1,721,460 research outputs found
A common perceptual parameter for stair climbing for children, young and old adults.
No full textIn this paper we examine whether a common perceptual parameter is available for guiding old adults, young adults and children in climbing the highest stair mountable in a bipedal fashion. Previous works have shown that the ratio between the height of the stair and the hip height was the body-scaled invariance adopted as information for selecting the highest stair by young adults [Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 10 (1984) 683-703] but not by older adults [Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 3 (1992) 691-697]. Indeed, for older adults additional bio-mechanical parameters needed to be added to the model due to their decrease in leg strength and flexibility.Up to now, no perceptual invariant has been identified yet for determining the relevant information used for guiding the stair climbing action for normal healthy people. We propose a new parameter as the angle defined by the ratio between the height of the stair and the distance taken from the feet to the top edge of the stair before the initiation of the movement. We show that this angle is the same for children, young adults and older adults despite the different kinematics of the motion, the anthropometrics and the skill ability exhibit by the participants. In summary we show that even when the climbability judgments, based on the simple ratio leg length-stair height, are influenced by differences in age, participants use a common perceptual variable when they are coordinating their stair climbing action
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
Perception-action coupling: changing “affordances” in stair climbing for young and older adults
No full textPerception-action coupling: changing “affordances” in stair climbing for young and older adult
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
A retrospective study comparing agar plate culture, indirect immunofluorescence and real-time PCR for the diagnosis of Strongyloides stercoralis infection
No full textStrongyloides stercoralis is a parasite that can cause death in immunocompromised people. A proper diagnosis is hence essential. The real-time polymerase-chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a novel, promising diagnostic method, that detects the DNA of the parasite in stool samples. In this retrospective study, we compared the sensitivity of agar plate coproculture (APC), an in-house immunofluorescence test (IFAT) and an in-house RT-PCR for the diagnosis of S. stercoralis infection. The study sample was composed by 223 samples. Samples resulting positive to APC, IFAT and RT-PCR were 20, 140 and 25, respectively. When sensitivity was calculated against a composite reference standard, serology confirmed the best performance (sensitivity 95%), followed by RT-PCR (57%) and APC (45%). In conclusion, in a non-endemic setting, serology is the best screening method, while the combination of APC and RT-PCR does not seem a reasonable approach to increase sensitivity. Both methods can have a role as confirmatory tests for selected cases
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
Novel approaches to the diagnosis of Strongyloides stercoralis infection
No full textAbstractStrongyloides stercoralis differs from the other soil-transmitted helminths because it puts infected subjects at risk of a fatal syndrome (in cases of immunosuppression for medical conditions, immunosuppressant therapies, or both). Chronic strongyloidiasis is often a non-severe condition, or is sometimes even asymptomatic, but diagnosis and effective therapy are essential in order to eradicate the infection and the life-long risk involved. Therefore, diagnostic methods need to be highly sensitive. Stool microscopy and the Kato–Katz technique are commonly used in prevalence studies, but they are inadequate for S. stercoralis detection. This is probably the main reason why the global prevalence has long been underestimated. Concentration methods, the Baermann technique and Koga agar plate culture have better, but still unsatisfactory, sensitivity. Serological tests have demonstrated higher sensitivity; although some authors have concerns about their specificity, it is possible to define cut-off values over which infection is almost certain. In particular, the luciferase immunoprecipitation system technique combined with a recombinant antigen (NIE) demonstrated a specificity of almost 100%. ELISA coproantigen detection has also shown promising results, but still needs full evaluation. Molecular diagnostic methods are currently available in a few referral centres as in-house techniques. In this review, on the basis of the performance of the different diagnostic methods, we outline diagnostic strategies that could be proposed for different purposes, such as: prevalence studies in endemic areas; individual diagnosis and screening; and monitoring of cure in clinical care and clinical trials
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
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