1,720,974 research outputs found
The RESIST study: examining cognitive change in rheumatoid arthritis patients with mild cognitive impairment being treated with a TNF-inhibitor compared to a conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug
No full textBackground: evidence suggests that TNF inhibitors (TNFi) used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may protect against Alzheimer’s disease progression by reducing inflammation.Objective: to investigate whether RA patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) being treated with a TNFi show slower cognitive decline than those being treated with a conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (csDMARD).Methods: 251 participants with RA and MCI taking either a csDMARD (N = 157) or a TNFi (N = 94) completed cognitive assessments at baseline and 6-month intervals for 18 months. It was hypothesized that those taking TNFis would show less decline on the primary outcome of Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test with Immediate Recall (FCSRT-IR) and the secondary outcome of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).Results: no significant changes in FCSRT-IR scores were observed in either treatment group. There was no significant difference in FCSRT-IR between treatment groups at 18 months after adjusting for baseline (mean difference = 0.5, 95% CI = –1.3, 2.3). There was also no difference in MoCA score (mean difference = 0.4, 95% CI = –0.4, 1.3).Conclusions: there was no cognitive decline in participants with MCI being treated with TNFis and csDMARDs, raising the possibility both classes of drug may be protective. Future studies should consider whether controlling inflammatory diseases using any approach is more important than a specific therapeutic intervention
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
The moral roots of British politics: Using Moral Foundations, Intelligence and Personality to explain opposing attitudes towards divisive political issues
No full textWho uses it and who loses it? Personality, activity engagement and cognitive health in old age
Get PDFIdentifying strategies to promote cognitive health in older age is a key research priority
as older adults continue to make up a growing proportion of the global population. The
‘use it or lose it’ theory proposes that leading a more active, engaged lifestyle can be
cognitively protective. Cross-sectional studies provide support for this, with evidence
suggesting that older adults who are mentally, physically, socially and creatively active
in their everyday lives may also have higher levels of cognitive ability and experience
lower levels of cognitive decline. Intervention studies can provide further insight, going
beyond cross-sectional associations to explore causality by testing the effect of
increased engagement in an experimental paradigm. It is essential that such
interventions consider the importance of individual differences; in particular, evidence
suggests that individual differences in personality might predict activity engagement,
and in turn cognitive health. It is therefore possible that individual differences in
personality might influence engagement level within an intervention, and in turn the
degree of benefit received. The PhD research reported in the present thesis examined
these possibilities using data collected from a large-scale, activity-based intervention
study known as The Intervention Factory. This study tested the cognitive benefits of
activity engagement in a more real-world environment by using existing, community based classes and groups. A sample of 336 adults aged 65 and over without any
diagnosed cognitive impairments were recruited and completed baseline assessments.
Cross-sectional data at baseline were used to examine whether lifestyle variables such
as activity engagement mediated any associations between Big Five personality traits
and cognitive ability across several domains. Higher Openness to Experience and lower
Neuroticism and Extraversion predicted higher levels of cognitive performance, but
there was no evidence to suggest these associations were mediated by activity
engagement. The PhD research then examined whether personality might influence
activity engagement and cognitive change within the context of an intervention. A
systematic review of the literature found ten studies that had previously explored this
question; there was some evidence that higher Openness to Experience was linked to
greater cognitive gains when studies used novel intervention methods. This theory was
then tested within the context of The Intervention Factory specifically. Participants were
pseudo-randomly allocated to one of five activity groups (computer classes,
dance/exercise/sport classes, social/bingo groups, language classes or
handicraft/woodcraft classes) or a no-contact control group and attended their activity
for around ten weeks. None of the activity groups showed evidence of significantly
greater cognitive improvements compared to the control group over the course of the
intervention. There was also no reliable evidence that individual personality traits
predicted adherence or moderated intervention-related cognitive change. While these
results did not support the efficacy of real-world activities to promote cognitive health,
several challenges were identified that will inform and encourage future research in this
area. These challenges included issues arising from non-random group allocation,
difficulty recruiting an effective control group and variability in intervention delivery
when translated to a more real-world setting. Addressing these challenges in future
studies will provide further opportunities to explore the potential cognitive benefits of
real world activities, and whether any benefits vary at the individual level
The effect of increased cognitive load on implicit moral judgement: do we deliberately override our moral intuitions?
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