177,127 research outputs found
Ambiente e stato di salute nella popolazione delle aree ad alto rischio di crisi ambientale in Italia
No full textAppropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
No full textWe 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
"Closing the R&D Gap, Evaluating the Sources of R&D Spending"
No full textBoth spending and tax policies have been implemented in the United States with the goal of stimulating private sector research and development (R&D). Karier questions whether current R&D policy, especially the research and experimentation tax credit, can contribute to closing the gap between nondefense expenditures on R&D in the United States and such expenditures in other countries, such as Japan and Germany. He also explores possible changes to our current R&D policy to make it more effective.
Industrial activities in sites at high environmental risk and their impact on the health of the population.
No full textGoing Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe 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
Relationship between horse faecal particle size and forage type/dry matter digestibility
No full textThe aim was to compare the relationship between horse faecal particle size (FPS) and dry matter digestibility (DMdig) of several forages. Six horses (live-weight 110-840kg) housed in individual boxes with rubber bedding, access to paddock 3 hours/d except 24h before sampling were considered. Horses were fed ad libitum four forages successively: lucerne; fescue; mix perennial rye-grass/clover; straw. The trial lasted from October to January. Adaptation period between the different forages: minimum two weeks.
Faecal samples, representative of 24 h of feeding, were collected in the morning and preserved at -20°C for the analysis. Forage samples were dried at 65°C for 18h, ground in a mill to pass a 1.o mm screen. Forages composition was determined by NIR (ash, protein, fat, NDF, ADF, ADL, NDFD 24h). FPS determined by wet sieving on a rack of six sieves (mesh size: S0: 6.50; S1: 4.60; S2: 2.36; S3: 1.18; S4: 0.6; S5: 0.15 mm).
Dry matter digestibility (DMdig) was determined by acid insoluble ash (AIA) method. Average DMdig of forages: lucerne 93.92%; fescue 53.19%; mix perennial rye-grass/clover 73.13%; straw 44.58%. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS (vers. 21). GLM multivariate procedure was applied for the general analysis, considering as independent variable forage type-average DMdig or horse; as dependent variable sieve residue percentage (RP). Lucerne (highest digestibility) showed the highest RP on S0 (9.37%) and S1 (11.82%), the lowest (18.16%) on S5 (P<0.001). Similar results were obtained for the mix (medium-high digestibility) which showed a high RP on S1 (6.05%), a low RP on S5 (18.75%) in comparison to fescue and straw. Straw (lowest digestibility) showed a low RP on S0 (0.13%) a high RP on S5 (27.93%) and the highest RP on S4 (38.26% P<0.001). Fescue showed the highest RP on S5 (33.50 P<0.001).
An explanatory model of the relationship between forage digestibility and FPS was obtained calculating the correlation and the regression between forage DMdig and dry matter residue on the different sieves. The higher correlation and the more robust regressions were found for sieve S1 (r=0.942 P<0.001; y=3.889x+46.495; R2=0.888) and S4 (r=-0.707 P<0.001; y=-1.416x+100.389; R2=0.499).
It appears that in general FPS distribution is different among forage types. Digestibility seems to deeply affect FPS, reduced with the decrease in digestibility. The measure of residues of particles <6.50 and >4.60 (S1) is the most correlate with DMdig in horse
Functional imaging of rostrocaudal spinal activity during upper limb motor tasks
No full textThe spinal cord is the main interface between the brain and the periphery. It notably plays a central role in motor control, as spinal motoneurons activate skeletal muscles involved in voluntary movements. Yet, the spinal mechanisms underlying human movement generation have not been completely elucidated. In this regard, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) represents a potential tool to probe spinal cord function non-invasively and with high spatial resolution. Nonetheless, a thorough characterization of this approach is still lacking, currently limiting its impact. Here, we aimed at systematically quantifying to which extent fMRI can reveal spinal cord activity along the rostrocaudal direction. We investigated changes in the blood oxygenation level dependent signal of the human cervical spinal cord during bimanual upper limb movements (wrist extension, wrist adduction and finger abduction) in nineteen healthy volunteers. Prior to scanning, we recorded the muscle activity associated with these movements in order to reconstruct the theoretical motor-pool output pattern using an anatomy-based mapping of the electromyographic (EMG) waveforms. EMG-derived spinal maps were characterized by distinct rostrocaudal patterns of activation, thus confirming the task-specific features of the different movements. Analogous activation patterns were captured using spinal cord fMRI. Finally, an additional fMRI dataset was acquired from a subset of the participants (n = 6) to deploy a multivoxel pattern analysis, which allowed successful decoding of movements. These combined results suggest that spinal cord fMRI can be used to image rostrocaudal activation patterns reflecting the underlying activity of the motoneuron pools innervating the task-related muscles. Spinal cord fMRI offers the prospect of a novel tool to study motor processes and potentially their modification following neurological motor disorders
Letter from R. R. Zellick, Assistant Trust Officer, Anglo California National Bank of San Francisco, to Joseph R. Goodman, October 2, 1942
No full textLetter from R. R. Zellick, Assistant Trust Officer at The Anglo California National Bank of San Francisco, to Joseph R. Goodman, regarding property owned by Dave Tatsuno. Zellick mentions a dispute between current tenants and Tatsuno, and that Tatsuno has asked Goodman to help locate trustworthy tenants.Personal correspondence, organizational records, government documents, publications, and other papers created or collected by Joseph R. Goodman documenting the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as organized resistance to incarceration. Included in the collection are records of the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association and the Japanese American Citizens' League in San Francisco, including papers of the Japanese YMCA's executive secretary Lincoln Kanai; Sakai family papers; Goodman's correspondence to and from Japanese American incarcerees, organizations opposing forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans, the War Relocation Authority, and others; publications, photographs, and ephemera from the Topaz Relocation Center, where Goodman taught high school; War Relocation Authority records and publications; and newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and reports about forced removal and incarceration created by various government, religious, and civic organizations, in California and nationwide
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe 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
Towards reliable spinal cord fMRI: Assessment of common imaging protocols
No full textFunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revolutionized the investigation of brain function. Similar approaches can be translated to probe spinal mechanisms. However, imaging the spinal cord remains challenging, notably due to its size and location. Technological advances are gradually tackling these issues, though there is yet no consensus on optimal acquisition protocols. In this study, we assessed the performance of three sequences during a simple motor task and at rest, in 15 healthy humans. Building upon recent literature, we selected three imaging protocols: a sequence integrating outer volume suppression (OVS) and two sequences implementing inner field-of-view imaging (ZOOMit) with different spatial and temporal resolutions. Images acquired using the OVS sequence appeared more prone to breathing-induced signal fluctuations, though they exhibited a higher temporal signal-to-noise ratio than ZOOMit sequences. Conversely, the spatial signal-to-noise ratio was higher for the two ZOOMit schemes. In spite of these differences in signal properties, all sequences yielded comparable performance in detecting group-level task-related activity, observed in the expected spinal levels. Nevertheless, our results suggest a superior sensitivity and robustness of patterns imaged using the OVS acquisition scheme. To analyze the data acquired at rest, we deployed a dynamic functional connectivity framework, SpiCiCAP, and we evaluated the ability of the three acquisition schemes to disentangle intrinsic spinal signals. We demonstrated that meaningful subdivisions of the spinal cord's functional architecture could be uncovered for all three sequences, with similar spatio-temporal properties across acquisition parameters. Cleaner and more stable components were, however, obtained using ZOOMit sequences. This study emphasizes the potential of fMRI as a robust tool to image spinal activity in vivo and it highlights specificities and similarities of three acquisition methods. This represents a key step towards the establishment of standardized spinal cord fMRI protocols
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