1,721,200 research outputs found

    Motor control learning at the lumbar spine using sensor-based postural feedback: preliminary results of a randomized controlled trial

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    Introduction Extrinsic feedback can be provided in different ways during motor control exercises for patients with low back pain (LBP). However, little is known about the most effective form of feedback. Aims (1) To evaluate whether sensor-based postural feedback is more effective than conventional feedback to learn a motor control task for the lumbar spine. (2) To assess whether there is a carry-over effect from an analytical to a functional task. Materials and methods Thirty healthy adults who experienced no LBP and performed no lumbar stabilization exercises in the past year were recruited. At baseline assessment, participants were asked to perform a forward bending movement in the hip joints (waiter’s bow, analytical task) and to lift a box (functional task), while keeping the physiological lordosis in the lumbar spine. Each task was repeated five times, and both conditions were standardized to the subject’s height. Lumbopelvic kinematics (deviation from the starting position in the lumbar spine and hip) were measured with inertial sensors (Valedo®Motion, version 1.0) placed at L1, S1 and the femur. After the baseline evaluation, participants were randomized into three groups: the sensor-group (SG) received sensor-based postural feedback on a computer screen, the mirror-group (MG) received mirror-based feedback and the control-group (CG) received no feedback. After randomization, subjects practiced the waiter’s bow (3 x 6 repetitions), during which they received their assigned form of feedback. Lumbopelvic kinematics of both tasks were re-assessed immediately after the learning phase. Results Regarding the waiter’s bow, the mean maximal deviation in the lumbar spine decreased in the SG (23.4° to 12.8°, p< 0.01), while there was no significant difference in the MG (18.4° to 20.4°) and the CG (20.5° to 19.7°). Post-hoc analysis showed that there was a between group difference in favor of the SG, which improved more than the MG and CG (p< 0.05). No significant within and between group differences were present for the lifting task, although there was a trend towards a within group improvement in the SG (p= 0.09). Results for the hip angles are currently being analyzed. Conclusions Sensor-based postural feedback appears to be more effective than conventional feedback and no feedback for improving task-specific motor control training. There was no carry-over effect to the functional task, suggesting that motor control training should be task-specific or that the duration of the learning period was not sufficient. These results should be confirmed in a low back pain population

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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