1,721,335 research outputs found
Interventions aimed at restricted and repetitive behaviours (RRBs) in Autism Spectrum Disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis
Full text linkBackground: Despite being considered a core feature of ASD, restricted and repetitive behaviours (RRBs) have received less attention, if compared to the domain of social interaction and communication, and less frequently targeted by interventions. This is surprising, given their role as major management challenges, obstacles to adaptive functioning and cause of distress for subjects and their families. We conducted a systematic, exhaustive, and up-to-date systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled interventions (RCTs) aimed specifically at RRBs. To avoid methodological limitations found in other reviews, no limitations to the age of the sample, timespan of search and type of intervention were set.
Methods: Web of Knowledge database (including Web of Science, MEDLINE®, KCI – Korean Journal Database, Russian Science Citation Index and SciELO Citation Index) was searched from inception up to January 1st, 2020. Randomized controlled trials in ASD individuals, specifically aimed at RRBs or both core domains were included, following PRISMA guidelines. In a systematic review we analysed the main characteristics of included studies, such as mean age, sample sizes, mean follow up duration, diagnosis of ASD, assessments of IQ and psychiatric comorbidities. Primary outcome of the meta-analysis was the mean reduction of RRBs; effect sizes reported as Hedges’ g and 95% CIs, calculated as differences, from baseline to endpoint, between two compared interventions. Assessments of biases, comprising publication bias, and cumulative analyses were also performed.
Results: Overall, 80 studies (3114 subjects) were included in the systematic review and 46 studies (1339 subjects) in the meta-analytic phase. Included studies were published between 1992 and 2019, mean sample size was 40 patients (in intervention arm), with mean age of 10.5 years and average 19% female participants. Mean follow up was 4 months. IQ assessment was unclear in half of the studies, other psychiatric comorbidities were not disclosed in 61% of the studies. Risk of bias was low in 14 studies (17.5%).
Overall effect size for interventions aimed at RRBs was small, but significantly beneficial ( g = -0.37, Cis -0.26 to -0.47), heterogeneity was moderate (I2 = 43.92%, p < 0.01). Subgroup analyses revealed similar results in the three subtypes of interventions analysed: pharmacological (g = -0.45, CI -0.26 to -0.64), psychotherapy and education (g = -0.42, CI -0.19 to -0.65) and complementary interventions (g = -0.25, CI -0.12 to -0.38). Differences were not significant among intervention types (p = 0.16). Inspection of forest and funnel plots revealed the presence of five outliers, which exclusion reduced heterogeneity significantly, but did not affected substantially the magnitude of overall and subgroup effect sizes. Results were also not affected by small-study effects, but publication bias was probably present since grey/unpublished literature was not searched.
Conclusions: on the basis of current literature aimed specifically at RRBs, there is no robust evidence to favour any specific intervention for improving RRBs in subjects with ASD, even if small effects were detected for any intervention type analysed
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
Cromemia e cromuria: valori a confronto tra soggetti professionalmente esposti al cromo e popolazione generale
Full text linkAim of present study is the valutation and quantification of chromium in blood and urine. We compared 3 groups of persons formed by building workers, in particular masons, because cement contains potassium chromate that is dangerous for health, and by common people: urban population and outside the town population. In fact, exposure to CrVI risk is high for people who live near chromate industries. We maked a medical examination, blood and instrumental tests, chromium measuring in blood (recent exposure indicator) and urine (recent and previous indicator). Then we used statistical methods to estimate obtained values of blood and urine chromium among professional exposed people and common people. At the end we think that preventive measures in working environment reduced exposure to CrVI but environmental exposure (for example road dust from catalytic converter erosion, from brake lining erosion, cement dust and tobacco smoke), in the last years, has increased. So there are no difference between urban population and outside the town population and there are also no difference with professional exposed people for work prevention according to law in force, that let down professional risk using safe limits
Concentrazioni ematiche ed urinarie di cromo in una popolazione siciliana esposta e non per motivi professionali: valutazioni e considerazioni
No full textVariations 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
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
- …
