1,720,964 research outputs found
Diffusione di asma, sintomi respiratori e patologie allergiche negli adolescenti della provincia dell’Aquila
No full textPrevalence of asthma, respiratory symptoms and allergic disorders among adolescents in the province of Aquila
No full textObjective: estimates the prevalence of asthma and other allergic disorders in a random group of adolescents living in the L’Aquila area, which was not covered by SIDRIA (Italian Studies
on Respiratory Disorders in Children and the Environment).
The second phase of the study showed considerable regional variations within Italy, with a higher prevalence of asthma and wheezing in Central Italy.
Design: this study used the same standardised questionnaire of
SIDRIA and included 1,100 adolescents aged 13-14 years, between January-March 2004.
Results: prevalence of lifetime asthma was 6.7%, cumulative and current prevalence of wheezing were 19.1% and 9.0% respectively.
A relatively high proportion of adolescents, 29.2%,
reported night cough and 3.6% symptoms of severe asthma. Lifetime prevalence of hay fever and eczema were respectively 17.8%
and 6.7%. Prevalence rates of allergic rhinitis and atopic-eczema symptoms were higher in females
Exposure to parental smoking and chronic respiratory diseases among eigth graders in a province of Central Italy
No full textAim. The relationship between passive smoking and inflammatory chronic respiratory diseases both in children and in teenagers represents a widely debated theme. Exposure to passive smoking is an important worldwide public health issue and preventing young people to beginning to smoke is a major priority. This paper describes the diffusion of parental smoking habit in a province of Central Italy and the associations with respiratory illness and symptoms in adolescents. Methods. Standardised questionnaires were administered to 13-14 year-old students and their parents, following a protocol adopted by the international survey "International Studies of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood" and by Italian Studies on Respiratory Disorders in Children and the Environment. Data survey has been conducted in a random sample of adolescents attending the eighth grade classes schools of L'Aquila. Results. The prevalence rate of current smoking is 26.76% and 35.46%, respectively for mothers and fathers, while the percentage of ex-smokers is 12.41% and 24.72%; parents who smoke have mostly a low level of education. Paternal current smoking increased the risk of lifetime asthma among adolescents, and all the other described lifetime respiratory symptoms. Maternal smoking increased the risk of past and current wheezing. Conclusion. The prevalence of bronchitis in the first two years of life is higher among adolescents whose parents smoke (odds ratio [OR] 1.69 for fathers vs OR 2.93 for mothers), moreover bronchitis in the first two years of life increas the risk of suffering from current asthma and wheezing
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
Prevalence of allergic rhinitis and atopic diseases among adolescents in the L'Aquila area [Prevalenza di rinite allergica e patologie atopiche tra gli adolescenti della Provincia de L'Aquila].
No full textBackground: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is the most common atopic disorder, affecting about 20% of the general population. Nevertheless, the real impact of disease is often underestimated. Recent epidemiological studies have demonstrated that the prevalence of rhinitis in Italy has increased in the 1990s among children and adults. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of AR and to measure comorbidity of AR and other atopic disorders in a random group of adolescents living in L'Aquila area. Methods: The standardised SIDRIA (Italian Studies on Respiratory Disorders in Children and the Environment) questionnaire was given to 1100 school-children aged 13-14 years between January-March 2004. Results: The prevalence of AR was 18,3%. A larger percentage of subjects (40,3%) reported nasal symptoms when exposed to allergens. The association between reported nasal symptoms and AR was more significant for pollen than dust mite exposures. About 31,5% of asthmatics reported AR. The prevalence was higher between children with current asthma-like symptoms. The relationship between AR and asthma appear to be stronger when compared subjects with nasal symptoms after exposure to allergens to subjects with asthmatic symptoms. Hay-fever was a significant risk factor for asthma, whereas current wheezing was positively associated with current rhinitis and with AR. Hay fever was the most commonly lifetime atopic disease, followed by eczema (8,7%) and then asthma (6,7%). Similarly, the interrelation between reported current symptoms, demonstrated that symptoms of rhinoconjunctivitis are the most common and that about 40% with this disease reported symptoms of other atopic diseases. Conclusion: Our data confirm the high prevalence of AR among adolescents in L'Aquila area and the utility of international and regional standardised prevalence comparisons to provide a picture of patterns of allergic diseases and to test the hypothesis regarding the cause of the increase of such disease
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
- …
