1,720,958 research outputs found
The Influence of the Spatio-Temporal Terzi Treatment on the Kinematics of Cursive Writing of Dysgraphic Subjects
No full textMany different treatment approaches have been ap- plied for handwriting remediation in school-aged children. The effects of these treatments are usually evaluated by using ad-hoc checklists as well as some standard test protocols like Movement ABC tests, Visual-Motor Integration (V.M.I.) tests, etc. Recently, digitizing tablets have allowed the study of kinematic character- istics of handwriting and a series of parameters were estimated on cursive writing of Italian children. In this paper, the influence of a new rehabilitation protocol (Terzi’s method) on kinematics of cursive writing was evaluated. The analysis was carried out on 22 nonproficient handwriting children, attending primary or secondary school, which undertook a series of three exercises, with and without linguistic concerns. A set of kinematic parameters was calculated before and after the rehabilitation process. The results showed that Terzi’s rehabilitation program is capable of producing a significant velocity increase in the test without linguistic involve- ment, whereas a significant slowdown in the stroke realization was present in the other tasks. The effectiveness of Terzi’s rehabilitation program was proved by significant improvements in the V.M.I. test, in the Movement ABC test as well as in writing legibility (evaluated by checklist)
Analysis of kinematic parameters relationships in normal and dysgraphic children
No full textKinematic analysis of handwriting, using digital tablet together with appropriate tests and processing software, allows evaluation of subject graphomotor abilities. Several studies focused on the kinematic parameters extracted from the writing of both normal subjects and subjects with specific disorder, such as dysgraphia, recorded during simple tasks. However, relationships between these parameters have not yet been analyzed. The aim of this study was to examine and identify possible links between kinematic parameters like Amplitude (SA), Duration (SD) and Peak Velocity (PkVS) of Strokes extracted from handwriting and their changes between normal and dysgraphic children. Fifty normal and eighteen dysgraphic children, attending classes from 2nd to 5th grade of primary school, were involved in the study; three cursive tests were administered and analyzed. Results showed a linear relation between SA and PkVS parameters with a similar slope in both groups and reduced peak velocities in some dysgraphic children. A linear relationship was also present between SA and SD parameters in all tests for normal children while an unclear relation was found for dysgraphic children. The latter showed longer durations and slightly lower amplitudes than in normal subjects, in all tasks, as expected in case of poor fluency
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
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
A composite methodology for supporting early-detection of handwriting dysgraphia via big data analysis techniques
No full textHandwriting difficulties represent a common cause of under-achievement in children’s education and low self-esteem in daily life. Since proper handwriting teaching methods can reduce dysgraphia problems, the evaluation of these methods represents an important task. In this paper a methodology to compare visual and spatio-temporal teaching methods is proposed and applied in order to assess the influence of different teaching approaches on handwriting performance, via big data analysis techniques. Data was collected from children in their final years of primary school, when cursive writing skills have typically been mastered. Qualitative and kinematic parameters were considered: the former were calculated by means of quality checklists, whereas the latter were automatically extracted from digitizing tablet acquisitions. Results showed significant differences in pupils’ handwriting depending on the teaching method applied
Influence of dysgraphia on kinematic characteristics of handwriting in Italian primary school children
No full textHandwriting is a complex skill that improves with
schooling and it is accomplished after the child has
achieved and integrated underlying perceptual-motor
performance components. Even though nowadays children
are expected to acquire a level of handwriting
proficiency, even on the first day of school, at least 27%
of the school population has difficulty with handwriting
and needs to be screened for (with) an intervention
program. In this paper, we examined the influence of
dysgraphia on kinematic characteristics of normal and
dysgraphic Italian children from 2nd to 5th grade of
primary school. Three cursive tasks (sequence of lelele
and Accurate and Fast copy of a sentence) were proposed
and several kinematic parameters were evaluated. Since
differences were present among grades both in normal
and dysgraphic children, each parameter was compared
between children coming from corresponding grades by
means of the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The main results
showed significant differences between the two groups
within each grade for curvilinear velocity, total length and
number of letters per second. Pen-lift durations were
significantly different only in the Accurate and Fast tasks
while number of strokes per second as well as stroke
duration and length showed significant differences
depending on the task and grade. These differences
support the hypothesis of a lower fluency and automation
as well as a different motor planning in dysgraphic
subjects. Finally, many kinematic parameters could be
useful for an early identification of dysgraphia in order to
activate an immediate rehabilitative treatment
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