1,721,022 research outputs found
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
The perceived unmet need for home care and impact on frailty related health outcomes among community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults in Canada
Get PDFWith the aging population, there is an increased need for the development of interventions and prevention programs to mitigate the impact of frailty on the health and well-being of older Canadians. The association between frailty and adverse health outcomes has been well established, however little is known about the impact of contextual factors that may mitigate or moderate this relationship. Home care services play an important part in providing necessary assistance to seniors within their homes and potentially preventing functional decline. Improved availability and/or accessibility to health care within the community are important target areas for potential prevention and policy reforms. To better understand the significance of unmet home care needs, and potential contributing factors, among Canadians with varying levels of frailty, this thesis sought to explore the role of unmet home care need as a moderating factor of the association between frailty and key health outcomes (i.e., inpatient acute care hospitalization and mortality) among community-dwelling adults aged 45 years and older.
This research utilized data from the 2008/09 Canadian Community Health Survey-Healthy Aging (CCHS-HA) cycle 4.2, linked to administrative health databases, specifically the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) 2007 through 2011 and Canadian Mortality Database (CMDB) December 2008 through 2011. The study population consisted of all participants aged 45+ years residing in all provinces (excluding Quebec). A previously validated frailty index (FI) was derived from survey items and utilized to determine those who were robust (≤0.1), pre-frail (>0.1 to ≤0.21) and frail (>0.21), within the sample. Descriptive analyses were conducted to determine the prevalence of frailty (robust 52.5%, pre-frail 33.5%, frail 14%) and unmet home care need (2.4%) overall, and by key respondent characteristics. Multivariable logistic regression models adjusted for relevant covariates were utilized to examine the associations between frailty and first-event inpatient hospitalization and mortality over a 2-year follow-up period, as well as possible effect modification of these associations by the presence/absence of unmet home care need.
This study builds on previous frailty research, which largely focused on more impaired populations, by utilizing population-based data to derive a FI to assess prevalence and outcome associations. The exploration of unmet home care need as a modifier of frailty-outcome associations also builds on research evaluating the role of contextual factors in frailty trajectories. Bivariate results were largely consistent with past frailty research. Respondents who were frail (FI >0.21) were significantly more likely to be older, female, widowed, and to report low household income, low education and low social support availability (SSA). The same characteristics were associated with higher prevalence of unmet home care need.
Previous research has suggested greater unmet health care need among younger (<65 years) cohorts. Studies investigating unmet home care need have found higher prevalence in older age groups, while the absolute number of those reporting unmet home care need is highest among 35-49 year olds. The prevalence of unmet home care need was higher in frail (10.5%) compared to robust (<0.7%) respondents, Those reporting unmet home care need were also more likely to report receiving either formal (21.3%) or informal (65.9%) home care support compared to respondents without such a need (4.9% and 10.7%, respectively). Multivariable analysis showed significant associations between frailty and both hospitalization (OR=3.18, 95% CI 2.35-4.29) and death (OR=4.06, 95% CI 2.39-6.88) after adjusting for key covariates, with the odds of hospitalization for frail respondents much higher in this population than has been found in more impaired populations. Although unmet need was a significant independent predictor of hospitalization in select models, it was not found to significantly modify the association between frailty and hospitalization. Unmet home care need was significantly associated with death in age and sex adjusted models only, with no statistically significant effect modification found for this outcome. Secondary analyses exploring SSA as an effect modifier were also conducted due to high correlations with both frailty and unmet home care need. SSA was also not found to modify observed frailty-outcome associations in this population.
These results provide evidence of the predictive ability of frailty indices for community-dwelling populations, including middle-aged Canadians (aged 45-64 years). The findings also suggest that, although unmet home care need was not an effect modifier in the current study (possibly reflecting low power given its low prevalence in this relatively healthy survey sample), it was an independent predictor of hospitalization in select multivariable models, and therefore, may represent an important contextual factor requiring further exploration. Given the preliminary nature of the investigation of SSA as an effect modifier of frailty-related outcomes in the present study, further research of its relevance in other middle-aged and older populations is also warranted. The identification of differences in outcomes of those with met versus unmet home, health and psychosocial needs among more vulnerable or frail community-dwelling Canadians will lead to a broader understanding of where services, policy and prevention measures should be targeted
Unmet Mental Health Needs and Barriers to Mental Health Treatment Among Persons with Multiple Sclerosis in the NARCOMS Registry
Get PDFBackground – Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, neurological disease. Mental health comorbidities, such as depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, are highly prevalent in persons with MS, and their presence is associated with adverse health and economic consequences. Unfortunately, these conditions are frequently underdiagnosed and undertreated. To better meet the mental health needs of MS patients, it is important to identify the correlates, barriers and consequences associated with untreated mental health comorbidities. Previous studies have generally found socioeconomic factors (e.g., inadequate health insurance, low education) to limit access to mental health care; however, the findings for sociodemographic (i.e., age, race, ethnicity) and clinical factors (i.e., severity of mental health symptoms and level of physical impairment) have been less consistent. While qualitative investigations of MS patients have identified common barriers to mental health treatment, these barriers have been poorly investigated in larger samples of MS patients. Further research is needed to identify disparities in the use of mental health services for the treatment of mental health comorbidities in persons with MS.
Research Aims – Cross-sectionally, this thesis aimed to assess the prevalence and correlates of untreated mental health comorbidities in persons with MS. This thesis also explored the prevalence and correlates of treatment barriers (in those not receiving treatment) and treatment modalities (in those receiving treatment). Longitudinally, this thesis aimed to assess the temporal association between baseline mental health non-treatment and depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life outcomes (mental and physical domains) at one-year follow-up.
Methods – To address these aims, this thesis utilized cross-sectional (2011) and longitudinal (2011 to 2012) data captured by the North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS) Registry. The NARCOMS Spring 2011 Survey had a total of 9765 respondents; 3928 of whom were diagnosed with one or more of depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder. Mental health comorbidities were explored separately for all our analyses, resulting in three non-mutually exclusive baseline samples: depression (n=3589), anxiety (n=1487), and bipolar disorder (n=196). Other than initial descriptive data, statistical analyses were restricted to the depression and anxiety cohorts due to the small number of participants with bipolar disorder. Baseline respondents who responded to key outcomes (depressive symptoms, HRQOL scores) on the NARCOMS Spring 2012 Survey were included in follow-up analyses. Cross-sectionally, bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the associations between participant characteristics (with a focus on sociodemographic characteristics) and mental health non-treatment. The barriers to mental health treatment were explored in bivariate analyses through the lens of Andersen’s Behavioural Model of Health Service Utilization. Longitudinally, bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the temporal association between baseline mental health non-treatment and depressive symptoms (NARCOMS Depression Scale) and HRQOL quality of life outcomes (MCS-12 and PCS-12 scores on the RAND-12) at one-year follow-up. Multivariable regression analyses adjusted for baseline scores (NARCOMS Depression Scale and RAND-12 scores) and relevant baseline sociodemographic and clinical confounders.
Results – In 2011, NARCOMS participants were more commonly untreated for anxiety (26.1%; 95%CI=23.9, 28.3) and bipolar disorder (23.5%; 95%CI=17.5, 29.4), followed by depression (15.2%; 95%CI=14.0, 16.4). In adjusted analyses, participants with younger and older ages (vs. 45 to 64 years; the former significant for depression cohort only), racialized participants (significant for depression cohort only), and those with low SES (health insurance for depression cohort, education for anxiety cohort) had significantly higher odds of mental health non-treatment. Participants with clinically meaningful depressive symptoms and those with more severe levels of disability had significantly lower odds of non-treatment. Of those not receiving treatment, participants were most commonly untreated due to need factors (i.e., “not having symptoms now”) (depression cohort: 57.4%, 313/545; anxiety cohort: 65.2%, 253/388), followed by predisposing factors (depression cohort: 43.1%, 235/545; anxiety cohort: 32.5%, 126/388) and enabling factors (depression cohort: 19.5%, 106/545; anxiety cohort: 22.2%, 86/388). Participants with low SES were significantly more likely to report enabling factors but less likely to report need factors as barriers to mental health treatment. Of those receiving treatment, less than one-third of participants were treated with both psychotherapy and medication (depression cohort: 20.1%, 611/3044; anxiety cohort: 27.7%, 304/1099). Participants with low education were less likely to receive the recommended treatment combination of psychotherapy and medication. Approximately two-thirds of treated participants reported clinically meaningful depressive symptoms (depression cohort: 63.3%, 1927/3044; anxiety cohort: 65.1%, 715/1099). After adjusting for key confounders (baseline scores, as well as other sociodemographic and clinical factors), baseline mental health non-treatment was not associated with the presence of clinically meaningful depressive symptoms or a clinically meaningful decline in mental or physical HRQOL at one-year follow-up.
Conclusion – The findings of this thesis add to the literature by identifying important sociodemographic and clinical correlates of mental health service use and later health outcomes in MS patients to be considered in future research. Targeting the barriers identified in this thesis may improve access to mental health care for disadvantaged MS patients. To build upon the results of this thesis, future investigations could utilize multiple data sources (administrative, clinical and registry data) to assess the prevalence and correlates of mental health treatment barriers in a more diverse and representative sample of persons with MS
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
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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