1,720,955 research outputs found
Impacts of Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Health Disparities on COVID-19 Infection and Mortality
No full textBackground: Black communities, comprising 32.2% of Louisiana’s population, were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Significant social disparities and a high prevalence of chronic health conditions within this demographic have heightened their vulnerability to the virus. Long-term exposure to air pollutants, along with preexisting immune and respiratory conditions, has been associated with increased susceptibility to COVID-19. This study seeks to evaluate the relationship between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure and COVID-19 incidence and mortality rates in Louisiana, USA. Methods: Descriptive and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between PM2.5 levels and county-level COVID-19 incidence and mortality (both count and rate) in Louisiana. ArcGIS spatial analysis was utilized to perform zonal statistics, enabling a geographic assessment of the relationships between air pollution and COVID-19 outcomes. Results: Louisiana’s 19-year average PM2.5 concentration (9.1 µg/m³) exceeds the U.S. average (8.4 µg/m³). Prolonged exposure to PM2.5 has been linked to heightened COVID-19 risks. Specifically, a 1 µg/m³ increase in PM2.5 corresponded to approximately 15% higher COVID-19 incidence and a 22%-35% rise in mortality rates among Black populations, after adjusting for underlying health conditions and risk factors (p \u3c 0.05). Black communities faced approximately 20% greater COVID-19 risks compared with the total population. For exposure durations of 6-14 years, the COVID-19 risk increased by 6.5%-16.4% among Blacks and by 2.8%-10.5% overall. Preexisting health conditions, particularly those affecting diabetic kidney function, were more strongly associated with COVID-19 risks than respiratory diseases across all PM2.5 exposure durations. Conclusions: The disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on Black communities highlight the urgent need to address air pollution and health disparities to reduce COVID-19 risks in Louisiana. Our findings underscore the importance of controlling PM2.5 levels and implementing effective public health responses to prevent COVID-19 and other future respiratory diseases at both local and state levels
Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal(loid)s Intake from Beverages in the United States
Get PDFHeavy metals in beverages can pose health risks in an exposure-dependent manner, however, few studies in the United States have evaluated their metal content and health risks. This study determined the concentrations of eight metal(loid)s, As, Al, Cd, Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn, in 60 beverages via inductively coupled plasma[sbnd]mass spectrometry (ICPMS). The highest median concentrations (µg/kg) were found in mixed fruit juices for Ni (45.7), Cr (14.8), and As (4.5); tea for Mn (5,300), Al (730), and Pb (1.4); and plant-based milk for Zn (835) and Cd (1.1). Chronic daily intake (CDI) across age groups was calculated using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Potential noncarcinogenic health risks were assessed via Hazard Quotients (HQ), and Hazard Indices (HI) for all elements and incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) was assessed for total As, Cd, Ni, and Pb. About 58–67 % of the samples showed no noncarcinogenic risk (HQ and HI \u3c 1). HQ \u3e 1 was found in 19 samples for As, Zn, Ni, and Mn, and HI \u3e 1 in 6 additional samples (n = 25), mostly affecting children under 10, with three samples posing risk beyond adolescence. Significant carcinogenic risk (10−2 to 10−4) was found for As, Cd, and Ni across all beverage categories. This study highlights the need for consumer awareness and policy review
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
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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