1,720,978 research outputs found
Healthcare and economic impact of lung perfusion scintigraphy in patients affected by acute pulmonary embolism
Full text linkAcute pulmonary embolism (APE) is a cardiovascular emergency, representing the main cause of mortality, morbidity, and hospitalisation in Europe. We aim to evaluate the economic and healthcare impact of lung perfusion scintigraphy (LPS) used in patients with suspected APE, in the event of non-conclusive or contraindicated computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA). We considered two alternative healthcare processes for APE diagnosis, with and without LPS. We performed a cost analysis with the aim of evaluating the average direct healthcare costs for diagnosis, risk assessment, and treatment of APE. We used data from a monocentric trial. Our economic model showed that the strategy with LPS was preferable in terms of costs. The average per-patient costs for the diagnosis and treatment of the acute phase of PE in low-risk patients with a non-conclusive or not-executable CTPA, with and without LPS, are EUR 2145.25 and EUR 4912.45, respectively. LPS is a simple, quick, and economic examination, useful in this setting of patients not only for an early diagnosis but also to exclude APE, demonstrating an advantage in terms of healthcare resources. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to analyse the economic and healthcare impact of the use of LPS in the diagnostic pathway of suspected APE
Design of UHF RFID Sensor-Tags for the Biomechanical Analysis of Human Body Movements
No full textThis paper presents the design and the development of a Battery Assisted Passive Radio-Frequency IDentification (RFID) tag in the Ultra High-Frequency band integrated with inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors tested for the biomechanical analysis of human body movements. Enhanced by a compact and efficient meandered Planar Inverted-F Antenna (PIFA), the device exploits a specific RFID chip having a dual-access -wired and wireless- to the memory. A properly decoupled cell battery is also foreseen to boost the chip sensitivity and to supply power to an ultra-low power microcontroller and to the sensors. The device has been realized using off-the-shelf low-cost discrete components on FR4 substrate, validated, and tested in capturing real human movements. Two sensor-tags have been applied on the pelvis and on the torso of an individual moving in front of the RFID Reader antenna. Afterward, sensor data have been collected, processed, and filtered with specific algorithms, and used to control a musculoskeletal virtual model in the OpenSense software tool. The results show that the whole system correctly reproduces the performed movements, demonstrating the appropriateness of the proposed RFID-sensor in wireless movement capture applications
Customized UHF RFID sensor tags to feed biomechanical models
No full textIn this work, an UHF RFID tag integrated with an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor has been designed, realized, and tested. It leverages on a specific RFID chip provided with both wireless and wired memory access. High robustness, effectiveness, and working range, are assured through the use of an on-board battery to boost the chip sensitivity and to supply an ultra-low power microcontroller and the sensors. In such a context, specific electromagnetic aspects have been faced to insulate the battery from the radiofrequency (RF) circuitry and a Planar Inverted-F Antenna (PIFA) has been designed to match the RFID chip input impedance. Different devices have been realized, tested, and then applied on specific human body segments to feed a virtual human-body biomechanical model and validate the RFID-based approach
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
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