1,721,236 research outputs found
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
Brucellosis in pregnancy: results of multicenter ID-IRI study
Full text linkdemirdal, tuna/0000-0002-9046-5666; cag, yakup/0000-0002-3855-7280; Beeching, Nicholas/0000-0002-7019-8791Brucellosis in pregnant women is reported to be associated with obstetric complications (OCs), and adequate data for human brucellosis during pregnancy are largely lacking. We performed this multicenter retrospective cross-sectional study to evaluate the epidemiology, clinical course, treatment responses, and outcomes of brucellosis among pregnant women. The study period comprised a 14-year period from January 2002 to December 2015. All consecutive pregnant women diagnosed with brucellosis in 23 participating hospitals were included. Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, therapeutic, and outcome data along with the assessment data of the neonate were collected using a standardized questionnaire. Data of 242 patients were analyzed. The OC rate was 14.0% (34/242) in the cohort. Of the 242 women, 219 (90.5%) delivered at term, 3 (1.2%) had preterm delivery, 15 (6.2%) aborted, and 5 (2.1%) had intrauterine fetal demise. Seventeen (7.0%) of the newborns were considered as low birth weight. Spontaneous abortion (6.1%) was the commonest complication. There were no maternal or neonatal deaths and pertinent sequelae or complications were not detected in the newborns. Splenomegaly (p=0.019), nausea and/or vomiting (p41IU/L; p=0.025), oligohydramnios on ultrasonography (p=0.0002), history of taking medication other than Brucella treatment during pregnancy (p=0.027), and Brucella bacteremia (p=0.029) were the significant factors associated with OCs. We recommend that pregnant women with OC or with fever should be investigated for brucellosis if they live in or have traveled to an endemic area
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
Developing and applying serological and molecular skills to the virological analysis of HIV-infected patients from Kumasi, Ghana
No full textBackground : Virological monitoring is critical in the management of HIV-infected patients, providing a standard in the assessment of disease prognosis and progression, guiding the initiation of ART and treatment selection, monitoring therapeutic success and establishing treatment failure and drug resistance. The absence of viral load monitoring can impact upon individual and public health through failure to maintain viral suppression, and increased risk of drug resistance. HIV management at the KATH HIV clinic, Kumasi, Ghana, does not include virological monitoring due to the lack of laboratory infrastructure and technical skills, thus the virological response to ART among treated patients at the centre is not fully understood. Moreover, data on the prevalence of HCV infection in both the general population and HIV-positive patients in Ghana are limited, with seroprevalence estimates ranging from 0.5% to 18.7% documented among different Ghanaian populations, possibly due to differences in study populations and the serological assays employed. Furthermore, these previous studies did not attempt confirmation of HCV status by PCR or RIBA. The aim of this study is to determine the HIV virological response in a HIV/HBV co-infected cohort from KATH, ascertain the specificity and sensitivity of commercially available HCV serological assays, and develop an assay that could be used as an alternative for HCV RNA testing in Kumasi.
Methods: 247 HIV/HBV co-infected patients attending the KATH HIV clinic were recruited into a prospective HIV and viral hepatitis study, of which HIV-1 viral load was determined for 183 ART-experienced patients at study entry using the Abbott Real Time HIV-1 assay. The HIV-1 viral load detection among patients who had been on ART for at least 24 weeks was assessed. HIV positive samples from KATH with known HCV-RNA status were tested with two automated anti-HCV antibody assays, the Abbott Architect anti-HCV, Vitros Anti-HCV, and two manual EIAs, Monolisa HCV Ag-Ab ULTRA, and the ORTHO HCV 3.0 ELISA System with Enhanced SAVe. Of the last three assays the performance and the respective assay cut-offs likely to be indicative of RNA positivity were evaluated using their PCR and Architect results as reference. The development of an in-house indirect sandwich HCV core antigen EIA which could be used as an alternative for HCV-RNA testing was attempted.
Results: Overall, 58/183 (37.4%) patients who received treatment for at least 24 weeks showed a viral load >40 copies/mL with a median level of 826 copies/mL (IQR: 65 - 26752). Their CD4 T-cell counts were lower compared to patients with undetectable viral load (P= 0.002, Mann Whitney U test). Among the four HCV antibody assays the Ortho was found to be the most specific assay that could be employed in a limited resource setting such as Kumasi, and an S/CO ratio of 3.65 was found to be most likely to be indicative of HCV RNA positivity. The HCV core EIA development was not completed in time due to poor activity of commercially available agents.
Conclusion: Through this study, skills in HIV viral load and EIA development have been acquired that could be applied to improve virological monitoring at KATH with the necessary infrastructure in place. Further studies are required to identify factors that are associated with poor viral response in this cohort. The ORTHO HCV 3.0 ELISA System with Enhanced SAVe can be regarded as a suitable diagnostic tool for HCV infection in Kumasi, but further studies are required to establish the S/CO ratio most likely to be indicative of HCV RNA positivity
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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