1,721,010 research outputs found
Propensity score for the analysis of observatonal data. An introduction and an illustrative examle
No full textThe principal aim of analysis of any sample of data is to draw causal inferences about the effects of different exposures, such as decisions, actions, medical treatments, or other interventions on relevant outcomes. Data may be the result of several kinds of study designs and approaches, either experimental or observational. In experimental, comparative intervention studies, randomization of patients guarantees that the groups are comparable before the exposure to the treatments and random assignment assures that the choice for a given treatment is not due to the decision by treating physicians and also allows a correct application of statistical tests. In observational studies when randomization is not used for practical or ethical reasons, treatments are decided by physicians (or by patients, or by both) in the context of the best clinical practice and, thus, groups are not comparable and differences in outcomes may reflect either effects caused by the treatment choices or differences in prognosis before treatment. When differences between groups are observed or expected, different kinds of adjustments are used to statistically adjust for the unbalance, using variables describing the condition of patients before treatment. Usually, potential predictive and/or prognostic variables are used together to adjust for confounding by constructing multivariable models. This approach is most of the time able to reduce the effect of confounders or effect modifiers on relevant outcomes, but it makes it difficult for investigators and for final users of the results to assess the adequacy of the approach, the role and impact of each class of variables, and, eventually, the clinical meaning of the results. In 1983, Rosenbaum and Rubin proposed a new method, named Propensity Score, to balance the variables related to the choice of the exposure (treatments) in order to reconstruct a situation similar to random assignment. Since then, there has been an explosion of examples of the use of this approach in the literature. This report introduces the method, uses an empirical example to illustrate its use, and eventually discusses the pros and cons of the method using the authors’ experience and some hints extracted from recent commentaries
Occupational therapy in rehabilitation of complex patients: protocol for a superiority randomized controlled trial
No full textPatient-centered, interprofessional occupational therapy is feasible in complex patients in the early phase of rehabilitation, and it contributes to meet needs in the domains of self-care, productivity, and leisure, promoting social role. We planned this single-center single-blind two-arm parallel individual patient randomized controlled trial, to verify the superiority of interprofessional experimental occupational therapy (EOT) compared to standard rehabilitation (SR) in producing higher levels of patients’ social participation assessed by the Reintegration to Normal Living Index. EOT is a patient-centered, hospital/home-based rehabilitation intervention based on the Canadian Model of Occupational Performance and Engagement. This appropriately powered study will provide evidence regarding the effectiveness of EOT on the recovery of social participation in the critical transition of complex patients from hospital to the home setting
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
Efficacy and safety of medical and surgical interventions for treating HIV-related lipodystrophy in women
No full textHIV-related lipodistrophy syndrome in women is rarely described, and its progression is not well characterized
Feasibility and safety of physical exercise in men with prostate cancer receiving androgen deprivation therapy and radiotherapy: A study protocol
Get PDFIntroduction Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and radiotherapy (RT) increase survival in selected patients with prostate cancer. Nevertheless, the side effects of these therapies are associated with an increased risk of accidental falls and fractures and a decreased quality of life. Preliminary evidence suggests that physical exercise can be a valid strategy to reduce the side effects of ADT and RT in men with prostate cancer. Despite this knowledge, most patients with prostate cancer are insufficiently active, and there is a lack of data on the safety and adherence to the recommended dose of physical exercise. This study protocol is designed to examine the feasibility and safety of a multicomponent experimental physical exercise intervention targeting psychophysical and cognitive functions and the quality of life in this population. Methods and analysis This is a pilot feasibility study. Twenty-five men currently treated with ADT and RT for prostate cancer will be invited to participate in a 20-week, multicomponent physical exercise intervention, including supervised and unsupervised exercise sessions and meeting the current recommendation for exercise in cancer. The primary outcomes are physical exercise feasibility (recruitment, adherence and drop-out rates) and safety (adverse events related and unrelated to the intervention). The secondary outcomes are muscle strength, balance, fatigue, symptoms of anxiety and depression, cognitive function, quality of life, and patient satisfaction. We will also record the number of accidental falls and fractures occurring during the intervention and at 1 year of follow-up. Ethics and dissemination The study has received ethics approval from The Area Vasta Nord Local Ethics Committee (Province of Reggio Emilia, 23 June 2020, Number 520/2020/SPER/IRCCSRE). Recruitment began in September 2020 and will be completed in September 2021. The results will be disseminated through scientific journals and conference presentations. Trial registration number NCT04500080
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