1,720,983 research outputs found
Indoor Air Quality in Offices
Since multiple studies have addressed IAQ and associated exposure-related symptoms in office workers, a careful assessment and management of indoor air quality (IAQ) in office-like environments is important for the protection of human health and to ensure optimal comfort and well-being for office workers. For this purpose, the development of appropriate monitoring strategies is crucial to properly characterize the chemical and physical complexity of IAQ dynamics and subsequent potential impacts on office occupants. To obtain comprehensive and representative conclusions about IAQ problems in office-like environments, and to prioritize the order of management interventions, a multilevel approach should be implemented. The assessment process should include a general survey of the building and of the offices, occupants’ questionnaire surveys (concerning IAQ, symptoms, and psychosocial working aspects), and environmental measurements. IAQ monitoring and assessment, combined with source identification and control and adjustment of ventilation rates, has been recognized as the prioritized strategy for improving IAQ in office-like environments and reducing the combined health risks associated with indoor exposures
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
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
Indoor air quality, psychosocial stress and symptoms in workers in modern European office buildings: results from the OFFICAIR study questionnaire
Introduction: Indoor air quality (IAQ) in office buildings has been associated to symptoms, including mucosal irritation and general symptoms. Indoor air pollutants could also be related to cardiovascular effects and the role of psychosocial stress as a potential effect modifier has been hypothesized. This study aims to investigate the association between IAQ perception and symptoms, taking into account the role of psychosocial stress, in the frame of the OFFICAIR project
Materials and methods: A questionnaire on IAQ perception, symptoms, and psychosocial stress was delivered online in 160 modern office buildings with more than 30 employees, in eight European countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Hungary, The Netherlands and Finland) between
October 2011 and March 2012. A checklist was also filled in with building characteristics. Mixed-effects
models will be used to investigate the association between IAQ and symptoms.
Preliminary results: At the moment the questionnaire has been delivered to 23426 in 145 out of 160 buildings. 5878 workers completed the questionnaire (25% response rate). The mean (SD) age was 40.2(10) years. The participants were prevalently female, never smokers, with a clerical/secretarial job and a full time permanent contract. The most frequently symptoms were dry eyes and dry skin (reported by approx. 20% of workers). 36% and 22% of workers were unsatisfied by overall IAQ and comfort respectively; the most frequent reported complains were “air too dry”, “too much noise from inside the
building” and “air too still” (>40% of workers). 67% of participants reported a pleasant mood.
Conclusions: The obtained results will provide further insight into the associations between IAQ and symptoms, taking into account the potential role of psychosocial stress
Variations on the Author
“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
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
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
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
Perception de la qualité de l’air intérieur, du confort et de la santé dans les espaces de bureaux, et relations avec les caractéristiques techniques des bâtiments
The OFFICAIR project aimed to describe comfort and indoor air quality in new and retrofitted office buildings in Europe. This article reports the perceived comfort and health, as well as their relations with building characteristics, in the 21 participating office buildings in France. Occupant perception and personal information were collected through an online questionnaire. In parallel, a building audit was performed to describe each building. The survey took place between January and April 2012 over two weeks in each building. Among the 1,190 respondents, 54% were dissatisfied with the noise from the other occupants, 48% with dry air, and 46% with stuffy air. The most common health symptoms attributed to the building were headaches (31% of the respondents), dry eyes (27%), irritated eyes (21%) and a dry or sore throat (21%). No difference was observed between the French buildings and the European sample (167 buildings, 7,441 respondents). The perceived indoor environment and related health symptoms seemed similar to those reported in past studies. The multilevel linear regressions highlight the major influence of the individual parameters on both indoor air quality and comfort perception, as well as on PSI-5 (number of building-related symptoms across five symptoms defining the sick building syndrome). Occupants who could control their indoor environment had better perceptions. Similarly, an efficient procedure for managing building-related complaints was associated with better perceptions of indoor air quality and comfort and with fewer building-related health effect
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