1,720,955 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
Development and psychometric testing of a new instrument to measure the caring behaviour of nurses in Italian acute care settings
No full textAim
To develop and psychometrically test the Italian‐language Nurse Caring Behaviours Scale, a short measure of nurse caring behaviour as perceived by inpatients.
Background
Patient perceptions of nurses’ caring behaviours are a predictor of care quality. Caring behaviours are culture‐specific, but no measure of patient perceptions has previously been developed in Italy. Moreover, existing tools show unclear psychometric properties, are burdensome for respondents, or are not widely applicable.
Design
Instrument development and psychometric testing.
Method
Item generation included identifying and adapting items from existing measures of caring behaviours as perceived by patients. A pool of 28 items was evaluated for face validity. Content validity indexes were calculated for the resulting 15‐item scale; acceptability and clarity were pilot tested with 50 patients. To assess construct validity, a sample of 2,001 consecutive adult patients admitted to a hospital in 2014 completed the scale and was split into two groups. Reliability was evaluated using nonlinear structural equation modelling coefficients. Measurement invariance was tested across subsamples.
Results
Item 15 loaded poorly in the exploratory factor analysis (n = 983) and was excluded from the final solution, positing a single latent variable with 14 indicators. This model fitted the data moderately. The confirmatory factor analysis (n = 1018) returned similar results. Internal consistency was excellent in both subsamples. Full scalar invariance was reached, and no significant latent mean differences were detected across subsamples.
Conclusion
The new instrument shows reasonable psychometric properties and is a promising short and widely applicable measure of inpatient perceptions of nurse caring behaviours
Impatto del tutor clinico nella formazione dei comportamenti di caring dello studente del corso di laurea di Infermieristica
No full textPremessa La formazione dell’infermiere si pone nel campo della ricerca educativa come una sfida a tutto tondo, per la complessità degli obiettivi che lo studente di infermieristica deve raggiungere in un arco di tempo circoscritto, come quello definito dal corso di laurea triennale, nella prospettiva di un inserimento professionale immediato. Gli interrogativi principali alla base della ricerca sono stati tre: cosa definisce la specificità dell’essere infermiere, ovvero la sua identità professionale; come si acquisiscono le competenze essenziali per svolgere adeguatamente la professione infermieristica; a chi compete la responsabilità di garantire che queste competenze siano state acquisite in modo adeguato alle necessità del paziente. La figura del tutor clinico è apparsa come la chiave di volta per dare una risposta a questi tre interrogativi. Il riferimento teorico è stato il caring inteso come buona relazione di cura, concretizzato nella teoria infermieristica del Transpersonal Caring di Jean Watson, condensata nel concetto e nella realtà del caring moment: il momento di interrelazione tra l’infermiere e il paziente che rappresenta una grande opportunità di buona relazione di cura. Tale opportunità si dovrebbe dare anche nella relazione formativa tra il tutor clinico e lo studente. Il caring è, pertanto, l’essenza dell’infermieristica e quindi del curriculum formativo corrispondente, ed è misurabile attraverso i comportamenti che lo manifestano. Il caring dell’infermiere tutor clinico è un elemento formativo, un outcome: è percepito dallo studente durante il tirocinio e andrebbe misurato. Per misurare le manifestazioni di una buona relazione di cura esistono, a livello internazionale, numerosi strumenti. I più diffusi in Italia sono l’Italian Caring Behaviors Inventory (CBIta), che misura il caring degli infermieri, e l’Italian Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Instructor Caring (I-NSPIC), che misura la percezione che gli studenti hanno del caring dell’infermiere tutor clinico. In particolare, le dimensioni o variabili latenti, rappresentate dagli item dei due questionari, sono rispettivamente: l’attenzione, le conoscenze/abilità, il rispetto e l’empatia (CBIta), per quanto riguarda il primo strumento; per il secondo abbiamo la trasmissione di fiducia, l’ambiente di supporto nell’apprendimento, il controllo/flessibilità e la condivisione rispettosa (I-NSPIC). Tali questionari sono stati utilizzati per confrontare il caring degli studenti con quello degli infermieri. Obiettivo L’obiettivo principale della ricerca è stato quello di valutare l’impatto del caring degli infermieri tutor clinici sui comportamenti di caring degli studenti dei tre anni del corso di laurea di infermieristica. Materiali e metodi La ricerca ha coinvolto un’ampia coorte di studenti iscritti ai tre anni del Corso di Laurea di Infermieristica, dell’Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma e dell’Università di Catania, nel periodo 2016-2018. In primo luogo, è stato realizzato lo studio di validazione del questionario CBIta per studenti di infermieristica, attraverso analisi psicometriche. Una volta validato, lo strumento è stato utilizzato assieme all’I-NSPIC, anch’esso sottoposto ad analisi psicometriche, per lo studio quantitativo trasversale finalizzato alla descrizione delle associazioni tra i comportamenti di caring degli studenti e quelli dei tutor clinici come percepiti dagli studenti. In ultimo, è stata descritta, in uno studio longitudinale, la differenza dei livelli di caring della coorte di studenti nel passaggio dal secondo (t0) al terzo anno (t1) tramite i risultati dei questionari CBIta. I dati inizialmente sono stati sottoposti al test Shapiro-Wilk per valutarne la distribuzione di normalità. Successivamente sono stati calcolati gli indici di posizione media (± deviazione standard) e mediana (25°-75° percentile) del campione. In relazione alle caratteristiche del campione e alla distribuzione degli item sono state identificate le analisi statistiche e i test più appropriati da utilizzare (test parametrici e non parametrici). L’analisi fattoriale esplorativa è stata realizzata usando il metodo di massima verosimiglianza con rotazione obliqua GEOMIN; sono quindi state create le nuove variabili corrispondenti ai punteggi delle singole dimensioni (o fattori F) per entrambi i questionari. Per descrivere i livelli di caring degli studenti in relazione alle caratteristiche socio-demografiche (età; sesso; anno di corso; area clinica; esperienze di caring precedenti) sono stati utilizzati il test non parametrico di Mann-Whitney (campioni indipendenti) e il test di Wilcoxon (dati appaiati). L’associazione tra variabili è stata indagata con regressioni lineari o logistiche univariate e multivariate, ove appropriato. L’analisi statistica è stata eseguita con i software SPSS v. 21.0, Mplus 7.1 e 6.12 e Stata v. 14. Risultati Il principale risultato è l’associazione significativa tra i comportamenti di caring degli studenti e il caring del tutor clinico. Tale associazione si basa sulla relazione tra i livelli del caring nelle diverse dimensioni emerse dalle analisi fattoriali esplorative dei due questionari, entrambi risultati validi ed affidabili per campioni di studenti di infermieristica. Per il questionario CBIta, sono state identificate le seguenti dimensioni: ‘Essere con’ (F1), ‘Fare con competenza’ (F2), ‘Rispondere alle necessità individuali’ (F3) e ‘Fornire assistenza efficace’ (F4). F1 e F3 sono correlate tra loro e rappresentano la dimensione più ampia del modo di ‘essere’ nella professione; F2 e F4 sono correlate tra loro e fanno riferimento alla dimensione del ‘fare’. Per il questionario I-NSPIC, invece, sono state rilevate le seguenti dimensioni: ‘Trasmettere fiducia attraverso il caring’ (F1A), ‘Condivisione rispettosa’ (F2A), ‘Mancanza di fiducia’ (F3A), ‘Ambiente di supporto personale e di apprendimento’ (F4A), ‘Controllo versus flessibilità’ (F5A). È stata dimostrata un’associazione significativa tra F1A (percezione di fiducia) e F2 (OR=1.99, p=0.015), F3 (OR=1.837, p=0.033), F4 (OR=2.063, p=0.012) (comportamenti di caring degli studenti nelle dimensioni riguardanti sia l’essere che il fare). In particolare, si dimostra una probabilità doppia per lo studente di sviluppare caring se percepisce fiducia da parte del tutor. Alcune variabili socio-demografiche (età, sesso, anno di corso) hanno mostrato associazioni significative con i livelli di caring nelle quattro dimensioni esplorate dal CBIta. In particolare, gli studenti di età compresa tra i 22 e i 42 anni hanno una probabilità doppia di sviluppare caring nella dimensione F2 rispetto agli studenti di età compresa tra i 18 e i 21 anni; le studentesse hanno una probabilità di sviluppare caring nelle 4 dimensioni rispetto agli studenti di sesso maschile due volte superiore; gli studenti del secondo e terzo anno hanno una probabilità doppia di sviluppare caring nella dimensione F2 rispetto agli studenti del primo anno; gli studenti del terzo anno hanno la probabilità doppia di sviluppare caring nella dimensione F4 rispetto agli studenti del primo e del secondo anno. Inoltre, la coorte di studenti ha manifestato un incremento significativo dei livelli di caring in F2 e un decremento in F3 nel passaggio dal secondo al terzo anno di studi. Più in particolare, l’incremento di F2 si è dimostrato associato positivamente alle variazioni tra il secondo e il terzo anno di studi in F1 (B=0.14, p=0.003) e in F3 (B=0.2, p=0.032); il decremento di F3, invece, si è dimostrato associato positivamente solo alla variazione tra il secondo e il terzo anno di studi in F4 (B=0.54, p=0.003). Conclusioni I risultati ottenuti confermano l’ipotesi iniziale secondo la quale la percezione che gli studenti hanno del caring dell’infermiere con funzioni di tutor clinico, che affiancano durante il tirocinio, ha un impatto sullo sviluppo dei comportamenti di caring dello studente. Inoltre, la quantificazione, attraverso lo studio longitudinale, di una crescita asimmetrica della relazione di cura correlata agli aspetti tecnici del fare piuttosto che a quelli relazionali dell’essere, confermano ciò che è stato rilevato già da altri studi: è necessario un maggior impegno nella formazione dei futuri infermieri relativamente all’expressive caring, ovvero al modo di ‘essere’ nella professione. La possibile soluzione che emerge dai nostri risultati è quella di potenziare la formazione pedagogica degli infermieri dei teaching hospital coinvolti nel tutorato clinico, in modo che possano seguire al meglio l’apprendimento degli studenti attraverso la trasmissione di quella fiducia necessaria a far sbocciare tutte le loro potenzialità.Introduction The education and training of nurses and related research is a challenge that calls for a comprehensive approach due to the complexities of the objectives nursing students have to achieve during the limited time of their undergraduate course before starting their professional career. The main questions at the core of the present research, have essentially been three: what defines the specificity of being a nurse and related professional identity? How can the necessary skills be learnt to effectively carry out the many nursing tasks? Who has the responsibility to guarantee that the nurses’ acquired skills can meet the demands of the job and the patients’ needs? The clinical tutor can be seen as playing a central role in giving an answer to these three questions. The theoretical framework of this study is caring in terms of a good relationship of care, as set out in the nursing theory of Transpersonal Caring by Jean Watson encapsulating the concept and reality of the caring moment: an occasion of intersubjectivity between nurse and patient which should be a caring opportunity; the same opportunity should be created between the clinical tutor and the student in the educational relationship. Caring is the essence of nursing and of its curriculum, and it can be assessed by measuring behaviors. The caring of the clinical tutor nurse is an educational outcome: it is perceived by the students and as such it should be measured. The Italian Caring Behaviors Inventory (CBIta) which measures the nurses’ caring behaviors and the Italian Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Instructor Caring (I-NSPIC) which measures the students’ perceptions of the caring of the clinical tutor nurse, are two of the most important tools that are used in Italy in this sector. The dimensions or latent variables, represented by the items of the two questionnaires are ‘Assurance’, ‘Knowledge and skill’, ‘Respectful’, ‘Connectedness’ (CBIta), and ‘Instills confidence through caring’, ‘Supportive learning climate’, ‘Appreciation of life’s meanings’, ‘Control versus flexibility’, ‘Respectful sharing’ (I-NSPIC). These two questionnaires were used to compare the students’ caring with the clinical nurses’. Objective The main objective of the present work was to quantify the impact of clinical tutors’ caring on the students’ caring behaviors during the first three years of the nursing degree course. Materials and methods The present research has involved a large cohort of undergraduate nursing students from the University Campus Bio-Medico of Roma and of the University of Catania in the 2016-2018 period. First, it was carried out the procedure to validate the CBIta questionnaire for the nursing students through psychometric analyses. Then together with the I-NSPIC (this too tested psychometrically) we/I proceeded with the cross-sectional quantitative study to describe the associations between the students caring behaviors and their clinical tutors as perceived by the students. A longitudinal study was also carried out using the CBIta questionnaire, to assess the differences in the levels of caring by the students between their second (t0) and third year (t1). Data were initially analyzed using the Shapiro-Wilk test to evaluate their normal distribution. The mean (± standard deviation) and median (25th-75th percentile) position indexes were then calculated. With regard to the sample characteristics and the items distribution the statistical tools and the appropriate tests to use were identified (parametric and non-parametric tests). The dimensionality of the scale was tested using Mplus Maximum Likelihood (MLr) as a parameter estimator with GEOMIN oblique rotation. New variables corresponding to the scores of the single dimensions (or factors F) for both questionnaires were then created. To describe the levels of caring of the students in relation to their socio-demographic characteristics (sex, age, year of course, clinical area, previous caring experiences). The Mann-Whitney non-parametric test (independent samples) or the Wilcoxon test (paired data) were used. The associations between variables, where appropriate, were investigated through linear regressions or univariate and multivariate logistics. The software used are the following: SPSS v. 21.0, STATA v.14.0 and Mplus 7.1 & 6.12. Results The main result is the significant association between the students and their clinical tutors’ caring. Such association is based on the relationship between the levels of caring in the different dimensions that emerged from the explorative factorial analyses of the two questionnaires, both valid and reliable for the use of a sample of nursing students. For the CBIta were identified the following dimensions: ‘being with’ (F1); ‘doing with competence’ (F2); ‘responding to individual needs’ (F3); ‘providing effective care’ (F4). F1 and F3 are correlated and represent the larger dimension in terms of ‘being’ in this profession; F2 and F4 are correlated and refer to the dimension of ‘doing’. With regard to the I-NSPIC questionnaire on the other hand, were identified the following five dimensions: ‘Transmitting trust through caring’ (F1A), ‘Respect sharing’ (F2A), ‘Lack of trust’ (F3A), ‘Personal support and learning environment’ (F4A), ‘Control versus flexibility’ (F5A). The association between the students' perception of their own caring levels and their clinical tutors’ show significant values for the F1A dimension, (Instills confidence through caring), as follows: F1A versus F2, F3, F4 resulted OR values around 2, 1.990 (P = 0.015), 1.837 (P = 0.033), 2.063 (P = 0.012), respectively. Therefore, students who perceive high levels of trust, through the clinical tutors’ caring, are twice as likely to develop caring. The associations between the caring levels of students and the different demographic characteristics have shown the extent of the impact of age, sex and year of course. Students aged between 22 and 42 are twice as likely to develop caring in the F2 dimension as students aged between 18 and 21; the female participants showed higher levels of caring and to be twice as likely to develop caring in all dimensions as their male colleagues, second and third year students are more likely to develop caring in the F2 dimension compared to first-year students; third-year students are twice as likely to develop caring in the F4 dimension as first and second year students. Moreover the sample showed a significant increase in the levels of caring in F2 and a significant decrease in F3 between the second and third year of the course. More specifically, the increase of F2 is positively associated with the second and third year variations in F1 (B=0.14, p=0.003) and in F3 (B=0.2, p=0.032). The decrease of F3 on the other hand, is only positively associated with the second and third year variation in F4 (B=0.54, p=0.003). Conclusions The results have confirmed the initial hypothesis according to which the perception students have with regard to their clinical tutor nurse’s caring has an impact on the development of the students’ own caring behaviors. Furthermore, the quantification through a longitudinal study of an asymmetric growth of the caring relationship, correlated with the technical aspects of ‘doing’ rather than the relational ones of ‘being’, confirm the findings of other studies. It is therefore necessary a greater commitment in the education and training of the future nurses in the dimension of expressive caring, that is a ‘being’ as a way of being a nurse. Given our results, the possible solution could be upgrading the pedagogical education of the nurses of the teaching hospitals involved in the clinical tutorship to better follow the students’ learning process through the transmission of trust as a necessary element to exploit their full potential
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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