1,720,981 research outputs found
Communication improvement reduces BPSD: a music therapy study based on artificial neural networks
No full textBackground: Literature showed the effects of music therapy on behavioral disturbances, cognitive functions, and on quality of life in people with dementia. Especially, relational active music therapy approach is oriented to reduce behavioral disturbances increasing communication, especially non-verbal communication. Objective: This study aimed at exploring the connection between the baseline characteristics of responders and the positive outcome of the intervention, but also the close relationship between the behavioral disturbances and the core of the therapeutic intervention (the relationship/communication improvement). Method: Linear correlation index between input variables and the presence of a critical improvement of behavioral symptoms according Neuropsychiatric Inventory and a semantic connectivity map were used to determine, respectively, variables predictive of the response and complex connections between clinical variables and the relational nature of active music therapy intervention. The dataset was composed of 27 variables and 70 patients with a moderate-severe stage of dementia and behavioral disturbances. Results: The main predictive factor is the Barthel Index, followed by NPI and some of its sub-items (mainly, Disinhibition, Depression, Hallucinations, Irritability, Aberrant Motor Activity, and Agitation). Moreover, the semantic map underlines how the improvement in communication/relationship is directly linked to “responder” variable. “Responder” variable is also connected to “age,” “Mini Mental State Examination,” and sex (“female”). Conclusions: The study confirms the appropriateness of active music therapy in the reduction of behavioral disturbances and also highlights how unsupervised artificial neural networks models can support clinical practice in defining predictive factors and exploring the correlation between characteristics of therapeutic-rehabilitative interventions and related outcomes
Global music approach to persons with dementia (GMA-D): evidence and practice
No full textMusic is an important resource for achieving psychological, cognitive, and social goals in the field of dementia. This paper describes the different types of evidence-based music interventions that can be found in literature and proposes a structured intervention model (global music approach to persons with dementia, GMA-D). The literature concerning music and dementia was considered and analyzed. The reported studies included more recent studies and/or studies with relevant scientific characteristics. From this background, a global music approach was proposed using music and sound-music elements according to the needs, clinical characteristics, and therapeutic-rehabilitation goals that emerge in the care of persons with dementia. From the literature analysis the following evidence-based interventions emerged: active music therapy (psychological and rehabilitative approaches), active music therapy with family caregivers and persons with dementia, music-based interventions, caregivers singing, individualized listening to music, and background music. Characteristics of each type of intervention are described and discussed. Standardizing the operational methods and evaluation of the single activities and a joint practice can contribute to achieve the validation of the application model. The proposed model can be considered a low-cost nonpharmacological intervention and a therapeutic-rehabilitation method for the reduction of behavioral disturbances, for stimulation of cognitive functions, and for increasing the overall quality of life of persons with dementia
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
Active music therapy for persons with dementia and their family caregivers
No full text[no abstract available
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