1,721,006 research outputs found
Un nuovo trovatore italiano? Osservazioni sul "partimen" tra Aicart de Fossat e Girard Cavalaz, "Si paradis et enfernz son aital"
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Summer raids of Arocatus melanocephalus (Heteroptera: Lygaeidae) in houses of Modena city (Italy): is climate change to blame?
No full textArocatus melanocephalus is a small lygaeid performing its life cycle on elms (Ulmus spp., Ulmaceae). Its presence has been recorded in many continental European regions. Its occurrence has been ascertained in Northern Italy since the last century; however it never elicited special attention until summer 2000, when it suddenly started to become a problem for the citizens of Modena (Emilia Romagna). Since that time, every summer on several occasions, thousands of adults of A. melanocephalus leave the trees to enter the houses, gathering in hundreds all over doors, windows, balconies, and penetrating inside the rooms, causing trouble and anger in the people. Among all the possible reasons for this phenomenon, we suggest that climatic changes observed in Modena during the last 4 years may have affected the behaviour and/or the population dynamics of this bug. In agreement with global warming signals, meteorological recordings for this city show a temperature increase of about + 0.8°C/100 year, and anomalous peaks were observed especially during spring months, likely in coincidence with crucial events in the life cycle of the insect. Studies on the reactions of different stages of A. melanocephalus to cold/hot temperatures are currently performed to provide further support to our hypothesis
New definitions of 6 clinical signs of perceptual disorder in children with cerebral palsy: an observational study through reliability measures
No full textBACKGROUND: Recently authors have begun to emphasize the non-motor aspects of Cerebral Palsy and their influence on motor control and recovery prognosis. Much has been written about single clinical signs (i.e., startle reaction) but so far no definitions of the six perceptual signs presented in this study have appeared in literature.
AIM: This study defines 6 signs (startle reaction, upper limbs in startle position, frequent eye blinking, posture freezing, averted eye gaze, grimacing) suggestive of perceptual disorders in children with cerebral palsy and measures agreement on sign recognition among independent observers and consistency of opinions over time.
DESIGN: Observational study with both cross-sectional and prospective components.
SETTING: Fifty-six videos presented to observers in random order. Videos were taken from 19 children with a bilateral form of cerebral palsy referred to the Children Rehabilitation Unit in Reggio Emilia.
PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-five rehabilitation professionals from all over Italy: 9 doctors and 26 physiotherapists.
METHODS: Measure of agreement among 35 independent observers was compiled from a sample of 56 videos. Interobserver reliability was determined using the K index of Fleiss and reliability intra-observer was calculated by the Spearman correlation index between ranks (rho - ρ). Percentage of agreement between observers and Gold Standard was used as criterion validity.
RESULTS: Interobserver reliability was moderate for startle reaction, upper limb in startle position, adverted eye gaze and eye-blinking and fair for posture freezing and grimacing. Intraobserver reliability remained consistent over time. Criterion validity revealed very high agreement between independent observer evaluation and gold standard.
CONCLUSIONS: Semiotics of perceptual disorders can be used as a specific and sensitive instrument in order to identify a new class of patients within existing heterogeneous clinical types of bilateral cerebral palsy forms and could help clinicians in identifying functional prognosis.
CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: To provide clinicians with a definition of 6 clinical signs found in children with cerebral palsy in routine rehabilitation settings. Future research should explore the link between these signs and motor prognosis (i.e., time to independent walking)
Variations on the Author
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
Functional reach and touch to evaluate perceptive impairment in diplegic cerebral palsy children
No full textINTRODUCTION
In 30% of children with Diplegic Cerebral Palsy (CP), disability depends not only on motor aspects, but most of all on perceptual impairments. The Central Nervous System (CNS) cannot collect, elaborate and integrate redundant sensitive and sensorial information in order to obtain coherent representations of reality[1]. Clinical signs that are characteristic of the perceptive impairment consequent to( movement intolerance and to, fear of spaces) seem to be correlated with a visual-kinestesic conflict because of the incoherence between visual and proprioceptive information [1]. We suggest an experimental set up of Functional Reach and Touch (FRT) to establish the presence and to measure the intensity of the perceptive disease by varying the exposition of patients to the empty space.
METHODS
14 patients affected by Spastic Diplegia (SD) (aged 6-15 years) and 5 control subjects (aged 6-14 years) executed FRT while sitting on a height-adjustable chair (0.6 m – low; 1.0 m – high). Subjects were asked to stand steady for 10 seconds, and then, after hearing a whistle, to reach and touch a target (a ball with an accelerometer to sample the touching instant). A force plate under the chair acquired the Centre of Pressure (COP) trajectory. FRT was registered in 18 different positions/conditions, resulting from the combinations of: i) distance to target equal to 120% (near) and 150% (far) of the arm-length (from the acromion to the tip of the medium finger); ii) postero-omolateral (PO), antero-omolateral (AO) or antero-controlateral (AC) directions; iii) high or low chair; iv) presence/absence of perceptive facilitation ‘raised floor’ (highFAC): white sheet stretched at knee level (2.3x2.3m2) hiding the empty space.
RESULTS
All control subjects but one (who failed at high_far_AC) managed to have a positive outcome (target reached). Patients with SD had a positive outcome in 79% of the near, and in 48% of the far trials. Out of the 14 SD, 8 clinically showed the perceptive impairment[1] (perceptual). Only the 17% of these latter obtained a positive outcome far versus the 87% of the remaining 6 (motor). The estimate of the movement smoothness (Normalized Jerk Score – NJS[2]) applied to COP trajectory showed that the highFAC facilitates the performance in perceptuals in a more significant way than in motors. While in the high_far_AO, perceptual subjects worsened (NJS increment) of a factor equal to 24.0, motors of 5.3 and controls of 3.6 in comparison to the relative low trial, in the highFAC trials all the subjects showed similar results (NJS almost triplicated). The facilitation effect appeared also analyzing the Sway Area (SA)[3] during the first 10 s of static posture of all trials. In perceptual subjects a trend was observed: low=159 mm2/s, highFAC=203 mm2/s, high=244 mm2/s, while the effects were absent in controls and motors (about 40 mm2/s).
DISCUSSION
The experimental setup showed here represents a sensitive tool to detect the presence of the perceptive impairment in patients with SD. Although with high variability, results showed different behaviors in patients with motor disability compared to the perceptuals. The presence of perceptive facilitation ‘raised floor’ in the FRT trials yielded to an improvement of the performance only in the perceptual, as measured by movement smoothness during the task (NJS) and of the SA during the static posture. Further experiments and more detailed statistical analysis are needed to characterized the absence and the magnitude of the perceptive impairment in patients with SD in a exhaustive way.
BIBLIOGRAFY
[1] Ferrari A, Cioni G, Le forme spastiche della paralisi cerebrale infantile, Springer, Milano,2005.
[2] Chang JJ, et al., Clin Biomech 2005; 20: 381-388.
[3] Prieto et al., IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 1996, 43(9
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe 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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