1,720,977 research outputs found
THE effects of ageing on driving related performance
No full textAccording to one estimate, about 40 percent of the driving population will be over the age of 60by the year 2020 in the UK and currently, several hundred thousand drivers with dementia holddriving licenses. The number of motor vehicle crashes per unit distance of automobile travel is“U”-shaped, with risk increasing slightly between the ages of 55 and 60, but risk increasing witheach successive five-year interval. Some individuals who have mild dementia possess sufficientdriving skills to be designated as fit drivers. The most challenging assessment and decision for thephysician/licensing authority as regards fitness to drive lies in drivers who are questionablydemented or are in a state of very mild dementia.In the absence of a reliable standard protocol, some clinicians make judgment based on selfreporting,which has risks associated with it as lack of insight and judgment are potential commontraits of the population experiencing cognitive decline. Seldom is recourse made by healthprofessionals to on-road assessment as a first alternative as it requires a fee and such testingcenters are not readily available everywhere. This research addresses this issue of theidentification of cognitive tests that can be used to assess an individual’s ability to drive andespecially of those individuals that are questionably demented and are the most difficult toidentify. A younger and an older group consisting of 56 drivers in total were administered ninedifferent cognitive tests and two drives (Drive-I and Drive-II) on the STISIM driving simulator.The cognitive test ufov3 (involving the identification of a central target and simultaneously theradial localization of a peripheral target embedded in distracter triangles), which is the thirdsubtest of the UFOV (Useful Field of View) test showed the highest discriminating ability inseparating “poor-drivers” from “not-poor-drivers”, with 92.86 % of the drivers correctlyclassified. The next best discriminating ability in decreasing order of strength was that of dichoticlistening test, trail making test, rey-copy test and paper folding test. Also, age was found to be anexcellent discriminator of “poor-drivers” and “not-poor-drivers” with 91.07 % of the driverscorrectly classified. A composite cognitive measure consisting of the sum of all nine cognitivetests was not a better predictor than the ufov3 test alone; overall it was still an excellentdiscriminator, classifying 89.29 % of drivers correctly. The commonly recommended ClockDrawing test and the Trail Making test did not emerge as significant predictors of driving ability.A general driving skills linear model for prediction purposes was derived that explained 59 % ofthe variation in a general driving performance index with the ufov3 test, the dichotic listening testand the rey-recall test as significant predictors. Recommendations are made as to how this testshould be used to screen potentially at risk drivers
The use of neuropsychological tests to study the effects of aging on driving performance in the UK
No full textResearch was conducted to identify a series of neuropsychological tests to assess the ability to drive. Driving performance of young and old UK drivers was modeled through multiple linear regression and univariate logistic regression tools. The UFOV3 test (i.e. the third subtest of the UFOV test) had comparatively high discriminating ability in separating poor-drivers from not-poor-drivers, with 92.86% of the drivers correctly classified; the UFOV3 test resulted in a Sensitivity of 62.5%. Age and a composite cognitive measure were also found to be sound discriminators of poor-drivers and not-poor-drivers with 91.07% and 89.28% of the drivers correctly classified respectively; both age and the composite cognitive measure resulted in a Sensitivity of 50%. It was found that the commonly recommended Clock Drawing Test and the Trail Making-B test were insignificant predictors of driving ability. Results suggest that for a score greater than 220 on the UFOV3 test, the driver may be further evaluated by a driving specialist to ascertain questionable driving behavior. Also, drivers above the age of 77 were more susceptible to exhibiting unusual driving behavior; if such drivers have UFOV3 scores greater than 220 it would be more appropriate to evaluate driving behavior through a driving specialist.</p
Potential Environmental Impacts of a Hospital Wastewater Treatment Plant in a Developing Country
No full textAssessing the quality of a hospital wastewater treatment process and plant is essential, especially if the presence of chemical and biological toxic compounds is considered. There is less literature on hospital wastewater treatment in developing countries because of a lack of managerial awareness and stakeholder cooperation, accompanied by the limited capacity of investment meant to upgrade the existing infrastructures. Limited access to data further hampers the reliable analysis of hospital wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in developing countries. Thus, based on the possibility of collecting a sufficient amount of primary (i.e., field) data, this study performed an assessment of the potential impacts generated by the WWTP of Quaid-Azam International Hospital in Islamabad (Pakistan) considering its construction and operational phases. The major identified impacts were attributed to the energy mix used to operate the plant. Marine ecotoxicity was the most impactful category (34% of the total potential impacts accounted for), followed by human carcinogenic toxicity (31%), freshwater toxicity (18%), terrestrial ecotoxicity (7%), and human non-carcinogenic toxicity (4%). An analysis of potential impacts was combined with an assessment of potential damage according to an endpoint approach. In particular, the endpoint analysis results indicated that human health damage (quantified as DALY) was mainly dependent on the fine PM (particulate matter) formation category (51%), followed by global warming and human health (43%). Other categories related to human health impacts were human carcinogenic toxicity (3%), water consumption (2%), and human non-carcinogenic toxicity (1%). The other impact categories recorded a percentage contribution lower than 1%. With respect to ecosystem damage, global warming and terrestrial ecosystems played a major role (61%), followed by terrestrial acidification (24%), ozone formation (10%), water consumption (5%), and freshwater eutrophication (1%). This study’s findings support an increase in awareness in the hospital management board while pointing out the need to further implement similar studies to improve the quality of decision-making processes and to mitigate environmental impacts in more vulnerable regions. Finally, this research evidenced the need to overcome the existing general constraints on data availability. Consequently, further field work, supported by hospital managers in developing countries, would help in enhancing managerial procedures; optimizing treatment plant efficiency; and facilitating the implementation of circular options, such as sludge management, that often remain unexplored
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
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