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Reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the Locomotor Capabilities Index in adults with lower-limb amputation undergoing prosthetic training
No full textFranchignoni F, Orlandini D, Ferriero G, Moscato TA. Reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the Locomotor Capabilities Index in adults with lower-limb amputation undergoing prosthetic training. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2004;85:743-8. Objective To assess the reliability, validity, and responsiveness of both the standard and revised Locomotor Capabilities Index (LCI) in people with lower-limb amputation who undergo prosthetic training. Design Reliability and validity study. Setting Two freestanding rehabilitation centers. Participants Fifty inpatients with a recent unilateral lower-limb amputation. Interventions Not applicable. Main outcome measures The standard LCI and a new version with a 5-level ordinal scale (LCI-5) were tested for internal consistency, test-retest reliability, ceiling effect, and effect size. The construct validity of both versions was analyzed by correlation with the Rivermead Mobility Index, a timed walking test, and the FIM instrument. Results The Cronbach α of both LCI versions was .95. The item-to-total correlations (Spearman ρ) ranged from .50 to .87 (P<.0001 for all). The percent agreement and κ values for the item scores ranged, respectively, from 78.4% to 100% and .58 to 1.00 in the LCI, and from 75.7% to 97.3% and .54 to .96 in the LCI-5. The intraclass correlation coefficient (model 2,1) for the total scores was .98 for both versions; the Bland-Altman plot revealed no systematic trend for either version. Both the LCI and LCI-5 correlated with all criterion measures (ρ range, .61-.76), with the LCI-5 showing a larger effect size during the rehabilitation period and a lower ceiling effect. Patients with transtibial amputation were more independent in performing activities than were those with transfemoral amputation; their locomotor capability negatively correlated with age. Conclusions Both the LCI and LCI-5 captured the global locomotor ability of people with lower-limb amputation during prosthetic training. The new LCI-5 presents similar and sometimes better psychometric properties than the standard LCI
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
Le rappresentazioni sociali delle droghe. Studio su un campione di adulti e di adolescenti
No full textLa ricerca che presentiamo si propone di studiare, in un campione di adulti e di adolescenti, le rappresentazioni che essi condividono a proposito di alcune fra le droghe attualmente più diffuse in Italia. Per la salienza sociale ed emozionale di tale oggetto di indagine, la nostra ricerca si colloca nel filone di studi sulle rappresentazioni sociali, intese come costruzioni sociali condivise che interpretano e attribuiscono significato ad oggetti sociali complessi (Moscovici, 1984).
Scopo della ricerca, attualmente in corso di realizzazione, è di individuare le idee, gli atteggiamenti e le credenze che compongono il campo rappresentazionale condiviso da adulti e giovani a proposito del consumo di tre sostanze target (ecstasy, cocaina ed hashish). Essa intende inoltre analizzare come tale campo si articola in relazione ad alcune appartenenze categoriali dei soggetti implicati (adolescenti-giovani vs. adulti, adulti in rapporto prossimale vs. distale dagli adolescenti), così come in riferimento agli atteggiamenti che gli intervistati condividono nei confronti del consumo e del rischio, a posizioni etico e valoriali, al grado di coinvolgimento in condotte ed esperienze problematiche.
Il campione degli adulti presi in esame è composto di persone che, a diverso titolo ed a diversi livelli di implicazione personale, hanno a che fare con adolescenti (genitori, docenti ed operatori socio-sanitari dei servizi per le tossicodipendenze pubblici e privati ), mentre quello degli adolescenti e dei giovani comprende studenti di scuola media superiore, universitari e giovani lavoratori di età compresa fra i 14 ed i 28 anni.
Gli strumenti utilizzati nella ricerca sono 6 questionari, appositamente elaborati e lievemente diversificati in relazione al gruppo a cui si rivolgono (adolescenti-giovani vs. adulti) e alla sostanza target. La scelta di ecstasy, cocaina ed hashish è motivata da ragioni di carattere sia sociale che epidemiologico. Da ricerche condotte a livello nazionale (Bonino, 1998 e 1999; Ravenna, 1997) e locale (Orlandini, Nardelli e Potente, in corso di pubblic.) emerge infatti che la cannabis è particolarmente diffusa ed utilizzata in stretta associazione con alcol e tabacco. L’O.E.D.T. (Osservatorio Europeo delle Droghe e delle Tossicodipendenze, 1999) segnala che i derivati dei cannabinoidi detengono il primato del consumo sia in Europa che in Italia. Rispetto all'ecstasy, dati recenti indicano una stabilizzazione o un calo dei consumi. Per il Consiglio d’Europa l’MDMA è, dopo l’hashish, la droga maggiormente utilizzata in Europa nella fascia di età compresa fra i 15 ed i 25 anni. L'uso della cocaina appare in crescita così come si rileva anche dall’aumento del numero dei sequestri attuati nell’Unione Europea. Secondo la Direzione Centrale per i Servizi Antidroga (1999) l’Italia rispecchia fedelmente i trend internazionali.
Gli ambiti studiati tramite il questionario, comuni a giovani ed adulti, sono i seguenti: a) rappresentazione della sostanza “target” e di chi ne fa uso; b) rappresentazione del consumo di sostanze psicoattive (percezione della diffusione e del rischio in rapporto a numerose droghe, percezione della difficoltà ad interrompere diversi tipi di dipendenza); c) atteggiamenti e posizioni personali in ambito etico e valoriale (legalizzazione e controllo sociale del fenomeno, adesione a valori individualisti vs. collettivisti), politico e religioso; d) percezione dell’insicurezza nei contesti in cui si organizza la vita quotidiana degli intervistati; e) abitudini personali di consumo (entità e frequenza dell’uso di diverse sostanze e frequenza di episodi di eccedenza e di condotte rischiose in relazione all’alcool).
I risultati della ricerca, che ha coinvolto numerose agenzie territoriali, pubbliche e del privato sociale, della Regione Veneto e l’Università di Ferrara, consentiranno la progettazione di adeguate iniziative di prevenzione rivolte ai giovani e agli educatori, sia a livello locale che regionale
Is the Rivermead Mobility Index a suitable outcome measure in lower limb amputees? - A psychometric validation study
No full textObjective: To examine the internal consistency, validity, responsiveness and test scalability of the Rivermead Mobility Index. Design: Methodological research (consecutive sampling, prospective longitudinal study). Patients: 140 unilateral lower limb amputees (79 above-knee and 61 below-knee). Methods: The Rivermead Mobility Index was administered to all patients at the beginning (T0) and at the end (T2) of the prosthetic training. In 70 of the patients, the Functional Independence Measure and a timed walking test were also carried out. Results: The Cronbach's alpha of the Rivermead Mobility Index was 0.85 and the item-to-total correlation coefficients rpb ranged from 0.33 to 0.74 (p < 0.0001), for the items considered, at T0; 4 correlations were not calculated due to the extremely low variability of some item responses (mode ≥98%). The correlation (rs) of Rivermead Mobility Index score with the motor subscale of the Functional Independence Measure was 0.83 at T0 and 0.69 at T2 (p < 0.0001, for both) and that with timed walking test -0.70 (p < 0.0001) at T2. The effect size was 1.35. The scalability coefficients were below the limits of acceptability. Conclusion: When applied in lower limb amputees, the Rivermead Mobility Index is an ordinal measure with adequate levels of a series of psychometric properties, which seems more useful for epidemiological studies than for clinical decision-making in single patients. Further steps should be considered to improve its item selection, response format and scaling properties
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
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