1,720,961 research outputs found
Identification and treatment of cervicogenic dizziness & persistent postural-perceptual dizziness
No full textAbstract: Dizziness is a frequent disorder with a prevalence of up to 40% in the general population. Although it is almost always non-life-threatening, dizziness can have a significant impact on personal and social functioning. This is particularly the case when the symptoms persist, i.e., in chronic dizziness. Patients with chronic dizziness present a particular challenge to the clinician. Diagnosing is complicated by the subjectivity of the symptoms, the often-present multicausality, and the lack of abnormalities on clinical/laboratory tests. The absence of a diagnosis makes the patient feel misunderstood, and all too often no (appropriate) treatment is administered. This doctoral thesis focuses on Cervicogenic Dizziness (CGD) and Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD). These two forms of chronic dizziness are frequently mentioned in the literature, but there is still some uncertainty how these disorders can be reliably detected and adequately treated. For CGD, the dizziness is said - according to the most common theory - to be caused by altered cervical proprioceptive afferents. In PPPD cases, dizziness is thought to be caused by altered functional brain connectivity. Our results show that the combination of low scores on the Neck Bournemouth Questionnaire and low scores on the Tandem Gait is sufficiently reliable to exclude the diagnosis of CGD, and that low scores on the Visual Vertigo Analogue Scale can be used to exclude the diagnosis of PPPD. However, clinical tests that can reliably identify CGD or PPPD are lacking: the existing ones cannot detect the pathophysiological mechanism sufficiently and what the tests do detect is also frequently seen in other causes of chronic dizziness than CGD and PPPD. The results also demonstrate the increased effectiveness of combined manual and exercise therapy for the treatment of CGD, and the good user experience of WeBaVeR in patients with PPPD. Further research into the therapeutic effect of WeBaVeR is still needed. However, given the clinical overlap, we suggest that every patient with chronic dizziness should be screened for the presence of neck complaints and increased visual dependence, and if present, these treatments should be applied regardless of the diagnosis. In other words, we advocate a patient-tailored, symptom-based approach for patients with chronic dizziness, including manual and exercise therapy and/or WeBaVeR. The diagnostic discussion can be continued academically, but should not get in the way of the clinical approach
Aging and the Relationship between Balance Performance, Vestibular Function and Somatosensory Thresholds
No full textOBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was two-fold: (1) To evaluate the impact of the physiological aging process on somatosensory, vestibular, and balance functions, and (2) To examine the extent to which age and somatosensory and vestibular functions can predict balance performance. MATERIALS and METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 141 asymptomatic subjects were assessed for touch pressure thresholds ( TPT) with Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments (SWF), vibration thresholds (VT) with a neurothesiometer (NT) and a Rydel-Seiffer tuning fork 128Hz (RSTF). Horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflexes (HVOR gain and asymmetry) were assessed using the video Head Impulse Test (vHIT). A modified version of the Romberg test was used to assess standing balance and the Timed Up and Go test (TUG) and tandem gait (TG) to evaluate dynamic balance. RESULTS: Significant age effects were found for TPT, VT, and balance but not for HVOR gain or asymmetry. Standing balance was explained for 47.2% by age, metatarsal 1 (MT1) (NT), and heel (SWF). The variance in TUG performance was explained for 47.0% by age, metatarsal 5 (MT5) (SWF), and medial malleolus (MM) (NT). Finally, the variance in TG performance was predicted for 43.1% by age, MT1 (NT), HVOR gain, and heel (SWF). CONCLUSION: Among asymptomatic adult population, both somatosensation and balance performance deteriorate with aging. In contrast, HVOR remains rather constant with age, which is possibly explained by the process of vestibular adaptation. Furthermore, this study provides evidence that the VT, TPT, HVOR gain, and age partly predict balance performance. Still, further research is needed, especially with bigger samples in decades 8 and 9.This project is granted by STIMPRO internal funding of the University of Antwerp.Johnson, C (corresponding author), Univ Antwerp, Dept Rehabil Sci & Physiotherapy, Antwerp, Belgium.
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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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