1,720,971 research outputs found
Automatic tactile stimulation: Improving the treatment of Apnea of Prematurity
No full textApnea of prematurity is one of the most common diagnoses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Frequent breathing pauses occur in almost all infants born at <28 weeks gestational age or with a birth weight of <1000g and can result in serious brain damage. Medicines are used to suppress the apnea but are not able to eliminate it. Manual tactile stimulation is currently used to terminate apneas that occur despite the preventative treatment. However, the duration of apnea is dependent on the reaction of the nurse. A direct automatic response could significantly shorten the apnea hence reducing hypoxia and bradycardia and reduce the chance of infection due to cross-contamination. In addition, detecting imminent apnea could potentially prevent it. The goal of this graduation project was to find out the best way of preventing and terminating apnea in premature infants by automatic tactile stimulation. During this project three studies were performed. The first study was a literature review. The purpose of this review was to verify what is known about the effects of (automatic) tactile stimulation on the termination and prevention of apnea in preterm infants. This was done by systematically reviewing available literature. The results showed that the effects of touch, oscillation, pulsation and vibration were studied. In conclusion, although the big variations in study design, amount of subject etc., the majority of studies show positive results of tactile stimulation on the termination and prevention of apnea. However, it is not known which receptors are stimulated by specific stimuli and what their neuronal pathways are. Therefore it is currently hard to tell which stimulation mode and stimulation characteristics are most optimal for the termination and/or prevention of AOP. The second study focused on the design of a vibrotactile actuator that was suitable for comparing stimulation with different (stochastic) frequencies. Voice coils, linear resonant actuators and piëzo elements appeared to be most suitable for studies comparing the responses of vibrations with different frequencies. The selection of the right specific actuator is dependent on the frequencies and strokes that it should generate. In the final study the effect of stimulation stroke and stimulation spot on the regularity of breathing (experiment 1) and on the termination of apnea (experiment 2) in preterm rabbits were compared. The results the first experiment show that stochastic vibrations of 490-980Hz applied at the chest cause an increase in the variability of the breathing pattern compared with the same stimulation at the sole of the foot. However, statistical significance was only reaches for low stroke stimulation. The results of the second part of the experiment show that, in contrast with earlier performed studies, the vibratory stimulation does not reinitiate breathing following apnea provoked by hypoxia. This might be caused by the high frequency. However, it seems very likely that apnea caused by severe hypoxia requires more vigorous stimulation. All in all, automatic tactile stimulation seems to be able to improve the current treatment of AOP. However, more research is required to select the most optimal stimulus.Mechanical, Maritime and Materials EngineeringBiomedical Engineerin
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
Touched by technology: automated tactile stimulation in the treatment of apnoea of prematurity
Get PDFOne of the challenges preterm infants face is maintaining a rhythmic and stable breathing pattern to ensure effective gas exchange. Due to the immaturity of both their lungs and brains, they often experience irregular breathing and frequent episodes of apnoea. Although apnoea of prematurity usually resolves with maturation, it can lead to serious consequences, including brain damage, developmental delays, and an increased risk of mortality.Tactile stimulation, such as rubbing the infant’s foot or back, is the most commonly used response to apnea and has been recommended for many years. However, this dissertation shows that it is challenging for caregivers to respond quickly and consistently. Therefore, the overall aim of this dissertation was to investigate whether automated tactile stimulation — enabling immediate intervention — could provide a solution for both patients and caregivers. The findings demonstrate that mechanical stimulation can shorten and prevent apneas, with earlier application proving more effective and requiring lower intensity.Since no automated devices are currently available for clinical use, a novel device was developed and tested, demonstrating clinical feasibility and short-term safety. Together, these studies lay the foundation for further development of automated tactile stimulation devices and highlight the potential of technological innovation to improve neonatal care.BOBBY Neonatal; Chiesi; Chipsoft; Concord Neonatal; Fisher &Paykel
Healthcare; Fritz Stephan GmbH; Monivent AB; SLE Ltd, the Willem Alexander Childrens’
HospitalLUMC / Geneeskund
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
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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