1,720,955 research outputs found

    The impact of COVID-19 on children’s dental services in Kazakhstan

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    BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted essential medical services globally. Dental services faced unique challenges due to the airborne nature of COVID-19. Dental professionals were at a high risk of contracting the virus due to their close proximity to patients, frequent handling of bodily fluids, and use of aerosol-generating equipment. In Kazakhstan, the government introduced strict measures that aimed to prevent virus spread, while ensuring dental care could continue. However, delays in treatment occurred that meant a potential increased risk of oral health issues; furthermore, the long-term impact on dental health is uncertain, particularly in children. This study aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on dental services in Kazakhstan, with a particular focus on children. METHODOLOGY: A mixed-method approach was used to examine the impact of COVID-19 on dental health services in Kazakhstan. Stakeholder consultations were conducted with dentists from Scotland and Kazakhstan to identify the key issues related to their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conversations with dentists from different countries provided vital insights for the study design and methods. After obtaining ethical approval, an online survey was conducted with 250 parents to learn about their experiences in maintaining their children’s dental health both pre-pandemic and during the pandemic period. Additionally, statistical data from children’s public dental clinics for 2019 and 2020 were analysed to compare changes in the number of patients and prevalence of dental diseases before and during the pandemic. The findings from these preliminary studies informed the design of a subsequent qualitative interview study with 19 dentists and 19 parents. Thematic analysis was used to analyse findings of the interviews. RESULTS: During the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, dental care facilities in Kazakhstan mostly provided emergency care with reduced staff and strict safety measures. Dentists faced challenges including a lack of reliable information about COVID-19 and increased risk of infection. Insufficient public awareness led to dissatisfaction and misunderstandings about service availability and organisation. As the pandemic continued, dentists observed decreased oral hygiene in children, attributed to cancelling of both routine check-ups and promotion of preventive care in educational facilities. Some of the key findings indicate that parents reported high awareness of the importance of maintaining their children's oral health and regular dental check-ups. Additionally, most parents preferred public dental clinics for their children’s dental care. However, many parents cited their busy working schedules, and the inconvenience of the existing appointment system at Aktobe children’s public dental clinics as barriers to taking their children for regular dental check-ups. Other challenges included managing their children’s food choices, particularly outside the home. During the pandemic, fear of COVID-19 led parents to make judgments about risk and typically prioritise at-home oral care for their family to avoid going outside. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on dental care services in Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstan government’s top-down approach to implement measures to reduce the spread of infection meant that dental care staff were organizing their services and working in a context of continual change and uncertainty. This disruption impacted on the experiences of the public - in this case, children; with dentists describing witnessing an impact on their dental health. The findings of this research can be used to address existing organizational issues, such as improving the appointment system in public dental clinics and enhancing communication between patients and dental care services. Additionally, the findings of this study and the proposed solutions can contribute to future action planning in the event of another pandemic or other large-scale emergencies

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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 Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902

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    In Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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