1,721,004 research outputs found
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
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
'It's hard to ask': Examining the factors influencing decision-making amongst end-stage renal disease patients considering asking friends and family for a kidney
No full textBackground: Organ donation is an important facet of healthcare delivery in New Zealand, with donation often leading to an increased quality of life for recipients, and a reduction in healthcare costs for the community. People who require new organs have limited options in regards to organ access: they can receive organs from deceased donors, or if a kidney is not volunteered, they might ask someone to donate. For those that choose to ask someone to donate an organ, one barrier that is sometimes voiced is that it is hard to ask family and friends to donate. This project sought to explore the issues surrounding asking for an organ by end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, in order to gain a better understanding of the decision-making process and motivations of patients as they choose or decline to approach others for a kidney.
Methods: Participants were recruited from patients with ESRD through the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board. Potential participants were identified as being on the deceased donor list (DDL), or had family or friends being worked up for living kidney donation (LKD). Participants were interviewed and asked about the challenges of asking for a kidney, including such questions as: Who did they ask, and why? Who did they exclude, and why? How did they approach the request, and what were their reasons for asking in this way? Could they identify additional strategies which might have been useful to them, but were either not considered or unavailable? A qualitative descriptive approach was utilised to analyse interview data.
Results: Fifteen participants were interviewed, with most stating that it was hard to ask for a kidney and almost half having never approached anyone for a kidney. For many patients, being expected to recruit donors for LKD was a barrier in itself. Commonly identified themes indicate that recipients may be concerned for the health and wellbeing of their loved ones, or have limited recruitment opportunities, or poor health literacy or self-efficacy. Many Maori recipients stated they favoured a whanau approach to discussing transplant, and most recipients desired more support in order to facilitate approaching donors.
Conclusions: Findings suggest it would be useful to develop a screening tool assessing willingness and motivation to accept a living kidney donation along with self-efficacy, communication and health literacy levels prior to recipients initiating conversations with potential donors, in order to provide tailored support to the recipient with their initial approach. Additionally, psycho-social support could be offered to all recipients to help identify unmet needs or further barriers such as reciprocity or relationship concerns. Finally, closer communication between health professionals who provide care for the recipient, as well as positive media stories and campaigns that raise awareness of the need to transplant may create opportunities for LKD to be discussed within the recipient’s social network
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe 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
Is sarcopenia a neurodegenerative disease?
No full textSarcopenia is a major contributor to the loss of independence and deteriorating quality of life in elderly individuals. It is marked by declining skeletal muscle mass and strength beyond the age of 65. Sarcopenia places significant financial and social burdens on societies, particularly those with ageing populations such as New Zealand. Therefore, research into the mechanism underlying this condition is essential if we are to delay its onset and reduce its significance to our society.
The current hypothesis suggests the decline in muscle mass evident in sarcopenia is due to muscle fibre atrophy. Although the definitive cause of muscle fibre atrophy remains unclear, denervation-induced muscle atrophy is a well described feature of old age. The driver of age-related denervation remains controversial, but what is known for certain is that death of lower motoneurons within the spinal cord will result in denervation. This study therefore sought to investigate the effect of age on motoneurons within the lumbar enlargement of the spinal cord of mice. Histochemical techniques were used to identify alpha-motoneurons within the spinal cord of mice, in doing so I showed that age results in a significant decline in motoneuron number accompanied by an increase in soma size potentially conducive of motorunit expansion as compensation for motoneuron loss and denervation.
Given that ageing features significant motoneuron loss I looked to other neurodegenerative conditions that feature similar symptoms. In doing so I identified that Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) also features skeletal muscle atrophy and denervation resulting from motoneuron death. In ALS, recent links have been established between motoneuron death and altered nucleocytoplasmic transport, so I asked whether similar defects correlate with motoneuron loss in normal ageing. Immunohistochemistry was used on mouse tissues to explore potential links between motoneuron loss, nucleocytoplasmic transport regulatory proteins and altered nuclear permeability. Old age brought reductions in immunodetectable levels of key nucleocytoplasmic transport proteins in lumbar motoneurons along with increased nuclear permeability.
The only intervention that effectively delays the effects of sarcopenia is physical exercise which has been shown to attenuate muscle denervation, prevent neuromuscular deterioration and ultimately to mitigate the muscular losses associated with age. Although exercise is shown to be beneficial often implementation of successful protocols isn’t feasible for elderly individuals, as a result understanding the mechanism of its therapeutic benefit is of particular interest, so that other ways of targeting these pathways can be developed.
I therefore asked whether exercise inhibited the age-related changes in both motoneuron number and nuclear transport proteins and found that active elderly mice experienced less motoneuron death and that key nuclear transport proteins were retained better in lumbar motoneurons. My results suggest that emergent defects in nucleocytoplasmic transport may contribute to motoneuron death and that this loss of motoneurons in turn triggers age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass associated with sarcopenia. Exercise slowed or inhibited the main changes and I suggest this may be part of the mechanism by which exercise protects muscle mass in old age.
Finally, to provide critical evaluation between the parallels of motoneuron disease and ageing, I also investigated the changes in key nuclear pore proteins identified in ageing animals in the SOD1 model of ALS. In doing so I identified that some of the nuclear pore proteins reduced in ageing are also lost in the SOD1 animals, however, further research in older animals (conditions is more advanced) is required to determine if the pathophysiology of SOD1 ALS is similar to that of other ALS mutations and ageing
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