1,721,050 research outputs found
Meaning and Affect in the Placebo Effect
No full textThis article presents and defends an integrated view of the placebo effect, termed "affective-meaning-making"model, which draws from theoretical reflection, clinical outcomes, and neurophysiological findings. We consider the theoretical limitations of those proposals associated with the "meaning view"on the placebo effect which (a) leave the general aspects of meaning unspecified, (b) fail to analyze fully the role of emotions and affect, and (c) establish no clear connection between the theoretical, physiological, and psychological aspects of the effect. We point out that a promising way to overcome these limitations is given by grounding the placebo effect on Peirce's theory of meaning, in which the role of the meaning constitution and change is placed in logical and objective structures. We also show the connection between our theoretical proposal and the appraisal theory and integrate it with emotion regulation
Effetto Placebo: Il Modello "Affective-Meaning-Making"
No full textL'interesse nei confronti dell'effetto placebo negli ultimi an-ni è cresciuto notevolmente, non solo nel contesto della neu-rofisiologia e delle neuroscienze affettive, ma anche in quel-lo epistemologico (Chiffi, Zanotti, 2017). D'altronde, nono-stante questa crescente attenzione, l'integrazione tra i diversi approcci di studio che si occupano dell'effetto placebo è an-cora in gran parte lacunosa, poiché le nuove scoperte sui meccanismi fisiologici alla base di questo effetto non sono state ancora ricollegate in pieno alla sua visione teorica. Per questo motivo, l'obiettivo di questo contributo consiste nel presentare una nuova visione dell'effetto placebo che nasce dall'interazione tra recenti scoperte neurofisiologiche all'interno di una riflessione teorica, considerando anche gli esiti clinici che essa implica. Verrà proposto un nuovo mo-dello, chiamato "affective-meaning-making", che tramite la fusione di approcci filosofici e neuroscientifici si pone l'obiettivo di giungere ad una comprensione dell'effetto placebo in una prospettiva più accurata. In parti-colare, la riflessione epistemologica proposta prenderà in considerazione uno dei più rilevanti approcci teorici sull'effetto placebo, ossia il "meaning model" (Brody, Bro-dy, 2000; Moerman, 2002), che considera l'effetto placebo come una reazione del corpo dovuta a un simbolo che, rappresentando un segno di possibile guari-gione all'interno di un ambiente, agisce attraverso la mente modificando la concettualizzazione che i pazienti hanno della loro malattia (o condizione di salute).
In sostanza, l'effetto placebo verrà concepito come una relazione di significato tra mente e corpo all'interno di un contesto di salute che può portare ad un cambiamento nelle credenze del paziente, e, quindi, ad un cambiamento del si-gnificato attribuito alla situazione vissuta. Questo cambia-mento, come indicato da Brody, deve essere accompagnato da risposte psicologiche e neurofisiologiche che permettano di chiarificare e supportare la discussione teorica sull'effetto placebo. Nello specifico, il nostro approccio per-feziona il "meaning model" evidenziando la connessione tra la visione teorica dell'effetto placebo e la teoria dell'appraisal, integrata con la regolazione emozionale. In-fatti, il cambiamento di significato comprende non solo le credenze dell'individuo, ma anche il suo stato affettivo. Per questo, il modello presentato prende in considerazione an-che le neuroscienze affettive per dimostrare in che modo la generazione e la regolazione emozionale, tramite processi di appraisal e reappraisal (corrispondenti alla generazione e alla modificazione del significato) (Grecucci, Job, 2015), rappresentino concetti chiave per una spiegazione piena dell'effetto placebo e dei suoi effetti fisiologici e psicologici rilevanti per l'interpretazione del significato della malattia
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
An update review on risk factors and scales for prediction of deep sternal wound infections.
Full text linkSurgical site infections are the most common nosocomial infections in surgical patients. The preventable and the unmodifiable risk factors for deep sternal wound infections (DSWI) have been amply assessed in the literature. The aim of this review was to describe the results of the numerous published studies to describe all the DSWI risk factors and the scales devised to predict SWI, with a view to providing an update on this issue. A comprehensive search of the Medline and Embase databases was performed (considering studies from January 1995 to April 2011); and a manual search was also conducted using references cited in original publications and relevant review articles. There are several risk factors associated with DSWI, which could be classified in four categories as demographic (e.g. sex and age), behavioural (e.g. smoking and obesity), baseline clinical conditions (e.g. diabetes, hypertension and COPD) and surgical operative risk factors (e.g. duration of operation and emergency operation). Six scales for predicting the risk of DSWI are described in the literature: they vary not only in accuracy but also in ease of application and they are applied at different times (some only preoperatively and others also postoperatively). This study provides a broad update on our knowledge of the risk factors for DSWI and the scales for prediction with a view to improving the management of infections at cardiosurgery units
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
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