1,720,957 research outputs found

    Best-Practice Evidence Based Medicine for the Effective Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

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    Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a highly prevalent condition characterised by progressive airflow limitation through the lungs. It is a significant socioeconomic burden and appropriate management of COPD has become a health priority, resulting in a breadth of innovation and published research. There are international guidelines that collate this evidence in order to steer clinical decision making. Guideline concordant care results in a reduced rate of COPD exacerbations, improving hospital utilisation and patient related outcomes. Despite this, uptake and adherence to guidelines remains variable in practice and interventions that address this are desirable. The research undertaken in this thesis aims to synthesise and consolidate evidence to inform best-practice management of COPD across key treatment areas. It further aims to identify barriers and facilitators to provision of best-practice care for people with COPD. Synthesis and consolidation of key areas of the evidence base relating to COPD management occurred through two Cochrane reviews (Chapters 3 and 4), two systematic reviews (Chapters 5 and 6) and one literature review (Chapter 7). Though in general the evidence base underpinning these key areas of practice was found to be limited and somewhat out-dated some recommendations can be made from the findings. Inactivated vaccine reduces the number of COPD exacerbations and should be considered as part of everyday best-practice. The use of oxygen therapy for the pre-hospital management of acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) is potentially dangerous when delivered at high flow, with a titrated approach associated with significantly reduced mortality. Routine use of short acting bronchodilators in the hospital setting to treat AECOPD should be initiated at a low dose (2.5mg) of salbutamol delivered via metered-dose inhaler to avoid increased risk of adverse events. Smoking cessation is essential to COPD management and available evidence suggests that interventions should be tailored to the individual and the setting within the hospital space. Finally, clinicians should seriously consider their decision-making around prescription of pharmacotherapy for exacerbations of COPD, particularly the potentially superfluous addition of muscarinic agents. Through qualitative investigation (Chapter 8), several organisational and behavioural barriers to the provision of best-practice care for COPD by health professionals were identified. In addition, potential facilitators were highlighted that may be used to inform future innovation strategy to improve translation of evidence into practice, including the use of smartphone technology. The evidence produced in this thesis suggests a need for updated research specifically supporting the in-hospital management of people with an exacerbation of COPD. Furthermore, the findings presented in this thesis have provided an evidence base that has acted as the foundation for the next phase of research essential to improve provision of clinical care for people with COPD. The work has underpinned the development of a theory-based multi-component intervention (Appendices 2 and 3) and some of the clinical practice recommendations within it. Moreover, next steps are planned to assess the feasibility and evaluation of this intervention, with the view to conducting a full-scale evaluation in the future with a view to better support translation of evidence into practice.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Adelaide Medical School, 201

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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 Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902

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    In Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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