1,721,427 research outputs found
Brief, Low-impact, High-intensity Osteogenic Loading in Postmenopausal Osteoporosis: A Quasi-experimental Case-series Study
Get PDFBackground Osteoporosis is characterized by reduced bone mineral density (BMD) and disrupted microarchitecture estimated by trabecular bone score (TBS). Osteostrong® is a bone-strengthening system implementing 4 devices and incorporating brief (10-minute), weekly, low-impact, high-intensity osteogenic loading exercises. The aim of this study was to assess changes in BMD and TBS in the lumbar spine and/or hip over 12 months in peri-/post menopausal women with Osteoporosis following Osteostrong® intervention and to compare these outcomes with women who did not receive such intervention. Methods and Subjects A quasi-experimental case-series study in which 147 participants were separated into 2 groups, following informed consent: 75 in group A receiving Osteostrong® (subgroup G1 without and G2 with antiresorptive medication); and 72 in group B without Osteostrong® (subgroup G3 without and G4 with antiresorptive medication). Changes in lumbar spine and hip BMD and/or TBS were assessed at inclusion and 12 months later. Bonferroni-adjusted non-parametric paired tests examined for significant paired mean differences within each subgroup. Results After Bonferroni adjustment, significant increases were observed in lumbar spine BMD in G2 (mean paired change: 0.029 g/cm2; Bonferroni-adjusted p < 0.001), and G4 (mean paired change: 0.025 g/cm2; Bonferroni-adjusted p = 0.05) as well as BMD-total hip left in G2 (mean paired change: 0.028 g/cm2; Bonferroni-adjusted p = 0.05). Other within-group changes in femoral neck BMD, total hip BMD, and TBS did not retain significance following Bonferroni correction. Conclusion The Osteostrong® intervention showed modest lumbar spine BMD improvements over 12 months; some subgroup effects were significant but not when Bonferroni-adjusted, warranting cautious interpretation and further randomized trials
Fetal programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis: low birth weight and central HPA regulation
No full textFetal programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been proposed as an intermediary in the association between reduced fetal growth and adult cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Previous studies have shown that small size at birth is associated with increased fasting plasma cortisol and adrenal responsiveness to ACTH stimulation. We have extended these studies by evaluating the salivary cortisol response to awakening and plasma ACTH and cortisol responses to CRH stimulation and a dexamethasone-suppressed CRH (DEX/CRH) test in a group of low birth weight [LBW; <3.18 kg (7 lb), n = 58] and high birth weight [>3.86 kg (8.5 lb), n = 65] men aged 60–69 yr. Despite no difference in basal pituitary-adrenal activity or in their ACTH and cortisol responses to CRH, LBW men had significantly lower pituitary-adrenal responses in the DEX/CRH test. Although these findings do not explain the HPA abnormalities associated with LBW in previous studies, they provide further evidence of dysregulation of the HPA axis in people who were small at birth
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
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