1,720,961 research outputs found
Acoustic features of voice in patients with severe hearing loss
No full textObjective: The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in the acoustic features of voice in patients with sensorineural hearing loss. Design: Thirty male patients, between 35 and 53 years of age with postlingual bilateral symmetric severe sensorineural hearing loss, were included (group A). As a control group (group B), 30 normal-hearing male adults, aged 38 to 51 years, were identified. Setting: ENT Department, University of Genoa (Italy). Methods: Phonetically balanced sentences and sustained vowels a, e, and i were digitally recorded with the Multidimensional Voice Program (Kay Elemetrics) in all subjects. Main Outcome Measures: The parameters estimated were the average of fundamental frequency (F0), jitter percent (jitter), shimmer, noise to harmonics ratio (NHR), voice turbulence index (VTI), soft phonation index (SPI), degree of voicelessness (DUV), degree of voice breaks (DVB), and peak amplitude variation (vAm). Results: Compared to the control group, in group A, the following acoustic parameters presented a statistically significantly higher value (p < .05) of F0 (137.2 Hz vs 120.0 Hz), jitter (1.93% vs 0.67%), shimmer (6.67% vs 3.81%), NHR (0.19 vs 0.10), SPI (12.9 vs 8.76), DVB (2.12% vs 0.01%), DUV (9.53% vs 0.51%), and vAm (23.12% vs 12.06%). In group A, F0 was also significantly higher in the balanced sentences (126 Hz vs 111 Hz). Conclusions: This study demonstrates that hearing loss affects voice production by changing its parameters, especially in subjects with marked hearing loss
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
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
Sodium enoxiparin in the treatment of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss
No full textThe audiovestibular system can be affected by an immunological etiology; the presence of immune mediated sensorineural hearing loss (IMSNHL) as part of or in combination with other autoimmune diseases is well documented in the literature. Hearing loss can be caused by autoimmune disorders localized to the inner ear or secondary to systemic immune diseases (Cogan's syndrome, juvenile chronic arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Wegener's granulomatosis, scleroderma, pulseless disease, and SLE). A systemic autoimmune disorder can be present in fewer than one-third of cases The clinical presentation of immune inner-ear disease is extremely variable and depends on the type of immune reaction and on the site of injury within the inner ear. IMSNHL typically presents with an idiopathic, progressive unilateral and successive bilateral rapidly progressive sensorineural hearing loss; the course of the hearing loss occurs over weeks to months and is most common in middle-aged women; it may be accompanied by tinnitus and vertigo and is almost always unilateral. IMSNHL is still a diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma, and predicting recovery from it is very difficult. Different factors may influence a prognosis: e.g., severity of hearing loss, duration of symptoms before treatment, presence of vertigo, type of audiogram, and age of patients. The therapeutic approaches normally used for this pathological condition include the systemic and local administration of cortisone, vasoactive agents, anticoagulants, vitamin complexes, a cytotoxic agent and plasmapheresis. These drugs can be effective in reversing such hearing loss, although at the cost of occasionally severe side effects. Currently, evaluating the importance of an autoimmune phenomenon in the genesis of inner-ear disease is difficult because the clinical and biological criteria of autoimmune deafness have not yet been well defined. A positive response to treatment is a criterion for the diagnosis of immune inner-ear disease. This chapter aims to assess the effect of sodium enoxaparin on the recovery of hearing in patients affected by ISSNHL. Sodium enoxaparin was administered subcutaneously at a dose of 4,000 IU once a day for 10 days. Sodium enoxaparin is a particular kind of heparin with a low molecular weight (LMWH) and is endowed with a high antithrombotic activity. The literature does not report any therapeutic protocols for autoimmune IMSNHL treatment with sodium enoxaparin or other kinds of unfractionated heparin. Our decision to use enoxaparin was based both on the pathogenesis of this condition and on evaluation of the other classes of drugs currently used
Efficacy of a topical suspension of bacterial antigens for the management of recurrent eczema in children
No full textThe aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of a topical suspension of bacterial antigens for the management of recurrent eczema in children
- …
