1,720,960 research outputs found
Photochemical Modification of a Medical Grade Polyamide Using a Plasma-Based Pre-Treatment
No full textIntroduction: The surface modification of hydrophobic polymers (polyamide 12, PA12) offers a method to increase the hydrophilicity of the surfaces of polymeric medical devices. Plasma is a suitable technology but unfortunately, the modification is reversible, and the hydrophilicity decreases in short time. Otherwise, surface modification with photo-reactive chromophores, namely phenyl azide (PhAz), offers an alternative and irreversible method for the surface hydrophilization.
Methods: The aim of the present work was to combine plasma technology and the azide’s photo-reaction to increase the PA12 hydrophilicity. In the first process step, the polymer surface was activated using plasma reaction. Afterwards, a solution of PhAz was sprayed on the activated polymer surface. Finally, the samples were treated with ultraviolet light to trigger the chemical reaction between the polymer chemical groups and PhAz.
Results: Untreated, plasma-treated, and photo-modified polymers were compared in terms of wettability by means of the contact angle (CA) measurements (immediately, 1 week and a month from the reaction). The hydrophilicity increase of treated surfaces was estimated through “deltaCA”, the decreasing of CA compared to the untreated polymer. Plasma-treated samples were initially very hydrophilic, but hydrophilicity was significantly reduced after 1 week and almost completely lost after 1 month. PhAz-treated samples were significantly more hydrophilic if compared with untreated polymer and after 1-month deltaCA was unchanged. The samples produced by plasma activation followed by treatment with PhAz were very hydrophilic. Some hydrophilicity reduction occurred over time, but after 1 month “deltaCA” was stabilized and still considerably high.
Conclusions: The plasma-based pre-activation process was able to improve the PhAz surface process modification of PA12. Conceivably, new chemical groups generated by the plasma reaction can react with PhAz chromophores and increase the yield of the photochemical reaction, making the polymer surface more hydrophilic if compared with the other processes
Corporate communication and marketing: dynamics of specialization and coordination towards a holistic approach
No full textFrame of the research. Literature on corporate communication and marketing has studied the organizational models of business-related communication for a long time, considering corporate communication and marketing as the most relevant organizational functions competing to coordinate business-related communication.
Purpose of the paper. To explore multiple coordination strategies that can be applied in response to the increasing specialization of business-related communication.
Methodology. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 10 Chief Corporate Communication Officers (CCCOs) and 9 Chief Marketing and Communications Officers (CMCOs).
Results. Findings highlight differing perspectives between CCCOs and CMCOs, with an incomplete perception of one another, and at the same time that a high-level cooperation strengthens both functions. Both the Corporate Communication department and the Marketing & Communications department segment their areas of responsibility based on the groups of communication recipients and the required competencies.
Research limitations. The qualitative nature of the study does not allow to generalize results, and further research could be useful to include the perspective of Chief Marketing Officers.
Managerial implications. The study gives managers insights to enhance the coordination of business-related communication to increase the overall value produced for the organization.
Originality of the paper. The study has explored two organizational solutions aimed at fostering coordination: at a medium level of integration, with a department centralizing all corporate communication activities and coordinating with the separate marketing communication department; and at the maximum level of integration, with a single department managing all marketing and corporate communications
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
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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