1,721,055 research outputs found
Light chain amyloidosis 2012: a new era.
No full textAL amyloidosis patients with multi-organ and particularly cardiac involvement have historically been considered to have a bad prognosis. The introduction of autologous stem cell transplantation was associated with unacceptable toxicity in high-risk patients, but responding patients have prolonged overall survival. Toxicities can be decreased by careful patient selection, but this reduces the applicability of this treatment modality to a limited number of patients. Efforts are therefore needed to design novel more effective regimens, with the use of new medications, such as thalidomide, lenalidomide and bortezomib, next generation immunomodulatory drugs and proteasome inhibitors. Their combination with dexamethasone and alkylating agents show promising results, allowing a high percentage of remission and subsequent event-free and overall survival, even in a significant proportion of high risk, poor prognosis populations. This review includes the state-of-the-art treatment for AL amyloidosis patients as of 2012, in light of the progress in management of this disease during recent years
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
Assessment of the Structural Health Monitoring of a Historic Reinforced Concrete Water Tower
No full textDegradation of Reinforced Concrete structures exposed to aggressive environment is of major concern in the construction industry. The work presented refers to the thorough assessment of a structure, the Water Tower at the Malta Civil Abattoir, exposed to an aggressive marine environment and its restoration using advanced materials, restoration technologies and monitoring systems. This Water Tower was constructed in the 1930s and is located in the Grand Harbour, close to the coast. It suffered severe degradation due to a coastal exposure. The restoration required a comprehensive approach covering different critical and important stages. The restoration of the structure and use as a Water Tank required an appreciation of the historic structure and relies also on the use of advanced materials which can address the requirements of the structure. The project included the following stages:
▪
Advanced appraisal of an industrial heritage structural for conservation, through materials testing, numerical structural modelling and scenario testing to optimise repair and strengthening interventions.
▪
Development and then the application of advanced ultra-high performance materials applied for the first time, including ultra-high performance self-healing nano-additive based concrete and carbon textile reinforced high performance concrete for the strengthening of the structure.
▪
Development of new techniques for restoration of concrete heritage structures including electro-chemical chloride extraction, re-alkalisation of reinforced concrete, epoxy injection and polymer concrete patch repair with corrosion inhibitors, re-integration of the structure, and an advanced sensor network system for monitoring over time.
New materials and technologies were developed to address the challenging conservation process. The innovative materials and technologies promote the long-term behaviour in the structure. These materials were developed for their use in the strengthening of the different elements in the structure; they consist primarily in the following high performance concrete systems:
▪
Ultra high performance – high durability fibre reinforced concrete with ultra-high strength self-healing and self-compacting propertied, applied to the columns
▪
Textile reinforced concrete with carbon textile / resin reinforcement with high strength and self-healing properties, applied to the tank.
The long-term monitoring approach is based on an advanced structural health and Durability monitoring system together with environmental monitoring. The system is based on 150 sensors embedded in the structure, the data collection and processing in real time, to monitor
54
the long-term performance of the structure and also its performance during normal operation whilst in service for the storage of water. The advanced Sensor Network System included a Durability Monitoring system based on Galvanic, Resistivity and Embedded Reference Electrode sensors; Structural Health Monitoring based on strain gauges and accelerometers; Environmental Monitoring with a weather station which captures data on weather conditions including solar radiation, temperature and precipitation. The sensors are located in different structural elements and parts of the structure for overall monitoring. In addition, a microtremor ambient noise investigation was carried out before, during and after restoration, with monitoring of the tank also when empty and when full of water.
Data from the sensors related to monitoring is collected through the installation of a Data Acquisition System. Although the number of channels on this DAQ is limited, a number of multiplexers were used to expand this number of channels. Typically, these take readings once every few minutes for the durability and strain gauges, while continuous readings are taken for the accelerometers. The data gathered from the structural health and durability sensors is intended to understand the performance of the restored water tower over time with respect to different environmental conditions and actions during operation. The monitoring system was used during the validation process when the tank, having a capacity of 400 cubic m of water was filled in with water gradually and then emptied. The performance of the structure during a seismic event was also assessed with reference to the structural health monitoring sensor system. In addition, the performance of different sensors in different parts of the structure and different orientations was analysed.
The analysing of the data generated through the structural health monitoring system (strain gauges and accelerometers) indicated that the systems is capable of assessing the performance as anticipated at the design stage of the monitoring system. In addition, the sensor monitoring system indicated that the structure performs as per structural design considerations, when considering its behaviour at different stages, before and during filing in, with the tank full of water and on emptying the tank. The water tower’s performance over time is monitored through the durability sensor system intended to monitor degradation and assess the effectiveness of the restoration and the durability of the restoration and strengthening methods employed. The monitoring of the Reinforced Concrete Water Tower, allows for real time assessment of performance of the structure, supporting the conservation strategy
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
- …
