1,720,954 research outputs found
Psychosocial risk factors for the onset of abdominal pain. Results from a large prospective population-based study
No full textObjective. To determine the psychosocial risk factors for the development of abdominal pain and to determine whether, in those people who consulted, symptoms had been attributed to an organic cause. Design. Prospective population-based postal survey with follow-up survey at 12 months. Setting. A mixed sociodemographic suburban area of Manchester, UK. Participants. Subjects aged 18-65 years were randomly selected from a population-based primary care register who had responded to a detailed pain questionnaire, which included a pain manikin drawing. They also completed the following psychosocial instruments: General Health Questionnaire, Somatic Symptom Checklist, Fatigue Questionnaire and the Illness Attitude Scales (including the 'health anxiety' and 'illness behaviour' sub-scales). Main outcome measures. The onset of new abdominal pain. Results. Of the 1953 participants at baseline, 1763 were free of abdominal pain: 1551 were followed up at 12 months (adjusted follow-up rate of 92%) of which 69 subjects reported new abdominal pain (new onset rate 4.6%). New abdominal pain was similar in females (4.9%) and males (4.2%), and did not vary by age group. Baseline factors which predicted onset were high levels of fatigue (odds ratio [OR] = 3.3, 95% CI: 1.9-5.8), psychological distress (OR = 3.4, 95% CI: 1.9-6.0), high scores on the illness behaviour scale (OR = 3.3, 95% CI: 1.7-6.7) and high levels of health anxiety (OR = 2.1, 95% CI: 1.1-3.9). Reporting low back pain at baseline was also associated with an increased risk of reporting abdominal pain (OR = 2.0, 95% CI: 1.2-3.3). On multivariate analysis, high levels of psychological distress and aspects of prior illness behaviour were the major independent predictors of outcome. Of those who sought health care, only one consultation led to a definite diagnosis. Conclusion. In subjects free of abdominal pain, psychological distress, fatigue, health anxiety and illness behaviour are predictors of future onset rather than merely a consequence of symptoms. These results suggest that abdominal pain shares some common features of onset with pain at other sites thought not to be primarily organic in origin
Predictors of persistent gastrointestinal symptoms among new presenters to primary care
No full textBackground and aims To quantify the relative contribution of environmental, clinical, infection and psychosocial factors in the persistence of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms among new patients presenting to primary care. Methods We conducted a population-based prospective cohort study of 4986 adults aged 25-65 years. The study team obtained permission from the participants to monitor their general practice records for consultation with GI symptoms and to contact them at that time. Group 1 (n=177) patients completed a postal questionnaire, whereas those in group 2 (n=191) completed an identical questionnaire and provided a blood and stool sample. The participants were followed up for 1 and 6 months postconsultation. Results Of 610 (12.2%) participants who consulted, 368 (60.3%) agreed to participate. Two hundred and eighty participants (76.1%) completed 1 and 6-month follow-up questionnaires and 106 (37.9%) had persistent (present 1 and 6 months postconsultation) GI symptoms. After adjusting for age, sex, area of residence and duration of symptoms before consultation, symptom persistence was independently predicted by high levels of psychological distress [odds ratio (OR): 2.5, 95% confidence interval (CI): (1.1-5.3)], symptom episode duration of more than 2h [OR: 3.1, 95% CI: (1.3-7.1)] and symptom interference with daily activities [OR: 2.3, 95% CI: (1.1-4.8)]. Changing diet [OR: 0.2, 95% CI: (0.1-0.9)] and recent gastroenteritis or food poisoning [OR: 0.2, 95% CI: (0.1-0.98)] were associated with protective effects. Infection was not associated. Exposure to three or more of these factors identified 87.3% (n=92) of the participants with persistent symptoms. Conclusion The factors measured at the time of consultation with GI symptoms can accurately predict those patients at increased risk of persistent symptoms up to 6 months later. © 2010 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
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
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
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