1,720,960 research outputs found
Improving uptake of vaccines in pregnancy: A service evaluation of an antenatal vaccination clinic at a tertiary hospital in the UK
No full textBackground: Vaccination against pertussis and seasonal influenza is recommended for all pregnant women in the UK. More recently COVID-19 vaccination has also been offered to women in pregnancy.Objectives: To evaluate the uptake of vaccines in pregnant women within a midwife-led immunisation clinic and to assess factors influencing pregnant women's decisions about accepting vaccination.Methods: Uptake of vaccines amongst pregnant women referred to a single UK centre for antenatal care between 01/01/19 and 02/10/19 was assessed. Interviews with 20 pregnant women explored views of antenatal vaccination and experiences of the vaccination service.Findings: Amongst 4420 women, uptake was 90.6% for pertussis and 78.8% for influenza vaccines.Factors influencing vaccine-related decision-making amongst 20 interviewed women were: healthcare professional recommendation, perceived susceptibility and risk of infection, and previous experience of vaccination and vaccine-preventable disease.Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Uptake of pertussis and influenza vaccines within a secondary care immunisation service was higher than the national or regional average. The model of vaccine delivery was associated with high levels of satisfaction. This model of vaccine delivery could be implemented elsewhere to increase vaccine uptake, and should be considered for delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in the future
1185 Paediatric quality of life in congenital CMV: current knowledge and future directions
No full textBackground: congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) is the most common congenital infection. Around 25% of infants with cCMV develop permanent sequelae. However, there is a paucity of research evaluating the quality of life of children with cCMV.Objectives: this study evaluates current evidence regarding long-term effects of cCMV on affected children, and considers methodology used in quality of life studies that could be applied to cCMV and possible impacts on updated health economic evaluations of cCMV.Methods: we reviewed studies that reported long-term effects of cCMV on affected children, studies that measured quality of life in children with cCMV and similar paediatric populations, and studies that reported psychometric properties of quality of life measures.Results: the high prevalence of long-term sequelae amongst children with cCMV is likely to significantly impact quality of life of affected children and their families. Only one existing study assessed quality of life in children with cCMV and their parents, which was subject to bias and only incorporated one quality of life measure. We identified multiple quality of life measures that could be suitable for use in future studies of quality of life in cCMV, with varying psychometric properties and assessing different constructs.Conclusions: further research evaluating quality of life in cCMV is needed. To assess quality of life in cCMV, quality of life measures should be selected based on their relevance to sequelae of cCMV (for example, inclusion of a hearing-specific measure to assess the effect of sensorineural hearing loss), but generic quality of life measures are also important for comparison to the general population. Researchers should consider the importance of spillover effects on quality of life of family members as well as effects on the child’s own quality of life. A national multi-informant cross-sectional questionnaire-based study in the UK is being undertaken, aiming to describe quality of life of children with cCMV and their families. Quality of life data could be used to inform health economic analyses and decision-making regarding cost-effectiveness of interventions for cCMV prevention and treatment
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
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
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
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
Women and children first: the importance of pertussis and influenza vaccination in pregnant women and how to increase vaccine uptake
No full textVaccination during pregnancy has been proven effective in protecting both pregnant women and their newborns from infectious diseases. An increasing number of countries have issued recommendations for the use of pertussis and influenza vaccines during pregnancy and are offering these vaccines free of charge. However, even in such countries, despite the demonstrated effectiveness and strong safety profile of maternal pertussis and influenza vaccination, vaccine uptake has remained suboptimal. This paper gives a succinct overview of the available evidence supporting maternal pertussis and influenza vaccination, summarizes the factors that can influence vaccine uptake during pregnancy and provides practical advice on how healthcare providers in an obstetrics setting can contribute to the successful implementation of maternal immunization programs. To help increase uptake, practitioners should recommend maternal pertussis and influenza vaccination to their patients during the first antenatal visit. They should give information about the effectiveness and safety of maternal immunization, and about the risk of infection and severity of the respective diseases in the absence of vaccination. Ideally, vaccines should be offered on-site during one of the routine antenatal visits, thereby maximizing convenience for the patient. Strategies to increase uptake will need to be tailored to the antenatal care model of the specific country but, regardless of the model, should aim to incorporate vaccination into standard antenatal care. To do so, healthcare professionals involved in the delivery of vaccines should be clearly identified and adequately trained, standing orders could be instituted (allowing midwives and obstetric nurses to administer vaccines), reminders about vaccination could be added to the patient’s medical records and the patient’s vaccination status should be well documented. These measures could help establish maternal immunization as the norm in the general population and increase acceptance and uptake
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