1,720,991 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
Comparative evaluation of effect of sodium hypochlorite and chlorhexidine in dental unit waterline on aerosolized bacteria generated during dental treatment
Get PDFBackground: In dentistry, nosocomial infection poses a great challenge to clinicians. The microbial contamination of water in dental unit waterlines (DUWLs) is ubiquitous. Such infected DUWLs can transmit oral microbes in the form of aerosols. Previous studies have suggested treating DUWLs with various disinfectants to reduce cross-contamination. The literature lacks a comparative evaluation of the effect of the use of 0.2% chlorhexidine (CHX) and 0.1% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) in DUWLs on aerosolized bacteria generated during dental procedures. Objective: To compare the effect of NaOCl and CHX in DUWLs on aerosolized bacteria generated during restorative and endodontic procedures. Materials and methods: A total of 132 patients were equally divided into three groups (n = 44 in each group) according to the content of DUWL as follows. Group I-0.1% NaOCl Group II-0.2% CHX Group III-distilled water (Positive control) One-way ANOVA was performed and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used for intergroup comparison. Results: For the restorative procedure, inter-group comparison of mean colony-forming units (CFU) scores showed a statistically significant difference between the groups (p - .001) with the score of group 3 higher than group 2 followed by group 1. For the endodontics, an inter-group comparison of CFU scores showed a statistically significant difference between the groups (p - .003) with the mean score in group 1 being the lowest and group 3 being the highest. Conclusion: The addition of NaOCl or CHX in DUWLs shows an effective reduction in aerosolized bacteria compared to distilled water
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
Feasibility of using a teleconsultation facility (Micro-Health Centre - MHC) in management of CRDs in remote rural area
Get PDFBACKGROUND:
Chronic respiratory disease (CRD) is a major public health problem in India with high prevalence and mortality. However, remote rural places have often experienced inequity in access to health care facilities and services. Even where places are equipped with facilities, the availability of trained healthcare providers, particularly respiratory specialists, is challenging. These specialists tend to be concentrated in cities many hours travel from rural patients. Recent technological advances have enabled doctors to deploy telemedicine in remote locations, potentially allowing specialists to support local generalist clinicians. However, multiple barriers still exist to implementing and scaling such technology. It is unclear what services could be delivered and what equipment and clinical and support staff would be required. Nor is it known what the attitudes of specialists, generalist clinicians and patients would be to providing such a service. My study aimed to assess the feasibility of using an established teleconsultation facility (Micro-Health Centre) to provide remote specialist respiratory-physician support to rural primary-physician in CRD diagnosis and management in a resource-constrained rural area.
I sought the views and experiences of national and local opinion leaders in telehealth and service delivery in India and the perceptions of local specialist and generalist clinicians on using technology for specialist to non-specialist advice to strengthen existing underutilised teleconsultation services. I then explored how they felt the system and services worked and how they thought it could be further improved.
RESEARCH QUESTION:
What are the barriers and facilitators to providing remote, specialist respiratory-physician support to rural primary-physician for CRD diagnosis and management?
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:
To assess the feasibility of using an established teleconsultation facility (Micro-Health Centre) to provide remote specialist respiratory-physician support to rural primary-physician in CRD diagnosis and management in a resource-constrained rural area.
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:
• To explore the evidence for the effective use of specialist to non-specialist teleconsultation in the management of CRDs in adults in remote areas
• To determine the requirements, including equipment and skills to support local primary physicians in remote CRD diagnosis and management;
• To explore barriers to and facilitators of successful implementation of specialist to non-specialist teleconsultation at Micro Health Centre (MHC) in CRD diagnosis and management from the viewpoints of patients, opinion leaders, primary and respiratory physicians;
•Following the use of the teleconsultation service to understand the perception of the patients and health care providers of remotely supported consultations;
•To facilitate the strengthening of the existing teleconsultation facility for CRD diagnosis and management.
METHODS:
I used three main methods; a systematic review of the available literature; one-to-one interviews and focus groups with stakeholders to explore the barriers and facilitators to telehealthcare and what was required to run a successful telehealthcare service that could support local clinicians. I helped design an improved service and negotiated government support and local support based on this. A further series of qualitative interviews and structured questionnaires were conducted to determine the views of Primary Physicians (PP) and patients after they had experienced the system.
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW:
I systematically searched for articles in Embase, Medline, PubMed and CAB Global health till November 2020, which focused on specialist to non-specialist teleconsultations for CRD diagnosis or management. With a colleague, I assessed the quality of relevant papers using the Joanna Briggs Institute's (JBI) tool. I used a descriptive and narrative approach to analyse these due to the heterogeneous nature of the selected studies.
QUALITATIVE STUDY:
I interviewed eight opinion leaders who included people already in telehealthcare, experts, researchers and policymakers working in teleconsultation in India. I interviewed healthcare providers, including six Respiratory Physicians (RP), ten Primary Physicians (PP), and 30 patients attending the teleconsultation clinics for respiratory ailments. The data from patients were collected at two time points, pre and post-teleconsultation. I also interviewed the PP coordinating the teleconsultation post their experience using telehealthcare services to consult specialists for patient treatment. Analysis was inductive and iterative.
STRENGTHENING OF THE EXISTING FACILITY:
The KEMHRC Pune runs a Micro Health Centre (MHC) that provides primary health care to the population. However, it was an underutilised centre that ran only face-to-face outpatient consultations by local PP despite the availability of teleconsultation. I aimed to improve the facility based on the literature and the views of stakeholders.
RESULTS:
In my systematic review, I found 1715 articles that met the initial search criteria, but after excluding duplicates and non-eligible articles, I included ten research articles of moderate quality. All but one of which were conducted in high-income countries. The teleconsulting systems used in the included papers primarily used audio or video modes. The included studies reported primarily non-clinical outcomes, including effectiveness of using the system, feasibility, acceptability, and usability of the teleconsultation systems and only three described the clinical outcomes. The teleconsultation was predominantly conducted in the PP’s office, with the specialist located remotely. The review concludes that, despite the literature being limited and not generalisable, specialist to non-specialist teleconsultation for diagnosis and management of CRDs should be encouraged, particularly where face-to-face consultations are challenging or unavailable.
The results of my qualitative study informed the requirements for the set-up and implementation of a telehealthcare system for CRD diagnosis and management in remote areas. Further, I identified the barriers and facilitators in the diagnosis and management of CRD using telehealthcare. I also documented the stakeholder perspective in using telehealthcare solutions for CRD diagnosis and management. According to the respondents, to be successful, a telehealthcare system must be appropriately located, ideally driven by interested leadership and particularly an inspired coordinator to run the centre with dedicated and motivated human resources and finance. Further, local stakeholder engagement and advertisement was considered essential. The training was observed as one of the most important requirements in the set-up and implementation of telehealthcare. The RPs further thought that primary physicians needed additional training in the diagnosis and management of CRDs, although the RPs did not consider they needed training for teleconsultation. However, not all respondents thought training would be acceptable by both primary physicians and specialists. A similar array of clinical skills and equipment required for a traditional face-to-face consultation was considered necessary for teleconsultation, including patient history, clinical examination and auscultation by a trained physician, and spirometry. Some participants also expressed the need for X-rays, electrocardiograms (ECG), and a facility for blood diagnostics. The participants said that the challenges of telediagnosis are ameliorated not only by training and adequate equipment but also by good record keeping and the ability to share electronic records with a specialist.
These findings iteratively informed the strengthening of the existing telehealthcare system. I arranged numerous institutional and regulatory approvals, and I arranged for the functioning of the teleconsultation service by appointing a bi-weekly visit by a primary physician and a technician. The primary physicians were further trained by the respiratory specialists at the tertiary care hospital (KEM Hospital) as the qualitative data informed the training needs for the PPs. Additionally, appropriate diagnostic tools were made available, and the telehealthcare system and software were updated as per the requirements suggested by the doctors and also because the then-existing system was due for maintenance and required repairs which the original service provider was unable to provide. Based on a comparative analysis of existing options I identified a start-up named A3RMT (Anytime Anywhere Access Remote Monitoring Technologies) (https://www.a3rmt.com/), incubated in the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, which provides technology solutions for telehealthcare to undertake the upgrade. The A3RMT systems have facilities to capture clinical information and transmit this information to doctors using internet connectivity. The installation funding was raised through donations. I also engaged the community by conducting face-to-face meetings with the community leaders and further advertised the facilities available at the centre. This process resulted in a higher patient load and a larger number of teleconsultations. This service was provided free to patients and based on goodwill from clinicians, and scaling would require payment arrangements to be negotiated for primary and secondary care, as would the proportion paid by patients.
In conclusion, my PhD has addressed the aim of the study and has generated data to understand the process of setting up and implementing a telehealthcare centre, especially for the diagnosis and management of CRD. The results will help create guidelines for establishing and managing a telehealthcare centre. The COVID pandemic has changed the scenario of the use of telehealthcare globally. The WHO strategy on digital health published in 2020 lays down general and specific principles to implement digital health globally. Telehealthcare will now be widely implemented in low-resource settings given the increase in infrastructure for digital health and the availability of updated technology. Given this background, my study has provided some practical implications for implementing telehealthcare centres for specialists to non-specialists teleconsultations in low-resource settings. These practical implications can be incorporated in the specific guidelines for functioning
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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Earthen Materials In Organic Forms: An Ecological Solution to the Urban Biosphere?
No full textThe pandemic has taught us several valuable lessons. It led to a new interest in redesigning-built environments that promote healthy indoor atmospheres and provide a space for reflection along with social distancing. The architecture of a space affects how people move within a space and live their lives. By using organic design principles and sustainable systems, we can transform and renew our built environment. A holistic approach that combines natural and built elements can create a sense of harmony and health, which is in line with the essence of organic architecture. Organic architecture can provide a sustainable solution to the persistent conflict between humans and nature due to urbanization, resource scarcity, and deforestation. By incorporating organic design principles, we can reconcile expanding urban environments and mass constructions with the natural world and biosphere. This approach can establish a harmonious relationship between human-made environments and nature, creating a more sustainable future. Despite their benefits, earthen materials are not widely used in new construction in North America. (Jenkins Swan, Rteil, and Lovegrove 2011) Some people even might believe that earthen materials are indicators of poverty, creating a social stigma that limits their use. Labor standards and knowledge sharing in the building industries may preference other ways of building. For others, the technical data available may be insufficient to quantify an understanding of building performance in various climates. Importantly, earthen materials are not fully represented in building codes and standards, particularly in North America.(Jenkins Swan, Rteil, and Lovegrove 2011) According to recent research, earthen building materials are capable of regulating indoor temperatures and humidity to attain optimal levels for occupant health (Alassaad et al. 2021). Low toxicity along with recyclability at the end of its life cycle which in turn allows for a cradle-to-cradle supply chain are also some of the other advantages of earthen materials. By being sustainable from the start of its life cycle, this thesis explores the use of earthen materials in construction by not just promoting the environmental benefits but also demonstrating how it could possibly add life to new organic forms.Master of Architecture (MArch
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
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