1,720,968 research outputs found
Sleep and neuropsychological functioning in school aged children
No full textThis thesis investigated the relationship between sleep disturbance and neuropsychological functioning in healthy, typically developing children and children with cystic fibrosis (CF). Three research questions were examined in this thesis. The first examined whether sleep disturbance is associated with specific deficits in executive functions or an overall deficit in executive functioning. The second research question examined the relationship between sleep disturbance and behaviour problems. A final research question examined whether sleep disturbance, in the absence of hypoxia, affects executive functioning in a comparable way to sleep disturbance associated with hypoxia.The first study demonstrated that global executive function (GEF) was significantly lower in healthy children with higher sleep disturbance. Sleep disturbance was not associated with individual performance on executive function tasks.The second study also examined sleep and executive function in healthy children using a revised battery of neuropsychological tests. Compared to children with low
sleep disturbance, children with high sleep disturbance had significantly lower GEF and lower processing speed. Both sleep quantity and sleep quality predicted GEF however sleep quantity explained an additional unique proportion of the variance.The third study examined sleep in children with cystic fibrosis. When dichotomized into high and low sleep disturbed groups, neither GEF nor processing speed was significantly different between the two groups. The sleep and neuropsychological functioning of children with CF was compared to the healthy, typically developing children from Study 3. There were no significant differences between children with CF and healthy controls on any sleep measures or executive function performance. Nine children with CF underwent one night of polysomnography. A further aim of Study 3 was to examine whether neuropsychological deficits were
greater if in the presence of both high sleep disturbance and nocturnal hypoxia. Executive function deficits were worse in children with nocturnal hypoxia, irrespective of whether they had high or low sleep disturbance. In contrast, processing speed deficits were more evident in children with high sleep disturbance, irrespective of whether they had nocturnal hypoxia.A consistent finding throughout this thesis was that children with higher conduct problems have increased sleep disturbance (measured using parent report and actigraphy).These findings have implications for children’s development; future research examining the effects of sleep disturbance on executive function should consider whether these effects are irreversible
A comparison of actigraphy and parental reports of sleep habits in typically developing children aged 6 to 11 years
No full textThere are limited published data comparing the information provided by parental reports of sleep habits with actigraphic information. This study compares parental report of sleep habits using the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire with actigraphic data in 91 typically developing children aged 6 to 11 years. The study found that sleep duration (as measured using actigraphy [ACT]) was longer in children whose parents rated their child as having enough sleep. Parental reports of night wakings did not correspond with ACT measures of night wakings. The findings show that ACT and parental reports provide differing, but complimentary, information about a child’s sleep
habits
Mental health difficulties in early adolescence:A comparison of two cross-sectional studies in England from 2009 to 2014
Full text linkPurpose To examine the changes in mental health difficulties in early adolescence between 2009 and 2014 in England. Methods Analysis reports on data from two cross-sectional samples of adolescents (aged 11-13 years) collected 5 years apart in 2009 and 2014 in secondary schools across England. Samples were matched using propensity scoring, resulting in a total pooled sample of 3,366 adolescents. Mental health difficulties were reported by participants using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Results Overall, there were similar levels of mental health difficulties experienced by adolescents in 2009 and 2014. Notable exceptions were a significant increase in emotional problems in girls and a decrease in total difficulties in boys in 2014 compared to 2009. Conclusions The increased prevalence of emotional problems in girls mirrors a trend found in other similar studies, and the results are discussed in the context of recent economic and societal changes. The small decrease in total difficulties in boys, although promising, clearly warrants further research.</p
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
Sleep problems in children with cerebral palsy and their relationship with maternal sleep and depression
No full textTo compare sleep problems in children with cerebral palsy to typically developing children. To study the relationship between sleep problems in children with cerebral palsy and maternal sleep quality and depression
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
Development and validation of the Adolescent Asthma Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (AASEQ)
Full text linkPerceived self-efficacy is the belief that one can manage prospective situations. Good asthma self-management self-efficacy is associated with better asthma outcomes. However, a well-developed and validated tool to measure adolescent asthma self-management self-efficacy is lacking. Our objective was to develop and validate an Adolescent Asthma Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (AASEQ). The first stage of the study included a review of the literature, interviews with adolescents with asthma and consultations with parents and relevant healthcare professionals to develop a prototype scale. To assess reliability and validity, a further group of adolescents completed the prototype scale, the General Self-Efficacy Scale and KidCOPE (measures coping styles). Retesting was undertaken to assess longitudinal validity. Interviews with 28 adolescents and consultations with other stakeholders resulted in a 38-item prototype scale. Key themes were medication, symptom management, triggers, knowledge, attitude and beliefs around asthma, supportive relationships, schools and healthcare professionals. The prototype scale was completed by 243 adolescents. Factor and reliability analysis reduced it to a 27-item scale with four subsections: symptom management; medication; friends, family and school; and asthma beliefs. The 27-item scale had respectable to excellent internal consistency (α’s 0.78–0.91) with results that were stable over time (intra-class correlation=0.82) in 63 subjects who completed it twice. Better adolescent asthma self-efficacy was associated with better general self-efficacy and indices of better asthma management. The AASEQ is a reliable and valid tool that is likely to aid future research and practice focused on adolescent asthma self-management and could be a useful intermediate outcome measure to assess the impact of behavioural interventions
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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