGA) is recommended as the most appropriate nutrition assessment tool to identify the level of nutrition deficit and guide the implementation of medical nutrition therapy. It is a more sensitive measure than SGA, as small changes in nutritional status can be identified. The PG-SGA score was found to be significantly correlated to quality of life as measured by the EORTC-QLQC30 questionnaire. It can therefore be used as a surrogate measure for quality of life in clinical nutrition practice \ud
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The studies provide several new insights into nutrition intervention for patients with cancer cachexia. In addition to the recognised prescription of an increased protein and energy intake, pharmacological doses of eicosapentaenoic acid (1.5-2.0 g) in the form of a high protein and energy oral nutrition supplement may result in positive patient outcomes. Compliance with the prescription is a key component of medical nutrition therapy. Unless the patient is able to consume an adequate quantity of protein and/or energy, then improved outcomes will not result. Practitioners must be aware of the importance of compliance with the nutrition prescription and encourage patients to view food and/or supplements as an essential component of treatment, that is, food as medicine. The implementation of the nutrition intervention is also of critical importance. Frequent contact with the patient is required to provide the level of support necessary to achieve positive outcomes. Weekly review either by telephone or by face to face interview is required.\ud
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The studies provide new insights into improvements in intermediate outcomes (improvement in protein/energy intake) that can be achieved with medical nutrition therapy. Intake of a minimum of 1.5 cans/day of a protein and energy dense oral nutrition supplement did not decrease habitual food intake. Many patients are concerned that oral nutrition supplements depress appetite at meals and are reluctant to consume supplements between meals. Practitioners can be confident in advising patients that this is not the case.\ud
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The studies provide new insights into the range of outcomes that can be achieved with medical nutrition therapy - nutritional status, quality of life, body composition and survival. In a post hoc analysis, there was a statistically significant improvement in weight and quality of life and a clinically significant improvement in lean body mass in patients with untreated pancreatic cancer who were compliant with the nutrition prescription. These studies provide new evidence that positive patient outcomes in terms of survival can be achieved with weight maintenance in patients with cancer cachexia rather than weight gain, which is frequently advocated in this patient group. This may be a more realistic and positive treatment goal for patients with cancer cachexia. The studies provide new evidence that an oral nutrition supplement containing EPA has positive benefits on outcomes in patients with cancer cachexia receiving chemotherapy such as improved nutritional status, quality of life and body composition. Dietetic practitioners can focus on outcomes such as weight maintenance, maintenance or improvement in nutritional status and quality of life to demonstrate clinical effectiveness.\ud
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Collectively, these studies provide valuable new insights into medical nutrition therapy for cancer cachexia and they have the potential to influence management protocols across several cancer groups such as pancreatic, lung and colorectal cancer as the mechanism for the development of cachexia is thought to be similar in these patients
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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